Let me preface this post by saying that I spoke at NCA's chapel service today, I had 20 minutes to share the gospel with pre-K - 4th graders. NCA is a christian school and with that in mind was confident that the children would know the gospel, therefore I thought that I needed to do something less familiar. I thought retelling the gospel story in a new light might impact them more then just hearing the gospel reiterated. I had an introduction that I made up on the spot and at the end I had some application and exhortation. But the main body of what I had to say is the story that follows. I hope you enjoy and as you read, read it as though you were reading it to children (otherwise the repetition will drive you crazy, just ask my wife.) Happy reading and enjoy.
Once upon a time, because that is how all good stories begin, there was a great King. This King was a good King, a kind King, and a loving and generous King. This King loved to give. He had a glorious kingdom full of servants that loved Him, for He was a very, very lovable King. Everything that this King did was right, He never made mistakes. And this King had a Son, an only Son, Whom He loved very, very much.
Now, though this King was a kind and a good and a loving King, He had a servant that was jealous of the King. This servant wasn't thankful for all that the King had given him, for how the good King had always been good to him. This servant was ungrateful and turned against the King. This wicked servant began to fight against the King. The wicked servant wanted to be the king.
This wicked servant began calling himself king. He even made a kingdom for himself. But where was he going to get servants to fill his kingdom? For you cannot have a kingdom without servants. So this wicked servant, who called himself king, decided to take the good King's servants. This wicked servant began kidnapping the good King's servants, he would promise good things to them, tricking them and then making them his servants. He was a very wicked servant indeed.
The good King's people began following the wicked king. The good King's people left the good King. This was not good. This was very, very bad. The people of the good King made themselves servants of the wicked king. Now the King's people were His enemies. The good King's people were now the people of the wicked king.
Now, the good King still loved His people, after all they were His people, and he desired for them once more to serve Him in love. He desired for them to know Him as King. But His people had done something very bad. Very, very bad. They were now very far away from the good King. Very, very far. So far away that it seemed that there was no way to get back. What were the people of the good King to do? The people had left their King, they had committed treason. Do you know what treason is? Treason is when you turn against those that are for you. The people had turned against their King.
The good King, because He is good, chose to rescue His people. He would rescue them, not only from the wicked servant (who thought he was a king) but even from their own mistake in leaving their true King. He not only would deliver them from the evil servant but also return them to His Kingdom. The King loved His people, for He was a loving King, and He chose to rescue His people. But how? Who would go to the evil servant's kingdom and defeat the evil servant and who would pay the penalty for what the people had done in turning from their King? Who would go? Who should go?
The King knew who would go. The King knew who had to go. The King knew that only someone as good, and as kind, and as generous, and as powerful and as loving as Himself could go and defeat a wicked enemy and pay the fine that the people owed for treason. For the people, though loved by the King, were also in trouble with their King for they had turned against Him. The King knew only His Son could accomplish this mission. The King had a Son, an Only Son, Whom the King loved very much. And in His love He sent His only Son to rescue those that had turned against Him. He would send His Son to take the place of His servants. His Son would live for them and even die in their place.
The Son left His Father's Kingdom and entered into the kingdom of the wicked servant. The Son of the good King would pay for the freedom of the good King's people, he would pay with His life. When the good King's Son entered the kingdom of the wicked servant, the wicked servant fought against Him. The wicked servant knew the Son had been sent by the good King. The wicked servant fought against the good King's Son. He fought and fought. He fought until he had killed the good King's Son, His only Son.
But the story isn't over. The wicked servant didn't know the good King's plan. He didn't know that the Son of the good King had been sent to die for the King's people. The good King had sent His only Son to take the place of His people, to die in their place, to pay for their turning against Him. The Son died as part of the good King's plan, for the good King had an even better plan. The good King would raise His Son from death. And when the Son rose from the grave He defeated the wicked servant.
The good King's Son rescued all the good King's people and brought them back to His Kingdom. The people rejoiced in their good King and in His love for them and in the love of His Son.
The Son of the good King had rescued them from the evil servant and had forgiven them for turning away from their good King. The good King's people were once again happy to be servants of their King. The End.
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
Thursday, October 7, 2010
Man up
“Man up!”
This is intended to be a short post with not a lot of intensity but more just a personal reflection on a phrase that is tossed around a lot today in Christian circles.
“Grow a pair! Man up!” These phrases I think have been brought into otherwise gospel centered conversations not to detract from the gospel but to, I think, encourage in the gospel. However, the message contained in those words seem not only false, but anti-gospel. I don’t judge the user of those words, for I am sure that more often than not the intention is a gospel centered desire but, like many of our ideas, fall short of the glory of the gospel.
So what do those words mean? Not literally, nobody means them literally, as if the man you are speaking to is void of a “pair” and somehow needs to muster up the biological capacity to start growing a “pair.” What is conveyed in those words is the thought that we need to muster up something in ourselves, a strength, an attitude, an energy, and then get on with what needs to be done. It is similar to “pull yourself up by the bootstraps,” or as somebody said recently, it is the little engine that could theology.
No doubt, men need to be men. There is no denying that. Our culture is failing miserably in this arena of life. Boys stay boys forever, dependent upon mom and dad, cowardly, afraid and completely void of any real masculinity. However, this is not the only area in life where men are failing. We were created to be many things, one of which is men, but also to be images of God, worshippers of God. We fail here to. Its called sin. But nobody’s answer to the sin of failing to be God’s image bearer is to try harder. And the answer to being a man is not to try harder either.
It would be great if we had the strength to overcome our sin and weakness and fears and to perfectly fulfill all our God given roles, but we can’t. Sin dominates us in every area of our life and in ourselves we do not have the ability to correct or stay sin. Sin is our master, we are not sin’s master.
The problem is this: in telling men to be men we are telling them to do the impossible. The very first thing Adam did after he sinned that very first sin was to forgo his manhood. He cast off his role and placed the weight of responsibility on his wife. The answer for Adam was not grow “a pair.” The answer was repent.
If you want to crush men striving in and for the gospel, tell them to “man up.” Tell them that they are failing and that the problem is there lack of manhood. Tell them that if they were men they would fight better and harder and longer, that their “pair” is to little and that is why they struggle.
I have never been told to “man up” by another man. I cannot imagine what that would feel like. I know that my response would be to try a whole lot harder. To really reach down into the depths of me and try. But how void of the gospel is this.
The gospel message tells me that I have failed in and of myself in ever area of my life. But instead of calling me to “man up” it calls me to lay it all down. It calls me not to look at anything I have or can do or have done but to look at the Man. It calls me to cast all my hope for life in Christ in repentance and faith. The gospel says to me, in every failing and sin, you are accepted on behalf of Christ, not your “pair.”
The gospel calls me to repentance in all of my life and then to faith in all of life. It calls me to death of self. The gospel tells me all power rests in God and that no matter how big or small my “pair” may be the growth is up to God. In Jesus no labor is in vain. In abiding in Christ I will bear much fruit.
So, I don’t say any of this as a strong rebuke to those that so love the expression, “man up,” but I do say be careful. The theology you may be instilling in people through trite and cliché expressions may drive them from the gospel, not to the gospel.
Remember, the gospel is the power of God unto salvation. Salvation in all its parts: election, calling, sanctification, glorification, etc is the work of God, start to finish. Man up, grow a pair, try harder, work longer, do more, etc, fail the gospel because they look to man and self. The gospel always directs our eyes away from self, (not only our pride but also our humiliation,) and to Jesus.
This is intended to be a short post with not a lot of intensity but more just a personal reflection on a phrase that is tossed around a lot today in Christian circles.
“Grow a pair! Man up!” These phrases I think have been brought into otherwise gospel centered conversations not to detract from the gospel but to, I think, encourage in the gospel. However, the message contained in those words seem not only false, but anti-gospel. I don’t judge the user of those words, for I am sure that more often than not the intention is a gospel centered desire but, like many of our ideas, fall short of the glory of the gospel.
So what do those words mean? Not literally, nobody means them literally, as if the man you are speaking to is void of a “pair” and somehow needs to muster up the biological capacity to start growing a “pair.” What is conveyed in those words is the thought that we need to muster up something in ourselves, a strength, an attitude, an energy, and then get on with what needs to be done. It is similar to “pull yourself up by the bootstraps,” or as somebody said recently, it is the little engine that could theology.
No doubt, men need to be men. There is no denying that. Our culture is failing miserably in this arena of life. Boys stay boys forever, dependent upon mom and dad, cowardly, afraid and completely void of any real masculinity. However, this is not the only area in life where men are failing. We were created to be many things, one of which is men, but also to be images of God, worshippers of God. We fail here to. Its called sin. But nobody’s answer to the sin of failing to be God’s image bearer is to try harder. And the answer to being a man is not to try harder either.
It would be great if we had the strength to overcome our sin and weakness and fears and to perfectly fulfill all our God given roles, but we can’t. Sin dominates us in every area of our life and in ourselves we do not have the ability to correct or stay sin. Sin is our master, we are not sin’s master.
The problem is this: in telling men to be men we are telling them to do the impossible. The very first thing Adam did after he sinned that very first sin was to forgo his manhood. He cast off his role and placed the weight of responsibility on his wife. The answer for Adam was not grow “a pair.” The answer was repent.
If you want to crush men striving in and for the gospel, tell them to “man up.” Tell them that they are failing and that the problem is there lack of manhood. Tell them that if they were men they would fight better and harder and longer, that their “pair” is to little and that is why they struggle.
I have never been told to “man up” by another man. I cannot imagine what that would feel like. I know that my response would be to try a whole lot harder. To really reach down into the depths of me and try. But how void of the gospel is this.
The gospel message tells me that I have failed in and of myself in ever area of my life. But instead of calling me to “man up” it calls me to lay it all down. It calls me not to look at anything I have or can do or have done but to look at the Man. It calls me to cast all my hope for life in Christ in repentance and faith. The gospel says to me, in every failing and sin, you are accepted on behalf of Christ, not your “pair.”
The gospel calls me to repentance in all of my life and then to faith in all of life. It calls me to death of self. The gospel tells me all power rests in God and that no matter how big or small my “pair” may be the growth is up to God. In Jesus no labor is in vain. In abiding in Christ I will bear much fruit.
So, I don’t say any of this as a strong rebuke to those that so love the expression, “man up,” but I do say be careful. The theology you may be instilling in people through trite and cliché expressions may drive them from the gospel, not to the gospel.
Remember, the gospel is the power of God unto salvation. Salvation in all its parts: election, calling, sanctification, glorification, etc is the work of God, start to finish. Man up, grow a pair, try harder, work longer, do more, etc, fail the gospel because they look to man and self. The gospel always directs our eyes away from self, (not only our pride but also our humiliation,) and to Jesus.
Saturday, August 21, 2010
God's Will: Gospel Worldview
God’s Will: Gospel Worldview
Let me say something about worldviews in general so that we are working with a similar definition. By worldview I mean the way that we interpret and understand and perceive the world around us. We all have a worldview, for we all perceive and interpret and understand in some particular way what is taking place around us in our own little worlds and in the whole world.
A gospel worldview is different then any other world- view. There is the gospel worldview and then there are all other worldviews. I have heard someone say that we shouldn’t speak of worldviews because it is secular in origin but I disagree. Worldview is simply what I defined it as, our view of the world. This is not secular or sacred, it just is. We all perceive what is taking place around us in some particular manner. What sets the gospel worldview apart (GW from here on), is that it is the only true and accurate view and therefore the best and right worldview. When we perceive the world around us as the gospel tells us that it is we are perceiving the world correctly. Essentially what has happened is that we have taken off the glasses of sin and put on the glasses of Jesus. Or more scripturally, we have gone from blindness to sight. We have not only begun to see things clearer but we are now seeing them for the first time as they really are when we see them in the gospel.
Our worldview is first changed in salvation. If I can use my self for an example. At salvation I went from anti-theism/atheism to theism. I went from a world of pointlessness and vanity to a world of purpose and meaning. Paul went from a world of human righteousness to a world of human depravity. What happened was not a change in thinking. Don’t try to convince your mind of what you do not believe. We cannot believe what we do not believe no matter how hard we try. If you believe the sky is blue no amount of arguing will convince you it is Pepto-Bismol pink. Our world view is changed not by changing our own minds, like in all the other worldviews. Our mind is changed by the Spirit of God in the effectual application of the word of God. We can really want to believe something, (like change our worldview), but if we don’t believe something then we don’t believe it. The religions of the world are all worldviews and they can be chosen and mixed as liked. They are in our power to believe and adopt. But the GW is not in our power to adopt.
Why is it that we can adopt false worldviews at leisure but cannot accept the GW except by God? As said above, we are blind to truth. We, by nature worship and serve the creation, that includes the creation of false religions. Idolatry is ingrained in us from conception. We are born with a nature that includes the ability to believe lies above the truth. It is as Pilate said, “What is truth? (Jn 18:38)”
Jesus, in a dispute with the Pharisees about His true origin and His true Father, had this to say,
“If God were your Father you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and came from God; nor have I come of Myself, but He sent me. Why do you not understand my speech? Because you are not able to listen to My word. You are of your father the devil, and the desire of your father you want to do. He was a murder from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it. But because I tell you the truth, you do not believe Me. Which of you convicts Me of sin? And if I tell the truth, why do you not believe me? He who is of God hears God’s words; therefore you do not hear because you are not of God.”
The words of Christ to the Pharisees are the same for all men (I Jn 4:5-6). We believe lies before we believe truth because lies are our nature. Lies come natural to us. We can chose which lies we will believe but we cannot chose to believe the truth apart from the Spirit of God changing our minds. Justification by grace through faith in Christ is the first time that we see as we should see. It is the moment of passing from death to life that we first see some of truth, our worldview is first shifted to the truth at justification.
At justification, the moment we pass from blindness to sight, death to life, we, for the first time, see Jesus as He is, the Savior that saves us. Up until that time, no matter how much knowledge of Jesus and sin and the bible we may have had, truth had not penetrated our beings. Until justification, no matter how much knowledge one has, they are not seeing truth as true, for they are not trusting it. It is when we first place our faith in the truth of Jesus Christ that we first have our worldview changed.
“What does worldview have to do with God’s will, ” you may be asking. Everything. We are not to be conformed any longer to this world but we are to be transformed (Rom 12:2; Eph 4:17-19) . God’s will is this transformation. Part of this transformation is seeing the world as God sees the world. We could argue that until you see the world as God sees the world you cannot really understand what you are called to. It is as our understanding and knowledge (not just in our heads but in our hearts, our beings) are conformed to God that we are transformed, that’s why Rom 12 speaks of the renewing of the mind.
We are taught in scripture that we have the mind of Christ (I Cor 2:16; Phil 2:5), this certainly includes our understanding and perception of the world. We see differently and hear differently then the rest of the world. We are set apart from the world by the word of Christ (Jn 17:17) that only His sheep can hear (Jn 10:27), contrary to the world that hears the lies of Satan (I Jn 5:19).
What is a gospel world view? It is many things and to show the correct view of everything, to apply the gospel to every area of life would take a very long time so we will just apply it to some broad, general circumstances.
We have talked about suffering in a previous post, and what I outlined of suffering is GW. The gospel, rightly understood and believed, will enable a joy in suffering. It does not dull the suffering or make the suffering enjoyable in some sadistic masochistic manner but it brings suffering into subjection to God. For certain, and do not think otherwise, suffering is always suffering. The gospel does not relieve suffering but it gives hope, comfort and rest in suffering. The pain Christ experienced upon the cross was not deadened by the gospel. The pain Paul experienced in his lashings was not diminished by the gospel. Suffering is God’s will in the gospel but it is received in faith of His goodness. The suffering stays real though. But the way it is perceived is changed.
Now, let me just interject this, GW is not mind manipulation. This is not about tricking ourselves into believing something or forcing to accept as true that which is untrue. This is not about adopting a set of values or beliefs. This is not religion. This is about submitting to truth. When the bible says to consider it all joy when you fall into various trials, it isn’t telling you to consider it joy just to consider it joy. The considering that the bible is commanding is simply submitting to truth. Maybe a picture will help. When we get a shot for medical reasons we are not particularly excited about the needle but the medicine that is being delivered makes the shot worthwhile. We don’t see the medicine but the faith that the medicine is there leads us to pursue getting the shot. Its not a perfect picture but it works. We accept the truth of the gospel and submit to it, not because we fully see but because we trust the Physician. Maybe that helps, maybe it doesn’t help. Take it or leave it.
We are not conforming our lives to a set of doctrines that may or may not be true. We are submitting to a Person that is Truth. I fear for those in the church that try so hard to believe but don’t but settle for their trying to believe as saving faith. They don’t believe the gospel. But they try to. This is not faith. This is, “I want to believe but I don’t.” This is not good. They have yet to see the truth of the gospel, they have yet to pass from death to life. We all struggle with faith to some degree. None of us trusts the Lord as fully as we should. But to be saved we must have faith that the gospel is true.
“What do I do if I don’t believe the gospel but want to believe the gospel?” Examine your heart. If you desire to be saved this is a work of the Lord in your life. Jesus invites all who hunger and thirst, all who are tired and heavy laden. Why do you not come? Perhaps it is because of a sin that you don’t want to let go of? Perhaps your love of money or adulterous sex or pride keeps you from coming. You desire to be saved in the superficial way of desiring to keep all your sins but not be punished. Don’t be deceived, none who do not repent of their sins will inherit the Kingdom of God. My advice to you would be to trust the Lord when He tells you that all sin leads to death and that it would be better to enter heaven with one eye or one hand then to keep both and end up in hell. Sever the sin that ensnares you. Flee the wrath to come.
Perhaps you desire heaven but you don’t want to submit to Christ as Lord. You know that to be saved is to cast your whole life upon Christ in faith and this you don’t want. You want heaven but you want it on your terms. This is not a desire to be saved. This is a desire to continue as your own god and reject the true God. Recognize the foolishness of your ways. You have exalted yourself to godhood while relegating God to servant hood. Repent. You are but a creature of the Creator and your treason, though small in your eyes, is wickedness of the greatest kind before the Lord.
If you desire salvation then believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved. If you cannot believe know that no desire for salvation will make you acceptable before the Lord. Only the work of Jesus upon the cross in your place can make you acceptable to God. Faith that you are saved is not saving faith. We are not called to believe that we are saved. We are called to trust Jesus and His cross and resurrection and know that we are saved by Him, not ourselves. This is faith. True faith. Faith hears Jesus promise of salvation to all who come to Him and faith goes to Him.
GW sees children as a blessing. Always a blessing. Not a curse. Not a burden or drain on life. Children are not an obstacle to happiness or just a hurdle in adulthood. The gospel promises children as a heritage from the Lord. Children are a blessing. How sad that so many see children as an inconvenience.
Now, it may be asked how “children as a blessing” is a GW. Isn’t the verse to support that Old Testament? Yes, Psalm 127:3-5. A GW sees all of scripture as gospel. Even the law and prophets are gospel, history, psalms, wisdom and any other. Scripture is gospel if, and that is a big “if,” it is understood rightly. Every scripture rightly understood will lead us to Jesus. So much could be said on this and it could easily fill a book so let me keep it brief.
In the law we see the standard of God that should lead us to despair of self and hope in God (Rom 5:20-21; Gal 3:24). The ceremonies and temple sacrifices all pointed to a better sacrifice, namely the Perfect Lamb of God, Jesus Christ (Heb 9:11-15). The wisdom literature was all fulfilled in Christ the Wisdom of God (I Cor 1:30). The history relays us information on Israel’s deliverance and set apartness for God, perfectly showing by type and illustration of what was to come (Heb 3:1-4:16). In the prophets we see a perfect picture of what is to come in Jesus and then how it was perfectly fulfilled in Jesus (Lk 4:16-21). The Bible tells one unfolding continuous story of God’s plan for and fulfillment of redemption. We are part of this story. It is a GW that sees this story and enters into this story as now being their story. God’s story is your story in Christ Jesus. Scripture unfolds this marvelous drama of cosmic redemption, from Eden to the New Jerusalem, the story is told and unfolded. From Genesis to Revelation we see God’s perfect plan unfolding through imperfect, sinful men, redeemed by God’s Redeemer, Jesus Christ. As we see the scriptures unfolding God’s story of redemption we see the world as it really is. This is essential to living for God. This gives all of creation and history the correct definition and purpose for what it was made.
The GW does not allow us to depend on money (Matt 6:31-34). The GW does not allow us to fret in the face of opposition (Rom 8:31). The GW sends us to the poor and down trodden (Matt 25:31-46). The GW calls us to hope (Rom 5:1-5). The GW fights for marriage (Eph 5:22-33). The GW leads to personal holiness (I Pet 1:13-15). The list goes on and on, to cover every area of life.
As the gospel penetrates our lives we begin to see things as they are. No longer does sight rule but faith. We see reality for what it really is. Sin is seen as sin. Wickedness as wickedness. Righteousness as righteousness. Holiness as holiness. The world will tell us that in order to be happy we need to indulge in every desire and want, we need to free ourselves from rules and standards and do what feels good. But the GW sees the sin that dominates man and believes the verdict against sin and trusts the love of God and enters into a life of denial, trusting that God will not mislead. Never has one followed Jesus faithfully to the grave and looked back at life with disappointment, but how many have followed the world, even for a time, only to find sadness, disappointment and pain.
The GW sees everything for what it is: God’s glory and our good. Ultimately that is what the gospel promises is taking place in creation and history. God is being glorified by everything and everything is working for our good. That is quite a worldview to adopt when you consider the state of the world at any given time. We see death, poverty, war, disaster, disease, abuse, orphans, massacre, and things only getting worse. How could somebody adopt a view of the world that says, “everything is to God’s glory and our good?” As I said before, we can’t adopt this worldview on our own. In fact, there are days and times when this worldview will be challenged by what we see around us, yet, our faith has the victory (I Jn 5:4-5). How do we answer what we see? The life of Christ.
In Jesus we see the perfect love of God flowing out to man, not by correcting every wrong and ending all suffering but by redeeming all of creation (Rom 8:18-25). In Jesus we see the perfect wrath and justice of God fulfilled in the ultimate punishment of sins (Rom 3:21-26). In Jesus we see God’s hatred of evil and love of good. In Jesus we learn of God’s unstoppable love for us, even dying upon a cross for His enemies (Rom 5:10). In Jesus we learn that God is for us and with us (Matt 28:20). In Jesus we get the fullest understanding and image of God that man knows (Col 1:15, 19) In Jesus we see the full meaning of scripture (Lk 24:27; Jn 5:39; II Tim 3:15). In Jesus we are given the answer that unlocks every mystery (I Cor 2:7, 4:1; Eph 3:4-5). He is our wisdom, redemption, sanctification and righteousness (I Cor 1:30). In Jesus we see what we never saw. In Jesus we know God (Jn 14:9,17:3). Jesus is the gospel worldview. Look out at the world as Jesus looked out at the world and you will posses a gospel worldview and more then that, you posses the knowledge of God’s will that you desire.
Don’t qualify that last statement. Oh how we want to qualify everything till there is nothing left to believe. We have the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Christ, dwelling in us and this is better then Christ standing here now (Jn 16:7). We are equipped to do the will of God, we have the mind of Christ. And when we stand in the darkness of uncertainty, the gospel promises us an unfailing, unending, unstoppable love that cannot be defeated and cannot be overcome. The gospel holds forth Christ risen from the grave of your deserved death saying, even now, “I am for you, trust Me.” He is gentle and kind, He is merciful and full of grace, He is love. Do not let the uncertainty of the unknowns dictate the reality of the fully known: God’s love in Christ! What do we have to fear? Not death (I Cor 15:54-57). Not needs (Matt 6:32-33). Not man (Matt 10:28). Not Satan (I Jn 4:4). What do you have to fear? “If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who is risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written: “For Your sake we are killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.” Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord! (Rom 8:31-39)”
Are you persuaded? Do you yet see as God sees? Do you yet view the world even as Jesus viewed the world? The answer is in the cross and the empty grave. Look there and see the love of God, the power of God, the grace and mercy of God. Look there and see perfect righteousness and perfect justice of God perfectly fulfilled. Look there and see the wrath poured out upon sin. Look there, to the cross and empty tomb, and see life eternal. Hear the call, today. Jesus commands your repentance, Jesus commands your faith. He has come for the sick. He has come for the sinner. He has come for you. Let His love win you. Let His beauty capture you. Let His glory captivate you. Behold God in the face of Jesus Christ.
I plead, even now, be reconciled to God in Jesus (II Cor 5:20-21). Faith believes the world is even as God says that it is. Faith believes the promises and threatening of God. Faith looks beyond its own understanding and rests in God’s perfect wisdom. Faith hopes, even contrary to hope, for God is beyond all means.
Let me say something about worldviews in general so that we are working with a similar definition. By worldview I mean the way that we interpret and understand and perceive the world around us. We all have a worldview, for we all perceive and interpret and understand in some particular way what is taking place around us in our own little worlds and in the whole world.
A gospel worldview is different then any other world- view. There is the gospel worldview and then there are all other worldviews. I have heard someone say that we shouldn’t speak of worldviews because it is secular in origin but I disagree. Worldview is simply what I defined it as, our view of the world. This is not secular or sacred, it just is. We all perceive what is taking place around us in some particular manner. What sets the gospel worldview apart (GW from here on), is that it is the only true and accurate view and therefore the best and right worldview. When we perceive the world around us as the gospel tells us that it is we are perceiving the world correctly. Essentially what has happened is that we have taken off the glasses of sin and put on the glasses of Jesus. Or more scripturally, we have gone from blindness to sight. We have not only begun to see things clearer but we are now seeing them for the first time as they really are when we see them in the gospel.
Our worldview is first changed in salvation. If I can use my self for an example. At salvation I went from anti-theism/atheism to theism. I went from a world of pointlessness and vanity to a world of purpose and meaning. Paul went from a world of human righteousness to a world of human depravity. What happened was not a change in thinking. Don’t try to convince your mind of what you do not believe. We cannot believe what we do not believe no matter how hard we try. If you believe the sky is blue no amount of arguing will convince you it is Pepto-Bismol pink. Our world view is changed not by changing our own minds, like in all the other worldviews. Our mind is changed by the Spirit of God in the effectual application of the word of God. We can really want to believe something, (like change our worldview), but if we don’t believe something then we don’t believe it. The religions of the world are all worldviews and they can be chosen and mixed as liked. They are in our power to believe and adopt. But the GW is not in our power to adopt.
Why is it that we can adopt false worldviews at leisure but cannot accept the GW except by God? As said above, we are blind to truth. We, by nature worship and serve the creation, that includes the creation of false religions. Idolatry is ingrained in us from conception. We are born with a nature that includes the ability to believe lies above the truth. It is as Pilate said, “What is truth? (Jn 18:38)”
Jesus, in a dispute with the Pharisees about His true origin and His true Father, had this to say,
“If God were your Father you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and came from God; nor have I come of Myself, but He sent me. Why do you not understand my speech? Because you are not able to listen to My word. You are of your father the devil, and the desire of your father you want to do. He was a murder from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it. But because I tell you the truth, you do not believe Me. Which of you convicts Me of sin? And if I tell the truth, why do you not believe me? He who is of God hears God’s words; therefore you do not hear because you are not of God.”
The words of Christ to the Pharisees are the same for all men (I Jn 4:5-6). We believe lies before we believe truth because lies are our nature. Lies come natural to us. We can chose which lies we will believe but we cannot chose to believe the truth apart from the Spirit of God changing our minds. Justification by grace through faith in Christ is the first time that we see as we should see. It is the moment of passing from death to life that we first see some of truth, our worldview is first shifted to the truth at justification.
At justification, the moment we pass from blindness to sight, death to life, we, for the first time, see Jesus as He is, the Savior that saves us. Up until that time, no matter how much knowledge of Jesus and sin and the bible we may have had, truth had not penetrated our beings. Until justification, no matter how much knowledge one has, they are not seeing truth as true, for they are not trusting it. It is when we first place our faith in the truth of Jesus Christ that we first have our worldview changed.
“What does worldview have to do with God’s will, ” you may be asking. Everything. We are not to be conformed any longer to this world but we are to be transformed (Rom 12:2; Eph 4:17-19) . God’s will is this transformation. Part of this transformation is seeing the world as God sees the world. We could argue that until you see the world as God sees the world you cannot really understand what you are called to. It is as our understanding and knowledge (not just in our heads but in our hearts, our beings) are conformed to God that we are transformed, that’s why Rom 12 speaks of the renewing of the mind.
We are taught in scripture that we have the mind of Christ (I Cor 2:16; Phil 2:5), this certainly includes our understanding and perception of the world. We see differently and hear differently then the rest of the world. We are set apart from the world by the word of Christ (Jn 17:17) that only His sheep can hear (Jn 10:27), contrary to the world that hears the lies of Satan (I Jn 5:19).
What is a gospel world view? It is many things and to show the correct view of everything, to apply the gospel to every area of life would take a very long time so we will just apply it to some broad, general circumstances.
We have talked about suffering in a previous post, and what I outlined of suffering is GW. The gospel, rightly understood and believed, will enable a joy in suffering. It does not dull the suffering or make the suffering enjoyable in some sadistic masochistic manner but it brings suffering into subjection to God. For certain, and do not think otherwise, suffering is always suffering. The gospel does not relieve suffering but it gives hope, comfort and rest in suffering. The pain Christ experienced upon the cross was not deadened by the gospel. The pain Paul experienced in his lashings was not diminished by the gospel. Suffering is God’s will in the gospel but it is received in faith of His goodness. The suffering stays real though. But the way it is perceived is changed.
Now, let me just interject this, GW is not mind manipulation. This is not about tricking ourselves into believing something or forcing to accept as true that which is untrue. This is not about adopting a set of values or beliefs. This is not religion. This is about submitting to truth. When the bible says to consider it all joy when you fall into various trials, it isn’t telling you to consider it joy just to consider it joy. The considering that the bible is commanding is simply submitting to truth. Maybe a picture will help. When we get a shot for medical reasons we are not particularly excited about the needle but the medicine that is being delivered makes the shot worthwhile. We don’t see the medicine but the faith that the medicine is there leads us to pursue getting the shot. Its not a perfect picture but it works. We accept the truth of the gospel and submit to it, not because we fully see but because we trust the Physician. Maybe that helps, maybe it doesn’t help. Take it or leave it.
We are not conforming our lives to a set of doctrines that may or may not be true. We are submitting to a Person that is Truth. I fear for those in the church that try so hard to believe but don’t but settle for their trying to believe as saving faith. They don’t believe the gospel. But they try to. This is not faith. This is, “I want to believe but I don’t.” This is not good. They have yet to see the truth of the gospel, they have yet to pass from death to life. We all struggle with faith to some degree. None of us trusts the Lord as fully as we should. But to be saved we must have faith that the gospel is true.
“What do I do if I don’t believe the gospel but want to believe the gospel?” Examine your heart. If you desire to be saved this is a work of the Lord in your life. Jesus invites all who hunger and thirst, all who are tired and heavy laden. Why do you not come? Perhaps it is because of a sin that you don’t want to let go of? Perhaps your love of money or adulterous sex or pride keeps you from coming. You desire to be saved in the superficial way of desiring to keep all your sins but not be punished. Don’t be deceived, none who do not repent of their sins will inherit the Kingdom of God. My advice to you would be to trust the Lord when He tells you that all sin leads to death and that it would be better to enter heaven with one eye or one hand then to keep both and end up in hell. Sever the sin that ensnares you. Flee the wrath to come.
Perhaps you desire heaven but you don’t want to submit to Christ as Lord. You know that to be saved is to cast your whole life upon Christ in faith and this you don’t want. You want heaven but you want it on your terms. This is not a desire to be saved. This is a desire to continue as your own god and reject the true God. Recognize the foolishness of your ways. You have exalted yourself to godhood while relegating God to servant hood. Repent. You are but a creature of the Creator and your treason, though small in your eyes, is wickedness of the greatest kind before the Lord.
If you desire salvation then believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved. If you cannot believe know that no desire for salvation will make you acceptable before the Lord. Only the work of Jesus upon the cross in your place can make you acceptable to God. Faith that you are saved is not saving faith. We are not called to believe that we are saved. We are called to trust Jesus and His cross and resurrection and know that we are saved by Him, not ourselves. This is faith. True faith. Faith hears Jesus promise of salvation to all who come to Him and faith goes to Him.
GW sees children as a blessing. Always a blessing. Not a curse. Not a burden or drain on life. Children are not an obstacle to happiness or just a hurdle in adulthood. The gospel promises children as a heritage from the Lord. Children are a blessing. How sad that so many see children as an inconvenience.
Now, it may be asked how “children as a blessing” is a GW. Isn’t the verse to support that Old Testament? Yes, Psalm 127:3-5. A GW sees all of scripture as gospel. Even the law and prophets are gospel, history, psalms, wisdom and any other. Scripture is gospel if, and that is a big “if,” it is understood rightly. Every scripture rightly understood will lead us to Jesus. So much could be said on this and it could easily fill a book so let me keep it brief.
In the law we see the standard of God that should lead us to despair of self and hope in God (Rom 5:20-21; Gal 3:24). The ceremonies and temple sacrifices all pointed to a better sacrifice, namely the Perfect Lamb of God, Jesus Christ (Heb 9:11-15). The wisdom literature was all fulfilled in Christ the Wisdom of God (I Cor 1:30). The history relays us information on Israel’s deliverance and set apartness for God, perfectly showing by type and illustration of what was to come (Heb 3:1-4:16). In the prophets we see a perfect picture of what is to come in Jesus and then how it was perfectly fulfilled in Jesus (Lk 4:16-21). The Bible tells one unfolding continuous story of God’s plan for and fulfillment of redemption. We are part of this story. It is a GW that sees this story and enters into this story as now being their story. God’s story is your story in Christ Jesus. Scripture unfolds this marvelous drama of cosmic redemption, from Eden to the New Jerusalem, the story is told and unfolded. From Genesis to Revelation we see God’s perfect plan unfolding through imperfect, sinful men, redeemed by God’s Redeemer, Jesus Christ. As we see the scriptures unfolding God’s story of redemption we see the world as it really is. This is essential to living for God. This gives all of creation and history the correct definition and purpose for what it was made.
The GW does not allow us to depend on money (Matt 6:31-34). The GW does not allow us to fret in the face of opposition (Rom 8:31). The GW sends us to the poor and down trodden (Matt 25:31-46). The GW calls us to hope (Rom 5:1-5). The GW fights for marriage (Eph 5:22-33). The GW leads to personal holiness (I Pet 1:13-15). The list goes on and on, to cover every area of life.
As the gospel penetrates our lives we begin to see things as they are. No longer does sight rule but faith. We see reality for what it really is. Sin is seen as sin. Wickedness as wickedness. Righteousness as righteousness. Holiness as holiness. The world will tell us that in order to be happy we need to indulge in every desire and want, we need to free ourselves from rules and standards and do what feels good. But the GW sees the sin that dominates man and believes the verdict against sin and trusts the love of God and enters into a life of denial, trusting that God will not mislead. Never has one followed Jesus faithfully to the grave and looked back at life with disappointment, but how many have followed the world, even for a time, only to find sadness, disappointment and pain.
The GW sees everything for what it is: God’s glory and our good. Ultimately that is what the gospel promises is taking place in creation and history. God is being glorified by everything and everything is working for our good. That is quite a worldview to adopt when you consider the state of the world at any given time. We see death, poverty, war, disaster, disease, abuse, orphans, massacre, and things only getting worse. How could somebody adopt a view of the world that says, “everything is to God’s glory and our good?” As I said before, we can’t adopt this worldview on our own. In fact, there are days and times when this worldview will be challenged by what we see around us, yet, our faith has the victory (I Jn 5:4-5). How do we answer what we see? The life of Christ.
In Jesus we see the perfect love of God flowing out to man, not by correcting every wrong and ending all suffering but by redeeming all of creation (Rom 8:18-25). In Jesus we see the perfect wrath and justice of God fulfilled in the ultimate punishment of sins (Rom 3:21-26). In Jesus we see God’s hatred of evil and love of good. In Jesus we learn of God’s unstoppable love for us, even dying upon a cross for His enemies (Rom 5:10). In Jesus we learn that God is for us and with us (Matt 28:20). In Jesus we get the fullest understanding and image of God that man knows (Col 1:15, 19) In Jesus we see the full meaning of scripture (Lk 24:27; Jn 5:39; II Tim 3:15). In Jesus we are given the answer that unlocks every mystery (I Cor 2:7, 4:1; Eph 3:4-5). He is our wisdom, redemption, sanctification and righteousness (I Cor 1:30). In Jesus we see what we never saw. In Jesus we know God (Jn 14:9,17:3). Jesus is the gospel worldview. Look out at the world as Jesus looked out at the world and you will posses a gospel worldview and more then that, you posses the knowledge of God’s will that you desire.
Don’t qualify that last statement. Oh how we want to qualify everything till there is nothing left to believe. We have the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Christ, dwelling in us and this is better then Christ standing here now (Jn 16:7). We are equipped to do the will of God, we have the mind of Christ. And when we stand in the darkness of uncertainty, the gospel promises us an unfailing, unending, unstoppable love that cannot be defeated and cannot be overcome. The gospel holds forth Christ risen from the grave of your deserved death saying, even now, “I am for you, trust Me.” He is gentle and kind, He is merciful and full of grace, He is love. Do not let the uncertainty of the unknowns dictate the reality of the fully known: God’s love in Christ! What do we have to fear? Not death (I Cor 15:54-57). Not needs (Matt 6:32-33). Not man (Matt 10:28). Not Satan (I Jn 4:4). What do you have to fear? “If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who is risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written: “For Your sake we are killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.” Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord! (Rom 8:31-39)”
Are you persuaded? Do you yet see as God sees? Do you yet view the world even as Jesus viewed the world? The answer is in the cross and the empty grave. Look there and see the love of God, the power of God, the grace and mercy of God. Look there and see perfect righteousness and perfect justice of God perfectly fulfilled. Look there and see the wrath poured out upon sin. Look there, to the cross and empty tomb, and see life eternal. Hear the call, today. Jesus commands your repentance, Jesus commands your faith. He has come for the sick. He has come for the sinner. He has come for you. Let His love win you. Let His beauty capture you. Let His glory captivate you. Behold God in the face of Jesus Christ.
I plead, even now, be reconciled to God in Jesus (II Cor 5:20-21). Faith believes the world is even as God says that it is. Faith believes the promises and threatening of God. Faith looks beyond its own understanding and rests in God’s perfect wisdom. Faith hopes, even contrary to hope, for God is beyond all means.
Saturday, August 14, 2010
God's Will: Faith (part 4:works)
God’s Will: Faith (part 4: works)
I have had to back track. I have put the last two or three posts off until I have tackled this subject of works. Let me give credit where credit is due. Everything up to this point has been an overflow of a conversation with my friend Christa. Thank you, Christa, for engaging my mind. This current post is the overflow of a conversation with Kevin and a book that he gave me. Proverbs 27:17, “Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another,” seems to always hold true in my life. The Lord uses someone to engage my mind and heart in a subject that I might not have considered. So it is with this post.
Works. What role do they play? First, I am considering this in this series because of the emphasis I have put on faith. Secondly, works have to be one of the most misunderstood and abused doctrines.
I am reading a book right now on the “social gospel” and the need for Christians to do more, not just locally but internationally. The main criticism of the book is that secular humanitarian aid agencies do more for the poor then the Christian agencies. The whole of the book is that we have a “hole” in our gospel where our devotion is lacking to the poor and impoverished. I would agree. Where I would not agree is the answer to the problem. The answer put forth thus far in the book is that we need to be doing more by understanding how important this is to the Lord. I would partly agree with that. Where I would disagree is that doing more is not the answer at all.
Why? The gospel is not about doing. It is about believing. It is about faith in Jesus Christ. What does that have to do with all the commands to “do?” We do because we believe and where we do without faith, we do wrongly and even more then wrongly, we sin. The problem is not that Christians aren’t doing enough for the social issues of the world, that is merely a symptom of the problem, and since that is not the problem then the answer cannot be working harder for these issues. The real problem in not believing. Faith, not works, is the issue.
James teaches us that faith without works is dead, or as I paraphrase it, faith without works is not faith, it is something else all together: dead. But the answer is not to add works but to fix the faith. What the bible teaches is that if we abide in Christ (Jn 15:5) we will bear fruit. If we believe in Jesus, streams of living water will flow from us (Jn 7:38). We work as God works in us (Phil 2:12-13). We do as grace abounds in us (II Cor 15:10). The bible everywhere makes clear that works follow faith not as something that is added to faith but as the abundance and overflow of faith. If we are not “doing” (i.e.: social deeds) we are not believing. We live in accordance to our faith. Where our lives fall short is where our faith falls short.
The answer is to believe the gospel then the works will follow. We are called to faith in Christ, that is the core of the gospel and it is only when the core is right that the rest is right. Or to say it another way, the tree of the gospel is faith in Jesus, the fruit will grow from that tree; if and when we do not see fruit we are to turn back to the tree of faith in Christ and repent and believe.
We need to understand that faith is the root of works. We do because we believe. Where we only do, apart from faith, we sin. No matter how much “good” we do apart from faith, it is sin. Works not brought about by faith are no different then a lost person doing works. What the gospel is calling us to is not humanitarian efforts but to Jesus, and when we come to Jesus the works will follow. The Pharisees were a group of guys that obeyed the commandments very faithfully. The problem? They were void of faith. Their works were filthy rags before a holy God for they were not trusting Him. Faith sanctifies what we offer to God. There is enough sin in every person that every thing we do is contaminated before God. A sinner cannot produce anything but sin, sometimes that sin looks very good on the outside, like the secular humanitarian efforts and agencies but what does God say? “There is no one who does good, no, not one. (Rom 3:12)” How can God say that about all the “good” relief organizations? Because of sin there is nothing that we can do that is void of sin, sin infiltrates everything we do, our hearts are never right before God. Only a heart with the pure motive of God’s glory apart from anything else could offer up pleasing service (work) to God.
Jesus could offer His life to God as pleasing because His very nature was God and man. No other can ever make a sacrifice that is pleasing to God, no matter how great and noble it may appear. If one were to give everything to the poor and abstain from every fleshly sin for a lifetime, the impurity of their heart in not trusting Christ would condemn them still. We need a perfect Savior, only Jesus, the God-man, can fulfill what we need for we need one that knew no sin to be offered in our place. Only the gospel holds forth the promise that we need for salvation. Only the gospel holds forth Jesus, a perfect sacrifice in our place. We need His righteousness before God always and in all things. We receive His righteousness by faith. The just shall live (not just once but live) by faith. When we move from faith, even to something as noble as helping the poor out of obligation and need, apart from faith moving us, we sin.
How does faith move us to work? I think the better question is: how does our faith not move us? Think for a moment with me. If we really believed that the sovereign God of all of creation loved us and was orchestrating every event for our good and His glory would we ever covet? If we really believed that the sovereign God of the universe was for us, would we ever fear? If we really believed that Jesus was the Savior of all men and that we are gifted and called to preach the gospel would we ever be silent? If we really believed that the greatest problem in the world was sin and its effect of separating us from God would we ever waste our time with the mundane and boring and secular? If Jesus really did what He did for you on that cross, how can you ever doubt His love and grace? Do you see the point? The point is that we do live what we believe because we really don’t believe it. There is a break down somewhere between our heads and our hearts. We have all had the experience where something we knew suddenly became something that we knew, I mean really knew. The light bulb goes off. Things that didn’t make sense suddenly do. The puzzle pieces of life fit a little better. It is a joyful and sometimes a sorrowful thing but always a good thing.
Our faith tends to be shallow and false. Why do we not see works? Because we are not seeing by faith. The answer is not to work but to repent and believe. It looks like this: Jesus, I don’t believe you will really meet my every need and that I still need to work and strive and plan and worry about the future because if I don’t who will! Jesus, I can’t sleep at night because I don’t believe that you really are in control of my life and circumstances, I mean, how could a loving God allow ________ to happen to me! Jesus I worry and fret and am greedy and discontent because I don’t believe that you are enough! Jesus, I look down on other people because I don’t see how you could love people like “that!” Jesus, I need to repent!! Jesus, what I know to be true of you intellectually, what my pastor tells me, what your word says, these things I know, but I don’t believe and therefore my life is a mess. Jesus, help me to believe! Jesus, I know that if I confess my sins that you are faithful and just to forgive them by the power of your cross so I confess to you in my brokenness that I don’t believe You! Lord, help my disbelief and give me faith to believe.
When there is sin in my life, whether sin of omission or commission, the answer is faith and repentance. The gospel always calls us back to Jesus, not to trying harder or getting on with it. The gospel is not “pull yourself up by the boot straps,” nor is it a standard that we attempt to live up to, the gospel is the announcement of truth, truth that shapes the whole of perception and understanding. If the gospel is true, then it changes everything. The gospel is the power of God unto salvation because it is true. It is not religion. It is not rules and values and morals. It is not ceremonies and ritual and observance. The gospel is the truth of Jesus Christ and the gospel calls us to receive that truth as true because it is true.
Think. Think. Think. The gospel is true. What does that mean for your daily activities? How are you not radically changed by the announcement that though you were God’s enemy and under His wrath, now through His sacrifice in your place you are a friend, child and heir of God. We do not live what we profess to believe because we don’t really believe. Yes, we believe that what the bible says is true, but we don’t trust it. Remember what was said on the nature of faith. Faith is not knowledge or assent but trust in that knowledge and assent. It is not enough to know Jesus is Lord and that He can save you if you don’t trust Him to save you.
Now I have not been talking about the one time transaction from death to life. I am not talking about the moment one passes from enemy to heir. I am talking about everything that comes after that. I am talking about the life of faith. Let me clarify something. I do not think that anyone that has believed will stop believing. I do not think that is possible for one once brought to Jesus in saving faith to ever stop having saving faith. Why? First, because I am persuaded by scripture. Secondly, because faith is the gift of God, we are no more responsible for the upkeep of faith than the initial act of faith. Faith only saves because it is in Jesus, therefore Jesus saves through the gift of faith. We do not save ourselves through believing, but He saves us through our believing. Now, for us to lose salvation would be for Jesus to stop saving; and that I do not see.
What I have been talking about, saying that we need to believe and that we don’t believe enough is not about salvation, it is about us trusting the Lord that has saved us. It is growing in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ (II Peter 3:18). We are not born with a full knowledge nor are we born again with a full knowledge. The Lord has placed at the head of His Church apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers for the equipping of the saints, for edification, for unity and doctrine (Eph 4:11-16). These are all speaking and teaching roles because that is what we need. We need men, filled with the Spirit, to effectually teach us the gospel, continuously. We cannot place to much emphasis on the proclamation of the gospel daily in our lives. We need it. We need the fellowship of believers to surround us so that we can see just how trustworthy the Lord is. We need to be encouraged in the faith. Built up in the faith. Taught. Instructed. The word of God alone can equip us for every good work (II Tim 3:16-17). We need to hear the gospel more not less.
We do not need to lessen the preaching and teaching of the word of the gospel and start emphasizing mission and social cause. With a fuller and wider and deeper preaching of the word of God, mission and ministry will pursue. It is where the word has been preached fully and boldly that ministry has followed. We can not get the cart in front of the horse, or more apt maybe, we cannot get the man in front of the gospel.
The gospel calls us to believe and from that faith to live. We do not live more radically for Jesus because we do not believe in the radicalness (that’s a new word) of Jesus. Jesus has not changed. The Jesus of Paul that enabled the life of Paul is the Jesus of us. We often wonder why we don’t see the awesome miracles that we know once happened; can I throw this out there: God hasn’t changed. “For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to Him (II Chron 16:9). But we really don’t believe that either. I mean we do because the bible says it but we don’t really trust that. We make excuses and “but” statements and “well, yes, but ______.” We don’t believe it. What if we did? What is the thing that you would do if you knew God were for you? Oh wait, He is for you. But we don’t believe that either. I mean we do, just with some criteria and conditions, right? But what does the gospel say? It says that is true and if you are unsure if it is true look at Jesus and know that God is for you. Look at the One Who left heaven and glory to come and live like a peasant amongst a wicked people so that you could have life. You do believe that. “He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also give us all things? (Rom 8:32)”
When we encounter unbelief the answer is the cross of Christ. We do not need to work harder, just turn back to the gospel and repent and believe. The works will follow. As James said, I will show you my faith by my works.
Let me say a little more. The book that I have been reading makes the epidemic of poverty the greatest issue facing the Church today. This is not true. If this were true than the answer would be money. If poverty were the greatest problem facing man and the Church then all we would need were bigger purses. This is not the case at all. J.C. Ryle once said that “money is not the one thing necessary.” This is true. The problem with focusing on the needed “works” is thatit shifts the focus from God to man. The greatest problem in the world is sin and its effects and the answer to this is purely supernatural, it is God. It is easy to think that we can over emphasis the preaching of the gospel to the exclusion of social work but that is impossible if the gospel is truly being preached. As scripture says, if we abide in Christ we will bear much fruit. The problem is not the over preaching of the gospel but the under preaching of the gospel. If our churches are weak in their social justices it is because they are weak in the gospel.
We are all to prone to fall into the trap of thinking that works will somehow make us more acceptable to the world and to God. Works will never do either. Sit down and read the first 12 chapters of John (I did this today). The over all impression I got was that no matter how much good Jesus did they hated Him. His works did not make Him more acceptable to the world. In fact, it had the very opposite reaction. The more they saw His works the more they hated Him (John 11:46-48). We think like the world. We think that if we do good the world will listen. Wrong. The Church’s history is littered in good. Trace literacy, democracy, education, equality, hospitals, relief agencies, etc, to their roots and you will find the church. The world does not care. They may take note. They may even discuss it. But it does not win the world. It was not meant to win the world. The gospel is the power of God unto salvation not relief work.
If we give a man a fish he eats for a day, if we teach a man to fish he eats for a lifetime but if we don’t give him Jesus, he dies and goes to hell. All the fish in the world mean nothing. Jesus is the true bread and water. “Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life…I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger and he who believes in Me shall never thirst. (Jn 6:27, 35)” Serving opens a door to share Jesus by putting you with people but it does not make you acceptable to people or to God. If you think that by serving people you will win them to Christ you have forgotten that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God (Rom 10:17).
Let the gospel have its work in you by believing the gospel. Where you find a lack of works, repent and believe. There is a problem somewhere in your believing that allows you not to work. Recognize it and address it for the sin that it is. What are you not believing in the gospel? What are you believing apart from the gospel? What of the gospel do you know but don’t trust? What would you do differently if you knew that Jesus, the sovereign loving God, was for you? That is such a profound question. How would you live if you truly believed that every detail of your life was planned out by the sovereign hand of your creator for your good and that nothing could thwart that plan? How would you live if you believed that Jesus was divinely orchestrating every moment for His glory in your life and that you would never be ashamed? How would you live if you believed that Jesus was in you reconciling the world to Himself, that you are a coworker with God? The amazing thing is that all that is true. Will you believe it?
If you believed it, even a little, even as a mustard seed, you could say to that mountain be cast into the sea and it would be. Even as a mustard seed.
Let us come up upon one another to strengthen and encourage and edify. Let us surround one another that we may not be discouraged. Let us remind one another of the truth of the gospel. We need to remember Who our God is and what He has done. We need faithful preachers and teachers in our lives that call us back to the gospel. We need faithful brothers in Christ that will expose our error and sin and call us back to Christ. We need to be reminded what the main thing is always.
“Why?” is a great question that we should ask often. Why do I do what I do? Why don’t I do what I don’t do? Why do I profess __________ but then don’t do ____________ or do _____________? Why? What is the root of your life?
Let me end with this. We must be about feeding the poor, clothing the naked, visiting those in prison. We must do good to glorify our Father in heaven. But let us remember that faith alone is pleasing to God.
“For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselfs; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. (Eph 2:8-9)”
I fear that many do not believe that the gospel will produce good works in us. I fear that many believe the gospel can save them but that truly after that they are left on their own to work and labor. The gospel certainly calls us to zeal and diligence and striving but only in the power of the gospel by the Spirit in faith. The mind set that we must now work and labor to fulfill the gospel is heretical. We are to carry a yoke but it is the yoke of Christ. The yoke of Christ is easy and light (Matt 11:30). When we carry the yoke of works we will live under condemnation and guilt because no amount of labor will ever be enough. We will know no rest. We will know no joy. When we carry the yoke of works trying to fulfill the work of the gospel we will burn out. We will be crushed by a new law and a new rule. Christ has come to set us free and give us rest. Yes, we will carry His yoke but it is His yoke of salvation and rest and peace and joy. It is a yoke of gratitude and humility and faith. It is a yoke of love towards God and man. Never a yoke of working to win favor or complete salvation. The gospel is the power of God for salvation, the whole of salvation, beginning to end and all between. Sanctification is the work of God. Salvation is the work of God. Glorification is the work of God. Preservation is the work of God.
How I desire to set God before you that you would see the adequacy and sufficiency of God in all things and for all things. That you would see His majesty and glory and grace and be humbled and changed and filled with awe. Remember Paul, the glory of God on the Damascus road could sustain him through the revelation of all that was to come upon him. So to we, let us look to our Savior Jesus Christ and be overcome by His beauty and love. Let us behold our holy and awesome God and see that life abides in him. Set your mind and heart and affections on God in Christ and allow His glory to change you and move you.
Our pastor has relayed the story several times to us that during a great plague, when the masses of people were fleeing the cities and leaving everything behind to avoid death, that the Christians were going into the cities. They went where no other would go. They walked into the face of death and did not fear (Ps 23:4). They did not need a relief agency explaining to them the need to do works of mercy. No, they, like Paul, were compelled by the love of Christ (II Cor 5:14). I am not knocking agencies calling us to serve. I am simply saying the greatest need of every man, saved or lost, is the gospel. We need more preaching of the gospel. Not the preaching of morals and values. Not the preaching of humanitarianism. But the preaching of the cross. The gospel is God’s power for salvation, sanctification and glorification. We must believe the gospel.
I have had to back track. I have put the last two or three posts off until I have tackled this subject of works. Let me give credit where credit is due. Everything up to this point has been an overflow of a conversation with my friend Christa. Thank you, Christa, for engaging my mind. This current post is the overflow of a conversation with Kevin and a book that he gave me. Proverbs 27:17, “Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another,” seems to always hold true in my life. The Lord uses someone to engage my mind and heart in a subject that I might not have considered. So it is with this post.
Works. What role do they play? First, I am considering this in this series because of the emphasis I have put on faith. Secondly, works have to be one of the most misunderstood and abused doctrines.
I am reading a book right now on the “social gospel” and the need for Christians to do more, not just locally but internationally. The main criticism of the book is that secular humanitarian aid agencies do more for the poor then the Christian agencies. The whole of the book is that we have a “hole” in our gospel where our devotion is lacking to the poor and impoverished. I would agree. Where I would not agree is the answer to the problem. The answer put forth thus far in the book is that we need to be doing more by understanding how important this is to the Lord. I would partly agree with that. Where I would disagree is that doing more is not the answer at all.
Why? The gospel is not about doing. It is about believing. It is about faith in Jesus Christ. What does that have to do with all the commands to “do?” We do because we believe and where we do without faith, we do wrongly and even more then wrongly, we sin. The problem is not that Christians aren’t doing enough for the social issues of the world, that is merely a symptom of the problem, and since that is not the problem then the answer cannot be working harder for these issues. The real problem in not believing. Faith, not works, is the issue.
James teaches us that faith without works is dead, or as I paraphrase it, faith without works is not faith, it is something else all together: dead. But the answer is not to add works but to fix the faith. What the bible teaches is that if we abide in Christ (Jn 15:5) we will bear fruit. If we believe in Jesus, streams of living water will flow from us (Jn 7:38). We work as God works in us (Phil 2:12-13). We do as grace abounds in us (II Cor 15:10). The bible everywhere makes clear that works follow faith not as something that is added to faith but as the abundance and overflow of faith. If we are not “doing” (i.e.: social deeds) we are not believing. We live in accordance to our faith. Where our lives fall short is where our faith falls short.
The answer is to believe the gospel then the works will follow. We are called to faith in Christ, that is the core of the gospel and it is only when the core is right that the rest is right. Or to say it another way, the tree of the gospel is faith in Jesus, the fruit will grow from that tree; if and when we do not see fruit we are to turn back to the tree of faith in Christ and repent and believe.
We need to understand that faith is the root of works. We do because we believe. Where we only do, apart from faith, we sin. No matter how much “good” we do apart from faith, it is sin. Works not brought about by faith are no different then a lost person doing works. What the gospel is calling us to is not humanitarian efforts but to Jesus, and when we come to Jesus the works will follow. The Pharisees were a group of guys that obeyed the commandments very faithfully. The problem? They were void of faith. Their works were filthy rags before a holy God for they were not trusting Him. Faith sanctifies what we offer to God. There is enough sin in every person that every thing we do is contaminated before God. A sinner cannot produce anything but sin, sometimes that sin looks very good on the outside, like the secular humanitarian efforts and agencies but what does God say? “There is no one who does good, no, not one. (Rom 3:12)” How can God say that about all the “good” relief organizations? Because of sin there is nothing that we can do that is void of sin, sin infiltrates everything we do, our hearts are never right before God. Only a heart with the pure motive of God’s glory apart from anything else could offer up pleasing service (work) to God.
Jesus could offer His life to God as pleasing because His very nature was God and man. No other can ever make a sacrifice that is pleasing to God, no matter how great and noble it may appear. If one were to give everything to the poor and abstain from every fleshly sin for a lifetime, the impurity of their heart in not trusting Christ would condemn them still. We need a perfect Savior, only Jesus, the God-man, can fulfill what we need for we need one that knew no sin to be offered in our place. Only the gospel holds forth the promise that we need for salvation. Only the gospel holds forth Jesus, a perfect sacrifice in our place. We need His righteousness before God always and in all things. We receive His righteousness by faith. The just shall live (not just once but live) by faith. When we move from faith, even to something as noble as helping the poor out of obligation and need, apart from faith moving us, we sin.
How does faith move us to work? I think the better question is: how does our faith not move us? Think for a moment with me. If we really believed that the sovereign God of all of creation loved us and was orchestrating every event for our good and His glory would we ever covet? If we really believed that the sovereign God of the universe was for us, would we ever fear? If we really believed that Jesus was the Savior of all men and that we are gifted and called to preach the gospel would we ever be silent? If we really believed that the greatest problem in the world was sin and its effect of separating us from God would we ever waste our time with the mundane and boring and secular? If Jesus really did what He did for you on that cross, how can you ever doubt His love and grace? Do you see the point? The point is that we do live what we believe because we really don’t believe it. There is a break down somewhere between our heads and our hearts. We have all had the experience where something we knew suddenly became something that we knew, I mean really knew. The light bulb goes off. Things that didn’t make sense suddenly do. The puzzle pieces of life fit a little better. It is a joyful and sometimes a sorrowful thing but always a good thing.
Our faith tends to be shallow and false. Why do we not see works? Because we are not seeing by faith. The answer is not to work but to repent and believe. It looks like this: Jesus, I don’t believe you will really meet my every need and that I still need to work and strive and plan and worry about the future because if I don’t who will! Jesus, I can’t sleep at night because I don’t believe that you really are in control of my life and circumstances, I mean, how could a loving God allow ________ to happen to me! Jesus I worry and fret and am greedy and discontent because I don’t believe that you are enough! Jesus, I look down on other people because I don’t see how you could love people like “that!” Jesus, I need to repent!! Jesus, what I know to be true of you intellectually, what my pastor tells me, what your word says, these things I know, but I don’t believe and therefore my life is a mess. Jesus, help me to believe! Jesus, I know that if I confess my sins that you are faithful and just to forgive them by the power of your cross so I confess to you in my brokenness that I don’t believe You! Lord, help my disbelief and give me faith to believe.
When there is sin in my life, whether sin of omission or commission, the answer is faith and repentance. The gospel always calls us back to Jesus, not to trying harder or getting on with it. The gospel is not “pull yourself up by the boot straps,” nor is it a standard that we attempt to live up to, the gospel is the announcement of truth, truth that shapes the whole of perception and understanding. If the gospel is true, then it changes everything. The gospel is the power of God unto salvation because it is true. It is not religion. It is not rules and values and morals. It is not ceremonies and ritual and observance. The gospel is the truth of Jesus Christ and the gospel calls us to receive that truth as true because it is true.
Think. Think. Think. The gospel is true. What does that mean for your daily activities? How are you not radically changed by the announcement that though you were God’s enemy and under His wrath, now through His sacrifice in your place you are a friend, child and heir of God. We do not live what we profess to believe because we don’t really believe. Yes, we believe that what the bible says is true, but we don’t trust it. Remember what was said on the nature of faith. Faith is not knowledge or assent but trust in that knowledge and assent. It is not enough to know Jesus is Lord and that He can save you if you don’t trust Him to save you.
Now I have not been talking about the one time transaction from death to life. I am not talking about the moment one passes from enemy to heir. I am talking about everything that comes after that. I am talking about the life of faith. Let me clarify something. I do not think that anyone that has believed will stop believing. I do not think that is possible for one once brought to Jesus in saving faith to ever stop having saving faith. Why? First, because I am persuaded by scripture. Secondly, because faith is the gift of God, we are no more responsible for the upkeep of faith than the initial act of faith. Faith only saves because it is in Jesus, therefore Jesus saves through the gift of faith. We do not save ourselves through believing, but He saves us through our believing. Now, for us to lose salvation would be for Jesus to stop saving; and that I do not see.
What I have been talking about, saying that we need to believe and that we don’t believe enough is not about salvation, it is about us trusting the Lord that has saved us. It is growing in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ (II Peter 3:18). We are not born with a full knowledge nor are we born again with a full knowledge. The Lord has placed at the head of His Church apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers for the equipping of the saints, for edification, for unity and doctrine (Eph 4:11-16). These are all speaking and teaching roles because that is what we need. We need men, filled with the Spirit, to effectually teach us the gospel, continuously. We cannot place to much emphasis on the proclamation of the gospel daily in our lives. We need it. We need the fellowship of believers to surround us so that we can see just how trustworthy the Lord is. We need to be encouraged in the faith. Built up in the faith. Taught. Instructed. The word of God alone can equip us for every good work (II Tim 3:16-17). We need to hear the gospel more not less.
We do not need to lessen the preaching and teaching of the word of the gospel and start emphasizing mission and social cause. With a fuller and wider and deeper preaching of the word of God, mission and ministry will pursue. It is where the word has been preached fully and boldly that ministry has followed. We can not get the cart in front of the horse, or more apt maybe, we cannot get the man in front of the gospel.
The gospel calls us to believe and from that faith to live. We do not live more radically for Jesus because we do not believe in the radicalness (that’s a new word) of Jesus. Jesus has not changed. The Jesus of Paul that enabled the life of Paul is the Jesus of us. We often wonder why we don’t see the awesome miracles that we know once happened; can I throw this out there: God hasn’t changed. “For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to Him (II Chron 16:9). But we really don’t believe that either. I mean we do because the bible says it but we don’t really trust that. We make excuses and “but” statements and “well, yes, but ______.” We don’t believe it. What if we did? What is the thing that you would do if you knew God were for you? Oh wait, He is for you. But we don’t believe that either. I mean we do, just with some criteria and conditions, right? But what does the gospel say? It says that is true and if you are unsure if it is true look at Jesus and know that God is for you. Look at the One Who left heaven and glory to come and live like a peasant amongst a wicked people so that you could have life. You do believe that. “He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also give us all things? (Rom 8:32)”
When we encounter unbelief the answer is the cross of Christ. We do not need to work harder, just turn back to the gospel and repent and believe. The works will follow. As James said, I will show you my faith by my works.
Let me say a little more. The book that I have been reading makes the epidemic of poverty the greatest issue facing the Church today. This is not true. If this were true than the answer would be money. If poverty were the greatest problem facing man and the Church then all we would need were bigger purses. This is not the case at all. J.C. Ryle once said that “money is not the one thing necessary.” This is true. The problem with focusing on the needed “works” is thatit shifts the focus from God to man. The greatest problem in the world is sin and its effects and the answer to this is purely supernatural, it is God. It is easy to think that we can over emphasis the preaching of the gospel to the exclusion of social work but that is impossible if the gospel is truly being preached. As scripture says, if we abide in Christ we will bear much fruit. The problem is not the over preaching of the gospel but the under preaching of the gospel. If our churches are weak in their social justices it is because they are weak in the gospel.
We are all to prone to fall into the trap of thinking that works will somehow make us more acceptable to the world and to God. Works will never do either. Sit down and read the first 12 chapters of John (I did this today). The over all impression I got was that no matter how much good Jesus did they hated Him. His works did not make Him more acceptable to the world. In fact, it had the very opposite reaction. The more they saw His works the more they hated Him (John 11:46-48). We think like the world. We think that if we do good the world will listen. Wrong. The Church’s history is littered in good. Trace literacy, democracy, education, equality, hospitals, relief agencies, etc, to their roots and you will find the church. The world does not care. They may take note. They may even discuss it. But it does not win the world. It was not meant to win the world. The gospel is the power of God unto salvation not relief work.
If we give a man a fish he eats for a day, if we teach a man to fish he eats for a lifetime but if we don’t give him Jesus, he dies and goes to hell. All the fish in the world mean nothing. Jesus is the true bread and water. “Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life…I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger and he who believes in Me shall never thirst. (Jn 6:27, 35)” Serving opens a door to share Jesus by putting you with people but it does not make you acceptable to people or to God. If you think that by serving people you will win them to Christ you have forgotten that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God (Rom 10:17).
Let the gospel have its work in you by believing the gospel. Where you find a lack of works, repent and believe. There is a problem somewhere in your believing that allows you not to work. Recognize it and address it for the sin that it is. What are you not believing in the gospel? What are you believing apart from the gospel? What of the gospel do you know but don’t trust? What would you do differently if you knew that Jesus, the sovereign loving God, was for you? That is such a profound question. How would you live if you truly believed that every detail of your life was planned out by the sovereign hand of your creator for your good and that nothing could thwart that plan? How would you live if you believed that Jesus was divinely orchestrating every moment for His glory in your life and that you would never be ashamed? How would you live if you believed that Jesus was in you reconciling the world to Himself, that you are a coworker with God? The amazing thing is that all that is true. Will you believe it?
If you believed it, even a little, even as a mustard seed, you could say to that mountain be cast into the sea and it would be. Even as a mustard seed.
Let us come up upon one another to strengthen and encourage and edify. Let us surround one another that we may not be discouraged. Let us remind one another of the truth of the gospel. We need to remember Who our God is and what He has done. We need faithful preachers and teachers in our lives that call us back to the gospel. We need faithful brothers in Christ that will expose our error and sin and call us back to Christ. We need to be reminded what the main thing is always.
“Why?” is a great question that we should ask often. Why do I do what I do? Why don’t I do what I don’t do? Why do I profess __________ but then don’t do ____________ or do _____________? Why? What is the root of your life?
Let me end with this. We must be about feeding the poor, clothing the naked, visiting those in prison. We must do good to glorify our Father in heaven. But let us remember that faith alone is pleasing to God.
“For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselfs; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. (Eph 2:8-9)”
I fear that many do not believe that the gospel will produce good works in us. I fear that many believe the gospel can save them but that truly after that they are left on their own to work and labor. The gospel certainly calls us to zeal and diligence and striving but only in the power of the gospel by the Spirit in faith. The mind set that we must now work and labor to fulfill the gospel is heretical. We are to carry a yoke but it is the yoke of Christ. The yoke of Christ is easy and light (Matt 11:30). When we carry the yoke of works we will live under condemnation and guilt because no amount of labor will ever be enough. We will know no rest. We will know no joy. When we carry the yoke of works trying to fulfill the work of the gospel we will burn out. We will be crushed by a new law and a new rule. Christ has come to set us free and give us rest. Yes, we will carry His yoke but it is His yoke of salvation and rest and peace and joy. It is a yoke of gratitude and humility and faith. It is a yoke of love towards God and man. Never a yoke of working to win favor or complete salvation. The gospel is the power of God for salvation, the whole of salvation, beginning to end and all between. Sanctification is the work of God. Salvation is the work of God. Glorification is the work of God. Preservation is the work of God.
How I desire to set God before you that you would see the adequacy and sufficiency of God in all things and for all things. That you would see His majesty and glory and grace and be humbled and changed and filled with awe. Remember Paul, the glory of God on the Damascus road could sustain him through the revelation of all that was to come upon him. So to we, let us look to our Savior Jesus Christ and be overcome by His beauty and love. Let us behold our holy and awesome God and see that life abides in him. Set your mind and heart and affections on God in Christ and allow His glory to change you and move you.
Our pastor has relayed the story several times to us that during a great plague, when the masses of people were fleeing the cities and leaving everything behind to avoid death, that the Christians were going into the cities. They went where no other would go. They walked into the face of death and did not fear (Ps 23:4). They did not need a relief agency explaining to them the need to do works of mercy. No, they, like Paul, were compelled by the love of Christ (II Cor 5:14). I am not knocking agencies calling us to serve. I am simply saying the greatest need of every man, saved or lost, is the gospel. We need more preaching of the gospel. Not the preaching of morals and values. Not the preaching of humanitarianism. But the preaching of the cross. The gospel is God’s power for salvation, sanctification and glorification. We must believe the gospel.
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
upcoming posts
Just wanted to apologize for the long delay between posts. I am having to backtrack a little. But I am going to finish this series as soon as time allows. thanks again.
Monday, August 2, 2010
God's Will: Faith (part 3, making decisions)
God’s Will: Faith (part 3: decision making)
God’s will is faith in the gospel of Jesus Christ. That much is certain and undeniable and more then that it is foundational. You cannot expect to know God’s will much less do God’s will if you are not living by faith in the work of Jesus Christ. You cannot start with this post if you really are interested in doing God’s will, for God’s will is much larger than your life. The questions of now, the questions of what should I pursue in life, what job, what spouse, what location, when, how and all the rest of the questions that are grounded in the finite, are secondary questions. The answers to those questions are only valid if you are living by faith in Jesus Christ. And more then that, those questions are only valid if you are not just wanting to know the answer but are truly surrendered to doing the answer. We cannot seek the will of God apart from a genuine desire to do the will of God, for surely, to seek without the willingness to complete, is futility (James 1:5-8).
In preparing to seek the immediate answers of today in God you must be prepared to do them. Again, I wrote of suffering because so often God’s will includes suffering and we have such an aversion to suffering that more often then not we opt out of God’s will for our lives because of the potential of suffering. If you have not grappled with the issue of suffering, if you are not prepared to follow Christ even to pain and possibly death then you are not prepared to follow Christ at all (Luke 14:25-33). Christ demands the whole life, not part or most. He who puts his hand to the work of the Lord but looks back is not worthy of the Lord (Luke 9:62). We must seek the will of the Lord and even know the will of the Lord (Eph 5:17) but more then that we must being doing the will of the Lord and that begins with faith in Jesus as the all satisfying and all sufficient Savior.
Apart from faith in Jesus it is impossible to do the will of God, even doing the revealed will of God, apart from faith, is sin. It is impossible to please God without faith (Heb 11:6). This is the weakness of the law: that by our sin we cannot truly keep even one precept for the wickedness of our very being permeates even the greatest and best work of man (Gal 3:21-24; Rom 7:1-25). We must understand this. Faith is the fulfillment of God’s law and will. When the scriptures speak of, “there is none righteous, no, not one; there is none who understands; there is none who seek after God…there is none who does good, no, not one (Rom 3:10-12),” we must understand that the reason this is so is because no man is naturally (by birth) living by faith or able to keep the whole law. Man is corrupted to the root of his being. Do you believe this? Do you know your own total and complete wickedness? Do you grasp that even in your best moments sin has so permeated you that your best work is full of sin? You must get this. To the extent that we deny this sinfulness of ourselves is the extent that we will truly rely upon Christ. For if we are not quite fallen completely, then we are not completely in need of a Savior. Instead of resting all our hope upon Christ we will rest just a little in ourselves. We must see that we are spiritually bankrupt in everyway before God, there is nothing we can do ever to pay back our dept. The wages of sin that we owe, we all owe, is death, not temporary and once, but death eternal (Rom 6:23).
When the bible speaks of eternal life in knowing Christ (John 17:3) it is not only speaking of duration, in fact, duration is the last thing that it is speaking of for all will continue on for eternity. We are spiritual beings and our spirits will never cease to exist, so a promise of eternal life only in duration would be pointless. For what we must understand, and the point that I am getting at, is that even the damned lived forever. Those who reject God and His Savior Jesus Christ, will also receive eternal life in duration. The bible in speaking of eternal life is not speaking of duration but of quality or of content, neither word seems adequate for what they describe are beyond mere words. The joys and glories of life with Christ for eternity are void of descriptive words. The bible speaks of streets of gold, a great city decorated in fine gems and jewels, but what are those things, they hold no eternal glory, they are but descriptions of something for greater and more breath taking. For the glory of heaven, the reason heaven is heaven is not the material reward; heaven is heaven because Jesus is there. It is the glory of Christ that makes heaven glorious. We will spend and eternity of eternities before Him and never cease to marvel at the richness of His grace. Words fail to adequately express the glory of what is to come.
So also, with eternal death, it is not about duration but the content of that eternity. Life with Christ is glory for eternity, life separated from Christ, condemned to an eternal suffering in hell, it is everything opposite of glory. The descriptive of hell given in the bible is only meant to illustrate the horrors for those who refuse to submit to their Creator and Savior. Fire, darkness, weeping and gnashing of teeth, the worm that never dies, are not literal things, though hell is a literal place, an eternal place. Those who reject their Creator and His Savior do not cease to exist, they are not annialated or moved to purgatory to work off their sinful deeds, no, they are condemned to what can only be called eternal death.
Some questions do beg to be asked when speaking of hell for it is a very hard thing. The first question is, “why for eternity?” Those condemned to hell will never want the other option. Those in hell are not realizing their error and repenting, no, there is nothing good in hell, not consideration or remorse and repentance. Their pain and agony for their sins does not lead to genuine repentance but to a greater and ongoing hardening. Those is hell do not long for God but hate Him even more, even in seeing His perfect justice and righteousness, even in now seeing the truth and knowing their error, they are not broken in a genuine repentance but only aggravated in their sin. We don’t think this of people because as was said above, we just don’t think that we are quite that wicked. But we are. Any good we see in man is only by God’s grace and mercy, yet the wickedness of man takes that grace and mercy and is unthankful and denies the very grace that made any good possible.
The second question is, “what makes hell, hell?” Now, my answer to this is not a dividing point but something that I do hold as a conviction, though surely disagreement is open. Hell is hell because God is there. It is His very presence in the lives of the wicked and damned that makes hell so hellish. God is everywhere, there is no where that He is not, hell is not the exception. God is omnipresent. Hell without God would almost be giving the unrepentant exactly what they wanted, God’s absence. We struggle because of the cartoons picturing Satan with a red tail and pitch fork poking people. This is not the case. Satan does not rule hell, he is as much a prisoner there as are those who deny their God (Rev 20:10). Hell is a real place created by God, ruled by God and for God’s glory (Col 1:15-16). This is hard for us and we wonder how it is glorifying to God. We do not understand (nor would I expect any to understand) nor see but we will. Hell magnify’s God’s perfect righteous judgment against sin, hell glorifies God wrath and God’s holiness, and hell glorifies God’s justice. Perhaps also hell glorifies God’s mercy and grace, for by His amazing grace and rich mercy He has secured a way for escape. Surely those in heaven are aware of hell and it only tends to their more glorying in God’s love, grace and mercy and kindness given them in Jesus Christ. Hell is real. Wrestle with this. Hell is avoidable. Receive this. Jesus paid for sin on the cross, and by faith we receive His sacrifice on our behalf. Believe and be saved from the wrath to come.
In the light of the eternal that is rushing upon us all at every moment it certainly does put the immediate questions of job and spouse and location into perspective. Faith is the first and essential to knowing and doing God’s will today. Even in the revealed will of God, things like prayer, bible study, evangelism, mission, tithing, brotherly love and all the rest of God’s precepts for man are only acceptable in faith. Paul wrote that he lives by faith in the Son of God, who loved him and gave Himself for him (Gal 2:20) and we are told the same thing, that we must live by faith to be just before God (Rom 1:17), to be accepted and to make our lives acceptable we must live by faith (Gal 3:1-13). Prayer is acceptable to God by faith. Bible study by faith. Tithing and the rest; faith makes them all acceptable to God. The Pharisees practiced all these even in greater measure and obedience then we, yet they were wicked and full of evil, being void of faith, trusting only in themselves. Do not be a Pharisee but with the absence of faith you can not be but a Pharisee, one that trusts in self and not Christ and thinks that they have something to offer God (Matt 23:1-39).
Faith works itself out in our lives through faithfulness. Sin permeates everything through our sinfulness, in the same way faith must permeate everything through faithfulness. Faithfulness is the outworking of faith. The gospel calls us to Christ not once in a lifetime but to a lifetime of Christ. This I call faithfulness. It is the ongoing work of us pursuing Christ by faith and repentance. We live by faith, not by sight, not by our understanding, but by a reliance upon God in the gospel as revealed in His word, the bible.
What does it mean to live by faith? I think that we tend to define living by faith to narrowly, thinking that this is referring only to the immediate transition from death to life, the one single act of being born again. Faith is not the means of new birth only. Faith is not the one time act by which we are made righteous and just before God, but faith is the ongoing continual posture of a true Christian. It is by faith that we live every moment of every day and to the extent that we don’t live by faith every moment of everyday, is the extent that repentance will be in our life. Which means that repentance is the other posture of a true Christian. In fact, if we understand faith and repentance as the bible teaches you cannot have one without the other. So when you read “faith,” hear also repent.
We live by faith by trusting, first: Christ and His work on the cross as the means by which we are accepted and made right with God, changing our relationship from that of enemy to that of son and heir, from one being under the curse to one being under the promise and from one treasuring up God’s wrath to one treasuring up God’s blessing and goodness. First, we trust Christ, and continually trust Christ for a lifetime. Secondly, we trust all that Christ reveals of Himself in His word. We trust that He is good and kind and righteous and sovereign. We trust that He loves us and is for us, that everything really is under His hand for His glory and our good, the two being inseparable (what a glorious truth that is). We trust that He is all that He says He and that He will do all that He says He will do, here lies true joy, contentment, rest and hope. By those two things, trust in who Christ is and what Christ has done we are equipped to answer and decide every dilemma with confidence.
“What job should I take,” is never a question that we see asked in the bible. Rather what we see is that Christ promises us that if we trust Him and seek Him in faith, that He will guide our every step (Prov 3:5,6). We are to submit our plans to him (James 4:13-15) and then act in faith. God has told you that He will direct your steps, that He is for you, that He is sovereign, that He loves you enough to have died for you, and that now, even if you err, He will work it for good. Does God have a specific will for you, who you should marry, where you should go to school or work, if you should move; yes. Does He reveal it to you? Maybe. Maybe not. If you are living by faith, walking by faith, you are ready to make the decision. “But what if I mess up and go to the wrong place?” God is much bigger then your mistakes. You will not find a person in the bible other then Jesus that lived perfectly in accordance with God’s will. The Hebrews 11, “hall of fame,” is riddled with those that made tremendous mistakes in judgment and committed atrocious sins, yet, by faith, God was well pleased with them, enough so that He has set them before you as an example to follow.
What this so often comes down to is that we want to know God’s will because we don’t want a “hard” life and we think that if we mess up God will give us terrible consequences and chastise us for a lifetime. How perverse and askew this view of God is. Thinking of God like this is void of the gospel.
First, God promises what many would consider a “hard” life not the opposite. God does not promise long life, healthy life, financially prosperous life, not that He never gives those things, He does, but His word speaks of the “hard” things much more. For, “all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution,” and “because you are not of the world, therefore the world hates you.” If we love money we cannot love Jesus. If we seek to save our lives we will lose our lives. The gospel promises life to those who die to self. The call of the gospel is not to a life of ease and comfort and riches but to one of only continual death, “for Your sake we are killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.” “Yet,” oh what a glorious “yet” that it is, “yet, in all these things we are more then conquerors through Him who loved us!” God promises the “good” life, His life. Look at the life of Christ and see the “good” life that will be yours by faith (John 15:18).
Secondly, this thinking of God is wrong because we still think of difficulty and suffering as being bad in and of themselves, that somehow only the wicked should struggle and only the wicked should have trial. But as we looked at in a previous post, this thinking is so wrong, so unbiblical. It was through suffering that Christ was perfected, surely what is good for Jesus is good for us (Heb 2:10). But we are not alone in this struggle with suffering. Psalm 73 records a mans bewilderment at the prosperity of the wicked and the continual grief of the righteous, till he saw the end of both (73:27,28).
Third this view of God is wrong because it is in denial of the gospel. This view of God does not accept that God is a Father towards us, always for our good, it does not believe that what Christ ascribes to His atonement is true. That somewhere in God He is still against us, opposed to us, that there is still wrath stored up. Yet, the gospel promises us that God is for us (Rom 8:31), that there is no condemnation left for those in Christ (Rom 8:1), that if while we were enemies He gave His life for us, how much more now that we are His children (Rom 5:10, 8:32), that nothing can stop His love (Rom 8:35). If we believe the gospel we are freed to live for God with no fear of wrath or condemnation. We need not fear ourselves as though we could thwart God, His grace is far greater than our sin (Rom 5:20). The gospel frees us to peace with God, in every situation. We can make mistakes for sure, there are good and bad decisions, but we must ascribe to God more power then we ascribe to our choices, even our mistakes. It is God that is sovereign, not our choices.
Lastly, the great problem in this view of God is that it ignores His sovereignty. This would fit under all three of the three above mistakes but it deserves its own spot. We cannot forget or undervalue the sovereignty of God. He can bring life from death, create everything from nothing. All of creation is at His use and, even more, for His use. Nothing is off limits from God, He is supernatural and above the natural in everyway. You see this in that water is only a substance for His bidding. He can make water stand on end. He can turn it to blood or to wine. He can make it rain or send a drought. He can calm waves or make water hard enough to stand upon. Let us look beyond what is seen to Him that is invisible and all powerful. Not to seem mystical or fantastical but nothing is just the way it is. God can cause the sun to stand still, to hide, to go back. Nature is at the beckon of God, so is man. There is nothing that God cannot do, and though we know not what God will do, we know that He is sovereign and for us. He has already overcome death and the grave. Do not fear but hope in your sovereign God.
Decisions are hard to make but they need not be. Decisions are sanctified by faith. Decisions fall under all the gospel promises, they are redeemed. We need fear no action of man, not even our own, if we will fear God in faith.
Now, to close this, yes, we need to pray about decisions, yes, we need to regard all that God’s word says about the choices before us, He has given precepts that we must follow and obey, but in the final analysis we must have faith and live by that faith. Faith is what is pleasing to God and so, even if you are attempting to do what is God’s will but doing it void of faith, it is in vain, and if you are attempting to do God’s will with faith there is nothing that you do that is in vain (I Cor 15:58). We are prone to stand still waiting for neon signs and writing on the wall, seldom is this an act of faith, usually it is an act of fear and unbelief, the gospel frees us to go and do, in faith.
I am hoping that I have not over simplified this. We want direct answer from God to all our questions not because we are really wanting to do right before Him but because we are afraid to trust Him beyond what we see. What we think of as faith, our desire for every answer in writing, is actually fear and unbelief. Faith trusts God even when, especially when it does not see Him, for hope that is seen is not hope (Rom 8:24). What made the faith of Abraham so wonderful was that it was so void of earthly hope, he hoped against hope and in hope believed (Rom 4:18). Faith should not be stagnant. God will (and you know this by faith) direct your steps. God will (and you know this by faith) work all things for your good. God will (and you know this by faith) never forsake you nor leave you. God will (and you know this by faith) always be for you in Christ Jesus. Now live by that faith.
Next we will consider the gospel as worldview, seeing the whole of creation and time and history through the lens of the gospel. That will be the planned end for this series (though it might take two posts) unless there is something else that you think I should clarify or extend or add. Thanks for reading.
God’s will is faith in the gospel of Jesus Christ. That much is certain and undeniable and more then that it is foundational. You cannot expect to know God’s will much less do God’s will if you are not living by faith in the work of Jesus Christ. You cannot start with this post if you really are interested in doing God’s will, for God’s will is much larger than your life. The questions of now, the questions of what should I pursue in life, what job, what spouse, what location, when, how and all the rest of the questions that are grounded in the finite, are secondary questions. The answers to those questions are only valid if you are living by faith in Jesus Christ. And more then that, those questions are only valid if you are not just wanting to know the answer but are truly surrendered to doing the answer. We cannot seek the will of God apart from a genuine desire to do the will of God, for surely, to seek without the willingness to complete, is futility (James 1:5-8).
In preparing to seek the immediate answers of today in God you must be prepared to do them. Again, I wrote of suffering because so often God’s will includes suffering and we have such an aversion to suffering that more often then not we opt out of God’s will for our lives because of the potential of suffering. If you have not grappled with the issue of suffering, if you are not prepared to follow Christ even to pain and possibly death then you are not prepared to follow Christ at all (Luke 14:25-33). Christ demands the whole life, not part or most. He who puts his hand to the work of the Lord but looks back is not worthy of the Lord (Luke 9:62). We must seek the will of the Lord and even know the will of the Lord (Eph 5:17) but more then that we must being doing the will of the Lord and that begins with faith in Jesus as the all satisfying and all sufficient Savior.
Apart from faith in Jesus it is impossible to do the will of God, even doing the revealed will of God, apart from faith, is sin. It is impossible to please God without faith (Heb 11:6). This is the weakness of the law: that by our sin we cannot truly keep even one precept for the wickedness of our very being permeates even the greatest and best work of man (Gal 3:21-24; Rom 7:1-25). We must understand this. Faith is the fulfillment of God’s law and will. When the scriptures speak of, “there is none righteous, no, not one; there is none who understands; there is none who seek after God…there is none who does good, no, not one (Rom 3:10-12),” we must understand that the reason this is so is because no man is naturally (by birth) living by faith or able to keep the whole law. Man is corrupted to the root of his being. Do you believe this? Do you know your own total and complete wickedness? Do you grasp that even in your best moments sin has so permeated you that your best work is full of sin? You must get this. To the extent that we deny this sinfulness of ourselves is the extent that we will truly rely upon Christ. For if we are not quite fallen completely, then we are not completely in need of a Savior. Instead of resting all our hope upon Christ we will rest just a little in ourselves. We must see that we are spiritually bankrupt in everyway before God, there is nothing we can do ever to pay back our dept. The wages of sin that we owe, we all owe, is death, not temporary and once, but death eternal (Rom 6:23).
When the bible speaks of eternal life in knowing Christ (John 17:3) it is not only speaking of duration, in fact, duration is the last thing that it is speaking of for all will continue on for eternity. We are spiritual beings and our spirits will never cease to exist, so a promise of eternal life only in duration would be pointless. For what we must understand, and the point that I am getting at, is that even the damned lived forever. Those who reject God and His Savior Jesus Christ, will also receive eternal life in duration. The bible in speaking of eternal life is not speaking of duration but of quality or of content, neither word seems adequate for what they describe are beyond mere words. The joys and glories of life with Christ for eternity are void of descriptive words. The bible speaks of streets of gold, a great city decorated in fine gems and jewels, but what are those things, they hold no eternal glory, they are but descriptions of something for greater and more breath taking. For the glory of heaven, the reason heaven is heaven is not the material reward; heaven is heaven because Jesus is there. It is the glory of Christ that makes heaven glorious. We will spend and eternity of eternities before Him and never cease to marvel at the richness of His grace. Words fail to adequately express the glory of what is to come.
So also, with eternal death, it is not about duration but the content of that eternity. Life with Christ is glory for eternity, life separated from Christ, condemned to an eternal suffering in hell, it is everything opposite of glory. The descriptive of hell given in the bible is only meant to illustrate the horrors for those who refuse to submit to their Creator and Savior. Fire, darkness, weeping and gnashing of teeth, the worm that never dies, are not literal things, though hell is a literal place, an eternal place. Those who reject their Creator and His Savior do not cease to exist, they are not annialated or moved to purgatory to work off their sinful deeds, no, they are condemned to what can only be called eternal death.
Some questions do beg to be asked when speaking of hell for it is a very hard thing. The first question is, “why for eternity?” Those condemned to hell will never want the other option. Those in hell are not realizing their error and repenting, no, there is nothing good in hell, not consideration or remorse and repentance. Their pain and agony for their sins does not lead to genuine repentance but to a greater and ongoing hardening. Those is hell do not long for God but hate Him even more, even in seeing His perfect justice and righteousness, even in now seeing the truth and knowing their error, they are not broken in a genuine repentance but only aggravated in their sin. We don’t think this of people because as was said above, we just don’t think that we are quite that wicked. But we are. Any good we see in man is only by God’s grace and mercy, yet the wickedness of man takes that grace and mercy and is unthankful and denies the very grace that made any good possible.
The second question is, “what makes hell, hell?” Now, my answer to this is not a dividing point but something that I do hold as a conviction, though surely disagreement is open. Hell is hell because God is there. It is His very presence in the lives of the wicked and damned that makes hell so hellish. God is everywhere, there is no where that He is not, hell is not the exception. God is omnipresent. Hell without God would almost be giving the unrepentant exactly what they wanted, God’s absence. We struggle because of the cartoons picturing Satan with a red tail and pitch fork poking people. This is not the case. Satan does not rule hell, he is as much a prisoner there as are those who deny their God (Rev 20:10). Hell is a real place created by God, ruled by God and for God’s glory (Col 1:15-16). This is hard for us and we wonder how it is glorifying to God. We do not understand (nor would I expect any to understand) nor see but we will. Hell magnify’s God’s perfect righteous judgment against sin, hell glorifies God wrath and God’s holiness, and hell glorifies God’s justice. Perhaps also hell glorifies God’s mercy and grace, for by His amazing grace and rich mercy He has secured a way for escape. Surely those in heaven are aware of hell and it only tends to their more glorying in God’s love, grace and mercy and kindness given them in Jesus Christ. Hell is real. Wrestle with this. Hell is avoidable. Receive this. Jesus paid for sin on the cross, and by faith we receive His sacrifice on our behalf. Believe and be saved from the wrath to come.
In the light of the eternal that is rushing upon us all at every moment it certainly does put the immediate questions of job and spouse and location into perspective. Faith is the first and essential to knowing and doing God’s will today. Even in the revealed will of God, things like prayer, bible study, evangelism, mission, tithing, brotherly love and all the rest of God’s precepts for man are only acceptable in faith. Paul wrote that he lives by faith in the Son of God, who loved him and gave Himself for him (Gal 2:20) and we are told the same thing, that we must live by faith to be just before God (Rom 1:17), to be accepted and to make our lives acceptable we must live by faith (Gal 3:1-13). Prayer is acceptable to God by faith. Bible study by faith. Tithing and the rest; faith makes them all acceptable to God. The Pharisees practiced all these even in greater measure and obedience then we, yet they were wicked and full of evil, being void of faith, trusting only in themselves. Do not be a Pharisee but with the absence of faith you can not be but a Pharisee, one that trusts in self and not Christ and thinks that they have something to offer God (Matt 23:1-39).
Faith works itself out in our lives through faithfulness. Sin permeates everything through our sinfulness, in the same way faith must permeate everything through faithfulness. Faithfulness is the outworking of faith. The gospel calls us to Christ not once in a lifetime but to a lifetime of Christ. This I call faithfulness. It is the ongoing work of us pursuing Christ by faith and repentance. We live by faith, not by sight, not by our understanding, but by a reliance upon God in the gospel as revealed in His word, the bible.
What does it mean to live by faith? I think that we tend to define living by faith to narrowly, thinking that this is referring only to the immediate transition from death to life, the one single act of being born again. Faith is not the means of new birth only. Faith is not the one time act by which we are made righteous and just before God, but faith is the ongoing continual posture of a true Christian. It is by faith that we live every moment of every day and to the extent that we don’t live by faith every moment of everyday, is the extent that repentance will be in our life. Which means that repentance is the other posture of a true Christian. In fact, if we understand faith and repentance as the bible teaches you cannot have one without the other. So when you read “faith,” hear also repent.
We live by faith by trusting, first: Christ and His work on the cross as the means by which we are accepted and made right with God, changing our relationship from that of enemy to that of son and heir, from one being under the curse to one being under the promise and from one treasuring up God’s wrath to one treasuring up God’s blessing and goodness. First, we trust Christ, and continually trust Christ for a lifetime. Secondly, we trust all that Christ reveals of Himself in His word. We trust that He is good and kind and righteous and sovereign. We trust that He loves us and is for us, that everything really is under His hand for His glory and our good, the two being inseparable (what a glorious truth that is). We trust that He is all that He says He and that He will do all that He says He will do, here lies true joy, contentment, rest and hope. By those two things, trust in who Christ is and what Christ has done we are equipped to answer and decide every dilemma with confidence.
“What job should I take,” is never a question that we see asked in the bible. Rather what we see is that Christ promises us that if we trust Him and seek Him in faith, that He will guide our every step (Prov 3:5,6). We are to submit our plans to him (James 4:13-15) and then act in faith. God has told you that He will direct your steps, that He is for you, that He is sovereign, that He loves you enough to have died for you, and that now, even if you err, He will work it for good. Does God have a specific will for you, who you should marry, where you should go to school or work, if you should move; yes. Does He reveal it to you? Maybe. Maybe not. If you are living by faith, walking by faith, you are ready to make the decision. “But what if I mess up and go to the wrong place?” God is much bigger then your mistakes. You will not find a person in the bible other then Jesus that lived perfectly in accordance with God’s will. The Hebrews 11, “hall of fame,” is riddled with those that made tremendous mistakes in judgment and committed atrocious sins, yet, by faith, God was well pleased with them, enough so that He has set them before you as an example to follow.
What this so often comes down to is that we want to know God’s will because we don’t want a “hard” life and we think that if we mess up God will give us terrible consequences and chastise us for a lifetime. How perverse and askew this view of God is. Thinking of God like this is void of the gospel.
First, God promises what many would consider a “hard” life not the opposite. God does not promise long life, healthy life, financially prosperous life, not that He never gives those things, He does, but His word speaks of the “hard” things much more. For, “all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution,” and “because you are not of the world, therefore the world hates you.” If we love money we cannot love Jesus. If we seek to save our lives we will lose our lives. The gospel promises life to those who die to self. The call of the gospel is not to a life of ease and comfort and riches but to one of only continual death, “for Your sake we are killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.” “Yet,” oh what a glorious “yet” that it is, “yet, in all these things we are more then conquerors through Him who loved us!” God promises the “good” life, His life. Look at the life of Christ and see the “good” life that will be yours by faith (John 15:18).
Secondly, this thinking of God is wrong because we still think of difficulty and suffering as being bad in and of themselves, that somehow only the wicked should struggle and only the wicked should have trial. But as we looked at in a previous post, this thinking is so wrong, so unbiblical. It was through suffering that Christ was perfected, surely what is good for Jesus is good for us (Heb 2:10). But we are not alone in this struggle with suffering. Psalm 73 records a mans bewilderment at the prosperity of the wicked and the continual grief of the righteous, till he saw the end of both (73:27,28).
Third this view of God is wrong because it is in denial of the gospel. This view of God does not accept that God is a Father towards us, always for our good, it does not believe that what Christ ascribes to His atonement is true. That somewhere in God He is still against us, opposed to us, that there is still wrath stored up. Yet, the gospel promises us that God is for us (Rom 8:31), that there is no condemnation left for those in Christ (Rom 8:1), that if while we were enemies He gave His life for us, how much more now that we are His children (Rom 5:10, 8:32), that nothing can stop His love (Rom 8:35). If we believe the gospel we are freed to live for God with no fear of wrath or condemnation. We need not fear ourselves as though we could thwart God, His grace is far greater than our sin (Rom 5:20). The gospel frees us to peace with God, in every situation. We can make mistakes for sure, there are good and bad decisions, but we must ascribe to God more power then we ascribe to our choices, even our mistakes. It is God that is sovereign, not our choices.
Lastly, the great problem in this view of God is that it ignores His sovereignty. This would fit under all three of the three above mistakes but it deserves its own spot. We cannot forget or undervalue the sovereignty of God. He can bring life from death, create everything from nothing. All of creation is at His use and, even more, for His use. Nothing is off limits from God, He is supernatural and above the natural in everyway. You see this in that water is only a substance for His bidding. He can make water stand on end. He can turn it to blood or to wine. He can make it rain or send a drought. He can calm waves or make water hard enough to stand upon. Let us look beyond what is seen to Him that is invisible and all powerful. Not to seem mystical or fantastical but nothing is just the way it is. God can cause the sun to stand still, to hide, to go back. Nature is at the beckon of God, so is man. There is nothing that God cannot do, and though we know not what God will do, we know that He is sovereign and for us. He has already overcome death and the grave. Do not fear but hope in your sovereign God.
Decisions are hard to make but they need not be. Decisions are sanctified by faith. Decisions fall under all the gospel promises, they are redeemed. We need fear no action of man, not even our own, if we will fear God in faith.
Now, to close this, yes, we need to pray about decisions, yes, we need to regard all that God’s word says about the choices before us, He has given precepts that we must follow and obey, but in the final analysis we must have faith and live by that faith. Faith is what is pleasing to God and so, even if you are attempting to do what is God’s will but doing it void of faith, it is in vain, and if you are attempting to do God’s will with faith there is nothing that you do that is in vain (I Cor 15:58). We are prone to stand still waiting for neon signs and writing on the wall, seldom is this an act of faith, usually it is an act of fear and unbelief, the gospel frees us to go and do, in faith.
I am hoping that I have not over simplified this. We want direct answer from God to all our questions not because we are really wanting to do right before Him but because we are afraid to trust Him beyond what we see. What we think of as faith, our desire for every answer in writing, is actually fear and unbelief. Faith trusts God even when, especially when it does not see Him, for hope that is seen is not hope (Rom 8:24). What made the faith of Abraham so wonderful was that it was so void of earthly hope, he hoped against hope and in hope believed (Rom 4:18). Faith should not be stagnant. God will (and you know this by faith) direct your steps. God will (and you know this by faith) work all things for your good. God will (and you know this by faith) never forsake you nor leave you. God will (and you know this by faith) always be for you in Christ Jesus. Now live by that faith.
Next we will consider the gospel as worldview, seeing the whole of creation and time and history through the lens of the gospel. That will be the planned end for this series (though it might take two posts) unless there is something else that you think I should clarify or extend or add. Thanks for reading.
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
God"s Will: question
I already know the next two posts, first we will deal with faithfulness: the outworking of faith and then Gospel as worldview, but I wanted to open up some time to answer questions or at least hear any question that you may have. So, let me just welcome and invite your questions and comments, and if I can attempt to answer them I will. Hope that so far you have enjoyed reading, thanks for your time.
God's Will: Faith (part 2)
God’s Will: Faith (part 2)
God’s will is faith in Jesus Christ as revealed in the gospel. This is certain and undeniable. But what is faith? I’ll start with what its not.
Faith is not only knowledge. Faith cannot be void of knowledge but merely knowing is not faith. Knowing what? The content of the gospel. The gospel proclaims and announces the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ as the only way to reconciliation with God. The gospel commands repentance and faith in its hearers, repentance from sin and faith in Christ. The gospel makes known the riches of God’s grace and mercy and reveals His wrath and hatred against sin. The gospel is the power of God unto salvation. Knowledge of these things do not save. Many have a knowledge of the historic events surrounding the life and death of Jesus, even the resurrection but this does not save for this is not faith. Everyone living at the time of Jesus, even His greatest enemies, testified to His life and death. History makes plain the historic reality of Jesus. Knowledge about Jesus cannot save for anybody at anytime can have knowledge about Jesus.
Faith is not only knowledge but it cannot be void of knowledge. Faith must have an object, and the object of saving faith is Jesus, you cannot have saving faith if you do not know the gospel. What of the gospel must be known to be saved? How much content must one have? I am convinced, though I would not argue this point, that any knowledge of the gospel, no matter how small, is enough to save. We do not need to have a theological degree from a seminary to be saved nor do we need to read countless authors or go to seminars and lectures. Faith trusts Jesus not knowledge. Ultimately faith is a gift of God not an intellectual consent from man. Faith is not merely knowledge nor is knowledge alone faith.
Faith is not only believing that what the gospel proclaims about the death of Christ is true. This is essential to faith but it is not faith. This differs from knowledge. Knowledge recognizes the historic reality of Jesus, this goes a step further and believes the testimony of the gospel. This is a tricky place and I hope I make sense of it. The knowledge I wrote about above is a knowledge of a historic reality, now I am talking about what cannot be measured historically. Now I am speaking about the truth revealed from the gospel, that what took place in the historic objective past accomplishes all that God has testified concerning that event. This is close to saving faith, even essential to saving faith, but still not saving faith. This speaks in this way, “I know that what Jesus did is enough to save me from my sin, I believe that what Jesus did is the only way to heaven.” This is not saving faith.
Faith is not only knowledge of historic fact nor assent to what the gospel proclaims about salvation. Saving faith goes still further for it not only believes the historic facts and not only assents to salvation in Christ but it then looks to Christ for that salvation. Example: If I put a chair in front of you, you could know that it is a chair (this would be knowledge), you could believe my testimony that the chair can support you (this is assent), but you are still not in the chair (this is looking to Christ). Faith has knowledge, assent and then trust.
Continuing with the chair: faith rests in the chair (Jesus). Faith is primarily a trusting and receiving. It is more then knowledge and more then assenting to propositions. Saving faith rests in its object, it sits in the chair. Jesus, however, is far more complex than a chair. For we turn to chairs for comfort and rest and not a lot else. But we do not turn to Jesus only for comfort and rest, if these are all that we look to Jesus to provide we will not be in Jesus; He will surely provide these things but Jesus is not only about our rest and comfort. Jesus is about our salvation (and all that it entails: sanctification, glorification, etc). When we look to Jesus with a saving faith we look for far more then comfort, we look to escape the wrath to come, the wrath that is treasuring up against our sin. We look for forgiveness and reconciliation. If Jesus is a chair it is a chair surrounded by fire and imminent danger. This is a chair that will cost you everything to sit in. This chair is small and confined, even difficult to sit in. Yet, the fire and danger all around us strongly urge and even comfort us in this chair.
Faith sees. Faith is amazing for it sees what others do not see. Faith believes God and therefore understands what is really happening. Faith knows that God is true and His word is true and therefore rests in Him as the only hope. Faith sees sin as sin. Faith sees God as God. Faith knows that apart from Jesus it is condemned. Faith looks at the current circumstance and says, “I believe a Day of fire and judgment is coming. I believe I am an evil and fallen sinner. I believe that nothing I can ever do will cover my sin. I believe that for all my sins, even one sin, I am deserving of wrath. I believe I am guilty before a holy God. What shall I do? Nothing. I will rest in Jesus’ work on my behalf. I will not try harder or work more, no, I will trust Jesus to save me.” Faith receives salvation. Faith closes with Christ. It does not rest in knowledge or feelings, but in Jesus. Jesus has promised to save those who believe, if you believe you will be saved.
The great danger is that we rest in our knowledge of the gospel or even our agreement with the gospel, but have we trusted the gospel to save us? Do we now rest in Christ’s work or do we still look for other ways to please God. Are we seeking merit with God or do we return to Jesus at every doubt and question and worry? Faith has a certain certainty to it. That does not mean that saving faith is perfect faith but merely a believing faith. “I believe I am saved for Jesus tells me that if I believe in Him I will be saved therefore I am saved because I believe.”
Let me distinguish now or even split a fine hair. We are saved by grace through faith, faith is not what saves, but it is Jesus that saves through faith. If we get that backwards we end up looking to our faith. Faith is only as good as its object in which its place. When doubt arises, do not look at your faith, but at Jesus. Is He sufficient? Is He able? Is He true? Not you! There is great danger in looking at your faith as the cause of salvation, it’s not, Jesus saves through faith. Faith merely receives what He has done, faith does not do anything to cause salvation. Jesus is the one to be looked to, for it is His life and death in your place that saves you. We have undervalued the work of the cross and look at it as merely a potential for salvation as if Jesus almost did enough but now it is up to you. This view of Jesus’ cross makes faith into the one thing that we need to treasure more then Jesus, it makes faith the work that finalizes salvation. It is not. His blood shed for your sins was enough to save you, He has applied His finished work on your behalf through the gift of faith.
Faith is a gift, as much a gift as was the sacrifice of Jesus on your behalf. God completed salvation on the cross, by faith we come to rest in what He has done for us, but we do not add to it. This is easy to examine in your life. Is your greatest strength your faith or the truth of the cross? What calms your soul? Looking at your faith or at the finished work of Jesus on your behalf? Ephesians 2 tells us that salvation is by grace through faith and that, (faith,) not of yourselves.
So much of the problem consists in the fact that our understanding of the work of Jesus is weak. We look at the cross not as a finalized transaction but as a pending charge. We have weakened the object of our faith. When Jesus cried out, “it is finished,” we wonder if it really was. We are not sure of what was really accomplished on that day. I cannot begin to set before you every scripture that tells of what was accomplished but I will a few, the ones that have held the most sway in my life, (because I am partial.)
Matthew 1:18-25, the story of the birth of Christ. An angel is speaking to Joseph about Mary’s pregnancy and telling him what he must do, including, what he must name the baby, verse 21, “And she will conceive and bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.” Before the sacrifice of Christ on the cross it is prophesied what will take place: He will save His people from their sins. Note, it does not say try to save, make salvation possible, open a way for people to save themselves, but, that He will save His people. It is a definite thing that will happen, He will save His people from their sins. Your choices are to believe that He saves His people from their sins or that He failed. Those are the two options.
Hebrews 9:12, “He (Jesus) entered once and for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves, but by means of His own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption.”
Colossians 1:13-14, “He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in Whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins, by His blood.” Note, it is past tense, “He has delivered, has transferred,” and how was this done, how were our sins forgiven, but by His blood. You will not find scripture speaking of the lack of Christ’s sacrifice or the need for more or the nearly complete salvation that is waiting on us.
The gospel is the proclamation of what is true in regards to Jesus, it announces what has taken place and then commands us to repent and believe, not to make it true but to receive its truth. When we degrade the work of Jesus, we automatically exalt the work of man. If what Jesus did was not enough, which it was, then we are left with something to boast of. No matter how small a role you may a sign faith in salvation you exalt it far beyond what it is.
How do I picture the difference in these two gospels? What does the gospel proclaiming faith as the agent of salvation look like compared to the gospel proclaiming Christ’s death as the agent of salvation? I think the best picture is this. The false gospel says we are drowning in sin, but we are thrown a life preserver in Jesus and when we take hold of that preserver by faith we are saved. The true gospel says we are face down and dead in the flood of our sins, we have been floating in this filth so long we are dead and bloated, but Jesus swims out to us in all our filth on the cross and drags our dead bodies back to land where He supernaturally resuscitates us with His very life. He came to where we were to save us, we did not go to where He is. The depths of what happens when we degrade the death of Christ is amazing, suddenly sin is not quite so sinful, man not so wicked, Jesus not so glorious, grace is easy and mercy is passive and the love of God does nothing but sit and wait on us. Away with this nonsense. Jesus accomplished on the cross all that the word ascribes to Him.
Does your faith save you? No more then a dead man is saved by “accepting” the charge from the defibrillator paddle. Yes, we are saved by faith but that faith merely receives what Christ has done, it does not complete it nor add to it. The easiest way and most helpful way for me to understand this is like this, “Jesus saves, through faith.” We are saved by Jesus through faith. Jesus remains the object and focus, faith is merely the eyes to see what He has done. Faith looks up on the shore of God, into the face of Jesus, coughs the last of the filth from its lungs, and knows that it was rescued, saved, apart from it doing anything. Faith rests looking up into the face of the One Whom saved you.
(I am not denying that faith is necessary to salvation, scripture makes it clear and certain, I am merely trying to keep faith in its place. We as wicked man look to have some place, some boast in our salvation. Let faith be what it is, childlike trust and receiving. Faith, like the whole of salvation, is a gift from God. Salvation is by grace through faith.)
God’s will is faith in Jesus Christ as revealed in the gospel. This is certain and undeniable. But what is faith? I’ll start with what its not.
Faith is not only knowledge. Faith cannot be void of knowledge but merely knowing is not faith. Knowing what? The content of the gospel. The gospel proclaims and announces the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ as the only way to reconciliation with God. The gospel commands repentance and faith in its hearers, repentance from sin and faith in Christ. The gospel makes known the riches of God’s grace and mercy and reveals His wrath and hatred against sin. The gospel is the power of God unto salvation. Knowledge of these things do not save. Many have a knowledge of the historic events surrounding the life and death of Jesus, even the resurrection but this does not save for this is not faith. Everyone living at the time of Jesus, even His greatest enemies, testified to His life and death. History makes plain the historic reality of Jesus. Knowledge about Jesus cannot save for anybody at anytime can have knowledge about Jesus.
Faith is not only knowledge but it cannot be void of knowledge. Faith must have an object, and the object of saving faith is Jesus, you cannot have saving faith if you do not know the gospel. What of the gospel must be known to be saved? How much content must one have? I am convinced, though I would not argue this point, that any knowledge of the gospel, no matter how small, is enough to save. We do not need to have a theological degree from a seminary to be saved nor do we need to read countless authors or go to seminars and lectures. Faith trusts Jesus not knowledge. Ultimately faith is a gift of God not an intellectual consent from man. Faith is not merely knowledge nor is knowledge alone faith.
Faith is not only believing that what the gospel proclaims about the death of Christ is true. This is essential to faith but it is not faith. This differs from knowledge. Knowledge recognizes the historic reality of Jesus, this goes a step further and believes the testimony of the gospel. This is a tricky place and I hope I make sense of it. The knowledge I wrote about above is a knowledge of a historic reality, now I am talking about what cannot be measured historically. Now I am speaking about the truth revealed from the gospel, that what took place in the historic objective past accomplishes all that God has testified concerning that event. This is close to saving faith, even essential to saving faith, but still not saving faith. This speaks in this way, “I know that what Jesus did is enough to save me from my sin, I believe that what Jesus did is the only way to heaven.” This is not saving faith.
Faith is not only knowledge of historic fact nor assent to what the gospel proclaims about salvation. Saving faith goes still further for it not only believes the historic facts and not only assents to salvation in Christ but it then looks to Christ for that salvation. Example: If I put a chair in front of you, you could know that it is a chair (this would be knowledge), you could believe my testimony that the chair can support you (this is assent), but you are still not in the chair (this is looking to Christ). Faith has knowledge, assent and then trust.
Continuing with the chair: faith rests in the chair (Jesus). Faith is primarily a trusting and receiving. It is more then knowledge and more then assenting to propositions. Saving faith rests in its object, it sits in the chair. Jesus, however, is far more complex than a chair. For we turn to chairs for comfort and rest and not a lot else. But we do not turn to Jesus only for comfort and rest, if these are all that we look to Jesus to provide we will not be in Jesus; He will surely provide these things but Jesus is not only about our rest and comfort. Jesus is about our salvation (and all that it entails: sanctification, glorification, etc). When we look to Jesus with a saving faith we look for far more then comfort, we look to escape the wrath to come, the wrath that is treasuring up against our sin. We look for forgiveness and reconciliation. If Jesus is a chair it is a chair surrounded by fire and imminent danger. This is a chair that will cost you everything to sit in. This chair is small and confined, even difficult to sit in. Yet, the fire and danger all around us strongly urge and even comfort us in this chair.
Faith sees. Faith is amazing for it sees what others do not see. Faith believes God and therefore understands what is really happening. Faith knows that God is true and His word is true and therefore rests in Him as the only hope. Faith sees sin as sin. Faith sees God as God. Faith knows that apart from Jesus it is condemned. Faith looks at the current circumstance and says, “I believe a Day of fire and judgment is coming. I believe I am an evil and fallen sinner. I believe that nothing I can ever do will cover my sin. I believe that for all my sins, even one sin, I am deserving of wrath. I believe I am guilty before a holy God. What shall I do? Nothing. I will rest in Jesus’ work on my behalf. I will not try harder or work more, no, I will trust Jesus to save me.” Faith receives salvation. Faith closes with Christ. It does not rest in knowledge or feelings, but in Jesus. Jesus has promised to save those who believe, if you believe you will be saved.
The great danger is that we rest in our knowledge of the gospel or even our agreement with the gospel, but have we trusted the gospel to save us? Do we now rest in Christ’s work or do we still look for other ways to please God. Are we seeking merit with God or do we return to Jesus at every doubt and question and worry? Faith has a certain certainty to it. That does not mean that saving faith is perfect faith but merely a believing faith. “I believe I am saved for Jesus tells me that if I believe in Him I will be saved therefore I am saved because I believe.”
Let me distinguish now or even split a fine hair. We are saved by grace through faith, faith is not what saves, but it is Jesus that saves through faith. If we get that backwards we end up looking to our faith. Faith is only as good as its object in which its place. When doubt arises, do not look at your faith, but at Jesus. Is He sufficient? Is He able? Is He true? Not you! There is great danger in looking at your faith as the cause of salvation, it’s not, Jesus saves through faith. Faith merely receives what He has done, faith does not do anything to cause salvation. Jesus is the one to be looked to, for it is His life and death in your place that saves you. We have undervalued the work of the cross and look at it as merely a potential for salvation as if Jesus almost did enough but now it is up to you. This view of Jesus’ cross makes faith into the one thing that we need to treasure more then Jesus, it makes faith the work that finalizes salvation. It is not. His blood shed for your sins was enough to save you, He has applied His finished work on your behalf through the gift of faith.
Faith is a gift, as much a gift as was the sacrifice of Jesus on your behalf. God completed salvation on the cross, by faith we come to rest in what He has done for us, but we do not add to it. This is easy to examine in your life. Is your greatest strength your faith or the truth of the cross? What calms your soul? Looking at your faith or at the finished work of Jesus on your behalf? Ephesians 2 tells us that salvation is by grace through faith and that, (faith,) not of yourselves.
So much of the problem consists in the fact that our understanding of the work of Jesus is weak. We look at the cross not as a finalized transaction but as a pending charge. We have weakened the object of our faith. When Jesus cried out, “it is finished,” we wonder if it really was. We are not sure of what was really accomplished on that day. I cannot begin to set before you every scripture that tells of what was accomplished but I will a few, the ones that have held the most sway in my life, (because I am partial.)
Matthew 1:18-25, the story of the birth of Christ. An angel is speaking to Joseph about Mary’s pregnancy and telling him what he must do, including, what he must name the baby, verse 21, “And she will conceive and bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.” Before the sacrifice of Christ on the cross it is prophesied what will take place: He will save His people from their sins. Note, it does not say try to save, make salvation possible, open a way for people to save themselves, but, that He will save His people. It is a definite thing that will happen, He will save His people from their sins. Your choices are to believe that He saves His people from their sins or that He failed. Those are the two options.
Hebrews 9:12, “He (Jesus) entered once and for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves, but by means of His own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption.”
Colossians 1:13-14, “He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in Whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins, by His blood.” Note, it is past tense, “He has delivered, has transferred,” and how was this done, how were our sins forgiven, but by His blood. You will not find scripture speaking of the lack of Christ’s sacrifice or the need for more or the nearly complete salvation that is waiting on us.
The gospel is the proclamation of what is true in regards to Jesus, it announces what has taken place and then commands us to repent and believe, not to make it true but to receive its truth. When we degrade the work of Jesus, we automatically exalt the work of man. If what Jesus did was not enough, which it was, then we are left with something to boast of. No matter how small a role you may a sign faith in salvation you exalt it far beyond what it is.
How do I picture the difference in these two gospels? What does the gospel proclaiming faith as the agent of salvation look like compared to the gospel proclaiming Christ’s death as the agent of salvation? I think the best picture is this. The false gospel says we are drowning in sin, but we are thrown a life preserver in Jesus and when we take hold of that preserver by faith we are saved. The true gospel says we are face down and dead in the flood of our sins, we have been floating in this filth so long we are dead and bloated, but Jesus swims out to us in all our filth on the cross and drags our dead bodies back to land where He supernaturally resuscitates us with His very life. He came to where we were to save us, we did not go to where He is. The depths of what happens when we degrade the death of Christ is amazing, suddenly sin is not quite so sinful, man not so wicked, Jesus not so glorious, grace is easy and mercy is passive and the love of God does nothing but sit and wait on us. Away with this nonsense. Jesus accomplished on the cross all that the word ascribes to Him.
Does your faith save you? No more then a dead man is saved by “accepting” the charge from the defibrillator paddle. Yes, we are saved by faith but that faith merely receives what Christ has done, it does not complete it nor add to it. The easiest way and most helpful way for me to understand this is like this, “Jesus saves, through faith.” We are saved by Jesus through faith. Jesus remains the object and focus, faith is merely the eyes to see what He has done. Faith looks up on the shore of God, into the face of Jesus, coughs the last of the filth from its lungs, and knows that it was rescued, saved, apart from it doing anything. Faith rests looking up into the face of the One Whom saved you.
(I am not denying that faith is necessary to salvation, scripture makes it clear and certain, I am merely trying to keep faith in its place. We as wicked man look to have some place, some boast in our salvation. Let faith be what it is, childlike trust and receiving. Faith, like the whole of salvation, is a gift from God. Salvation is by grace through faith.)
Monday, July 26, 2010
God's Will: Suffering (Part II)
God’s Will: Suffering (part II)
“It really pisses me off that you would insinuate that God has willed my circumstances. If you had any idea how hard I have it, what I have been through, you would be a lot slower to speak. And if this God of yours wills suffering for His glory, then I don’t agree with that God or think that it is possible for God to be glorified by my life. No loving, kind father would ever put his children through what I have been through. There is no glory in suffering, period!”
Let me tell you a story.
There was a man born into the worst possible scenario. His parents were poor, very poor. They also were very young. There is even “doubt” as to if his father is really his father, some even called him a bastard. His mother was looked upon as a harlot. Truly, their poverty was so great that he was not born in a hospital or under medical care, no, he was born even as a stray cat.
Shortly after his birth his family had to flee. They were in a sense homeless, run out of their town. He grew up in obscurity, in a small town that most had never heard of. He had brothers and sisters, many of which despised him, even ridiculed him. From a young age, he was hated. Trouble licked at his heels from his birth.
He learned a trade and worked with his hands. He was respectful, kind, gentle and wise and he feared God. At a certain time in his life, after learning a trade, he knew the Lord was calling him to ministry. He moved forward, in pursuit of God. Everywhere he went preaching he was antagonized. The government of his time was harshly opposed to him as were the religious leaders of his day, even his own family had put distance between them. He was even called a man of sorrow. Though no one could convict him of sin yet he was despised. He did many good works and taught many great things but it seemed that in spite of his life he only drew criticism.
He formed a small church of mostly outcasts and nobodies, nobody of any dignity or social value ever followed him. He drew large crowds but not to hear him teach as much as to see the spectacle of this man and to see whether they would be impressed with him. Many of those that would join his church would later leave. Even the highest in leadership would eventually abandon him, even being betrayed by one of the original members of his church.
Eventually the religious and political leaders would have him arrested and tried for false crimes. He would be given no legal trial. He was quickly moved from jail to execution in only a matter of days. Once arrested, he was completely alone, literally no one stayed with him, even those closest to him would later deny him.
His life from birth was poor. He was from birth despised. He was alone most of his life, and those that seemed close, weren’t. He left this world the way he came into, under suspicion, doubt and ridicule. He was not understood. His ministry stood alone but never grew, it was not what we would consider a “success” by today’s standard.
He never accumulated wealth. He never married or had children and his life was ended in his early thirties. Truly, his life was a life of suffering, continual unending, suffering. Yet…
Was God glorified in this life, this sad little pathetic life lived out in some no name region, in poverty and persecution, dying the death of a common criminal, not even having a grave to be buried in? Was God glorified in some person born into a “questionable” family? Was God glorified in a life that never “made it?” Was God glorified in a faithful servant dying as a common criminal?
Yes. For by now I hope you see that this was the life of Jesus. The only man that has the title of God’s Only Begotten Son, with Whom God is well pleased, His Beloved Son. His life was only hardship. His pain never new what we would call “victory.” His life was not a life that is envied in circumstance and yet, by that life, God redeemed an innumerable number of people to Himself. By that life and death He purchased to God a people called His Bride. The glory of God shown more brightly in this man then in any man before or since. He was God incarnate, taking flesh upon Himself. Living and dying not as the immortal, incomprehensible God, but as a faithful, humble servant.
Part of the glory of God is that even in His “weakest” and most “foolish” moment He is greater then the strongest man and wiser then the greatest intellect. His glory in the life of Christ is what secured the salvation of man and it is that glory revealed to man that saves man to this day.
Is God glorified in your suffering? Yes. Is it by His design? Yes. Is there hope beyond hope in the life and death of Christ? Yes. Let me tell you something very alarming. God will be glorified in your suffering. God will be glorified in your suffering. Again, God will be glorified in your suffering. The alarming part is that you can partake of that glory or not, but God will be glorified. The amazing part is that you can partake of that glory too. You can be an active participant in that glory or a passive participant but God will have His glory, and you can have it too.
We are not pawns upon a chess board. We are however vessels. We were created as vessels of glory but due to sin we are now vessels of wrath but due to the sacrifice of Jesus, the gospel, we can be vessels of mercy. Those who refuse the gospel will glorify God in His power, longsuffering and wrath; those that receive the work of Christ on their behalf will be vessels of mercy, glorifying God in His mercy, grace and calling. We are God’s. We will glorify God. The offer of the gospel, the command of the gospel, is to believe and be saved, partake of the glory of God, be an active participant and enjoy eternal life even now.
One question of reflection. Why is it that you so despise the idea that God has willed your difficulty and adversity and suffering? Ultimately it is sin. It is sin to reject His will and ways. It is sin to not trust His judgment. It is sin that rejects His wisdom and providence. It is sin that looks at God and despises Him for not being who you want Him to be. It is sin that you think that you could do things better. It is sin. It is sin, not the thoughts themselves. No, it is much deeper then that. The thoughts come from sin, the thoughts flow from your heart, your heart which is full of sin. The thoughts are merely fruits of the sin that dwells much deeper then just your mind. Sin is your nature and so naturally you reject God. Naturally God’s ways are an offense to you.
Oh the glory of repentance, that you would recognize the depth of your sin and see your sin for the wretched evil that it is and turn to God in despair and cry out for forgiveness. Understand that why you question God and doubt God is not an intellectual issue but a heart issue. If not for the sin that is you, you would love God and welcome His will and rejoice at all that He brings to you for then you would know He was good. But sin blinds and hardens and deceives. But the gospel sheds light and wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. Believe the gospel and be saved from your sin and the wrath to come. Believe the gospel and rejoice in the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Be saved, believe.
“It really pisses me off that you would insinuate that God has willed my circumstances. If you had any idea how hard I have it, what I have been through, you would be a lot slower to speak. And if this God of yours wills suffering for His glory, then I don’t agree with that God or think that it is possible for God to be glorified by my life. No loving, kind father would ever put his children through what I have been through. There is no glory in suffering, period!”
Let me tell you a story.
There was a man born into the worst possible scenario. His parents were poor, very poor. They also were very young. There is even “doubt” as to if his father is really his father, some even called him a bastard. His mother was looked upon as a harlot. Truly, their poverty was so great that he was not born in a hospital or under medical care, no, he was born even as a stray cat.
Shortly after his birth his family had to flee. They were in a sense homeless, run out of their town. He grew up in obscurity, in a small town that most had never heard of. He had brothers and sisters, many of which despised him, even ridiculed him. From a young age, he was hated. Trouble licked at his heels from his birth.
He learned a trade and worked with his hands. He was respectful, kind, gentle and wise and he feared God. At a certain time in his life, after learning a trade, he knew the Lord was calling him to ministry. He moved forward, in pursuit of God. Everywhere he went preaching he was antagonized. The government of his time was harshly opposed to him as were the religious leaders of his day, even his own family had put distance between them. He was even called a man of sorrow. Though no one could convict him of sin yet he was despised. He did many good works and taught many great things but it seemed that in spite of his life he only drew criticism.
He formed a small church of mostly outcasts and nobodies, nobody of any dignity or social value ever followed him. He drew large crowds but not to hear him teach as much as to see the spectacle of this man and to see whether they would be impressed with him. Many of those that would join his church would later leave. Even the highest in leadership would eventually abandon him, even being betrayed by one of the original members of his church.
Eventually the religious and political leaders would have him arrested and tried for false crimes. He would be given no legal trial. He was quickly moved from jail to execution in only a matter of days. Once arrested, he was completely alone, literally no one stayed with him, even those closest to him would later deny him.
His life from birth was poor. He was from birth despised. He was alone most of his life, and those that seemed close, weren’t. He left this world the way he came into, under suspicion, doubt and ridicule. He was not understood. His ministry stood alone but never grew, it was not what we would consider a “success” by today’s standard.
He never accumulated wealth. He never married or had children and his life was ended in his early thirties. Truly, his life was a life of suffering, continual unending, suffering. Yet…
Was God glorified in this life, this sad little pathetic life lived out in some no name region, in poverty and persecution, dying the death of a common criminal, not even having a grave to be buried in? Was God glorified in some person born into a “questionable” family? Was God glorified in a life that never “made it?” Was God glorified in a faithful servant dying as a common criminal?
Yes. For by now I hope you see that this was the life of Jesus. The only man that has the title of God’s Only Begotten Son, with Whom God is well pleased, His Beloved Son. His life was only hardship. His pain never new what we would call “victory.” His life was not a life that is envied in circumstance and yet, by that life, God redeemed an innumerable number of people to Himself. By that life and death He purchased to God a people called His Bride. The glory of God shown more brightly in this man then in any man before or since. He was God incarnate, taking flesh upon Himself. Living and dying not as the immortal, incomprehensible God, but as a faithful, humble servant.
Part of the glory of God is that even in His “weakest” and most “foolish” moment He is greater then the strongest man and wiser then the greatest intellect. His glory in the life of Christ is what secured the salvation of man and it is that glory revealed to man that saves man to this day.
Is God glorified in your suffering? Yes. Is it by His design? Yes. Is there hope beyond hope in the life and death of Christ? Yes. Let me tell you something very alarming. God will be glorified in your suffering. God will be glorified in your suffering. Again, God will be glorified in your suffering. The alarming part is that you can partake of that glory or not, but God will be glorified. The amazing part is that you can partake of that glory too. You can be an active participant in that glory or a passive participant but God will have His glory, and you can have it too.
We are not pawns upon a chess board. We are however vessels. We were created as vessels of glory but due to sin we are now vessels of wrath but due to the sacrifice of Jesus, the gospel, we can be vessels of mercy. Those who refuse the gospel will glorify God in His power, longsuffering and wrath; those that receive the work of Christ on their behalf will be vessels of mercy, glorifying God in His mercy, grace and calling. We are God’s. We will glorify God. The offer of the gospel, the command of the gospel, is to believe and be saved, partake of the glory of God, be an active participant and enjoy eternal life even now.
One question of reflection. Why is it that you so despise the idea that God has willed your difficulty and adversity and suffering? Ultimately it is sin. It is sin to reject His will and ways. It is sin to not trust His judgment. It is sin that rejects His wisdom and providence. It is sin that looks at God and despises Him for not being who you want Him to be. It is sin that you think that you could do things better. It is sin. It is sin, not the thoughts themselves. No, it is much deeper then that. The thoughts come from sin, the thoughts flow from your heart, your heart which is full of sin. The thoughts are merely fruits of the sin that dwells much deeper then just your mind. Sin is your nature and so naturally you reject God. Naturally God’s ways are an offense to you.
Oh the glory of repentance, that you would recognize the depth of your sin and see your sin for the wretched evil that it is and turn to God in despair and cry out for forgiveness. Understand that why you question God and doubt God is not an intellectual issue but a heart issue. If not for the sin that is you, you would love God and welcome His will and rejoice at all that He brings to you for then you would know He was good. But sin blinds and hardens and deceives. But the gospel sheds light and wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. Believe the gospel and be saved from your sin and the wrath to come. Believe the gospel and rejoice in the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Be saved, believe.
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
God’s Will: Faith: the Gospel
I have reiterated the absolute need for us to believe God, to trust Him. That God’s will for you is faith, that all your circumstances are to glorify God by faith, even in suffering. I have called you to believe. But what is it exactly that I am calling you to trust? I have said it is the gospel. I have said have faith in God. I have said trust Jesus. I have also said repent and believe, repentance and faith being inseparable, yet two distinct things. I want to just unpack the gospel for you, so that you can believe.
The Gospel is first and foremost news, and not just news but good news. What does that mean? It means that the gospel is an announcement, a proclamation and that what it is announcing and proclaiming is good. What is the news that is announced in the gospel? It is the news that God has sent His Son Jesus Christ as a sacrifice for sins. Why is that good? It is good because our sin separates us from God, creating enmity between us and God, and rightfully bringing God’s wrath upon us. The good news announces that Jesus has done, once and for all, what we could never do, restore us and reconcile us to God. How was this done? Jesus, being God, came in the flesh of man, and lived a perfect life in our place, fulfilling every commandment and all righteousness, in our place. He lived the life we all should have lived but due to sin can never live, and He did it in our place. The perfect for the imperfect, even wicked. He then suffered and died upon a cross for our sin. Why did He have to die for our sin? The wages of sin are death, without the shedding of blood there can be no remission of sins. He shed His blood, died, in our place. The righteousness and justice and wrath that God demanded as a perfect God were satisfied in Jesus’ life and death, in our place. Jesus took the wrath of God that we deserve and suffered and died in our place. The perfect for the imperfect, even wicked. To show that God was satisfied with the offering of Christ’s life and death, He rose Him from the dead, exalting Him forever at the right hand of God. Jesus is alive.
The gospel announces the finished work of Jesus on our behalf, the good news that Jesus has done what we could never do. The gospel announces the good news not as something that we can believe but as the one thing that we must believe in order to be saved, for no other way to salvation has God appointed. To believe the gospel is to believe God, and to reject the gospel is to reject God. God calls us to faith but that faith must be in the good news of Jesus Christ. There is no way to God, or peace and reconciliation with God except by faith in the gospel, this being the way God has appointed to save His people. Faith in the gospel is simply trusting the work of God in Jesus Christ on your behalf, it is believing God. Faith receives the good news as it is, namely true. Faith looks to Jesus and nothing else for right standing before and with God.
When I say that God’s will for your life is faith and that everything you experience is to bring you to faith, you must understand that what I mean is faith in the good news of Jesus Christ as a sacrifice for sin, even your sin. Believe and be saved.
I have reiterated the absolute need for us to believe God, to trust Him. That God’s will for you is faith, that all your circumstances are to glorify God by faith, even in suffering. I have called you to believe. But what is it exactly that I am calling you to trust? I have said it is the gospel. I have said have faith in God. I have said trust Jesus. I have also said repent and believe, repentance and faith being inseparable, yet two distinct things. I want to just unpack the gospel for you, so that you can believe.
The Gospel is first and foremost news, and not just news but good news. What does that mean? It means that the gospel is an announcement, a proclamation and that what it is announcing and proclaiming is good. What is the news that is announced in the gospel? It is the news that God has sent His Son Jesus Christ as a sacrifice for sins. Why is that good? It is good because our sin separates us from God, creating enmity between us and God, and rightfully bringing God’s wrath upon us. The good news announces that Jesus has done, once and for all, what we could never do, restore us and reconcile us to God. How was this done? Jesus, being God, came in the flesh of man, and lived a perfect life in our place, fulfilling every commandment and all righteousness, in our place. He lived the life we all should have lived but due to sin can never live, and He did it in our place. The perfect for the imperfect, even wicked. He then suffered and died upon a cross for our sin. Why did He have to die for our sin? The wages of sin are death, without the shedding of blood there can be no remission of sins. He shed His blood, died, in our place. The righteousness and justice and wrath that God demanded as a perfect God were satisfied in Jesus’ life and death, in our place. Jesus took the wrath of God that we deserve and suffered and died in our place. The perfect for the imperfect, even wicked. To show that God was satisfied with the offering of Christ’s life and death, He rose Him from the dead, exalting Him forever at the right hand of God. Jesus is alive.
The gospel announces the finished work of Jesus on our behalf, the good news that Jesus has done what we could never do. The gospel announces the good news not as something that we can believe but as the one thing that we must believe in order to be saved, for no other way to salvation has God appointed. To believe the gospel is to believe God, and to reject the gospel is to reject God. God calls us to faith but that faith must be in the good news of Jesus Christ. There is no way to God, or peace and reconciliation with God except by faith in the gospel, this being the way God has appointed to save His people. Faith in the gospel is simply trusting the work of God in Jesus Christ on your behalf, it is believing God. Faith receives the good news as it is, namely true. Faith looks to Jesus and nothing else for right standing before and with God.
When I say that God’s will for your life is faith and that everything you experience is to bring you to faith, you must understand that what I mean is faith in the good news of Jesus Christ as a sacrifice for sin, even your sin. Believe and be saved.
Monday, July 19, 2010
God's Will: Suffering
God’s Will: Suffering
Let me just start by saying that I enter into this subject with difficulty and hesitation. Suffering is not something to deal with lightly or flippantly, and while I know a little of personal suffering and difficulty I have yet to wrestle with chronic pain or terminal disease, I have not faced persecution to violence nor have I shed a drop of blood for Christ. I am not writing from an overflow of suffering in my life that has equipped me to handle the subject but I am writing as one who has the word of God. For though I have faced relatively little suffering, suffering does not automatically qualify one to speak of suffering. When speaking of suffering the wisest and best thing to do is to allow the scriptures to speak for themselves, this is the high road but more then that, the true road.
Also, as I write, I will by no means even attempt to cover this subject, for suffering has filled volumes and many of those volumes are not satisfactory. I am not gifted or equipped to tackle the full or even partial depth of this matter of suffering. I will try and stay to the point of suffering and God’s will (which is large enough). What I really feel needs to be addressed is our aversion to suffering, I will also attempt to deal with how God wills suffering rightly and then what our right response in the gospel to suffering should be. So three things; our aversion to suffering, God’s willing of suffering and our gospel response to suffering. I am sure those three will supply ample material for many posts but I will try and keep it to a minimum, after all, this is only a blog.
We will start with God’s willing of suffering for starting with God is better then starting with man, and I think will lead to correcting our aversions and responses, three birds with one stone. As we start, let me just reiterate what I was trying to say, by no means am I the definitive answer nor do I expect everyone to agree fully with me but I do believe that I am being true to the scriptures and where you disagree may it only be because of your knowledge of the scriptures. This is an emotional subject and something beyond our intellect as well but with scripture as our guide we can navigate and gain understanding in this subject. So here we go.
God wills suffering. I don’t know how to pause in writing for reflection but here I ask you to pause; God wills suffering, Selah.
‘God wills suffering,’ is a point that I do not think needs to be defended. The scripture to support such a statement are to numerous to even mention so we will take only one, Isaiah 53. If this one scripture shows God wills suffering then we can know that no other scripture will contradict it, scripture is in harmony with itself, it being God’s revelation.
Isaiah 53 is one of the clearest and most popular chapters prophesying the coming life and death of Christ. And the whole of the chapter needs to be read, and I would encourage you to do so for I will only reference parts, namely verse 10, “Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief…” That is all that we need to consider, why is it that Jesus suffered as He did, “it pleased the Lord to bruise Him, to put Him to grief…” Does the Lord will suffering? Yes. In fact, when Jesus was facing the agony of the cross, when the weight of what was about to come upon Him, all the terror of scourging and crucifixion, nearly crushed Him in the garden, what did He pray, but only for God’s will to be done (Luke 22:42). Acts 2:23; 3:18; 4:28 all emphasize the Lord’s purpose and will in determining what would take place with Jesus. Perhaps the most shocking and decisive would be I Peter 1:18-21, which tells us that before the foundation of the world, before even the fall of man or the need for redemption, Christ was already chosen by God to suffer and die for the redemption of His people, a people yet to exist. Does God will suffering? Even from before the foundation of the world.
I think that our initial response to this, especially those who do not know Him, and for some who do know Him, is indignation. As if something evil and wrong is being ascribed to God, that His character is being marred or that a great barrier to faith is being raised, but I could not disagree more. The greatest offense is not to ascribe to God that which He has revealed but to deny that which God has revealed or even to ascribe to God that which is not true (Rom 1:18-32). We are not to conform God to our fallen image but we are to conform our fallen image to God (Rom 12:1-2).
But behind the initial indignation or even confusion is the need for this to be true. We need God to be sovereign even over suffering, we need it to be by His will for the other option (as if there were one) is far bleaker and more terrifying, that God is not in control, that the universe really is spinning out of control. That God’s promises are mere intentions that He has no real ability to fulfill. Now I shy away from this kind of reasoning because truth is not determined by us or by “other options” for truth is true, there is no other option. The question is not what we want to be true, but will we submit to the truth even if it baffles us and complexes us. Can we only trust God in so far as we understand Him? Then we are doomed, for His infiniteness, eternalness and holiness is more then we will ever grasp.
I shared Exodus 17 in the previous post, hoping that it would set God’s Godhood before us as something that we need to reverence and fear, submit to and honor, trust. God is God, He is far greater, more majestic, more glorious then we can comprehend. Truly, if we would have God only in so far as we can look down upon Him, then we will not have God. “‘For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,’ says the Lord. ‘For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts that your thoughts’ (Is 55:8-9).”
So we see clearly that God willed the suffering of Jesus, even the circumstance of His birth, life, death and resurrection. In fact, if we were to say that God did not will the suffering of Jesus, then the gospel falls apart, for the gospel is the good news that God sent His only begotten Son as a sacrifice for sinners, if He was not sent for this purpose then we would still be in our sin.
“But just because God sometimes has willed suffering does that mean that all suffering is willed by God?” We can admit that in this case it is obvious that God willed the suffering and death of His Christ but does that mean that across the board all suffering is God’s will? This is a harder question but one that we can attempt to answer. We will consider two or three other passages to answer this.
First, lets consider David and Shimei, II Samuel 16:5-14, recounts the story. Again, for brevity sake I will not write the whole of the passage but certainly encourage you to read it. The passage is set in the context of David fleeing from his kingdom after the revolt of his son Absalom. As David escaped, a distant relative of King Saul comes out and curses David, even throwing stones at him, telling David that the cause of his troubles is God’s retribution for displacing Saul as king. Now I admit that the suffering is little is comparison to the suffering of Christ but it is still affliction (II Sam 16:12).
Now what I want you to see is David’s understanding of this “affliction.” Abishai, the son of Zeruiah, is with David and suggests that they kill Shimei for cursing David but David responds with these words, “What have I to do with you, you sons of Zeruiah? So let him curse, because the Lord has said to him, ‘Curse David.’ Who then shall say, ‘Why have you done so?’” Again in verse 11, David reiterates saying, “Let him alone, and let him curse; for so the Lord has ordered him.”
We will return to this passage after we consider two more. Job is the perfect example for us to understand suffering. Job lost everything, his health, his livestock, even his children, and arguably his wife for a time. You need to read the first two chapters of Job to see all that he went through and why, we will consider only his understanding of it. After losing his property and children, Job makes this statement, “The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord. (Job 2:21). Now the interesting thing about this statement is that if you read the full account you see Satan taking away everything, using fire, the Sabeans, and the Chaldeans. Yet, Job, in his understanding of suffering ascribes it to God. Now perhaps we think that Job spoke wrongly but the following verse, 22, reads, “In all this Job did not sin nor charge God with wrong.”
Lastly, consider Joseph and his brother (Gen 37-50). Joseph has been in sold into slavery, thrown into jail, and finally raised to the right hand of Pharaoh. Now certainly, if you read the whole story, you see that it was at the hands of his brothers that he suffered and then at the hands of Potiphar but never does it mention God’s doing it, yet, much like Job, Joseph recognizes the whole as coming from God. Genesis 50:20 records Joseph’s words to his brothers in light of all that has happened, saying, “you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good.”
Now, in light of these three passages, many more being readily available, we see that God is sovereign over all these circumstances, not only there to pick up the pieces, but even willing them. The trouble seems for many to be that somehow they think that this compromises God character or in some way ascribes unrighteousness to Him. I understand this argument. What we need to understand is that God never needs us to defend His honor or make Him more appealing by our reasoning. God is glorified by being God, holy, sovereign, majestic and glorious. Scripture clearly portrays God as completely sovereign in all things; again, all things.
I think that what we need to consider and where we get hung up is our understanding of suffering or better our aversion to suffering. We automatically think that suffering is evil and bad and wrong. And in a sense that is true. There is only suffering because of sin, had man not fallen in Adam, there would not be suffering and in the New Jerusalem, the Heavenly Kingdom, there will not be suffering. Suffering is a reality because sin is a reality. Our problem is that we forget the sovereignty of God even in suffering. Because we only see suffering with our eyes and understanding we hate it with an idolatrous hatred, paying it a homage that we should not. We avoid it all costs and dread that we would ever be caught in it but we will be caught in it. Rather, if our understanding is in line with scripture, suffering suddenly becomes a privilege and a blessing.
Again, consider scripture, “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. (Matt 5:10)” Or Acts 5:41, “So they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His name.” Perhaps James’ words are the strongest, “count it all joy when you fall into various trials…(James 1:2), ” or Paul, “we glory in tribulations (Rom 5:3), or Peter, “even if you should suffer for righteousness sake, you are blessed (I Pet 3:14),” or the author of Hebrews, “For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to make the captain of their salvation (Jesus) perfect through sufferings (Heb 2:10).” Scripture does not mince words. We have an aversion to suffering because we do not understand God’s will in suffering. If we but for a moment understood suffering as scripture explains suffering we would rejoice in it. As I said in the previous post, God does not command futility or vanity, when we are told to rejoice in trials, it is because if we understand scripture then we have every reason to rejoice in suffering. We do not rejoice just to rejoice, but we rejoice because if we understand the gospel (the whole bible) there is nothing we can do but rejoice. The fruit of the gospel naturally born forth in our life will be rejoicing.
Paul tells us that they had the sentence of death in themselves, that they should not trust in themselves but in God who raises the dead (II Cor 1:9-10). Why is this good? Because faith in God is what God desires of you for it is right. Faith recognizes His sufficiency and takes shelter and rest and hope only in Him. Why is this good for us? Because if we understand this world correctly, then we know that we are dependent upon God for everything but we tend to forget this and rebel, suffering brings us back to a dependency upon God. Why is dependency upon God good? Because you were made for Him, to reflect His glory. I do not want to get to man focused here but God is man focused, He invites us back to partake of His glory, to share in His glory, as I said before. Our greatest good is wrapped up in His glory, for this we were made. There is no life apart from God. What we so often think of as life is nothing but death. Jesus tells us that He is the life (John 14:6). What does that mean, it means there is no life apart from Him, only death. It is as we live in light of this truth that we depend upon God, but sin causes us to forget God, suffering reminds us of our need and dependency on God.
Suffering also brings with it great promise and hope. “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. (Rom 8:18).” “For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory ( II Cor 4:17).” The first verse essentially says that those who are now suffering the most understand better than any the glory that awaits us. The greater the suffering here, the greater the expectation there. So many do not long for God and glory because they have created their own heaven here, they have tried to erase any need for God, but they have not succeeded. The second verse goes further still, not only saying that suffering creates a greater longing for glory but actually increases that glory, their expectation will be met. Praise Jesus.
Does this mean that we need to seek suffering so that we can experience more fully the glory of God now and forever after? No. We are not called to seek suffering. We are called to seek the kingdom of God and all His righteousness and to strive to live godly in Christ Jesus (Matt 6:33; II Tim 3:12). God will take care of the rest. What we have to do is follow Jesus even when we see that doing so will bring suffering.
Think of the Apostle Paul, he saw the glory of God but for a moment (Acts 9:1-9 )and then was shown all that he would suffer for his knowledge of this glory (9:15-16) and that small taste of glory was enough pledge and hope to carry him forward even knowing all that awaited him (II Cor 11:23-28 for a short list of those foreknown sufferings). Think, if you but saw the glory of God for a moment, it would sustain you through and even for all kinds of trials. “But,” you say, “I haven’t seen the glory of God shine upon me.” But you have if you have believed upon Christ (II Cor 4:6), He has revealed His most magnificent glory in His Son, look now to Jesus and know His glory, but also know this, “Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed (John 20:29).” Have you seen as did Paul or Thomas, no, probably not, but a greater blessedness awaits those who believe without seeing, for you do know the truth, for God has revealed it to you in His word.
God’s will is faith, right now, where you are, trust Him. His promise to you is glory, His glory. He is sovereign and glorious and He calls you to partake of His gloriousness by faith.
Now, I think two things need to be said to wrap up. First, God’s sovereign will never negates mans responsibility. Never! Again, think of the sufferings of Christ so clearly brought about and willed by God, yet the men that carried out the act are still guilty (Acts 2:23, John 19:11). “And truly the Son of Man goes as it has been determined, but to woe to that man by whom He is betrayed! (Luke 22:22)” God wills suffering in a righteous way that we do not understand but the men by whom that suffering is brought about are not therefore innocent, but guilty. Much like Job, the Sabeans and the Chaldeans stole his livestock and killed his children, they were guilty of doing what they did, but God was sovereign over it. God does not allow things contrary to His will but only according to His will, so even if we want to try and make God more passive in the action, yet, it could only be by His will in accordance with His will or it could not be at all. That is hard. We cannot grasp the fullness of it, but surely, our hope is wrapped up in it. But the main point to remember is that God’s sovereignty does not negate man’s responsibility.
And lastly, we have considered some of God’s purpose in suffering, and surely there are more, but I really only wrote from the perspective of the Christian, the one that has faith in Christ, that trusts in Jesus. What are we to make of suffering in the life of a non-believer? This is much harder and I fear quite long but I will again aim at brevity.
God tells us that all His ways towards man are to draw men to Himself in faith, so that is one purpose in suffering for the non-believer, that they would finally be brought to the end of themselves and to faith in their Creator and Sustainer and Redeemer. But a second purpose is put forth in scripture, and this is only true of non-believers, never believers, and that is suffering is a consequence to their sin, meant to harden them and to increase their condemnation. This is very hard for us to hear, it is very hard to say, but it is true. If your sufferings do not lead you to repentance (for that matter, if all the goodness in your life does not lead you to repentance) then they only tend to a greater condemnation. Romans 2:5, says, “But in accordance with your hardness and your impenitent (unrepentant) heart you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God…” What is a hard and impenitent heart? It is the same as being stiff necked (see previous post): unbelieving. The will of God is for you to turn from your sin and trust Him, have faith in Him, but sin hears this and feels violated, angry, indignant. “What gives God the right to demand this of me?” Everything! He is kind and gracious and patient, giving you opportunity to turn from yourself and sin (repent) and to turn to Him (faith). The wickedness does not rest with God but in man. For it is man that is in rebellion against God not God against man. It is when man is anti-Christ that Christ came and gave His life for man. “For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly…God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life (Rom 5:6-10).”
Suffering in the life of a believer is always brought about by a loving Father for the good of His children, always. Never will a true child of God suffer under God’s condemnation or wrath, never (Rom 8:1). In Christ, all of God’s ways towards His children are for their good and brought about in love (Heb 12:5-11). For the non-believer, until you believe the gospel, you are condemned already and the wrath of God weighs upon you (Rom 1:18-2:16; John 3:18-20). Believe and be saved.
I think for lengths sake, I will stop there. Much more could be said and needs to be said, but hopefully your aversion to suffering is halted and your joy in suffering increased and your confidence in your loving sovereign Father greater.
I am adding an appendix to this, “What is the Gospel?” I am hoping some are now asking that great question of life, “what must I do to be saved?”
Let me just start by saying that I enter into this subject with difficulty and hesitation. Suffering is not something to deal with lightly or flippantly, and while I know a little of personal suffering and difficulty I have yet to wrestle with chronic pain or terminal disease, I have not faced persecution to violence nor have I shed a drop of blood for Christ. I am not writing from an overflow of suffering in my life that has equipped me to handle the subject but I am writing as one who has the word of God. For though I have faced relatively little suffering, suffering does not automatically qualify one to speak of suffering. When speaking of suffering the wisest and best thing to do is to allow the scriptures to speak for themselves, this is the high road but more then that, the true road.
Also, as I write, I will by no means even attempt to cover this subject, for suffering has filled volumes and many of those volumes are not satisfactory. I am not gifted or equipped to tackle the full or even partial depth of this matter of suffering. I will try and stay to the point of suffering and God’s will (which is large enough). What I really feel needs to be addressed is our aversion to suffering, I will also attempt to deal with how God wills suffering rightly and then what our right response in the gospel to suffering should be. So three things; our aversion to suffering, God’s willing of suffering and our gospel response to suffering. I am sure those three will supply ample material for many posts but I will try and keep it to a minimum, after all, this is only a blog.
We will start with God’s willing of suffering for starting with God is better then starting with man, and I think will lead to correcting our aversions and responses, three birds with one stone. As we start, let me just reiterate what I was trying to say, by no means am I the definitive answer nor do I expect everyone to agree fully with me but I do believe that I am being true to the scriptures and where you disagree may it only be because of your knowledge of the scriptures. This is an emotional subject and something beyond our intellect as well but with scripture as our guide we can navigate and gain understanding in this subject. So here we go.
God wills suffering. I don’t know how to pause in writing for reflection but here I ask you to pause; God wills suffering, Selah.
‘God wills suffering,’ is a point that I do not think needs to be defended. The scripture to support such a statement are to numerous to even mention so we will take only one, Isaiah 53. If this one scripture shows God wills suffering then we can know that no other scripture will contradict it, scripture is in harmony with itself, it being God’s revelation.
Isaiah 53 is one of the clearest and most popular chapters prophesying the coming life and death of Christ. And the whole of the chapter needs to be read, and I would encourage you to do so for I will only reference parts, namely verse 10, “Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief…” That is all that we need to consider, why is it that Jesus suffered as He did, “it pleased the Lord to bruise Him, to put Him to grief…” Does the Lord will suffering? Yes. In fact, when Jesus was facing the agony of the cross, when the weight of what was about to come upon Him, all the terror of scourging and crucifixion, nearly crushed Him in the garden, what did He pray, but only for God’s will to be done (Luke 22:42). Acts 2:23; 3:18; 4:28 all emphasize the Lord’s purpose and will in determining what would take place with Jesus. Perhaps the most shocking and decisive would be I Peter 1:18-21, which tells us that before the foundation of the world, before even the fall of man or the need for redemption, Christ was already chosen by God to suffer and die for the redemption of His people, a people yet to exist. Does God will suffering? Even from before the foundation of the world.
I think that our initial response to this, especially those who do not know Him, and for some who do know Him, is indignation. As if something evil and wrong is being ascribed to God, that His character is being marred or that a great barrier to faith is being raised, but I could not disagree more. The greatest offense is not to ascribe to God that which He has revealed but to deny that which God has revealed or even to ascribe to God that which is not true (Rom 1:18-32). We are not to conform God to our fallen image but we are to conform our fallen image to God (Rom 12:1-2).
But behind the initial indignation or even confusion is the need for this to be true. We need God to be sovereign even over suffering, we need it to be by His will for the other option (as if there were one) is far bleaker and more terrifying, that God is not in control, that the universe really is spinning out of control. That God’s promises are mere intentions that He has no real ability to fulfill. Now I shy away from this kind of reasoning because truth is not determined by us or by “other options” for truth is true, there is no other option. The question is not what we want to be true, but will we submit to the truth even if it baffles us and complexes us. Can we only trust God in so far as we understand Him? Then we are doomed, for His infiniteness, eternalness and holiness is more then we will ever grasp.
I shared Exodus 17 in the previous post, hoping that it would set God’s Godhood before us as something that we need to reverence and fear, submit to and honor, trust. God is God, He is far greater, more majestic, more glorious then we can comprehend. Truly, if we would have God only in so far as we can look down upon Him, then we will not have God. “‘For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,’ says the Lord. ‘For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts that your thoughts’ (Is 55:8-9).”
So we see clearly that God willed the suffering of Jesus, even the circumstance of His birth, life, death and resurrection. In fact, if we were to say that God did not will the suffering of Jesus, then the gospel falls apart, for the gospel is the good news that God sent His only begotten Son as a sacrifice for sinners, if He was not sent for this purpose then we would still be in our sin.
“But just because God sometimes has willed suffering does that mean that all suffering is willed by God?” We can admit that in this case it is obvious that God willed the suffering and death of His Christ but does that mean that across the board all suffering is God’s will? This is a harder question but one that we can attempt to answer. We will consider two or three other passages to answer this.
First, lets consider David and Shimei, II Samuel 16:5-14, recounts the story. Again, for brevity sake I will not write the whole of the passage but certainly encourage you to read it. The passage is set in the context of David fleeing from his kingdom after the revolt of his son Absalom. As David escaped, a distant relative of King Saul comes out and curses David, even throwing stones at him, telling David that the cause of his troubles is God’s retribution for displacing Saul as king. Now I admit that the suffering is little is comparison to the suffering of Christ but it is still affliction (II Sam 16:12).
Now what I want you to see is David’s understanding of this “affliction.” Abishai, the son of Zeruiah, is with David and suggests that they kill Shimei for cursing David but David responds with these words, “What have I to do with you, you sons of Zeruiah? So let him curse, because the Lord has said to him, ‘Curse David.’ Who then shall say, ‘Why have you done so?’” Again in verse 11, David reiterates saying, “Let him alone, and let him curse; for so the Lord has ordered him.”
We will return to this passage after we consider two more. Job is the perfect example for us to understand suffering. Job lost everything, his health, his livestock, even his children, and arguably his wife for a time. You need to read the first two chapters of Job to see all that he went through and why, we will consider only his understanding of it. After losing his property and children, Job makes this statement, “The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord. (Job 2:21). Now the interesting thing about this statement is that if you read the full account you see Satan taking away everything, using fire, the Sabeans, and the Chaldeans. Yet, Job, in his understanding of suffering ascribes it to God. Now perhaps we think that Job spoke wrongly but the following verse, 22, reads, “In all this Job did not sin nor charge God with wrong.”
Lastly, consider Joseph and his brother (Gen 37-50). Joseph has been in sold into slavery, thrown into jail, and finally raised to the right hand of Pharaoh. Now certainly, if you read the whole story, you see that it was at the hands of his brothers that he suffered and then at the hands of Potiphar but never does it mention God’s doing it, yet, much like Job, Joseph recognizes the whole as coming from God. Genesis 50:20 records Joseph’s words to his brothers in light of all that has happened, saying, “you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good.”
Now, in light of these three passages, many more being readily available, we see that God is sovereign over all these circumstances, not only there to pick up the pieces, but even willing them. The trouble seems for many to be that somehow they think that this compromises God character or in some way ascribes unrighteousness to Him. I understand this argument. What we need to understand is that God never needs us to defend His honor or make Him more appealing by our reasoning. God is glorified by being God, holy, sovereign, majestic and glorious. Scripture clearly portrays God as completely sovereign in all things; again, all things.
I think that what we need to consider and where we get hung up is our understanding of suffering or better our aversion to suffering. We automatically think that suffering is evil and bad and wrong. And in a sense that is true. There is only suffering because of sin, had man not fallen in Adam, there would not be suffering and in the New Jerusalem, the Heavenly Kingdom, there will not be suffering. Suffering is a reality because sin is a reality. Our problem is that we forget the sovereignty of God even in suffering. Because we only see suffering with our eyes and understanding we hate it with an idolatrous hatred, paying it a homage that we should not. We avoid it all costs and dread that we would ever be caught in it but we will be caught in it. Rather, if our understanding is in line with scripture, suffering suddenly becomes a privilege and a blessing.
Again, consider scripture, “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. (Matt 5:10)” Or Acts 5:41, “So they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His name.” Perhaps James’ words are the strongest, “count it all joy when you fall into various trials…(James 1:2), ” or Paul, “we glory in tribulations (Rom 5:3), or Peter, “even if you should suffer for righteousness sake, you are blessed (I Pet 3:14),” or the author of Hebrews, “For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to make the captain of their salvation (Jesus) perfect through sufferings (Heb 2:10).” Scripture does not mince words. We have an aversion to suffering because we do not understand God’s will in suffering. If we but for a moment understood suffering as scripture explains suffering we would rejoice in it. As I said in the previous post, God does not command futility or vanity, when we are told to rejoice in trials, it is because if we understand scripture then we have every reason to rejoice in suffering. We do not rejoice just to rejoice, but we rejoice because if we understand the gospel (the whole bible) there is nothing we can do but rejoice. The fruit of the gospel naturally born forth in our life will be rejoicing.
Paul tells us that they had the sentence of death in themselves, that they should not trust in themselves but in God who raises the dead (II Cor 1:9-10). Why is this good? Because faith in God is what God desires of you for it is right. Faith recognizes His sufficiency and takes shelter and rest and hope only in Him. Why is this good for us? Because if we understand this world correctly, then we know that we are dependent upon God for everything but we tend to forget this and rebel, suffering brings us back to a dependency upon God. Why is dependency upon God good? Because you were made for Him, to reflect His glory. I do not want to get to man focused here but God is man focused, He invites us back to partake of His glory, to share in His glory, as I said before. Our greatest good is wrapped up in His glory, for this we were made. There is no life apart from God. What we so often think of as life is nothing but death. Jesus tells us that He is the life (John 14:6). What does that mean, it means there is no life apart from Him, only death. It is as we live in light of this truth that we depend upon God, but sin causes us to forget God, suffering reminds us of our need and dependency on God.
Suffering also brings with it great promise and hope. “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. (Rom 8:18).” “For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory ( II Cor 4:17).” The first verse essentially says that those who are now suffering the most understand better than any the glory that awaits us. The greater the suffering here, the greater the expectation there. So many do not long for God and glory because they have created their own heaven here, they have tried to erase any need for God, but they have not succeeded. The second verse goes further still, not only saying that suffering creates a greater longing for glory but actually increases that glory, their expectation will be met. Praise Jesus.
Does this mean that we need to seek suffering so that we can experience more fully the glory of God now and forever after? No. We are not called to seek suffering. We are called to seek the kingdom of God and all His righteousness and to strive to live godly in Christ Jesus (Matt 6:33; II Tim 3:12). God will take care of the rest. What we have to do is follow Jesus even when we see that doing so will bring suffering.
Think of the Apostle Paul, he saw the glory of God but for a moment (Acts 9:1-9 )and then was shown all that he would suffer for his knowledge of this glory (9:15-16) and that small taste of glory was enough pledge and hope to carry him forward even knowing all that awaited him (II Cor 11:23-28 for a short list of those foreknown sufferings). Think, if you but saw the glory of God for a moment, it would sustain you through and even for all kinds of trials. “But,” you say, “I haven’t seen the glory of God shine upon me.” But you have if you have believed upon Christ (II Cor 4:6), He has revealed His most magnificent glory in His Son, look now to Jesus and know His glory, but also know this, “Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed (John 20:29).” Have you seen as did Paul or Thomas, no, probably not, but a greater blessedness awaits those who believe without seeing, for you do know the truth, for God has revealed it to you in His word.
God’s will is faith, right now, where you are, trust Him. His promise to you is glory, His glory. He is sovereign and glorious and He calls you to partake of His gloriousness by faith.
Now, I think two things need to be said to wrap up. First, God’s sovereign will never negates mans responsibility. Never! Again, think of the sufferings of Christ so clearly brought about and willed by God, yet the men that carried out the act are still guilty (Acts 2:23, John 19:11). “And truly the Son of Man goes as it has been determined, but to woe to that man by whom He is betrayed! (Luke 22:22)” God wills suffering in a righteous way that we do not understand but the men by whom that suffering is brought about are not therefore innocent, but guilty. Much like Job, the Sabeans and the Chaldeans stole his livestock and killed his children, they were guilty of doing what they did, but God was sovereign over it. God does not allow things contrary to His will but only according to His will, so even if we want to try and make God more passive in the action, yet, it could only be by His will in accordance with His will or it could not be at all. That is hard. We cannot grasp the fullness of it, but surely, our hope is wrapped up in it. But the main point to remember is that God’s sovereignty does not negate man’s responsibility.
And lastly, we have considered some of God’s purpose in suffering, and surely there are more, but I really only wrote from the perspective of the Christian, the one that has faith in Christ, that trusts in Jesus. What are we to make of suffering in the life of a non-believer? This is much harder and I fear quite long but I will again aim at brevity.
God tells us that all His ways towards man are to draw men to Himself in faith, so that is one purpose in suffering for the non-believer, that they would finally be brought to the end of themselves and to faith in their Creator and Sustainer and Redeemer. But a second purpose is put forth in scripture, and this is only true of non-believers, never believers, and that is suffering is a consequence to their sin, meant to harden them and to increase their condemnation. This is very hard for us to hear, it is very hard to say, but it is true. If your sufferings do not lead you to repentance (for that matter, if all the goodness in your life does not lead you to repentance) then they only tend to a greater condemnation. Romans 2:5, says, “But in accordance with your hardness and your impenitent (unrepentant) heart you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God…” What is a hard and impenitent heart? It is the same as being stiff necked (see previous post): unbelieving. The will of God is for you to turn from your sin and trust Him, have faith in Him, but sin hears this and feels violated, angry, indignant. “What gives God the right to demand this of me?” Everything! He is kind and gracious and patient, giving you opportunity to turn from yourself and sin (repent) and to turn to Him (faith). The wickedness does not rest with God but in man. For it is man that is in rebellion against God not God against man. It is when man is anti-Christ that Christ came and gave His life for man. “For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly…God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life (Rom 5:6-10).”
Suffering in the life of a believer is always brought about by a loving Father for the good of His children, always. Never will a true child of God suffer under God’s condemnation or wrath, never (Rom 8:1). In Christ, all of God’s ways towards His children are for their good and brought about in love (Heb 12:5-11). For the non-believer, until you believe the gospel, you are condemned already and the wrath of God weighs upon you (Rom 1:18-2:16; John 3:18-20). Believe and be saved.
I think for lengths sake, I will stop there. Much more could be said and needs to be said, but hopefully your aversion to suffering is halted and your joy in suffering increased and your confidence in your loving sovereign Father greater.
I am adding an appendix to this, “What is the Gospel?” I am hoping some are now asking that great question of life, “what must I do to be saved?”
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