He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not...He Loves Me!

 

 The Lord said to me, “Go show your love to your wife again, though she is loved by another and is an adulteress.  Love her as the Lord loves the Israelites, though they turn to other gods and love the sacred raisin cakes.” Hosea 3:1

 

Most of my reading time is spent in scripture or books about grace, but when I am on vacation I like to read novels, preferably love stories.  You might think that, if the plane went down, I’d want to be found reading scripture, but grace has made me secure enough to face God with a Debbie Macomber book in hand, if necessary. 

I was struck again on my recent trip to Florida that all love stories have a similar theme.  There is always someone who is unloved and thinks they will never find true love.  Sometimes they harbor a secret shame from their past which causes them to feel unworthy of love; sometimes they have been told they were unlovable by a parent or sibling or former spouse, and they believe it to be true; sometimes they are carrying the burden of someone else’s problems, bearing the responsibility alone because they can’t imagine that anyone else would be willing to help them.

Then, they find someone who seems too good to be true; someone who sees them for who they really are and not only loves them, but is willing to patiently break down all the walls they have put up and overcome all of the obstacles they have put in the way; someone who not only listens to them but genuinely hears them; someone who encourages them and is willing to be with them in any way that is needed.  There is always a struggle to believe and then a humble, grateful surrender to being finally, genuinely loved.

It’s what we all want. It’s the story of grace! On a messy human to messy human basis, it seldom works out the way it does in books, but with God that’s exactly how it works out, every time—only better!

I love the book of Hosea in the Bible. It’s a different kind of love story.  In Hosea 12:10 God says that he tells parables through his prophets and God definitely used Hosea as a living parable.  He instructed Hosea to marry a woman who, if she was not a prostitute, was at least someone who had no boundaries when it came to sleeping with other men.  So, Hosea married Gomer. 

God told Hosea that this living parable represented his people’s unfaithfulness to him and how he relates to them in the face of their unfaithfulness.  The first chapter and a half recount Gomer’s infidelity.  She bore Hosea several children, but there is some question as to whose they really are.  God instructs Hosea to give them disgraceful names:  Not Loved (or No Mercy) and Not My People, and in chapter two, which presumably is speaking of both Israel and Gomer, calls them children of adultery, conceived in disgrace (verses 4-5). God then goes on to describe how he intends to block Israel/Gomer from her lovers until she comes to a point where, out of frustration, she will decide to go back to her husband because she was better off, even though she still won’t acknowledge all of the blessings he lavished on her.  In chapter 2 verse 13, He declares that he will take away all of those blessings, because of all of the days she went after her lovers, but forgot him.

Then, in verse 14, something unexpected happens.  God says, “Therefore”, meaning, in light of all that she had done and God had done to humble her, “I am now going to….”  Our Action/Consequence nature fully expects God to fill in the blank with a long, specific list of how he will pour out his wrath on her and destroy her for her ingratitude and unfaithfulness; instead, he says he is “going to allure her; I will lead her into the desert and speak tenderly to her.  There I will give her back her vineyards and will make the Valley of Achor [which means ‘trouble’] a door of hope.  There she will sing as in the days of her youth, as in the day she came up out of Egypt.  In that day, declares the Lord, you will call me ‘my husband’; you will no longer call me ‘my master’.”  Instead of making Israel/Gomer justly suffer the consequences of her actions, God sets out to woo her back to him with tender words and undeserved gifts; making the valley of her trouble a door which leads to hope.

For the Action/Consequence mind, this is hard to accept.  There is nothing in the preceding verses which indicates that Israel/Gomer had seen the error of her ways and was truly repentant.  Even the decision to go back to her husband wasn’t made out of remorse; it was made for selfish reasons.  There was nothing in her that was worthy of God’s love; and yet, instead of turning his back on her or destroying her, he pursued her. 

We want to give Gomer, Israel, ourselves, credit for something in us which deserves this love; at the very least, we want to claim that we recognized on our own how awful our behavior had been, and that we mustered up a desire to change and make things right with God; but, there is no hint of that in this story, because this is the story of God’s love in the face of our unworthiness. We, like Gomer, are bereft of worthiness.  We have accepted all of the lavish gifts of God, with dim recognition; taking them for granted; often giving ourselves or others the credit.  We have denied his claims on us and have run to anyone and anything else to satisfy our wants and desires.  We are incapable of appreciating true love when it is given to us, much less being able to give it in return.  We are this way simply because it is our nature.  We have nothing to offer God but our sin.

For this very reason, God sent Jesus; not because we deserved to be rescued and loved; but because, in his mercy and goodness, he simply loved us; and, knowing that we could never deserve it, he desired to rescue us. He woos us with his Spirit and draws us to him, lavishing his gifts on us, whispering tender words, giving us hope. Because of God’s goodness, not ours, he promises that he will now call us My People and My Loved One, and we will call him My Husband.  “I will betroth you to me forever;” He promises, “I will betroth you in righteousness [His righteousness] and justice [His justice], in love [His love] and compassion [His compassion]. I will betroth you in faithfulness [His faithfulness], and you will acknowledge the Lord.” Hosea 2:19-20

Best romance of all time!

True Glory

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Romans 5:1-2

Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem, which we celebrate as Palm Sunday, was the epitome of Action/Consequence.  The same crowd who had wanted to make Jesus their ruler when he fed them with only five loaves and two fish; the same crowd who had witnessed the lame walking, the eyes of the blind opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped, had now seen Lazarus raised from the dead, and they could be contained no longer!  Word got out that Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem for Passover, and there was a sudden groundswell of people who wanted to seize the moment and crown Jesus as their king. 

They did not understand who Jesus was, or what he had come to do. They had simply seen what he was capable of doing for them in a temporal sense, and were excited at the prospect of having a king with that kind of power.  He could free them from the Romans; he could make Israel the most powerful nation on earth.  They could feel it, and taste it, and they were ready.

Jesus, too, was ready. He was about to become a king—the King of Kings, the King of Glory! His was the Death/Resurrection path, which was upside down and backwards from what they had in mind. However, since their plan was what God was going to use to set His plan in motion, Jesus cooperated. He told them where to find the donkey’s colt on which he would ride into Jerusalem, in fulfillment of Zechariah 9:9.  And, when the people gathered palm branches and came out to meet him shouting, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the King of Israel!” fulfilling Psalm 118:25-26, he did not silence them.

Everything the people said and did was actually an appropriate way to honor Jesus as their Lord and Savior, who was about to die for the sins of the world, but they did not understand that or view him in that way. John 12:37 says, “Even after Jesus had done all these miraculous signs in their presence, they still would not believe in him.”  John 12:16 tells us that Jesus’ own disciples did not realize until after Jesus was “glorified” that they had participated in fulfilling scriptures which had been written about him.

John 12:40 says they were blinded. They were unable to see anything beyond their Action/Consequence driven desires – to be free of Roman rule; to have a miracle-working king who would establish them as a powerful nation and would be able to provide them with a comfortable, and possibly even luxurious, earthly existence. They wanted Jesus to be what we all would like him to be—their earthly benefactor; someone who could give them a life of power and riches along with freedom from fear, pain, sickness and even death.  They perceived that Jesus had the ability to provide all of this for them, and they hoped he would look with special favor on those who helped to make him king.

But immediately after the grand procession, Jesus gave them a startling lesson on the difference between the earthly idea of glory and God’s idea.

In verse 20 of John chapter 12, Jesus’ disciples informed him that some Greeks had asked to see him.  Jesus could have replied in any number of ways; he could have said, “What do I have to do with Greeks? I have come to save the lost House of Israel.” Or, he could have simply told the disciples, “Bring them and I will meet with them.”  Instead, his reply was, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.”

From an Action/Consequence standpoint, it seems like Jesus had just been glorified by his triumphant entrance into Jerusalem.  We could even interpret his response to the request of the Greeks to meet with him as an acknowledgment that his fame had now spread beyond the borders of Israel and this was the beginning of his term as Israel’s Head of State.

But, Jesus had God’s perspective on glory. The word for “glory” in the Greek is “doxa” and implies a favorable opinion of something or someone.  He understood that true glory comes from having God’s favorable opinion; and so he began to talk about his death: “I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.” (John 12:24)  If Jesus had been interested in man’s idea of glory he could have become the earthly king and basked in earthly adulation; but he would have remained a single seed, an unproductive kernel, and he would have forfeited any hope of God’s favorable opinion, for himself and for us.

He knew that death lay ahead and 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!” (John 12:27-28)

God responded audibly to Jesus’ request by saying that he had already glorified his name—by sending Jesus to earth, and he would indeed glorify his name again—through Jesus’ death and resurrection.  God knew that humankind had no possibility of earning His favorable opinion. We had no hope of glory, unless Jesus fulfilled the purpose for which he came—to die, and save us.  His death alone could show us how serious our condition is, and to what lengths God was willing to go to rescue us. It is only when we grasp how far he was willing to go and how much he loved us, that we will give glory to God in return.

And, how serious is our condition? Colossians 2:13 and Ephesians 2:1 tell us, we were dead in our sins, but God made us alive with Christ. What this world considers “life” is actually a state of deadness.

Jesus says, “Anyone who loves their life will lose it, while anyone who hates their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me.” (John 12:25-26)

If we are happy in our Action/Consequence state of deadness, which is all about what we can possess and enjoy in this world, we will lose eternal life; but, if we acknowledge that we are dead, and serve Jesus by following him into his death and resurrection, then we will spend eternity with him.

Jesus says God will honor us; but not on the basis of our goodness.  He will honor us because we acknowledged his goodness on our behalf, and therefore we glorified his name.

Palm Sunday appeared to be about glory, but was not; the cross appeared to be about defeat, but was about the only true glory.

Christ is risen, and God has made us alive with him!

Happy Easter!

Beware of Ravenous Wolves

Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus you will recognize them by their fruits. Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’ Matthew 7:15-23

 

 I have mentioned in previous blogs that there are passages of scripture I have stayed away from because they make me nervous.  They make me nervous because, at first reading, which is always from the Action/Consequence perspective, they sound as if they are saying our salvation is based on how well we perform and not based on grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.  Matthew 7:15-23 has been one of those passages for me. 

The overall impression in the Action/Consequence version of this passage is that we should be on the lookout for false prophets who will appear to be good, but in reality are evil, and will try to make us evil as well. Then, we are given the secret of how to recognize these prophets.  The key is their “fruit”.  By the end of the passage, we are left with the feeling that we should be doing lots of good works; but that even things like prophesying, casting out demons and other mighty works are not necessarily good enough for God; therefore, we are all in danger of being cut down and thrown into the fire because we haven’t done enough.  Scary stuff!

Fortunately, there is a Death/Resurrection version; and, as always, it doesn’t come naturally to us, and is upside down and backwards from the Action/Consequence point of view.  So, I’m going to try to break it down, looking for the Death/Resurrection clues, and then pull it all together at the end.

The first clue in this passage is that these false prophets come in “sheep’s clothing”. I believe it is safe to say that these prophets arrive on the scene after Jesus’ death, resurrection and ascension.  Frequently, those who are listening to Jesus have no way of understanding what he means, because the events which will make it possible for them to understand have not yet occurred.  They cannot make the connection, as we can, that prophets who come in sheep’s clothing are ones who present themselves as belonging to Jesus, but who, in fact, are actually ravenous wolves. 

Jesus continues explaining how we will be able to see through their disguise, and know they are not representing him.  He says we will know by their “fruit”; and then his next clue is in the form of a question:  “Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles?”  The obvious answer is no; but what is Jesus implying?  These false prophets will not be capable of bearing fruit because they are only thornbushes and thistles.  Jesus didn’t randomly use those examples; thorns and thistles were part of the curse that came as a result of Adam’s sin in the Garden of Eden. (Genesis 3:18) And Jesus said that thornbushes and thistles cannot produce grapes or figs.  Grapes and figs were often mentioned together in the Old Testament and represented God’s blessing; and, conversely, the lack of grapes and figs represented a curse.  So, what we learn from this clue is that, the false prophets who claim to represent Jesus but are actually destructive and dangerous, are cursed plants incapable of growing the fruits which represent God’s blessing.

Jesus elaborates on that point by telling us that healthy trees will only produce good fruit, and diseased trees can only produce bad fruit; and then gives us the fate of every diseased tree: it will be cut down and thrown into the fire.  The implication is that these prophets are diseased trees and are fit only for destruction. He says “Thus, you will recognize them by their fruits,” which are bad fruits.

Then Jesus gives us the best clue of all.  He says, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.” 

To understand what Jesus means by doing the will of his Father, we can look at John 6:40 where he says, “For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life”.

I understand that you might think I’m stretching by tying those verses together, because our naturally Action/Consequence directed minds can only interpret the idea of ‘doing God’s will’ to mean performing works of obedience; so, let’s go to another passage, John 6:28-29.  In response to Jesus telling the gathered crowd that they should work for “food that endures to eternal life”, the people ask him, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?”   Obviously they had the same Action/Consequence understanding that we all do when we are told we have to ‘work’ for something pertaining to eternal life.  They wanted to know what they needed to do to be doing those works.  Notice the emphasis on their ‘doing’; but Jesus gave them a Death/Resurrection answer that was, of course, upside down and backwards from what they expected and even wanted to hear:  “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.”

The last clue is when Jesus immediately expands on the idea that only those who do the will of his Father will enter the kingdom of heaven by saying, “On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’” 

The fact of the matter is, our works, no matter how grand they may be, can never, ever be enough to recommend us to God! Anyone who comes to God saying ‘look at what I’ve done, let me into heaven’, will be turned away and called a worker of lawlessness; and the reason those who point to all the wonderful things they have done for God will be called “workers of lawlessness” is because they have failed to understand that the work of obedience God requires in order to earn eternal life is nothing less than perfect, unblemished holiness.  Believing and teaching others that anything less than perfect obedience to the law is acceptable to God is lawlessness, and an abomination to God.

False prophets are all who say they represent Jesus, but are preaching the lie of works righteousness. That is the bad fruit by which we will know them! As ravenous wolves, they will appeal to our Action/Consequence natures and deceive us into thinking we can and must earn our salvation, and this will ultimately lead us to destruction; because we are all diseased trees, only capable of producing bad fruit and only worthy of being cut down and thrown into the fire.

The only possible hope for any of us is to do the will of the Father by humbly and gratefully accepting as our own the perfect righteousness of his Son, Jesus Christ; and the only true prophets are those who boldly proclaim nothing but that glorious truth!

Commitment

All the people answered together and said, “All that the Lord has spoken, we will do.” Exodus 19:8

Twice the Israelites uttered the words above; once shortly before the law was given to them and once afterward.  They had just set up camp in the Desert of Sinai in front of the soon to be famous Mount Sinai, when the Lord called to Moses from that mountain, asking him to deliver a message to the people: “You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself.  Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” (Exodus 19:4-6)

In response to the condition attached to being God’s treasured possession--that of obeying God’s voice and keeping his covenant, the Israelites made their initial commitment above.

So, God set a date to meet with Israel to give them all of the terms of his covenant with them. They had three days to prepare for this meeting.  During that time, Moses had to consecrate the people and they were instructed to wash their clothes and abstain from sexual relations. Limits had to be set up at the foot of the mountain so no one could touch it, because if anyone touched the mountain they would be put to death. 

The morning of the third day arrived with thunder and lightning and a thick cloud of smoke over the mountain, because “the Lord descended on it in fire”.  The smoke billowed out and the trumpet blasted louder and louder.  The people trembled in terror.  And God pronounced the words of the Law.

And, when he had finished, once more the people solemnly chorused, “All that the Lord has spoken we will do.”  Do you think they meant it?  I do! How could they not have meant it? The Great God of the Universe was right there in front of them, on the mountain shrouded in fire and billows of smoke, personally telling them what they must do.  No one had experienced anything like this in the history of the world.  This was the same God who had sent all the plagues to Egypt, who first parted the Red Sea, then closed it over the attacking army; they had seen his power, they knew what he was capable of doing to those who did not do his will.  He told them what to do, and they intended to do it!

So, how was it possible then, that, while Moses was still up on the mountain with God, finalizing all of the plans for Israel’s new relationship as his kingdom of priests and his holy nation; while God was still writing with his own finger on the tablets of stone, those very same people who had spoken the words of commitment were, with Aaron’s help, building and worshipping a golden cow, in gratitude for its having brought them up out of the land of Egypt?  As I write, I am shaking my head in incredulity; and, yet, that is exactly what happened.

Flash forward now, to Jesus and his disciples.  If I asked you to name the first disciple that comes to your mind, you would probably say Peter.  His name heads the list of the three disciples who were closest to Jesus—Peter, James and John.  Peter was always the one waving his hand in the air when Jesus asked a question; like the time Jesus asked the twelve disciples who they thought he was.  Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the Living God.” (Matthew 16:16)  Jesus liked his answer and blessed him, because the Father had revealed the answer to him.

Peter was also on the mountain with Jesus when He was transfigured and could be seen in His heavenly glory.  Moses and Elijah, representing the Law and the Prophets which had pointed to and testified of Jesus, appeared on the mountain and talked with Jesus, and Peter was overcome; but not to the point of speechlessness!  He offered to put up three shelters, one each for Jesus, Moses and Elijah; but God himself interrupted Peter mid-sentence by saying from heaven, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.” In that one event, Peter witnessed Jesus in his deity, and heard God’s voice!

Peter was also the disciple who walked on the water, as I discussed at length in my previous blog, WhyDid You Doubt? My point is, Peter had been with Jesus, even when others had not. He had witnessed amazing miracles and seen things which almost no one else had seen, he had done things no one else had done. If anyone had enough evidence to know that Jesus was the Messiah, it was Peter. 

At the Last Supper, when Jesus told the disciples that he was going somewhere they could not follow, Peter was upset by this and asked Jesus, “Lord, why can I not follow you now?” Then he declared, “I will lay down my life for you!”

Jesus answered him, “Will you lay down your life for me?  Truly, truly I say to you, the rooster will not crow till you have denied me three times.” (John 13:37-38)

Mark 14:31 quotes Peter emphatically stating, “If I must die with you, I will not deny you.”

Was Peter serious about that commitment? I absolutely believe he was. He actually tried to follow through with it when he went into battle in the Garden of Gethsemane, cutting off the ear of the servant of the high priest. But, once Jesus stopped Peter and healed the servant, once he stated that he  had to drink the cup his Father had given him; once Peter’s adrenaline rush was gone; once Jesus was arrested, bound and taken away to the High Priest, it just seemed smart to say he didn’t know who Jesus was.

If fear of God’s punishment was enough to enable us to follow through with our commitments, the Israelites would have followed through.

If love for Jesus was enough to enable us to follow through with our commitments, Peter would have followed through.

If having enough evidence that God is God, or that Jesus is the Messiah, was enough to enable us to follow through with our commitments, the Israelites and Peter would have followed through. 

If a strong desire to make good on a commitment was enough to enable us to follow through with our commitments, the Israelites and Peter would have followed through.

How often I have shaken my head at the stories of the Israelites’ unfaithfulness, in light of God’s faithfulness to them.  How often I have shaken my head at how quickly Peter was guilty of the very thing he swore he would never do.  How often I have shaken my head at others I thought of as strong Christians, who made what seemed to be incredibly foolish and sinful decisions.  How often I have bowed my head in shame, as I have done the same.

Every one of us has stood before God, some of us on numerous occasions, saying, ‘This time we really mean it.  This time we are truly sorry.  This time things will be different, we will be better.’  And then we aren’t; at least not much better.

Can we talk?  Just like Jesus knew Peter’s heart, yet knew what he was going to do anyway, he also knows you and me.  He knows we want to do what’s right, but we just can’t pull it off.  But here’s the good news--that is the very reason Jesus came! Romans 5:6 says, “You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.”  And in verse 8 Paul says, “…God demonstrates his love for us in this: While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”

In Romans 7, Paul beautifully describes our struggle to follow through on our commitments to do and be better. Verse 15 says, “For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.” And verses 18 and 19 say, “For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.” 

Can you identify with that?  I’m sure the Israelites would have.  It’s easy for us to think they were never serious about doing God’s will, but over and over, as a nation, they wept and repented and threw out their idols; they cleaned house and started over countless times, but they were never able to fulfill their part of the bargain with God.

What about Peter? After his resurrection, Jesus found Peter and had a long talk with him.  He forgave him for his epic failure and gave him a glimpse into his future of service, actually indicating to Peter how he would die.  Was Jesus’ forgiveness enough to enable Peter to be the man he should have been?  In John 21:20-23, just moments after Peter had ‘the talk’ with Jesus, we find Peter nosily asking Jesus about John’s future.  Jesus answered him, “If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow me.”

What about Peter after Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit arrived in force?  We know from the account in Acts 1 that Peter, filled with the Spirit, rose up and spoke in a mighty way to the crowds, and many were saved.  We know that he performed miracles of healing and went to prison for preaching boldly.  We know that God opened Peter’s heart, through a dream, to the idea that, not only Jews, but Gentiles could receive salvation.  But we also know that, despite that direct revelation from God, Peter let the opinion of other people influence his actions.

In Galatians 2:11-12, Paul says, “But when Cephas [Paul] came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. For before certain men came from James, he was eating with the Gentiles; but when they came he drew back and separated himself, fearing the circumcision party.”

Let me just say it, as long as we are on this earth, there will never come a time when we will stop struggling with our commitments to God; there will never come a time when we are finally good enough. Believing otherwise will either lead us to blind arrogance or utter despair. 

Does God work in our hearts to help us become better people? Yes! And he does that by reminding us day by day, minute by minute that our salvation is not dependent on it.  We are saved by grace alone through faith alone in the finished work of Christ alone.  We are not saved in the slightest degree by how well we are doing or how much better we are becoming. And, in the upside down and backward world of Death/Resurrection, that understanding does not send us off on a sinning spree; instead it sets us free to humbly and gratefully serve our Lord and Savior with no fear of eternal consequences for our failure to keep our commitments.  Those consequences have already been taken care of.

Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! Hallelujah and Amen!