. . . And Potatoes

Doctrinal Duty

11/3/2017

Doctrine is generally considered boring. It’s dry. It’s hard. It doesn’t often generate warm fuzzies. And yet it is essential to the Christian life. Consider a sampling of Scripture references that speak to the importance of doctrine:

He [an elder or overseer] must hold firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been taught, so that he can encourage others by sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it.[1]

You, however, must teach what is appropriate to sound doctrine.[2]

As I urged you when I went into Macedonia, stay there in Ephesus so that you may command certain people not to teach false doctrines any longer.[3]

For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.[4]

Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers.[5]

It is this last verse that I really want to focus on. Paul writes to his protégé Timothy, warning him to hold fast to didaskalía—that is instruction[6] and “property applied-teaching.”[7] Given the above directions to teach in accordance with sound doctrine and to be wary of those who will present and seek unsound doctrine, we must ask ourselves two questions. First, how do we determine what is or is not sound doctrine. Second, how do we watch our doctrine closely?

Fortunately, God gives us answers to both questions. Titus 1:9 gives us the short answer to how to analyze doctrine. Paul writes to “hold firmly to trustworthy message as it has been taught” (emphasis added). That message is the gospel. We hold to sound doctrine when we hold to the gospel. In the next chapter, Paul follows up his command to “teach what is appropriate to sound doctrine” with lists of things to teach, suggesting they are consistent with sound doctrine.

John also gives us methods of testing purveyors of doctrine, whether it is good or bad, when he writes, “Anyone who runs ahead and does not continue in the teaching of Christ does not have God.”[8] Furthermore, he instructs, “This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God.”[9]

The simple test of doctrine is whether or not it agrees with God and His Word. My wife works at a bank, and she tells me that the way tellers at a bank spot counterfeit bills is not by studying counterfeit bills to know what they look like, but by studying genuine bills so that they recognize anything inconsistent with them. Put another way, as the Newsboys once sang, “we know a line is crooked ’cause we know what’s straight.”[10] The way to recognize false doctrine is to be so intimately familiar with true doctrine that anything contrary triggers red flags and alarm claxons.

This dovetails into watching our doctrine closely. Again, Scripture guides us. Paul wrote to the Thessalonians, “So then, brothers and sisters, stand firm and hold fast to the teachings we passed on to you, whether by word of mouth or by letter.”[11] He told Timothy to persevere, that is, to keep on keeping on in his life and doctrine. He instructed the church in Ephesus that “Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service,” saying then that the body would be built up, be unified, and would attain to “the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.” Look what comes next: “Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming.”[12]

I could go on and on citing New Testament verses and directives because, in essence, the extent of the epistles show us how to watch our doctrine closely. They give us correct doctrine, the plumb bob by which we can tell if something is crooked, and they give us the methods of putting that doctrine into practice, of holding fast to it. Thus Paul's admonition to also "watch your life." The two are intricately linked.

I’ll close by quoting J.I. Packer, which I believe I’ve done before, but it bears repeating: “Doctrinal preaching certainly bores the hypocrites; but it is only doctrinal preaching that will save Christ's sheep.”

Sounds like somebody else we just read . . .

[1] Titus 1:9
[2] Titus 2:1
[3] I Timothy 1:3
[4] II Timothy 4:3
[5] I Timothy 4:16
[6] See Strong’s Concordance
[7] HELPS Word-studies copyright © 1987, 2011 by Helps Ministries, Inc.
[8] II John 1:9
[9] I John 4:2-3
[10] Newsboys. “Believe.” Step Up to the Microphone, Star Song, 1998.
[11] II Thessalonians 2:15
[12] Ephesians 4:11-14

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The Razor's Edge

10/10/2017

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We frequently hear it said that Christians should be less judgmental, and in some respects that’s true. People who say it will often cite Jesus’ words, implying that Jesus came to bring love and hope and not judgment or condemnation. And in one sense, that’s also true. But in another, it couldn’t be further from the truth. After all, it was Jesus who said, “I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.”[1] To make sense of this seeming paradox, I want to look at the most famous verse in the Bible, studying it in its context to understand Jesus’ purpose as it relates to judgment and condemnation.

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.[2]

As we look at this passage, focus on words that start with a W. The first is “world.” Please note, it does not say that God so loved the elect, the church, Christians, saved, believers, etc. God so loved the world. The Greek word is kosmos, and it is used throughout Scripture to refer both to the physical entity known as the earth and to all of mankind. The context here in John would tell us that it is not God’s love for a planet that is motivating him but His love for mankind. And it motivates Him to give “his one and only Son.” The phrase “once for all” appears several times in the book of Hebrews in regard to Christ’s sacrifice. Paul also wrote “the death [Christ] died, he died to since once for all”[3] and “we are convinced that one died for all.”[4] Paul and Peter both wrote about God wanting everyone to be saved, so I think it is safe to say that Scripture is quite clear that Christ’s death on the cross was indeed for every single human who had ever lived—past, present, future.

However, that opens the door to the dangerous heresy of universalism spread by such authors as Wm. Paul Young and Rob Bell, among others. Universalism is the idea that everyone goes to heaven, and indeed, it would seem so if Christ died for all, would it not? Fortunately, Jesus didn’t stop speaking nor did John stop writing in the middle of the verse. This brings us to the second W, “whoever.” Note again that the text does not say “God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that the world shall not perish but have eternal life.” The word whoever is both inclusive and exclusive. It is exclusive in that it implies a segment will not be included—those who don’t fit the parameter of whoever. But it is inclusive in that everyone who does fit the parameter will be included. And that parameter is simple: belief. If we back up two verses, we see Jesus linking faith in Moses’ day to faith in His day: Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.[5]

So in this one verse, we see that God’s love is all-inclusive—the whole world is loved by God—but eternal life is not all-inclusive—it is only the privilege of those who believe. The need for belief or faith is one that is played out throughout Scripture, so let’s be clear: Anyone who preaches universalism or that everyone—the whole world—will be saved is NOT preaching Scripture. I suggest you have nothing to do with such a person’s preaching or teaching, because it is based on a lie.

God loved the whole world that whoever believes shall have eternal life. In other words, to borrow a phrase from a good friend of mine, Christ’s blood is sufficient for all but not efficient for all. There is a condition, one that is applied to every gift. You have to receive it. And as with any gift, you can’t receive it if you don’t believe it exists or is there to be received. I stress this because of its importance and because it is the hinge upon which this original idea of judgment and condemnation hangs. Note the next verse in John 3: For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. People who claim Jesus isn’t a judge, that He isn’t interested in condemning anyone, like to cite this verse or John 12:47: If anyone hears my words but does not keep them, I do not judge that person. For I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world. In other words, “I’m a nice, moral person, but do whatever you want with my message.” After all, God so loved the world, right? He wouldn’t punish or judge, would he?

But let’s read the next verses in John 3 and John 12:
Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.[6]
There is a judge for the one who rejects me and does not accept my words; the very words I have spoken will condemn them at the last day.[7]

According to Jesus, people will be condemned by their disbelief and rejection of Him. He did not come to condemn the world but to save it. But that does not mean there will not be condemnation. Jesus is the most polarizing figure in the history of the world and He spoke the most polarizing words in the history of the world. And it is your, my, and the world’s reaction to Jesus and His words that causes the division. If we believe Him and them, we have eternal life. If we do not believe Him and reject them, we stand condemned.

There’s one more W in John 3, but we have to turn to the English Standard Version to see it. What the NIV translates as “deeds,” the ESV renders “works.”

And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.[8]

Jesus is the ultimate divider—a razor’s edge. Everyone falls on one side or the other based on their belief or lack of belief. And as Scripture teaches us, one’s works or deeds are the evidence of one’s belief. Those whose works are evil avoid the “Light of the World.” Those who believe, however, come into the light not to reveal how great their works are—and thus how great they are—but that God may get the glory.

If, when, and how Christians should judge is a topic for another post. But please do not make the mistake of buying into the lie that God doesn’t judge anyone or that Jesus taught some form of universalism. That is not the preaching of Jesus; that is a lie from the pit of hell. The truth of Scripture is that God does love every single person, but judges them based on their belief in or rejection of His Son. Whoever believes in Him has eternal life. But whoever rejects Him is judged and will be condemned. Do not be in the latter group.

[1] Matthew 10:34
[2] John 3:16-21
[3] Romans 6:10
[4] II Corinthians 5:14
[5] John 3:14-15
[6] John 3:18
[7] John 12:48
[8] John 3:19-21, ESV, emphasis added

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Crossing Out Doubt

9/11/2017

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Have you ever doubted God? As Christians, we reflexively want to say, “No, of course not.” But if we’re honest, I think all of us would admit there are times where we have questioned God and His character. We see all the horror in the world and wonder if He is truly sovereign. We see the wicked prosper and ask where God’s justice is. We doubt His love in the moments we can’t feel it. Any number of whispered lies suggest He isn’t as good or holy as He claims. While I don’t want to tritely dismiss those doubts, it is true that the Bible has answers to them. We could examine each in detail and find dozens if not hundreds of verses to assure us that God is good, holy, just, loving, and so forth. But today I want to look at one passage—among others—that answers all of those doubts, all of those questions, authoritatively and definitively. I’m not going to post the entire passage here, but I encourage you to pull up Isaiah 53 and read it before reading this post. After doing so, you may want to throw my post in the corner and focus solely on Isaiah 53. I won’t blame you. But if you want a few taters with your meat, then join me in breaking this down just a little bit. In doing so, we’ll see that all our doubts are ultimately answered with two words: the cross.

I’m going to touch briefly on several (of many) different aspects of God’s character revealed at the cross, and I’m going to do so by first assuming the “doubt” and seeing how the cross destroys it. For example, if we question God’s goodness and holiness, we’re left to ask why He chose the cross. If God was not holy and sin was not thus heinous, if “we all, like sheep” have NOT “gone astray,”[i] why demand such costly payment—“The Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all”[ii]? If our sin was deserving of anything less than the ultimate payment, would God have subjected His Son to it? “He was pierced [literally] for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities.”[iii] Jesus prayed in the Garden, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me.”[iv] All things are possible for God, aren’t they? Wouldn’t it be possible then for the Father to find another way? Not if God is just (as we will look at momentarily) and if He is holy and our sin is heinous. Thus the cross, and the Father being willing to sacrifice the Son upon it, shows His goodness and holiness.

When we question if God is sovereign, if He is really in charge, the cross at first seems a stumbling block—as do other horrors God allows. However, Isaiah tells us “we considered [Jesus] punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted.”[v] He also states “it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer” and it is the Lord who “makes his life an offering for sin.”[vi] God didn’t allow Jesus to die—He brought it about! These verses show us how God was in charge, bringing about His purposes. Peter writes about the “precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.” He says, “He was chosen before the creation of the world.”[vii] And Jesus stated, “No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father.”[viii] The plan formed before creation was brought about not by a Roman governor or an angry mob but by God. He was in control from start to finish. He foretold details of the crucifixion, from none of Jesus’ bones being broken[ix] to the gambling over His clothes[x] to the details of His entombment, “assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his burial.”[xi]

But there’s more. Earlier, I left off in the middle of Isaiah 53:10. Not only did the Father crush the Son, cause Him to suffer, and make His life an offering for sin, but the Father also raised Him: He will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand. After he has suffered, he will see the light of life and be satisfied; by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities. Therefore I will give him a portion among the great, and he will divide the spoils with the strong.[xii] As the Psalmist wrote, God did not “let [His] faithful one see decay.”[xiii] The cross shows us God was in charge of most crucial event of all time, let alone our trivial (by comparison) problems. If He can orchestrate the prophecies and events of the cross, and if He can bring about the death of His Son for good, can He not do the same in the wake of a tragic hurricane, a dreaded sickness, or a broken relationship?

We can also doubt God’s justice when we see evil go unpunished, when the wicked thrive. Where is God when Hitler or Stalin murder their millions, when terrorists fly planes into buildings, or a criminal intrudes into our world and escapes punishment? The cross reminds us that God is just, and it does so in a way that should make us gulp. I’ll get to that in a moment, but first let’s consider what an unjust God would do. He might let sin slide. Or He might punish some sin but not others. In short, He would be unjust. Similarly, we live in a sinful, fallen world where there isn’t perfect justice, where love and mercy sometimes cancel out justice. For example, if I speak harshly to my wife (purely theoretical here) and then apologize, she is gracious enough to forgive me. Technically, I get off. I do not face justice for sinning against her because she chooses to be merciful instead of strictly just. But God, by His nature, cannot be anything less than strictly just. And thus every wrongdoing, from speaking harshly to mass murder, must have a consequence—there must be payment for sin.

But the beauty of the cross is that God, in addition to being 100% just, is also 100% merciful. Note the following phrases in Isaiah 53: “our pain,” “our suffering,” “our transgressions,” “our iniquities,” “punishment that brought us peace,” “we are healed,” “we all . . . have gone astray,” “each of us has turned to our own way,” “the iniquity of us all,” “the transgression of my people,” “justify many,” “their iniquities,” “the sin of many,” and “intercession for transgressors.” Catch a theme? God’s total justice alone would make each of us a smoking hole in the ground. God’s total mercy alone would allow each of us into heaven, depravity and all. But God’s total justice and total mercy together meet up at the cross, where justice is meted out but it is meted out not on the guilty party (you and me) but on Jesus, even though “he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth.”[xiv] Is God just? The nail and spear holes in Jesus’ body assure us He is. But the fact that they are in Jesus’ body and not ours assure us of God’s mercy as well.

As I write this, it seems an absurd concept, but we often doubt—at least subconsciously—if God loves us. Of course He loves us in theory because He “so loved the world”[xv] and because “God is love.”[xvi] But sometimes He seems distant, even disinterested. Does God love us on a real, personal level, with an unending, unconditional love? The answer is found throughout Scripture and especially in Isaiah 53. Jesus was “despised and rejected by mankind.”[xvii] He “took up our pain and bore our suffering.”[xviii] He was pierced and crushed. Isaiah wrote, “by his wounds we are healed.”[xix] Talk about an understatement. Jesus was beaten. He was flayed alive. He had thorns jammed into His skull. He was then crucified, murdered in the most agonizing fashion possible. And that was just the physical suffering. He also bore the wrath of God and endured being forsaken by His Father. That is the definition of hell. Jesus went through hell so you and I don’t have to. Jesus said that “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”[xx] Then He demonstrated that love. If He loved us enough to do that, does He not also love us deeply and personally?

It is only human to have doubts, even about God. But as Isaiah 53 (et al.) reveals to us, the cross is the ultimate assurance of God’s goodness, sovereignty, justice, and love, and that it is why it is also our greatest assurance in all of life’s troubles and storms.

[i] Isaiah 53:6
[ii] Ibid.
[iii] Isaiah 53:5, emphasis added
[iv] Matthew 26:39
[v] Isaiah 53:4
[vi] Isaiah 53:10
[vii] I Peter 1:19-20
[viii] John 10:18
[ix] See Psalm 34:20
[x] See Psalm 22:18
[xi] Isaiah 53:9
[xii] Isaiah 53:10-12
[xiii] Psalm 16:10
[xiv] Isaiah 53:9
[xv] John 3:16
[xvi] I John 4:8
[xvii] Isaiah 53:3
[xviii] Isaiah 53:4
[xix] Isaiah 53:5
[xx] John 15:13

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Prayer and Healing

8/21/2017

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I have to admit, one of the areas of the Christian faith that is most confusing to me is prayer. I believe the Bible teaches that prayer moves the heart of a sovereign God (a subject perhaps I’ll look at in another post). And yet, sometimes it doesn’t. The passage I always come back to is at the end of James:

Is any among you in trouble? Let them pray. Is anyone happy? Let them sing songs of praise? Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If they have sinned, they will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.[1]

So there you have it. If you’re sick, you just have to be prayed over (and confess your sins) and you’ll get better. So long, cancer. So long, anxiety. So long, common cold. And yet, that’s not what we find. Our everyday experience—that is, reality—conflicts with this idea. So what do we do when Scripture and reality don’t jive? I would suggest there are times when that calls for faith and there are times when that calls for a reexamination of our perception of reality. But there are also times when we would do well to dig a little deeper into Scripture. I believe in a literal reading of the Bible and I generally trust the translators. If we all had to be Hebrew and Greek scholars to know God, we would be in deep trouble. But this passage in James is one where I think a quick reading may not give us the true meaning—where a little digging would be prudent.

To start with, I think we need to look at other versions than the NIV because it misses the mark here. If we look at a spectrum of versions, we see the phrase “make the sick person well” translated as “save the one who is sick” (ESV), “restore the one who is sick” (NASB), “save the sick” (KJV), “save him that is sick” (ASV), and “save the sick person” (HCSB). If we turn to the original Greek, we see the word used is sōsei, from sṓzō (to save)[2]—which is in turn from sōs, meaning “safe, rescued”[3]—that is, to “deliver out of danger and into safety; used principally of God rescuing believers from the penalty and power of sin – and into His provisions (safety).”[4] That is quite a bit different than being healed of a physical illness, and indeed seems to lead very well into the end of verse 15: “If they have sinned, they will be forgiven.”

So what do we have here? Is James promising believers physical healing? Or is he promising something else? I think we need to ask a few more questions. The first is what is meant by “is any among you sick?” The same array of versions agree on the word “sick,” and the Greek would seem to refer to physical ailments and weaknesses (although Strong’s Concordance has the following definition: “I am weak (physically: then morally), I am sick”). So James seems to be writing to people who are suffering from a physical sickness—cancer, disease, or even the flu. Yet there does seem to be a spiritual connection as well. That’s not to say that all physical sickness has a direct spiritual cause—i.e., sin. But this passage is talking about both the physical and the spiritual.

Our second question is regarding faith. James writes “the prayer offered in faith.” Faith in what? Faith that God can heal? Faith that God will heal? It would be great if the Greek offered us a different explanation of faith here, but it doesn’t. It’s the same word used throughout the New Testament to refer to faith in God or faith in Jesus Christ. This leads us to another question, a rephrasing of the last. Is it faith in Jesus of Nazareth, the man who went about “healing every disease and sickness among the people”[5]? Or is it faith in Jesus Christ who, when asked, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” replied, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”[6] Yes, I realize they’re one and the same Jesus, but the question is, essentially, are we looking for physical healing or spiritual healing? If we’re looking for physical healing, we may get it, as did numerous people in the Bible. But we also may not get it, as is evidenced by sick Christians who stay sick or even die, and as is evidenced by Paul whose thorn in the flesh was not taken away despite his pleading.[7] Conversely, will God deny anyone who comes to Him for spiritual healing, for deliverance “from the penalty and power of sin” through Jesus Christ?

This brings up another question. What is meant by “The Lord will raise him up”? The majority of versions are consistent with that phrasing, and the Greek word, egerei, has a variety of meanings in the New Testament—from physically getting up to Christ being raised from the dead to people rising up from their sickbed. If the phrase in James means the latter, that God will heal them from a physical ailment, we are back to having to figure out an alternate explanation for those who don’t get healed, who don’t get out of their hospital bed. Was their (or their elders’) faith not strong enough? If that were the case, we’d all be hopelessly sick because none of us has strong enough faith.

The final question, and the key question, I think, is what is the time frame for all this taking place? Let me suggest that we are correct to read this passage as a promise of physical (along with spiritual) healing, but we are wrong to assert that the physical healing must take place in the here and now. If you have a sickness, if you are weak or feeble, the prayer offered in faith WILL make you physically well and God WILL physically raise you up. But that may not occur until “‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”[8] It may happen sooner, but the “guarantee” as it pertains to physical healing is an eternal guarantee. Similarly, our spiritual healing—while accomplished at the cross and assured in the present by faith—will not be attained until eternity. Only then will we be free from sin and death, and only then will we share in our inheritance with Christ.

This is a complex passage. Many of the words have nuances that could drastically change the meaning, as mentioned above regarding “sick,” or regarding “healed” in verse 16. In short, based also on what we find elsewhere in Scripture, I would say we can glean the following:

God does physically heal in the here and now.
God does respond to prayer for physical healing.
It is appropriate to seek and pray for physical healing, but there is no surefire formula for attaining it. Whether or not God heals physically in the here and now, He will ultimately heal physically and spiritually in eternity.
The primary focus, then, should be on being spiritually right with God and on His spiritual healing—that is, deliverance from sin and death. Jesus told His disciples, in regard to Lazarus, “this sickness will not end in death.”[9] He didn’t tell them Lazarus wouldn’t die, but that the sickness would not end in death. He knew that He would raise Lazarus back to life, a beautiful picture of our resurrection. Thus we can say this sickness—this cancer, this disease, this affliction, this thorn in the flesh, these “light and momentary troubles”[10]—will not end in death. The whole focus of Scripture is on eternity, and I think that gives us an appropriate lens through which to view James 5 and our physical illnesses.

[1] James 5:13-16
[2] Strong’s Concordance
[3] HELPS Word-studies copyright © 1987, 2011 by Helps Ministries, Inc.
[4] Ibid.
[5] Matthew 4:23
[6] Luke 5:30-32
[7] See II Corinthians 12:7-9
[8] Revelation 21:4, emphasis added
[9] John 11:4
[10] II Corinthians 4:17

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Of Hell and Holiness

8/10/2017

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Why would a loving God send people to hell? It’s one of the most common questions asked of those who profess to be Christians. We know the Sunday school answer—that God is also just and sin deserves its punishment. And when we think of the Hitlers and Stalins of the world, of rapists and murderers, hell seems like a pretty just result. But what about the non-terrorists, the non-criminals, the generally good people? What about the sweet little old cookie-baking lady across the street? What about the college kid who gives his or her nights and weekends to build houses for the homeless or to serve in soup kitchens? What about Joe Average who doesn’t kill anybody, doesn’t cheat on his wife, doesn’t abuse his kids, who pays his taxes, works hard, and is an all around swell guy? Forget loving, how can a just God send these people to hell?

I have to admit, sometimes hell seems, well, kind of harsh. After all, it is eternal torment. Wouldn’t not being allowed into heaven be punishment enough? Or maybe being denied throne room privileges (okay, I’m just being a smart aleck here)? Must people really be damned to suffer indescribable anguish forever?

The answer is that of course hell is too harsh of a punishment . . . IF we judge by human standards. By human standards, the Hitlers and Stalins should be in hell, along with people who fly planes into buildings and blow up city buses, but the rest of us are pretty decent folks. We’re not perfect, but we’re not evil either. Are we?

But what does the Bible have to say about Joe Average? Or—gulp—you and me? Scripture teaches that “the heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure.”[1] Or read Romans 3:10-18 for a description of mankind. Isaiah sums it up saying, “all of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags.”[2] In modern vernacular, those last two words might be translated to “used tampons.” That’s graphic, I realize, but it’s the image Scripture uses to convey how dirty our souls truly are.

But how can that be? How can sweet little old ladies and lifelong volunteers and upstanding people like Joe Average be compared to . . . filthy rags? Shouldn’t such language be reserved for der Führer? Not if we have the proper benchmark, the proper standard. God does not judge on the curve. On the curve, Joe Average (and, most likely, you and I) looks pretty good. He’s no killer, no adulterer, no criminal. Compared to the riffraff on the end of the scale, he seems deserving of eternal reward, not punishment. But I repeat, God does not judge on the curve. He judges based on Himself, based on His character, based on His holiness. Holiness is a word we use a lot in Christianity, but one I believe we—at least one that I—fall woefully short of understanding. If we truly comprehended God’s holiness, we would stand in awe, for one, and would never question that every human being deserved nothing less than eternal damnation.

So what is holiness? Webster defines the word holy thusly: Properly, whole, entire or perfect, in a moral sense. Hence, pure in heart, temper or dispositions; free from sin and sinful affections. Applied to the Supreme Being, holy signifies perfectly pure, immaculate and complete in moral character.[3] That’s a good definition, and one that fits God as we look at Scripture, where we see numerous examples of His perfection and purity. For starters, six different times in His Word, God declares, “I am holy.” Scripture says that God is perfect, just, and upright.[4] His laws are holy.[5] Throughout both the Old and New Testaments, God gave commands based on His holiness. The stringent nature of the Mosaic Law pointed to the thorough perfection of God and showed how incapable humans were (and are) of attaining anything close to it. Because of His nature, God cannot tolerate that which is unholy.[6] His holiness speaks for itself.[7] Scripture says, “God reigns over the nations; God is seated on his holy throne.”[8] We know that no one can see God and live,[9] for He lives in “unapproachable light.”[10] God is so holy that His presence makes ground holy[11] and shakes mountains.[12] Even demons recognize God’s holiness.[13] God will be worshipped as holy for all eternity.[14] And, most remarkably, God imparts His holiness (through the blood of Christ) to the elect![15]

This is only a smattering, a tiny sample. There’s no way I can begin to draw an adequate picture of God’s holiness. The most eloquent of poets lack the words to describe it. In his famous message, “That’s my King!” pastor S.M. Lockridge breaks from a lengthy (one might errantly say exhaustive) description of Christ to state, with tongue somewhat in cheek, “I wish I could describe him to you.”[16] In the same way that words are insufficient to accurately describe Christ, they are insufficient to accurately describe God’s holiness. I could spend an entire year writing blog posts on God’s holiness and fail miserably to properly relate to you its depth, its entirety, it’s . . . holiness. The best way we can understand it is to study God’s Word where His holy nature is on continuous display, where His attributes are repeatedly revealed. Take time to meditate on them, on what the passages cited above (and numerous others) are telling us about God. It will be an incomplete understanding to be sure, but will begin to enable us to grasp the Mariana Trench that exists between the human standard of righteousness and God’s.

Perhaps then we will start to understand that in comparison to the absolute and total perfection of God, our small misdeeds are damnable offenses. Our pretty good lives are absent of any goodness. Joe Average is Joe Despicable Sinner. Our good works and kind deeds are used tampons. We were made in the image of a holy God and we profane that image every time we sin, every time we disobey, every time we fail to be just as holy. In that light, anything short of eternal hell would be unjust.

When people by a human standard, grade on the curve, or consider themselves to be “good enough,” they are—intentionally or not—thumbing their noses at God’s holiness. More than that, they are effectively saying they do not need Jesus’ sacrifice for them. If being unholy wasn’t bad enough (and it is), they have now also “trampled the Son of God underfoot . . . treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified them, and [have] insulted the Spirit of grace.”[17] What should a holy God do with such people?

There’s one more problem with the human standard of judgement, one more way by which we can conclude that hell is indeed a just punishment for all of unrepentant mankind. If it weren’t, why would Jesus have gone to the cross? Christ’s sufferings—physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual—are, like God’s holiness, something we can’t fully comprehend. But we can recognize, on at least a human level, the horrors he faced. If we aren’t deserving of hell, why did Jesus have to endure hell to save us?

This is the beauty of the gospel, that though we do indeed deserve hell—that is, eternal death—we can have eternal life because “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”[18] If we fail to recognize God’s holiness—and thus our just and rightful destination apart from him—we also fail to recognize the magnitude of that beauty. Paul wrote that “now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; [when completeness comes] we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.”[19] The day will come when we will behold God face to face, and then we shall fully comprehend His holiness and fully comprehend the weight of what Christ accomplished at the cross. Until then, as is so often the refrain, we must walk by faith—faith in God’s holiness, in our hopelessness apart from him, and in our righteousness before Him through our Lord Jesus Christ.

[1] Jeremiah 17:9
[2] Isaiah 64:6
[3] American Dictionary of the English Language “holy,” accessed August 8, 2017, http://www.webstersdictionary1828.com/Dictionary/holy
[4] See Deuteronomy 32:4; Psalm 18:30
[5] See Psalm 19:7; Romans 7:12
[6] See Joshua 24:19; Psalm 5:4; Habakkuk 1:13
[7] Isaiah 5:16
[8] Psalm 47:8
[9] See Exodus 33:20
[10] I Timothy 6:16
[11] See Exodus 3:5
[12] See Exodus 19:12-18;
[13] See Mark 1:24
[14] See Revelation 4:1-11
[15] See Hebrews 10:10, also the entire book of Ephesians.
[16] Lockridge, S.M. “That’s my King!” Detroit. 1976. Sermon.
[17] Hebrews 10:29
[18] II Corinthians 5:21
[19] I Corinthians 13:12

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Good, Clean Violence

7/27/2017

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I generally abhor violence. I am appalled and sickened by the violence man perpetrates against man. And yet, every now and again, I embrace violence. When a sniper makes a terrorist’s brains explode or a cop bounces a rapist’s head off the pavement during a takedown, I kind of like violence. When the heinous bad guy in the movie gets stitched with bullets or plowed into by a bus or just knocked out by a good right cross, I cheer. Perhaps that speaks to a heart condition that needs attention, and perhaps that makes you appalled at me. But I would suggest to you that violence is not always a bad thing. In fact, sometimes violence is a very good thing. Sometimes, violence is a holy thing. And I’m not even going Old Testament to prove it. Instead, I want to look at one of my favorite passages of Scripture—one short verse that in some of my darkest days brings me encouragement. It’s found at the end of Paul’s letter to the Romans, where we read “The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet.”[1]

I cherish this verse for the same two reasons I’m in favor of capital punishment. (I know that talk of capital punishment could open a can of worms, but let’s leave that for another time). With capital punishment justice is served. Scripture teaches that there were, in Israel’s case, certain sins/crimes that deserved a punishment of death,[2] and I think some of those same crimes still warrant such a penalty. Capital punishment also drastically cuts down on recidivism. I haven’t looked it up, but I’m pretty sure there has never been a rape or murder committed by a corpse.

Similarly, one day, the devil is going to get a cosmic helping of justice, and we are going to be rid of him and his attacks. The book of Revelation tells us that the devil will be bound in the Abyss for a thousand years, and then will be released to deceive the nations one final time. He will gather them for battle, an army like the sand on the seashore. John records what will happen next:

They marched across the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of God’s people, the city he loves. But fire came down from heaven and devoured them. And the devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night for ever and ever.

We tend to have a misconception of hell. Culture has warped our thinking such that we view hell sort of like Mordor, the bastion of evil, from whence the devil and his minions launch their attacks. But Jesus gave us the truth about hell when he said, “When the Son of Man comes in his glory . . . [the King] will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.’”[3] On that day, justice will be served, and the devil’s scorched earth destruction will be no more. We tend to focus on what comes next, primarily the New Heaven and New Earth of Revelation 21—and rightly so. But I don’t think we are wrong—in fact, Paul’s words would suggest we ought—to also celebrate the demise of our archenemy, the “roaring lion,”[4] that “murderer”[5] and “father of lies,”[6] the “accuser of our brothers and sisters.”[7] In Romans 16, Paul uses a violent metaphorical image to describe the devil’s fate, and it is one we can relish in. I picture the saints—those who have “been slain because of the word of God and the testimony they had maintained” and who had “called out in a loud voice, ‘How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?’”[8] along with those who have suffered innumerous afflictions, temptations, and trials over the centuries—I picture those saints standing as one and unleashing a bloodthirsty cry of victory when the devil is defeated.

I tend to think in terms of sports metaphors, and the closest comparison I can come up with—and it falls woefully short yet resonates with me—is when thousands upon thousands of fans packed into a stadium suddenly erupt to celebrate a game-winning touchdown or walk-off homerun. The stadium vibrates and the TV cameras shake in what can only be described as bedlam. And when that win comes against an archrival or an opponent that has long had the upper hand, or when it was particularly hard-fought or long-awaited, that eruption is even more voluminous, even more palpable. If you’re a sports enthusiast like me, you’ve experienced it to some degree. Now imagine the moment when the greatest enemy any of us has ever known, the enemy who first rebelled against God, the enemy behind so much of our suffering here on earth, is violently put down once and for all. Good riddance!

Coming back to Romans 16:20, let me briefly highlight four specific phrases in this text. The first is “God of peace.” This would seem an odd descriptor for Paul to use considering the statement he is making. Would not “The God of Wrath” or “The God of Justice” or “Our Avenger” have been more apropos? Not if we understand true peace. The Bible often talks about being peacemakers, but there is a telling phrase even in Paul’s earlier instructions to individual Romans to “live at peace with everyone.”[9] He prefaces that by writing, “If it is possible, as far as it depends on you . . .” In other words, sometimes you can’t live peacefully because the other guy refuses to do so. Imagine a boxer who, in the midst of a heavyweight bout, decides to be peaceful. He’s going to get his bell rung by the other boxer. Imagine a country or countries that try to make peace with an evil dictator. You don’t need to imagine the outcome—there are ample accounts and documentaries about World War II to inform you how that played out. Or look at the world around us, where the devil and his demons are not bound and fully restrained. Evil is on the rampage everywhere—murders, rapes, shootings, bombings, wars, rumors of war . . . The lesson is this: true peace cannot exist while evil endures. Only when evil is ultimately vanquished will there be peace. President Reagan famously used the phrase, “peace through strength,” and I think it applies to this passage. God is the God of peace because He is one day going to implement true peace by annihilating that which stands in the way of peace: evil.

Paul writes that God will act “soon.” Those words were penned almost two thousand years ago, which doesn’t meet any possible definition of soon I can think of. This is not the only time we see biblical writers talking about the end times with such language. So were they all deluded into thinking Christ was returning within a few years or decades? Some would suggest so, and I won’t claim to know the apostles’ minds, but I do believe they were inspired by God, and so I think a more accurate understanding of “soon” is achieved by the idea of immanence. In other words, it could happen at any moment. Or perhaps “soon” is meant to be interpreted in light of eternity, where “a day is like a thousand years”[10] and thus a couple millennia (or more) is indeed soon. At any rate, we know the time is coming and is drawing closer each day. It is soon.

I’ve already addressed the violent nature of the word “crush.” To use another sports example, “crushed” never means a 17-14 squeaker. It means a 56-7 beatdown. If you crush a soda can when you’re finished, it doesn’t come back into form. It’s obliterated for its purpose. So too will it be with the crushing of the devil. Interestingly enough, this is not the first time we see this particular word employed to describe his demise. Way back in Genesis 3, shortly after the fall, when God was pronouncing His curse as a result of sin, he spoke to the serpent—that is, the devil. God said, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”[11] This is commonly understood to be the first prophecy about Christ, and note the word the NIV uses to describe what Christ will do to the devil. He will crush (or strike) his head. Remember the cross, the agony and horror, the separation from God, the wrath of all man’s sins that Christ bore. That is described, in this prophecy, as a strike or a bruise on the heel. I.E., a nuisance comparatively. What must that crushing/striking of the serpent’s head be like if Christ’s sufferings are reduced to a bruised heel in comparison? I can’t wait for the devil to find out!

The last phrase we see is “under your feet.” This is not uncommon language in the Bible, as both Luke and the author of Hebrews quote the Psalmist: “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.”[12] In biblical times, even more so than now, the foot was something of a “less honorable”[13] part of the body. It was dirty, smelly, uncouth. So to be reduced to a footstool was a humiliating and thoroughly unpleasant experience. Psalm 110:1 and the New Testament quotations are referring to Christ’s dominion over his enemies. But Paul uses a similar phrase to describe the destiny of the devil. Our monstrous enemy will be reduced to something so low and pathetic that we walk over it. This again speaks to utter destruction.

I believe this verse exists to bring us encouragement. Scripture often reminds us that “our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.”[14] And part of that eternal glory is the absence of our enemy, the extermination of sin and suffering (punishment and protection). Now, I get it, Bible verses aren’t bumper stickers you can slap up when you’re discouraged, and suddenly that loved one comes back to life, that marriage is restored, that diagnosis is reversed, that wayward child trades drugs for Bible studies. But as I wrote previously, biblical joy is the celebration of future circumstances (eternal glory) in the midst of present circumstances. Believe me, I know that isn’t easy. I write this in the midst of the crap of life. I know that’s strong language, but I can’t think of any other way to put it. Sometimes life just blows. But I hope that these words of Paul can be some small encouragement to you as they are to me. They should not be our sole focus in looking forward to eternity, nor even our main focus. That would be a disservice to seeing Jesus face to face and celebrating forever with Him. But I do think they should be part of our focus, as they are part of why we will be celebrating.

The battle is real. Our enemy is real. And if you’re like me, there are days when he kicks your butt. But there will also be a day when “The God of peace will soon CRUSH Satan under your feet” (emphasis added with great enthusiasm).

[1] Romans 16:20
[2] See Exodus 19:12, 21:12-17; Leviticus 20:10-16, 20:27; Deuteronomy 13:1-5
[3] See Matthew 25:31-46, emphasis added
[4] I Peter 5:8
[5] John 8:44
[6] Ibid.
[7] Revelation 12:10
[8] Revelation 6:9-10
[9] Romans 12:18
[10] II Peter 3:8
[11] Genesis 3:15
[12] Psalm 110:1; see also Luke 20:42-43; Acts 2:34-35; Hebrews 1:13
[13] I Corinthians 12:23
[14] II Corinthians 4:17

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An Opportune Time

7/19/2017

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Most of us are probably familiar with the brief noted words Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane. All three Synoptic Gospels record essentially the same phrasing, with Matthew adding a hint more nuance:

Then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to them, “Sit here while I go over there and pray.” He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with him, and he began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then he said to them, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.”
Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.”
Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. “Couldn’t you men keep watch with me for one hour?” he asked Peter. “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”
He went away a second time and prayed, “My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done.”
When he came back, he again found them sleeping, because their eyes were heavy. So he left them and went away once more and prayed the third time, saying the same thing.
Then he returned to the disciples and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting? Look, the hour has come, and the Son of Man is delivered into the hands of sinners. Rise! Let us go! Here comes my betrayer!”[i]

The essence of Christ’s prayer reveals His dual nature—the human pleading for deliverance from the cross and the divine submitting perfectly to the Father’s plan. It is a prayer we can often empathize with and one we would do well to emulate. But I think there is far more at stake here than we might initially realize, and the consequences are staggering. To unpack this a little more, we must start by backtracking to the beginning of the Gospels. Matthew 4 and Luke 4 both record Jesus being tempted in the wilderness by the devil, and both record three specific temptations posed to him. To be sure, those were not the only temptations Christ faced. Scripture tells us He “has been tempted in every way, just as we are.”[ii] And Luke tells us at the end of the narrative that “When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left him until an opportune time.”[iii] I would suggest that the opportune time in question is several years later in the garden, with the crucifixion bearing down upon Christ.

Scripture does not mention the devil in the garden, nor is there a specific indicator of his presence. But just as the devil isn’t physically or recognizably present in our temptations, neither did he have to be in all of Christ’s. But make no mistake, Jesus was facing a temptation as he prayed. Remember, His very purpose in being born was to die, “to give his life as a ransom for many.”[iv] He repeatedly spoke of doing the Father’s work and fulfilling His divine purpose. To not go to the cross, to walk away, would have been an act of disobedience. In addition to a very real and very human dread of the agony of crucifixion and of the spiritual pain of bearing the wrath of God for the sin of the world, Jesus also bore the weight of this temptation.

Think about it for a moment. Here was a man facing a death sentence, and not a civilized lethal injection but the worst form of death the cruelty of humanity could devise. But unlike every other human who has stood on death row—waiting for the needle, the chair, the hangman’s noose, the guillotine’s blade, or the executioner’s nails—Jesus was different. Unlike everyone else, He was in control of the situation. As He told Peter, “Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels?”[v] Earlier, he’d told the Jews “No one takes [my life] from me, but I lay it down of my own accord.”[vi] Jesus could have walked away from the cross. At any moment, He could have ended the pain and been done with it all. He knew “all that was going to happen to him”[vii] as He knelt in the garden; as He told Peter, James, and John, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death;” and as He was in such anguish that “his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground.”[viii] His brain was being bombarded with reminders of the horror that faced Him, an attack made worse by the temptation to avoid it, to run, disappear, leave His disciples as they would leave Him, and let sinful, rebellious mankind fend for itself. If that seems beneath Jesus, do not forget He was fully human and could not be fully human if not tempted with self-preservation in the face of an excruciating death.

Pulling against that, of course, was Christ’s “reverent submission”[ix] to the Father. He didn’t demand God get Him out of the mess and didn’t plot and scheme last-ditch escape strategies. He acknowledged “everything is possible for you,”[x] but concluded with the famous words, “yet not my will, but yours be done.”[xi] What a battle was raging!

But there is yet one more force at play, one more consequence hanging in the balance. Consider for a moment—and I do not mean this blasphemously or irreverently—that Christ had given in to the terror and slipped out of the garden while the disciples slept, had called those legions of angels, or had “come down from the cross”[xii] and saved Himself. The repercussions would have echoed throughout the ages, because the long-prophesied sacrifice for sins would not have been made. Redemption would not have been purchased. You and I would still be in our sins, the veil separating us eternally from God. All mankind would be doomed to hell. ALL mankind. Every single sinful person ever born—a group that would now include Jesus of Nazareth.

I know we’re speaking theoretically. But had Jesus disobeyed the Father, He too would have been guilty of sin. Since God cannot look upon sin—the very reason he forsook Christ on the cross when He bore the sin of the world—He could not then look upon a sinful Jesus. No longer “a lamb without blemish or defect,”[xiii] Jesus would have been an insufficient sacrifice to redeem mankind . . . and thus to redeem Himself. He would have been relegated to the same fate as every other sinful human being, with no back-up Messiah to come and save Him, no contingency plan. Had He not gone to the cross, Jesus Christ would have been rightfully and justly damned to hell along with the rest of us.

That was the weight that was upon His shoulders as He asked Peter, “Couldn’t you keep watch for one hour?”[xiv] That was the burden that brought Him to the brink of death before one lash of the flagellum, one thorn penetrated His skull, or one nail pierced His flesh. That was the enormity of every temptation he faced from childhood and puberty through the time of testing in the wilderness and the soul-crushing agony of the garden.

I do not mean to suggest that it was eternal self-preservation that drove Jesus to the cross; that is clearly not the message of Scripture. He was motivated by His love for us, out of obedience to the Father, and by “the joy set before him.”[xv] Rather, I mean to highlight the incredible gravity of the situation. The temptation to avoid indescribable pain and suffering was as real for Jesus as it would be for you or me, if not more so given His supernatural ability to avoid it. And the consequences of His decision had eternal impact for all of creation as well as for the Creator who had entered into His world. Everything hinged on that moment.

I find this all very fascinating, but it is not just something to ponder for pondering’s sake. Rather, it should give us a greater appreciation for the One “Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!”[xvi] Similarly, that appreciation is not just for appreciation’s sake. I close with words penned to the Hebrews, as they show us the relevance of this pondering and appreciation:

Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil—and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death . . . For this reason he had to be made like them, fully human in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people. Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.[xvii]

Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. 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.[xviii]

[i] Matthew 26:36-46
[ii] Hebrews 4:15
[iii] Luke 4:13
[iv] Matthew 20:28
[v] Matthew 26:53
[vi] John 10:18
[vii] John 18:4
[viii] Luke 22:44 (see NIV footnote)
[ix] Hebrews 5:7
[x] Mark 14:36
[xi] Luke 22:42
[xii] Mark 15:30
[xiii] I Peter 1:19
[xiv] Mark 14:37
[xv] Hebrews 12:2
[xvi] Philippians 2:6-8
[xvii] Hebrews 2:14-15, 17-18, emphasis added.
[xviii] Hebrews 4:14-16

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The Best Defense

7/7/2017

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“See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces* of this world rather than on Christ.”[1] (*Previously, the NIV translated the phrase “elemental spiritual forces” as “basic principles.” Surveying a variety of versions, it seems the combined terminology gives us the best understanding of the original language used.)

Paul’s warning to the church in Colossae is just as pertinent to the church today, if not more so, and carries with it two implications. The first is that we can be taken captive. Strong’s Concordance defines the Greek word sulagógeó with words and phrases like “plunder,” “lead captive,” and “make victim by fraud.” But we don’t need to explore the Greek to know that being taken captive is not a good thing. Yet I fear that many of us never think about the possibility. A common picture of the Christian life is that of a ship. Many of us—Christians and non-Christians—view life as a cruise through the Caribbean. We look forward to warm breezes, panoramic vistas, plentiful buffets, maybe flirting with good-looking members of the opposite sex, and otherwise living a life of utter relaxation. I know I fall into that line of thinking, and to be clear, Scripture doesn’t outright condemn any of those behaviors. The problem is, there be pirates in these waters. And they are hostile toward us, seeking to plunder and lead captive. While we’re looking forward to second desserts and shuffleboard tournaments on the lido deck, they’re plotting our demise. What’s interesting is that we are not actually on a cruise ship. We’re on a battleship, only we’ve ripped out the gun mounts and replaced them with soft-serve ice cream stands. We’ve retooled the elevator to make it a fun ride for kids. We’ve stopped using our radar to detect enemy positions and tuned it to locate the next tropical paradise where we can temporarily make port.

Now, I’m sure some of you are thinking I’m overstating this or are wondering who this “they” I keep referring to is. Paul gives us the answer in his letter to the Ephesians: “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”[2] Strong’s defines this enemy as the “ruler of this world, that is, of the world as asserting its independence of God; used of the angelic or demonic powers controlling the sublunary world.” The Apostle Peter clarifies this for us: “Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.”[3] In short, we’re talking about spiritual warfare. Frank Peretti’s novels give us a fictional, perhaps sensationalized, albeit probably more realistic than we’d like to believe picture of this battle, and it is one that spills over into the physical, tangible world. Just ask Christians who find themselves embroiled in legal battles for trying to live out their Christian beliefs. Or the Christians who find themselves at the tip of the spear or point of the sword for professing the name of Christ.

However, if we turn our focus back to Colossians 2, we see it referring to another casualty of battle—the mind. We can be taken captive “through hollow and deceptive philosophy.” We can start to buy into the devil’s lies. We can start to stray from the truth of the Gospel. Just look at what some Bible-believing Christians think about abortion, marriage and the family, social justice, or the sufficiency of Christ. Heretics—those teaching doctrine contrary to Scripture—are a dime a dozen, and many of them are well-meaning Christ-followers who have been made “victim by fraud”—who have “exchanged the truth of God for a lie,”[4] perhaps without even knowing it or meaning to.

The first implication of Colossians 2:8 is that we can be taken captive. The second implication is that we can do something about it. Note the verse does not say, “Hope that no one takes you captive,” or even “Pray that no one takes you captive.” Rather, it says, “See to it that no one takes you captive” (emphasis added). Paul is commanding the church to be on its guard. Peter warned “Be alert and of sober mind.”[5] We are not on an 80-year vacation aboard the MS Paradise of the Seas; we are to man battle stations aboard the USS Sanctification.

That naturally raises the question of how do we see to it that no one takes us captive? If we are commanded to be on guard, what do we do? One of the things my dad used to tell me, and that annoyed me at the time (as did many things he said) but for which I am now grateful (as I am for many things he said), was in relation to the focus of one’s thoughts. He would say, “Don’t think about a pink elephant.” I’ll ask you as he asked me, what’s the first thing that pops into your mind? Likely, a pink elephant. His point being, if you dwell on what you’re not supposed to think about or do, it often makes it harder not to think about it or do it. Instead of not thinking about a pink elephant, think about something else. Reorient your focus. Scripture uses this method as well (and I suspect it may be where Dad picked it up). Rarely—if ever—does Scripture command us not to do something without also redirecting our focus toward what we should do:
“Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life.”[6]
“Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”[7]
“But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love.”[8]
“Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit.”[9]
“However, if you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed, but praise God that you bear that name.”[10]

Get the idea? To use vernacular from the military or the world of sports, the best defense is a good offense. To that end, Paul gives us four strategies to see to it, and I’ll touch on each briefly. We find them in the preceding verses: So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.[11]

One of the key points my pastor has stressed over the last few years is that the gospel is not just a message we need for salvation, but rather we must continue to live gospel-centric lives. We don’t receive Christ, stick our salvation in our back pocket, and then ignore God or His ways of living. This was a key theme of Paul’s letter to the church in Galatia, summed up in Galatians 3:3: After beginning by means of the Spirit, are you now trying to finish by means of the flesh?

The word “rooted” is one my church has also picked up on for our children’s ministry. The idea is that we are deeply grounded. When we look at a large tree, we see what is above ground. With the exception of when it intrudes upon our sidewalk, we are unaware of what is below ground—a root system that rivals that which is above ground in size. This serves as an anchor for the tree when storms come blowing. Paul writes that we are to be rooted in Christ. He is to be our anchor, and we are to be built up upon that foundation—not on any other.

Carrying on that thought is the idea of being strengthened in the faith. Consider an athlete who continues to work and train at his or her discipline. They will grow bigger, stronger, faster, more skilled. If they never train, never practice, never keep their bodies in shape, they will start to perform poorly in actual competitions. The same is true for Christians. If we are not learning and studying and growing in our faith, we will fail when the rubber meets the road.

Paul also instructs us to be “overflowing with thankfulness.” This seems like an odd strategy until we consider for what we are thankful. We need only back up a chapter to discover what that is: . . . and giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light. For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.[12] This brings us back full circle, reminding us of the fight we face and in which we are combatants, whether we like it or not.

There is a final point to make, and it is one which I wish I could unpack more fully. We are warned against “hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ.” In the next verse, we’re reminded “in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form.”[13] Our focus needs to be on Jesus Christ, the Almighty God of the universe, and His Word, His truth, His standard. The opposite is that which is hollow—“having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power”[14]—and which is based off human traditions and worldly ideas instead of Scripture. This bad theology is deceptive, and we can be deceived. But we have been given warning, we have been given strategy, we have been given power in the form of the Holy Spirit so that we can avoid being taken captive.

See to it!

[1] Colossians 2:8
[2] Ephesians 6:12
[3] I Peter 5:8
[4] Romans 1:25
[5] I Peter 5:8
[6] Romans 6:13, emphasis added
[7] Romans 12:2, emphasis added; see also Romans 12:16-21
[8] Galatians 5:13, emphasis added
[9] Ephesians 5:18, emphasis added
[10] I Peter 4:16, emphasis added
[11] Colossians 2:6-7
[12] Colossians 1:12-14
[13] Colossians 2:9
[14] II Timothy 3:5, ESV

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Right to Life

6/24/2017

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We will soon be celebrating the 4th of July—that is, celebrating the founding of a nation based upon the belief “that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”[1] It is rather shocking, then, when we realize that two and a half centuries later our laws have sanctioned the murder of 60 million lives—that they have been “alienated” from that right to life. What is even more shocking is that many professing Christians—those who have taken the name of the Creator—are not morally outraged at this, that they would even vote for and support candidates who are pro-choice and, in some cases, pro-murder. How can this be? Now, I know we’re not supposed to mix religion and politics and God is neither a Republican nor a Democrat and all that. But when Scripture is ABUNDANTLY clear on an issue, we would be remiss—no, sinfully negligent—if we did not take that Scripture to every area of life, including politics. So today, with celebrations of life and freedom in mind, I want to examine the Bible’s stance on abortion. We will see there is absolutely no gray on this particular issue.

Now the word “abortion” doesn’t actually appear in Scripture, but that doesn’t mean it’s mute on the subject. To see and understand the Bible’s stance on abortion, we need, first of all, to examine what it says about the “object” in the womb—is it life, pre-life, part of the woman’s body, a hunk of random cells? Then we’ll consider the ramifications on terminating that “object.”

The Bible teaches that God is sovereign over the womb. As an example, we read that he closed Hannah’s womb[2] before eventually opening it.[3] Scripture speaks of the process of a body being formed in the womb as a mystery that we cannot understand any more than we can understand the work of God, “the Maker of all things.”[4] It also teaches that it is God who brings forth a baby from the womb.[5]

The Bible teaches that humanity is in the womb. Scripture repeatedly says that God is the one who makes and forms a body in the womb.[6] More than that, He tells the prophet Jeremiah, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart.”[7] This verse shows us that God forms a human life with purpose and knowledge. The most beautiful description of this concept is found in Psalm 139:13-16, where the Psalmist writes, “You created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb,” and “I am fearfully and wonderfully made.” He adds that “Your works are wonderful,” before going on to verses 15 and 16: “My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.”

Clearly, we see from these vivid passages that God is intimately and intricately involved in the formation of that “something” in the womb. But what is it? Life or potential life?

Beyond the above uses of words like “body” and “me,” Scripture is quite explicit at defining what is growing inside the woman as a human being. Luke 1 gives us several good pictures. In verse 15, we read that John the Baptist “will be filled with the Holy Spirit even before he is born.” Never minding why the Holy Spirit would indwell a pre-life form, the verse suggests that John the Baptist has his identity even before emerging from the womb. That is, he is human. (Paul conveys a similar sentiment in Galatians 1:15.) A little ways down in Luke 1:41, we’re told that when Elizabeth (John the Baptist’s mother) heard the greeting of Mary (the mother of Jesus), “the baby leaped in her womb.” Please note that the Scripture does not say, “the lump of tissue leaped in her womb.” Check any translation you like. Similarly, we read in the prophecy about Christ that “the virgin will be with child.”[8] Not, “the virgin will be with fetus.”

The Bible teaches that eternity is in the womb. From the above sampling of verses, there’s no mistaking the Bible’s view on what is in the womb. It is a human life. But beyond the physical properties of life, Scripture introduces the idea of the human soul. In fact, it uses the word “soul” 95 times, mostly speaking of an “inner being.”[9] The Bible is quite clear on the eternal nature of the soul. So the question we have to ask ourselves is when does that soul come into being? When is soul united, as it is during our life on earth, with the body? Is the soul generated when the baby emerges from the womb? Does air create a soul? Does a slap on the rump from the doctor? Does the soul rush in with the first breath? Or does God pick an arbitrary time? First heartbeat? Start of the second trimester? Day 86? I ask these questions with tongue in cheek, but I think they make the point. None of those seems logical. What does make sense is that we are imbued with souls from the moment of conception, the moment when—biblically—life begins.

A survey of Scripture makes it quite clear that God views the “something” in the womb as a human being, a precious life that He knit together with knowledge and purpose. It’s not a fetus or a lump of tissue; it’s a person, gifted by his or her Creator with a soul. No other conclusion has any scriptural support. We must then assert that the Bible is adamant that abortion stops a life in progress. So what does that mean? What are the ramifications for terminating this life?

There are some issues on which the Bible isn’t vividly clear. The intentional, willful taking of a life, however, is not one of them. The Sixth Commandment is as brief as any, succinctly decreeing “You shall not murder.”[10] Jesus echoed that command in Matthew 5:21 and 19:18, Mark 10:19, and Luke 18:20. Paul[11] and James[12] also quoted it. Jesus also referred to murder as one of the evils that come out of the heart.[13]

The Old Testament is full of other commands against murder. Specifically, Numbers 35:16-18 refers to fatal blows struck with iron objects, stones, or wooden objects. It refers to them as murder, and says the person who struck the blow is to be put to death. (It does not specifically mention killing by suction or pill.) The Psalmist pronounces woes against killing the innocent, calling those who commit such acts “wicked.”[14] And in Proverbs, we see that “There are six things the LORD hates, seven that are detestable to him.” Listed third are “hands that shed innocent blood.”[15]

But what about mitigating circumstances? Many pro-choice advocates—and some recent “pro-life” presidential candidates—suggest that abortion is appropriate in the case of rape or incest, when pregnancy causes medical complications for the woman, or when the baby’s “quality of life” wouldn’t meet a certain, subjective standard. In that case, they argue, taking a life is acceptable. There’s nothing in the Bible to advocate for that position, but there are a few startling examples to the contrary:

You’ve likely read or heard the story of Jacob,[16] who fell in love with Rachel but was tricked by her father into marrying Leah. Jacob ended up having children by both Rachel and Leah, as well as their two maidservants. Talk about a messed up family. Anyhow, one of these sons, born to him by Leah, was given the name Judah. If that name’s familiar, it should be, because Jesus was called the “Lion of the tribe of Judah.”[17] But we’re not finished with Judah. In Genesis 38, we read how his daughter-in-law dressed as a prostitute, seduced him, and bore him a son named Perez. It was from this distinguished lineage that King David and Christ Jesus himself descended.

Another example of a pregnancy that came about by less than ideal circumstances is Jephthah.[18] He was the son of a prostitute who was mistreated before the Spirit of the LORD came on him, making him victorious in battle. Scripture is replete with examples of God using the unwanted and outcast for great things. Every life is precious to God, even those not considered worthwhile or that come about as the result of deception and sinfulness.

One other situation is worth mentioning. The Bible briefly tells us the story of a young woman—a teenager, likely—who was a prime candidate to have an abortion. Unmarried, this girl “found herself” pregnant, about to be disowned, unable even to name her child’s father. Her entire life was about to be transformed, to the point of great sorrow that would ultimately be brought upon her because of the life inside of her. Sounds like a Planned Parenthood poster child. But, of course, I’m talking about Mary the mother of Jesus.

Sadly, many in America—including Supreme Court justices—deny that God has endowed all persons with the right to life. Since the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution don’t speak specifically and overtly to the issue, there will always be a loophole by which people can claim protection for the unborn isn’t covered by those documents. But no such loophole exists with Scripture. It is exceedingly clear on the two points that shape the entire abortion debate: 1) Abortion is the intentional taking of a human life—it is murder. 2) Murder is unacceptable in God’s eyes.

[1] Declaration of Independence
[2] See I Samuel 1:5
[3] See I Samuel 1:20
[4] Ecclesiastes 11:5
[5] See Psalm 22:9, 71:6
[6] See Job 31:15; Isaiah 44:2,24
[7] Jeremiah 1:5
[8] Isaiah 7:14, quoted in Matthew 1:23
[9] See Matthew 10:28, 11:29, 16:26, 26:38; Luke 2:35; I Thessalonians 5:23; Hebrews 4:12, 6:19; I Peter 1:9; and Revelation 6:9, 20:4, et al.
[10] Exodus 20:13; Deuteronomy 5:17
[11] See Romans 13:9
[12] See James 2:11
[13] See Matthew 15:19; Mark 7:21
[14] Psalm 10:2-10 and 94:21
[15] Proverbs 6:16-17
[16] See Genesis 29-30
[17] Revelation 5:5
[18] See Judges 11

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Immutability

6/14/2017

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Today I want to do something a little different from normal. Instead of expounding on one verse or passage, I want to use that verse as an anchor to explore a concept called immutability. In Hebrews 13:8 we read: “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” While brief, the statement is incredibly powerful, and we could delve into this idea for a year’s worth of blog posts. In the spirit of brevity, I want to touch on just a few facets of this promise.

The author of Hebrews specified that it is Jesus who is eternally the same. But Jesus was quite clear—as is all of Scripture—that the three Persons of the Trinity are in perfect harmony. As referenced in my previous post, John’s Gospel mentions the unity between God the Father and God the Son numerous times.[1] Regarding the Holy Spirit, Jesus told His disciples, “When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father—the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father—he will testify about me.”[2] A short while later, He added, “But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you. All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will receive from me what he will make known to you.”[3] Paul tells us that “in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form,”[4] and Peter linked the Persons of the Trinity when he wrote “To God’s elect . . . who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to be obedient to Jesus Christ and sprinkled with his blood.”[5] The Great Commission does likewise, instructing us to “go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”[6] We also see the unity of the Trinity at Jesus’ baptism.[7]

I could go on and on, but I mentioned something above about brevity, and I think the point is made. And while I don’t have time to explore them all here, there are a number of other verses[8] that support the idea of immutability we see in Hebrews 13. To summarize, the author of Hebrews could have accurately written, “God is the same yesterday, today, and forever.” It may seem like belaboring the obvious to show evidence that Jesus Christ is God, but it becomes pertinent as we move on.

One of the common “contradictions” skeptics (and even many well-meaning believers) raise is how the Old Testament reveals a “God of wrath” whereas the New Testament reveals a “God of love.” So how do we reconcile that—or other such conundrums—with what we find in Hebrews 13? We start by analyzing the premise of the contradiction and, in this case, rejecting it. The “God of the Old Testament” is actually a “compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness.”[9] “Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail.”[10] It is in the Old Testament that we read of God’s numerous commands to care for the poor and needy and the foreigner. The Old Testament’s Psalmist wrote, “Your love, Lord, reaches to the heavens, your faithfulness to the skies,”[11] “I will sing of the Lord’s great love forever; with my mouth I will make your faithfulness known through all generations,”[12] and “Not to us, Lord, not to us but to your name be the glory, because of your love and faithfulness.”[13] And it is in the Old Testament that we find numerous references to the coming of the Messiah, the greatest demonstration of love ever.

Moreover, the “God of the New Testament” spoke about those who would “go away to eternal punishment,”[14] the varying levels of severity in that punishment,[15] and examples of those who would suffer it.[16] He “knows how to . . . hold the unrighteous for punishment on the day of judgment”[17] and “will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus” with “everlasting destruction . . . shut[ting them] out from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might.”[18] We’re even told in the New Testament that “The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness.”[19]

The idea that the God of the Old Testament is a God of wrath and the God of the New Testament Is a God of love doesn’t hold water. That being said, the apparent contradiction doesn’t go away that easily. We’re still left with an immutable God who clearly displays both wrath/punishment and love. How can this be? What’s to be made of this dichotomy? Put another way, we know that God is just and that He is merciful. He doesn’t just display those attributes; He is those attributes. God cannot be other than just and He cannot be other than merciful. So how does that work?

The answer is the cross. If God is truly just, He must punish us for our sin—He must pour out His wrath. If God is truly merciful, He must not punish us for our sin—He must show us His love. The beauty of the gospel is that God is both fully just and fully merciful. He did indeed pour out His wrath—but He poured it out upon His Son. The only injustice is that suffered by Jesus, “who had no sin” but became “sin for us.”[20] Thus God’s mercy is free to flow upon us without impeding His judgment, enabling James to write, “Mercy triumphs over judgment.”[21] This is not because God is more merciful than just or because He set aside His judgment, but because Jesus stepped in front of God’s wrath for us.

It is only through the cross of Jesus Christ that we see these seemingly contrasting characteristics of God coexist in unchanging harmony. And if we closely study the Scriptures and understand all that took place at the cross, we see other supposed contradictions regarding God’s nature melt away. I don’t mean to be glib or tritely dismiss hard questions about God, and to be sure, they exist. Read the Pentateuch and you will end up scratching your head. But if we interpret Scripture in light of Scripture and view God not in a snapshot from Leviticus or a soundbite from the Sermon on the Mount, we see Him as He truly, fully is—we see all His attributes. And they, like He, are unchanging from eternity past to eternity future. The God who spoke the universe into existence is the God who gave Himself on the cross for all of humanity is the God who will one day return “coming with the clouds”[22] is the God we will worship infinitely in heaven.

So what does that mean for us? To find out, let’s go back to our original text and, as we would always be wise to do, examine the context. There we find the following: Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. Do not be carried away by all kinds of strange teachings. It is good for our hearts to be strengthened by grace, not by eating ceremonial foods, which is of no benefit to those who do so.[23] The author of Hebrews places this assertion in the midst of two commandments. The first is to emulate biblical leaders. The Greek meaning of “consider” would suggest a careful observation, a study. Remember that just two chapters ago, the author of Hebrews spent 40 verses recounting the great heroes of the faith and issuing a call to persevere in their footsteps. We see the same thing here, leading us up to the statement about the unchanging nature of God. The question we have to ask ourselves, then, is what ultimately brought about an outcome worthy of following? Was it the faith of these heroes or “your leaders,” or was it One in whom they had faith? Faith or belief in itself is useless if the object of faith is not trustworthy. The readers of Hebrews were directed to emulate the faith of previous generations because they had faith in the Faithful One. He called Abram and made him into a great nation. He delivered that nation out of bondage in Egypt. He brought His people into the Promised Land. He led them faithfully despite their faithlessness. He rescued them from exile in Babylon. He sent the long-awaited and promised Messiah. He turned cowering disciples into bold apostles. And because He does not change, the God who did all of that is the God worthy of their faith and ours.

Do not be carried away by all kinds of strange teachings. This seems like a sudden shift in gears, but it is a warning very applicable to the Hebrew readers and to us today. If God does not change, His Word does not change, nor does His standard, nor do His values. Right and wrong do not change with the culture or popular opinion or political party or leader. What was sin in the opening chapters of Genesis is sin today. And what was the only cure for sin promised in Genesis 3 is the only cure today. As Christians, we must not stray from the gospel because we know it does not change since the One who breathed it does not change.

Jesus Christ—One with the Father and Holy Spirit in a mystery we cannot understand—is unchanging. We may not always see that in our experience, just as we may not always see it if we narrow our focus to one verse or passage of Scripture. But we are told “my righteous one will live by faith,”[24] not by experience. Only by faith can we see the whole picture—faith banking on the promise of an immutable God.

[1] John 1:1; 5:17-18, 8:12-58, 10:30, 14:6-11, 17:20-22
[2] John 15:26
[3] John 16:13-15
[4] Colossians 2:9
[5] I Peter 1:1-2
[6] Matthew 28:19
[7] See Matthew 3:16-17, Luke 3:21-22
[8] See Numbers 23:19; I Samuel 15:29; Psalm 102:26; Malachi 3:6; James 1:17
[9] Exodus 34:6; see also Nehemiah 9:17; Psalm 145:8
[10] Lamentations 3:22
[11] Psalm 36:5
[12] Psalm 89:1
[13] Psalm 115:1
[14] Matthew 25:46
[15] See Luke 20:47
[16] Jude 7
[17] II Peter 2:9
[18] II Thessalonians 1:8-9
[19] Romans 1:18
[20] II Corinthians 5:21
[21] James 2:13
[22] Revelation 1:7
[23] Hebrews 13:7-9
[24] Hebrews 10:38

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Doctrinal Duty

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