Laying the Axe of the Gospel to the Root of Bitterness

In leaving Community Group last night, I was encouraged to consider the sin of bitterness further but I really didn’t feel as though we had come away with a clear plan for destroying the root of bitterness. After all, it’s the root of sin that we must defend against and destroy. Otherwise we merely mask the issue with behavioral change. So in my quest to mortify the sin of bitterness in my heart I ask the question, “What can I do?” It has been established, as with all sin, that we cannot change our heart’s condition. That power lies with God and God alone. But as always I would defend that God has given us means of grace by which He normally works, through which we can best position ourselves to receive healing and experience the fullness of God’s forgiveness in the Gospel through Christ.  

Consider Matthew 18:21-35:

²¹Then Peter came up and said to him, “Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?” 22Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy times seven.  

 23″Therefore the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants. 24When he began to settle, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents. 25 And since he could not pay, his master ordered him to be sold, with his wife and children and all that he had, and payment to be made. 26So the servant fell on his knees, imploring him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.’ 27And out of pity for him, the master of that servant released him and forgave him the debt. 28But when that same servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii, and seizing him, he began to choke him, saying, ‘Pay what you owe.’ 29So his fellow servant fell down and pleaded with him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you.’ 30He refused and went and put him in prison until he should pay the debt. 31When his fellow servants saw what had taken place, they were greatly distressed, and they went and reported to their master all that had taken place. 32Then his master summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. 33 And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?’ 34 And in anger his master delivered him to the jailers, until he should pay all his debt. 35 So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.” (ESV) 

Do not read this story with familiar eyes. This story is SHOCKING! How unbelievably wicked of this servant that he would call upon his debtor of 100 denarii to pay up after being forgiven a debt of 10,000! But its worse than that, isn’t it? The wicked servant seizes his servant by the neck and begins to choke him! What a picture of violence! The point of this detail in the story is to say to us, “In light of the magnitude of the debt you’ve been forgiven, to then turn and cling to bitterness against your brother is as violent and vile as seizing your brother by the neck so to choke him and throw him in prison…holding him there until his debt is paid or your sense of justice is satisfied.”

This is preposterous! We know these words of Jesus, “He who has been forgiven much loves much.” How outrageously wicked that I should EVER cling to bitterness over some perceived wrong. Where was God’s sense of justice as He passed over my 10,000 sins to claim me as His own? I’ll tell you where! It was hanging there with Christ, satisfied by the nails which pierced his hands and feet! 

To cling to bitterness, anger and resentment is to MISS the Gospel! I have been forgiven…not 10,000 days wages but 10 TRILLION. “But God shows his love for us, that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” “For Christ suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God…”  

The sin of bitterness either fails to behold the glory of the Gospel or it is simply unmoved by the mercy of God. It is an affront against God’s grace which is the pinnacle of His glory! It fails to believe that God has forgiven us, that God works every cause for bitterness for our ultimate good, that God is faithful to exact justice. Most importantly, it projects into the world the lie that there is no such thing as grace with God. The sin of bitterness displays our lack of love which in turn tells the lie that God has not forgiven much, either because sin is not so heinous as to deserve everlasting death or because God is not faithful to forgive us our sins and so we are left without hope.  

So then, if this sin results from a failure to behold the unending mercies of the Cross, then the only solution is to meditate on the holiness of God, the heinousness of our sins, the magnitude of our debt and the free Grace of God in Jesus Christ. The heart that has been captivated by the love of God in Christ for us, demonstrated by the great grace through which He loved us on the Cross, will be freed to suffer ANY injustice with joy and not bitterness. So then, let us lay the axe of the Gospel to the root of bitterness and so be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.

 
 

 
 

The Misapplication of Descriptive Texts

I have just finished reading a pamphlet that I picked up at a friend’s church titled, “God’s Formula for Success,” by Pastor Clay O. McGuire. This material has spawned the following considerations:

1. The bible is full of descriptive language and prescriptive language. Descriptive language describes. So the stories in the Old Testament, much of the Gospels and of Acts are written in descriptive language. So when Acts 4 describes the early church as having “everything in common,” this is not prescription. It is not imperative language. It is indicative. No where in Acts 4 do we find commands to mirror the exact practices of the NT Church. You can argue all you’d like that there are imperatives in scripture that imply we should strictly emulate their example. Even still the Acts 4 passage can not be used as a stand alone authority on Church living.
2. Many descriptive passages in the Old Testament contain imperatives from God to a particular person(s) or people. Since these imperatives are found in the midst of a descriptive passage (a historical narrative) they are not necessarily applicable outside of their immediate context.
3. Similarly, the bible is full of promises. The object of a promise or promises may be as narrow as a single soul or a broad as all of humanity. The point is, promises are for a very specific person or people group. This is especially evident in the context of narrative. So for example, when God promised Abraham that through Him all the nations would be blessed or when He promised David in 2 Samuel 7 that his son would build the temple of God, it’s very clear this promise is not for me. They were made to Abraham and to David. I should not expect that all the nations of the earth are going to be blessed through my Eli (my son), nor that Eli is going to build God a physical temple.

   So when I read the blessings of the covenant that God made with Israel in Deuteronomy 28 I must remember that I am not under the Mosaic Covenant. Certainly there are “timeless principles” that I can derive from this passage which would have application in my life and context. But God has not made this promise to me. I should not expect that when I walk in righteousness that all the work of my hands will prosper and that I will abound in health, wealth and prosperity anymore than I should expect God to strike me with wasting disease and fever, or that I will be continually robbed and oppressed while my wife is raped each time I fall short and sin.

   A hyper-spiritual interpretation of Deuteronomy 28:1-14 is not enough to allow for Christians to apply these blessings to their lives. No, more than this, you must also completely ignore verses 15-68 since it is impossible to make sense out of these curses outside of an obviously literal interpretation.

   So how many times have you heard these same preachers preach from 28-15-68? Seems strange to me to give attention to 14 verses of blessings at the exclusion of 53 verses of curses…

   It is not enough to disciple Christians in content. We must also instruct our brothers how to rightly handle the word of God for themselves.

Wilberforce on Real Christianity

Here is an excerpt from William Wilberforce in his book A Practical View of the Prevailing Religious System of Professed Christians in the Higher and Middle Classes in This Country: Contrasted With Real Christianity. I had never read Wilberforce until today. His writing is wildly passionate as you might expect from such a man. Keep in mind, this was written approximately 200 years ago before cars, planes, radio, TV, and the internet.

Hope is, therefore, the “helmet” to be put on now, if ever, in entering on this holy enterprise [fulfillment of the great commission]. The disproportion, between the ordinary means of the first Christians, and their success in propagating the gospel, was incomparably greater, than between the means which Christian nations now possess, and the general conversion of mankind. But even if this were not so, faith and hope rely on the power and grace of God, first to create the adequate instruments, and then to crown them with triumphant success.

What does this tell us about our own time? Consider how great the disproportion is today! We have the most extraordinary “ordinary means” ever known which are forever advancing yet look at our “success in propagating the gospel.” It must be then, that we are lacking the manifest power and grace of God in our churches. I agree then with Wilberforce when he says that our greatest need as Christians is for a greater effusion of the Spirit of God.

Why this Book?

In his Preface to The Holy Spirit: His Gifts and Power, John Owen tells us there are two reasons a book on this subject is difficult and even unpleasant to consider. The first reason he tells us is that our natural reason is not enough to understand it. The second reason is that there is a general contempt for the subject itself. And while these are what makes the subject a difficult and unpleasant one to take seriously, it is also the very reason he wrote this book. In the preface he writes: 

In all the dispensations of God toward his people under the Old Testament, there was nothing of good communicated to them, nothing of worth or excellency wrought in them or by them, but it is expressly assigned to the Holy Spirit as the author and cause of it [that is, in all the Old Testament the Holy Spirit is explicitly named as the author and cause of every good given to Israel and all worth or excellence formed in them]. But yet, of all the promises given to them concerning a future and more glorious state of the Church, next to that of the coming of Christ, those are the most eminent which respect a more full communication of the Spirit. Accordingly we find in the New Testament, that whatever concerns the conversion of the elect, the edification of the church, the sanctification and consolation of believers, is so appropriated to him, that, without his special operation, nothing of it can be enjoyed or performed. So careful was God to secure the faith of the Church in this matter, as he knew its eternal concerns to lie therein. 

Yet notwithstanding all this evidence, the Church has in most ages been exercised with opposition, either to his person or work; nor does it cease to be. 

My Calvinist brother, don’t you know that Calvin has been rightly called, “The Theologian of the Holy Spirit?” How then have we reformed types forgotten who He is? The Holy Spirit is a person. He has existed for eternity in the fellowship of the Trinity. He did not come into being but has always been. No good has been communicated nor excellence wrought in any man at any time unless it has been done so by the Holy Spirit. That is why this subject. John Owen understood this and has exposited the doctrines of the work of the Holy Spirit more exhaustively than any other theologian and that is why this book! 

A.W. Tozer has written a book titled The Counselor. In it he gives an illustration of what has happened to many Christians like you and I. He writes: 

…after planting a field of corn…to save the field of corn from the crows, we would shot an old crow and hang him by his heels in the middle of the field. This was supposed to scare off all the crows for miles around. The crows would hold a conference and say, “Look, there is a field of corn but don’t go near it. I saw a dead crow over there!” 

That’s the kind of conference that Satan calls, and that is exactly what he has done. He has taken some fanatical, weird, wild-eyed Christians who do things that they shouldn’t, and he has stationed them in the middle of God’s cornfield, and warns, “Now, don’t you go near that doctrine about the Holy Spirit because if you do, you will act just like these wild-eyed fanatics.”  

Because there has been a lot of this weird stuff, God’s children are frightened, and soon as you start to talk about it, they run for cover. They say, “Oh, no, none of that for me! I have seen dead crows out there in the middle of the field.”  

Jesus wants to communicate His fullness to us yet He is seated at the right hand of the Father, interceding on our behalf, where he will remain until the second coming. But he has left with us His Spirit, our Helper, who means to communicate the full glory of Christ to those who believe. If you want all that God has for you in Christ then you want, whether you know it or not, the deepest possible manifestation of the Holy Spirit in your life.

Top 5 Most Popular Words…

Global Language Moniter recently released the most popular words of 2009 for the entire english language.  Here they are:

1. Twitter
2. Obama
3. H1N1
4. Stimulus
5. Vampire

Humm.  This shouldn’t surprise anyone really…though maybe vampire might surprise a few.  What did surprise me is after taking a few minutes to consider this list, I realized that in the “church” its probably the same.  So what would be the 5 most popular words in your life?

God. Jesus. Holy Spirit. Gospel. Redemption. Reconciliation. Justified. Crucified. Sanctified. Salvation. Saved. Redeemed. Rebirth. Ressurection. Raised. Renew. Joy. Peace. Grace. Sovereign. Church. Worship. Praise. Honor. Glory. Glorify. Heaven. Wrath. Bible. Scripture. New Testament. Old Testament. Christ. Messiah. Savior. Incarnation. Word. Baptism. Eternal-Life. Rejoice. Lord. Repentance. Forgiven. Confession. Mercy.

These are just a few off the top of my head.  Words that should be on the tip of my tongue.  One test to see what you worship is to answer the question: What do you talk about most?  What things dominate your conversation?  Is it Obama? Twitter? Swine Flu? The Economy? Popular Entertainment?

While I can honestly say that none of these 5 are on my list, I’m sure my list is nothing to boast in.

…vampire?  Really?

The things of salvation are already in place…

I’ve been reading Romans hand in hand with my copy of “The Anchor Bible” commentary, volume 33 by Joseph Fitzmeyer.

Romans 10:4-11 reads:

⁴For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.  ⁵For Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on the law, that the person who does the commandments shall live by them. ⁶But the righteousness based on faith says, “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’” (that is, to bring Christ down) ⁷or “‘Who will descend into the abyss?’” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). ⁸But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); ⁹because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. ¹⁰For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. ¹¹For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” 

Fitzmeyer, commenting on verses 6 and 7 writes:

Paul argues as did Moses in Deut. 30:11-14.  Just as Moses tried to convince the Israelites that the observance of the law did not demand that one scale th heights of cross the sea, so Paul plays on Moses’ words, applying them in an accommodated sense to Christ himself.  The heights have been scaled and the depths have been plumbed, for Christ has come down to the world of humanity and has been raised from the dead.  To attain the status of uprightness before God, no one is being asked to bring about an incarnation or a resurrection; one is asked only to accept in faith what has already been done for humanity and to associate oneself with Christ incarnate and raised from the dead (emphasis added).

…a person asked by God to be upright is not being asked by him to bring about the incarnation of Christ…[nor] to bring about the resurrection of Christ [for these have already been accomplished!]

The temptation towards self-exaltation

If it wasn’t given to us, it was bought off Craigslist.  That’s where the majority of our belongings have come from.  And if you want to get the best deal possible, you have to be diligent and sometimes very patient, which means being content to go a long time without what you want or need.

A few days ago I emailed a guy an offer on his Dishwasher.  It was a low offer because it was a GE and I don’t want GE appliances…but for cheap enough, I’ll even buy a GE product.  So this guy writes me back and says something to the effect of, “I already sold it for my asking price.  Wow, it’s amazing how cheap people are on Craigslist.  I wrote on my AD “No Bartering” assuming that people could read but I guess no body on Craigslist really can read.”  He continued to express how insulted he felt that he received tons of lesser offers than his asking price.

So I begin to write the guy back because he made the mistake in writing “No Bartering” which would mean, “I am not interested in trading my dishwasher for something else.” In fact, Craigslist has a section titled “Barter” where people do this.  What this man really was trying to say, with the wrong words was “No Bargaining” which is to say,”I’m not willing to take less than 350$ so don’t bother me with offers.” 

I get done my email and I’m immediately convicted.  Convicted because I do this all the time.  I assume the worst of everyone else, even Sarah whom I most love and in turn think way more highly of myself than anyone ought to think.  So I deleted what I wrote and began again.  And as I wrote I was filled with sorrow for him, imagining that he does not know grace and is still under wrath. 

This time I explained that he made a mistake in wording, but that his real mistake was the pride of assuming everyone else was wrong.  I then confessed my own weakness in this very thing and proclaimed the Goodnews of the Gospel in my life which is why I am able to repent of self-exaltation and exalt the One who promises to exalt the humble. 

He wrote back today, “Dude, you need a new hobby!  LOL.” 

I confess, the response of my heart was first, “Ow.  I would have won with the first email!” 

I was then promptly reminded that winning a battle of wits is not my purpose in life.  Rather it is to testify to the grace of God in the Son of God who humbled Himself to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Christianity today is condemned by unregenerate men who have been long dead.

I’ve often heard preachers say things like, “Go back less than 100 years and you’ll find that a godless society would have condemned Christians for what they watch on television or wear to the beach.” I’ve heard one man say that to wear to the public pool or the beach what we wear now 100 years ago would have gotten us thrown in prison or an asylum…and this by unbelieving authorities.

I found that to be a helpful insight. Henry Scougal wrote, “The Life of God in the Soul of Man,” sometime in his twenties (He died at age 27). In the preface he writes that since there are so many who profess Christianity with their mouths but do not live it out, that the true Church must live radically different in order to prove the veracity of their message. In other words, to an unbelieving world, Christianity seems to have no power since so many “Christians” do not live what they say they believe.

So check out one thing he points to:

“What shall be said of those constant crowds at plays: ‘especially when the stage is so defiled with atheism, and all sorts of immorality’, but, that so many persons know not how to fill up so many hours of the day, and therefore this contrivance must serve to waste them, and they must fill their eyes and ears with debauching objects, which will either corrupt their minds, or at least fill their imaginations with the very unpleasant and hateful representations? As if there was not a sufficient growth of ill thoughts ready to spring up within us, but this must be cultivated and improved by art.”

Scougal goes on to say that even remotely thoughtful unbelievers, when they see “Christians” participate in these things, know that they cannot really believe or they would not act in contrast to their beliefs. He then says, “Some failures now and then, could not justify such an inference; but a habit and course of those things is an argument against the reality of that belief…”

So much of the world has crept into the church.  Its sad that if you asked someone to compare their sense of modesty with generations past they would probably just say, “That’s outdated.”  When immodesty is growing “outdated,” when what was unacceptable practice is now the norm, it is evidence that the culture is growing increasingly godless and evil…and when it creeps into the “church” it is evidence that the “church” is not really The Church.

Mortifying Sin: Directions 6 and 7

The following are Owen’s practical directions # 6 and 7 with regards to mortifying sin.

“But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.” Romans 13:14

Consider what occasions, what advantages, your distemper has taken to exert and put forth itself, and watch against them all… Consider what ways, what companies, what opportunities, what studies, what businesses, what conditions, have at any time given, or do usually give, advantages to your distempers; and set yourself heedfully against them all. Men will do this with respect to their bodily infirmities and distempers: the seasons, the diet, the air that have proved offensive shall be avoided. Are the things of the soul of less importance? Know that he who dares to dally with occasions of sin, will dare to sin. He that will venture upon temptations to wickedness, will venture upon wickedness. ~John Owen, The Mortification of Sin

“But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.” James 1:14-15

Rise mightily against the first actings of your distemper, its first conceptions. Suffer it not to get the least ground: do not say, “thus far it shall go and no farther.” If it have allowance for one step, it will take another. It is impossible to fix bounds to sin. It is like water in a channel; if it once break out, it will have its course. Its not acting is easier to be compassed than its bounding. Therefore does James give that gradation and process of lust, that we may stop at the entrance. Do you find your corruption to begin to entangle your thoughts? Rise up with all your strength against it, with no less indignation than if it had fully accomplished what it aims at. Consider what an unclean thought would have; it would have you roll yourself in folly and filth. Ask envy what it would have; murder and destruction are at the end of it. Set yourself against it with no less vigour than if it had utterly debased you to wickedness. Without this course you will not prevail. As sin gets ground in the affections to delight in it, it gets also upon the understanding to slight it. ~John Owen, The Mortification of Sin

Negligence of Watchfulness Betrays the Man into Surprisal of Sin.

Some of you may know that I love the writings of Jonathan Edwards but I believe I may have found his rival:  John Owen.  I have read half way through his book The Holy Spirit: His Gifts and Power.  I decided to stop reading it to read another shorter book by Owen titled The Mortification of Sin.  It seems this little book has had a powerful effect on many saints that I admire since it was 1st published.  Owen writes systematically and seemingly comprehensively.  I’ve heard so many talk about how boring and long winded his writings are but I am in love with these two books!  Every insight is expressed so simply yet each is deeply profound.  What seemed to transcend my understanding has become intelligible and what was once common place has become transcendentally awesome.  So I commend these two books to everyone who reads.  Owen’s insights into nature of sin, of man, the flesh, the Spirit and the mortification of sin are deeply theological/dotrinal but are also very practical.  As for his work on the Holy Spirit, I’ve never read or heard so comprehensive a treatment on the subject as I have in this book (and I’m only half way through!).

_____________________________________________________________________

In chapter 9 of The Mortification of Sin, Owen means to give “particular directions to the soul for its guidance under teh sense of a disquieting lust or distempter.”  His first direction is to consider what dangerous symptoms accompany the lust you’re dealing with and thus discern if that lust has a deadly mark on it or not. 

The first dangerous mark and symptom is inverterateness: “If it has lain long corrupting in your heart, if you have suffered it to abide in power and prevalency for some long season, without attempting vigorously the killing of it, and teh healing of the wounds you have received by it, your distempter is dangerous.”

The second mark or symptom are “Secret pleas of the heart for countencancing itself and keeping up its peace, notwithstanding the abiding of a lust, without a vigorous gospel attempt for its mortification.”  Owen gives examples of this, one of which is when we have convicting thoughts of sin, instead of vigorously seeking to kill it we search our hearts to see what evidences we can find of a good condition so that it may go well with us.  We try to gather up our experiences of God, to call them to mind, to collect them, consider them, and try to improve them, which is normally an excellent thing.  But in this case we do so to dissolve our conviction over some lust and justify ourselves.

The third mark is perhaps the most obvious:  frequency of success in sin’s seduction, in obtaining the prevailing concent of the will unto it.  What he means is when the sin spoken of gets the consent of the will with some delight, thought it’s not necessarily outwardly perpetrated, still it has sucess.  Then Owen makes a very important insight!

And it is all one as to the matter (in other words, “Its all the same” or ” It makes no difference”) whether this be done by the choice of the will or by inadvertency, for that inadvertency itself is in a manner chosen.  When we are inadvertent and negligent where we are bound to watchfulness and carefulness, that inadvertency does not take off from the voluntariness of what we do thereupon; for although men do not choose and resolve to be negligent and inadvertent, yet if they choose the things that will make them so, they choose inadvertency itself, as a thing may be chosen in its cause.

And let not men think that the evil of their hearts is in any measure extenuated because they seem for the most part to be surprised into that consent which they seem to give unto it; for it is negligence of their duty in watching over their hearts that betrays them into that surprisal.

O’ this is an excuse spoken far to often.  We speak of sin in 2 categories: intentional and unintentional, conscious and unconscious, willful and accidental.  Willful disobedience we say, is altogether different from a slip of the tongue or a sinful emotional response.  If we are wilfully, intentionally, conciously disobedient we are in great danger.  But if our tongue slips and we say something hurtful or curse in anger, it is still sin but its not so bad and we don’t feel as bad about it.  Now, there is a hint of truth in this which I don’t mean to expound on, rather I want to call us away from this crutch.  To call upon this reasoning is to sin that grace may abound.  We are “bound” to watchfulness and carefulness.  It is our call and duty to be on gaurd against sin…not just its outward manifestations but its inward root.  Most of the sin in our hearts never makes it to the surface because we supress it due to fear of what men will think of us.  To be “surprised” by any sin is our own faults.  We speak of sin that God hasn’t convicted us of yet or made us aware of.  Again, some truth in that but we are responsible to diligent, vigorous searching of our hearts.  If we neglect watchfulness and carefulness, how can we expect God to open our eyes? 

Do not think that the evil in your heart is in any measure extenuated (excused) because you are for the most part surprised by it, for it is from negligence of your duty to watch over your heart that has betrayed you into that surprisal.

Faith Grows with Use ~ Tozer

…Yet you do not have because you do not ask. –James 4:2

It was a saying of George Mueller that faith grows with use. If we would have great faith we must begin to use the little faith we already have. Put it to work by reverent and faithful praying, and it will grow and become stronger day by day. Dare today to trust God for something small and ordinary and next week or next year you may be able to trust Him for answers bordering on the miraculous. Everyone has some faith, said Mueller; the difference among us is one of degree only, and the man of small faith may be simply the one who has not dared to exercise the little faith he has.

According to the Bible, we have because we ask, or we have not because we ask not. It does not take much wisdom to discover our next move. Is it not to pray, and pray again and again till the answer comes? God waits to be invited to display His power in behalf of His people. The world situation is such that nothing less than God can straighten it out. Let us not fail the world and disappoint God by failing to pray.

The Set of the Sail, pp. 33-34

A.W. Tozer

Nicodemus may have been “reformed” before the reformation.

John 3:1-17

Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.” Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be? Jesus answered him, “Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things? Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony. If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heave, the Son of Man. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. For God so loved the world that he have his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him….”

Today as I was reading the book of John I read this passage with new eyes. There is an assumption that I think we carry into reading this passage because of what we’ve heard and been taught. Namely, that Nicodemus is thinking naturally/physically while Jesus is speaking spiritually.

I think in importing this assumption, it kept me from properly understanding the interaction between Nicodemus and Jesus in John 3, or at least from considering another option. So I’ve avoided trying to figure out what is going on here for quite some time. I falsely assumed Nicodemus was stupid. That’s a bit overstated. What I mean to say is he had no idea what Jesus was saying. I got this from Jesus’ words in verse 10, “Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things?” Which I think is where most people get the idea from. So I imported this verse into my understanding of the whole story.

As Jesus is talking about spiritual things, Nicodemus seems then to understand them physically. In other words, Jesus is speaking in metaphor and Nicodemus is completely missing it with all its symbolism. So then, when Nicodemus says, “How can a man be born again? Can he enter his mother’s womb a second time?” it sounds really stupid. We think, “Open your eyes pal, He doesn’t mean “born again” literally!”

I heard a man make mention of this in a message recently. He said that Nicodemus was picking up on the symbolism. The implications of this weren’t really part of his message so I didn’t give it much thought. Then as I read this morning I realized a few things. Nicodemus is a Pharisee. He’s very well educated. He’s intelligent. Moreover, it seems his heart is not hard to Jesus but rather he truly recognizes that Jesus is sent from God. He’s not playing games. His questions are genuine. He’s not out to catch Jesus in some heresy so to have him killed. (The name Nicodemus means “innocent of blood,” which if you know the rest of John, he was innocent of the blood of Jesus). In reading it this morning, it seems to me that Nicodemus is tracking right along with Jesus. He’s picking up the symbolism and carrying out the metaphor.

Jesus says a man must be born again to inherit the kingdom. Nicodemus was certainly aware of our sinful condition, and I think we can assume he understood total depravity (Jeremiah 13:23?), so he says, “How can man be born again, its not as though he can reenter his mothers womb and be born.” If Nicodemus is continuing with the metaphorical language of Jesus (which I think is a very reasonable possibility) it means that Nicodemus knows it is impossible for a man to change his heart. A leopard cannot change his spots, nor can man change his heart. So how can a man be born again?

Jesus’ answer then is to say that it comes by the Spirit. When someone is reborn, “born by the spirit,” it happens like the wind. The wind blows where it wishes. So it is the will of the Spirit who regenerates man (wind and spirit are the same word in Greek).

Then Nicodemus says, “How is this possible?” A few commentaries I read assume that this question is again “How can man be born again?” They assume this because they assume that Jesus’ words about the Spirit are another way of saying “A man must be born again.” That’s not quite right. Jesus is explaining the means or agency by which a man is born again. So then, for Nicodemus to ask, “How is this possible,” is a question about the means not the end. I think this because Jesus’ response isn’t, “Well Nicodemus, the Spirit can do whatever He wants for He is God and is all-powerful.” Instead, Jesus preaches the gospel: The Christ must be lifted up to die that whoever believes in Him may live forever. For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son for this purpose.

Perhaps then Nicodemus, hearing Jesus give the imperative (command) that a man must be born again thought, “Man is dead in sin. He can’t fulfill this demand. How can a man then be born again?” Jesus answers, “By the Spirit.” Nicodemus then thinks, “But this would make God unjust! He can’t simply forgive sins. What about the law? What about sacrifice?” So he asks, “How is this possible?” Jesus answers, “The Son of man must be lifted up (to die) so that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. God so loves the world that He’s giving His only Son to fulfill the law through the sacrifice of Himself.”

The pronoun translated “this” in Nicodemus’ question, “How is this possible” has an antecedent. What exactly is “this” referring to? For example, if I hold out a piece of cake to you and say, “Would you like this piece of cake, or would you prefer a larger one?” “This” is clearly referring to piece cake in my hand.” The trouble here is that it’s not so clear. It more like if with 3 pieces of cake sitting on the table between us I said, “Would you like this piece of cake or would you like a larger one?” I could be referring to one of 3 pieces.

So what is “this” referring to in Nicodemus’ question? The commentaries I read on it assume that “this” is referring to “being born again.” I think this is wrong for two reasons: (1) Why on earth does he keep asking the same question then? Jesus is 3 steps away from the conversation on “born again” and Nicodemus is still stuck on it? Doesn’t seem likely. Again, Nicodemus is smart. I think he’s tracking with Jesus pretty well. Second, Jesus’ answer wouldn’t make a whole lot of sense unless Jesus is just ignoring him and is preaching at him. Again, seems unlikely.

See, Jesus answers this question, not with a statement like: “I’m going to die.” Rather He says, “I must die.” Which begs the question: why do you have to die? For what reason must you die? If we assume that Jesus really means to answer the question, the question must require this answer, “I must die…in order that those who believe in me can have eternal life.” So why “must” Jesus die? He “must” die because God cannot forgive sinners and give them the kingdom apart from the righteous requirements of His justice being fulfilled. There must be payment for sin. Jesus is that payment. I think Jesus’ answer then is, “So, it is possible, Nicodemus, for man to be born again and enter the kingdom of God through regeneration of the Holy Spirit, because in God’s love He has sent me to die in their place as a substitute.”

Regardless of whether or not Nicodemus was tracking with Jesus, what Jesus said remains the same.  I can’t think of any clearer teaching from Jesus on the doctrines of grace in respect to their order:  Election> Regeneration> Faith> Salvation.

The work of Calling Sinners to Repentance

Romans 10:12b-14 says

…the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. But how are they to call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?

There is human agency in salvation, but this not on the part of the hearers in receiving the gospel, but on the part of those who are sent to preach the gospel. For indeed, they who have not heard on whom they are to call can not be saved. Our responsibility as Christ’s witness then is profound! The Church is responsible for the souls of all men. Their blood is on our hands. This is why its so important to preach with wisdom to the wise and to make the gospel fun for children and to water it down so its palatable to the hard of heart. So it was Paul who said, “I worked harder than any of them” in 1 Corinthians 15, speaking of proclaiming the gospel.

Wait a second. Didn’t Paul say right after “I worked harder than any of them,” “…though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me”?

We should be ‘burdened’ in our hearts for the lost but not as ones on whom the blood of all the nations rests. We are responsible for preaching faithfully, but we are not responsible for “saving souls” or “winning them to Christ.” We ought to work our hardest, but it is the work of a sovereign God to open the eyes of the blind and save sinners. It is the work of Christ to redeem the hearts of man. Oh, we are commanded (“commissioned” is to soft) to go to the ends of the earth, preaching the good news, making disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. We are responsible for that, and what an imperative responsibility! But we do not preach as ones who are responsible for the repentance of sinners. We preach the whole counsel of God, we preach repentance, we call on them to come and drink from the Fountain of Living Waters, but we are not responsible if they do not come.

John 10:16 says, “And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice.” And then in Luke 24:25 it is written, “Then he (Jesus) opened their minds to understand the Scriptures.”

Praise God that we serve a Sovereign King who issues sovereign grace to those He calls. This is not our burden. If it were, who among us could stand up under it? So many when it comes time to evangelize say to themselves, “This is not my gift,” or they begin arguing with themselves, “I don’t know what to say…what if I say the wrong thing or can’t answer all their questions? What if I don’t explain it clear enough?” On and on, round and round. Look, they didn’t believe Jesus so it’s ok if they don’t believe you either.

If it were up to us, no one would be saved. The reality is God has been saving souls through human efforts in spite of human effectiveness throughout the whole of redemptive history. God is merciful.

We then are free to obey His command to preach the goodness of the Kingdom of God without fear of wrath and judgment. And if we have been unfaithful in our preaching until now, there is freedom from that as well. For Christ has paid our ransom so there remains no wrath for those whom He has purchased with His blood.

We are free to make mistakes. So go work harder than all of them and you will have your reward.

God’s Call on My Life

What is God’s call on my life? This has been a pretty popular question in my life. Recently God reminded me that I have a calling, and it is the highest calling I will ever receive: to be husband to my wife. This is my highest mission, my greatest ministry. I’ll be granted no greater pursuit than this: to love, lead, and serve Sarah. Recalling this reality has brought peace in times of uncertainty over job and ministry.

This week as I have sought to discern God’s call on my life, more specific to job and/or ministry I began to see something that was then affirmed by scripture this morning as the men of Grace Church plant met this morning for discussion. In 1 Timothy 3:1 Paul says,

The saying is trustworthy: If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task.

If we consider the qualifications of elders/overseers, it’s pretty obvious to those who know their bible why it is a noble task: the demands of the ministry require a true life of godliness. Just look at some of the qualifications from 1 Timothy 3:1-7 and Titus 1:5-9
. The moral qualifications are all particular manifestations of the Spirit of Christ in us, according to our role as men. Godliness is Christ-likeness, which we are all called to.

This week I have recognized that in some real sense, all men ought to see to be qualified for the office of overseer/elder. And if it is gifts we are lacking, well, Paul says to earnestly desire the gifts as well. So while God has not called me to be an elder just yet, I know for sure He is calling me to be qualified. This realization is slowly transforming my life as it cultivates continuity. I’ve found fragmentation often leads to frustration. I’ve been reading books, studying the Word, practicing Greek, writing and praying with no common end in mind.

God has a call on my life: to be husband to my wife, to desire the gifts of the Spirit of Christ, and to pursue the qualifications for elders.

For Those Who are Suffering

You must hold onto Romans 8:28. You must trust through faith that you’ve been called according to His purpose. Without assurance of your position in Him, there is no hope found in the promise thereafter, “God works all things together for good.” You must hold onto God’s sovereignty in and over everything. You must trust through faith that God holds the works of all men in hand; the heart of every sinner. Even the ways of your persecutors are in His hands (Daniel 5:23). Nothing befalls you that He has not purposed; you cannot escape from disaster should the LORD bring it upon you. Moreover, you are never spared apart from His designs; nor can you enter into trouble should the LORD cover you.  

As God is for your good, and your righteousness lies wholly in Christ, you cannot add to or take away from God’s favor over you. His zeal in doing good to you is eternally immutable. If then you are His child, believe He will never allow you to exalt a thing before Him as your supreme treasure, your eternal hope, your everlasting joy; that is, He will not allow you to remain in worship of other gods. He is faithful to keep us, everyone, treasuring Him above all things. He will not let us linger long at the table of decadent delights. So we suffer long that we might be raised to a seat of honor. He will reconcile us to Himself again and again that we might be weaned from the milk of this world and strive hard after rich, heavenly foods.

Learn quickly the joy in suffering, for God brings grief upon us with a view to our happiness. He does not want you to settle for lesser foods. Rather He desires that we hunger and thirst for HIM.

The Fullness of the Gospel.

“And now, behold, I know that none of you among whom I have gone about proclaiming the kingdom will see my face again.  Therefore I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all of you, for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God (Acts 20:25-27).”

Reading John Piper’s “The Pleasures of God,” a must read for any believer, he defines the gospel in the introduction.  I think there is a fullness here that many do not know and many others shrink back from declaring.  He writes,

But the gospel is the good news that God is the all-satisfying end of all our longings, and that even though he does not need us, and is in fact estranged from us because of our God-belittling sins, he has, in the great love with which he loved us, made a way for sinners to drink at the river of his delights through Jesus Christ.

To put it in Matt Chandler’s words, we need to be experts in the gospel.  The gospel is the antidote to all our sin. 

  Be appalled, O heavens, at this;
   be shocked, be utterly desolate,

         declares the LORD, for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me,
   the fountain of living waters,
and hewed out cisterns for themselves,
   broken cisterns that can hold no water.

                          ~Jeremiah 2:12-13

God desires that we pursue the satisfaction of not just our deepest but our every desire in Him for it brings Him great glory!  God’s worth and beauty is put on display as He really is all satisfying when we through regeneration of the Holy Spirit, sinful man turns from his broken, dry cistern to the fountain of living waters in response to the “gospel of the glory of the blessed God.” (1 Timothy 1:11)

The gospel is foolishness to a world that doesn’t understand its condition.  Paul washer said, “You have to get people lost before you can get them saved.”  People need to know conviction of their sins before they can truly be saved.  Most people don’t understand their need for Jesus.  Everyone on the other hand are aware of their cornicopia of desires and most of the world is keenly aware that their desires are constantly unmet and unsatisfied.  There is little contentment, especially in the west.  This is the very nature of idolatry…hewn cisterns that hold no water…broken, dry cisterns. 

Teach the whole counsel of God.  I want to be innocent of the blood of the nations.  On my death bed I want to freely say in honest assessment that through the course of my life I wasted none of it and that in everything it was all I could do to win souls to Christ. 

For His Kingdom and not our comfort.

Unworthy Servants will Reign in Righteousness

As I read Gino’s post on how the Gospel shames our pride in lawkeeping, I thought how true it is of us especially when we are praised for our good works.  John Piper wrote a short article titled “How to Fight the Sin of Pride, Especially When You Are Praised”  I keep it book marked as it is extremely helpful.  Piper lists 10 things he does to fight this temptation. 

This morning as I continued my study of Luke, I think it would be good to add an 11th thing to do.

Jesus drew this analogy for his apostles:

Will any one of you who has a servant plowing or keeping sheep say to him when he has come in from the field, ‘Come at once and recline at table’?  Will he not rather say to him, ‘Prepare supper for me, and dress properly, and serve me while I eat and drink, and afterward you will eat and drink’?  Does he thank the servant because he did what was commanded?  So you also, when you have done all that you were commanded, say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty.’  (Luke 17:7-10)

Jesus’ questions are rhetorical.  His audience knew the answers.  They are as follows: 

1. None of you will say to your servant come at once and recline at the table.
2. All of you would say, “Prepare supper and serve me, and then you can eat.”
3. The master of house does not thank his servan for his service for it is service due him.

Its very important here to view this picture properly.  2 Chapters earlier, Jesus is telling several parables on the topic of the Kingdom.  That there is much rejoicing in heaven over one saved sinner…he who was lost is now found.  He tells the story of the prodigal son.  In that picture, there are two characters Jesus means to represent:  God (the father in the parable) and us, the lost son. 

This pericope on the otherhand is NOT a parable.  It is an analogy…the subject of the analogy answers the question, “What should the heart attitude of a servant be?”  and the object of the analogy is us.  The “master of the house” is NOT God.  Read it carefully.  Jesus did not introduce this saying with “Let me tell you what the Kingdom of Heaven is like.”  This is not a parable.  It’s an argument for our humble and contrite position before an all powerful ruler God.

So how is this my addition to Piper’s 10 things to do to fight the sin of pride (in law keeping or otherwise)?

First, we need to see what our position is:  we are slaves of the Most High God.  We are servants, literally bondservants.  We owe a debt to God.  Our relationship is one of CREATOR -> created.  God being infinitely lovely is worthy and demanding of all our allegiance, love, worship and praise.  The greatest commandment…you know it.  Why?  Because God is God and we are not.  Lay sin aside and our infinite debt there…we don’t even need to delve into that.  God’s character is enough to indebt us to Him forever.  We owe Him perfect obedience, perfect submission, perfect love, adoration, worship, praise, etc…forever and ever and ever.

This should humble us.  This should knock the pride of lawkeeping right off its feet.  Even were our deeds counted righteous in and of themselves, still we have done nothing for God but that which we already owe Him.  And guess what, a 1000 perfect mortal lives wouldn’t suffice to satisfy it.  He’s that glorious. 

We don’t get this.  We really don’t.  If we did, how could we ever boast in our works?  Truth be told…we’re really really good at ignoring this which makes us all the more hardened…all the more proud.  But wait, there’s more:

Remember, the picture Jesus paints in Luke 17:7-10 is a picture of our relationship to God.  That is, our natural position before Him.  It is NOT a picture of the way God relates to us.  Read that again.  Be careful.  It is not the way God relates to us. 

For behold, our natural relationship to God is one of Creator-created…one of Master-servant…and so justice requires that we honor God this way.  But God does NOT relate to us as He COULD and as we DESERVE.

THIS SHOULD HUMBLE US.  Consider our duty to God and how we ought to relate to Him…and how He would be right and just to relate to us…and then consider how He DOES relate to us.  We are adopted as sons and daughters.  Indeed, we are His children (Romans 8:15; 16; 23, Galatians 4:5, Ephesians 1:5).  We are heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ (Romans 8:17).  In my mind, those 2 are the biggest (though we know we could list atleast a dozen more).  But check out what Jesus promises to those who conquer.  In revelation He speaks:  

Only hold fast what you have until I come.  The one who conquers and who keeps my work until the end, to him I will give authority over the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron, as when earthen pots are broken in pieces, even as I myself have received authority from my Father.  And I will give him the morning star. (Revelation 2:25-28)

The one who conqers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I also conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne.  (Revelation 3:21)

Number 11, here goes: 

Consider that our natural position before God is one of servant, bondservant, slave.  Remember that our indebtness to God for His gloriousness could not be paid in 1000 mortal lives.  More than this, consider our sin, a crime so heineous that the reward for one millisecond of sinful lust is eternal conscious tornment apart from the presence of God…so vast that God’s wrath toward it will never be exhausted.  Consider now that God, under no governance or creed, chose to love us in Christ, to save us by His blood, to adopt us as sons, to make us coheirs with Christ and to let us reign and rule with Him when He makes all things new!

This is God’s grace to you and I.  “So you also, when you have done all that you were commanded, say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty, but praise be to the One who has clothed us with His perfect righteousness and granted us eternal favor with God, our hope and treasure.”

Amen.

Do you know Him?

Forgive the use of “The Passion” images and just listen to Dr. S.M. Lockridge preach.

Created good, now are sinners; but Behold! We will soon be good again!

 We want to be good.  Why?  Gino gives one answer in a recent post (see him on the blog roll ->).  He writes, “If I keep the law (to any small degree), I often begin to think of myself as better than others.”  Though the law was given to increase tresspass, that is, to give us more and more opportunity to sin against God in crystal clear expressions, we often enjoy law keeping.  Our hearts are sick.  We seek to keep the law because we want to boast in our righteousness.  The reality is, we have none.  Keeping the law only leads to condemnation and death, not righteousness and life. 

You see, as a human, I naturally like the law because I naturally like to make much of myself. If I keep the rules (even in part), I can feel good about myself. The Gospel brings shame because the concept of a savior is shameful and humbling. Needing a savior says at least two things about me. First, it shows that I am broken and in need of help. Second, the need for a savior shows that I am totally incapable of rescuing myself.

Amen.  I think there’s a deeper reason for our desire to be good though.  I doesn’t surface in our hearts nearly as often as our pride, which is a testimony to how great a hold sin and flesh still have on us while we are in these mortal bodies.  And the gospel, well it has something to say about this too. 

We want to be good, because we were created to be good.  Notice I said “to be good.”  That is, the original purpose of our being created was “to be good.”  Were we created good?  It would seem so.  Genesis 1:31 says, “And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good.”  There’s no doubt that original man (Adam) was created very good (that includes morally).  To be created good means to have “goodness” as an inherent quality…goodness was part of the fabric. 

But since then, there was a great fall of humanity and sin entered the world.  Scripture now says of our nature that “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God.  All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.” (Romans 3:10-12)  Keep reading and the description only gets worse from there.  What’s more, Paul says in Ephesians 2 that we were dead!

And you were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the price of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience–among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carry out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the wrest of mankind. 

So now what?  Is there anything good in us?  What of that goodness innate to our natures?  That fabric of our created stuff?  Scripture is pretty clear that the nature of unregenerate man is deadness.  Whatever goodness there was is now dead.  So what of his desire to be good?  Well, it’s exactly as you said Gino, it’s pride.  Unregenerate man wants to be good, to be a “law keeper” (which is a sinners twisted vision of goodness), in order that he might boast in his “righteousness.”

“But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ…(Ephesians 2 continued from above)”  “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.  The old has passed away; behold, the new has come (2 Corin 5:17).”  If we are now new, which with great joy I declare: we are, then this pride in lawkeeping should not be the ruling desire of our hearts.  If we find that our ‘natural’ response to goodworks is pride in lawkeeping then flesh has a great grip on us still!  We must be renewed in our minds. 

So with all this in mind, why do we (as believers) want to be good?  I ask because I don’t know about you…but I have an overwhelming desire to be good.  It has brought me to tears again and again when I fail.  The answer again is the same as it was in the beginning, because we were created good!  We have a new nature…we are new creations…created in Christ Jesus for good works (Eph 2:10).  We are no longer dead but alive! 

There is something resonant with our first natures in the garden, that inherent goodness about our fabrics, that is here echoed at greater decibles in regeneration.  Afterall, isn’t this the biggest frustration in the believers life: Sin?  I do the things I don’t want to do and the things I want to do I don’t?  (We know from experience its true, regardless of your view of Romans 7).  We hate sin yet we still fall into it.  Not a day goes by without its stain.  We hate it…we want to be good.

We want to be good, not just do good things.  There’s a difference.  It’s the difference between true righteousness and mere lawkeeping.  There should be a perpetual shift in the life of a believer in this desire.  A shift from our desire to be good in pride of law keeping  to a desire to be good to glorify God (Matthew 5:16).

The gospel then?  Well, the gospel first saves us and then empowers us to live out good deeds.  Yet even with this power, our deeds are still corrupt.  How so?  Well why exactly do you think Paul says in 1 Corinthians 1:30 that Christ has become from God our sanctification?  If you’re not sure what that means we can rule out 3 options.  Christ being our sanctification does not mean wisdom, righteousness or redemption because they are his other distinct operations as found in the same verse!  Sanctification means to set apart, to make holy.  Much more than this, and I believe more suitable to the context of the verse, sanctification means to make perfect.  Perfect in Greek means complete, lacking nothing.  This refers to the life Christ lived in our place.  Christ lived perfect…was tempted in everyway as we are but was without sin.  In all our attempts at goodness/good deeds, they must be made perfect, complete, lacking nothing by Christ or they will be found unacceptable before a holy and perfect God.  So through faith in Christ as our sanctification, all of our good works, despite their flawedness, are acceptable worship to the Father.  And if at first you think that this isn’t always true for us, that none of our deeds in this life will ever be perfectly good, thenl you think about all your good deeds in honest assessment, and come up with one that you did perfectly from beginning to end without a millisecond of pride or some other impure motive.  Exactly.  So long as we live in this body of death, we will never be without sin; and sin in every deed.  That is why Christ is our sanctification. 

But wait!  The Gospel has more to say about it!  It has the final word:

And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.”  Also he said, “Write this down for these words are trustworthy and true.”  And he said to me, “It is done!  I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.  (Rev 21:5-6)

All things new!  ALL THINGS NEW!  He really does it!  Just look and see,

And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great, high mountain, and showed me the holy city of Jerusalem (which is us!) coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God, its radiance like a most rare jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal.

He does it.  Jesus Christ the Lord of Glory makes all things new.  We will be clear as crystal, everyone seeing right through us…no sin and no shame.  We then…we will again be good…in nature and fabric…forever and ever to the praise of His glorious grace!  Halleluia!

God’s big in our blunders.

Mistakes.  Do they really happen? 

Looking at life its pretty hard not to believe in them.  In fact, I could rattle off 10 things over which I struggle with regret without a moments notice.  But are they real?  I should say, in using the word mistake I mean it in its hard definition.  We often speak of human errors as mistakes, such as spilling the milk while pouring a glass.  But what I’m talking about is mistakes of the will.  Are there wrong choices?  Do we will things to happen in our lives that throw off the course of an otherwise perfect plan?

Humanly, the trouble comes when we start asking the “What if?” questions.  You know what I mean.  My big what if question is, “I wonder how life would be different if I went to school for something else.”  I have a lot more what if’s.  I struggle, sometimes daily, to trust God’s plan for me. 

You see, if God is sovereign then there really aren’t any mistakes.  My biggest blunders are all a part of His ultimate plan.  Though I have made many mistakes…though I have willed many foolish things to be…I have done nothing that God has not caused or allowed with divine purpose.

God has been revealing to me lately that I don’t believe most of what He says.  You really can’t surprise me with much from the bible.  So if you relate to me some doctrine and its scriptural support I’ll rarely rise up with a “Really?  I’ve never heard that!”  But these days, as I’ve been pursuing God, He’s showing me old texts in new ways.  Suddenly they are alive to me and I alive to them.

So this area…this area is my biggest need.  To believe that God is sovereign over all of my mistakes.  To believe that God does not mess up.  His plans are perfect and there are none who can stay His hand or say to Him, “What have you done.”  God needs no counsel.  More than this, none can counsel Him.  For He is holy.  That mean’s more than just morally perfect.  In the case of God it means utterly other from everything else.  He is His own category…a categoryof one.  Who has known the mind of the Lord?  No one.  As high as the heavens are above the earth so are God’s thoughts and ways higher than ours.  There is none like Him.  No other gods.  Every principality of light and of darkness He holds on a leash.  Every ruler in our world is but a stream in His hand; God turns them wherever He wishes.  When we cast lots and God decides.

Even now as I think about all my what ifs, I realize they are naught but pride.  My life stands as it is because God has spoken it and Jesus continues to speak and uphold everything.  I do not deny human agency; but it is foolish to think that I could have made it any different.  For if the will of kings is irresistably influenced by God’s speaking, than who am I to think that I should be exempt?  Pride.  Its all pride.  Even my anxiety over it…  Anxiety believes that we are ultimately in control when in fact, we-are-not.  Jesus says, “…which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?”  His answer?   ”If then you are not able to do as small a thing as that, why are you anxious about the rest?”  Get the picture.  Adding an hour to your life is the small stuff.  I can’t even control the small stuff.  So what’s in my head to think I can handle the rest of life?

We can work and work and work as hard and as long as we want; but if God doesn’t make it grow, there will be no harvest.  Period.  But you say, “What of the laws of the universe that govern this or that?  We know that if with the right soil and the enough sun exposure and plenty of water, there will be fruit.”  Check out Psalm 107 and 144.  Scientific law is just one form of the Word of God.  God speaks and there is law.  We’re not divinizing nature here.  We’re stating the facts.  God speaks and law happens.  It’s a contradiction to God’s personal nature, His personal involvement in the universe, to teach and believe that God created the world and set it all in motion, but then the systems run themselves like some great machine.  Nonsense.  God continues speaking or there’s nothing at all (Hebrews 1).  Each moments existence owes nothing to past moments.  We’re not here in this hour because we were in the last and we’ll be here till God says differently.  No friend.  We owe all our existence in every millisecond to God’s speaking us into existance as though we never were.  Every moment God speaks.  And that’s why we’re here.

My Dad says that we should not be paralized from fear of making mistakes because God is merciful when we mess up.  Amen.  Lets not just say it.  Lets believe it!  Let us hold firm that confidence to the end.  For Romans 8 doesn’t say that God will make the best out of a bad situation.  It says that God works all things for the good of those who love Him.  God is sovereign.  He is in the heavens doing whatever pleases Him (Psalm 115:3).  It pleases Him…He will withhold no-good-thing.  Got it?  I think I’m just starting to.