Sunday, July 29, 2012

The Exhortation

And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons: “My son, do not despise the chastening of the LORD, Nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him; For whom the LORD loves He chastens, And scourges every son whom He receives.” (Hebrews 12:05-06, NKJV).
Do not despise. Do not be discouraged. Understand that the chastening of the Lord only comes to those whom He loves and has received.

From time immemorial, moral men have asked why do the wicked prosper. The Psalms of David and Asaph are rife with such questions, and each time the inquiry is voiced it is answered by some refrain of, "but then I remembered the goodness of the Lord".

The Scriptures provides three basic purposes for suffering in this life: to deepen faith, to provide comfort to others going through similar trials, and chastening - often called correction.

Raising children Biblically, parents understand both the effectiveness and wisdom of disciplining their children, for an undisciplined child is a grief and a heartbreak in so many ways, and in modern times, the effect of ungodly parenting is most often seen in real enmity between child and parent. As the years pass, and the child becomes mobile, verbal, and increasingly rebellious, the parent cannot wait to be shut of them.

In prosperous times, this takes the form of away camps or trips, where significant sums are spent to send the problematic progeny away for varying lengths of time, so that the parents can have peace.

In the West, this is most often visible during Summer, when public schools are not in session, and children are home with at least one parent 24/7. Come September, the secret, and sometimes not-so-secret joy of being able to foist the child back onto the school system descends on many households - you can almost hear the collective national sigh of relief. This is tragic.

And it is notably untrue for Christian homes where the parents have followed the principles of godly child-rearing, teaching the children the way that they should go so when they are old they will not depart from it.

In short, families that have not established and reinforced godly and loving parental authority are, in many ways, breeding grounds for chaos, and later adult irresponsibility.

It is unsurprising then, in the world's long war against God, that the family and family values are being increasingly undermined by the permissiveness of "popularly accepted wisdom". Nowhere is that insidious effect more evident than in the public disrespect shown by children for their parents. Grocery aisle negotiations, gritted-teethed threats, and out and out bribery are often overheard in the marketplace, sometimes escalating to damaging outbursts of wrath bordering on abuse.

In contrast, loving Christian parents have a very different relationship with their children, and it is a picture of the relationship God desires with His children. These families regard one another with respect and love, and desire time together to enjoy the fellowship only possible in Christ. The basis of this harmony is firmly established on the foundation of the Biblical roles of father, mother and child.

The believing father takes responsibility for protection, provision, and discipline, based on the authority given to him by God. He is the servant-leader of the family, always putting the needs of his wife and children before his own needs. When this is done in the power of the Holy Spirit, the parents become beloved and respected anchor points for the children. 

While this is considered controversial and old-fashioned (some even term it as vile) today, for generations in this country it was the norm. As a husband and father the man is given the solemn and sacred responsibility for the physical and spiritual well-being of those in his care. He and his wife are tasked with bringing each of their children to faith in Christ. It is their most important function.

This necessarily entails correction, chastening and discipline of the children. This must be done consistently, unemotionally, and in accordance with Biblical principles. The love and authority of Christ must not only be taught, but lived out in the parents' own example.

Disobedience, disrespect, and a bad attitude are childhood offenses that require correction. A parent's directives need to be obeyed the first time, every time. When this bedrock is firmly in place, the relationship between parents and child can proceed as intended from the beginning, with mutual love, respect, loyalty, support, and a desire for fellowship. Over time, the mutual rewards of a close and loving family knit together in Christ are beyond compare.

Add to this the unity in Christ of father and mother, and the Christian home becomes a solid refuge, the center of a nurturing environment from which spring the next generation of Christ's followers. 

That is God's plan, and has been from the beginning. And He models it perfectly with us, His children by faith. That is why we are exhorted here not to despise and to not be discouraged when we ourselves are put under correction by God. Not only does it serve the obvious intention of righting our course, but it is also proof that He loves and has received us into His family via adoption as sons and daughters through Christ.

What a stirring and precious reminder, especially when we feel His hand heavy upon us.

Later we will discover that no chastening is joyful for the present, but we are to rejoice at what it yields afterwards in our lives and in our walk with Christ.

As believer's we will have tribulation, and this will come in many forms. When these trials take the form of chastening from God it is because His children have not followed that still small voice within, but have proceeded according to the dictates of their own sinful hearts.

While it is impossible to know for certain whether a trial in someone's life is due to sin, it is sadly evident in many of the most infamous cases. Influential Christian leaders who have fallen in sin often end up with their reputations disgraced publicly, their ministry destroyed, and their congregations badly damaged.

Men and women who knowingly practice sin, willfully, rebelliously, and with premeditation, are often shocked when what they thought was hidden becomes shouted from the housetops. When necessary, the consequences can be devastating.

But there are also far more subtle, and private, rebukes and corrections from our loving King. Cherished plans go awry. Stubborn attitudes cause seemingly endless strife. Life just seems inexplicably hard and there is no sense of peace until the sin is confessed and the behavior is changed. God will use every influence and circumstance to effect His will in our lives - other people, finances, health - whatever it takes. It behooves us to obey long before anything drastic becomes needful.

And all these are intended precisely to result in godly sorrow, not self-condemnation, contempt or discouragement, and it is that sorrow that leads to repentance, and a real and lasting change of heart.

Know this as well, repentance looks like something. It is not just words, it is a softening of the heart towards what is right and a turning away from sin to God.

Think of it this way. When a loving father sees his beloved child willfully engaging in behavior that will only cause danger or damage or heartache, the least loving thing he could do would be to allow it to continue without consequences. That would only serve to reinforce the damaging behavior.

No, a loving father would take what steps were necessary to bring to the errant child's mind what is good and right, and to exhort and encourage, and even demand, that the child change his or her ways. The father would love far too much to do nothing, for ultimately doing nothing would only result in lasting harm.

God loves us too much to allow us to become hardened to the deceitfulness of sin. He will chasten, rebuke and correct when necessary. It is a hallmark of His love. 

To be without chastening is to be without God, pure and simple.

Saturday, July 28, 2012

Striving Against Sin

You have not yet resisted to bloodshed, striving against sin. (Hebrews 12:04, NKJV).
Sin, our sin, comes in so many forms, and so easily to us, that we really don't know what true resistance to sin looks like.

Don't get me wrong. Many give temptation to sin a good fight now and then, and many Christians are more than conquerors of some of the habitual sins that plagued them prior to salvation. With their new hearts, new world view, renewed minds, and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, these converts have put off old behaviors almost overnight, never to take them up again.

Yet, this side of Heaven, each one of us struggles with remnants of our old nature and, more than we care to confess, succumb almost instantly to temptation. Our resistance is lowered. Our ability to strive is limited. We are not nearly as antagonistic to our sin as we would like to think. Or need to be.

Covetousness, outbursts of wrath, foolish talking, evil speaking, gossiping, lack of faith, ingratitude, un-forgiveness, lack of love, lack of self-control, violence, pride, boasting, disrespect, lust, intemperance, and on and on - are treated as friends instead of enemies; like comfortable old drinking buddies with whom we long to reminisce. And make no mistake, these are the things that make life on this planet miserable. 

For everyone.

Can you imagine a world absent of such commonplace evil? Go ahead. Try. 

After a minute, the mental picture fades into cliche or incomprehension. It is like coming up with a new color. But again, make no mistake, it is sin that makes life miserable. Without it, this life would be Heaven on earth.

Now Christ, our Lord and Savior, the Author of our Faith, became Man to die on the Cross to pay the penalty for our sin. But He did not just make an appearance on the world stage, accomplish His mission and depart. He lived as one of us, from conception onward, and was tempted in all points as we are, yet without sin.

Truthfully, this is impossible for me to fully comprehend. I do not doubt it for a second, but it, too, is like that never-before-seen-color. I just can't picture it.

But I can get a small glimpse of what agony a sinless Man must have suffered in striving against temptation. Perhaps, it was that very battle which caused Jesus to sweat blood that horrible and lonely night in the Garden of Gethsemane immediately prior to His brutal arrest and murder.

To be God, to have all power and knowledge, and to experience the many horrors of this life without taking action in His own strength must have been an endless and incredible temptation, and the stakes could not have been higher. Had Christ succumbed to any of it whatsoever, Redemption would have been impossible.

In comparison, any temptation we suffer is as nothing, and yet we fail continuously to resist.

I am not arguing here for legalism, for the letter of the Law kills, without the Spirit. It deadens the heart and mind and engenders the fiercest kind of self-congratulatory pride.

But I am illustrating yet another aspect of the magnificence of our Savior.

We fail constantly. He failed not one iota. His success is our forgiveness. And blessing. And eternal life.

Do you see even more why He is worthy of all power, honor, glory, dominion, gratitude, worship and praise?

He did resist to bloodshed. He did strive against sin - for us, because we could not; not for a nanosecond, even if we had all eternity to try.

If you don't understand why God had to redeem us through such mystifying means as sending His Son to become one of us, to resist sin, and to die, then you do not understand what it means to be a holy, righteous, loving, merciful, and just God. 

That's OK, as long as you believe that for Him to be just, and the justifier of sinners, Christ's incarnation, death, and resurrection were actual and necessary; that He became sin for us that we could become His righteousness in Him.

Finally, it is only as you walk long and hard with the Lord in this life that you become sensitized to just how evil and pervasive is sin, and how much of a captive it has made you and the world. It is only as your perception of His goodness is deepened that you see the utter wickedness of your own heart, and you cry out like Peter, "Depart from me for I am a sinful man, O Lord!"

Unbelievers do not think this way, and they hate you, like they hated Him, for bringing to light by whatever means the darkness and deadness of living without Christ in this world.

If you doubt this for one second, just humbly voice your allegiance to the Son of God, and His teachings and ways, and, as consistently as possible, have your words and deeds match.

You will be amazed at how unpopular and reviled you actually become - even by those of your own family, or those whom you thought were staunch allies.

What they are really hating is not you, but Christ in you, the hope of glory.

Sunday, July 22, 2012

Consider Him Who Endured

For consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls. (Hebrews 12:03, NKJV).
From looking unto Jesus as a light in the darkness, a guide on the path to godliness, and the author and finisher of our faith, we now are exhorted to consider Him.

Looking is a conscious sensory act, a turning of the eyes (or the mind's eyes) from all else and fixing them on one thing. 

To consider is a conscious mental act, a focusing of the engine of thought in one direction, from start to finish, like a sojourner embarking down a road of many possibilities with the intent of thoroughly exploring each one.

You might think that the Son of God would be guaranteed an earthly existence of security and comfort. You would be wrong.

Jesus came to pay the price of sin, to die horribly at the hands of ruthless and hate-filled sinners despite having done nothing to warrant such enmity, and in fact, having actively engaged in only good.

He was deserving of nothing but praise and gratitude, and received instead the vilest of hostility and abuse from the very sinners He came to save.

So then, not only is He the author and finisher of our faith, but also the model and example of how we ourselves, His children by faith, are to endure the hostility of the world.

For we are most certainly in enemy territory. Jesus Himself taught that there was no lasting middle ground of neutrality when it came to Him. Every human is either with Him or against Him. Those who are with Him are promised to suffer the same antagonism that He did, and the exhortation here is to focus on how He endured, lest we become weary and discouraged in [our] souls.

Soul-weariness is the most debilitating kind of exhaustion, effecting even the ability of the physical body to heal or survive. Studies have shown, for example, that orphaned infants languish and sometimes die, not because they are unfed, but because they are un-held and unloved.

The prognosis for recovery from any life-threatening condition is often directly proportional to the victim's will to live, regardless of the extent of injuries, trauma, or illness.  Hopelessness and discouragement are often fatal.

So then, what is the example of endurance that Jesus provides? I see seven main things, though more could be listed.

He returned good for evil.

When reviled He did not revile in return.

Though possessing all power, He forgave rather than exacted retribution.

He placed every detail of His life in the hands of a faithful and just Creator.

He surrendered vengeance to God.

He loved unfailingly rather than hated.

And even in the most extreme final circumstances of His life, He focused on others, not Himself.

All of these characteristics are detailed beautifully in the gospel accounts of His life and ministry on this planet, and lest you excuse yourself from following His example by arguing He was able to be the way He was because of His deity, He himself has destroyed that argument forever.

He proclaimed and proved repeatedly that He did nothing in His own strength. Every word, every teaching, every miracle, every thought and action was in perfect accordance with His Father's will, and in the power of the Holy Spirit - the very same will and power that is ours through faith in Christ.

If anything, His surrender to the Father, and His resisting temptation was far more wearying than any similar effort on our part because, though Man, He was also all-powerful God, and because of His perfect righteousness, sin itself was far more a horror than we could ever conceive.

We will discover in the very next verse, in fact, that resisting the temptation to sin for Him was akin to bloodshed.

So our own soul-weariness and discouragement will come in this life, but the Captain of our salvation has already shown us the way forward into being more than conquerors of all that assails us.

Friday, July 20, 2012

The Authority of Christ

looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:02, NKJV).

There are some who deny the Deity of Christ, and by deity I specifically mean those aspects of Godhead that most defy human understanding - His eternality (no beginning and no end), and His all-encompassing authority.

The Gospel of John and other New Testament writers address the first issue, but Hebrews, as much or more than any other book, attends to Christ's authority. And it does so in a surprisingly simple refrain - Christ's exalted position at the throne of God.

In Hebrews Chapter 1, the writer quotes God Himself: But to the Son He says: “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever; A scepter of righteousness is the scepter of Your Kingdom. (Hebrews 1:8, NKJV). Then in Hebrews 8 and here, he specifically mentions Christ being seated at the right hand of the throne of God. 

Throughout human history, the right hand of the king has signified his sovereign authority. It was the hand of honor, and of life and death.

One motion of the royal scepter, typically held in the right hand, rendered unquestionable judgment that could not be breached or rescinded.

To stand at the right hand of the throne was to serve, but to sit there was to be co-regent, equal in authority and power.

Humans in our natural state crave power and despise authority. The first is motivated by both sin and fear. The second primarily by sin alone - the desire to throw off the yolk of God's authority and to be our own sovereign.

Left unchecked, these dual impulses inevitably lead to violent anarchy, to mob rule of the most inhuman (but really quintessentially human) kind.

Given the totality of recorded history, it makes perfect sense to distrust authority as embodied by human rulers and human institutions. One of the brilliant protective aspects of our form of government here in the U.S. is that it was established by men who trusted God, but held men themselves as irremediably corrupt. 

Thus our system of checks and balances and the bedrock principle that abuse of power and authority WILL inevitably occur.

The prescription: three co-equal branches of adversarial government - the Legislature, the Supreme Court, and the Executive; all to protect the citizenry from ourselves AND overreaching authority.

But the authority of Christ is entirely different. 

Instead of being held in suspicion, His sovereignty should be embraced as a great comfort to us. We are His children and subjects by faith, and He has proven His undying and immeasurable devotion to us by His momentous act of Self-sacrifice that paid the price of our sin, and gives us eternal life.

I can think of no greater, nor eloquent, nor succinct summary of this then Paul's exposition in his letter to the Philippians.

Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery [something to be held onto or grasped at all costs] to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:5-11, NKJV).
Note the three words the Holy Spirit inspired Paul to use regarding Christ's deity and humanity: form, likeness, and appearance. These are telling and immensely significant, and much more could be written than I intend here, but know this:

He whose form is God, took on the essential form of Man, putting aside for a time all the privileges and power of Deity in His own right. 

And taking on the likeness of men (the entirety of those existential aspects that make humans human), and in every way the appearance of a man (comprising everything in a person which strikes the senses, the figure, bearing, discourse, actions, manner of life, etc. - the habitus of a man, as Strong's so precisely puts it) - He humbled Himself, to come, not as a powerful King, but as a sacrificial Lamb.
Focus on that last thought especially and be amazed. For the eternal, all-powerful Second Person of the Trinity of the Godhead, purposely, voluntarily, and out of filial obedience to the Father, made Himself lowly in order to be killed in a most horrific manner so that we (His subjects) could live in Him.
And in His humility He was exalted by God the Father, and given authority over all flesh as a Man. That Man, Jesus (note the emphasis on His human nature), is the one to whom every knee will bow and every tongue confess that He is Lord, not to His own glory, but to the glory of God the Father.

Do you see the comfort and confidence these truths should instill in us?

All the perfection, power, holiness, righteousness, goodness and intelligence of God, embodied in a Divine Human ruler, who has already demonstrated His love for us beyond anything we could ask or think.

It conceivably could have been very different. Christ could have exercised His authority in a much less assuring way. He could have manifested Himself as that Divine Dictator, that Holy Terror, that the world so often mischaracterizes Him to be, who squashes rebellious humanity without mercy, and without any chance of redemption.

But instead, He surprised us with an unimaginable demonstration of His love - something we could not have anticipated were it not for God's Word, and the evidence of the Cross.

Thus, the ultimate and superior authority of Christ is a strong tower and a shelter for His children by faith.

And while it is of the greatest assurance to us who believe in Him, to those who remain in rebellion, it will be a source of the greatest possible fear.

As forewarned in Revelation, there will come a Day when …the kings of the earth, the great men, the rich men, the commanders, the mighty men, every slave and every free man, [will hide] themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains, and [say] to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! “For the great day of His wrath has come, and who is able to stand?” (Revelation 6:15-17, NKJV).
Submit to His authority now, while it may be done by faith, so that you will be spared when His authority is revealed as inescapable in the judgment that is to come.

Saturday, July 14, 2012

Enduring the Unfathomable Pain of Redemption

looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:02, NKJV).
I do not understand how, during His six hours on the Cross, Jesus suffered the eternity of punishment we deserve. But that He did is crystal clear from God's Word.

Perhaps, it has something to do with Who was suffering - along the lines of supposing that what would take each one of us forever to endure, Jesus, the sinless Son of God, withstood the equivalent in six earthly hours.

Or maybe the secret of the mystery lies in an Eternal Being's perception of time. 

Or, since He was the only One who has ever (so far) been completely separated from God, something of which He was completely unworthy, that separation of God from God was so monstrously unprecedented that the scales of justice were balanced.

Maybe, it was because sinlessness itself, becoming sin for us, paid the price for all sin for all time during that momentous day.

Like I said, I don't know how exactly, but I believe without the slightest doubt that He did. And that His suffering on the Cross propitiated God's righteous wrath against human rebellion for all who will believe.

Not that I would not some day like to understand it more fully. In fact, in that day when I find myself in His Presence, when asking for anything becomes appropriate, I hope to ask for a personally guided tour of redemptive history; to see the intricate and brilliantly tragic threads of human events from the divine perspective; to be taken by His nail-scarred hand and shown all of the truth that my finite mind can comprehend.

No doubt I would fall on my face in utter gratitude at His grace and mercy and love. And my devotion to Him would forever be deepened.

Until then, I will just have to wait, and be amazed that He did endure the cross on my behalf - that He and the Father inexplicably thought my own redemption was worth such unfathomable suffering.

I suspect that there must always be pain in redemption.

And each redeemed human heart feels at least a small inkling of this pain, with the shedding of the old self, and the labor pangs of birthing the new. There is the pain of seeing the world, in all its tragedy and loss, through the eyes of Christ and a regenerated spirit - the dour and deadening spectacle of brutality, sin and selfishness which has characterized human behavior since expulsion from the Garden.

And for those of us who came to Christ in later years. we feel the additional painful burden of a life lived in the deceitfulness of sin prior to our conversion. Not that we labor under unresolved guilt, that is done away with completely by the forgiveness offered through Christ's shed blood, but that we must see and experience the consequences of those past actions, and recall the pain and damage we have caused ourselves and others.

But it is this very pain that eventually burns away the last remnants of the old man, refining us in the flames of our God, who is a consuming fire.

Jesus, guiltless and undeserving of any suffering at all, suffered it all. For us.

He endured the public humiliation, the immense injustice, the indescribable loss of fellowship, for the first time in eternity from the Father, and the unknowable (at least for us) torture of becoming sin for us so that we could become His righteousness in Him.
I can only vaguely imagine what it must have been like to carry the guilt of every single heinous act of mankind, in all its unthinkably despicable variety, before and since, until the new Heaven and the new earth has come, and there will be no more sin, or pain, or sorrow or suffering or death.

But I know with unmistakable clarity that He despised the shame, yet did not despise us, the cause of all that shame.

The Bible describes it eloquently in this way:

But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation. (Romans 5:8-11, NKJV).

For the Joy That Was Set Before Him

looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:02, NKJV).
This is an astonishing verse in so many ways, not the least of which is the revelation that one of the motivations for Jesus going to the Cross was, amazingly, joy.

I can easily imagine grim resolve. Or determined obedience to the Father's will, facts that other texts clearly describe, but joy?

Shameless and perverse critics have used this verse and others to argue that the Bible, if it contains any truth at all, illuminates a blood-thirsty, sadomasochistic deity no better than the devil itself. 

But people think and say a lot of mindless things.

No, the prospect of excruciation was not the source of joy, but the eternal benefit to us that His enduring that horrific death would yield. 

His death was our rescue. 

His death was setting us free from the eternal penalty of sin. 

His death was His indescribable gift to the Father, planned before the foundation of the world, that would redeem a helpless and hopeless fallen Creation, and present us without spot or blemish to the Throne of God.

His death was our eternal life in the Presence of God, attainable no other way.

That was the joy set before Him.

And unaccountably, we are the joy that was set before Him. That is, those of mankind who know, believe and live by the truth that is revealed in Jesus.

A common and willful misconception of the God of the Bible is that He is a tyrannical demander of worship and adoration and sacrifice. It is His way, or the highway to Hell.

Yes, he desires our adoration and worship, yet not for His sake, but for ours. He needs nothing from us, but knows that we become like what we worship. Either ourselves in this fallen state, headed inevitably and irretrievably toward eternal destruction. Or His perfect Son, through whom we have eternal life.

Yes, He has sovereign authority over His Creation, the "right of manufacture" as it is written about in some old Puritan texts, but authority only equates to tyranny when misused for evil. When an all-knowing, all-powerful, wholly good, utterly holy, and everywhere-present Deity exercises authority, it is the opposite of tyranny. It is, by definition, the epitome of "Beneficent Rulership".

And sacrifice? Of course, self-sacrifice is the ONLY antidote for our default state of hopeless self-obsession. Giving up something for yourself to provide good for another is noble and honorable, and know this: Jesus exemplifies this very principle - by becoming a Man, by showing the Way, and by voluntarily going to the Cross.

Listen to Christ's only self-description in the New Testament:

“Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. “For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30, NKJV).

And read His only reason for doing the things that He did:

“for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.” (Luke 19:10, NKJV).
Understand this, beloved of God, no matter how you see yourself, the Father sees you through the eyes of His Son, and those eyes are the same ones that looked upon the very people who drove the iron spikes through His hands and feet, and asked, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.” (Luke 23:34, NKJV).

As we are His joy, so He is ours.

Without Him and His enduring the Cross, our brief span of life on this earth is but a vaporous prelude to unending torment.

With Him, because of Him, we are granted full citizenship in Heaven.

Forever.

Monday, July 09, 2012

Author and Finisher

looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:02, NKJV).
Scripture is so rich, so full of encouragement, hope and conviction (not condemnation) for the believer in Jesus Christ. It is truly the light of truth shining in the darkness, a beacon that illuminates our path through this life into the next. 

Its focus is primarily on three things: Israel as a witness to God's existence and intervention in human affairs; Christ as the longed-for fulfillment of the Father's promise of redemption and eternal life; and the church as the embodiment of faith and new life in Christ.

The citation above, as is all of Hebrews, is intended to expand on the superiority of Christ to everything that has gone before, or could be conceived of in the mind of man.

Faith itself is an invention and gift of God, through Christ, to circumvent our inherent inability to earn favor with a perfectly righteous and holy Being. It is by faith alone that we can please Him, and by faith alone that we are saved from the wrath of judgment to come. It is by faith alone that He empowers us through His Spirit to perform those good works that He prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

In addition then to being the object of our faith, this verse reveals Christ as both the instigator and guarantor of our faith. Like the Master Craftsman that He is, He has both wrought our faith by His creative power, and will do all that is necessary within us to ensure that our faith will be a masterpiece beyond compare, leading us into the blessedness of eternal life in intimate fellowship with Him and with the Father.

It is entirely conceivable that this would not have to be so. If, for instance, our representative forbear, Adam, had not rebelled, and had instead remained faithful to His Creator, then redemption would not have been necessary for the sorry race born of Adam.

Alternatively, if God had chosen not to display His long-suffering and forbearance, He could have condemned Adam instantly rather than mercifully cursing him and allowing his descendants to seek forgiveness through Messiah, the prophesied "seed of the woman" Eve promised in Genesis 3.

Or, rather than ordaining faith as the means to receive the gift of forgiveness, God could have made such entirely dependent on our perfect adherence to the Law, that, given the depth to which Adam's sin corrupted him, down to his very genetic structure, would have proven futile and impossible for both himself and all his descendants. 

Redemption would then have been held out as an irretrievable carrot forever out of reach due to the unbreakable stick of eternal damnation.

But God did none of these things. Instead He decreed the penalty of sin - death - and sent His Son to pay it on our behalf through crucifixion, declaring faith to be the means by which we appropriate that substitutionary exchange to ourselves.

Then with immeasurable grace, He gifts us with the very faith required.

Do you see the beauty of that? Can you begin to fathom the love and mercy that entails?

Yet, without fanfare or flourish the writer of Hebrews sums it up so succinctly with the characteristic brevity and eloquence of the Holy Spirit, saying only in this regard that Jesus is the author and finisher of our faith.

If you are not astounded I am either unclear or you are not paying attention, for this foundation of our redemption is all of God, from beginning to end. From faith to faith, as the Apostle Paul tells us in Romans.

There is so much deception in the world, and in our own hearts, and thrown at us by the enemy of our souls, that it is very easy to lose sight of these magnificent truths in the Bible. That is precisely why this very thing is repeated often and in every conceivable way throughout all 66 books.

For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” (Romans 4:3, 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. Therefore remember… (Ephesians 2:8-11, NKJV).

Saturday, July 07, 2012

Who Are You Looking At?

looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:02, NKJV).
Choices, choices. Who or what to look at in this life.

We in the West live in an atmosphere of constant mental and visual stimulus. It has rightly been termed the Information Age. More data (accurate and inaccurate) about more things are available to more people more quickly than ever before. In fact, I suspect there will soon be a lengthy designation in the DSM V describing an officially recognized syndrome swirling around information overload.

The symptoms include shortened attention span, a frenetic need for distraction, and an inability to take a stand or form a rationally founded opinion for more than a few seconds. 

And embedded in all this freely flowing information is an immense volume of temptation to sin.

In some ways, it is harder now than ever before for a Christian to set his or her mind on things above because of the riotous cacophony and sheer volume of earthly intrusions. The list is endless, from social networking and gaming, to innumerable broadcast channels, to literally millions of websites within instant reach on the internet. 

And this connectivity is becoming increasingly portable with ubiquitous networks, tablets, smartphones, iPhones, smaller and smaller laptops, pc's, and other electronic conduits. There is almost no place to hide.

And this trend has increased exponentially over just the past few years, apparently fulfilling this Old Testament prophecy:

“But you, Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book until the time of the end; many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase.” (Daniel 12:4, NKJV).
If ever a period of human history could be characterized by increasing knowledge, ours is it. But in the increase of knowledge, there is no guarantee of a concomitant increase in wisdom, and that is equally clear today. For wisdom, even in the form of common sense, is an increasingly rarefied commodity.

Much of this avalanche of data is aimed against godly living, either directly or indirectly. Yet, like all things the world system intends for evil, God often uses for good, so that counterbalancing the tsunami of darkness is a constant and powerful flow of light and truth. God will always have His remnant.

So this brings us to the question, where is your focus predominantly centered? Is it the world or your circumstances or yourself, or where the Bible exhorts us to focus - on Jesus? There are so many indisputably good reasons for our focus to be on Christ, but to know them you must first put aside the distractions of this life, and delve deeply into God's Word.

In turn, to do this, you must - you MUST - set aside regular and frequent time immersed in God's truth, rather than in the overwhelming flood of worldly stimulus. This is often hard to do, but vitally necessary in order to live a life in accord with God's, rather than man's purposes.

Jesus said, “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls." (Matthew 11:29, NKJV).

Job declared that "…I have treasured the words of His mouth More than my necessary food." (Job 23:12, NKJV).

Otherwise, even as a Christian, you forfeit so much that is good and strengthening and encouraging in this life. By looking unto Jesus rather than the raucous enticements and distractions of the world you may obtain that precious peace that passes all understanding. Your soul and your heart can remain steadfast and unmoved by the utter chaos of events, emotions, and tides of history roiling around you. You are able to hear that still small voice within directing you to follow the way of light and life and love.

This does not mean that you live cloistered or in isolation from the world. It does not mean that you sit idly by and let evil run rampant and unchecked. Instead, you live life as being fully in the world but not of the world, empowered by the Holy Spirit to be God's living witness to those in darkness around you. Understanding in all things what is real and true and important because you approve of, and are informed by, the very Author of truth Himself.

Looking unto Jesus is the ONLY way to accomplish this effectively, because only Jesus will never, ever disappoint, or leave you nor forsake you.

Only Jesus loved you so much that He paid the price for your sin on the Cross.

Only Jesus is the way, the truth and the life.

Only Jesus can present you spotless and without blemish to the Father so that you become co-heirs with Christ, and reap all the immeasurable benefits of eternal life in the presence of God Himself.

The Apostle Peter displayed remarkable courage and faith when he stepped out of that boat on the raging Sea of Galilee and began to walk toward his Savior. As long as he gazed steadfastly at Jesus, he remained victorious over his circumstances.

But when he refocused on the wind and the waves, and on the seeming impossibility of what he was doing, he sank rapidly into the sea.

What more vivid a lesson could we be given than this episode? 

And though he failed to maintain his astounding moment of faith, even in his failure we are taught a way of escape. For what did he cry in his weakness?

"Lord Jesus save me!"

So here we have the means of a life lived as more than conquerors, and also the way of rescue when we inevitably fall short.

Both are centered on Jesus, where all of our focus and energy and devotion and worship should be.

Surrounded

Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, (Hebrews 12:01, NKJV).
Even in our imperfection, we are not alone. And by imperfection, I mean incompleteness.

You see, the last verse in Hebrews Chapter 11 reveals to us this truth: believers before and after Christ will be made perfect (complete) by the same trifold promise of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, an eternal inheritance, and eternal life.

That completion enables us to reap the benefits of our fellowship with the Father through faith in His Son, thus realizing all the superior aspects of Christ over anything and everything that could be conceived of or experienced before or after His incarnation, death and resurrection. That superiority of Christ is the overarching theme of this brief exhortation we know as Hebrews.

Not only are we never alone, but we are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses, but who might these witnesses be?

George Mueller, that famous Christian founder of English orphanages in the 1800's, who died after nearly a century of prayer-filled life, believed that the witnesses were comprised of those saints (believers) who had died and gone into glory.

Others posit that these are the holy angels who, the Apostle Peter tells us, desire to look into that great salvation revealed by the Holy Spirit and bestowed upon sinful man (1Pe 1:12).

Still others teach the witnesses are the personified acts of the faithful, precisely like those chronicled in Chapter 11.

My view: there is nothing scriptural that prohibits all three interpretations at once, with the bottom line being we are surrounded by all that we need to live godly in this Fallen World.

This then acts as encouragement, exhortation and conviction to put down that which hinders and entraps, so that we may take up the race of faith.

In this regard it must be noted that there are behaviors and attitudes which, though not sin in and of themselves, become for some Christians weights that slow them down in the quest for the finish line. These cause stumbling in the life that is lead from faith to faith, and which strives to end in faith; the very thing exampled in Chapter 11 repeatedly.

What are some of these things? The real answer is that what is a weight for one Christian may not be the slightest burden for another. God is clearly a God who values individuality, from snow flakes to finger prints to retinal patterns. Each of us are hand-crafted masterpieces by the Supreme Artisan, and each is meant to fit perfectly as members of the Body of Christ. 

This means that what may be a stumbling block for me, is an unnoticed hurdle effortlessly cleared by you. Nevertheless, the underlying common characteristic of these weights is that they cause distraction or loss of focus to those for whom they act as hindrances. 

Therefore the weight is anything and everything in an individual's behavior, attitude or habitual thinking that turns his or her attention to self and away from Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.

The antidote is to constantly examine your priorities and habits and discard them or realign them as often as necessary to the revealed will of God for your life. Note too, that weight in this regard is an individual conviction, not a general doctrine. 

My weight may be your anchor to reality, and while you may be able to counsel and encourage me in such matters, by definition you may not judge me because of them, but rather come alongside and gently help me discard them.

Sin, on the other hand, is a different matter entirely. It serves not merely as a hindrance but a trap, which, if not ruthlessly dealt with, becomes an inescapable snare. Unforgiveness, sexual sin, covetousness, pride, selfishness, hatred, envy, murder, strife, deceit, and evil-mindedness are just a few of the snares that prevent living a godly life of faith. For those who need lists, look here: Ro 1:28-32; Ga 5:19-21.

Simply put, when ensnared by sin you cannot move forward, let alone run with endurance. Instead you are stopped dead in your tracks, an easy target for temptation, discouragement, and bitterness, all leading to a tightening of the bindings holding you in place.

The remedy here is to confess your sin, and repent - to turn away from ungodliness and toward God. You cannot accomplish this in your own strength, but the first baby step must be yours. You must see your sin for sin and despise it in yourself, understanding that there is never a justification or excuse in regard to sin, only repentance.

By laying these things aside, Christ within you (part of the priceless promise) will enable you to run the race with endurance, meaning He will ensure that you cross the finish line no matter what treachery, betrayal, or hardships you face along the way. 

Consider and remember these marvelous words:

For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:38, 39, NKJV).
And,
I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine making request for you all with joy, for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ; (Philippians 1:3-6, NKJV).

Do not lose heart or grow weary in doing good, and you will receive the Crown of Life, and inherit all that Christ has promised.

You can take that to the bank.

Wednesday, July 04, 2012

Eternal Life


And all these, having obtained a good testimony through faith, did not receive the promise, God having provided something better for us, that they should not be made perfect apart from us. (Hebrews 11:39-40, NKJV).
It is more than fitting to offer this final study on Hebrews Chapter 11 as an examination of the third and final component of The Promise we have received from God through Christ.  As mentioned in previous posts, I have found it instructive to present this as comprised of three principle parts: the Holy Spirit indwelling believers after Christ's Ascension; an eternal inheritance; and eternal life.

I believe that our view of eternity is twisted by the Fall. Our natural perceptions are steeped in time - successive moments, or weeks, months or years progressing forward in a stream of events that begin and end. From that viewpoint, eternity is often conceived of in the same way, with the exception that there is no end, and that, indeed, can be a double-edged sword.

Inevitably, this leads to the mental image of endlessly repeating time intervals stretching outward forever that cannot help but cause a sneaking suspicion that boredom or apathy will be the ultimate result. Look at the common vernacular we use to describe unpleasant temporal experiences. We say this or that annoyance/grievance/discomfort/agony "takes forever".  

In the corporate or business world, for instance, we liken certain mind-numbing activities we are compelled to engage in as "endless" or "interminable". Our outlook is chained to our current existence where unvarying repetition becomes quickly boring, the prospect of such things recycling endlessly is seen as worse than death itself, and escape into oblivion appears more enticing.

Coupled with our inherent misperception is the enemy's undermining of the Bible's picture of heavenly hope by trite cartoon images of winged human caricatures strumming tunelessly on harps while resting stuporously on endless fluffy white clouds.

I am unconvinced that this is even remotely accurate. In fact I believe that in eternity, time itself is barely perceived, let alone experienced as we do in this life. Time, in fact, may not pass in a real sense at all, or only to the extent necessary for one immensely satisfying and blessed experience to flow into another.

As children, I also believe that we had a much more comprehensible picture of eternity in the way that certain blissful summer days never seemed to end, or time with friends, family and loved ones passed without any recognition of what a given clock might say. It is only as we age into adulthood that this clarity of perception becomes clouded by jaded experienced, seared conscience, and the necessities of life.

How many of us long for those days, real or imagined, when we did not know or care what day it was, and had nothing pressing on the event horizon that would darken the pleasure of the endless moment we were currently experiencing.

Even now, we can retrieve glimpses of that same timelessness, perhaps in the embrace of a loved one, the innocent life-filled laughter of a child, or the quiet and unhurried focus on a particularly pleasant activity unbounded by any start or stop time. 

It is not surprising, given the current state of the world, that these glimpses may be few and far between, but I suspect that if most of us searched hard enough, we could capture that "magical perception of childhood" even as a typically harried or stressed adult.

Eternal life with our Creator and Savior is described as perfect, blissful, glorious, safe, blessed, filled with fellowship, companionship, worship, and delight. Unless the Bible is being deceptive in this regard, in which case we have far more serious problems than our perception of eternity, than our jaded fallen view cannot possibly be the case.

Anything and everything that would somehow denigrate or degrade that life could not possibly hold true with what the Bible's description provides, else it would, by definition, not be those very things. A thing cannot be both boring and perfect. An event cannot be both delightful and tedious.

I, for one, long for the day, if indeed it can even been termed "the day" when time, that ancient slave master, has no significance beyond what is needed for one perfect event to follow another. 

And do not make the mistake that this promise of eternal life is our due. It is not, as Adam our primary ancestor forfeited that provision when He rebelled against God. No, rather than our due, it is a glorious gift of the Father purchased with the priceless life of His Son.

What we are due is an endless torment that supports our jaded earthly viewpoint.

It is only our faith in Christ, and in His payment of that debt on our behalf, that enables us to enter into the Presence of God, and all the wonders that entails, forever.

Eternal Inheritance


And all these, having obtained a good testimony through faith, did not receive the promise, God having provided something better for us, that they should not be made perfect apart from us. (Hebrews 11:39-40, NKJV).
The Promise we have received from God through Christ is comprised of three principle parts: the Holy Spirit indwelling believers after Christ's Ascension; an eternal inheritance; and eternal life.

The thing about an inheritance is that you can't earn it in the sense that you earn a paycheck, or someone's gratitude, or anything else that becomes yours through your own efforts. It is yours by the explicit declaration of the testator, the one who designates you as heir.

And while you can't earn it, you can lose it. By this I mean that it is possible to be excluded from the Testament that directs to whom and in what portion an inheritance is distributed.

In terms of God's Eternal Plan of Redemption, that legal and spiritual instrument by which He has determined who of His children gets what, His estate, if you will - all of Creation and Existence, is ours only if we are adopted into His family by faith. This is unequivocally spelled out in the New Testament of the Bible, and reiterated repeatedly with remarkable clarity, especially throughout Paul's epistles.

It works like this. As descendants of Adam we lost the inheritance that was ours by birthright. Through his rebellion, he and his descendants forfeited their claim as natural born Children of God. Yes we are still His creatures by right of His sovereign authority over all things, but we are disinherited from what was originally intended to be ours.

That is the bad news, but it gets worse.

Not only are we bereft of the inheritance, but in it's place we are under penal judgment. Sin, the thing that came into human nature at the Fall, is inevitably and eternally fatal. It is not just that we are impoverished of all things that could be ours, we are also condemned to suffer the loss of God Himself, forever.

By definition, exile from God IS Hell. When you are removed from all that God is - life, love, light, righteousness, holiness - you are immersed in existence without God, apart from all things of which He is the only Source. Instead of eternal life, eternal torment. Instead of love, hatred. Instead of righteousness, insane inequity. Instead of holiness, crushing and banal profaneness. Forever.

It is no wonder that this inescapable prison of existence is described as Outer Darkness, the Lake of Fire, and the Place of Torment - a place where the flame of agony is never quenched, and the worm of decay never dies.

Dismiss these as quaint or primitive superstitions all you want in this life. If these are real, your tune will change incontrovertibly in the next. For if the Word of God is true (and He has provided inexhaustible evidence that it is while not removing the possibility of the only thing that we are capable of to earn His pleasure - faith), then you are immortal regardless of your thoughts, beliefs and feelings about that fact.

And your default eternal disinheritance results in your immortality spent in the very fires of existence apart from God.

Thankfully, that is not the only outcome, because the adoption that enables the Father to view you in the same light He views His Beloved Son is possible through faith in that same Son's payment for your rebellion. Jesus died on the Cross for OUR SIN. He paid the penalty that without faith in Him we are destined and obligated to pay ourselves.

Because He was Man He could die in our place, providing us a means of escape from that sin debt, in the same way that Adam's Fall indebted us in the first place. Through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin. Through one Man's righteous act, grace abounded and forgiveness was made possible for all who believe.

The Last Will and Testament of our Lord and Savior is far superior to anything we could possibly imagine or envision. Through that will we have been made co-heirs with Christ. We inherit all that is His, and that means we inherit all that is good, for He is good, and His mercy is everlasting. This good inheritance MUST be eternal, else it would end and thus not be fully good, for the end of something good is necessarily bad.

And beyond that (if that is even possible to conceive), we are saved from the wrath which is our natural inheritance by birth.

Through Christ we are adopted as sons and daughters into the family of God just as if we were born in perfection - just as if we were born again.

There is both unspeakable beauty and unspeakable terror in this knowledge.

The beauty is that through God's grace and mercy at Christ's immeasurable expense, we are heirs to that good which would have otherwise been beyond reach.

The terror is that if we refuse this free gift, the condemnation under which we are born will be beyond hope to escape.

He provides all that we need to make the choice, and then leaves it up to us - a terrible freedom denied even the angels who followed Satan in his rebellion.

His desire for all mankind is that we choose wisely.