The Answer

“Most assuredly I say to you, he who believes in me has eternal life.”  John 6:47 




I would like you to think for a minute about what you would say if you arrived at the gates of heaven and God asked you why he should let you in.

My Pastor recently told us about a survey he read that said many more people believe in heaven than in hell.  His response was, that belief was very convenient for them!  The fact is, people, both Christians and non-Christians, have many different opinions about heaven and what gets you in and what keeps you out.  I heard a talk recently by the son of a notorious mafia mob boss.  The son had accepted Jesus as his Lord and Savior and had spoken many times with his father about his faith and what it meant.  The father, who professed to be a Christian, told his son that he was not worried; because he was sure God would let him into heaven, since over his lifetime he had certainly done more good deeds than bad.  His belief consisted of a large scale with the good deeds on one side and the bad deeds on the other, and if the good side of the scale is heavier, you’re in!

The idea that heaven is the reward we receive for living a good life is the most commonly held belief in all world religions.  Outside of Christianity the reward may be called by other names, but the general idea is the same – there is a reward we receive in the afterlife that is given to us on the basis of our behavior. 

I was raised on the other side of the spectrum from the mob boss, in a church that took sin, heaven and judgment very seriously. I grew up believing it was wrong to ever assume you were saved, because, when you accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior, your past sins were forgiven, but from then on you were expected to be on your way to becoming perfect with the help of the Holy Spirit. If you did sin, every sin had to be confessed and forgiven or it remained on your record; and any sin remaining on your record when you died would mean you were not saved.

 I was born into a church-going family, but I officially made the decision to become a Christian at the age of 10.  Therefore, according to what I was taught, all of the sins I had committed from the ages of 0-10 were forgiven, but after that the burden was on me to let the Holy Spirit make me perfect. I had to be prepared to confess each sin I did commit; preferably before I went to sleep each night, in case I died in my sleep or was hit by a bus as soon as I left the house in the morning; because if I died with any unconfessed sin, I was lost.

Many churches still teach this today but most of those that do, cut their believers some slack by making a distinction between faults, mistakes and sins.  Faults and mistakes, they say, if unconfessed, won’t remain on your record and keep you out of heaven, which leaves only the big intentional sins to be confessed.  This interpretation gives the believer at least a glimmer of hope; a possibility of meeting the requirements for salvation.  My church, however, offered no such escape clause.  When I said they took sin seriously, even eating between meals was considered a sin! The list of sins was endless. There was not only the list of sins I had actually committed, there was also the list of the good things I should have done and didn’t do, which were also sins.

Needless to say, by the time I was eleven it was painfully obvious I wasn’t perfect and I was fairly certain I already had unconfessed sins on my record, since I knew I couldn’t possibly have remembered everything l had done or not done! Discouragement set in at that point.  I began answering every altar call, begging for forgiveness and mercy.  No one wanted to spend eternity with Jesus more than I did, but it appeared hopeless.  In a few minutes I will explain to you why, looking back, I am actually grateful for that!

It was, literally, only by the grace of God that I did not give up.  I hung in there, hoping against hope that God would have mercy on me.  I was in my late twenties/early thirties before someone finally told me the Good News.  In scripture the word “gospel” in the original Greek means “good news”.  I can honestly remember feeling guilty as a teen because I secretly wondered why it was called that.  I concluded that it must only be good news for good people, and I was obviously not good enough.  Consequently, when someone did finally present to me what scripture actually teaches about grace, although my heart swelled with hope, I was terribly afraid that this news was too good to be true.  I wanted with all of my heart to believe it, but I knew that if I believed it and it wasn’t true, I would be lost.  To me it was a matter of life and death!

Fortunately, two of the good things my church had taught me were that scripture was the inspired word of God and could be trusted to be true, and that every believer could count on the Holy Spirit to teach them. You didn’t have to be a preacher with a degree for the Holy Spirit to help you to understand the truth. With that assurance in my heart, I decided to “lock myself away” with only the book of Romans and the Holy Spirit until I understood what the Bible really had to say about how a person was “saved” (or how they got to heaven.) And, when I came out on the other side of that study, I believed that the good news of God’s grace was really good news and it completely transformed my life!

For the next few minutes I’d like to share with you, from the first three chapters of the book of Romans, the answers that I found to the question of what God will be waiting to hear from you when you reach the pearly gates; as well as the differences between what the Mob Boss believed, what I believed, what all other major religions believe and what scripture actually has to say about what is required to get through those gates.

The reason I turned to the Book of Romans for the answers to my life and death questions was because it is the clearest, most methodical presentation of the gospel in scripture.  Paul presents the message step by step.  The first three chapters are actually intended to bring everyone to the point of hopelessness and despair. The reason Paul begins this way is because, until we are totally convinced of the absolute desperation of our situation, we will not be interested in the remedy.  This is the reason I am actually grateful for the despair I lived in all those years.  When I finally heard the good news I was completely prepared to receive it, like a drowning man would a life preserver!

In chapter 1, the verse we are all probably most familiar with is verse 16, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile.” But the next verse is equally important, “For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: ‘The righteous will live by faith.’” 

The reason we all know verse 16 and aren’t as familiar with 17 is actually at the heart of our problem.  We human beings love to have everything be about us.  We want the focus to be on us!  We like the idea of the gospel being about God’s power, but we want it to be all about God’s power IN US.  If it’s God’s power in us, then it’s about US. The focus will be on how and what I am doing for God.  But, if you look at the verses, they actually say this gospel, this good news, is about God’s power FOR us who believe.  It is about God’s righteousness, not ours.  It’s about God’s power to, through his son, give us his own righteousness, and all we have to do is believe, or have faith in God’s power to give us that righteousness – it’s a gift we accept by faith alone, from first to last!  The focus then, is on God and God alone, which is where it should be!  The danger comes when we begin putting ourselves into the equation; thinking that we can add anything to what God has provided for our rescue.

The rest of chapter 1 tells the story of how sin has taken over the world and its thinking.  Even though God has plainly revealed himself to the unbelieving world through his creation, they rejected the truth and their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened; so, they have no excuse to offer God when they stand before him.  They can’t say ‘we had no basis to believe you were real, so we didn’t believe.’

Chapter 2 begins by focusing on anyone who might be feeling superior to those poor schmucks described in chapter 1, “You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge another, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things.” (Romans 2:1) The next few verses are basically the same, stating in different ways the fact that we are all a mess. We are all aware of God’s mercy and kindness, which is meant to make us sorry for our behavior and then cause us to stop acting that way; yet, none of us stop.  We just keep messing up over and over. 

Remember the churches that let their members off the hook by making a distinction between faults, mistakes and sins?  The most common word for sin in the Greek is hamartia and it actually means “missing the mark”.  The “mark” that we are missing is the righteousness of God.  Anything less than “hitting the mark” of the perfect righteousness of God is “missing the mark”; or sin.  God sees no difference between faults, mistakes and sins to give us an easy out.  Verses 6 and 7 say, “God will repay each person according to what they have done.  To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life.”  The words “persistence in doing good”, in the Greek, are in a tense that means to continuously, on an ongoing basis, do good.  In other words, to those who continuously, always, do good, God will give eternal life. But Paul has already said in verse 5 that because of our stubbornness and unrepentant hearts we are storing up wrath against ourselves for the day of God’s wrath when his righteous judgment will be revealed.  Feeling hopeless yet?

At the end of chapter 2, going into the first part of chapter 3, Paul, who has been mainly talking to the Gentiles up ‘til now, says that if you sin without the law (like the Gentiles), you’ll be judged apart from the law; but if you have the law and you sin, you’ll be judged by the law.  Then he begins to deal with those who had been given the law; those who had been entrusted with the very words of God and had witnessed his power and glory and experienced his presence in their lives; yet all of those blessings were still not enough to enable them to obey the law God had given them.  Paul points out that they were just as guilty of sinning as the Gentiles.  Then, verse 13 sums it all up, “For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God’s sight, but it is those who obey the law who will be declared righteous.”  I will get back to this verse in a minute, but let’s move on to chapter 3 first.

Chapter 3 gives us a scathing description of the human condition.  It is so scathing, in fact, that everyone I know who reads it has the same reaction, “These verses aren’t talking about me. I’m certainly not this bad. This is a description of the really bad people out there.”  But in reality, what Paul has done in Romans 3:10-18 is to collect a number of verses from the Old Testament where God himself is describing mankind, and put them all in one place so that there can be no question of how God views humanity:

¹⁰ As it is written:

“There is no one righteous, not even one;
¹¹ there is no one who understands,
no one who seeks God.
¹² All have turned away,
they have together become worthless;
there is no one who does good,
not even one.”
¹³ “Their throats are open graves;
their tongues practice deceit.”
“The poison of vipers is on their lips.”
¹⁴ “Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.”
¹⁵ “Their feet are swift to shed blood;
¹⁶ ruin and misery mark their ways,
¹⁷ and the way of peace they do not know.”
¹⁸ “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

And then he sums it up by saying in verse 19, “Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God.”  Whether you are a Gentile, who never had the law but broke your own internal moral code, or a Jew, who had the Law of God, you stand before God with nothing to say. Then Paul lands the final crushing blow in verse 20, ^“Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin.” 

Now let’s go back to, verse 13 of Chapter 2 where Paul said, “For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God’s sight, but it is those who obey the law who will be declared righteous.” Yet, here in Chapter 3 verse 20 he tells us that no one will be declared righteous by keeping the law.  What is he saying?  He is saying, “Here is the criterion for salvation: perfect obedience to the law; but no one can do it!” 

Paul has brought us carefully to the point of hopelessness, and then finally shows us our only hope:

^“ But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe...for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”  (verses 21-24)  Because no one can ever be declared righteous by keeping the law, God has provided a righteousness for us that is apart from the law, and that righteousness comes only through faith in Jesus Christ, to all who believe.  None of us can earn or deserve this righteousness.  Our justification is given freely by his grace, or his totally undeserved love and mercy.

To be “justified” doesn’t simply mean to be declared not guilty.  It means so much more than that.  It means to be declared righteous, with the very righteousness of God himself, fully satisfying the requirements for salvation! What an amazing gift!

So, if you arrived at the gates of heaven and God asked you why he should let you in, the only acceptable answer will always be, “Because of my faith in Jesus Christ alone as my righteousness.”

 

Snake Bites

                                        
                                       

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.” Galatians 3:13

My all time favorite movie line comes from, of all things, a Veggie Tales movie – The Pirates Who Don’t Do Anything.  Sedgwick, one of the pirates, finding himself in a seemingly hopeless situation, lies down and begins to review his life as he prepares to die.  “It was a good life,” he says, “at least that one day…from about 2:00 to 2:30.” I laugh every time I think about it! 

I was reading John chapter 3 and came across verses 14 and 15:  “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.”  The story about Moses and the snake is found in the book of Numbers, so I decided to see what the connection was between that incident and what Jesus was saying in John.

As I leafed through Numbers, I saw that, from the moment the Israelites left Mt. Sinai, a pattern emerged.  God watched over them and provided for them, but the Israelites felt his provisions were not up to their standards; they then bitterly complained about the miserable life they had; God severely reprimanded them for their lack of gratitude and respect; and then they repented.  That same story, with varying details, repeats throughout the entire book.

The life the Israelites were living may not have been one of riches and pleasure, but God made sure their basic needs were met.  He miraculously provided water in the desert when there was none.  He sent them their daily food in the form of manna when there was no other food to be found. Deuteronomy 8:4 and 29:5 says their clothes and sandals did not wear out and their feet did not swell during their forty years in the wilderness.  It was a no frills life, but as Deuteronomy 8 explains, it was the life God intended them to have, to mold them and teach them the lessons he wanted them to learn. But the Israelites were not satisfied with what God gave them; they felt entitled to frills!

In Numbers 21 they were traveling from one place to another and on the way they became impatient and once again began to complain about the life God had given them: “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the desert? There is no bread! There is no water! And we detest this miserable food!” (Verse 5)  They called the manna, which God hand delivered to them each morning, detestable!

This time God’s severe reprimand was delivered to them in the form of what I think of as a living parable; he sent them poisonous snakes which bit them, and many of them died.  The snakes were both the deserved curse for their disobedience and disrespect, and a tangible representation of the venom of sin that constantly poisoned the Israelites’ minds toward everything in their lives, including God. 

In this and the other similar stories, my tendency is always to shake my head at the hard-headed, dim-witted Israelites, until God reminds me that we are all alike.  We have often been dissatisfied with the lives we have been given. As a matter of fact, some of us, like Sedgwick, can only think of about half an hour on “that one day” when we were satisfied!

Instead of understanding and accepting that the life circumstances God has given us are part of his plan to mold and teach us, we have all wished for more – more money, better cars, bigger houses, better jobs, kinder spouses, grateful children, truer friends, better health, fewer problems, and have often allowed those desires to be the driving force in our lives, sometimes even to the point of anger at God when we don’t get what we want.  And, we have all feared what we might have to deal with in the future, despite the many evidences God has given us of his presence and blessings in our past.  Our minds, too, have been poisoned by the venom of sin.  That is why what happens next in the story is so important.

The Israelites ran to Moses and said, “We sinned when we spoke against the Lord and against you.  Pray that the Lord will take the snakes away from us.” 

But, instead of taking the snakes away, God tells Moses to do something very strange, “Make a snake and put it up on a pole; and anyone who is bitten can look at it and live.”

If I were writing this story, I would have written it a little differently.  First of all, in answer to Moses’ prayer for the people, I would have had God take away the snakes, so that his words would be in the past tense “and anyone who was [had already been] bitten can look at it and live” Then, I would have had Moses make something more pleasant to put on the pole; something like a dove or maybe a rainbow, to turn their minds toward God’s promises when they looked at it. 

But that is not how the story went, and this is the link between this story and Jesus in John chapter 3.  God had Moses make a replica of the poisonous snake, the very thing God had sent them as a punishment or curse for their disobedience; the snake which also represented sin itself, the ultimate curse; and He told Moses to put it on a pole so that “anyone who is bitten can look at it and live.” Why would God want them to look at the snake?

In John 3, Jesus compares himself to that snake on a pole because he knew that when he was lifted up on the cross he, in essence, would become the snake.  He became the curse; and, not only that, 2 Corinthians 5:21 says he actually became sin for us! 

On the cross he took the entire curse of sin, which we deserved, upon himself, so that anyone who is bitten- and we all have been and will continue to be on this earth – can look at him and, seeing what he did for us, believe in him and have eternal life! (John 3:15)  

Because of Jesus, the fatal effect of sin’s poison has been overcome forever!

Vicarious Victories part 3: No Longer Accused

 

Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say: “Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Messiah. For the accuser of our brothers and sisters, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down.”  Revelation 12:10

 

I had a hard time with temptation number 3.  Since I had already written about 1 and 2, I felt I had to cover all of them, but I just didn’t have a handle on what to do with this last one.  When I read the passage initially, I thought it was going to be easy, which is funny, because that’s what it seemed to be about – easy. 

Satan took Jesus from the top of the temple to “a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor.  “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.”” (Matthew 4:8-9)

At first glance, it seemed obvious that this was a temptation about taking the easy way out.  “Skip the whole torture and death thing, Jesus; I’ll just give it to you if you worship me.”  Avoid pain whenever possible.  That pretty much sums up my philosophy of life.  I’m not just talking about physical pain, although I definitely try to avoid that; I’m talking about all pain.  If I had my way, I would never have to worry about money or relationship issues or illness or death.  I would live happily ever after.  I would have a life of, well, ease.

Jesus obviously didn’t take the easy way out, and his victory is applied to me, for all of the times I avoided pain to the point of being dishonest, lazy, selfish, etc.  The End.

Easy, right?  But, for some reason, with this temptation, I just couldn’t get past what Satan was offering.  He showed Jesus all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor, and he said he would give it all to Jesus.  This presupposes that it was his to give.  Note that Jesus didn’t laugh at him and say, “Who do you think you’re kidding?”  If what Satan was offering Jesus was just ridiculous, then the temptation was no temptation at all; but, obviously, it was a real temptation, so what was it all about?

 I don’t claim to understand whether, as some have suggested, Satan had some official role in relation to the earth, and, if so, when it was given to him (Before the fall? After the fall?); but, in at least three Old Testament passages, Job 1 and 2 and Zechariah 3, Satan is mentioned as coming before God in what appears to be a representative manner regarding matters that concern this world.  In each instance, he was either looking for someone to accuse, or he was accusing.

 Regardless of whether or not Satan was the Representative of Earth in the Heavenly Council, we do know that since the time of Adam, every single person had sinned, and now stood condemned to suffer the wrath of God.   Romans 2:5 says, “But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God’s wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed.”  Ephesians 2:3 says we were all, by nature, objects deserving God’s wrath.  Satan’s rule over the earth was based on his right to stand before God and accuse everyone on the planet of deserving God’s wrath, or punishment, which would be poured out on the Day of Judgment.

In the book of John, there are three passages where Jesus refers to Satan as “the prince of this world”, and these passages helped me to understand the third temptation.  The setting for each of these passages is the week before Jesus’ death, and each reference to Satan is specifically related to that death. 

In John 12, what we refer to as Palm Sunday had just occurred. In verse 27 Jesus spoke of all that he was facing, and his feelings about it.  He said, “Now my heart is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour?’ No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour.  Father, glorify your name!”

 He was troubled at the thought of what lay ahead, and his Father heard the cry of his Son and answered him, “I have glorified it, and will glorify it again.”  (John 12:28) In that exchange between Jesus and his Father we see that, Jesus had come for the very purpose of suffering and dying, and that his suffering and death would bring glory to his Father.  God’s answer to him was that, in Jesus’ birth, life and ministry to this point, he had already been glorified, and that now, in Jesus’ suffering, death and resurrection, he would be glorified again.

In that context, Jesus says, “Now is the time for judgment on this world, now the prince of this world will be driven out.”  (John 12:31)  Jesus was about to end the power of Satan’s rule once and for all.  He was going to drive him out!  But, how would he do that?  First, he would take, as his own, the sins of the entire world.  He assumed the responsibility for every sin of every human that had ever lived or would ever live.  Then, he faced God’s righteous judgment for all of those sins, and stood as one condemned before God, deserving of his wrath.  And, finally he satisfied God’s wrath by offering himself as a sacrifice, for us, on the cross.  The resurrection was the evidence that the mission was accomplished and the sacrifice was accepted.

Satan could no longer accuse anyone who accepted Jesus’ sacrifice on their behalf.  Judgment had already been satisfied.  “…there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1) Satan’s power was broken at the cross!

Jesus’ second reference to Satan as the prince of this world is in John chapter 14.  Jesus was with the disciples at the Last Supper.  He had told them that one of them would betray him, and in chapter 13, Satan had entered Judas, and Judas left to set his betrayal in motion.  Jesus continued preparing the disciples for what lay ahead, and he comforted them by telling them that he would be going to be with his Father soon, but that he would send them another Advocate or Comforter, the Holy Spirit, who would “remind you of everything I have said to you.”  He told them that he was leaving his peace with them and that they didn’t need to be worried or afraid.  He told them that they should be glad he was going to his Father and then he said, “I will not speak with you much longer, for the prince of this world is coming.  He has no hold on me, but the world must learn that I love the Father and that I do exactly what my Father has commanded me.” (verses 30-31)

With those words Jesus made clear that he was not Satan’s victim, or submitting to Satan’s power in going to his death; rather, he was going to his death for us, because he loved his Father, and this was not only his Father’s will, but his command, and Jesus fulfilled all of his Father’s commands.

The third reference is found in John 16.  They are still at the Last Supper and Jesus is once again speaking of the Holy Spirit who would be coming to them.  While all of what he said to them about the coming Counselor is important, right now I want to focus only on what Jesus says here about the work of the Holy Spirit in regard to Satan.  “When he [the Holy Spirit] comes he will convict the world…in regard to judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned.”(Verses 8,11)  As he has throughout his discourse on his soon coming suffering and death, Jesus spoke of the outcome as a completed fact.  Here he confidently proclaims that the prince of this world stands condemned.  When the Holy Spirit arrived, he would prove the world wrong about their idea of judgment.  The sins of the world were judged, condemned and atoned for, at the cross.  Forgiveness is there for all who will accept it.  The only one who stands condemned, without hope, is the accuser himself.

Now, let’s go back to the mountaintop and consider what Satan was actually suggesting in his alternative plan.    “…the devil… showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor.  “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.”” (Matthew 4:8-9) 

“Forget the sins of the world,” he was saying, “look at all there is to enjoy.  See the splendors the world has to offer.  If you join forces with me, if you acknowledge me as your God, what a ride we could have!  Our pleasures would be unending; our power would be unstoppable.  Forget your Father who expects you to suffer and die!  How crazy is that?  Look at what he wants for you versus what I want for you! You have to look out for Number One.  You’re worth it; they aren’t!  They made their own bed; just let them lie in it.”

“Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan!  For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’”

Yes, Jesus refused to take the easy way out, and that victory is applied to me for every time I have; but, he also chose to ignore the pleasures of the world; he refused to put himself and his enjoyment first;  he chose to ignore worldly power and fame.  Instead, “he made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant…he humbled himself and became obedient to death—even death on a cross!” (Philippians 2:7,8)

For every time I have chosen to put myself first and have chosen the pleasures of the world over God and over my fellowman; for every time I have chosen power over humility; for every time I have acted on the thought that “they made their own bed; just let them lie in it”; Jesus’ victory on that mountaintop is applied to me.

And not just that, but, for every sin that you and I have ever committed, or ever will commit, because Jesus chose to be obedient to death, his victory was applied to us, at the cross; we need only to accept it, and we are no longer accused.

Vicarious Victories Part 2: Is The Lord Among Us or Not?

“And he called the place Massah and Meribah because the Israelites quarreled and because they tested the Lord saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?” Exodus 17:7

In a previous blog entitled Already There, I told the story of a Pass it On card which, to this day, I believe God gave to me.  The message on the card was, “Don’t worry about tomorrow, God is already there”.  Last June I spoke at a women’s retreat in Pennsylvania and, since I was going to tell the story of that card, I decided to take it with me to show them.  When the retreat was over, I remember putting it in my purse so that I wouldn’t lose it, and after that I have a very hazy impression that I was afraid it might fall out of my purse, so I moved it; but, the fact of the matter was, when I got home I couldn’t find it.  I took everything out of my purse and wallet, twice.  I looked through my suitcase and my car. I looked through my Bible, which is full of old class notes, pictures and mementos, but to no avail.  I was just sick to think that it was gone!  I finally comforted myself with the thought that, if it had fallen out somewhere, maybe someone else who needed it had found it and the Pass it On card had actually been passed on; but every time I thought about it I had a pang of loss.

 I’ll get back to this story and what it has to do with Jesus’ second temptation in a minute, but first I want to talk about the temptation itself.  For the setting of the second temptation, Matthew says in chapter 4 verse 5, “Then the devil took him [Jesus] to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple.”  What strikes me immediately are the words, “took him” and “had him stand”.  This was obviously not a situation where Satan asked Jesus whether he would be willing to go with him to the temple, he just took him and had him stand where he wanted him.  This was only the case because God allowed it to be so.  These temptations were an integral part of the plan for Jesus to “fulfill all righteousness” for us.  Jesus had been led into the desert initially for the express purpose of being tempted by the devil (Matthew 4:1) and Jesus was obediently submitting to the test.  And so, we find the still hungry, weakened Jesus standing on the pinnacle of the temple awaiting Satan’s next attack. 

Satan begins with the word “If” once more.  “If you are the Son of God,” he said, throw yourself down,” and then, with a new strategy, he justifies this request with scripture taken from Psalm 91: “He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.”  Initially this temptation confused me.  What would be the benefit to Jesus in jumping off the pinnacle of the temple, which would make this suggestion tempting to him at all?  Is it likely that he would be enticed by the thought of a circus-like spectacle literally jump-starting his messianic career? 

It wasn’t until I delved into Jesus’ response that the real temptation began to emerge.  “Jesus answered him, “It is also written, “Do not put the Lord your God to the test.”” (Matthew 4:7) If we accept the premise that Jesus might actually have been tempted by the idea of a temple dive/angel rescue show, then his answer would simply mean that it is wrong to try to force God’s hand by intentionally putting yourself in danger and expecting God to rescue you; and, there is nothing wrong with that lesson!  However, the scripture Jesus was quoting from is found in Deuteronomy 6:16: “Do not test the Lord your God as you did at Massah.”  And the story of what happened at Massah, or Meribah, suggests a slightly different interpretation.

This story is found in Exodus 17.  It had not been long since God had brought the Israelites out of Egypt and rescued them from Pharaoh as he pursued them, by parting the Red Sea.  They were being led every step of their journey to the Promised Land by the Lord himself in a pillar of cloud by day and fire by night.  In chapter 16 we have the story of how God miraculously provided first quail and then manna for them to eat.  Never, since Adam and Eve left the Garden of Eden, had there been such a tangible demonstration of God’s power and presence in the earth.  In chapter 17 we find that the Lord had been leading the Israelites from place to place, and they had just arrived at Rephidim, where we are told in verses 1-3, that “…there was no water for the people to drink.  So they quarreled with Moses and said, “Give us water to drink.” Moses replied, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you put the Lord to the test?””

In the desert…no water to drink…The Israelites make a seemingly reasonable complaint and Moses calls it “quarreling” and asks why they are putting the Lord to the test.  What is really going on here?  The answer is, with all of the visible, tangible evidence of God’s presence and his ability and willingness to provide for them, the Israelites still didn’t trust God.  They looked at the outward circumstances and became fearful, and angry that God had put them in that position.  Rather than waiting to see how God would provide, they demanded their right to water!  They demanded that God prove himself, by giving them what they wanted. 

Now, let’s go back to Jesus on top of the temple.  Both the scripture which Satan quoted and the story behind the scripture that Jesus quoted, deal with trusting God to provide.  With that as the key, I see Satan saying to Jesus,” If you really are who you say you are, God’s Son, then surely God would save you if you jumped from here.  If you aren’t willing to jump, it is either because you are a fraud, and therefore you know God wouldn’t rescue you, or, you don’t really believe that God can be trusted.”

And, I see Jesus’ response as saying, “I know who I am, and I have complete faith in God. He has promised to give me whatever I need, and he is faithful.  I would never demand that he prove himself.”

And, finally, back to my Pass it On card.  As I was preparing to write this blog, I was flipping back and forth through the scripture passages in my Bible when suddenly the pages fell open and there tucked snugly in the crease of the binding, was my precious card! I gasped and stared in dumbfounded amazement at the familiar picture of a rainbow, and the words, “Don’t worry about tomorrow, God is already there.” My first response was overwhelming gratitude!   But, can you guess what my second response was?   Fear.  Why is God giving this message to me now?  Is something about to happen?  Of course, I immediately saw how incongruous those two responses were, and yet how typically human.

When I read stories about the Israelites’ lack of trust in God after all that he did for them to demonstrate his love, it is easy for me to take a haughty attitude and wonder how they could be so outrageously stupid; and yet, we are the same.  How grateful I am that, on that temple pinnacle, Jesus won the victory for all of us who have repeatedly forgotten all that God has done for us, and have been afraid and doubted him, and demanded that he prove himself once more.   

Sabbatum Sanctum

For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.  Matthew 12:8

The church I grew up in believed in keeping the Seventh day Sabbath, or Saturday, holy.  I have many treasured Sabbath memories, but there was also a great deal of legalism associated with the day.  Recently I have spent time examining the concept of Sabbath in scripture, in the light of Grace, and because this is Easter Week, I thought it might be an appropriate time to share my thoughts with you.

When God finished the creation process, his relationship with Adam and Eve was perfect. They were in total harmony. There were no unmet expectations on either side. They had nothing to prove to God, and felt no need for him to prove anything to them. They didn’t know good, and they didn’t know evil, they just experienced the perfect rest that was their existence. All the work had been done for them, and everything was there for them to enjoy. I believe that, at the conclusion of creation, on the 7th day, they entered that “rest”, and it continued for them until Adam and Eve left that place of perfect rest by doing the one thing which broke the harmony, which was, of course, eating the fruit. At that point the curses given to them had to do with laboring, for both male and female; but, the promise was given that one day a savior would come to restore what was lost.

When the Law was given, the heart of the law was the Sabbath. The Sabbath in the law wasn’t so much “a memorial of creation”, as I was taught, it was a memorial of that blessed rest that had once existed, and a promise that it would one day be restored. All of the other commandments were true laws, but, to me, the Sabbath commandment was the only one that was pure grace. “In it thou shalt not do any work...” instead of being a suffocating rule, it was meant to be a promise of the true rest that can only be found in accepting Jesus’ completed work for us in his death and resurrection.

When Jesus was on earth, the only commandment he made a point of “breaking” was the Sabbath. He didn’t go around taking God’s name in vain, or stealing, killing or committing adultery, and then saying it was because he was above the law; but, he did go around doing what was forbidden on the Sabbath and saying he was Lord of the Sabbath. That is because he was the one and only Lord who, through his death and resurrection, could reinstate the original rest that existed at the completion of creation. He was the fulfillment of the Sabbath. In his death, he rested on the Sabbath, fulfilling once and for all the Sabbath commandment, and when he rose on Easter Sunday, He was the Sabbath rest.

Hebrews 4 speaks of the story where the Israelites were right on the border of the Promised Land, but looked to themselves and assessed their own abilities to conquor the land and found themselves lacking; so, based on their own inadequacies, they talked themselves out of entering God’s rest, even though God had told them he would do all the work for them. In Hebrews, the writer asks his readers not to make the same mistake. In other words, he warns them, us, against looking to ourselves and our own inadequacies and unworthiness to enter “the promised land”, but urges us to look to the One who has already done for us all that is necessary to enter, and asks us to enter, by faith in him.

Verse 10 of Hebrews 4 says, “For the one who has entered His rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from His.” In other words, by accepting Jesus’ work on our behalf, by faith alone we enter His rest, and we rest from all of our vain efforts to earn our salvation by our behavior. Verse 3 says God finished his works at the foundation of the world, so “His rest” that we are entering, is the original rest which began on the 7th day. The journey from the original rest and back is completed in Christ. That rest is ours to enjoy, beginning here and now.

Vicarious Victories

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.  Hebrews 4:15-16

Have you ever come off of a spiritual high only to crash and burn in an ugly way?  Have you ever been in a weak and vulnerable place and given in to a temptation that you might normally have been able to resist?  Have you ever been challenged in a negative way to “prove yourself”, and come back with a nasty, defensive or prideful response? Have you ever used the good gifts God gave you for your own glory, rather than his?  If you answered yes to any (or, in my case, all) of these questions, take heart! 

I have read and heard the story of the first temptation of Jesus, found in Matthew 4:1-4, many times, and the typical interpretation usually focused on how Jesus responded to Satan’s initial attack by quoting scripture, thus leaving us an example of how we, too, can combat the enemy with the word of God.

Recently, however, I have looked at this story another way.  For me it really begins with the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist.  When Jesus approached John, John objected at first, saying that he was the one who should be asking Jesus to baptize him; but, Jesus explained to John that he needed to do this “to fulfill all righteousness.”  (Matthew 3:15)  So, as Jesus began his public life, he stated its purpose, the fulfilling of every righteous requirement of God.  And why was Jesus setting out to do this?  So that he could be the perfect sacrifice, without spot or wrinkle, and be able to credit to us his own life of perfect obedience in exchange for our lives full of failure and shame.

As Jesus came up out of the baptismal water, the heavens opened and God spoke, saying, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”  What an amazing moment that must have been for Jesus!  The Eternal God, affirming him publicly at the beginning of his ministry; stating that he loved him and was pleased with him; calling him his Son! (Matthew 3:17)

The very next verse, says that “Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil.”  (Matthew 4:1) Notice who led him – The Spirit; and the purpose – to be tempted by the devil.  Jesus’ first step of fulfilling all righteousness was baptism; his second step was to be tempted by the devil.  In preparation for this second step, Jesus fasted forty days and forty nights; serious preparation for this most serious encounter!  In a masterful example of understatement, Matthew says “He was hungry.”

It was then that “The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”” (Matthew 4:3)  At first glance, it seems to be a rather harmless temptation.  As a matter of fact, it almost seems like more of a logical suggestion, than a temptation.  But upon closer examination we notice the word, “if”, and the darker picture begins to emerge.  Here was Jesus, coming off the great high where the heavens opened, and the Spirit of God descended on him like a dove, and God called him his Son, and said he loved him and was pleased with him; and here was Satan, when Jesus was vulnerable after a forty day fast, challenging him to “prove it” – to prove that he was the Son of God – by urging him to fall prey to his current vulnerability, his hunger, and to use his power, his gifts, for his own gratification, rather than to the glory of God; the same things I listed in the opening paragraph.

And, what did Jesus do?  He met the challenge with the Word of God.  He succeeded where you and I have failed.  He fulfilled righteousness for us in that temptation.  He was victorious in our place, and he credits to us that victory in every instance of our failure!  Because of Jesus’ victories in fulfilling all righteousness for us, and nothing of our own, God now speaks to us as well, calling us His sons and daughters, telling us he loves us and that he is as pleased with us as he is with his Son!  Grace never ceases to amaze me!

My list of the vicarious victories contained in the first temptation is by no means exhaustive.  If you see more and would like to share them, I’d be delighted.  This new perspective on the temptations has made me want to delve more deeply into each one, and to all of Jesus’ life, to discover new facets of what Jesus did for me in his life, death and resurrection.  I hope that you will be inspired to do the same. 

 

UNWORTHY SERVANTS

 “Suppose one of you had a servant plowing or looking after the sheep. Would he say to the servant when he comes in from the field, ‘Come along now and sit down to eat’?  Would he not rather say, ‘Prepare my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink; after that you may eat and drink’?  Would he thank the servant because he did what he was told to do?  So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.’”  Luke 17:7-10

          I recently stumbled across this parable and have no memory of ever seeing it before.  Obviously, I must have, since I have read Luke many times and even taught a class on it in Senior High Sunday School, but apparently this particular passage never registered with me until now.  I suspect I know why it didn’t register.  On the surface it isn’t a warm and fuzzy parable.  As a matter of fact, it seems pretty cold!  I’m sure it made me uncomfortable, so I hurried on to more pleasant verses.  This time, however, it leapt off the page and gave me a valuable missing piece to the puzzle of grace.

 I grew up in a church that taught plenty of action/consequence and very little grace.  My church’s idea of grace was that God would give me the ability to earn my salvation, so, if I failed to earn my salvation, it wasn’t God’s fault.  In previous blogs I have written about my joyous discovery that Christianity was not about action/consequence – If I do this then God will do that - but about death/resurrection – I was dead in my transgressions and sins and God, in his mercy, made me alive with Christ. (See Ephesians 2:1-9).  For me it was very good news that not only was it going to be hard for me to earn my salvation, it was impossible, even with help, because I was dead! And while I was dead, Christ fulfilled all the requirements for me and then paid the penalty for my sins, so that when he was resurrected, I was resurrected with him!

I reveled in the fact that there was nothing more I could do to add to what Christ had already done for me.  I reveled in it, that is, until I ran into verses that sounded like there was something more I was supposed to do to add to what Christ had done for me, like good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do (See Ephesians 2:10); then, I would get nervous and uncomfortable.  And there are enough verses that talk about the good things Christians are supposed to do, and the bad things Christians are not supposed to do, that I would frequently find myself nervous and uncomfortable.  Then I would go back and reread the passages of scripture that clearly taught the finished work of Christ on my behalf, and I would feel the relief wash over me again.

I have struggled desperately to understand the part that my behavior plays in my relationship with God.  I understood that my works could never be good enough to save me; but, could my lack of good works, or my bad deeds somehow “lose” me?  Even those who believe in eternal security have a loophole that says if the person goes off the deep end they were never saved to begin with. 

I have frequently used the illustration that salvation is like a teacher giving you an A in the class on the first day, no strings attached; and then offering to help you learn the material at your own pace, with no fear of failure. The A represents salvation.  It is a gift, with no strings attached; and then God tailor makes a learning plan for each one of us, according to our individual needs. 

But that learning plan presupposes that I will learn, and by “learn” I mean become more like Jesus; but what if I don’t?  What if I look at myself after all these years of being a Christian and I still seem very much the same as I always have, with maybe a little more knowledge and understanding, but not much transformation?  How much transformation is enough? How little transformation is too little? Is there really no fear of failure? Or is the A actually conditional after all?

This parable in Luke sheds some light on those questions for me.  There is a difference between having the A and being worthy of the A.  No matter how quickly or slowly I learn the material after I receive the A; I will not be able to add to the A.  If I work extremely hard and excel at the material, I cannot raise the grade to an A+.  If I’m a dunce and can’t seem to grasp a thing, I cannot lower my grade to a B, much less an F.  I cannot become more worthy of my grade, or more unworthy of my grade, primarily because no one is worthy of the grade, or ever could be.  Earning or deserving has been completely removed from the equation.  That is the entire point.  So, any work I do is not for credit, it is simply my duty.  No thanks needs to be given to me, and when I find myself expecting a pat on the back from God, I am reminded of my true condition – unworthy. 

I don’t know about you, but I find that to be a tremendous relief! Christ alone is worthy, so I do not have to be!  And what about the works which were prepared in advance for me to do? God knows what kind of a learner I am, and he created them just for me; but, whether they are great tasks or small tasks, and whether I perform them magnificently or falteringly, they earn me no credit or demerit in his eyes, since I have already been credited with perfection! Because of that, I can stand securely in this state of grace and say with a smile, “I am an unworthy servant and have only done my duty.”