Tuesday, December 1, 2009

None Righteous, The Existence of Evil, Part 3

Job 34:1-10 Then Elihu answered and said: (2) "Hear my words, you wise men, and give ear to me, you who know; (3) for the ear tests words as the palate tastes food. (4) Let us choose what is right; let us know among ourselves what is good. (5) For Job has said, 'I am in the right, and God has taken away my right; (6) in spite of my right I am counted a liar; my wound is incurable, though I am without transgression.' (7) What man is like Job, who drinks up scoffing like water, (8)who travels in company with evildoers and walks with wicked men? (9) For he has said, 'It profits a man nothing that he should take delight in God.' (10) "Therefore, hear me, you men of understanding: far be it from God that he should do wickedness, and from the Almighty that he should do wrong.

In this series, we confronted the atheist’s accusations of the Almighty as amoral. They sense sin within themselves & desire to try God in order to deliver themselves from judgment. But as typified in the natural man, they judge imbued with unrighteousness themselves; like the Pharisees, this precludes their ability to make the “right judgment” Jesus calls on unbelievers to make concerning Him (John 7:24). Part 1 largely used logic & the obvious demonstrations of evil perpetrated by mankind down through the ages to try to turn the would be indicter away from unhealthy, unrighteous exospection towards wholesome introspection. Jesus’ injunction in Matt. 7:1-5 was directed towards just such a person- the one so preoccupied judging another that he fails in his first duty to fully judge himself. Then we covered the importance that we too, as believers, should be wary, lest we also fall into the abyss of pretentious judgment in the course of dealing with the unbeliever. We too have been unbelieving towards Christ at some point, & in in the interest of the full disclosure & humility that we are pressing the unbeliever towards, should confess (at least to ourselves & God) whatever measure that our faith is currently lacking. Honesty should spur us towards examining whatever extent we have in common with the man that paradoxically stated “I believe; help my unbelief!” (Mark 9:24). Know this- any failure to “love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” & “love your neighbor as yourself” (Matt. 22) is a failure of faith; be assured of that. As Paul says:

Romans 1:16-17 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. (17) For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, "The righteous shall live by faith."

Understand that initially in the epistle, Paul lays down the fundamentals of man’s universal depravity, & Christ’s respondent work towards the justification of the elect. So this statement, in context, is primarily discussing the basic faith in Christ’s justification, but know too that the initial immature faith that gives cause for belief in the confessor’s salvation, that seed of faith which is wholly formed in his heart by the Holy Spirit, is also then further caused to grow, by His Spirit indwelling us in the very midst of our suffering, towards sanctification (1 Cor. 3:7).

But then by the 14th chapter, Paul is done laying the foundational concepts of being justified by that little initial seed of faith, & is in the midst of pressing us onward towards sanctification- the consequence of a mature faith:

Romans 14:22-23 The faith that you have, keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the one who has no reason to pass judgment on himself for what he approves. (23) But whoever has doubts is condemned if he eats, because the eating is not from faith. For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin.

2 Thessalonians 1:3-5 We ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers, as is right, because your faith is growing abundantly, and the love of every one of you for one another is increasing. (4) Therefore we ourselves boast about you in the churches of God for your steadfastness and faith in all your persecutions and in the afflictions that you are enduring. (5) This is evidence of the righteous judgment of God, that you may be considered worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are also suffering.

Paul opens his 2nd Thessalonian epistle the same way he opened his 1st- with recognition of the Thessalonians’ mature faith that is evidenced by their measure of sanctification. Their increasing love is counted as a result of their growing faith. So the cause of both justification & sanctification are found to be grounded in faith. But this faith does not grow in a spiritual vacuum; it comes at the cost of suffering. Clearly intertwined amongst the opening benedictions of both epistles is evidence of suffering; we see there the paradoxical convergence of pain & prosperity.

So the Thessalonians were commended for treasuring the sweet aroma & beauty of the rose of faithfulness to Christ enough to eagerly endure the attendant entangling thorns of suffering. Job likewise was faithful enough for a time, but as introspection found nothing, these thoughts of himself as blameless turned to an exospection of God’s ultimate goodness in allowing his trial. At first, his faith was such that he knew that God was omnipotent over the sudden downturn of events in his life & believed in God’s righteous purpose despite not understanding why he was suffering. But the additional pressure of defending himself against his three friends’ unrelenting & unevidenced accusations squeezed his sin to the surface. Inordinate pride in his measure of “blamelessness” caused him to become indignant with the suffering & fall into the abyss of self-righteousness. Instead of humbly walking in the knowledge that, regardless of whatever measure of sanctification his faith had led him towards, in the end God alone is righteous, his faith revealed itself as stunted by haughty pride when it buckled under the strain of suffering. Ironic, for his growth in sanctification had caused pride in himself & therein to lose sight of the very essence of his prosperous growth- God’s unjustified justification of him. David states & Paul reiterates “All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one”, so if Job was justified in God’s sight it was not due to inherent goodness. He was no different than us- called by God to accept a justification that comes “by grace… through faith… (that is) the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9; also Rom. 4, Hebrews 11 for the concept). But Job did boast in his own righteousness, indignantly accusing God of wrongdoing in allowing his undue suffering. In the course of suffering, we should pray & examine ourselves to discover any evident evil in our life, but the lesson of Job is that sometimes no direct cause will be found. At such times, a faith that is based on the inherent goodness of God, being part & parcel of a mature faith, will still not shrink back from praising Him. Job found no just cause for the evil that God had allowed to overtake his life, so he consequently attributed the injustice of undeserved punishment to God’s nature. His faith was rightly formed upon an omnipotent & omniscient God, but he lacked faith in God’s omnirighteousness, the concept that all that God does is good, all of the time. More on this in part 4.

Ironically, his friends were the overtly guilty ones, as they brought continuing baseless accusations against Job’s general integrity.

The book of Job has many things to teach us, but understand this lesson foremost- no matter the measure of sweet smelling sanctification we attain to, we should never forget our humble beginnings as a rotting, rancid corpse justified & raised into newness of life only by the unwarranted grace of God (lest we begin to stink again).

Saturday, October 3, 2009

The Existence of Evil- War & Peace

About a year ago, I wrote an article entitled “The Existence of Evil” wherein I confronted the atheist’s intent to deny the existence of God, or at a least an actively “good” God, for the cause of evil’s enduring existence. I essentially picked up on the tack of Job 40:7 & 8, whereupon God recriminates the self-purportedly good & wise would-be indictors of God (Job, Eliphaz, Bildad, & Zophar) by appearing in a whirlwind & questioning their knowledge & abilities relative to His; God proceeded to denigrate their arrogance for supposing to understand the cause for which this suffering has happened upon His servant. None of these earthbound creatures held the awesome spatial spectrality of the transcendent Creator; they were anchored by both space & time, but as both the Beginning & the End, He transcends space & time. Their relatively greater (in relation to other men) cognitional capabilities only drove them to madly think themselves to be on plane with God Almighty, with their pretentious claims to understand things for which they have no evidence (Job 38:2). Like so many gifted, but pompous academics, their blessing of intellect became for them a curse of contemptuous pride. As Paul speaks of their sort: “For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools.” (Romans 1:21,22) They claimed to know so much, yet their wisdom was shown as poor & pitiful by the Lord’s questioning statements of chapters 38-41.

All four sinned- Eliphaz, Bildad, & Zophar in purporting to “know” that Job’s suffering was due to some unascertained evil he must have committed- & Job for his pretentiousness to “justify himself rather than God” in the face of his friends’ probing accusations (Job 32:2). Essentially, Job claimed innocence & therein accused God of wrongly causing him to suffer. He declared himself righteous & questioned God’s ultimate goodness for allowing such evil to happen upon him. He laid the onus for origin of evil upon God’s doorstep. His faithful integrity stood fast at first (Job 1:21-22 & 2:9-10) but faded down the stretch as he speculated his life would be better apart from God (Job 10:20). Just as Satan was allowed into the Garden to reveal, to draw out the sin deep within Adam & Eve’s hearts, Satan was allowed to put Job’s heart through a trial by fire to find the wicked way that dwelled deep within. The sin in the Garden came not at first bite, but at the initial craving for more than God had given.

Jeremiah also suffered without evident righteous cause, but he accepted this as God’s trial of his character. Despite his pain, he never accused God of unrighteousness:


Jeremiah 12:1-3 Righteous are you, O LORD, when I complain to you; yet I would plead my case before you. Why does the way of the wicked prosper? Why do all who are treacherous thrive? (2) You plant them, and they take root; they grow and produce fruit; you are near in their mouth and far from their heart. (3) But you, O LORD, know me; you see me, and test my heart toward you. Pull them out like sheep for the slaughter, and set them apart for the day of slaughter.

In Job’s suffering, as in Jeremiah’s, the evil was clearly evident in the nature of the persecutors (Satan & King Jehoiakim, respectively), but not so explicit in the persecuted. Sometimes suffering comes not for the cause of extroverted, apparent sin, but for the introverted, unrealized, & unrecognized sin nature. As with Job (Job 1:8 & 2:3), we may appear outwardly blameless, but inwardly “full of dead men’s bones” (Matt. 23:23ff). It is the “inside of the cup” that is most in need of cleansing, & sometimes no people better exemplify this than the zealously religious. Few have better demonstrated the irony of the whitewashed tomb better than the Pharisees; but we all have the potential to present a perfect persona while obfuscating the ugly reality within.

In the trial, God “pulls out” the wickedness within so that it may be dealt with & “slaughtered” in the throes of Christ’s cross. In that sole act of justification, Christ, through His cross, saved us; but it is in the manner of our cross of suffering that God provides sanctification (Luke 9:23, Rom 5:3,4).

This is where His suffering, after it provides for our justification, continues to cross paths with our daily suffering to continually give birth to sanctification (or, "newness of life"- Rom 6:4). Jesus speaks of our “cross” at many times through the Gospels, but Luke 9:23 hints how our cross differs from His. His perfection necessitated that He should take up His cross only once for all time for the task of our justification (Rom. 6:10), but our imperfection in sanctification demands we must take up ours “daily”.

Philippians 2:12-13 Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, (13) for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

Simply put, His cross justifies us in the presence of an angry God, while our cross sanctifies us for “his good pleasure”. The conflagration that ensues as the holy & righteous One abides within our unholy & unrighteous soul is a cause of great tension. We fear & tremble in the very midst of, more so- because of- our salvation, for His will & work is not at peace with the natural man’s will & work. The Spirit of God does bring peace to our soul, but it only comes through the terrible costs of war. This is the tension that Paul lucidly expounds upon in Romans 7. Our emotional, & sometimes physical suffering works out towards peace with a perfectly holy, therefore angry God.

In our walk, we will suffer, but then cathartically rejoice, as God purges the evil from within us:

Romans 6:4-7 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. (5) For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. (6) We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. (7) For one who has died has been set free from sin (8) Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. (9) We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. (10) For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. (11) So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.


In suffering, we are called not so much to wonder why,
More so- to suffer & die.
What must suffer most is the evil, fleshly way,
Else there we truly suffer to stay.

Monday, September 28, 2009

The Shepherd as Teacher

Ephesians 4:11-16 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, (12) to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, (13) until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, (14) so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. (15) Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, (16) from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.

Last week we opened the discussion of the office of pastor, or “shepherd”, as the Greek “poimēn” is most properly translated. We discussed the scope of the office as comparable to the office of apostle in regards to its necessary wide range of gifting. This spiritual shepherd is tasked not only with feeding a flock, but tending to their many varied spiritual needs, & so must wear many different hats on any given day. So while feeding the flock is only part of the shepherd’s ministry, I believe it is the most important part.

The shepherd’s protection for his flock from outside aggressors, the wolves, is a very important component of his job of tending them, but Scripture tells us (Romans 7) the flock’s most consistent aggressor comes from within, not without. While it is true that Satan prowls as the hungry lion (1 Peter 5:8), it is the flesh that most often consumes us. Either way, it is the faith within the heart & mind (Rom. 7:25, 1 Peter 5:9) that is our sword & shield against our adversary. Where does this faith come from? The Word of God is both sword & shield in the fight, & for us to utilize these tools we must both have them & be enabled in their use:

Romans 10:6-15 But the righteousness based on faith says, "Do not say in your heart, 'Who will ascend into heaven?'" (that is, to bring Christ down) (7) or "'Who will descend into the abyss?'" (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). (8) But what does it say? "The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart" (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); (9) because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. (10) For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. (11) For the Scripture says, "Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame." (12) For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. (13) For "everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." (14) How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? (15) And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!"

The spiritual shepherd’s most pressing need, therefore, is preach to & teach his flock- to make the word near them, in their mouth and in their heart- so they might have that righteousness based on faith, not carnal might. This is the pastor’s preeminent portion- to strengthen his flock by feeding their faith- & this is garnered by such only by the nearness of God’s Word to that heart & mouth.

Beyond the philosophical biblical mandate for the pastor to be a teacher is the technical biblical mandate. The Greek article “ho” precedes each office in Eph. 4:11, but it does not precede “teacher”. The esteemed 18th century Greek grammarian Granville Sharp’s most famous contribution to understanding Koine Greek is stated thusly:

When the copulative kai connects two nouns of the same case of personal description respecting office, dignity, affinity, or connection, and attributes, properties, or qualities, good or ill, if the article ho, or any of its cases, precedes the first of the said nouns or participles, and is not repeated before the second noun or participle, the latter always relates to the same person that is expressed or described by the first noun or participle: i.e. it denotes farther description of the first-named person..."

So, in other words, this rule dictates the two should be considered one in the same person, just as in Titus 2:13 “God” & “Savior” refer to the same person in the indicative “Jesus Christ”.


Feed a starving man a fish or a fennel makes him set for the day, but teaching him where & how to fish & farm makes him set for life. Likewise then, a good shepherd feeds his flock the full Word of God- the fennel and the fish, the spinach and the steak, the broccoli and the beef- along with the promise of a heavenly dessert to come later. In so doing, he grows the flock into maturity as they are nurtured for each day, but are also concurrently learning where the fish & the seeds of life are found- in Scripture, & how they are to be gathered, allowing the flock to begin to sustain themselves to some extent. The shepherd should not be forced to carry the full burden of caring for the flock’s every trifling need, for as blessed with the varied gifts of God as he is, he is still just a man, & not laboring behind him in the work of gathering the flock’s provisions forces the shepherd to be nothing more than a daycare provider for retarded, infant sheep. Such a shepherd’s devotion & love for his flock would be to his glory when the Chief Shepherd appears; but the flock will be sorely ashamed in that day if the cause for their perpetual infancy was, in fact- not inborn retardation- but a simple blasé, slothful, indifference towards the work of the shepherd.

1 Thessalonians 5:11-14 Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing. (12) We ask you, brothers, to respect those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you, (13) and to esteem them very highly in love because of their work. Be at peace among yourselves. (14) And we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all.

Saturday, September 12, 2009

The Shepherd

Ephesians 4:11-16 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, (12) to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, (13) until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, (14) so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. (15) Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, (16) from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.

The church offices listed in Ephesians 4:11 vary widely in the scope of their ministry. The prophet & evangelist are narrow in scope; the former is charged only with being a direct conduit for the heart, will, & word of God to man, while the latter seems even more purposed in his mission of simply teaching & exhorting men towards embracing the good news of Jesus Christ’s salvation.

Contrastingly, as we found in the teaching weeks prior, the apostle has the widest scope of any in his course of ministry:

Quite simply an apostle is nothing less than one who possesses, by the appointment (1Tim. 2:7) of God, all the titles & gifts of God in his person. He shepherds, preaches, teaches, prophesies, evangelizes, works miracles, & has complete authority over comparatively large portions of Christ’s church body. All gifts of God are potentially actionable through the office of apostle.”

The shepherd- or pastor as some versions choose to translate the Greek “poimēn” (Strong‘s #4166)- is another who is wide in the scope of his ministry. Similar to how the apostle is the highest calling & authority to the church at large, the pastor is as such in the local assembly. Though the modern parlance has us calling them “pastor”, the Greek “poimēn” is translated as such only in Ephesians 4:11 (in most good English Bibles). The 17 other instances of “poimēn” are translated “shepherd”; this is important because the position of pastor is much better understood when we picture the work of a shepherd.

In pretentious piousness, some claim Christ as their only shepherd, but this is unbiblical; for Christ’s office of “Chief Shepherd” (1 Peter 5:4) has its own distinct Greek term- “archipoimēn”. The prefix “archē ” (Strong’s #746) means “a commencement, or (concrete) chief (in various applications of order, time, place or rank), beginning, corner, the first estate…” (Strong’s). Therefore Christ is rightly & distinctly set apart from the common “shepherd”, but this does not of necessity dispense with the pastor’s lower authority. No, very much to the contrary, “arche’s” definition as “a commencement” indicates a new order of “shepherds” following in the way of the “Chief Shepherd” to help lead God’s people in the day of God’s new covenant (Jer. 31:31 & Hebrews 8:8 et seq.). Peter’s usage of the term “archipoimēn” itself demands that such as “poimēn” must be ordained of God “for building up the body of Christ”; men that declare otherwise are arrogantly foolish to think that they need not to learn submission as even Christ Himself did. They should check their hearts for the main enemy of God’s elect- fallacious, stubborn, deceiving pride. This comes from the old man that still lurks within; he tells us we are good enough, strong enough, wise enough to do it on our own. He lies.

Monday, August 31, 2009

Good News!

Ephesians 4:11-16 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, (12) to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, (13) until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, (14) so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. (15) Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, (16) from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.

The evangelist is presented in Scripture as underlying to the individual church. The Greek word for evangelize- “euaggelizo” (Strong’s 2097)- is derived from the merger of “eu” (#2095) meaning “good” & “aggelos” meaning “messenger”. An evangelist simply carries the forth the message of the good news of Jesus Christ’s work of salvation. It seems in contrast to the other offices of Eph. 4:11 for it is so simple in nature. But there is a certain timeless beauty in simplicity.

Simplicity is one reason why the good news is so good. Every other religion in the world bases one’s closeness to God on either a man’s knowledge or his works. Accordingly, for them, finding intimacy with God becomes founded on either (or both):

a. the measure of knowledge available to them as well as their cognitive ability to absorb & understand it.

b. the measure of their innate ability to perform good works & not sin.

It is therefore that the followers of the erudite religions, such as Gnosticism, Buddhism, & Christian Science, are so constrained towards constant attentiveness to intellectually growing towards God, while the more work-based religions- e.g. Hinduism, Islam, & Mormonism- are slaves to trying to appease God through performance of perceived righteousness. But the evangelist simply tells them the facts as Scripture shows: that man’s erudition is in fact cognitive dissonance apart from complete contrition to the full spectrum of Christ’s teachings; & man’s works are but smoldering filthy rags apart from the acceptance of Christ’s works as solely salvific.

Isaiah 55:6-11 Seek the LORD while he may be found; call upon him while he is near; (7) let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the LORD, that he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. (8) For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD. (9) For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. (10) For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, (11) so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.
 
It is partly in contrast to false religion that the beauty of the Gospel is seen. It is simple. So simple in fact that Jesus taught that we must be child-like to understand it (Matt 18:3). Therefore the haughty intellectual cannot understand it until he loses his slavish requisite for intimacy with God to be borne on the wings of his own cerebral powers. Surely, there are many “deep things” of God (1Cor 2:10, 2Peter 3:16), but just as surely the Gospel of Christ’s salvation is not one of them. You’ve done bad & justice demands punishment, but Jesus Christ did good & took your punishment. That’s it in a nutshell. Anyone with the intellect of a very small child can understand crime, punishment, mercy & grace. It’s in the humbly allowing such hard truth into your proud soul that is difficult (e.g. John 6:60).

Thus, no one can plead nolo contendere on the day of judgment for cause of insufficient intellectual capacity, for the Gospel message so expressly simple.

So the job of the evangelist is to see to it that the Word from God’s own mouth accomplishes that for which He purposed- the salvation of the ransomed of God. As need be, he may well preach the bad news of the sinful nature & its necessary judgment. But that must always be only a precedent to the good news that such a judgment has already occurred for those who can accept it (Matt. 19:11-12); otherwise the supposed evangelist betrays his very title- “messenger of good news”.

The necessary prominence of the evangelist in Ephesians 4:11, preceded only by those who have founded the church corporate (Eph. 2:20) & followed only by the most gifted of the church particular, is due to the necessary prominence of the gospel itself. The gospel is very good news indeed to the one who’s soul is torn & troubled over the bad news- the wretchedness of their sin. The dejection, despondency, & desolation of the bad news is destroyed only by the good news, the gospel of Christ.

Isaiah 51:11 And the ransomed of the LORD shall return and come to Zion with singing; everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; they shall obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

Jeremiah 31:13 Then shall the young women rejoice in the dance, and the young men and the old shall be merry. I will turn their mourning into joy; I will comfort them, and give them gladness for sorrow.

Thursday, July 23, 2009

God’s Prophet of Today

Ephesians 4:11-16 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, (12) to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, (13) until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, (14) so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. (15) Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, (16) from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.

Our last discussion of Ephesians 4:11 dwelled on the biblical precedent & therefore definition of the apostle. We formed a biblical perspective of what an apostle is based on what an apostle was in the first generation church.

In like manner, let us examine the principles & precedents of the true biblical prophet to rightly judge the prophet of today.

The prophet of Scripture was the messenger of God’s revelation to men. In the secular sense, prophecy is often narrowly defined as the foretelling of future events, but that is only a fortune-teller. God’s prophet reveals the heart of man & the will of God. He speaks for God to man. When he prophesies, the prophet speaks not of his own heart nor of his own mind, but only the heart & mind of God. Early on in Scripture, Aaron modeled the role of the prophet (Ex. 4:15-16 & 7:1) as he himself worked signs & wonders but was primarily purposed to be Moses’ mouthpiece.

The prophet Amos describes the role of the prophet:


Amos 3:1-8 Hear this word that the LORD has spoken against you, O people of Israel, against the whole family that I brought up out of the land of Egypt: (2) "You only have I known of all the families of the earth; therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities. (3) Do two walk together, unless they have agreed to meet? (4) Does a lion roar in the forest, when he has no prey? Does a young lion cry out from his den, if he has taken nothing? (5) Does a bird fall in a snare on the earth, when there is no trap for it? Does a snare spring up from the ground, when it has taken nothing? (6) Is a trumpet blown in a city, and the people are not afraid? Does disaster come to a city, unless the LORD has done it? (7) For the Lord GOD does nothing without revealing his secret to his servants the prophets. (8) The lion has roared; who will not fear? The Lord GOD has spoken; who can but prophesy?"

When God speaks to the heart of His prophet, that prophet cannot shut his own mouth. His oration is nothing less than a direct pipeline from God

His prophetic utterance is therefore inerrant, as God himself is inerrant

The prophet of God will always present Jesus Christ as God & the events of his 33 year material visitation as the only way for man to be saved from God’s wrath for sin. The right prophet leads the humble towards embracing this truth, & in so doing leads them closer to Christ. The prophet that leads men away from worshipping & following Jesus Christ is the false prophet despite any seeming supernatural abilities:

Deuteronomy 13:1-5 If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder, (2) and the sign or wonder that he tells you comes to pass, and if he says, 'Let us go after other gods,' which you have not known, 'and let us serve them,' (3) you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams. For the LORD your God is testing you, to know whether you love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul. (4) You shall walk after the LORD your God and fear him and keep his commandments and obey his voice, and you shall serve him and hold fast to him. (5) But that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death, because he has taught rebellion against the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you out of the house of slavery, to make you leave the way in which the LORD your God commanded you to walk. So you shall purge the evil from your midst.

The prophet of God is also one who most often brings men disturbing testimony about themselves. They are always a polarizing lot, dividing wheat from tares, the hard-hearted from the “poor in spirit”. They are wildly unpopular to secularists, but a draw to the humble in heart, for they speak to that humble heart. Theirs is not a glamorous or even desirous vocation, but one that is often sorely despised- even by themselves. They don’t pursue the office of prophet, the office pursues them…

Jeremiah 20:1-18 Now Pashhur the priest, the son of Immer, who was chief officer in the house of the LORD, heard Jeremiah prophesying these things. (2) Then Pashhur beat Jeremiah the prophet, and put him in the stocks that were in the upper Benjamin Gate of the house of the LORD. (3) The next day, when Pashhur released Jeremiah from the stocks, Jeremiah said to him, "The LORD does not call your name Pashhur, but Terror On Every Side. (4) For thus says the LORD: Behold, I will make you a terror to yourself and to all your friends. They shall fall by the sword of their enemies while you look on. And I will give all Judah into the hand of the king of Babylon. He shall carry them captive to Babylon, and shall strike them down with the sword. (5) Moreover, I will give all the wealth of the city, all its gains, all its prized belongings, and all the treasures of the kings of Judah into the hand of their enemies, who shall plunder them and seize them and carry them to Babylon. (6) And you, Pashhur, and all who dwell in your house, shall go into captivity. To Babylon you shall go, and there you shall die, and there you shall be buried, you and all your friends, to whom you have prophesied falsely.”
(7) O LORD, you have deceived me, and I was deceived; you are stronger than I, and you have prevailed. I have become a laughingstock all the day; everyone mocks me. (8) For whenever I speak, I cry out, I shout, "Violence and destruction!" For the word of the LORD has become for me a reproach and derision all day long. (9) If I say, "I will not mention him, or speak any more in his name," there is in my heart as it were a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot. (10) For I hear many whispering. Terror is on every side! "Denounce him! Let us denounce him!" say all my close friends, watching for my fall. "Perhaps he will be deceived; then we can overcome him and take our revenge on him." (11) But the LORD is with me as a dread warrior; therefore my persecutors will stumble; they will not overcome me. They will be greatly shamed, for they will not succeed. Their eternal dishonor will never be forgotten.
(12) O LORD of hosts, who tests the righteous, who sees the heart and the mind, let me see your vengeance upon them, for to you have I committed my cause. (13) Sing to the LORD; praise the LORD! For he has delivered the life of the needy from the hand of evildoers. (14) Cursed be the day on which I was born! The day when my mother bore me, let it not be blessed! (15) Cursed be the man who brought the news to my father, "A son is born to you," making him very glad. (16) Let that man be like the cities that the LORD overthrew without pity; let him hear a cry in the morning and an alarm at noon, (17) because he did not kill me in the womb; so my mother would have been my grave, and her womb forever great. (18) Why did I come out from the womb to see toil and sorrow, and spend my days in shame?

Allow me to repeat my principal thesis of last time concerning apostles, for I believe it applies to the office of prophet as well:

Ephesians 2:13-22 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. (14) For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility (15) by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, (16) and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. (17) And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. (18) For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. (19) So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, (20) built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, (21) in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. (22) In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.

Such a momentous structure as this, a building with no less than Christ as the cornerstone & His apostles & prophets being the very substance for the rest of the foundation, is not the kind of building I could imagine being utterly torn down past the foundation & rebuilt with every generation that passes.

So as Christians gaze upon the modern church, for better or for worse they often search for God’s prophet of today. We should “not believe every spirit, but (we) test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world” (1 John 4:1). We firstly apply the litmus of 1 John 4, that they must primordially confess Jesus Christ as “coming into the flesh”. This means they must teach He existed beforehand (that He had been God) & came into a completely corporeal existence (that He became man as well). We examine them for inerrancy in their prophetic utterances. We assess their message as to whether it is convicting of sin. We rightly ask: “Do they rebuke the proud, & give grace to the humble?” As prophets, they lay claim to intimacy with the heart of God; Scripture shows this is central to His nature ( Prov. 3:34, James 4:6, & 1 Peter 5:5).

But it grieves God’s heart as Christians search for a prophet for today, for in doing so, we dismiss surely the greatest & most sure prophecy that has already been given & established. This prophetic word proclaims throughout the “testimony of Jesus”, validating its “spirit of prophecy”(Rev. 19:10). It has stood the test & been proven time & again; never having been shown to be false. It has ministered to billions. It most often speaks not to itching ears (2 Tim 4:3), but hardened hearts. If Moses & the OT prophets were deemed ample as instruction for the rich man’s family (Luke16:31), then how rich are we in prophetic instruction, as their teaching is expounded upon by the teachings of NT apostles, prophets, & even Christ Himself? (e.g. 1Cor 9:9-10)

Revelation 22:7 And behold, I am coming soon. Blessed is the one who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book.

The office of Prophet is indeed alive & quite active as well today. It is alive & active in the form of the Scriptures. We are profitably prophetic every time God’s Spirit uses us to speak its concomitantly admonishing & edifying words to teach, reprove, correct, or train in righteousness (1Tim 3:16).

Revelation 19:9-10 And the angel said to me, "Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb." And he said to me, "These are the true words of God." (10) Then I fell down at his feet to worship him, but he said to me, "You must not do that! I am a fellow servant with you and your brothers who hold to the testimony of Jesus. Worship God." For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.

Sunday, July 12, 2009

The Origins of Sin, Mercy, & Grace

Luke 17:3-10 "Pay attention to yourselves! If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him, (4) and if he sins against you seven times in the day, and turns to you seven times, saying, 'I repent,' you must forgive him." (5) The apostles said to the Lord, "Increase our faith!" (6) And the Lord said, "If you had faith like a grain of mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, 'Be uprooted and planted in the sea,' and it would obey you. (7) Will any one of you who has a servant plowing or keeping sheep say to him when he has come in from the field, 'Come at once and recline at table'? (8) Will he not rather say to him, 'Prepare supper for me, and dress properly, and serve me while I eat and drink, and afterward you will eat and drink'? (9) Does he thank the servant because he did what was commanded? (10) So you also, when you have done all that you were commanded, say, 'We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty.'"

Forgiveness is fundamental to the Christian walk. We have nothing of a lasting consequence in God’s kingdom if He retains our sin against us (Psalms 130:3). Therefore the act of forgiveness is, by necessity, a primary point underlying our relationship with God. For His desire for loving rapport to take effect, He must first forgive.

Christians read verses 3-4 above & think that, by obeying such teachings, they are following Christ. They are, but only minimally. There is definite distinction between mere obedience & true discipleship; between mere conformity to rules & conformity to Christ. Christ continues to forgive our multitude of egregious trespasses against His perfect righteousness & holiness as we entreat His bountiful mercy & grace; then we are called to do likewise in verses 3-4, but in order to obey Christ’s subsequent call to press beyond doing only “what (is) our duty”, we must understand & retain within our soul when He forgave our sins originally.

Romans 5:1-11 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. (2) Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. (3) More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, (4) and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, (5) and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. (6) For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. (7) For one will scarcely die for a righteous person--though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die- (8) but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (9) Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. (10) For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. (11) More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

Luke 17:3-4 commands forgiveness only when repentance is proffered. Many a Christian has validated his withholding of love to someone based on that person’s impenitence. Then, when they do repent, we think highly of ourselves as we so graciously accept our offender’s apologies & embrace him once more into our company. O how far removed from Christ-like love is this?! Where would we be if Christ demanded that our hearts soften towards Him before He would do anything for us? Then the cross of Christ could only come at the end of time, only after all were afforded the opportunity to beg of its saving mercy & grace. But no, the Father gave His Son, the Son gave His cross & the Spirit afforded us repentance & acceptance of that cross- all this “while we were still sinners”. Such mercy & grace bestowed to such unworthy individuals!

1 John 4:9-12 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. (10) In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. (11) Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. (12) No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.

There is much more to following Christ than simply following His commands; in maturity, we must press on to follow His example as well.

Saturday, July 4, 2009

The Apostle

Ephesians 4:11-16 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, (12) to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, (13) until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, (14) so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. (15) Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, (16) from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.

Much ado has been paid to titles & gifts in the church; some claim titles based on fanciful notions of innate abilities, as well as outright self-centered avarice. But titles come as abilities are given, nurtured, then proven by experience. Like salvation itself, they are not borne from the heart & ability of man, but the purposed will & authority of God. (1 Cor. 1:1, 2 Cor 1:1, Gal. 1:1, et. al.)

The apostle is the highest calling man can have. He is a m
an set apart for the gospel of God” (Rom. 1:1) & has entire churches as a testament to his “workmanship in the Lord” (1Cor. 9:1-2). Paul spells out more of the traits of the apostle in 2 Cor 12:12- “The signs of a true apostle were performed among you with utmost patience, with signs and wonders and mighty works.”

Jesus selected only twelve of His disciples to be apostles & gifted them:

Mark 3:14-15 And he appointed twelve (whom he also named apostles) so that they might be with him and he might send them out to preach (15) and have authority to cast out demons.

Luke 9:1-2 And he called the twelve together and gave them power and authority over all demons and to cure diseases, (2) and he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal.

Acts 2:42-43 And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. (43) And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles.

Quite simply an apostle is nothing less than one who possesses, by the appointment (1Tim. 2:7) of God, all the titles & gifts of God in his person. He shepherds, preaches, teaches, prophesies, evangelizes, works miracles, & has complete authority over comparatively large portions of Christ’s church body. All gifts of God are potentially actionable through the office of apostle.

Yet even at this level of stewardship to Christ, such are not perfect. Their faith was sometimes weak (Luke 17:5), & despite their anointing, their authority was sometimes suppressed by this faithlessness (Luke. 9:40-41). The apostle Peter had to be dressed down by the apostle Paul for conduct “not in step with the truth of the gospel” (Gal. 2:14). Paul himself confesses that the intransigent old man is still at war against his soul (Rom. 7) & he is powerless (but still joyful) against Satan’s thorn in his flesh as a result (2 Cor 12:7). So perseverant humility & transparency are shown to be more marks of the apostle.

It would seem to have been a requirement to have actually witnessed Jesus Christ for one to be accorded the office, given the statements of Acts1:22-23 & 1 Cor. 9:1. Yet another standard the guy on TV or the strip mall storefront probably doesn’t meet.

Then, further denying the concept of the modern apostle, is the fact that his “workmanship” is taught to be foundational not simply to a church, but the church; that “household of God” that been has passed down for nearly 2000 years…

Ephesians 2:13-22 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. (14) For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility (15) by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, (16) and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. (17) And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. (18) For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. (19) So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, (20) built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, (21) in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. (22) In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.

Such a momentous structure as this, a building with no less than Christ as the cornerstone & His apostles & prophets being the very substance for the rest of the foundation, is not the kind of building I could imagine being torn down past the foundation & rebuilt with new apostles & prophets with every generation that passes. As Moses & the prophets were deemed sufficient for the rich man's family (Luke 16:29), God has apparently determined the original apostles & prophets to be sufficient for us.

The Greek “apostolos” means “a delegate, messenger, one sent forth with orders” (Thayer) & clearly- according to Acts 1:2- God is their only “commander”. Pretty large person; indeed, so large that Heb. 3:1 even attributes the title to Christ Himself:

Hebrews 3:1-3 Therefore, holy brothers, you who share in a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession, (2) who was faithful to him who appointed him, just as Moses also was faithful in all God's house. (3) For Jesus has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses- as much more glory as the builder of a house has more honor than the house itself.

It is the natural man’s typical impetus to crave such power over other men. But I see no man since the days of the early church exhibiting such Godly power, & it may well be until Christ returns that earthly eyes would gaze upon one in possession of such authority again.

So one would be wise to beware of anyone claiming such a title, for pride & deception must surely rule his soul. Possibly, ignorance of the scope of the biblical precedent for apostleship might be the cause for a modern "apostle's" misguided appropriation of such a title, but that biblical ignorance proves as well his improper appropriation.


There is one more way the true earthly apostle imitates Christ- the ultimate Apostle (for He was also "sent"- John 3:16)- the apostle often suffers death for the sake of the Gospel:

Luke 11:49 Therefore also the Wisdom of God said, 'I will send them prophets and apostles, some of whom they will kill and persecute.

Church history records that every established apostle but John died for his witness of Christ.



1 Corinthians 12:27-28 Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.
(28) And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, helping, administrating, and various kinds of tongues.

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Who Owns Your Life?

John 5:24 Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.

It is puzzling for the Christian to look into the eyes of unbelievers & see them lacking the fear of judgment. We read God’s Word & are humbled at the extent of His wrath upon men for sin. But it is for the sake of justice & righteousness that God must produce an indictment for every sin.

Ezekiel 18:1-4 The word of the LORD came to me: (2) "What do you mean by repeating this proverb concerning the land of Israel, 'The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge'? (3) As I live, declares the Lord GOD, this proverb shall no more be used by you in Israel. (4) Behold, all souls are mine; the soul of the father as well as the soul of the son is mine: the soul who sins shall die.

The soul who sins shall die”- Thus the reason for the utter pervasiveness of death. As Scripture teaches, “all have sinned” & so all must suffer through the sting of a physical death. Sin & death are a tangible tandem testifying to the truth of judgment; both are clearly real, for they are all around us, & so they, in the light of God’s Word, add veracity & conviction surrounding the certainty of God’s judgment.

God is righteous despite the many deadly tragedies occurring worldwide on a daily basis. We see apparent randomness in suffering & death in that the elect of God suffer right alongside (or worse, out in front of) the ungodly. We grouse “Why, Lord?” Aside from the aforementioned tandem testimonies of sin & death, we miss the fundamental truth that our lives are not our own. All life is a gift from God- as Deuteronomy 32:39 states- “See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god beside me; I kill and I make alive; I wound and I heal; and there is none that can deliver out of my hand.” And if all life originates, as well as reverts to the Almighty, therein making them all His possession, how much more so would this be true in the case of His bond-servants, even His very children? Therefore:

We err when we view this life as our possession. God has said “Behold, all souls are mine;” life is His to give & His to take away- as He desires.

Ezekiel 18:23-32Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked, declares the Lord GOD, and not rather that he should turn from his way and live? (24) But when a righteous person turns away from his righteousness and does injustice and does the same abominations that the wicked person does, shall he live? None of the righteous deeds that he has done shall be remembered; for the treachery of which he is guilty and the sin he has committed, for them he shall die. (25) Yet you say, 'The way of the Lord is not just.' Hear now, O house of Israel: Is my way not just? Is it not your ways that are not just? (26) When a righteous person turns away from his righteousness and does injustice, he shall die for it; for the injustice that he has done he shall die. (27) Again, when a wicked person turns away from the wickedness he has committed and does what is just and right, he shall save his life. (28) Because he considered and turned away from all the transgressions that he had committed, he shall surely live; he shall not die. (29) Yet the house of Israel says, 'The way of the Lord is not just.' O house of Israel, are my ways not just? Is it not your ways that are not just?
(30) Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to his ways, declares the Lord GOD. Repent and turn from all your transgressions, lest iniquity be your ruin. (31) Cast away from you all the transgressions that you have committed, and make yourselves a new heart and a new spirit! Why will you die, O house of Israel? (32) For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Lord GOD; so turn, and live."

God judges the impenitent not in gleeful delight, but in somber duty. Therein, in judgment, there is no pleasure for the righteous; yea, the Most Righteous is all the more not pleasured to judge.

Nevertheless, for those under the oppression of the wicked judgment, the righteous judgment comes with great joy, for both Judge & defendant. Witness the words of David as he suffered unjustly, but expected God’s future judgment:

Psalms 35:9-12 Then my soul will rejoice in the LORD, exulting in his salvation. (10) All my bones shall say, "O LORD, who is like you, delivering the poor from him who is too strong for him, the poor and needy from him who robs him?" (11) Malicious witnesses rise up; they ask me of things that I do not know. (12) They repay me evil for good; my soul is bereft…(28) Let them shout for joy and rejoice, who favor my vindication; And let them say continually, "The LORD be magnified, Who delights in the prosperity of His servant." (28) And my tongue shall declare Your righteousness And Your praise all day long.

1 Chronicles 16:33 Then the trees of the forest will sing for joy before the LORD; For He is coming to judge the earth.

So we rejoice not in the suffering of the wicked, but in the sovereign power of His salvation. How can we neglect so great a salvation as this that always triumphs, either at the cross or the Bema Seat, in righteous judgment?


Who else could own your life but the very One who enabled you to “pass from death to life“?

Sunday, March 8, 2009

Does Jesus Promise Abundant Life or Abundant Living?

John 5:24-26 Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life. (25) Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. (26) For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself.

False preachers abound in this day; they delude many with “plausible arguments” (Col. 2:4). My point has always been that the wolf’s sheepskin vestment can ripped away if we pursue the course of the noble Berean. Scripture, taken in full scope, will reveal the lies of the false preachers to the true believer every time.

One untruth often taught is that, despite the obvious fact that the old man of sin still dwells within, God desires nothing for us but popcorn pleasantries. The God who hated our sin so much He sent His beloved to be sin for us has no ill emotion towards the depravities that still dwell within our soul- or so they would say. But like the young rich ruler, one mark of the true believer is his cognition of a “lack” (Matt. 19:20). Even the most zealous & mature of Christians will testify of this “lack” if they are true, as Paul does in Phil. 3:12.

So the question for today is “What is the nature of this ‘life’ that Christ so often promises to us?”

John 10:1-10 "Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber. (2) But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. (3) To him the gatekeeper opens. The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. (4) When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. (5) A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers." (6) This figure of speech Jesus used with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them. (7) So Jesus again said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. (8) All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. (9) I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. (10) The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.

A prevalent teaching amongst spiritual thieves & robbers is that the “life” of John 10:10 refers to an “abundance” of health & wealth in the walk of every believer. Any believer found lacking prosperity, as defined by the world, is said to be lacking in his faith. They load upon the backs of believers the heavy burden of having it all in this life, else it dare be said that that they are not even in Christ. These “podium pundits” proclaim prosperity as the mark of believers, & falsely lead many towards trying to bear unbearable burdens.

Christ instead promises that our burden will be light. The life He promises is not the weighty one wasted trying to battle Satan in a vain attempt to force him to “give us back our stuff”, but a life dedicated to follow in the steps of Christ Himself. The “pulpit preacher” declares the life of Christ on earth to be our pattern for living on this earth as well.

Charles Spurgeon preached from a pulpit. The word speaks to a place where a hard, but needed message is spoken from. Even in the secular, the term infers a place where a difficult, hard to swallow truth is spoken- hence the President's "bully pulpit".

Sometimes the most insidious message is the not the one explicitly teaching falsehoods, but the one with a misplaced focus on minor issues, therein overshadowing the major issues. We don’t see anything clearly contrary to God’s Word taught, so we relax & take in what is taught as good & right. But before we get comfortable we should step back & judge what seems to be the aim of the ministry- maybe empowering “your best life now”- & then we should see the incongruity of this ministry with Jesus’ ministry. Oftentimes, even as the Savior met peoples’ most obvious, apparent, & present needs, He would overshadow these needs by majoring on their deepest need- for a Savior to rescue them from judgment for their sin. Clearly, Jesus saw the paralytic’s faith in Christ, but did not regard his infirmity as his fundamental lack, as the first thing He said to him was “Man, your sins are forgiven you" (Luke 5:20). Christ has not only saves us from Hell, but He promises us- through His righteousness- a position in Heaven. This is primarily the “life” that Christ promises.Thus, the danger of the subtle lie. The Gospel should not be reduced to one line at the end of a message on abundantly prosperous life. The Gospel should be the message, for our life is found only in Christ.

For us, the liars say, no discipline, no pain, no suffering are ever in the heart of God As they would tell it, Christ not only served us by suffering the indignities & anguish of the cross 2000 years ago, but He lives to serve our every whim today.

They have no awareness of the measure of abundance found in the joyful prescience of a person looking forward to the promise of an eternity with Christ.

Colossians 3:1-4 If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. (2) Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. (3) For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. (4) When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

Matthew 18:7-9 "Woe to the world for temptations to sin! For it is necessary that temptations come, but woe to the one by whom the temptation comes! (8) And if your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life crippled or lame than with two hands or two feet to be thrown into the eternal fire. (9) And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into the hell of fire."

Crippled, lame, & half-blind doesn’t line up very well with the false preacher’s portrait of “abundant” life. Then again, they are rarely dissuaded by such barriers as countermanding Christ’s call to desire the eternal richness of the Holy Spirit. Christ instructs His disciples to be poor in their own spirit- like the tax collector of Luke 18:13- so as to instead “enter life” & receive the riches of God’s Spirit. Light & darkness do not co-exist; rather, the Light that is Jesus Christ illuminates the otherwise dank darkness of man’s heart.

2 Corinthians 4:8-11 We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; (9) persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; (10) always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. (11) For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.

Clearly, the life promised here is not a life of pure peaches & cream, but one expressly of afflictions, perplexities, & persecutions. The “abundant life” is in the not being crushed, disparaged, or destroyed despite the aforementioned strife, not the simple doing away with such troubles.

When Paul said “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Phil. 1:21), he was fixing his eyes upon the prescient hope of dwelling with Jesus for eternity; this speaks to the Biblical truth of the truly blessed life being the one to come in heavenly places. False preachers love to quote John 10:10, but the far more common descriptor of the kind of life Jesus promises is “eternal life”. 43 times in the NT (ESV) the Spirit describes the life given to believers in this way. Indeed, if the false preacher dared read on in John 10, they would see Jesus clarifying the manner of “life” that He guarantees us:

John 10:28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.

Our fundamental promise is not founded upon the witness of bountiful blessings in this life, but a joyful, confident expectation of the life to come in Heaven. We should not judge the measure of God’s love for us by the measure of either health or wealth we seem to possess here; instead we should look to the cross to rightly judge the true measure of God’s love for His beloved:

1 John 4:9-10 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. (10) In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

Anyone really desiring the truth on this need not even go outside the Gospels to find further evidence that sometimes God does indeed give us a cross of suffering for us to carry in this life:

Mark 8:34-36 And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. (35) For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel's will save it. (36) For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?

But we do not even need to go that far from John 10:10 to see the “life” Christ promises is not one centered on the pleasantries of this life. Indeed, those “podium pundits” could flip back the page to John 9 to see that God does not always have a life of pure pleasure in store for His people. The blind man suffered blindness his whole life to that point in time so “that the works of God might be displayed in him.” Or, they could flip ahead to John 11:

John 11:1-6 Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. (2) It was Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was ill. (3) So the sisters sent to him, saying, "Lord, he whom you love is ill." (4) But when Jesus heard it he said, "This illness does not lead to death. It is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it." (5) Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. (6) So, when he heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was.

Given that He suffered for us, sometimes He allows suffering to enter our life in this world too. This is where the “perplexities” Paul mentions above sometimes come into play. Although the Spirit gives us understanding in the examples of John 9 & 11, we don’t always know why we suffer; but our faith in the sovereign authority & utter goodness of God places trust that He has our back in the end.

Furthermore, what we need to fix our hope upon in this life is the revelation that this “life” is with us here as well. Scripture that Christ is with us here too, & He substantially is this “life”.

1 John 5:20 And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true; and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.

John 14:6 Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

John 17:1-3 When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, "Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, (2) since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. (3) And this is eternal life- that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.

Saturday, February 21, 2009

Just Believe (pt. 5)

John 5:17-24 But Jesus answered them, "My Father is working until now, and I am working." (18) This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God. (19) So Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise. (20) For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing. And greater works than these will he show him, so that you may marvel. (21) For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will. (22) The Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son, (23) that all may honor the Son, just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him. (24) Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.

Galatians 3:22-26 (KJV) But the scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe. (23) But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed. (24) Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. (25) But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster. (26) For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.

Scripture often teaches of things beyond our knowledge, but that’s the point of all true teaching. We didn’t walk into seventh grade Algebra 1 with an innate knowledge of algebra that needed to be simply reinforced; no, we needed to be taught algebra to understand it. The Bible was meant to do that; it was given to feed our lack of innate & intimate knowledge of the nature of God & the true nature of man. Some hear these teachings & dismiss them as untrue because this is not what they think to be true. But the good student does not allow his personal opinions to bulwark the wisdom of his teacher. He may have a contrasting belief, but that belief must be set aside to gain the wisdom of his master. The student who arrogantly defends an erstwhile understanding cannot receive the new understanding set before him. He cannot be taught difficult firsthand truths from his master while tenaciously defending what he thinks is true- his own beliefs- that come merely secondhand.

Paul (in the KJV) uses the term “schoolmaster” to speak of the OT Law that men of God were “kept… shut up” under until the revelation of Jesus Christ comes to their heart. He is counterattacking Galatian tendencies to exalt the works of OT Law as significant, therein supposedly reducing the need for Christ. Paul rightly teaches the “schoolmaster” of the Law is dead upon our belief in the completely substitutional righteousness of Christ as salvific. Slavish adherence to the 613 commands of the Torah belies understanding of what is the whole of righteousness. The Law’s role is to bring us to despair of ever saving ourselves; it brings us to the point of worshipping the Law-giver & Judge as the real source of true righteousness.

But what I am analogizing as our ongoingschoolmaster”, the “guardian” (ESV) that should not be ignored as we take hold of faith in Christ, is the full corpus of God’s Word. This master can never be left behind in our pressing on towards greater understanding & faith in Christ, for it is the very source of what can be concretely known of things unseen. We all thought things about the true natures of God & man before studying Scripture, but those mere secondhand opinions must be set aside, if not completely dismissed, to take in the superior firsthand account of the Creator of all things.

Faith in the veracity of difficult truths can be challenging indeed. Some truths are difficult because of the obstinacy of the proud old nature buttressing the confines of the heart & mind against the testimony of God‘s Word. Nonetheless, God shows His sovereignty by breaking down the barricades that would impede faith in such hard teachings as the universal depravity of man. As Gal 3:22 states, He gives faith “to them that believe”. Their faith is not unlike the grace of God; it is given in full by God alone so we would have no place for boast.

But we do feed the faith that God planted in our soul through embracing the fullness of His Word.

The Trinity is hard for us to comprehend; even the best theologians grapple with explaining the nature of a monotheistic, but triune God. Jesus taught of the Father, the Son, & the Spirit as all equally being God, yet He also demanded that God is One. Some dismiss the Trinity based on the difficulty of marrying these two teachings, as if they must be able to comprehend something in order for it to be true.

Faith is necessary for that portion of truth that extends beyond our comprehension.

Matthew 19:11-12 But he said unto them, All men cannot receive this saying, save they to whom it is given. (12) For there are some eunuchs, which were so born from their mother's womb: and there are some eunuchs, which were made eunuchs of men: and there be eunuchs, which have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake. He that is able to receive it, let him receive it.

Do not be dismayed as others around you do not receive the truth of God as you have. Do not be discouraged as your faith in things somewhat unfathomable to your mind, like the omniscience of God throughout His grand creation, are dismissed by unbelievers as preposterous. Know that they simply have not, as yet, been given the faith to believe in the fantastic. Counter their obstinacy with the query “Do you fully understand all that you believe in? Did you have to study the science of electricity before turning on a light switch? Did you have to learn the laws of motion before learning to walk?” No, you believed the simple truths first; possibly deeper understanding came later to help further in your quest to be an electrician, or an Olympic runner. Nevertheless, the greater comprehension must come on the back of the basic instruction. Likewise, our faith in the fantastic morphs into knowledge as we continue to faithfully receive the schoolmaster of God’s corpus Word.

"Do not fear; just believe..." Jesus (Luke 8:50)

Sunday, February 15, 2009

Just Believe (pt. 4)

John 5:17-24 But Jesus answered them, "My Father is working until now, and I am working." (18) This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God. (19) So Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise. (20) For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing. And greater works than these will he show him, so that you may marvel. (21) For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will. (22) The Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son, (23) that all may honor the Son, just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him. (24) Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.

Last week, in speaking of an active & vibrant faith, I mentioned 2 Corinthians 13:5- “Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?--unless indeed you fail to meet the test!”

Paul knows that faith in Christ, like food, is useless unless it is taken & consumed. Belief that is bounded by the flesh to the inner confines of the soul is a moribund faith- it is a waning fire. The flesh binds faith by its selfish, lazy, & fearful nature. We don’t let our faith in Christ out of its mortal cage oftentimes because we fear the rebuke of man more than the praise of God. It does not often suit our fleshly goals- indeed, it often impedes such goals; or we are simply too lazy to add effort to the faith formed within us. The latter was the sin of the beneficiary of the one talent. His righteous master & judge made clear in the course of his sentencing that his sin was laziness (Matt. 25:26).

Whatever the cause, the test is in the pressing on of oneself to unhinder the faith in Jesus Christ God has placed within you. Act more in accordance with the mind of Christ that dwells within instead of the mind of man & your faith will grow. The world will see to that. Christ promised that the world would hate his disciples to the same degree that they hated Him (John 15:18ff) as they faithfully spoke truth to the power of the natural man in & of the world. This is the form of testing that James speaks of as well. A testing that is part examination, part trial by fire:

James 1:2-15 Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, (3) for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. (4) And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. (5) If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. (6) But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. (7) For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; (8) he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways. (9) Let the lowly brother boast in his exaltation, (10) and the rich in his humiliation, because like a flower of the grass he will pass away. (11) For the sun rises with its scorching heat and withers the grass; its flower falls, and its beauty perishes. So also will the rich man fade away in the midst of his pursuits. (12) Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him. (13) Let no one say when he is tempted, "I am being tempted by God," for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. (14) But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. (15) Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.

Testing is blessing from God that beats down the temptations that dwell in the soul of man. Tortuous temptations lurk within us & the rest of the world as well; the testing draws them out in open where they suffer & die. They cannot live in the place of persecution. This action is the cause of the consequent “steadfastness” James erstwhile mentions. We have a choice of either continuing to afford those temptations a peaceful abode in the soul of man (both in us & the world), or faithfully confronting them & therein bring them out of the boudoir of the elect‘s heart. The French word “boudoir” is broke down into its linguistic derivatives to mean “a place to sulk in”. There is much sulking going on within the soul as the new creation suffers the old man having the run of the place. But the shoe changes feet as the new creation responds to the test by boldly taking hold of the joyous faith set before him & rising up to throw the former nature into a sulking sullen sea of sorrow.

John the Baptist did his case no favors as he faithfully pointed out the sin of his earthly judge Herod. But his actions bore testimony as well as further girded his greater faith in God as the real judge of man. He persecuted the selfish, lazy, & fearful sin nature, ostracizing it from his soul. Peter likewise said to those men of rank who threatened him towards being silent for Christ- “We must obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29). This bold proclamation of truth to power came shortly subsequent to the promised test of his faith that was his thrice denial of Christ. Remember what the Savior said to him concerning which: "Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.”

Man’s temptations & desires give birth to sin & death, but God gives life through faith in Christ. Faith gives birth to the “crown of (eternal) life” as we receive it & apply it to the circumstances of our mortal life.

Sunday, February 1, 2009

Just Believe (pt 3)

John 5:17-24 But Jesus answered them, "My Father is working until now, and I am working." (18) This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God. (19) So Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise. (20) For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing. And greater works than these will he show him, so that you may marvel. (21) For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will. (22) The Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son, (23) that all may honor the Son, just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him. (24) Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.

Last week we covered the concept of faith in Christ as a cause & the more perceptible signs that follow- e.g. confession, baptism, good works, & a yearning towards sinlessness- as effects of said faith. These are only the outward signs of the inner reality of a saving belief in God’s grace extended to man through Jesus Christ. “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God.”

See, both the faith & the grace are gifts from above so that no one may boast of saving oneself.

But we are called to examine the gift of our faith (2 Cor 13:5). We examine the outward signs of the inner reality & often find ourselves seeming to be in lack, & such that we justly understand it as a gift, we naturally make request of God to deliver more to our inner being. We rightly pray the prayer of the penitent father of Mark 9: “I believe; help my unbelief!”. Though, as we pray that prayer, we should ask ourselves “Have I actually utilized all of what I have already been given? Is there latent belief lying dormant in the closet of my heart as I, like a spoiled child, ask for something new? Could I be so cold & callous to ignore the precious gifts my loving Father has already ministered unto me?”

“Is the faith I seek truly already been given, but not exercised, & so is not evident?”

There are many suitable applications of the parable of the talents (Matt. 25:14ff), & I think one of them is towards utilizing the gift of faith in Christ placed within you. Consider the first two servants as they took possession of their master’s property. They were regarded as “faithful” as they made use of it, not lazily, according their desire, but obediently, “according to their ability”. Contrast these with the “slothful” servant who did nothing with what his master had accorded him except hide it away.

Maybe a greater understanding the kind of faith I am referring to as “latent” faith can be seen in an exploration of the two modes of energy- potential & kinetic. Potential energy is static energy that is in a form ready to do work- such as in a charged battery, a compressed spring, or a skier perched at the top of a mountain. The energy is put into the battery by charging it, into the spring by compressing it, & into the skier by the ski lift. Kinetic energy is that energy released, or unbounded to perform work. Such energy should be released in controlled fashion so as to properly perform the task at hand. The battery’s voltage should be regulated, the spring’s force should be modulated, & the skier should be capable of steerage & braking for the welfare of himself & others.

God has ministered to His elect by binding within us “potential” faith in the power of Christ‘s resurrection.

Before receiving Christ as our Lord, the Spirit builds up that “potential” faith within us; then, at the right time, He simply releases it to kinetically impel us towards our Savior. Up to this point, it has been all Him; we may think it is our decision, but little do we understand that all the events of our salvation have been orchestrated autonomously by the triune God. He will not lose a single one of His children.

But it is my belief that, after we have come to His salvation, we have some measure of control over the “release” of our faith. I say our faith not to say that it has originated from us, but to the point that it has been given to us. Just like the talents, it is ours to take & put to work, not so much for our welfare, but primarily for the welfare of the Master. Sometimes we use it unwisely, without moderation, to little effect. Like I did with the expensive bicycle my father gave me when I was young, we often crash hard as we put it into use. This should not dissuade us from pressing on with it though, because it was given to us for a purpose. God’s purpose.

Faith can be expressed, & therein brought to maturity in so many ways. One way the recluse often avoids is through fellowship with other believers. “Potential” faith within racked balls on a pool table will remain so until the “kinetic” faith of the cue ball strikes them. In this, some of the cue ball’s kinetic faith is delivered to every other ball set upon the table. With every stroke of the cue stick, faith is distributed around the table; but the balls not in play can receive nothing.

Maybe the prayer we should pray sometimes is “Lord, how can I release the latent “potential” faith already within me? And Lord, let it not explode forth with unregulated force, except as you would desire. Allow me to bless, & do no harm to others as your faith, given to me, impels me down the mountain of life.”

Romans 12:3 For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.

Ephesians 2:8-10 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, (9) not a result of works, so that no one may boast. (10) For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

'Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.'