This Little Light of Mine

 

Therefore, keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come.  But understand this:  If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him. –Matthew 24:42-44

 

 When Jesus returns, will you be ready to meet him; or will you be cast into outer darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth?  I grew up on lessons and sermons where those questions were frequently asked.  I wanted to be ready to meet Jesus, but I wasn’t really sure what that entailed and was fearful that I wouldn’t be worthy.  ‘Being ready’ was always rather nebulously equated with being good enough; having reached some high level of obedience and righteousness.  I didn’t believe I had much chance of attaining that status. 

Matthew chapter 25 contains three parables where people arrive at judgment day and some are ready while others are not.  These stories have always made me uncomfortable.  I wanted to be able to look down my nose at the rejects and identify with the winners, but in my limited understanding, I much more closely resembled those I considered to be the losers. For that reason, I never cared for Matthew 25, at least not the Action/Consequence version I grew up with; but that has recently changed. I’m starting to identify with the winners now! Hopefully, you will, too.  So, in my next few blogs I want to take a fresh look at those parables, but this time through the lens of Death/Resurrection.

In order to get a sense of the context for the parables in chapter 25, you have to go back to the previous chapter. The disciples had asked Jesus to tell them what signs to look for at “the end of the age” when Jesus would return.  So, in chapter 24 he tells them about wars, increased wickedness, false Christs, fulfillment of prophecies found in the book of Daniel, signs in the heavens, etc.  But he concludes by saying that no one really knows the day or hour he will return. The angels don’t know. Even he doesn’t know; only the Father knows. And, he warns them that they will need to be vigilant in watching, because his coming will take them by surprise.

Chapter 24 concludes with a strange parable which begins with a question: “Who then is the faithful and wise servant whom the master has put in charge of the servants in his household to give them their food at the proper time?” (Matthew 24:45) Jesus says that it will be good for this servant if, upon his mater’s return, he is found doing what he was assigned to do; but, if the servant, because the master’s return is delayed, begins to beat the other servants and begins to eat and drink with the drunkards, when the master returns unexpectedly he will cut the servant to pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites, where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth; a rather violent and grizzly fate!

Understanding this parable is crucial, because it lays the foundation for the ones that follow.  Who, then, is the faithful and wise servant? This servant is someone who was put in charge of all of the other servants, and given the task of feeding them, at the proper time.  This servant represents all of those whom God has entrusted with the responsibility of “feeding” the rest of the church.  That task was given specifically to the apostles, pastors, evangelists and teachers.  Theirs is the job of unfolding the message of the gospel; “correctly handling the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15). They will be held accountable by the master for how and what the church is “fed”.  If the church is being fed properly, all is well.

However, there is a warning in this parable for those who mishandle that responsibility; for those who, instead of appropriately feeding the ones  in their charge, start thinking and acting like the master is out of the picture; those who become power hungry, and begin “beating” the other servants.  Whenever the good news of Death/Resurrection:  That we are helplessly, hopelessly dead in our sins; and, because of that, God sent Jesus to fulfill all of the demands of the law on our behalf, and to pay the penalty of God’s wrath which we deserved, so that we, together with Jesus, are resurrected to a new life where there is no more condemnation, no outstanding debt remaining against us, and where God views us as if we had never sinned. – Is twisted into the bad news of Action Consequence:  That we must earn God’s approval by our own works, by striving to deserve his acceptance with our own obedience and righteousness, or suffer the consequences – that is the spiritual equivalent of “beating” the church.  The servants who have betrayed the master’s trust are those who are starving the church with a false gospel of works rather than nourishing them with the finished work of Christ.  In the parable, the fact that the one doing the beating is the worst sinner of all, is the reason the master is so enraged; and why, after cutting the wicked servant to pieces, he assigns him a place with the hypocrites.  Anyone who “beats” others because they are not measuring up is most certainly a hypocrite, because no one can measure up.  And that kind of abuse is detestable to the master!

With the understanding of that parable in mind, let’s now take a look at the Parable of the Ten Virgins in Matthew 25:1-13.  Jesus begins by saying, “At that time”, referring not just to the End of Time, but to what he had just finished saying to them, which was the end of the story where the servant had been cut up and assigned a place with the hypocrites, where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. At that time, “the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom.”  Jesus is describing the state of “the kingdom of heaven”, or the church, just before his return.  The state of the church is directly related to which “gospel” it has been fed, the Death/Resurrection or the Action/Consequence version.  The virgins represent a cross section of those who await the appearance of the “bridegroom”, who is Jesus himself. 

“Five of them were foolish and five were wise,” Jesus says. “The foolish ones took their lamps but did not take any oil with them.”  It is important to notice that Jesus says they did not take any oil with them.  He didn’t say, ‘they did not take extra oil’; they did not take any oil.  “The wise”, however, “took oil in jars along with their lamps.”  The wise virgins had extra oil; the foolish virgins had no oil at all.

The story continues, “The bridegroom was a long time in coming and they all became drowsy and fell asleep.”  The Action/Consequence mindset would like the story to say that only the five foolish virgins fell asleep while the wise virgins remained awake and vigilantly watching, but Jesus says that all of them fell asleep; just like the disciples in the Garden of Gethsemane who could not stay awake and “watch” one hour with Jesus, they all fell asleep.

“At midnight,” Jesus says, the cry rang out: ‘Here’s the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!’  Have you ever been caught napping when you weren’t supposed to be?  During my recent visit with my daughter and grandson, my daughter hired her regular babysitter for one evening so the two of us could go out for some mother/daughter bonding time.  We were out later than we planned to be, and when we got back the babysitter was sound asleep.  My daughter tried to gently wake her, but she ‘came to’ with much jerking, flailing and some pretty hilarious sounds of being startled from a deep sleep.  That’s how I picture the ten virgins as they awoke to the shouted announcement that the bridegroom was finally there. 

The first thing they did was to “trim their lamps” so that they could light the way for the wedding procession; this involved making sure there was oil to keep the wick burning, trimming the wick itself so the flame would be even, and then lighting it.  The wicks were, of course, made of flammable material, so they could be lit initially, even without oil; but just like anything else, they would go out if there was nothing to keep them burning.  Remember, the foolish virgins had no oil.  They lit the wicks, but the lamps immediately went out.  (They were ‘foolish’, remember.)  So, Jesus continues, “The foolish ones said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil; our lamps are going out.’”

If I were telling the Action/Consequence version of the story, at this point I would have the wise virgins do the ‘right’ thing and share their oil, saving the day, and everyone would live happily ever after.  But, that is not how Jesus told the story.  The wise virgins said no, because they needed the oil they had.  Instead, they sent the foolish virgins off to ‘those who sell oil’ to purchase some for themselves.  “But while they were on their way to buy the oil,” Jesus says, “the bridegroom arrived. The virgins who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet.  And the door was shut.”

I believe that the five wise virgins were those who had been well fed on the Death/Resurrection version of the gospel. The oil was their faith in the completed work of Jesus Christ on their behalf.  The five foolish virgins represent those who were fed only Action/Consequence.  They professed to be Christians, but they were dependent on their own works, their own righteousness, to make them ready for the bridegroom.  They had no oil, no real understanding of, or faith in, Jesus and what he had done for them.

No one can give another person their faith in Christ.  The wise virgins were not being selfish by not sharing their oil.  A measure of faith is given to each one of us by the Holy Spirit, and it is ours alone.  The five foolish virgins had to bring their own faith.  They were instructed to go and buy it from those who “sell oil”.  If faith is a gift from the Holy Spirit, what were they being told to do?  I believe they were being sent back to those who were peddling what was meant to be a free gift, at a price which no one could afford.  Action/Consequence insists that we pay, and we cannot.  The oil that was being sold was only “snake oil”.

Jesus gives us the epilogue to this story.  The five foolish virgins came to the shut door of the wedding feast, “’Sir! Sir!’ they said, ‘Open the door for us!’  But he replied, ‘I tell you the truth, I don’t know you.’”  Jesus did not know them because they did not belong to him; they had never acknowledged him and trusted in what he had done for them.  They never grasped that the only requirement for being ‘ready’ is an acknowledgment of our total dependence on his mercy and grace.  We can bring nothing to the wedding feast but that; and it is all we need.

Jesus concludes with the admonition, “Therefore, keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour.”  Satan always directly attacks our faith in Jesus. His strategy isn’t only to get people to believe that Jesus isn’t real; his strategy is more often directed against those who think they believe in Jesus by convincing them that their salvation is dependent on Christ plus their good works, their obedience, their righteousness.  The battle of Action/Consequence against Death/Resurrection is ongoing and fierce.  We are called to stand firm in our belief in salvation by grace alone, through faith alone in the finished work of Christ alone.  That is the only way we can be ready to meet him when he returns.

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!

This Bread is My Flesh

                               

“I am the living bread that came down from heaven.  If anyone eats of this bread he will live forever.  This bread is my flesh, which I give for the life of the world.” John 5:51

 

A couple of weeks ago when I was writing my blog, Why Did You Doubt? I had an “Aha!” moment.  It happened when I was reading John chapter 6 where Jesus was talking to the people who had hunted him down after his feeding of the five thousand with just five loaves and two fish, because they were enamored with the idea of having a king who could provide food as needed.  They compared Jesus to Moses who had provided “bread from heaven” for their forefathers in the desert, and urged Jesus to show them what he could do for them.

Jesus, who was never particularly concerned about his popularity, took that opportunity to so completely alienate and disgust the crowd that, by the time he was finished, even his devoted followers were appalled and some stopped following him altogether. 

What did he say that was so outrageous?  He began by telling them that Moses didn’t give them bread from heaven, it was his Father who gave them the true bread from heaven, and he was that bread.  They began to murmur in disapproval at that point, but Jesus was only warming up.  He told them, “Your forefathers ate the manna in the desert, yet they died.  But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which a man may eat and not die.  I am the living bread that came down from heaven.  If anyone eats of this bread he will live forever.  This bread is my flesh, which I give for the life of the world.” (John 6:49-51)

Now the people were offended! Why in the world would someone talk about eating his flesh, they wondered?  That was just repulsive.

Undisturbed by their grumbling, Jesus continued, “I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink his blood, you have no life in you.  Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.  For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink.  Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him.  Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me.  This is the bread that came down from heaven.  Your forefathers ate manna and died, but he who feeds on this bread will live forever.” (John 6:53-58)

Now, those of us who are familiar with the concept of communion and the bread and wine are a bit desensitized to how this must have sounded to the people who were hearing him say this for the first time.  But, even with the advantage of our perspective, you have to admit that Jesus went straight for the shock value in that speech.  He took no pains to carefully choose words that were lovely and flowery and inoffensive.  He not only said to eat his flesh, he said we should “feed on” him.  I don’t know about you, but for me that conjures up images of lions ripping apart a bloody gazelle.

I’m pretty sure that was the effect he was going for.  His aim was never to win over the people as if he was running for office, but, because of humanity’s Action/Consequence way of evaluating everything, the people felt he had given them some pretty compelling reasons to make him their leader. This speech was his way of “throwing the election” while telling them the real story. He had bread to give them all right, but it was his own flesh. 

And, for me, that’s where the “Aha!” moment came in. If you’re like me you’ve probably heard a lot about Jesus’ blood (e.g. Romans 5:9 – We were justified by his blood; Ephesians 1:7 – We received redemption, forgiveness of sins through his blood; Ephesians 2:13 – We are brought near by the blood of Christ; Colossians 1:20 – He made peace for us through his blood; Hebrews 9:22 – Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness); we even sing a lot of songs about the blood; but, I’ve never given much thought to Jesus’ flesh.  As a matter of fact, I’ve always just sort of lumped them together—flesh and blood.  To me they simply represented the fact that Jesus died for us.  When I took communion, I wondered in passing about what it meant to ingest Christ’s body.  I thought it must represent each of us being a part of the universal Body of Christ--the Church, and let it go at that.

But this passage, and many others, has a lot to say about flesh.  In the Greek, the word used is “Sarx”, and in addition to its meaning of ‘the flesh of a living creature, as opposed to a dead creature’, it is used to refer to the corrupt nature of man.  Jesus uses it that way in Matthew, Mark and Luke in the context of the Garden of Gethsemane when the disciples kept nodding off, even though Jesus had asked them to give him some prayer support.  Finding them sleeping, Jesus asked, “Could you men not keep watch with me for one hour?” Then he said, “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation.  The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

In John 3:6 Jesus indicated that the reason we need to be born again is because, “Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.”   At the end of the story in John 6, when everyone had left in disgust, Jesus was alone with the twelve and he said, “The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing.” (John 6:63). In Romans 7:18, Paul says, “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.”  And again, in Romans 8:6-8 he says, “The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace.  The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law nor can it do so. Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God.”

From these scriptures, we can deduce that in our corrupt nature, referred to as “flesh”, we have about as much chance of being good enough to please God as the Ethiopian, referred to in Jeremiah 13:23, had of changing his skin or the leopard had of changing his spots, both of those things having to do with something inherent in their flesh.  In Ephesians 2 Paul tells us that, because we were all living in our Action/Consequence infused flesh, we were, by nature-- i.e. by virtue of simply being human--objects of God’s wrath; or in the common vernacular, going to hell.  We had no hope.

For that very reason, as John tells us in chapter 1 verse 14, “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth”.  Paul says, “For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh”. (Romans 8:3);  and, again, in Colossians 1:21-22 Paul says, “And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him”.

Jesus came “in the flesh”, so that, in his flesh, he could live a perfect life and give us the credit for it. In our own contaminated flesh we were hopeless, but he gave us his perfect flesh in replacement. He applied to our account all of the obedience he accomplished in the flesh, erasing all of our fleshly disobedience.  

The word “Sarx” refers specifically to the flesh of a living creature, not a dead one.  Jesus referred to himself as the Living Bread, and said that as we are nourished by him we remain in him--covered in his righteousness; and he remains in us, giving us his life, daily reminding us of his finished work on our behalf.  “If anyone eats of this bread,” he said, “he will live forever.” 

The next time I partake of the communion bread, I will say with Paul, “The life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” (Galatians 3:20)

What's in a Name?

There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.  For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.  For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.  Romans 8:1-4

When I get hold of a concept that opens up a whole new world for me, I can’t seem to shut up about it!  Coming  to believe that there is one universal way of viewing and relating to life which has been common to man since the fall, and is the only way we can view and relate to life unless God helps us, has been one of those things. Although we may each express this world view uniquely, the chief characteristics remain the same: Self-gratification, self-glorification and self-salvation. 

Self-gratification looks for pleasure and escape in things like food, sex, drugs and alcohol; or, money, possessions and power.  Consciously or unconsciously, we even view people as a means to an end; when they stop meeting our needs, they are disposable. If you no longer make me happy, if I think of you as too much trouble, I won’t want you around. The focus is always on ourselves.  Even when we think we have shifted the focus toward making someone else happy, if that person doesn’t cooperate we become upset because, underneath, our real motivation was self-gratification.

We evaluate everyone and everything on the basis of our own happiness; Happiness is King.  We view the pursuit of it as our inalienable right and have even put that in the U.S. Constitution!

By self-glorification I am referring to our need for recognition, adulation, validation, etc.  This desire is a driving force behind everything we do.  We often applaud it in ourselves and others and give it names like ambition, responsibility, commitment, drive, focus, determination.  We admire and encourage the aspiration to ‘be the best’.  We view it as character building.  In the process of striving to be the best we reason that we can learn to be gracious losers as well as gracious winners.  However, because the driving force is self-glorification, the goal is inevitably to be’ better than’, which necessitates others being ‘lesser than’, and involves competing, comparing, judging and ultimately condemning someone to the ‘lesser than’ status. This need for self-glorification thrives on someone being ‘lesser than.’  We love having someone to look down on.

I come from a line of drinkers, so I will use that as my illustration.  The person who doesn’t drink looks down on the person who does drink; the person who does drink looks down on the person who drinks too much; the person who drinks too much looks down on the person who drinks too much and can’t function; the person who drinks too much and can’t function looks down on the person who drinks too much, can’t function and lives on the streets. I’m sure it goes on from there.  We all do this in our own situations. Self-glorification is always at someone else’s expense.

Self-salvation is closely related to self-glorification.  It is not specific to salvation as in ‘being saved’, or ‘going to heaven’, although that is definitely a part of what I am talking about.  However, self-salvation in general is about justifying our existence, proving that we are worthy, demonstrating that we are good enough, showing that we are deserving.   Where self-glorification is more about arrogance and pride, self-salvation is more about the fear of not measuring up.  Its ‘do more, try harder’ mentality comes from the need to earn recognition.  The ways we attempt to do this are endless.  We try to be beautiful, smart, funny, interesting, thin, super-employees and students, super-moms or dads, super-religious or even super-bad.  There is a part of each of us that believes if someone else does not recognize us, we do not exist.

Even In the context of Christianity we struggle with this intrinsic need for self-salvation because it is the way everything else with which we are familiar operates.  We earn, we prove, we demonstrate, we justify.  That is what we do.  Anything else is foreign.  And, that is my point.

 In my recent blogs I have frequently talked about what I have called Action/Consequence and Death/Resurrection as the two ways of viewing the world.  I settled on those names because, to me, they best described the characteristics of the two world views; but the idea represented by the names is not new or mine.  What I have called Action/Consequence, some have called human nature; in Romans 7, Paul uses the term ‘sin’ in that context.  In Romans 8:5-17, he contrasts the ‘way of the flesh’ with the ‘way of the Spirit’. I choose to use different names because those are so fraught with other meanings.  But why do I think this idea of two world views is so important?  Why do I feel the need for names at all?

It seems to me, if we do not acknowledge this innate universal way of viewing and relating to life, we will not understand it is something over which we have no control.  We will want, instead, to blame our culture, our society, our government, our parents, our churches and ourselves, for what is simply our natural state.

Once we understand that it is our natural state, we can stop being constantly surprised that we, and everyone else, are the way we are.  The world thinks in only one way, characterized by self-gratification, self-glorification and self-salvation.  If we see anything we believe is not motivated by those things, we are wrong.  Even in ourselves.  Even at our best.  We are all in the same boat.

The problem is, on our own we cannot reason our way to the conclusion that we are all in the same boat. We are blind to our true condition.  It has to be revealed to us. We have to be given something with which to compare ourselves that would show us our need for something different; so God gave us the Law.

Romans chapter 2 says that even those who weren’t given the benefit of the Law have its requirements written on their hearts.  “Look,” God said, “this is the standard.  This is what I am like.  Compare yourselves to it.  There is no room for even a hint of self-gratification or self-glorification.  This is what I demand and require from you and it is impossible for you to do.  I will require the impossible from you until you recognize that you are not capable of giving it to me.  Your efforts at self-salvation will never be enough to satisfy my demands. You are helpless. And when you recognize that, you will finally be ready to hear that you need to be rescued and that I already have a plan.”

Only God can draw us and enable us to see that there is something other than who we naturally are; and that this “other” is something we can never be.  Only Jesus could be the “other”; so, God sent him to earth to be what we could not be, to do what was impossible for us and to give us the credit.

Once God reveals this amazing truth to us, it is helpful to have names to differentiate between our natural state and our rescued state.  I have chosen to call them Action/Consequence--because our natural way of viewing and relating to life is based on the foolish idea that we deserve something for what we do—that the consequence of our actions should be a reward; and Death/Resurrection--because we are rescued as a result of Christ’s death and resurrection and because we were completely dead, and God resurrected us.  We brought nothing to the table but our messed up way of thinking and relating; we did nothing because we could do nothing, so God did everything for us through his Son, Jesus Christ, who had to pay the price for the consequences of our actions.

The names are only a tool for purposes of communication and discussion, what is important is the concept behind them.  Even in our rescued state, we still retain our natural way of viewing and relating to life. It is still our default way of thinking.  When we were rescued, it was not removed.  Every day we must be reminded that there is another option, a foreign way to view and relate to the people and circumstances in our lives; a way that is based solely on our continued acknowledgment that we are all in the same boat and are helplessly and utterly dependent on the grace of God alone.