Friday, December 30, 2011

The God Particle

By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible. (Hebrews 11:03, NKJV).
How did the "primitive and unscientific" writer of Hebrews know that subatomic particles exist? How did he know some 2000 years before the latest particle accelerator went operational in Europe?

Recent media attention has been paid to the search for the elusive "God Particle", that thing which gives all other subatomic particles mass, and without which neither matter nor energy would exist, hence the rather presumptuous name.

A few years before, physicists were excited by the search for the so-called gluon particle, that mysterious entity that was supposed to hold all the rest of the universe together.

Operational science is one of the most useful studies known to mankind. Through it, the human race has advanced in knowledge and technological abilities quite rapidly, especially in the last few generations, when we have gone from horse-and-buggy to interplanetary and extrasolar exploration. We have also progressed from geographic isolation to worldwide network connectivity, from telegraph to satellite phones, and so on.

Popular media loves to paint Christianity as anti-science, primarily over one facet of study: origins. But in reality, it was Christian scientists who began the scientific revolution, who studied the world because they believed its Creator was real, knowable, and a lover of order and logic.

Even today, unbelieving but honest scientists have penned surprisingly spiritual odes to the wonders and incredible complexities of the universe, and by their study have come right up against the idea of Design and Creator, without having whatever it takes to go beyond their worldly presuppositions into the realm of the true Reality behind reality. 

Hence the overhyped search for the "God Particle" - reduce the Creator and Sustainer to a thing, and then you can have a few more nights of sleep untroubled by the nagging suspicion that there is more to everything than mere science can ever know.

Whatever the physical manifestation, the substance and evidence of faith teaches this ineffable truth: the worlds were framed by the word of God.

God spoke and other than Himself began to exist.

Think about what that means for just a second and be awed.

Our self-existent God, utterly complete and all-powerful, uttered the Universe into existence. He used words to manifest His incomprehensible creativity and, with seemingly very little effort, formed out of absolutely nothing, absolutely everything… except Himself.

He spoke light and energy and matter into causality. He spoke all the laws of physics, thermodynamics, mathematics, and biology into reality.

And He did so for the express purpose of making for us, His ultimate creation, a place to be and grow and live and enter into relationship with Him.

That is what faith teaches, and whatever else this God Particle may be, underpinning its function and purpose is, very simply, the Word of God.

I cannot conceive of a more effective presentation of God's divine attributes, His omnipotence, omniscience and omnipresence, than to have these encapsulated in these three reality-making words: "And God said…".

Consider all the human and natural demonstrations of power in whatever form you choose: dictatorships, presidents, hurricanes, volcanoes, tsunamis, nuclear detonations, etc. Each require whole systems of interrelated components in a preexisting configuration in order to achieve anything. Rulers require nations and infrastructure, nature requires climatology, hydrology and the physical realm. Weapons of mass destruction require science and technology, and all the foundations upon which these are built.

But only a Being of all-conceivable power could speak into the nothingness and by His very words not only move all heaven and earth, but create them in the first place.

Why choose words rather than gestures or something else?

I can think of three possible reasons, none of which are exhaustive, and all of which are speculative, for in the end, God chooses simply because God chooses.

Nevertheless, His creative power manifested in and by words instantly and intimately unites Him with the only elements of His Creation made in His image: us.

Words are what differentiate human beings from everything else. We are the only living creatures we know of who would understand even the concept of verbal and written communication, let alone the content of the communication.

Secondly, impersonal force and the use of words are oxymorons. It is unimaginable for mere energy to communicate in anyway. Nuclear explosions do not speak. There would have to be a controlling intelligence behind the use of words, and by definition, intelligence requires personhood.

And finally, there is nothing more representative of sovereign power than a command immediately and inalterably obeyed. As a symbol of divine authority, the Creation account is unmatched by any conceivable alternative.

God needed neither machinery, nor matter, nor energy, nor infrastructure, nor wealth, nor institutions of knowledge, nor anything else… but Himself.

God said… and it was so.

Thursday, December 29, 2011

A Good Testimony

For by it the elders obtained a good testimony. (Hebrews 11:02, NKJV).

The it here is the weight and solidity of faith. By faith, and faith alone, good testimony is obtained before God.

The phrase is used twice in Hebrews, both in Chapter 11. It is a derivation of the root from which we get our word, martyr, and literally means to bear witness of a positive nature. 
It is instructive to note that the three other instances in the New Testament (so, 5 in all) refer respectively to the man who ministered to Paul's blindness in Damascus (the Ananias of  Acts 22:12), to the qualifications of those in church leadership (2 Timothy 3:7), and to Demetrius, an acquaintance of the elderly John whom he mentioned in his last epistle (3 John 12).

In each case, it is the unsolicited, voluntary report of a good and decent person from an eye witness. In that sense, faith is our character witness.

Whatever we do NOT from faith is therefore sin (Romans 14:23), and acts as a witness against us at the Judgment Seat of Heaven.

This means in turn that all our "good" deeds on earth, if not fueled by faith, no matter how vaunted and beneficial from the human perspective, serve not as recommendations, but indictments.

Are you generous and charitable because it does something for your self-image or self-esteem? Then keep your treasure for God is not fooled, nor mocked.

Are you diligent in religious activities, studies, and practices because you believe it earns you credit in Heaven? Then you are wasting your time, and treasuring up for yourselves evidence of hypocrisy.

Do you stumble in sin daily, and grieve because you know that such behavior breaks your Lord's heart? Do you go to Him as a trusting child to implore forgiveness? These are acts of weighty and solid faith, achievements of substance that please God far more than any outward piety or righteousness (Luke 18:9-14).

Any "good" thing done for reasons other than loving and obedient gratitude to the Creator and Savior is likened to a whitewashed tomb, adorned on the outside, but on the inside full of dead men's bones and corruption.

This both complicates and simplifies a life of faith, doesn't it?

The complication comes from ruthlessly weeding out any thoughts of self-righteousness and self-worth (a remarkably difficult task in this era of culturally promoted self-worship) and simply allowing the Spirit of God to work in and through you each and every waking moment, motivating, directing, and empowering. The self-surrender involved here is hard and takes long and diligent practice. 

Children do it far better than adults; humble people better than the proud; those poor in spirit better than those who think highly of themselves.

In fact, the more worldly success you've experienced, the higher the regard you receive from worldly neighbors and worldly family and worldly friends, the more control you think you have over your own destiny, the harder it is to live by faith.

On the other hand, it simplifies things because neither your own plans nor power nor position amount to a hill of beans from the heavenly perspective. A true life of faith is, in this respect, one spontaneous adventure after another. 

Spontaneous because the directing force comes from above, not within, where you have to grit your teeth and strive and obsess. It is an adventure because the outcome is not up to you, but in the hands of Someone far greater and better than you.

And while some adventures may not be safe, all adventures change something fundamental inside the adventurer. And adventures under the loving hand of God change you in the direction He wants you to go, for your good and His glory.

In reality, the Christian walk of faith is not the staid and safe and colorless tedium portrayed by popular wisdom. It is the diametric opposite.

Sometimes it means heroically walking through the valley of the shadow of death. Sometimes it means purposefully taking the hard, rather than the easy path. Always it means putting all your trust in Someone you have not seen, not as a striving or work, but as a simple act of devotion.

For remember this above all else:

...without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. (Hebrews 11:6, NKJV).

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. (Ephesians 2:8-10, NKJV).

Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Solidity and Weight

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. (Hebrews 11:01, NKJV).
Faith in Christ is transformative. It was meant to be. 

Faith, we discover, is the only way to please God. 

Faith is the differentiator between a life worthy of condemnation and one worthy of divine commendation.

Hebrews 11 is the one place in Scripture devoted almost entirely to what faith is, and what it looks like lived out in the world.

Read it and tremble. Memorize it and have the pathways in your mind re-grooved. 

I dare you. 

For when you finally see what a life of faith may entail, you will quickly see that it is NOT a nice, neat contractual agreement between you and God. You will see that it is NOT one of the things on a list that you agree to do, or have, that enables you to pass the citizenship test of Heaven.

It is, in fact, what you BECOME as a child of God, and it changes you fundamentally, like radical surgery. Often, those around you will not like the results. They will see you as somehow disfigured, unfit for continued association. You become a pariah, an outcast, sometimes from your own family and household.

When this reaction is caused by your own sense of supposed superiority, the stench of that is hard to bear by anyone, even your staunchest former allies. But when it is caused by your sincere desire to put Christ first in your life, to become like Him, then in some sense you join the long list of those "hated for Christ's sake." 

The popular conception of faith in Christ is characterized by the "pie in the sky by and by" dismissal. All the cool kids know better, and if you believe in the atoning work of Christ on the Cross for your sins, and live your life surrendered to Him, you are as far from membership in the Cool Kids Club as you can get and still be a resident of the planet. 

The polite condescension heaped on you is even more unbearable than the open contempt. And many of the most rabid Cool Kids believe you need "an intervention", and if they had their way, you'd be forced into state-sponsored rehabilitation.

The reason a life of faith invokes such hostility is because it threatens the very foundation of human pride and self-sufficiency, and unflinchingly declares that we are not our own - that we are accountable for our choices, actions, and priorities to an Omnipotent Judge.

The very idea sends a lot people through the roof; they go ballistic and their missiles of rebuke and ridicule are fueled by an endless supply of "HOW DARE THEY BE SO _____" (fill in the blank).

It's tiring and damaging and to be expected. Jesus Himself warned of the consequences of following Him.

“If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. “If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. “Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they kept My word, they will keep yours also. “But all these things they will do to you for My name’s sake, because they do not know Him who sent Me. (John 15:18-21, NKJV).

But remember, it is God's opinion that counts, not the world's, and a heart of faith knows this because of the substance of things hoped for, the solidity and weight of the promises of God.

If I promise you something, the degree to which you can rely upon those promises being carried out are directly proportional to my integrity and power. My past track record and my control over the circumstances of life are what any thinking, rational person would focus upon to determine the likelihood of my fulfilling my word.

To trust me in that regard requires an investment of time and personal experience. Only a fool trusts someone they don't know. Consequently, if you don't know me, or if my track record is spotty, or if my promise is unrealistic in relation to the power required to carry it out, the substance upon which you base your trust in me lacks solidity and weight. It's just so much vapor and gas.

Such is NOT the case with God. If He is who He says He is, then His control and power over circumstances is absolute. He can do what He promises. And if you have experienced His gracious transforming power in your own experience, and seen the impact of His beloved Son on the history of the world, and on the individuals submitted to His care, and have spent time in fellowship with Him through His word and prayer, then you are in a position to judge His track record. You understand it is flawless.

The solidity and weight of His promises are off the scale. It would take work to disregard or dismiss them.

Add to that the incontrovertible evidence of things not seen, and you have an iron-clad argument for the rationality of faith.

What evidence?

How about the Goldilocks Principle of Cosmology - everything in the Universe "just right" for that thing we call life?

Or accurately fulfilled prophecy from a source obviously "outside of time" - the reemergence of the Nation of Israel after nearly 2000 years of dispersal; the eerily prescient description of the history of mankind in general and the Middle East in particular? 

Do you really believe it is a quirk of fate that the eyes of all national governments are focused on a part of the world that serves the energy needs of most of the modern global economy? Is it merely coincidental that 2500 years ago that very thing was written down ahead of time, and has played out just as described? 

Or the amazing declarations in Scripture of how the underneath of all things are put together - "so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible…".

If these evidences leave you unmoved, what about the changed lives of the men, women and children who have come to faith in Christ? Murderers become missionaries; slavers become emancipators; warmongers become peacemakers?

The transition from degenerate sinner to regenerated saint is inexplicable without the ingredient of faith. Postulate what you will, but name me one life changed for the better by committed atheism, or one nation becoming the vanguard of human decency and uplifting without its people motivated by belief in Christ.

You can't. Not honestly.

And honestly, once you consider the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen in this light, faith must be admitted to be something real. Something substantial you can sink your teeth into and upon which you can base your destiny.

But in the end, faith is by definition unprovable in this age. It is a matter of the human heart. mind and will, and that is a good thing, because once faith becomes sight, as the prophecies tell us will happen, then it will be too late to exercise faith.

That opportunity to please God in the only way fallen human beings can will be gone… forever.

So take heed and consider now, before it is too late.

Instead of contempt, put on humility and teachableness.

Instead of being dismissive, try honest investigation.

Instead of falling for propaganda and cultural stereotypes, try looking at people as unique individuals and taking the time to find out what truly makes them tick. 

Instead of indiscriminately swallowing lies, seek truth.

Do you really have your life so under control, and the world so neatly organized that you can afford to overlook these things? If so, for your sake, I hope time does not pass, because no matter what you believe, the future has a way of unravelling your nice, neat package of what is and isn't true.

And maybe, just maybe, if you try these things you will be surprised by the grace of God, and come to see His Son and His people in a different light.

A light that gives life to the world.

Tuesday, December 27, 2011

To the Saving of the Soul

Therefore do not cast away your confidence, which has great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise: “For yet a little while, And He who is coming will come and will not tarry. Now the just shall live by faith; But if anyone draws back, My soul has no pleasure in him.” But we are not of those who draw back to perdition, but of those who believe to the saving of the soul. (Hebrews 10:35-39, NKJV).

Two different words are translated as confidence in the two places they appear in Hebrews. As always in Scripture, the distinctives are significant. 

In 3:15, (For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end), hupostasis [hoop-os'-tas-is] is used, and it speaks of a foundational substructure or of that which actually exists. Here, it is parrhesia [par-rhay-see'-ah], and literally means cheerful boldness of action. Do you see the difference? The first is a state of mind, the second is the response to the state of mind.

Put another way, the hallmark of of truly believing in something is acting upon it. This is exactly the message in James, where a great distinction is made by the Lord's half-brother between professed faith and actual, living faith. One is dead and incapable of saving. The other is living and powerful, and saves.

Both kinds of confidence are essential components of saving faith. In fact, you can't have the second without the first, which makes perfect sense. You won't walk across a building's foundation, for instance, if you have no confidence the cement will bear your weight - if you are unsure that it is actually what it appears to be.

But you can't stop at the intellectual aspects of the first either. You must go on to the cheerfully bold response to that faith - live it, speak it, jump up and down on it. And this second ingredient of saving faith, built upon the first, is the easiest to cast away. You can just stop being Christian. If you do, the writer of Hebrews warns that you forfeit a great reward - that enduring possession of previous verses.

Look, it is clear you can hold intellectual assent to the fact of God and Christ, you can believe that they exist. But even the demons believe and tremble. But that is not salvation. In fact, that serves to increase condemnation. If you do not allow the Lord to move you beyond that intellectual assent into saving faith, you are just as doomed as those who scorn even the existence of God.

This is solemn and dangerous territory which the book of Hebrews ploughs through head-on, providing dire warning after dire warning. Can you lose your salvation? I believe the answer is a resounding NO. Can you deceive yourself and others about being saved? With equal conviction, I believe the Bible answers, tragically, YES.

Now, one of the identifying characteristics of saving faith is endurance. “And you will be hated by all for My name’s sake. But he who endures to the end will be saved. (Matthew 10:22, NKJV). Forms of the same Greek word are used in Matthew and above. It is not that endurance in this regard gets you into Heaven. It is that by enduring you have proven your citizenship. In truth, there are only two choices, enduring, or drawing back.

I have seen little children with a 1000 times more endurance than an adult. I have seen elderly and frail men stand their ground more firmly than Olympic athletes. Endurance is a God-given ability bequeathed through humble acknowledgement of where strength lies. Those who truly endure in the faith understand that strength is from God, not themselves.

Inevitably, those who trust in themselves, or on their circumstances, or in their bank accounts, human relationships, earthly achievements, intellect, popularity, or ANYTHING ELSE but God, do not endure to the saving of the soul. And like the irresistible force of gravitation, those who do not endure are drawn back into perdition - like matter sucked over the event horizon of an inescapable Black Hole.

Perdition is that state of eternal destruction. It is not once-and-done. It is an endless crushing obliteration in the cold, black fires of Hell.

The heavenly perspective of saving faith is summarized this way: “For yet a little while, And He who is coming will come and will not tarry. Now the just shall live by faith; But if anyone draws back, My soul has no pleasure in him.”  Note that. In comparison to eternity, even a hundred years of earthly suffering is yet a little while. Note also that the heavenly measure of a successful life is that it be lived by faith. Not by sight.

Human accomplishments done in human strength are abominations to God. Pure and simple. It is equivalent to atheism.

But a life lived by faith, even if no visible earthly achievements result, is a sweet-smelling aroma, an acceptable sacrifice to God. Remember that the next time you, like Nebuchadnezzar, pat yourself on the back for all you have accomplished without attributing your success in your heart to the God of Heaven.

From the Lord's viewpoint, a successful life is a life of faith leading to salvation. Everything else, EVERYTHING ELSE, is a potential distraction leading to Hell.

But take heart beloved, if you are truly His, you are not of those who draw back to perdition, but of those who believe to the saving of the soul.

Monday, December 26, 2011

An Enduring Possession

But recall the former days in which, after you were illuminated, you endured a great struggle with sufferings: partly while you were made a spectacle both by reproaches and tribulations, and partly while you became companions of those who were so treated; for you had compassion on me in my chains, and joyfully accepted the plundering of your goods, knowing that you have a better and an enduring possession for yourselves in heaven. (Hebrews 10:32-34, NKJV).
First illumination, then struggle, sufferings, humiliation, reproaches, tribulations, and being plundered - the life of a Christian on earth while he or she awaits the redemption of the purchased possession. If anyone promises you something different, they are trying to sell you something. Don't buy it. You already have an enduring possession beyond price.
Illumination is literally given light. The people who walked in darkness Have seen a great light; Those who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death, Upon them a light has shined. (Isaiah 9:2, NKJV). It is no accident that the Lord Christ is repeatedly associated with light. Among His many evocative titles is the Light of the World.  He is that which obliterates darkness, especially the darkness of sin and death, the very things He came to destroy and conquer.

Struggle is the same Greek word from which we get athlete, and means, simply, fight. And it is characterized purposely as a great struggle. Again, as believers we are in a war declared by the world upon God. As His, we are enemy combatants, and our battlefield is everywhere, even inside us. 

There is no shelter, except in Him, and there is no place to retreat, since we are already behind enemy lines. Indeed, that is where we were recruited in this ubiquitous battle between light and dark. He provides full armor and weaponry, but we must purpose in our hearts to use it and stand firm, not to obtain that better and enduring possession, but because we know, deep down in our renewed hearts, we already have it.

Sufferings, another word precisely chosen by the divinely inspired writer of Hebrews, derived from the same root from which we get pathology - having to do with fighting disease. We live in a world that, if we pay any attention at all, often makes us sick. We suffer over sin in the same way that Christ did, in the same way that Paul writes of in Romans. Having been given deep and intimate knowledge of the true goodness of Christ, the contrast with its opposite in the world is literally, sickening.

Spectacle is theatrizo (theh-at-rid'-zo), an action involving being put on a stage as a laughingstock, for conspicuous and public derision and contempt. By far, the worst of this is when it is done within one's own family and household, but it is also a common and prevalent practice in the world at large. Mockery is an ancient and effective strategy to undermine an enemy's cause, if not in the enemy himself, at least in those who are part of the audience.

Today, the more despicably Christians are portrayed in popular cultural media, the more "edgy" and avant grade the "artists" involved. In reality, they are participants of one of the oldest strategies in existence - a tactic that plays upon the unthinking and naturally twisted human tendency to rebel against its Creator by calling good evil and evil good. You see and hear it everywhere, and the goal is to make you SHUT UP! But don't listen, for you have a better and an enduring possession for yourselves in heaven. The world is neither your friend, nor your home. If you are Christ's, you can do nothing to earn its lasting regard.

Reproaches are acts of contemptuous dismissal, symbolized primally by being spit upon. It is what happened to Christ as He was forced to carry the means of His own murder through the streets of Jerusalem. It involves a sneering, and hostile devaluation of you as a person, and is routinely accompanied by a crowing sense of superiority from the one who spews the contempt boldly in your face. It hurts the worst when it comes from so-called loved ones (a typical Satanic maneuver), when the deceptive mask of condescending tolerance is ripped away to reveal the seething hatred just beneath the surface. 

It happened to Jesus within His own town and family. Do not be surprised when it happens to you. It is part of what you signed up for when you put your trust in Christ, but it is OK, because you have a better and an enduring possession for yourselves in heaven.

Finally, we come to tribulations. Appropriately enough, this is the same thing that happens to olives in a stone press which, through the application of intense pressure, causes the oil to be expelled from the husk so that it can be purified through repeated straining. It is the oppression at all levels of existence and sensation that the Christian experiences in the hands of the enemies of God, including his own fleshly nature. It is never fun, but it is always purposeful.

And therein lies the core of the matter: the purposes of the Father in allowing His children to remain in, and be transformed by, this life. His purposes are good. Our lives have meaning that the world can NEVER take away. It is why a Christian in the throes of these things can joyfully accept the pressings and plunderings that come our way because we know - we KNOW - that He works all things together for good.

What the world means for evil, God allows for our good and His glory. It may not seem that way in the midst, but that is precisely when the eyes of faith must be opened so that we can see that enduring possession.

And what is it that we already own by inheritance? What is it that can never be taken away? What is it that rust cannot destroy, or that thieves can not break in and steal?

It is our life in Christ - eternity in the Presence of God, not as amorphous, undifferentiated spiritual energy, but as solid, thinking, emoting, unique individuals knit together in our mother's wombs by the hand of God Himself, and transformed into the Son's masterpieces by faith, forever being transformed into His image.

Ultimately, it is God Himself that we possess. As He promised to an old man so long ago:

“Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward.” (Genesis 15:1, NKJV).

Saturday, December 24, 2011

The Living God

It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. (Hebrews 10:31, NKJV).
Putting aside the western world's most common conceptions of God, which are conveniently diluted by cultural myths ("the Man upstairs") and westernized pantheistic misinterpretations ("the goodness in all of us"), and taking what the Bible reveals about Him at face value, you are left, if you think about it all, with two choices: fear and trembling, or complete defiance. 

Anything else is sheer indulgence in your own self-serving fantasies and denials.

One of the few advantages non-technological societies have over more modern people is the former's sense of NOT having conquered nature. People who live daily understanding (and fearing) the power of the natural world have a definite leg up on understanding (and fearing) the power of God. The other group have come so far from that very sensible stance that they believe nature needs their help to survive. 

Occasionally, the God of nature sends a reminder that even nature's formidable forces are so far beyond our control that to think otherwise is certifiable. One tsunami, one giant earthquake, one continent-sized hurricane, and we are slammed back into the paleolithic.

The existence of a personal, and all-powerful God who blackens mountains at His word (Mount Sinai), eliminates whole nations (the Canaanites), and judges the world with a global flood is typically an unacceptable proposition to people enamored of popular wisdom. 

And that is tragic because one day, perhaps soon, this Person who is Sovereign over all will exercise His prerogative over Creation, and we are foretold the deniers will run into caves and beg for the mountains and rocks to fall down on them.

The book of Hebrews stresses Christ's power and superiority, AND His Personhood. We are made in His image. We do not worship an idea or a force but a living God.  

And that Person is exacting and unrelenting in His standards and in His ability to enforce them. He is NOT the infant in the manger or in His mother's arms. He is God-Who-Became-Man, who stepped into time and space to demonstrate His grace and mercy in preparation for His future ripping open of the fabric of reality to execute judgment and reassert absolute control.

He is a living God. He is not a nice, neat manageable conception that we can tuck away in some satisfying and cozy intellectual corner.  And by His very essence, He is a fearful thing, whom you either embrace through faith and are forever after sheltered in His loving and outstretched arms.

Or, on that Day, you will fall into His hands.

Either way there is no escaping Him through defiance or denial or cleverness or self-righteousness or self-sufficiency. You are His, one way or another, whether you like it or not.

The only way not to be destroyed in His consuming fire is to make Him yours as well.

He has set the grounds for this relationship, and it is not performance (thank God!), but belief. 

His standards of holiness are so high, and we are so far fallen from them, that He had to die as a Man to enable the imputation of His righteousness to us through faith. There was no other way for Him to be both just, and the justifier, of those who believe. There was no other way for us to be saved.

Thus, He is the living God who died - for us. And in His dying, we live too, IF, by faith we accept His sacrifice on our behalf, allowing His transforming Spirit to indwell us.

For to this end Christ died and rose and lived again, that He might be Lord of both the dead and the living. (Romans 14:9, NKJV).

Friday, December 23, 2011

Fearful Expectation

For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries. Anyone who has rejected Moses’ law dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace? For we know Him who said, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord. And again, “The LORD will judge His people.” (Hebrews 10:26-30, NKJV)
We've all felt it - that gut wrenching dread; that chest-thumping, breath-catching anxiety of something bad just about to happen. We may not know exactly what it is, or exactly when it will strike, but we know enough about it to be unable to ignore, deny, or avoid - that fearful expectation

In reality, that is the state of sinful man all his waking moments. We are born, and live each second, under a devastating and unthinkable sentence of impending judgment.

The people of the world make three mistakes about this reality: they either eat, drink, and live life under the delusion that this judgment is a myth (modern irreligion); or they make foolish attempts to propitiate the Judge through rituals, bargains, bribes, and superficial goodness (classic, prideful self righteousness); or they resign themselves to the inevitability of Hell and act on earth like resident demons.

Each of these groups, if they stay the course, will receive the fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries. It is what they deserve, and what will come, and their personal feelings or beliefs about that outcome mean as much as a grain of sand swept up in a tidal wave.

But there is yet another group, worthy of much worse punishment. It is comprised of those who sin willfully after [they] have received the knowledge of the truth, who [have] trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace.

For a professing Christian, the passage above serves as a dire warning. The Book of Hebrews contains more of these than any other single book, and this is fitting, since more than any other single book, Hebrews presents the magnificence, superiority, and extravagant goodness of Christ, our Savior.

The warning is this: once you know the truth, know it both in your head and in your heart, not just intellectually, but experientially as well, and then willfully disregard that truth in the face of all guidance and direction to the contrary, you are without remedy. By your manifest actions, you have already rejected the only cure. For, The LORD will judge His people.” 
I strongly suspect, that if, in your deepest heart, you are horribly worried about falling into this state of affairs, you are as far from it as a fallen human being is possible to be. 

If whatever secret sin that is plaguing your conscience and robbing your peace has the upper hand for now, by your very misery and tortured ambivalence, you are under the Lord's corrective hand. You may be kicking and screaming at the chastisement and struggle, but a dead man does not kick and scream.

It is those who are convinced of their own good standing, and yet clearly in flagrant disobedience of the truth, who stand on the brink of destruction. It is they who are [trampling] the Son of God underfoot, and are [counting] the blood of the covenant by which [they were] sanctified a common thing.

It strikes me, horribly, that the judgment rendered on the rest of sinful humanity will be a corporate affair in some sense - massive and wholesale, but the judgment, the worse punishment, against those who fall into the category of tramplers will be excruciatingly personal. “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord.
This scares me on behalf of those who are legalistically convinced of their own righteousness. Those who name the name of Christ, and yet deny Him through their actions, will look into His eyes of fire, face to face, it seems to me. And their cavalier and self-centered hypocrisy will be what is warned of in Psalm 2: Pay homage to the Son, lest He be angry and you perish in the way when His wrath is kindled but a little.

They will fall into the hands of the Living God, who is a consuming fire.

You may argue whether or not the tramplers were once saved, and subsequently lost their salvation, or whether they were ever truly saved. But I think that is a diversion that misses the point of this warning entirely.

And the point is this: 

Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?--unless indeed you are disqualified. (2 Corinthians 13:5, NKJV).

Monday, December 19, 2011

Volcanic Encouragement to Love and Do Good

And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching. (Hebrews 10:24-25, NKJV).

To focus one's attention intently and determinedly on another (consider), to incite like a volcanic eruption or paroxysm (the literal meaning of stir up), to gather as one body with one purpose (assembling for worship and learning - as in a synagogue), to plead (exhorting) for action founded upon God's love and goodness - is what this passage beseeches we Christians do, always.

It is the encapsulation of our primary mission on this earth as God's beloved and redeemed children. It is why we continue to walk to and fro on the planet, living our lives for Christ.

It is obviously NOT our natural inclination, else there would be no exhortation in Scripture to remember to do these things, for God does not warn or encourage in His word for no purpose. If it is there, it's because we all fail more than we succeed, if not in action, then in motive and intent.

The encouragement to do good and to love is right up there with prayer and thankfulness in the things He wants to do, but which we - naturally - do not do.

That is why we need His Spirit conforming us to His image day by day. That is why the first priority of a servant is to surrender and obey the will of the Master.

That is why we are to empty ourselves from our selves and be filled with Christ.

This emptying is the very thing that quenching the Spirit prohibits from happening.

This is why Christians are never to be Lone Rangers, but are to be in fellowship with other believers. That is the design of the church by God Himself.

But what happens when we don't comply with the two verses above? When we fail to consider one another in order to stir up love and good works? When we forsake the assembling of ourselves together and cease exhorting one another?

We get stale and weak and complacent. Instead of a cauldron of good works and love, we become a stagnant pool of self-focus and misery - and the enemy takes aim at us like fish in a barrel.

It is important to be in fellowship, to be a committed member of a Christ-centered church that believes and teaches the Word of God; to be both a conduit and recipient of the actions succinctly described above, like brightly burning logs in right relationship with each other and with the Lord.

Yet there are times when a Christian must go it alone. When circumstances, or illness, or persecution prevents this kind of necessary interaction, so what do we do then?

As always, we follow the example of the Son of God Himself, who sometimes went alone to pray for hours at a time, and when He was abandoned by His disciples on the night of His arrest He knew that He was not alone, for the Father was with Him.

The exhortation here is like so much in this marvelous Book of Hebrews - not a formulaic checklist of do's and don't, but a living and dynamic prescription and preventative regimen for the ills and fallenness of this life.

If, while we are able, we are willing to follows these precepts, then when we are unable, for whatever reasons, the nourishment and edification we have received in the past will see us through to the end of whatever isolation God has allowed.

But the key is to know where our strength really lies, not in ourselves, but in each other, and ultimately and finally, in the Person of the Lord Jesus Himself.

It is not good for man to be alone, were words spoken by the Creator at the very beginning. They are as true and applicable today as they were in Eden.

An isolated Christian is a vulnerable Christian.

We need each other in the love of God in as functional and interwoven a relationship as the many parts of a physical body.

Without that we are incomplete and handicapped, invalids stumbling through life anemically and without strength.

If you don't have a church, seek one.

If you do, become even more involved as the Spirit leads.

Become that source of volcanic encouragement to others.

And you are promised to receive the same.

Sunday, December 18, 2011

Hold Fast Without Wavering

Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. (Hebrews 10:23, NKJV).

Hold fast is a blood and guts military term. It was meant to be. There is nothing ambiguous or wishy-washy about it. It is what soldiers do to defend a hard won battlefield, no matter what the personal cost. 

Without wavering is from the Greek word, aklines (ak-lee-nace'), which is the absolute negation of another Greek word, klino (klee'-no), meaning s to fall back, bow down, or wear away (the a- prefix in Greek signifies the diametric opposite of whatever word it fronts). In other words, the divinely inspired writer of Hebrews is exhorting his readers to do whatever it takes NOT to fall back, or bow down, or be worn away from the confession of our hope.

This is ominous and fascinating in the sense that it emphasizes the war-like struggle, expressed in unmistakably martial terms, of the life-and-death battle believers will undergo, at some time or another in this fallen world - the unending struggle to simply hold onto hope.

God knows we will be tested and He is graciously warning us of that inevitability, and dictating our response - hold fast without wavering to the confession of our hope.

That word, confession, is also extremely interesting. It is homologia (hom-ol-og-ee'-ah), which literally means to say the same thing, to agree in the strongest terms possible. It is what we are commanded to do with sin in 1st John:

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9, NKJV).
And note in that passage, as well, the equally fascinating pairings of confess and faithful, with the one being what we humans do in the glorious face of God's faithfulness.

This is important. 

There is nothing more essential in the struggle to hold fast without wavering than to know that the ground upon which we are commanded to stand, in this case, the confession of our hope, is for a cause or Person about which there is absolutely no uncertainty.

The anguished parent watching over his critically ill child, the spouse facing the almost certain loss of her life's partner after decades, the child suddenly bereft of a loving family - these things are real potentials in this mostly painful, sometimes joyous earthly existence.

For a Christian to survive these tragedies in the faith requires the same energy, the same commitment, the same sense of noble purpose with which an honorable warrior faces battle.

To stand firm against all odds is possible ONLY when the hope of ultimate victory is based, not on our own puny and powerless selves, but on something or Someone greater than each one of us. Someone whose purposes, goals, and promises are sure and trustworthy.

And this hope that lies within us is a gift from the One who loved us and gave His own life to make us more than conquerors.

It is more certain than the sunrise; more solid and real than Heaven and Earth.

It is hope founded on the promises of the living God, whose faithfulness serves to define faithfulness itself.

Many go through this life blissfully unaware of, and inexperienced in, real pain or suffering, until it catches them unexpectedly and knocks the very breath out of their lungs. When that happens, as it most certainly will, their response will either be bitter defeat, or blessed hope.

For some, this reckoning awaits them at the moment of death, like the foolish rich man who thought to build himself more and larger storehouses for all his worldly wealth, not knowing that his soul would be demanded of him that very night.

For others, life is filled, or rather emptied, with tragedy and loss in heartbreaking frequency. 

Some times, maybe even most times, we cannot begin to fathom why one person suffers while another seems to prosper; why life is unthinkably hard for one, and a virtual picnic for another. 

But in reality, determining  the "why" of these things is not in our job descriptions. It is above our pay grade. It is the Who behind it all that matters.

And He wants us to know that He is with us as we walk through these valleys in the shadow of death.

And in the end, if we believe in what He has said in His word, and what He has demonstrated in the life and death of His Son, that faithful Someone promises to bring us safely home.

It is the promise that, if held on to, makes enduring all the tragic stories of this life worthwhile.

It is the ultimate happy ending.

And like the branch clinging for dear life to the Vine, all He requires is that we hold on. He will see us through.