FourFold Gospel Study

Week 9 – Christ our King – Part 2 - Followup

2009-12-21T06:45:00.000-07:00

All Authority Has Been Given To Me

Introduction
In days gone by it was widely held and accepted that governments would fight wars of conquest. The kings of old would fight not merely to preserve their ground, but would fight to increase the boundaries over which they held dominion. This mode of governmental expansionism is often referred to as imperialism. In previous times, this sort of conflict was expected from kings and nations. Most nations sought to expand their boundaries and to press their advantage in the region around them.

For the average citizen of a nation, imperialism could be a double edged sword. If the conquering nation was a brutal one, then freedoms would be diminished, slaves would be made of the conquered lands and the land, its resources and its people would become the right of the occupying government. This was most often the case. If however, as was the case sometimes, the conquering nation was more concerned with the issues of just rule and authority, then a populous might fare better. For instance, the Roman empire conquered many lands in which their form of government, the freedoms that it provided its citizens, the general prosperity of Rome and its system of government were often preferable to the previous order. If in fact you were a Roman citizen you had rights that no other nation would have even understood to be rights.

If you listen to some, in the last few hundred years, empires have given way to nations, somewhat content to live at peace with their neighbors. With a number of very notable exceptions, the old imperial mentalities have given way to a more pragmatic means of cultural expansion and growth. This is true in the case of the United States and in large part for much of what is defined as the “Western World”. This has happened in our nation to such a degree that the idea of imperialism has become an offensive one. So much so the previous administrations decisions to go to war were often characterized as being “imperialistic”. This despite the fact that neither war ever made any attempts to rule over either land or claim its land or resources. It is safe to say that imperialism has become for us in the west a very bad word.

Fallen Imperialism
It is also a fairly simple point to demonstrate that, having been created in the image of God, we have been created in such a manner as to bare certain characteristics of God. For instance, God’s desire to have dominion over His creation is one of the clear teachings of scripture. Likewise, God chooses to share dominion over some aspects of creation with the preeminent member of His created order; Adam.

We have spoken earlier in this series of the image of God given to Adam in Adam’s creative nature. So too Adam was created with a nature to establish for God a dominion. Adam’s children have corrupted this attribute of mankind’s nature into a viscous and bloody history of barbarism and abuse.

Biblically speaking, imperialism is not always such a dirty word. In fact biblically speaking, we find a number of instances where God used the imperialistic nature of godless kings to discipline Israel for her unfaithfulness. We also see at times as God uses wicked kings to crush the nations around Israel.

Righteous Imperialism?
Being that imperialism as an established pattern of mankind’s behavior has such a negative and ugly history, it will come as a surprise to some that I am about to say that Jesus Himself is an imperialistic King. Additionally, that He is bent on the conquering and subordination of the entire created order and very specifically, the pinnacle of all of God’s creation; mankind.

In part due to the relational or “love” language that is used in scripture of God for His people coupled with a very modern approach and understanding to that same “love” language we as Christians, particularly in America have a hard time seeing Jesus as a conquering and mighty King. We would far prefer a gentleman who politely advertises His salvation and then pleads with the lost to come to Him. This rather than “He commands all people everywhere to repent” – Acts 17:30. Or “do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.” – Matthew 10:34 and again: “I came to cast fire on the earth, and would that it were already kindled!” – Luke 12:50

Finally, in establishing God’s view of sin and wrath relative to man’s view of his own righteousness Jesus says in Luke 13:3 “No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.” So much for “Why do you run? Why do you hide, I just want to be with you…” as one modern song writer sings on behalf of God.

And when they saw him they worshiped him, but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age." – Matthew 28:17-20

Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, "Who do people say that the Son of Man is?" And they said, "Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets." He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?" Simon Peter replied, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." And Jesus answered him, "Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." – Matthew 16:13-19

If Jesus’ kingdom is an imperialistic kingdom, that is a kingdom whose purpose is dominion or the taking of a territory, then we have some questions that need to be answered:

What sort of authority was Jesus’ authority?
Jesus authority was based upon the fact that He is God. Matthew ensures that the context that we see for Jesus words is the worship of Him by the disciples. The disciples have just met Jesus on the mountain to which He had directed them in Galilee. It is very noteworthy what first does not occur. The disciples don’t approach Him as Rabbi and they don’t approach Him as friend, by say: giving Him a hug or something similar. Matthew doesn’t record for us any words that they used in so worshipping Jesus, however it is also noteworthy that they don’t begin to ask Him a lot of questions. The disciples do approach Jesus as God. They respond much like the prophets of old would respond when they found themselves in the presence of God. They worship Him. This word is the same word from which we get our word prostrate, or to lay face down on the ground. In other words, they fall flat on their face before Him. The context here is that the disciples have come expecting to see Jesus the man with whom most have spent the majority of three years of their lives studying under, walking with and whose miracles they have been watching. They have witnessed the man having nails driven through His hands and feet and some among them had prepared His corpse for burial or at the very least watched His lifeless body as it was placed in the tomb. The Apostle Paul in Romans 1 says: and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord. His Deity is demonstrated in power by His resurrection and the disciples now see Him much more clearly as God than they did before.

There is no longer between the disciples and Jesus a sense of light heartedness. There is a radical and directed response to Jesus. One that directed at anyone else in all of human history would have been completely inappropriate and sinful; He is their God and they worship Him. They all fall down flat upon their face in prostrate worship. They honor Him as their God and their King. So first we must see that Jesus authority is divine. He is God and the disciples worship Him as such.

It is precisely this context into which Jesus speaks when He says: all authority under heaven and earth has been given to me (18). Jesus draws their attention to the fact that He has been given an authority, a kingdom. This is nothing new to them. He has been saying this since early in His ministry: “the time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand, repent and believe in the gospel.” – Mark 1:15. This is nothing new, in that the Holy Spirit has revealed that He is the promised Messiah. We read this when Jesus asks Peter: “Who do you say that I am?” and Peter responds: “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” – Matthew 16:6. And again remember the word Messiah or Christ and all that it indicates. It means to the disciples: anointed reigning King and it meant a fulfillment of the governing order that God had promised so long ago. The Messiah was the one who would sit on David’s throne forever. Who would reign in all wickedness and triumph over every human authority. This is the one to whom the disciples now place their faces on the ground and give their worship.

He says: All authority under heaven and earth has been given to me (18). In so doing He points them in this statement to the scope of this authority. They have been expecting this triumphant Messianic reign to begin and are certainly expecting Him to in some way initiate the assault on Rome. So Jesus in effect does them one better. He defines the scope of His reign: under heaven and earth. Jesus is defining for them the territory that He has been given. In saying heaven and earth He is demonstrating to them that the conquest which is to begin is much larger than the national boundaries of Israel. In the Gospel of Mark, the 16th chapter Jesus says: “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation.” Jesus realm of authority, this territory that is to be won is the entirety of creation. The disciples are about to see this, as the gospel goes forth in power starting in Jerusalem, then to Judea, Samaria and then begins its course with a man named Cornelius (Acts 10) to the utter most ends of the earth. Jesus here is defining the scope of the assault that the church is about to make. Jesus says: Making disciples of All Nations.

There is a beautiful picture, herein that God in His mercy begins to work with a single man named Abraham. Then over time, His covenant blessing and dominion expands to include Abrahams covenant children, in Isaac and Jacob. Eventually, Abraham becomes a mighty nation encompassing a vast population of people, Israel. Yet they were still small and numerically speaking insignificant relative to the number of the sons of Adam that this world has known. Yet finally, as Jesus is about to ascend to the throne set before Him, He changes the scope of covenant conquest to every people group on the earth, to all nations. So we must also see that the territory that Jesus is taking is all encompassing, it involves members of “every tongue tribe and nation” as the Apostle John is witness to when he is given His revelation.

Who are His Soldiers?
Every imperialistic nation that has ever occurred on this earth has had an armed force of soldiers. That is an army to accomplish the capture and subjugation and establish a ruling authority. In fact, when a coup de ta occurs in a 3rd world nation, typically it is done by the force of members of the military. Kingdoms are established by the blood of their warriors. Jesus Kingdom; the church is no different. At Pentecost, Jesus anoints the church in power for the battle which lies ahead. There again, as the disciples begin to speak in tongues, that is in other languages, Jesus is equipping and preparing His army for conquest. In a sense He is demonstrating in power the scope of what they are about to do. The Gospel is about to go to all people groups on the earth. In Matthew 16 when Jesus asks Peter: “who do you say that I am” and Peter responds appropriately, Jesus says some crucial things, for the church. First He says: “You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church. So the kingdom dominion that is being accomplished is the building of Jesus church. As we learned in our previous study, we are being built into a holy temple for God, each one of us a living stone built upon the cornerstone: Jesus. It is this church that He is fashioning for His glory as a kingdom and it is the church which is being expanded. And it is Jesus through His church that is accomplishing this assault on the earth. Jesus founds the church on Peter, and I believe Peter here is representative of the Apostles in general. That Jesus builds the church on the revelation and initial explosion of the Gospel and its reach that He gives to the Apostles.

What Territory is being Won?
Every nation that is engaged in conquest, the taking of territory, must have a territory that they are taking. Jesus in (16:18) continues: “… and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it (the church)”. So the territory that is being won here is the territory which, in a sense the devil took all the way back in the garden. Though God in His sovereignty allowed the devil such an awful influence over mankind, in the temptation to sin, in the power with which he ruled over the wickedness of men, this dominion has ended. Paul says of believers and of the “power of the Prince of the air” in Ephesians 2:1 – 2: “and you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience” So this dominion, marked by this spirit of disobedience is the territory which is being conquered by Jesus and His church. Gates don’t assault something. A gate is a stationary device used in ancient times to protect a walled city or a kingdom. So it is that we see that the church is assaulting the gates of Satan’s dominion. What a joyous promise Jesus gives us here: That in this battle, the gates won’t be victorious. He will, through His church, win the victory over the dominion of Satan and will lead a mighty and a vast people to His victory over sin and death.

So we must see the nature of those whom Jesus is seeking to win for His kingdom as those who are currently in bondage to the prince of the power of the air. There is no seeker sensitive or market based appeal that will break this bondage. Christ in the power of His Holy Spirit must free them. If He does not regenerate them, then there is no strategy or tactic that will break them from the sway of the enemy and from their own wicked flesh.

What are His weapons?
Every nation that is engaged in a war of conquest uses weapons with which to wage war. Jesus too, has given us weapons. Unlike the weapons of an earthly kingdom: the sword, the machine gun or bombs, the weapons are His weapons, they are empowered by Him to accomplish His purpose. Now these weapons are not weapons that would appear to have any strength in the minds of earthly kings. When one desires to bring a people under subjugation, one thinks about military strength. Islam for instance, a very earthly religion, in its corruption of these Biblical concepts could not grasp the necessity of the power of God unto salvation as the means by which people are brought into submission to a king. Therefore, the Islamic notion of the promulgation of its religion and world view is at the edge of a sword we see this with atheistic communism as well. But in stark contrast are Jesus’ words in Matthew 28: “Making disciples”. A disciple is a student who studies under the instruction and leading of his teacher. And again Jesus in Mark 16 says: “Go into all the world and proclaim the Gospel”. Paul describes this weapon in the first chapter of Romans 1:16 when he says of the Gospel: “for I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes...” And again in Acts chapter 1 Jesus says that the disciples are to be His witnesses. That is that we are to testify to Jesus and His completed work. Paul describes this Gospel repeatedly but clearly in 1 Corinthians 15:3 when he says: “For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received; that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures.” Jesus also says in Matthew 28: Teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. This is precisely what we find the apostles doing throughout Acts and in their letters to the church. That is proclaiming and expounding on the Gospel. How could our weapons be anything less? The lost don’t need to hear our testimony of transformation. This may be helpful, this may be encouraging for the wavering. But that’s not what they need. The lost don’t need us to attempt to pass legislation which thus prevents them from acting on their nature and violating God’s laws. The lost don’t primarily need us to show them how Jesus can repair the psychological hurts and anguish brought on by the abuses of this current age. They don’t need a weight-loss program built on “success principles” from Scripture. But what they MUST hear and WE MUST hear is the weapon that Jesus has given His church: the Gospel. This is Jesus’ primary weapon of war. And it is His charge, His command to us that we proclaim it. Again, Paul says in 1 Corinthians 2:2 I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

He gives us a second weapon in this verse. It is directly tied to the first. That is the covenant seal of baptism. I have agreed not to speak in this study of particular aspects of my interpretation from the Bible of the covenant seal of baptism. So I will leave it at this: that the early church, throughout Acts, made a huge deal of baptism. We don’t read of conversions in Acts whereupon those converted aren’t then subsequently baptized. Could it be that so few people actually come to faith in the person and the working of Jesus Christ that we are so unfamiliar with seeing it actually take place that we have almost forgotten it as a cherished and a prized gift? To be brought into the covenant family of God, the church. Have we forgotten what it is to make a public confession of our need of the washing of our sins and to be joined with Jesus death so as to die to our sins?

So we must see that the primary weapon of this conquest is the proclamation of the Gospel. Our tank, our battleship, our jet fighter is nothing less than the Holy Spirit empowered good news that Jesus died to satisfy the wrath of God for all who would believe.

Now there are some who would say, what about prayer? That’s a weapon! And it is! Absolutely, but the primary weapon that Jesus has ordained to accomplish His purpose as He takes dominion over this fallen and wicked world, IS the good news. Without the proclamation of this Good News, our prayer is rather like a foot soldier crying out to his general: Please attack the enemy! And yet, the general Himself, as He prepared to ascend to His mighty throne gave us our marching orders: Make disciples, proclaim the good news, teach them to observe what I commanded you and baptize them. We are, if we are truly His church, an imperialistic army that is seeking to accomplish the will and the purpose of our great King.

What greater privilege could He have given us, then to enter in to this effort with Him? That He would take His enemies and reform them and set them into action on His behalf. What greater privilege could we ask then to be included in this most victorious of causes? If you are in Christ today, and He is your King and you have bowed your knee to Him, then you have been given such a glorious gift: to take this Good and gracious News to a wicked and undeserving world. To take the blood of Jesus to those for whom it was meant.

Where is our King in all of this?
Jesus says: “And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” So He has given us, the church the scope of His authority as God and King. He has given us His charge to go out and assail the gates of hell, this dark and wicked age, to win many to Him. He has given us the weapons and the tools of conquest: the Gospel, baptism in the name of the Triune God and discipleship in His word. So He and His completed work are the subject of that which we are to proclaim, but He doesn’t leave us alone. What a glorious promise He gives us here: “I am with you”. He says: BEHOLD, look and see, I am with you, always! Jesus says that He is building His church and His church is assailing this wicked world with the Gospel. And it is He, through His Spirit and the power of His Spirit that is accomplishing this. He is with us. He is the power behind the proclamation of His Gospel. As Peter, an uneducated fisherman proclaims Jesus in power to the Jews at Pentecost and then in the temple and then before the Jewish council, Jesus is with Him. As Stephen speaks the Gospel to those wicked men who would shortly stone him, including one who would be used mightily of the Living Christ, Jesus is with Him. As Peter is thrown repeatedly into prison for the Gospel, Jesus is with Him. As the saints of old were fed to the lions for roman sport because of their proclamation of the Gospel, Jesus was with them. Again He is with us as we seek to faithfully accomplish His charge, this in power, giving us hope, sanctifying us and sending us out.

So we have seen Jesus as our Savior. The one who took away our sins and justified us, that is He made us right with God. We have seen Jesus as our Sanctifier as He regenerated us by the Spirit, as He causes us to walk in newness of life and His glorious image into which we are being transformed. We have seen Jesus as the power of the resurrection, the one who will one day lead us to glory as we are raised to everlasting life. We have seen Jesus as the one who will restore all of the created order to glory under His dominion. And now we have seen Jesus as our King, the founding member of the church and the one whose banner we raise high as we, the church, go forth to the nations.

We must see that Jesus is with us. We must see that His kingdom must and will be victorious as He destroys the kingdom of darkness and leads many sons to glory, through His church. Let us do away with lesser Christianity. Let us do as we are commanded and pray to the Lord of the harvest that He would send more harvesters. Let us do away with a small gospel and take Jesus in by His word and sacrament and through prayer and behold Him as glorious, that we might take Him out in the good news that is power of God unto salvation, for all who believe.

Come Lord Jesus!

Week 8 – Christ our King – Part 1 - Followup

2009-12-15T10:17:00.000-07:00

The Chief Cornerstone

Introduction
It seems like every generation from Adam forward is doomed to take that which is rightly God’s or rightly defined by God and twist. Consider, in our modern times, the push for homosexual marriage. God grants us a huge blessing in the provision of the relationship of marriage. Indeed God was not bound to give us this great gift. Yet, not content with this gift, we have to twist God’s order, preferring rather, the perversion of man to the blessing of God. Consider, Adam and Eve themselves. They were more than occupants of the Garden of Eden, they were king and queen. They richly shared in God’s abundant providence for them, through-out the Garden and yet it wasn’t enough for them.

So too the Israelites when given the opportunity, preferred the bondage, slavery and brutality of Egypt to the freedom of being God’s covenant people for the sake of Leeks, Onions and Garlic (Numbers 11:5). You would think that those who had seen God part the Red Sea; those who had tasted of God’s provision in manna; whose eyes had witnessed the destruction of the entire Egyptian army and the slaughter of the first born and each one of the plagues having been poured out by the hand of God, would desire God’s way and not elevate man’s way. These same people were given God’s decrees in the Mosaic covenant. His meticulous and lovely Law was given to them on Sinai. He had established an order like no other. This order was orders of magnitude more humane, more gracious, more just than all other known to man. Yet they preferred the capricious genocidal wickedness of the tyrant Pharaoh in exchange for a bite of meat.

God establishes via the wisdom of Moses’ father in law; Jethro, the order of Judges in Exodus chapter 18. God codifies the Law. Moses and the order of Judges, seek His face for wisdom and justice and God is in a real sense their King. So much time went on for the Israelites. Moses grows old and dies, having only glanced across the valley at the promised-land from the top of mount Nebo. The system of Judges implementing the laws of their heavenly King, God Himself continued. God sent them Judges and Prophets. But as with all other fallen men, the Israelites grew tired of God’s ways. They wanted a king according to their order, their desires. They longed for one who would rule over them as the nations around them. God warns them in 1 Samuel 8 of the cost of this King. He makes it abundantly clear to Samuel that it is not his authority that they are rejecting, but God’s. He warns them of the wicked tyranny that was to come at the hand of their unrighteous king. And so He gives them the wicked king Saul. Saul’s heart is quickly led away from the order of the true King of Israel: God. God allows Saul to accumulate for himself wicked deed on top of wicked deed. In so doing God demonstrates to Israel and in fact all of mankind the outcome of man’s kings.

Wicked Kings and Thrones
Saul is by no means the last of the wicked kings of Israel. However, Saul is replaced by the hand of God and His choosing of the young shepherd: David the son of Jesse. David is anointed king of Israel in the 2nd chapter of Samuel. God makes a promise to David, that He would establish David’s throne forever. He says: “And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever.” – 2 Samuel 7:16 Again David speaks of the Lord’s promise to him and prophesies the Lordship of Christ in Psalms 110: “The LORD says to my Lord: ‘Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.’” David is not entirely faithful to God. In fact his sin is grievous and ugly. Similarly, Solomon sits on the throne after David and yet is also wicked. In fact, all of the kings that follow David, in the line of David, comprise a rogue’s gallery of mostly tyrannical, faithless wicked men.

History records few kings who weren’t tyrants. In fact, even, often and especially the kings in Christendom were immoral men and brutal tyrants. In part due to their often unchecked power and due to their fallen nature as fallible men, these rulers and authorities abounded in the wicked treatment of their subjects and in their own personal, incredible immoralities. In 1492, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain, using the name of Jesus, in their zeal banished all Jews from Spain.

Mans Wicked and Lesser Government
Daniel says of God: He removes kings and sets up kings – Daniel 2:21. Paul says “Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God”- Romans 13:1 God does raise up kings and authorities as His instrument of protecting the world from slipping into utter murderous chaos: “for he is God's servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer.” Romans 13:4. Paul nor Daniel is insisting that as God allows kings to establish their kingdoms and reign for a time, that these kings represent the order that is God’s perfect and wonderful righteous reign. Though David was sinful, in David’s throne we see a glimmer of hope for those who have suffered the consequence of unrighteous authority, however.

Fallen men often believe that if only we were able to establish the right order here on earth, then everything will be made right and we would live, well governed, in peace. Most, if not all revolutions, at least in the modern era are rooted in the notion that it is possible to setup the ideal, or at least a more ideal, form of government in the current order of things. Few are less than incredibly murderous and tragic marches toward tyranny, where the end of idealism is the same, but more brutal and tyrannical an order than the first. Communism in modern times has given us example after example of this, as the rallying cry of its foot soldiers is always justice for and the benefit of the people. Then quickly the very government that was intended to bless the people soon becomes the instrument by which the people are even more brutally repressed.

Even the American form of government, probably the most successful at preventing tyranny, has vast and profound problems and will no doubt, not last forever. In fact, our founding fathers assumed the wickedness of men and so as a means of enforcing the more objective view of the people over the view of unrestrained leaders, they built a form of government in which revolution was an ongoing process. One in which leaders good and bad were always subject to removal, through the process of democratic elections.

And just as all forms of government and all previous crowns, so to even the American form of government will one day meet its destiny on the scrap heap of history. No matter what man’s best intention in placing himself on the throne of government, he is bound to fail. This is directly because of our sinful nature.

The Promise
So it is that God makes a promise to David. Though Israel had chosen the wickedness of an earthly king, God sent them a fallible and weak, yet anointed king in David. But David himself was not the fulfillment of God’s promise. David was actually merely a shadow of the one who was to come. Though David was a man after God’s own heart: 1 Samuel 13:13 “The LORD has sought out a man after his own heart, and the LORD has commanded him to be prince over his people” David was a fallen man, like his father Adam and each subsequent generation, he was bound for the grave and would make tragic and sinful mistakes. God’s promise to David was far bigger than any earthly king could ever bare.

The promise made to David is really a promise made to the entire world. In the same way that Israel had lived out much of its existence as a nation under the hand of wicked kings, so too has all of mankind. We have, as a part of our nature submitted to and sought after lesser kings. In contrast to these wicked rulers and kings, God makes a promise to send a far different king. And with this king a far more significant kingdom. During the season of advent, we observe the first candle bearing in mind those who looked forward to the birth of Jesus, in regard to the Salvation that He would bring, but also, in His kingly reign.

A King on the Throne
In Acts chapter 1, as Jesus is preparing to ascend to the right hand of the Father, the disciples who had waited all of their lives and whose entire culture was based upon the anticipated coming of the Messiah, the King who would restore the glory of Israel during the time of David, ask Him: “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?”

Peter had put words to it in Matthew 16 when Jesus asks him: “But who do you say that I am?” Peter responds, you are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” This Greek word here is the same word as the word used in Psalms 2 (Meshiakh – Messiah – Anointed one): “The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD and against his Anointed” Peter, as the disciples all knew, understood that Jesus was the fulfillment of God’s promise to David and to Israel.

In fact, the charge against Jesus by the Jewish council before Pilate was that He was: “saying that He Himself is Christ, a king.”

“and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore.” – Isaiah 9:7

They knew that Jesus was to reign in righteousness and justice forever. They knew that Jesus would assume the crown of David, and establish it forever. Unlike David’s descendants before Him, He would establish a throne of righteousness.

They knew that Jesus was the fulfillment of God’s promise to His people. He was the humble King fulfilling Zechariah 9:9: “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is He, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”

At His birth the angel Gabriel confirms that He would be the Messiah, the one who would sit forever on David’s throne. “He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end." – Luke 1:32

A Kingdom Established
In Jesus was the Kingdom that was established upon the throne of David. It was established and inaugurated during Jesus ministry here on earth. Jesus says in Mark 1:14: The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.” This kingdom is established in Jesus founding of the church. As Paul said in Colossians 1:18, And He is the head of the body, the church. Jesus in this verse in Mark ties the truth that the Kingdom has come down to man in His coming to earth in the flesh directly to the gospel. It is truly good news, for those under the reign of unrighteous governments, who would believe that Jesus came to establish the kingdom of God amongst men, by way of His death and resurrection. The good news, that is what “Gospel” means, is that the promise that God made so long ago has come to pass in Jesus. That He came and established a kingdom. Three times in Matthew, the Gospel is described as the “Gospel of the Kingdom”. In fact, the last of these this phrase is found in Matthew 24: “And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.” So it is that the kingdom of righteousness is established in the person and the work of Jesus.

The disciples in Acts chapter 1, have yet to see that what is about to take place is the expansion of Christ’s reign and authority in His kingdom. They still see a small kingdom. One that is restricted to the physical land boundaries of Israel. They don’t see the explosion which is about to happen. We are going to cover in our next session, Jesus imperialistic conquest of all of mankind, but it is important to see that as Jesus is resurrected from the dea d, all authority is His and He therefore inaugurates the ensuing conquest of the earth through His body, the church. He tells them that shortly, power would come upon them in the form of the Holy Spirit, to equip them for the conquest that was to come. Then He gives them the scope of that conquest, He says: But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.’ – Acts 1:8

Read 1 Peter 2:1-11

We need to go back in time. We need to travel all the way back to Genesis chapter 11.

Now the whole earth had one language and the same words. And as people migrated from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. And they said to one another, "Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly." And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar. Then they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth." And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of man had built. And the LORD said, "Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another's speech." So the LORD dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city. Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the LORD confused the language of all the earth. And from there the LORD dispersed them over the face of all the earth.

Reversing Babel
In Genesis, Moses describes for us the wickedness of mankind in his glory-seeking and self-serving attempt to unify. Man is for all intents and purposes a single people. They share a single language, but they are disordered and not quite a single nation and they desire to come together in this twisted unity to avoid being dispersed and to “Make a name for themselves”. And God’s response to this also tells us of their hearts, to accomplish whatever they desire. They are attempting to establish a unified order, as it were to abandon any need for God’s providence and to order things in such a way to no longer have any need of Him. And Peter here demonstrates for us that what has occurred in Jesus and His kingdom is the undoing of this very curse. We were indeed many different and often conflicting peoples. We were scattered across the earth, we came from many different languages and cultures. We were the consequence of the curse that was poured out on the people when they were scattered and their language was confused. As Peter says in verse 10: Once you were not a people. But now you are God’s people, once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. In so doing Peter shows us how Jesus by His act of giving us, His people, His blessed mercy destroyed the boundaries that were inflicted in the curse at Babel. HE joins us and we become a mighty nation. Where the tiny and wicked hopes of the occupants of Babel to rule and to reign to build failed, in Jesus our King, He has and is building us into a nation, not for our purposes. Not so that we would receive blessing, though we do, infinite blessing. But so that we become a people who rather than being radically committed to ourselves are the possessions of our mighty king: Jesus. And that in this nation, our objective would be to proclaim the excellencies of Jesus. These excellencies are NOT personal triumphs rewrapped in words about Jesus. They are however, the glories of His kingdom in salvation, in wrath and judgment to come and in the final resurrection. So this glorious nation, built upon and rooted deeply on the foundation stone, the king of the nation; Jesus is called in direct reversal of Babel, to proclaim not its independence, not its unity and solidarity to accomplish what it desires, but to proclaim the wonders and the glories of its founding and preeminent member and king. This living stone: Jesus.

And though the rulers of Babel, selected solid stones, capable of providing ultimate structural strength and integrity for their city their stones failed, because they were cursed by God. SO it is that God placed in Zion, the city of David a stone, His stone. And just like the builders of Babel rejected God as their center, their founding member and King. So too, the Pharisees and most of the religious of Israel rejected this stone. They didn’t want God as their king, as the rock upon which they built their nation. But God in His grace, placed His Son right in the heart of that apostate city. This so that those who would reject Him would stumble on this very stone and be put to shame. But for those of us who have believed, this wonderful living stone, became the foundation piece, the very king of this nation.

Peter builds on this analogy, of Jesus as cornerstone. He wants us to see that we, those who have tasted and seen that the Lord is good, are being built into the very temple of God. This is the nature of the kingdom: that God would dwell with man. We see this nature in the great consummation as we spoke of it last week: Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be His people, and God Himself will be with them as their God. – Revelation 21:3 This is the analogy, that Jesus, the firstborn of the resurrection, the preeminent member, the founder and originating point of the church is the one upon Whom each one of us as living stones are being built. And just as no temple was built on radically misshapen and malformed stones, so too Jesus is forming, that is con-forming us by the Spirit into the same glorious shape as our King. He is doing this so that this temple might bring Him ultimate glory. This holy nation is the same one that Abraham, the writer of Hebrews tells us in chapter 11:10, was looking forward to as he became a sojourner and headed out into the desert.

And just as the nation being built at Babel was committed to accomplishing a name for themselves so too, this nation our nation is and ought to be radically committed to bring glory to a name. The same name that is above every name: Jesus the Messiah, the reigning and conquering King.

But this temple, that is being built, requires a priesthood that is an order of priests who serve the God seated at the center of this temple. Just like the priests of the Mosaic covenant who were consecrated, or set apart for service in the temple and called holy, we too are priests, from the least to the greatest. But unlike the Levitical order of priests, who were consecrated by the blood of animals, we have been consecrated, or made holy, or made clean by the blood of the founding member of this priesthood; Jesus. You see we always tend to get it backwards, we’d like to think that the temple was made for us. We draw false analogies and assume that the temple was made with us at the center, when in fact this temple, this kingdom, this dominion, this church was created to bring glory and honor to Jesus Christ.

Citizens of the Kingdom

Finally, this nation is defined and formed by those who are like newborn infants, longing for the pure spiritual milk, that by it they might grow up into salvation. We must be those who have and are tasting of God’s good gift of grace, in salvation and in His word. We must be those who are taking in the spiritual milk and longing and hungering to filled with more. This is the defining characteristic of those in this holy nation, we are those who have taken Christ’s gifts in the word and tasted of His goodness, and truly taken it in. Additionally, Peter exhorts us those who live as sojourners and exiles. That is as those who belong are citizens of another nation, Jesus kingdom. This fact makes us sojourners and exiles, for a time. We long for the full consummation and arrival of this Kingdom and our King. But Peter says that we are to live as those who are exiles, where the ways of this fleshly world are always assaulting us. Our own flesh, longs for leeks and onions and longs to taste at times of the sin that we left behind. These passions are waging war on Jesus nation and we are to fight. We have received, and are receiving His mercy. We were called out of darkness into His marvelous light (9), let us do away with lesser things and press into this kingdom, into our glorious King.

Week 8 - Part 1 - Christ our King - Preparation

2009-12-09T07:56:00.000-07:00

For most of us in the United States, the idea of a king is at the very least a foreign idea. But for many of us, predicated on our history and a cultural antipathy of most forms of authority, we reject the idea of a king. It is an offense to us, to imagine bowing down for to any man. The American experiment was first and foremost an assault on a particular form of government. We as a people rejected the authority of King George, of the British crown in fact.

When Thomas Jefferson penned the Declaration of Independence, we as a people were declaring our independence from the British form of government; a monarchy. In so doing, the nature of the contents of the Declaration dealt entirely with the issue of how people are to be governed in light of certain facts. We are all familiar with Jefferson’s brilliant words, in the second paragraph of the declaration: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights…” We are less familiar with the next sentence: “That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.” Jefferson’s point was a direct assault on the notion that had driven the British and most European kings for many years: The divine right of kings. (for more information on this doctrine please see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divine_right_of_kings)

This form of government taught that kings of Christian nations had a right to rule over their subjects based upon an understanding that God had instituted governments among men to defend, protect and provide for Christendom (anyone living in a ‘Christian’ nation). This doctrine taught that these kings derived their right to rule over their lands from God Himself and thus were not subject or bound to the will of the people. Jefferson, a deist (distinctly not a Christian man), along with many others could not abide a king who was not accountable to the people. We are all familiar with the American Revolution.

Our founders built this nation on the idea that we had no king but Jesus. I whole heartedly agree with this notion, as a patriot. Nonetheless, in so doing, we forever banished a cultural artifact that is critical in understanding, the Biblical concept upon which Jesus’ throne was built. That is the idea of a sovereign authority, whose authority is not derived from men, but from God. In the 8th chapter of 1 Samuel, the people of God reject the authority of God’s kingly reign and demand for themselves a king, like the nations around them. So it is that God sends them an earthly king. He details the tyrannical rule and authority of the king that he will send.

Your homework is to read 1 Samuel 8:1-22 and think on what it means to have a king.

Week 7 – Christ our Healer – Part 2 - Followup

2009-12-09T07:54:00.000-07:00

The Trumpet Call

Introduction
The sweet smell of the new blossoms on the trees and the powerful rich and organic aroma of each one of countless billions of plants now sprouting forcefully and yet gracefully through the soil or producing fresh shoots filled the early spring air. It seemed rightly as though all of creation had been touched by the finger and blessing of God. Not the hardest hearted bully could walk to school on a morning such as this and miss the distinct aroma of life. Weeks earlier, the snow had been thick and heavy. We had joyfully missed school that day. But now it seemed as though the heat of the sun was baking off the lifelessness of a long and cold winter. But there was something even sweeter in the air, at least for most kids on their way to school on mornings such as these. Just as each sunny morning brought a seemingly more invigorated nature, so too each morning brought with it the excitement that soon, no matter how much homework Mrs. Baxter wanted to give us, she couldn't. We were to be set free. So even homework took on an air of joyful anticipation as the days quickened to meet the summer break. I spent much of my time day dreaming about my grandparents' cabin in the mountains west of Denver. We would be there soon. It seemed sitting there at my desk that I could smell the wonderful aroma of coffee, bacon and an early morning cigarette. It seemed as though I could see the smiling face of my grandmother as she was preparing breakfast for us. And I could hear deep in my heart the joyful gurgling and babbling of the creek behind the cabin.

Dominion Marred
You will recall Genesis chapters 1 – 3. God makes covenant with His creation, with Adam and Eve. God implements between them what has been termed: the covenant of works. In this covenant God granted Adam and Eve dominion, or rule and authority over the garden of Eden. The Lord grants provision to them. He says: “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden” (2:17) The Lord grants dominion when Moses tells us: “The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.” (2:15) It is impossible to separate the created order from man and his dominion. Adam was as the father of mankind also the caretaker and the ruler over creation. For instance, the Lord assigns to Adam the task of the naming of all of the creatures. David referring to this dominion in Psalms 8 says: “When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him? Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. You have given him dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas. O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!” The Bible tells us that this dominion was first given to Adam in the creation.

For those of us who have never worked or lived on a farm we find it difficult to understand the significance of the dominion that man was given. In part due to the advancement of our civilization we have lost such a close relationship to the earth. We don’t typically work in the fields to bring home the food and provision that we need to live. So it is very difficult at times for us to see that there really is a relationship between man, as caretaker and the created order.

So it is that Adam was given this order. But as the Bible makes absolutely clear and as we have discussed previously, Adam violates the covenant. He disobeys God’s command to him in the garden. This wickedness would plunge mankind and as we’ll see all of creation into the curse of sin and death: “because of one man's trespass, death reigned through that one man” Romans 5:17 and again: “Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned” - Romans 5:12

Read Romans 8:16 - 30

Two Adams Compared
We must see Adam as the father of all of mankind. We MUST see that Adam and the covenant cursing that he bore was handed down from generation to generation. We must also see that the first man Adam was NOT divine in nature. And the Bible describes for us two primary characters as rulers of mankind and of creation. The first is Adam, he’s the father of all mankind. Paul says: “The first man was from the earth, a man of dust” – 1 Corinthians 15:47 He brought sin into the race of man. We all, like it or not, bear his genetic markings and bear the weight of the curse. The Bible describes him in prototypical form. That is to say, that he is the prototype for all of his descendants. Adam is the one from whom all subsequent generations have inherited all of their characteristics. We must see this.

We must also see that in the same way that Adam was the prototype for all of mankind in the fall, so Jesus, in His resurrected humanity is the prototype for all who have been born again into and under His dominion. “The first man Adam became a living being"; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit” – 1 Corinthians 15:45.

Resurrection is About The Image of Christ
We also have to see, as we did in week 1, that we are being transformed and the objective of the resurrection is to transform us into the image of Christ. We were the image of Adam. Now, we are being transformed, and this transformation will find its completion in the resurrection. To our text:

“And those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son” (8:29a)

If our prototype was Adam and among the inheritance that we received from Adam were death and sin then what Paul here speaks is critical for the believer. We were predestined to be REMADE or conformed (to take from one state and bring to another) into the image of Jesus, the second Adam. The end result is that what will define us in the resurrection is the image of Christ. We will have inherited the distinguishing characteristics of the second Adam. If you are in Christ today, despite your struggles and your failings, you will one day be transformed fully into the image and likeness of Jesus.

Firstborn among many brothers
We will be conformed to Jesus image. This: “in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers” (8:29). We will be conformed so that Jesus will be the first born of the resurrection, the prototype of all who are to come. This verse speaks to the purpose of our transformation and our conformation in Christ. The reason for this is that the human attributes of Jesus, in His perfected state must be transmitted to all who have been adopted as sons by the Father. Jesus was the first to be resurrected to everlasting glory. His resurrection is to be followed by the resurrection of all who are adopted sons of God. “you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, "Abba! Father!"” (8:26). In Colossians 1:18, Paul says: “And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent.” Jesus becomes the first one in the order to come: the final restored consummated kingdom. Not only is Jesus the first in order, but He is the preeminent one, the one with highest significance. Just as Adam was the preeminent figure in our earthly linage, Jesus becomes the defining member of the church. He is the “beginning” and this word here means the originating source. It is as though Jesus was the single drop of water that breached the damn that is the created order in its current cursed state. And it will be on that day when He returns, that the damn of sin and death will burst giving way to an absolute flood as our bodies take on the immortal and glory filled image of our older brother.

We will share as Heirs
Paul says (16) “if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him”. Jesus was resurrected and ascended to His state of glory. In the same way if we, by the salvation of Jesus have been given the destiny of the image of Jesus so too we will be resurrected and bear His glory. Paul continues “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.” (18) So the “Glory” the dignity, or the inherent honor that is in Jesus resurrected humanity will also be given to us. It will be given to us, because now that we are in Christ we are heirs with Christ, receiving full benefits as sons and daughters of God. If you are in Christ today, you are an heir with Christ and on that last day a glory awaits you in Jesus, that He enjoys even now in the presence of the Father.

Creation Groans
But it wasn’t only mankind that was subjected to the curse. All of creation was likewise subjected. Paul says: “For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.” (20). Paul makes it clear that it was God who subjected the creation to the curse, when he says: “but because of him who subjected it. Paul also makes it clear that the restoration of all of creation is directly bound to the resurrection and the glory that will be bestowed upon the sons of God. That as the end of this current order occurs, in that twinkling of an eye, all of creation will be restored. It is of profound significance that Paul refers to the glory of God as freedom” to us. It is significant because once all is made right, we will be truly free. Free from bondage to the flesh, free from all bondage to temptation and free to live an existence completely in accord with the holiness of God. We will be free from Adam’s limitations and so too will nature be set free from the limitations of the curse.

It is almost impossible for us to imagine what creation would be like free from the friction of the constant presence of disease, death, predation and the sufferings that so characterizes creation in this order. Paul says “For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.” (22). It’s not that creation has an awareness of the glories that await as Jesus makes all things new, it is that the very order of nature itself in death and birth and suffering could be described metaphorically as a woman who is in the travails of labor. Each contraction brings intense and unimaginable pain. Each contraction proclaims the eminent birth, but the eminent pain as well. When Lori would give birth, she would reach a point of suffering where she would just wish that it would all stop. She would wish that we could turn off the labor and just go home. So too creation has been undergoing the brutal and painful suffering that the curse brought from Adam and will until the day that Jesus raises His people from the dead. And the cry of all of creation in disease, suffering and death, much like the travails of labor proclaim and sound out the longing for the return of Christ in glory to restore all things.

“and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.” (23) In the same way Paul says, we who have been given the first fruit of the fullness that is to come in the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, also groan inwardly as we suffer. That is to what Paul is referring. That this life of suffering, this life of brutality of struggle and strife is driving us like labor towards the eminent birth, the redemption of our bodies. And we have been given the Holy Spirit as He has taken up residence in us, as a foretaste of the glory to come. We behold Christ as glorious. He reveals to us Jesus as Lord and Savior. So it is that He, the Spirit proclaims to us these truths, and creates in us this longing. But He’s the first fruits of the relationship that is to come. It tells of the glorious truth, that God will dwell with His people “And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. – Revelation 21:3. Just as we have become the temple (same word as dwell) or the tabernacle of the Holy Spirit, so too He will dwell with us, just as He did with Adam.

He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away. – Revelation 21:4

On that day all of death and the curse of death, both on man and creation will “pass away”. Indeed all of the former things will pass away. All suffering and sadness will be done away with.

The Lord’s Return
So it is that all of creation, including us, groan and long for the day when that sky opens up and Jesus returns. The Lord, on that day will say: “Behold I am making all things new.” – Revelation 21:5

Then will appear in heaven the sign of the Son of Man, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. – Matthew 24:31

in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed.

For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. – 1 Thessalonians 4:14

Oh what joy will fill the hearts of those who will be raised on that day. Imagine, as the trumpet blast is sounded and the Lord appears with power and His great glory. Imagine as the sound of the horn draws the dead from the ground. Imagine as all of creation is restored and He gives life to our dead and dying bodies. Imagine as we rise to meet Him in the air. Imagine as the war against sin in our flesh is won once for all. Imagine as all suffering and shame is done away with. When I think of the trumpet blast, I imagine it sounding like the clearest sound. Unencumbered by the frailties of human fashioned trumpets the sound will be the most magnificent and pure sound that has ever befallen our natural ears.

The Consummation of the Kingdom
Not only will Jesus do away with all suffering and pain, but all dominion, will be given to Jesus. The writer of Hebrews says: of the Son he says, "Your throne, O God, is forever and ever, the scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom. (1:8)

The glory of the resurrection is most clearly seen in Jesus seated upon His throne as Lord and king over all of creation. As all of the creation that was at one point in such rebellion to Him are now made completely subject to Him. Jesus victory over sin and death accomplishes the dominion that Adam could not accomplish. In this way, Jesus name is lifted higher than any other in all of history. The name and legacy of Adam fade quickly as what Paul spoke of in Philippians 2:9, comes to pass: Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. In that final day, the name which the Father bestowed upon Him, Jesus (God saves) will be lifted high. Paul calls it the name above all names. The name which is highest in honor and privilege that name alone will cause all of the sons and daughters of Adam to fall on their knees and to confess, that Jesus is Lord and king.

Again the writer of Hebrews says: “Now it was not to angels that God subjected the world to come, of which we are speaking. It has been testified somewhere, "What is man, that you are mindful of him, or the son of man, that you care for him? You made him for a little while lower than the angels; you have crowned him with glory and honor, putting everything in subjection under his feet." Now in putting everything in subjection to him, he left nothing outside his control. At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him. But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone. For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering.” (2:5-10)

Here the writer of Hebrews is quoting Psalms 8 in regard to Jesus. So it will be that all things will be placed under Jesus’ feet and under His subjection. And that even though we don’t see all things in the created order under His feet in complete dominion currently, we will one day see all things placed under His feet. This is absolutely hopeful for us. First, in that He tasted death on our behalf. Second, that in Christ’s kingdom and order, there will be nothing wicked whatsoever. There will no longer be the consequence of human sin. And because Jesus’ work was completed on the cross, he says: “should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering.” He will one day bring many sons and daughters to glory. If you are in Jesus, this is true of you. And as Jesus, the founder of the church, the glorious Savior, Sanctifier and Restorer of all things leads His people to final victory, we will see Him crowned and at the center of all things. The one to whom all glory and honor will be given. In our current day, so many would like us to believe that we are the center of our Christian experience. But if the work that Jesus began on Calvary is driving to a restored order in which He is directly at the center of all things, to be worshipped and lifted high, then shouldn’t our focus be on Him and what He has done and what He will do? Since, as Paul said earlier, we have the first fruits of the Spirit, shouldn’t we His people seek His glorious throne by faith? Shouldn’t we His people take up the holy cry “Maranatha” “Our Lord Come!” 1 Corinthians 16:22? And again, Revelation 22:20 He who testifies to these things says, "Surely I am coming soon." Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!

It is then that we see that the every cry of our heart is not entirely directed to His return in glory, to the resurrection and His completion of this age of suffering. So we should seek the forgiveness of the Lord as we are perpetually allowing the things of this earth to cloud our heavenly view. We should seek and know that His completed work on the cross; that His blood is sufficient to cover over even these sins.

Maranatha!

Week 7 - Part 2 - Christ our Healer - Preparation

2009-12-01T07:31:00.000-07:00

The sweet smell of the new blossoms on the trees and the powerful rich and organic aroma of each one of countless billions of plants now sprouting forcefully and yet gracefully through the soil or producing fresh shoots filled the early spring air. It seemed rightly as though all of creation had been touched by the finger and blessing of God. Not the hardest hearted bully could walk to school on a morning such as this and miss the distinct aroma of life. Weeks earlier, the snow had been thick and heavy. We had joyfully missed school that day. But now it seemed as though the heat of the sun was baking off the lifelessness of a long and cold winter. But there was something even sweeter in the air, at least for most kids on their way to school on mornings such as these. Just as each sunny morning brought a seemingly more invigorated nature, so too each morning brought with it the excitement that soon, no matter how much homework Mrs. Baxter wanted to give us, she couldn't. We were to be set free. So even homework took on an air of joyful anticipation as the days quickened to meet the summer break. I spent much of my time day dreaming about my grandparents' cabin in the mountains west of Denver. We would be there soon. It seemed sitting there at my desk that I could smell the wonderful aroma of coffee, bacon and an early morning cigarette. It seemed as though I could see the smiling face of my grandmother as she was preparing breakfast for us. And I could hear deep in my heart the joyful gurgling and babbling of the creek behind the cabin.

As the days draw nearer, well aware that we don't know when, we as the redeemed in Christ have been given the most sacred hope of the resurrection. And for those who are in Christ, the whisperings of that day in nature, in civilization and in the church, are much like the blossoms on the trees as we look forward to that glorious day, when sin and death finally meet their end and life everlasting takes shape within us and before our very eyes. As an adult, I look forward to summer, but no longer with an eager anticipation. We who have been given freely the blood of Christ, those who have been given the blessed hope of the resurrection have a day, much like the end of school, which we look longingly towards. For those who aren't in Christ, that day isn't joyful, but terrifying. But for us, when that trumpet blows its sweet heavenly call, it won't fall painfully on our ears. That call will be matched by the most dramatic and wonderful event in all of nature and in all of our history as sons and daughters of Adam (barring one).

Your assignment this week is to sit down to a spiritual meal. Read 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17
and then ponder that day, do you smell the blossoms on the trees?

Have a glorious week reflecting on Jesus gift of resurrection!

Week 6 - Part 1 - Christ our Healer - Followup - Resurrection Power

2009-11-29T20:54:00.000-07:00

Restoration – I Am the Resurrection and the Life

Nothing Comparable
When a person sets out to think on life and its seasons, they only fathom what they can see. They have a certain point of reference in which to understand the boundaries and properties of their universe. They’ve developed this point of reference over time as a result of their exposure to the unspoken and manifestly evident rules of their existence. Consider the notion of gravity. Long before we attend a science class, in fact, before we even learn to speak usually, we learn of gravities properties. We can’t explain them, we can’t talk about why gravity works as it does but our point of reference develops. We come to understand that the feeling of falling is usually followed by a painful encounter with the ground. Over time we develop an understanding that the greater the height the more painful the fall. So it is that most people learn to take extra care when moving at heights. Most, not all, people will naturally be careful when walking near a cliff for instance. You don’t need to tell sane sober minded people to watch out for the edge. Their point of reference in understanding gravity is well defined. Additionally, their muscles, their skeletal structure and all of their bodies systems attenuate and strengthen to meet the rigorous demands of gravity. They become used to carrying their weight on their own legs, as result of their natural environment. So it is that astronauts struggle physically to even understand how to function in an environment where gravity isn’t a factor. In fact, much of the training and expense that NASA goes to in preparing astronauts for space involves training them in how to cope and to function in weightlessness.

So too, we have many things in our world as we know them now which are invisibly defined for us. There is a certain order at work and we, over time, have developed an understanding that is built around its properties. The order is vast and including gravity, its rules aren’t easily cheated. We learn of what has been termed: “the circle of life” and with sadness and horror we watch as the lioness tackles the baby wildebeest on the African savanna. We come to learn that if animals don’t die, we don’t eat. We observe over time natures cycles in their unbridled brutality and we come to understand the fabric of our reality. We have points of reference regarding the natural order of things, and we also understand that there are few, if any, exceptions to these rules.

We’re born, we grow up, we age, we slow down and we die. Time pounds out an unchanging rhythm for us. We cheat death time and again, knowingly or unknowingly. Yet it lies in sight. These are the rules of our existence. Because of the nature of these rules as unchanging, we assume them to be so and can’t fathom a different set of parameters. We can’t imagine wolves living with lambs. We can’t imagine a child putting their hand in the den of a venomous snake. We can’t comprehend what sort of created order would not include death or the cycle of life and death. When we attempt to think of it, it is much like trying to describe weightlessness to an African tribesman. He might be able to grasp certain aspects of it. His mind might play with the fun notions of it, but he can’t take it in or think through all of the ramifications of an existence without gravity.

So too, we can’t comprehend what the Bible means when it describes for us the resurrection of the dead. We struggle to get our minds around Jesus words when He says things like: “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.” – John 11:25. And again “For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day." – John 6:40. We, like our African tribesman toying with the idea of weightlessness, play with the idea of resurrection. But we have no earthly point of reference for what a life without disease or suffering would be like.

Jesus the Healer
I know that when A.B. Simpson spoke of Christ the Healer, what he had in mind was not the resurrection. He was of course speaking of Jesus in terms of His power to heal the physical man in the here and now. Jesus does at times choose to heal and restore on some level our physical condition. There is no disputing this. However, Jesus’ greatest work of healing and restoration lies, for us, up ahead. For those of us who have suffered with disease or watched loved ones suffer and perhaps even die, we often run to Jesus in the hope that He would heal in the here and now. At times He does and we should always run to Him with our desire that He would heal. At times though, He allows us to endure much suffering and much tragedy and often with no apparent resolution in this life. The Bible makes it clear time and time again that our hope is not in the current order, nor in the preserving of our lives in the current order. Our hope lies ahead in the order to come. Let us let Jesus teach us from His word today and let us not super impose our small and finite hopes on top of the wonders that are to be seen in the hope that Jesus has given us in His restoration of the created order and in His resurrection power. For our next two sessions we will be covering Jesus as healer, of all things. This morning, we will see Jesus as He presents Himself as the one who will raise our mortal bodies from the dead, as the conqueror of death. Next week we will see Jesus as restorer of the created order.

Read John 11:1-45

The resurrection of Lazarus
In John 11:1-45 we find Jesus some distance away from the heat of the battle. He’s recently had yet another confrontation with those who would one day see Him nailed to a tree. This time they had picked up stones to stone Him. His ministry is confrontational to the self-righteous order of the Jews and they want Him dead. No longer just a nuisance, He’s now a clear target. End of John 10, He’s across the Jordan and not in Judea. He’s ministering and many are trusting in Him. His disciples are with Him and so we join the story in 11:1.

Two of His disciples, Mary and Martha have journeyed from Bethany in Judea to His location. They have journeyed a long way because they are gravely concerned for their brother, Lazarus. He is very ill. They obviously have a good reason to believe that he will probably die. Mary and Martha believe that if Jesus doesn’t come and do something, Lazarus will indeed die. Jesus does the unthinkable for them and stays on where He is at for two days more. But before He does this, Jesus does something really significant to the story. He gives them the first part of the reason that He is about to raise Lazarus from the dead: “It is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” (4) Following this, Jesus frightens His disciples by telling them that they are headed back to Judea, back into the hands of the Jews trying to kill Him. Jesus tells them plainly that Lazarus has died. Again Jesus says something very significant. He gives them the second part of the reason why He is about to raise Lazarus from the dead: “So that you might believe”. The disciples are in no way happy that they are to return to the heat of the battle. Thomas says: “Let us also go, that we may die with him.” He is referring here to the persecution which seems to be waiting for them in Judea.

Martha runs to meet Jesus as soon as she hears that He is coming, and is upset with Him. Mary stays behind, despondent and grief stricken.

Why resurrect Lazarus?
It’s as if three cars are about to collide. Jesus’ disciples are following obediently but with serious and real apprehensions and fears. “Rabbi, the Jews were just now seeking to stone you, and are you going there again?” (8) Initially, when Jesus delayed two days, they thought that Jesus was being smart and not going to tend to Lazarus and they were relieved that they weren’t going to head back towards Jerusalem. Now they’re headed straight for trouble. Then there is Martha, her beloved brother, another disciple Lazarus has died and has been buried. She’s coming and hoping that Jesus will work a miracle in the here and now, knowing that Jesus has the power to move in the midst of such a dire and impossible situation. She’s profoundly disappointed and is struggling to see why Jesus, who loved Lazarus (5) would’ve not come right away to heal him. And all the while Jesus, the Son of God is about to demonstrate to the Jews, to His believers and to us something critical for our faith until His return in glory. He’s moving with purpose towards the stench filled tomb of Lazarus with serious and profound intent. He’s taking a serious risk as He returns to the vicinity of those who are seeking to kill him.

Martha bears the angst, disappointment and deepest desire of her heart to Jesus: “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.” (22) Jesus answer to her points her in precisely the right direction: “Your brother will rise again.” She gets what He means. We often think, when we read this story, that simply because Jesus then resurrects Lazarus, He is indicating to her that He’s not concerned here with final resurrection, but concerned with the resurrection at hand, the resurrection of Lazarus. From the context this can’t be true. Let’s look (23): Jesus says: “Your brother will rise again”. But don’t stop here, her reply is correct: “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” (24) Can you hear the “but” coming though? It’s as if she wants to say: “I know he will rise again… BUT Jesus, what about now, will you do a miracle and raise my brother?” Jesus doesn’t address what she wants, but completes her first thought when she said: “I know that he will rise again on the last day.” (24) Jesus says: “I am THE resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.” (25) It’s obvious that Lazarus dies, some years later. So the center of the story of the resurrection of Lazarus is not for us to see that Jesus is capable of resurrecting the dead in the here and now. It’s true He is. It is so that we see that Jesus Himself is the resurrection for all those who believe to everlasting life. That’s what we says: “though, he die, yet shall he live,” It’s as though He is saying: “Martha, I’m going to raise Lazarus from the dead, not so that you have your brother back, but so that you see that I will raise the dead on the last day. So that you see that life everlasting is mine to give, in power! That resurrected life, not this life of suffering and agony and death, but resurrected life is Mine to give.”

Martha understands Him. She says, when asked if she believes (26,27): “Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.” But remember, when she uses these titles, Lord and Christ, she’s thinking something far bigger than what we think when we hear them. “I know that you are the Christ; the Messiah, the reigning King on the throne of David, the promised redeemer of Israel who will put all nations under His feet (Psalms 2), He who will judge the living and the dead.” “You are the Son of God, who is coming into this world.” You are the great mighty king promised for thousands of years, indeed the one promised in the garden: “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” – Genesis 3. You are the one promised in the great covenant with Abraham: “And in your seed, shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.” – Genesis 22:18. You are the sent one from the Father! You are THE one time anointed one, not lifted up from among men, but sent from God. You are the Son of God. She acknowledges His deity. She understands what He is saying: “And everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. DO you believe this?” She says yes!

Martha, maybe in frustration, goes to get Mary. She calls Him “teacher” isn’t that interesting. She calls Him Lord (27) then calls Him rabbi (28). I think that she’s profoundly frustrated. She’s despondent, “Why weren’t you here? Why won’t you do anything?” When Mary gets there, she asks the same thing! "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died." (32) She falls at His feet. Her heart has been broken by the death of her brother; by the expectation that Jesus would do something in the here and now and He keeps pushing them back to who He is as the bringer of genuine and final resurrection.

By the way, do you see how much love He has for her and Martha and indeed for you and me? He sees the suffering that the curse has rightly brought and He grieves and is moved. This is so hopeful for you and me. So often Jesus sees us through the fire, not so that we receive the temporal desire of our hearts, but so that we’ll see the deeper and eternal hope that He proclaims in such events as these. Just as Mary and Martha are looking for a temporal solution to their problems, Jesus is directing us not to temporary solutions, but to the greatest solution of all. He directs us to His final defeat of death altogether. Yet in the midst of it all He is moved by the consequence of human sin and He weeps. What sort of mercy is it that the consequence for sin, the punishment that He Himself placed on Adam’s children would then weep at its devastating affect? He’s not weeping regret. He’s not weeping because He made a mistake, He’s weeping because He sees how deeply the race of man cries out for resurrection.

Jesus has already told us why He is about to resurrect Lazarus. Remember in verse 11, He told the disciples that He was going to “awaken him”. Then remember, verse 4, “It is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” Then verse 25: “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die!” As Mary and Martha grieve and try to pressure Jesus to do something about Lazarus, He is pointing them to the glorious “THEN”. And those hard hearted people who are mourning with them. They express the same angst too. “Could not He who opened the eyes of the blind man also have kept this man from dying?” Jesus, you opened the eyes of the blind, surely you could have saved him! The scene is heart wrenching, it is raw, hearts are exposed flesh and Jesus is deeply moved. What a merciful Jesus we have!

Jesus does move in power the here and now. He doesn’t proclaim Himself to be resurrection power and then walk away. But for the benefit of those present and for us, that we might know who He is and the power and authority that He has been given, He orders the stone be rolled away. It can’t be overstated what this miracle proclaims to us: I AM THE RESURRECTION AND THE LIFE! We must see that all who look, by faith to the Son of God, will taste, one day of His resurrection power. That He will one day raise us up, to die no more, to suffer no more.

Death Swallowed Up!
in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: "Death is swallowed up in victory." "O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?" – 1 Corinthians 15:52

You don’t need life transformation in the small sense. You don’t need to be changed into a better person, you need to be resurrected. You don’t need your infirmities healed in the here and now, you need all infirmities taken away in the beloved. Lazarus is for us, the promise of the grace that awaits us. Get a view to this promise. Get a view to this beloved Savior who will one day raise you up, just as He was raised up out of the tomb. Find a way where ever you may be, to gaze at this mysterious and wonderful inheritance. That we would get a glimpse of this promise for one second in our hearts. That one day, a sweet trumpet will blow the sweet melody of our God and King Jesus Christ and in as long as it takes for light to reflect off your eye in the sun, all will be changed. All suffering will cease and death, that last enemy will be swallowed up. The picture here is that of an opposing army swallowing up, enveloping and utterly destroying death. Again, like the tsunami that struck the Indian ocean and the horrific pictures of the waves rolling on to the shore. So too, will Jesus’ victory be. The energy and the force of His victory having started on Calvary’s cross, having traversed all nations, having propelled the church in this age to take the Gospel to the ends of the earth in power, will overtake death like a man standing on the beach watching the tsunami roll in. Can you hear the trumpet?

The Last Day
Mary and Martha, can’t you see that Lazarus needs what you need? That is He who will in power give you everlasting life. Jesus says 3 times in chapter 6 of John’s Gospel of believers: “I will raise Him up on the last day”. “For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in Him should have eternal life, and I WILL raise him up on the last day.” John 6:40. Verse 44: “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I WILL raise him up on the last day.” Verse 54: “Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I WILL raise him up on the last day.” Jesus says to Martha: “I AM the resurrection and the life. Do you believe?” Is this true of you? Are you like Martha, like me? Have the sufferings and the battles of this life got you so wrapped around the wheels, that you can’t see the forest for the trees? That you would take comfort in these words: “I AM the resurrection and the life!” and that you find them true. So that we would push on to the hope and the destination and the outcome of our walk with Christ: EVERLASTING LIFE.

So we have a Martha faith! A faith that sees the trees and struggles to find a point of reference for the resurrection that Jesus is most certainly bringing. We are upbsurd African tribesman, having weightlessness described for us. We go about our lives toying with the smallest of notions of resurrection incapable apart from the work and grace of the Holy Spirit to even speak the word. We are so dry and unsatisfied, because our pleasures and our dreams and desires and their outcomes, are so much like Martha’s, so temporal and fleeting. May we catch a glimpse larger day by day of our glorious Christ and the power of His resurrection. May God work in us a hope that surpasses all suffering and all doubt and all of our foolish and tiny desires.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith--more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire--may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls. – 1 Peter 1:3

So, let us allow the Spirit of Christ to turn our hearts from the here and now, if only briefly, onto the inheritance that lies ahead for all of us who believe in Jesus. Get a picture for His wonderful work of resurrection.

Week 6 - Part 1 - Christ our Healer - Preparation

2009-11-22T19:48:00.000-07:00

One day last fall I was walking near my office enjoying the changing leaves and spending some time in prayer. I was struck by the beauty of the leaves as they displayed a bright and vivid array of color. As I walked and enjoyed the beauty of creation as it was being made ready for the long winter ahead, I thought on something very curious about nature in its fallen state and man's place therein. It struck me that what I was enjoying really was the process of death, at least for the leaves. We are fascinated with death. Though we fight so hard to avoid it.

I thought about friends and loved ones who have gone on to meet their maker. I considered how it seemed as though it were yesterday that we were together, working and enjoying one another. Then I thought about the span of time that had come between us. It seemed as though a rush of melencholy and loneliness blew along with the wind that day. I felt the sadness and the loss as I looked on those leaves. I felt the distance of time between us. I can remember my grandfather's cabin, as I would run down the back porch stairs and bound across the path toward the creek past which he used to love to spend so much of his time. I can remember his smiling and joyous face as he saw me coming. I can even remember the trees around him, they seemed big to me as a child, but they weren't much larger than him. The last time that I saw those trees they were no longer man sized trees, but many had grown to be giants. I remember it seemed the last time that I was there as though a profound and painful loneliness stretched over me as I looked to the place where he had once stood so many years before.

Death is no friend to man. Time and distance shatter once close relationships and render strangers those who were once close friends. Death humbles all men and renders all man's greatest efforts at life useless. Oh that death might be done away with.

Your assignment this week, is to read: Genesis 12:1-5, 49:28 Ponder the span of time between Jacob and his grandfather Abraham and reflect on how time, distance and death have touched your life. Then think on the promise of the resurrection.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Week 5 - Part 2 - Christ our Sanctifier - Sanctification - Followup

2009-11-22T19:05:00.001-07:00

Dayenu
During the modern Jewish observance of the feast of Passover, the Jews will sing a song: Dayenu. The word Dayenu literally means: “Enough for us”. During the song they sing of God's blessings to their forefathers in Egypt. For 15 stanzas, the song progressively sees God's blessings as being layer upon layer of grace to the Jewish people. “If He had brought us out of Egypt, it would've been enough”, “If He had executed justice upon the Egyptians, it would've been enough.” and so on to the end of the song: “He built the temple for us” The idea is that God had redeemed them from Egypt and then blessed and blessed again. While we don't hold that the modern Jews are saved apart from the saving work of Jesus Christ, this song represents an appropriate response to God and His blessings to us in the Savior and King: Jesus. We might sing it with fresh words: “If He had only lived a righteous life, Dayenu” “If He had only hung on the tree to Justify us and forgive us of our sins, Dayenu.” “If He had only taken the wrath that we were due, Dayenu.” “If He had only given us free righteousness, Dayenu” “If He had only granted us adoption by the Father through His righteousness, Dayenu” “If He had only granted regeneration by His Spirit, Dayenu!” It would have been enough for us.

Legal Righteousness, but what about Tangible Righteousness?
In Part 1 of Christ our Savior, we saw as Jesus lived out righteousness and that God has given us that righteousness fully. This, so that when God sees us, He sees the righteousness of His Son Jesus. We saw as Christ's righteousness makes us right. The word that Paul used in Romans 5 was Justification. We were indeed justified by Jesus act of obedience on the cross and we received the righteousness that He Himself had earned.

It is with profound joy and deep conviction that we read John 3 and see how Jesus in His grace sends His Spirit to regenerate us; to grant us new life. It would've been enough for Jesus to Justify us and then to grant us new life in the indwelling of His Spirit. But Paul at the end of Romans 5 says “Where sin increased grace increased.” Everybody celebrates and says: “Well great then, I'm cool sinning then, as I have so much grace given to me freely.” This of course is my paraphrase of Paul's words beginning in Romans 6, “Are we to continue in sin so that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin, still live in it?”

But God's grace in saving us from our sin continues. We find our gracious Savior at work, through His Spirit as He begins the gentle and often painful process as He continues to purify us and grants us what we could never have hoped for: real and genuine righteousness.

It is imperative that we see that if we are in Christ that we have the promise of eternal life. We must see that our relationship is not a relationship contingent on our actions. To say it another way: We don’t earn the relationship. Jesus did in His completed work on the cross and His righteous life. We don’t cause the relationship. Jesus did when He sent His Spirit to take up residence in us. We will see today that Jesus is the one who also sustains us and makes us ready for heaven. The process that God undertakes to make us ready for His glorious consummated kingdom is called Sanctification.

Now to understand Sanctification, it’s critical that we understand what it is not. We must understand how we are saved in justification and in regeneration. Once we understand His grace to us in salvation, we can clearly see His loving grace to us in sanctification.

“What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.” – Romans 6:1-11

Paul at the end of Chapter 5 of Romans says: “but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more.” And knowing what the cynics would then say. Thinking they had found a flaw in his reasoning, he responds as they would and many do: “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?” “Paul, if grace grows and grows to meet the debt of our sin, and grace is free and not bound to our obedience then there is nothing to prevent us from sinning. Why not party on?” Both Paul’s response and what he DOESN’T say are what we need to see. First, he doesn’t say: “You’re right, your salvation is contingent on your perpetual obedience. Oops, I left that part out.” He also doesn’t say: “You’re absolutely right, so go on live like the devil.” He points to the reality of who we are in Christ. This reality demonstrated in the exchange that occurred when we, the believers were regenerated by the Holy Spirit.

Paul points us to the reality that we have in Christ, in our baptism. When we were recipients of the sacrament of baptism, it represented a reality that had occurred for us. This reality is that just as Jesus had died on the cross, so too our sinful flesh was nailed to the tree. We were united with Him, Paul says. His death was our death. Jesus says in Luke 12:50, in regard to His Crucifiction: “I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how great is my distress until it is accomplished!” As Jesus died, our old nature also died. That sinful nature was nailed to the cross in Jesus flesh. “We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that that the body of sin might be brought to nothing.” When we were baptized, we were celebrating our death. Paul answers the question: “How can we who died to sin still live in it?” The flesh that died, was a death to wrath and our bondage to the curse that lead to sin and death. Sin had to be judged in us, and Jesus took that wrath and we likewise died. We were truly united to Christ in His death.

What is Sanctification?
We’ve already seen what joyous news this is in previous weeks. But we need to see it again. If we were united with Him in His death, then we are united with Him in His resurrection. Specifically, Pauls says that “Death no longer has dominion over Him”. Likewise, death no longer has dominion over us. His resurrection is an indicator of what we are to experience fully at the final consummation of the kingdom. However, it is a reality for us now, because of this unity with Christ, that sin (that which brought death) is no longer our master. It doesn’t rule over us as it did. In regeneration we were given a new disposition. Paul says it in verse 17 “But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed,”

Paul completes the picture for us. If you are a slave, you do as the master says. You are under its dominion and you have no power to escape it. We were under the dominion of sin. It was our master, we were disobedient from the heart. We couldn’t break its chains, we couldn’t be set free until Jesus death. However, when He died, we died. That sin was no longer our Lord. Paul says this in Romans 7 when he draws the analogy of a woman married to a man. If she’s married to that man and leaves him and is joined to another, she is in adultery. However, if she dies, she’s freed from the covenant. So too, when you died vicariously in Jesus, you were set free from the Law. You are no longer bound to your sin.

Sin was your king, but now in Jesus, righteousness embodied is your King. Paul doesn’t tell us these things as a future hope, but a present reality. He says, you are now a slave to righteousness. He is your King and so you are no longer bound to obey the flesh. You are bound to obey Christ. And He doesn’t tell us these things because we are now perfect, but because it is SO important in the war against the flesh that we know that it isn’t our master, that Jesus is. That we were taken from the dominion (or the kingdom) of sin and transferred into the kingdom of righteousness.

But we have a problem: there is a now and a then scenario at work. We have the flesh, which is at opposition with God, it hasn’t been resurrected yet. It still has its tendencies, thus Paul says in Romans 8 “But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness.” We see this in disease, though we are set free in the here and now from the curse, we are still subject to the sufferings and the diseases of this age. So our unity with Christ in His resurrection is in part now and in part then. And the problem for us is that we are now engaged in a battle. The flesh makes war on us. Temptation abounds in this age. Peter says: “Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour” 1 Peter 5:8. Do you remember Job? If we are now under the dominion or the kingship of Jesus Christ, the enemy considers us seditious and would love to besmirch Christ’s work in us even though Romans 8 is true (Nothing shall separate us). Our flesh too is constantly, like the Israelites trying to run back to our former bondage. Remember how they longed for the pleasures of their former land? Isn’t it true that we too at times desire to return to our former ways? Paul in these verses paints the picture of the life long battle of the believer. We are engaged in a war, an armed struggle with ourselves.

This is the picture of sanctification as we do battle, putting the flesh to death; as we DON’T let sin reign in our mortal bodies; as we consider ourselves dead to sin and as we battle to not offer our members as slaves of sin. Now if you’re anything like me, you look at that which remains in you and the battle that goes and you grow weary. The Lord knows this and knew that this was for us, a life long struggle. That’s why we are to be constantly reminded of His grace to us on the cross but also in the gifts that He has given us, His children. Remember Paul “but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God” – Romans 8:14.

It would have been enough if God had seen fit to redeem us and then set us on the course, in the battle and left us to our own. But He hasn’t and it’s key that we see this. Unlike Justification and Regeneration, there is definitely an element of Sanctification that is ours, at least from our temporal perspective. We are like it or not in a battle. I think though you may have not seen it this way, as Paul describes the battle I hope that you are thinking two things. First, I recognize this in my own life. I see this battle day in and day out. Second, I am feeling a tension caused by the variance between me now and me then. That is, I see, in some way the magnitude of the difference between my character and Christ’s righteousness and something in me pokes at me. If a man comes up to you in a the middle of a combat zone, with no rifle, not wearing fatigues and is rather wearing shorts and a Hawaiin shirt, with a remote in one hand and a soda in the other, and he says: “I’m a soldier engaged in a war” It’s clear he is not. Don’t misread me! I’m not saying its sin to wear shorts, or a hawaiin shirt or watch tv or drink soda! However, if you don’t see in yourself the markings of battle then you should not be at ease. We won’t camp on this, but if you are in Christ there is a war on. We are each engaged at different levels of intensity and we often fail. There are times that we go dry. But if none of this is true of you, you’re the guy driving down the road never touched by Scripture, God’s holiness and Christ’s righteousness. You know some facts about a man on a cross, but you haven’t been regenerated and you can’t take comfort. However, if you are weak and struggling and the battle rages on, you can take comfort in the promises that you have been given.

A Peek at the Engine – Whose work is sanctification?
So let’s look at sanctification from another view, a very hopeful view. I believe God’s view.

“And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.” – Philippians 1:6

So just as the good work, the salvation work that Jesus began in you in regeneration was empowered by the Spirit, so to Jesus will bring to completion that same work. We see that it is Christ who saves us and it is Christ who brings the work of sanctification to its completed state. Jesus is the one who is empowering you to put the flesh to death. Jesus is the one through the Spirit who is convicting you. Jesus is the one who is ordaining all things together for your good, to bring you to righteousness. (Romans 8:28).

And again:

“Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.” – Philippians 2:12

So here again we see the believer engaged in obedience. We see the believer engaged in effort. Paul uses the words “Work out your salvation”. This can’t mean: accomplish your salvation, much of the new testament argues against that. The word does mean to work a work to completion and it always means a work that is consistent with the nature of what is producing the work. In Romans 7:8 – “But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness.” Again in 2 Corinthians 4:17 – “For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison,”

Many think here that Paul when referring to fear and trembling is referring to a fear and trembling related to condemnation. And this word is used at times in that way. It’s the word Phobos. However, it is most often used in another way. A fear that in our world of Jesus is my boyfriend songs and the oft used image of God as being a kindly old accepting grandfather sort, we don’t really even hear about. This fear is a glorious fear. It’s the same fear that the disciples feel all the time when they see that Jesus is God. In Mark 4:40 when Jesus quiets the storm and they ask themselves: “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?" This is the same fear that the women have in Matthew 28:5 as the angel proclaims to them the glory of the risen Lord and “they departed quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy”. This fear is the same fear that the prophets who were brought into the presence of God Himself, experienced.

Lets go back a few verses to verse 9: “Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” This working out with fear and trembling points directly the glory and the authority and the power that Jesus has been given. When we hear the word Lord, we don’t hear what they heard. When they heard the word Lord, it meant “Supreme in authority”. When they heard the word Lord, they envisioned a mighty victorious and powerful King. That’s what Paul wants us to see here. That this King, Jesus, is working in us, that is He is the power and the ability behind us as we “work out” the salvation that HE has accomplished. Isn’t that good new? And if the mighty King of all things, is He who is working in us and amongst us to bring about His good pleasure, then we ought to have the same fear and trembling that a lowly subject would have for his King. This is a reverence that causes the knees to buckle with the realization that it is Jesus who is working in us.

Now, what is the nature of the work that He is doing in you? It is first, Paul says the will, or the desire, the wish, the hunger to work for His good pleasure. You see in yourself sin and yet it breaks your heart. You see in yourself failure and it makes you long to please Him. This is His work in you! Second, Paul says that the work itself, that is the effort applied, or the power behind our working is His power, his effort. As we are working, as we obey, as we put the flesh to death, it is Jesus through His Spirit that is graciously granting us the desire to do so and the working itself.

Who could take credit for such things? You want to show me your good works, you want us all to see how holy you are? If there is anything lovely in you it is His work in you. This is so hopeful in the battle that is sanctification. King Jesus, at who’s feet all will fall, at who’s name all will confess He is LORD. This same Jesus is working salvation out in us. Are you struggling today? Does it seem like sin is winning? You know what it is and that you desire to please Him. Take courage be strengthened. Fight on! From Jesus’ vantage point, He is doing wonderfully in you, what you could not do. Even if you don’t see it right now, if you are His, He is pouring out abundant grace in sanctification!

In the words of the old Hymn writer, Hallelujah! what a Savior!

The Means of Grace – His tools
Jesus says, in John 17:7, as He prays to the Father for us: “Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.” Paul when using the analogy of Christ’s marriage to the church in relation to Christian marriage says: “as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.” – Ephesians 5:25 So, you long to be sanctified do you? Let the word of revelation, of Jesus as mighty Savior, as Sanctifier go deep and do its work in you!

I would be remise not to discuss briefly what Godly conviction looks like. The word is full of imperatives and descriptions of God’s holiness and of His righteous requirement. For those of us who are in Christ, whose sin’s have been forgiven and paid for, Law no longer holds us in bondage. Nonetheless, the Law is not without its use. When we come to the Law when we come to imperative in scripture we see our absolute failure. We feel it deep down. Our conscience is stricken. The Holy Spirit shows us our failings, not to rub our noses in them, like dogs. He does this to prod our lazy hearts back to the cross, to be reminded supernaturally of His once for all atonement of our sins. And to take us to sweet gratitude rich repentance.

Paul says in 1 Corinthians 11:26 “For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.” Paul is not saying that we declare Jesus’ death to the unbelievers. Though if there are unbelievers present, they will hopefully see the Gospel played out graphically in the distribution of the elements. But Paul is saying that we proclaim Jesus’ atoning work for the sins which we battle against in a real way to ourselves and to our brothers and sisters in Christ. So we return to the cross. We taste and see that Jesus is good. We take the wafer, His flesh on our tongue and experience the reminder, the proclamation of His death, and we take in the cup of blessing and drink deep of His grace.

May Jesus, our life giver continue to shower us in His grace!
Hallalujah! What a Savior!

Week 5 - Part 2 - Christ our Sanctifier - Preparation

2009-11-17T20:29:00.000-07:00

Consider a man driving along a state highway. He's driving 45 mph. As you drive past him, then glance at the speed limit, you realize that you are speeding. If you're busy, you think, why is he so stubborn about following rules? Maybe you roll your eyes and then slow down to match his speed and continue. Maybe you think to yourself: “What a good driver!” Now consider the same man, driving down the interstate. He continues to drive 45 mph. Those passing on the right of the man are infuriated by his obstinately slow driving, despite the fact that the minimum posted speed limit is 50 mph, and the clearly posted signs stating “Slower traffic keep right.” Finally, consider our man driving again 45 mph. This time though, the posted speed limit is 35 mph and there are flashing signs stating that school is in session and the speed limit is currently 25 mph. As our man speeds through the clearly marked school zone past countless young children and angry parents, he thinks to mutters under his breath: “What are you looking at?” in response the looks of shock and disapproval coming from the parents.

Consider again our man. When you first met him, he was clearly in compliance with the Law. By all external appearances he was indeed a law keeper. However, our second view of him was he was brazenly and unsafely violating the Law on the highway. Our final view was even more unsafe and utterly disregarding of those around him. Clearly he was NOT a law keeper. So it is with self-righteousness. We are comforted and maybe even encouraged when we read the imperatives of scripture and it seems initially that we've kept them. Yet, as soon as the Law encroaches on our lifestyle or what we believe to be right, despite reality, we scoff at the Law and go about our business. This is our nature.

As we learned from Ezekiel 36:25 last week, the reason for this is that we have in us a stony heart that rejects Gods law and as Paul says: “Can't obey”.

This weeks assignment: read Acts 15:1 – 19. Based upon your reading answer for yourself these questions:

1.The Judiasers desired to see these gentiles living in a way that pleased God. Based on Peter's response to them (7) what was wrong with their view of righteousness?

2.If these gentiles were now made perfect in Christ, then why would the church need to warn them of particularly egregious sin?

3.In what two ways does Peter describe their regeneration?

4.Based upon our reading of Peter's later epistles, is Peter saying that the Law should never be expounded to the gentiles?

Have a Christ-centered week.

Week 4 – Part 1 - Christ our Sanctifier – Followup

2009-11-15T16:47:00.000-07:00

Regeneration – The wind blows

Death – How Serious is it, Really?!?
We can never escape, temporally speaking, the truth that death stalks each one of us. Each one of us has an appointed time in which we will face the termination of our physical existence here on this earth. We fight to prevent it. In fact, I don't think that any generation or people group in history has ever spent so much time and money in the truly futile effort of avoiding death. We know what death means to us. In our youth it sits far outside of the perimeter of view. We don't even see it. Then as time goes on and it touches our lives, we experience its coldness second hand, in the loss of a loved one, perhaps. As we mature, death begins to become more evident a reality as we encounter it in middle age. We lose a few friends to disease. We see generations that precede us going on. Though for the believer we have hope beyond the grave, death is still dark, mysterious and deeply troubling. It should be.

The Bible describes death as the curse that befell the sons of Adam as a result of his covenant violation in the garden. So all men face death. Not one of us will escape our destiny. But death's black kiss is far worse than this. The Bible describes us as being “Dead in our sins”. We weren't born alive and then sin killed us. We were, spiritually speaking, still-born. Like the sadness of a miscarriage, we were born in such a condition that there was no hope of life, naturally. We were born, we learned to crawl, then to walk. We had a shadow of life. But true life, as God had taken away in the curse isn't even imaginable to us. “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.” - 1 Corinthian 13:12

If life in the greatest sense of the word, is far bigger than what our tiny minds can see and taste, then it stands to reason, that in our condition as dead men, we don't understand what we are missing. The Bible makes it clear that this condition of spiritual death is far worse, far darker than the moment the spirit leaves the body. If life can best be described in the condition of direct relationship to the creator, then what we are missing in our condition as “the living dead” is something far more important than the consistent beating of our hearts, or our ability to draw breath.

“And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.” - Ephesians 2:1-3

To understand spiritual death we must understand what sin is. At the heart of all violations of God's law is a violation of the first commandment: you shall have no other gods besides Me. We are bound by commandment to love God, as the Bible defines love, obedience, having the will and the entire person directed to and committed to the glory of God. We have lost this ability. We are spiritually dead.

Disposition
The Bible describes mans inherited disposition as being one that is consistent with its condition, dead. Disposition is defined as: the tendency of something to act in a certain manner under given circumstances. Our disposition is the way that we would most likely respond given the right conditions”. Like a bacteria growing in a petri dish, if given the ripe medium of real life, we don't grow closer to God, but we will always oppose Him. Our disposition is not to seek after God. That is to say that every opportunity that in a dead condition we had to follow God, led only to our NOT following God. As Paul says, we walked according to the course of this world. We were, no matter how good we thought that we were, followers of the Devil. We were obedient to our bodies. We sought to obey its sinful lusts. Our minds were corrupted by the fall and we did whatever seemed right to us, no matter how self serving and wicked. Rather than loving God by default, we hated God even when we pretended to be His friend. Our disposition in death was to capitulate to temptation. Every chance that we had we gave in to temptation. Paul says of our disposition: “as it is written: "None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one." - Romans 3:12

But it can't be stated enough, sin isn't merely drunkenness and violence. Do you remember the rich young ruler? He had a shallow view of his sin. Honor thy father and mother, don't steal, don't murder, don't commit adultery. “All these I have kept he says.” And then it rips his heart out when Jesus points out that he worships his money and not God. He, having an appearance of goodness was still a dead man serving his disposition. The self-righteous, self-reliant professing Christian is as much hell-bound as the serial killer.

Jesus confronts the pharisees shallow view of their sin, not to encourage them to do better, but to point out their absolute poverty before the Law. He says: "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others.” Matthew 23:23

Our disposition leads us “who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.” - Romans 1:18. We are powerless to fight this disposition.

A Second Chance?
So if our natural and default position is antipathy and hatred towards God and a rejection of God's authority. Then under the best of circumstances, what could a second chance, hope to provide us? The answer is: not much. If all that we get is the clean sweep of our lives, then it wouldn't take long for sin to take root yet again. We would be wiped clean and then within moments, invisible sins like the sin of pride and others would soon leave us yet again a mess and most likely worse than before. The last thing that you and I need is a second chance. A second chance to be just as dishonoring to God as we were before. To be just as much a God hater as we were previously, only this time with a taste for klov, a fish on our car and McCain bumper sticker.

You Must Be Born Again
So we find in John 3, a learned teacher of the Jewish people. A real covenant man: Nicodemus. He's a teacher, so he has training in the word of God. He's a ruler, sitting on the ruling Jewish council. He clearly has a respected position of importance as a pharisee. He comes to Jesus late at night. He comes because he knows that there is something to Jesus. “For no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with Him.” SO he even understands the real purpose behind the signs that Jesus was doing. He gets, on some level the weighty and profound nature of Jesus and of His ministry. Is it possible that there are those among us now, who like Nicodemus have many markings of a covenant child, a church member, a good person, a contributor and yet something just seems to be missing. Hopefully, like Nicodemus, you are willing to go to great lengths, to endure shame, to endure mocking but to come and to seek Him knowing that something just isn't right.

Nicodemus doesn't actually ask the question, does he? It was once told to me that a young man will yammer incessantly at his father with meaningless questions all with the purpose of getting the nerve up to ask the significant question that is so profoundly important to him. I remember as I would go fishing with my oldest son and he would begin the process. He would ask about whatever was around. He would ask about the water and about the fish. He would ask about the trees and the rocks. Maybe for hours. I would wait for the real question, for his heart to come screaming out of him. Then, if I was patient, Joe would knock me back on my heals with some important question about life, or eternity or many other things. Maybe like Joe Nicodemus, only half way knowing the question that deeply concerned him, was prepared to ask question after question until he finally got the nerve up to ask Jesus: How can I know that I will see the kingdom of God? “Jesus, I know the law and it doesn't look good for me. My conscience nags me all the time, am I OK? I was so convinced that I was doing so well, and now I'm not so sure. There is something so profoundly lifeless in me. I try, I put on the show, but at the end of the day, my heart is as dark and as rotten as it was before.” Jesus cuts right to the heart of the matter and answers the unasked question. The most important question.

“Truly, truly, unless a man is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” We hear these words as those who have heard these a thousand times. We sort of mock Nicodemus. He's not stupid, but just uninformed. But listen again, as someone who was convinced of his own goodness, yet doubted and came to Jesus. “Truly, truly, unless YOU are born again, you cannot see the kingdom of God.” Unless, Nicodemus, you are made new... Unless the curse is broken and you are recreated, you cannot enter the kingdom of God. You mighty pharisee, learned man, you know the words of Ezekiel in the 36th chapter verse 25: “I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleanness's, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God. And I will deliver you from all your uncleanness's.” And this is what Jesus says to him isn't it? “Unless you are born of water and the Spirit you cannot enter the kingdom of God.” (5) Unless, Nicodemus, the Spirit of God has removed your stony wicked dead heart and replaced it with a living heart, a beating heart a soft heart, you are no where near the kingdom of God. You're not OK with God.

That's why Paul says: “Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to Him!” Romans 8:9. Nicodemus can't see his own need. Jesus cuts right to the quick and says: “Dead man, you must be made alive.” And “Dead man” you are not the one to do it. That's why He says: “The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes.” (8) It looks odd to you Nicodemus, when someone is given rebirth. You perceive the affect of the wind, on the leaves, maybe you see the grass in the field as it moves and parts for the wind. You don't know where it came from or where it goes. So is the regenerating work of the Spirit of God. For no explicable reason, you see the wicked broken by their sin and given forgiveness, peace and grace and new life. They know that their sins are taken away and that they have peace with God. You can't control this Nicodemus. You can't push all the right buttons and open the gates to the kingdom of God.

The Spirit of God must come upon you and make you alive. “The first man Adam became a living being, the last Adam became a life-giving Spirit” - 1 Corinthians 15:45 “The first man Adam is from the dust, a man of dust... you Nicodemus are a man of dust!” The second man is from heaven.” You sit there with your bag of tricks and your ways of justifying your sin and you're pushing down on the conscience which keeps welling up with the venom of your sin. I have to get it back in the box. You suppress the truth and look for the next thing to fix you. Maybe its worse than that, maybe don't even know it any more. You've been lying there so long having silenced the voice of conscience that you even believe that you're OK. You weren't arrested for tax evasion, you've never hit your kid or missed a Sunday, Nicodemus.

But, like the Israelites in the book of Numbers, God has sent the law like fiery serpents and you Nicodemus bear the holes of the viper's fangs. I can see it in you, there's two holes and you lie dying, puffed up and rotten. And you somehow think that you can get up there high enough to reach heaven and you can't. You think that you know and you don't. Heaven has to reach down and it did. Jesus says: “No one has ascended into heaven, except He who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes on Him may have eternal life.” Do you remember Numbers, when Moses was commanded by God to raise up the serpent staff and all those who would gaze upon it would live? Nicodemus, do you remember? DO you see the bite mark? Look to the Son and live!

Then Jesus says it again, more fully this time: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish have eternal life.”

You can't regenerate yourselves! You can't make yourself new. You can't reenter, as it were, your mother's womb and come out 9 months later a new person. You're of the dust, you are a dead person who keeps moving. It has to be Jesus work. Unless Jesus makes you alive. Unless He makes the Spirit to dwell in you (James 4:5), you cannot enter the kingdom of God.

All that you can do is to believe. That is trust, you have no control, merely look to the Son and live. You're not able to stop the gang green that has so corrupted you. Believe in Jesus Christ and you will be given life. Don't believe and no matter how right with God you think that you are, you stand judged already.

The Effects of the Wind
This gift of regeneration, is the indwelling of the Holy Spirit within the believer. You must see that the gift of the Holy Spirit to the church is Jesus' and the Father's work. It's not something that you do. Regeneration, rebirth, you being made alive is part of God's gift to you in Christ. As was Justification, Jesus' propitiation and the Father's adoption of you, so is the gift of the indwelling Spirit in regeneration, a glorious gift from God.

“Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you.” - John 16:7

Jesus sends the Spirit.

“He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you.” - John 16:14

Jesus is glorified to His people by the Holy Spirit. This communication is something that occurs in the hearts of Jesus people, in that the Holy Spirit causes us to behold Jesus as wonderful and marvelous, by faith. He takes the word and causes it to dwell in us.

“And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you. "I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.” - John 14:17

And again: “In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you” - 14:20

The Father sends the Spirit to be with us forever. The indwelling presence of the Spirit is permanent in the life of the believer. The indwelling of the Holy Spirit is the exact means by which we as Christians have real relationship.“The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God” - Romans 8:16 The Spirit testifies to us that we are not orphans but children by adoption.

“And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.” - Romans 8:23

So you see the Holy Spirit dwelling in us as believers is the first offering of deep relationship that we will one day experience fully.

A New Disposition
Again Ezekiel 36:25: “I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleanness's, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God. And I will deliver you from all your uncleanness's.”

In the indwelling of the Spirit. We are given the promised grace that God would remove our old nasty dead disposition and replace it with a new and functional one. One that desires to please God, one that longs for the glory of God, one that love's God. What grace it is that Jesus has given us new life in the Holy Spirit. Paul says it like this: “For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.” - Romans 8:13.

If you are in Christ, the Holy Spirit has taken up residence in you, to give you a reflective love for the almighty God of the universe. If you are in Christ, the Holy Spirit testifies to you that you are a child of the Father. If you are in Christ, you have the power of the Spirit, to walk obediently and to put to death the old man.

Week 4 - Part 1 - Christ our Sanctifier - Preparation

2009-11-10T07:24:00.002-07:00

We have been seeing how Christ has been our Savior. As Justifier, He won for us legal right standing. As Propitation, He took all of God's wrath for us. As older brother, He attained for us Adoption as children of God. This week, we will transition to a different aspect of what Jesus has and is doing for us as Sanctifier.

What does it mean to be "Sanctified"? This word comes up less and less these days. It is to our peril that this is true. Sanctification is God's process for making us holy. That is for setting us apart and preparing us for heaven. During part 1, we will see the glorious work of regeneration. How Jesus makes us alive towards Him, by the ministry of the Spirit.

I remember when my Grandmother died. My children cried, and so did I as we looked at the open casket. As we gazed on her lifeless body. She was a constant, powerful and loving presence in our lives. As I stood there the memories flooded my mind. Her soft and gentle mannerisms, her soft grandmotherly voice, all of these things were so alive to me. And yet there she was, motionless... lifeless. I knew better, yet I longed that she would get up and that I would go and give her a hug and talk to her, I loved to make her laugh. How I longed to hear her laugh.

The Bible describes us being spiritually dead. Ephesians 2:1 We are incapable of life. We are incapable of genuine, God honoring life. We are incapable of the life that Adam and Eve lost in the garden. It is, as it was for my grandmother, an impossibility that we rise ourselves out of the casket.

This weeks assignment:
Read John 11:1 - 45 Notice how much effort Lazerus puts into the miracle that Jesus does. Spend some time meditating on the time when you trusted in Jesus as Savior. Is there sweet joy as He who you once hated or to whom you were indifferent came strikingly and beautifully into such prominence in your heart, mind and life?

Secondly, read John 3:1 - 9 and consider Nicodemus' error. In Jesus dealings with Nicodemus and description of being "Born Again" who is the one acting? What metaphor does Jesus use to describe how someone is born again?

Have a blessed week.

Week 3 - Part 2 - Christ our Savior - Followup

2009-11-10T06:44:00.001-07:00

Week 3 – Christ our Savior – Part 2:

Wrath and Adoption

The Wrath of God
I have been involved in a number of confrontations with other men. Man more than woman, but not exclusively man, has a propensity to a particular form of anger. The scene can play out something like this: two people are having a conversation. Perhaps even a strong disagreement about something. As the two converse one party begins to intensify their tone. No longer a dialogue, that party begins to interrupt and begin forcefully driving the exchange. As the second party pushes back, after some time, the first party, angry at the lack of capitulation on the part of our second party, explodes with rage. Their face turns red, maybe they begin to shake. Their face without their knowledge expresses an absolute and indescribably hostility. They may begin yelling or worse. The effect on the second party is profound. They are, like it or not driven to fear. The firey rage of the first party may never play out, and rarely does, into violence. The effect of this rage is dehumanizing to the second party.

The epistle writers warn us of this anger. James tells us “the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.” Anger implies that transgression has occurred. That a violation of some rule, boundary or parameter has occurred. It implies that justice is demanded for the violation. The problem with this anger as it is demonstrated in man is that it does not accomplish God's justice. When someone sins against another person, they have preeminently sinned against God. The party who's possession's have been stolen in robbery is the victim of the robbery. But it is God who's law: “Thou shalt not steal” has been violated. Man does not have the innate objectivity to pour out wrath on his fellow man. However, in certain cases, God grants authority among men, to accomplish some level of justice here on this earth.

This anger, the Bible calls wrath. The Bible warns us against such wrath within ourselves, yet clearly teaches that wrath, orders of magnitude greater than our impure and unrighteous “feeling” occurs with God. The word most often associated with the wrath of God occurs 33 times, in context, in the new testament, alone. God is righteous in His wrath towards man. His wrath sometimes occurs temporally. That is to say that it occurs partially in the here and now, as nations rise and fall; as wicked men suffer at times the consequence of their sin, for example.

The Psalmist describes God's wrath as being derisive, furious and terrifying in Psalms 2:4: “He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision. Then he will speak to them in his wrath, and terrify them in his fury”. And again, speaking of Jesus in 2:12: “Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled.”

But the Bible says that God's wrath will occur ultimately and finally on the last day. When Jesus returns.

Of His anticipation of His role in judging the earth, Jesus says: “I came to cast fire on the earth, and would that it were already kindled!” - Luke 12:49

Paul describes that day: “when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might, when he comes on that day to be glorified in his saints.” - 2 Thessalonians 1:18

Of those at the end, who will stand in the judgment for their wickedness, John in Revelation says: “he also will drink the wine of God's wrath, poured full strength into the cup of his anger, and he will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever, and they have no rest, day or night...” - 14:10

It is indeed true that we are rightly condemned before God, that is we stand correctly in a position of guilt. We spoke of this last week. There is nothing but condemnation for us sinners, unless God does something. Unless, the righteous wrath of God is satisfied and done away with, for us. We can never put away God's wrath. Because of our condition, because we are dead in our sins, we have no ability to put away His wrath. Another way to say it is that we have no way to pay for our crimes other than our own eternal damnation. We need Him to do it. We need Him to satisfy this wrath. In act of ultimate mercy, God must be the one that does away with His own wrath towards His people.

Jesus Drinks the Cup of Wrath - Propitiation
In the garden Jesus says: “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me.” Luke 22:42. He knows that what He is about to face on the cross for His people, is the very wrath of God. Paul says in Romans 8:3 “By sending His own Son in the likeness of human flesh and for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh.” As Jesus hangs on the cross He experiences that which we ultimately deserve from Him, the wrath, hostility and utter forsaking of God. He cries out “Eloi, Eloi lama zabachtani, that is: My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” God in Jesus condemns sin, Paul says here in Romans 8. He pours out wrath without mercy on Jesus. Because that is what we deserve. Jesus endures the torment of the cross to satisfy the anger of the Triune God against man. Of Jesus, Paul says in Romans 3: “... whom God put forward as a propitiation, by His blood” In so saying Paul makes it clear that Jesus was God's satisfying sacrifice to put away His wrath. The word propitiation means to completely satisfy wrath.

Jesus took the cup of wrath and drank it to the bottom for His people. In so doing, the Father condemns sin IN Jesus flesh. He pours out ultimate wrath and fury.

There is therefore no more condemnation, for those who are in Christ Jesus. - Romans 8:1

A New Relationship – Covenant Adoption
Many, speak rightly of having a relationship with God through Jesus. However, it is perhaps wrong to say that those who aren't in Christ, have no relationship with God. We are indeed as Ruth was, outside of the grace covenant relationship with God. We were in an adversarial relationship with God. He was our enemy. Just as the gentiles in the story of Ruth were not at peace with God. So too, we were under the condemnation of God and had, whether we knew it or not, a terrible expectation of judgment.

John in his first epistle writes: “In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” - 1 John 4:10

But then as an expression of God's love towards His people, He sends Jesus to pay the full and complete price of the sins of His people.

The ramifications of this are huge. If God does away with His wrath for you then what is the relationship? The relationship can't remain the same. There is no neutral relationship with God. You are either “For Him or you are against Him” as Jesus says in Matthew 12:20. So again, what if God in His love for you takes away His wrath? What remains? We were outside of the family, then the hostility and separation were done away with. The division was removed and we were brought within the covenant confines of the family of God. The most beautiful picture we have for this is adoption. So this is how Paul describes this new relationship. He says to us, Romans 8:15, that we have received the Spirit of adoption.

But we have to go back though, and see as Paul describes what it was to have “the spirit of slavery”, before we can understand the Spirit of Adoption. Paul describes the relationship that we with the old covenant Law as the Law of sin and death (8:2). The law, puts us to death, because we are sinful. It is the debt that we owe, that prevents us from paying this penalty. Slavery in ancient Jewish times, was most often a relationship defined by debt. You were bound to your debtor. If the debt became so large, that there was no way to pay it. Or the owner of the debt demanded an immediate resolution, then all that one had to pay was themselves. Paul's readers understood this. Slaves were most often slaves because of the debt that they owed and not slaves because they were products of conquest and war. Unlike the slaves in our history, they were not stolen from their homes. But their debt defined the slave relationship. This is the slavery that Paul refers to. Our relation to the law is as debtors. We can't escape it. Then Jesus, hangs on the cross and as He prepares to draw His last breath He says: “It is finished”. And so as the Jews who, under debt would sit by the side of the road with signs pleading for someone to pay their debt, Jesus used the same very words that one who had in mercy, paid the debt of one of these slaves would write on their sign: “It is paid in full”.

So we've seen the contrast of the law of sin and death. And that the very breath we breathed was in bondage, and that Jesus came in perfect mercy and love and paid the debt for us. It's now our sweet joy to look on the relationship which took its place.

It is an adoptive relationship. The slave has no rights and no inheritance in the house of the Master. Yet, the son belongs in the home of the Father. Now to verse 15: The child finds his natural place with the Father and in ultimate need he cries out, not to the Master, but he uses the most affectionate term that a Jewish child could ever use of his Father: Abba... daddy... pappa. This word means to cry out, the same word in Matthew 14:30 as Peter is walking on the water, sees the wind and begins to sink. And he cries out: “Lord save me”. So too, we cry out. And Paul says that His response through the Holy Spirit's proclaiming to our spirit is: “that we are children of God”.

Do you ever feel like you aren't His child? Does life ever overtake you, with work, concerns, pains, struggles, sin? Do your failings in your battle against the flesh ever leave you wondering: “am I His?” Let this word speak deeply to your spirit today. Let it become a part of who you are. He proclaims to you from this word, that you are His child. I don't know what your struggle or battle is today, but let His word go deep so that you know that you are an adopted child. Once an enemy and now beloved child of God. Without being irreverent or trite, He is your daddy. What grace this is.

Covenant Blessing
The covenant relationship, is not simply an external relationship in which we remain given over to our former ways. We were Hostile to God (7) and we didn't, couldn't and refused to submit to God's law. “For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it doesn't submit to God's law, indeed it cannot.”

The covenant blessing becomes real and tangible in that Jesus has sent His Spirit to dwell in us (9). In fact, there is no covenant adoption, no relationship if the Spirit doesn't dwell in us. Apart from the empowering work of the Spirit we have no capacity to place our minds and our affections on the things of the Spirit: On Jesus our Savior, our Sanctifier, Healer and King. The Holy Spirit being made to live in us, is a key gift of Jesus' covenant grace to us. It is He, the Spirit, that convicts us of unrighteousness and empowers us to put the flesh to death. To see our sin as sinful, to desire to please the Father and the ability to say no to sin and to resist temptation. We've all hopefully experienced the sweet convicting work of the Spirit and His empowering and leading work as He guides us and disciplines us and strengthens us to glorify God.

It is He, who grants us, real tangible life (6). It is He, who will one day resurrect us, just as He did Jesus: “ If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.” (11)

Paul continues in (17): “If children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with Him in order that we may also be glorified with Him” The covenant that He has given you makes you a full child. Entitled to the inheritance that Christ earned. Oh what a wonderful older brother that we have. The firstborn from the dead. And as He was resurrected out of the tomb, we catch the most brilliant glance of the glory which is ours in the beloved. When we the resurrected Jesus, we see the inheritance beginning to take shape.

Three weeks from now, we'll come briefly back to these same verses and speak of Jesus restoration on that final day. But today we'll see that this covenant of adoption that He has given you is actually the beginnings of the very relationship which one day will be made complete in the resurrection: “And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.” Verse 23. This adoption though real, though permanent, is not yet complete. How is this so?

First, in that we haven't been resurrected. We remain in these seed like jars of clay, for a time. Verse 10: “But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness.” There remains in us a battle with the flesh. If this weren't so, Paul would not say: “but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.” (13) So we look to the hope of the resurrection, that one day this battle will end and Christ will be the victor through the Spirit, in transforming us.

Secondly, in suffering. If the curse that fell on Adam, brought death and sin into the kingdom of man. Than likewise the man Jesus, who stood up mid stream, and with perfect obedience, suffered all of the consequence of Adams sin. Than we also can expect the same as take up His cross. We will indeed suffer, the natural sufferings that one would expect in a fallen and sinful world. But more importantly, as we are children of the God that this world hates and rejects, we too will be hated and rejected. Not for being obnoxious, not for insisting on unbiblical things. Not for isolating ourselves from our fellow brothers in Adam. But for proclaiming both a rightful wrath from God against sinful flesh and a mercy which demands an admission of guilt and which demanded a sacrifice of ultimate price.

Paul knows that suffering would span the entire age between his writing and our time. And he knows that because of the flesh which remains and the volume of the suffering that at times these things would prevent us from seeing the depth of the love of Christ for us in our adoption, in the putting away of wrath. It would at times lead us to doubt His love for us. And even, as horrible as it sounds, to wonder if He had abandoned us, in our suffering and in our sin. So he exhorts us to see the nature of our relationship as being ultimately strong and indefeatable. He wants us to see the rigor of Christs love for us. We need to be reminded of His love daily. If we are cold, if we are dry, if we hunger for God, if we are hardened, this is where we are to come. To be reminded of our adoption as children of the Father.

An Undying and Unbreakable Love and Covenant
“For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified. What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?” (29)

Paul's reasoning here is this, if the very judge of all things the one who will, in righteousness judge the entire world, is the very one that predestined you for salvation; called you to Himself; made you right with Himself and gave you the hope of Glory, then who remains to judge you? Then who is that is of any consequence who could impact this grace?

In fact, this Judge now makes intercession for you at the right hand of the Father. He is not your judge, but your Savior.

For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. - Romans 8:38

Week 3 - Part 2 - Christ our Savior - Preparation

2009-11-03T06:31:00.004-07:00

Apart from the obviously sinful aspects to a couple moving in together before they are married, there is another tragic consequence to pre-marrital intimacy. When two people are married, their lives are intimately joined in almost every possible way. By avoiding the formallity (seeming) of the marriage covenant, two people begin to partake in the benefits and problems of a covenant relationship that was designed to be so intimate that only death could separate. But in avoiding the commitment, they also miss a great deal of the incredible and important reality that the ceremony represents. When a man and a woman are married, on that very day, at that very moment, they cease to be separate and independantly operating entities. They take on a new identity. This identity is chiefly characterized by this new and blessed covenant, signified in the exchanging of rings; by the receiving of the name from the husband (in our culture); by the oneness that takes on physical form in intimacy and by the abandonment of a life separated.

There was a time, perhaps long ago, when you and your spouse were not married. There was even a time when you didn't know your spouse at all. Think back, to the day when you first met your spouse. Maybe you knew, they were the one! There was a time when you were on the outside of the covenant with your spouse. Though, the sinfulness of this fallen world prevents us from enjoying deep and intimate relationship without also tasting of our mate's sins, faults and issues, its clear to most of us, that the joy and blessing of our union is far greater then our time pre-marriage, alone.

My mother become a citizen of the United States of America when I was around 5 or 6. The memories of that incredibly important day are so ingrained in my mind, there are few as clear to me. I remember the ceremony in the court room in downtown denver as my mom took an oath in commitment to this country. She renounced her citizenship in her former land and took on the identity, blessings and responsibilities of her new home. She lived the dream of countless millions, to get the opportunity to participate in the freedoms, privledges and blessings of this new covenant relationship. And unlike those in her homeland that longed for and envied her new citizenship, her life was forever (temporally speaking) changed.

Your assignment this week is to read the book of Ruth. It's four short chapters. Skim the book, if you don't have time to read it. Contemplate the significance to Ruth as she is made to join the covenant people of God, and to enjoy the wonder and priviledge associated with that covenant. Importantly, notice that she is married into the line of David, and so the Messiah; Jesus. She becomes David's great grandmother. Contemplate the joy and blessing of covenant inclusion.

Have a great week.

Week 2 - Part 1 - Christ our Savior - Guilt and Justification - Followup

2009-11-01T21:12:00.006-07:00

Guilt and Justification

Romans 5

Death Reigned

When Adam violated his covenant with God, he brought the curses of that covenant down on him and all of his children. I remember the first time that I read through Genesis. In Genesis 4, I read of Lamech who was born to Mathushael. The Bible tells us of 3 of his sons. Jabal, a nomadic herdsman; Jubal was a musician and Tubal-Cain who was a metal worker. If you've ever heard the phrase “Have you no shame?”, this would've applied to Lamech. If Cain had been wicked in killing his brother Abel, seven generations would find his progeny orders of magnitude more wicked, so I thought. Lamech: “I have killed a man for wounding me, a young man for striking me.” And again: “If Cain's revenge was sevenfold, then Lamech's is seventy-sevenfold.”

And so my thinking went: Adam's one small sin (Genesis 3) gave birth to far worse sin. Naturally, for those of us who were raised in a culture where a contract means very little, where covenant is an antiquated and obscure notion, would I see the physical sin of murder as larger than Adam's sin in disobeying God's covenant. Fortunately, a dear brother corrected me.

Paul, here in the 5^th chapter of his letter to the Romans, demonstrates for us that the sin of Adam in covenant violation does far worse than any murder. When Adam eats of the fruit of the tree, in his ears MUST have been ringing, “In the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die.” But how could he have known of the far reaching consequence as death spread, “To all men”?

Death reigned, “From Adam to Moses”, Paul says. The curse of the covenant was born on the backs of every single descendant of Adam. Without regard to the degree of their sin (whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam). Adam's sin brought the very real curse of death to all of his children. David says in Psalms 51: In sin did my mother conceive me. The effect of this is that every man is born with a disposition that is naturally opposed to God and to His righteousness. We have a nature which is sinful and opposed to God, even before we act in concert with that nature and commit our first transgression.

Furthermore, the one sin of Adam brings a legal state of condemnation to all of Adam's descendants. We are, because of the curse, guilty before the living God. We don't have right standing with God. Paul says that Adam's sin brought us into a standing of condemnation. The significance of this can't be, and OFTEN is highly, understated. When God looks upon the reprobate (those who are not redeemed), He looks upon them as those under the very same legal standing that Adam had earned in condemnation. Paul says in Ephesians 2:3 “... and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.” The wrath of God rests upon all who's father is Adam. Since our default position as members of the family of Adam is one of condemnation from God, we can't understand God's opposition to us to be simply put away by our accomplishments, our means or even our faith (more later).

We are by nature enemies of God. We're born that way! If we take this seriously, we ought to be rightly terrified of God.

The Law – Insult to Injury

Then God's Law is given to Moses. This Law, Paul says has the effect of increasing sin, not doing away with sin. If Adam's sin brings sin and death to all. The Law comes to make sin utterly sinful and “increase” it. The Law's effect is counter-intuitive. Rather than causing a son of Adam to be obedient, it adds a further source of temptation to sin. This isn't because the Law is bad, but because the sinner is, by nature sinful and cannot obey the Law. Additionally, the Law serves to accuse us of our wickedness and demonstrates our complete inability to fulfill the Mosaic Law. The Law, taken seriously, shuts every mouth (Romans 3:20) and ensures that we see ourselves as guilty before God.

It is important to understand that the violation of the Law is not counted (or measured) where there is no Law (Romans 5:13). What this can't mean is that those who have not heard the Law are therefore not guilty of its violation. This is in and of itself a long discussion. Nonetheless, what we must understand Paul to be saying here has to be that we are guilty in Adam, that we are guilty of transgressing God's righteousness and that God's righteousness is clearly seen, and declared in His Law. We remain under wrath, the reason for the wrath of God becomes clear when we see the Law. The next time that you are pulled over for speeding, try and explain to the officer (honest one anyway) that you didn't know what the speed limit was. He is not likely to give you sympathy (I've experienced this).

And so it is that you and I find ourselves to be enemies of the living God. This is no enviable position. Though, in our unregenerate state, walking outside of right relationship with God seems appealing, it is actually the most frightful position, legally in which one could find themselves.

The Righteousness of Christ – A Complete and Perfect Righteousness

I have met many people in my days on this earth, as have you, no doubt. I've met many who, I would say, are pretty righteous, from my perspective. However, we find quickly when confronted with the Law of God, their righteousness falls apart. Isaiah says: “Our righteous deeds are like polluted garments” - Isaiah 64:4. This, incidentally, is why evangelism that is focused (in small or large part) on our life change (no matter how Christ honoring), is bound to lead our listener to see that our righteousness falls apart quickly.

Jesus presents Himself to John the Baptizer, for baptism. John, who knows who Jesus is, is entirely taken aback. To paraphrase: The righteous Messiah, "He who's sandals, I'm unworthy to carry”, he whom I have need of baptism, now requests baptism of me. That is to say, Jesus THE righteous one, comes to me, a sinner, for baptism. John is overwhelmed by Jesus' righteousness. He's a prophet of the living God, like Isaiah (Isaiah 6). He finds himself confronted with the very embodiment of righteousness; Jesus. Jesus request is seemingly absurd. A sinful man, presented with the Author of righteousness, requesting an act signifying the very need of being washed clean of transgression, sin and the corrupt nature of Adam.

Jesus' response to John is emblematic of Jesus' life on the earth. Jesus says: “Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Jesus desire was to fulfill every righteous requirement of the Father's will. He lived out His life as a man, with the flesh of a man. He had to wash just like His disciples. He ate, He drank and walked out a man's life. I don't know this, but I'll bet that His feet, those wonderful feet, bore the scent of this fallen earth. But unlike us, without ever once transgressing the holiness and righteousness of God.

“but I do as the Father commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father.” - John 14:31

Even more importantly, He didn't begrudgingly obey the Father. Over and over again, He let's us see as He walks out a heart that obeys the summary of the Law: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.” - Deuteronomy 6:5. We see His obedience, as He is baptized, not to wash away His sin. He had none. But that every jot and tittle, every part of the Law and of God's demand on mankind, would be completed by Him.

We see Jesus suffering in the wilderness for 40 days, just as Israel suffered temptation for 40 years in that cursed desert. But unlike their wicked and perpetual failing, He was perfect and never once capitulated to the devil's schemes. He doesn't win against temptation as an example. Because we continually fail to be victorious. He is victorious, because He is the only one who ever will, in this cursed age. This, that His very life would be the righteousness that would fulfill the requirement that God has placed upon those who have a position of right standing with Him (Romans 5:10). In other words, that OUR righteousness would be fulfilled in His fulfillment of God's will.

We see His obedience all the way to the end, in the garden as He willingly subjects Himself to the wrath of the Father, to please the Father. “Nevertheless, not My will, but yours be done.” - Luke 22:42. This is such sweetness to the believer that we often miss the most important feature of His obedience. He's not being obedient for us. He's being obedient with a perfect love for the Father.

Is it any wonder that as Jesus is raised out of the waters of the Jordan, that the Father anoints Him in power and complete approval with the Holy Spirit and says “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” - Matthew 3:17 And again, as Jesus is transfigured before John, James and Peter into some measure of the glory of His divine nature (Matthew 17:3), the Father says: “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased, ...”. Jesus Himself says “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law, or the prophets; I have come not to abolish them, but to fulfill them!” - Matthew 5:17.

He lives out the perfect life. Obedient, from the heart to every Law, to every desire of the Father and with all His might. UNLIKE US ON OUR BEST DAY!

Now this truly is righteousness!

You may be asking: “How is this good news?!” We're not righteous, this is Ultimate bad news! Especially, if the Bible is right about God's wrath against sinful man. I look at Jesus' righteousness, it's wonderful, but how is this good news to me? He makes me look so bad. My sin is awful, I'm filthy! Even as a believer, my sin is so always before me (Psalms 51). And maybe, I live my Christian walk, just trying to cover over the stench of it. I stink like rotting flesh and I shower and shower, and cover myself in perfume, but at the end of the day, I can still smell it, my own rotten flesh. How, Jesus, is this good news?

Oh how I long that you would identify with this! That you and I would see our absolute poverty before the living God and that we would breath in the fragrance of God's love to His people, KEEP reading!

The Good News

Paul says: “For one will scarcely die for a righteous person. Though perhaps for a good person one would even die. But God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” - Romans 5:7 And again: “For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, now that we have

been reconciled, shall we be saved by His life.”

What grace is this? The righteous for the unrighteous. God's ultimate justice towards His people is poured out on His Son. And in the place of His wrath, He gives us His well earned righteousness. He removes the list of transgressions that was against us and replaces it with the righteous fulfillment of His good and pleasing will that Jesus COMPLETED. This is great news, if you have trusted and received Him. This means that you are no longer under His wrath, but the same righteousness with which Jesus pleased the Father, is yours. He sees you not in your sin, legally, but He sees the only righteousness that could ever truly satisfy Him.

Jesus righteousness makes US righteous! (Romans 5:19).

Justification – Grace Reigns! Hallelujah

Just as sin abounded, so too grace was so much more abundant towards His people! His grace to you, covers your sin with the glorious righteousness of His Son. Adam's curse is gone! The wrath of God has been satisfied. The second Adam, Jesus, the Life giving Spirit, has given you everlasting life. And He has given you what you could not earn: right standing with God. This is what it means to be justified. To be made in such a way as to please the Father. If you are trusting in Jesus for this salvation, then your sins are washed clean and you ARE right with God.

Paul says “We have peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ.” These days we like to talk about peace, not as an absence of enmity, but “inner” peace. This is not the same peace of which Paul is speaking. Paul is referring to an end to war. He says it later in verse 10. We were enemies of the Living God. We could not look on God as “Friend”, but our position, in Adam, and by disposition and our own sin we were enemies of God. We lived under the real and dreadful threat of God's wrath towards us. “for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.” - Romans 1:18. Paul says that this division between us and God is removed through the work of Jesus. Therefore, because of the cross of Jesus, you and I have peace with God. And maybe we didn't even know of the wrath of God. Maybe we were always told Jesus loves you, even in the midst of our worst depravity and we never heard that a life unwashed in the blood of Jesus would land us in Hell. And now, having been saved and made right with Him by Jesus blood, we look on narrowly we escaped the wrath of God, in Jesus.

“Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.” - Romans 5:2

We need to get this, the depth and severity of our condition apart from the blood of Christ. So that we might “Rejoice in God, through whom we have now received reconciliation.” - 5:11. There is no genuine joy in anything less. There is nothing so utterly critical for us, as believers in Jesus, to see. And it brings a joy that the world can't understand. The result of the free gift of Justification, or being made right with God, is real and unspeakable joy.

Suffering and Promise

This IS hope, in the middle of our suffering. Because what Jesus is doing in us, no matter how hot the flame, it isn't wrath, it's not empty trivial suffering either. Because of the peace we have with God, it, the suffering, is a mechanism that He is using to produce in us character. And Paul says, that this character produces hope. All of His work in us, in the midst of suffering is actually grace. He ordains the suffering, that we might be given a character that drives us to the hope of the gift that will one day be completely given to us. The hope of the resurrection. This is different than when the unrepentant suffers. Our suffering is a pointer to the healing and restoration that is to come on the last day. Their suffering is a pointer to the wrath which awaits them on that same day, when Jesus returns to “Judge the living and the dead”

Have you ever been let down? You waited and waited for something and it just didn't happen. Maybe you built up a life around a relationship that grew into nothing. Maybe you were stood up by a date. Maybe your parents let you down. Whatever happened there was shame, you had wasted so much in the hope and anticipation that you had invested in what was to come and it was for nothing. Like a bad relationship, those around you said: “I told you it would all end in pain.” We've all experienced this in some way. This, Paul says in verse 5, is precisely what the outcome of this life for us as believers will NOT be. We won't be put to shame. And the love from God, to us His children, has been poured into our hearts, through the Holy Spirit WHO, has been given to us. So that we would know this, as we look on the free gift of Jesus' righteousness given to us.

Therefore, there is no more condemnation... We'll have to save that for next week!

Week 2 - Part 1 - Christ our Savior - Preparation

2009-10-26T19:00:00.005-06:00

In the comedy science fiction book series "The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy" by Douglas Adams, a means of punishment is devised called "The Total Perspective Vortex". In summary: One of the characters, Trin Tragula, grows weary of his wife's perpetual nagging. He finds himself perpetually attempting to convince her of her need of perspective. His humorous and dark response is to develop a machine known as the Total Perspective Vortex. Within which the user of the TPV would find themselves presented with the utterly immeasurable vastness of all meticulous details concerning the universe at once (through the unfortunate use of a bundt cake). Simultaneously, they would be confronted with an infinitesimally small arrow stating: "You are here". The unfortunate consequence of the TVP was that when Trin's wife emerges, she is a babbling pile of jello, having been destroyed by her incredible insignificance relative to the universe.

Whenever I read this section of the books (no recommendation), I find myself thinking on the Law and how it has a very similar effect on us as fallen people. It is only the truly deluded, or the incredibly dishonest who can look at the Law of God and not see themselves as those who are rightly deserving of God's wrath. Just like the fictitious TPV, the law should render us speechless and in no position to do anything other then whimper in fear. That is, until our lives intersect with Jesus death on the cross! In this weeks study we are going to take a good look at what the cross accomplishes for the people of God, in justification.

In this weeks lesson, and building on or last studies reflection on the corruption of the curse that we have incurred in Adam we will explore the depth of our sin and condition in Adam. This in stark contrast with Jesus justifying work on the cross. We will see how a believer is made right with God. We will rediscover the word Justification and what it means for those who have trusted in Jesus for their salvation.

Your assignment this week is to read Romans 1:18 - 32.

The second part of your assignment is to read Romans 3:9-20

In these verses, consider the wrath of God towards us as non believers.

Finally, and this is NOT FOR SHARING, consider the most shameful and sinful time of your life. If it is difficult to think of such a time, read the 10 commandments, Exodus 20 and ask the Lord to show you. If you have not sought the Lord's forgiveness, do so, in full confession. But most importantly: think on the question: "By what means can a righteous, holy, sin(ner) intolerant God make a relationship with me, a sinner?"

I truly hope that you have a blessed week and encourage you to read the follow up from week 1.

Week 1 - From One Degree of Glory to Another - Followup

2009-10-18T00:03:00.013-06:00

2 Corinthians 3:7 - 18

Memory Verse: "And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit." - 2 Corinthians 3:18

In modern Christianity, much is made of improvement. As I was reflecting on this fact, what was clear to me is that there are really 4 (maybe more) different models presented to us pertaining to the purpose of the Christian walk.

First, we have the "Weight-Loss" model. In this model, the believer is made to believe that they are really in need of a consistent improvement program. Rather like the trainer at the gym, Jesus is presented as the life coach. His purpose is to help you realize your full potential. He points out your fatty areas and applies a program of exercise and diet to ensure that you lose the pudge which is preventing you from meeting the full potential in you.

Second, we have the "Success" model. In this model, He is ordaining events to make you successful. He requires of you performance, in exchange for which, He gives you success in your christian experience and piles on the blessings. So long as you're meeting your part, He will ensure success in what you do.

Thirdly, we have the "Boy-Scout" model. In this model, the believer is made to see them self as climbing level after level of achievement. Earning as we go, heavenly merit badges. We work and work in small achievable steps, longing to reach the top of the mountain, where we raise our arms in triumph and hear the Lord say: "GOOD JOB!"

Finally, we have the old classic: the "Repentance" model. In this model, the believer is made to fear the fires of hell as a means of preventing you from stepping off of the wheel of performance. In this model, we see God, not as our redeemer, but He who demands unshaken compliance, else we will taste of His wrath.

Note that each one of these contains a grain of truth. Also, note that none of these requires as a means of the believer's salvation and sanctification either the atoning and wrath satisfying work of Jesus on the cross or the supernatural and transformative work of Jesus through the Holy Spirit. In fact, ALL of these are routinely the methods of cults, exercise programs and success coaches alike.

In this 3rd chapter of 2 Corinthians, we find the Apostle Paul in a rather defensive posture. He, by the power of the Holy Spirit, through the means of the Gospel planted the church at Corinth. He loved these people with a deeply pastoral and God granted love. However, there were those who had come around Corinth as "Peddlers of God's word." We find in these peddlers those who were peddling much the same forms of Christianity as our present time.

In this study, we are going to see that our objective in the Christian life is far bigger than anything we could ever achieve, by fear or by accomplishment. Rather, we'll see, by His means we are transformed from one degree of glory to the next, into the very image of Jesus.

The Image of God, Creation and The Fall

Your assignment was to read the Genesis account of the creation of man. In this account, we see the Mighty and awesome God of creation in His splendor as He creates the heavens and the earth. With a word of His mouth, He creates every atom. He creates and calls His creation good. It doesn't take long, for a believer to see the glory of God in His creation. We see the wonder that is contained in the animal kingdom. We see it in the complexity of even the most simple of God's creatures. But it is the pinnacle of His creation, to which He grants the greatest gift: His image.

He says: "Let us make man in Our Image." He says: let us form man, not merely with the blessings of creation; life, provision and the subtle reflection of His glory. Not even the cognitive ability and power of the angels is enough. But with the ultimate reflection of His divine glory: His most glorious image. This gift was bestowed on our parents, Adam and Eve. They were like mirrors reflecting to Him the image of glory. This image is His image. In this creation, pre-fall, He is seated at the center of all and the very existence of man reflects Glory back to Him. Things are genuinely and truly good.

In this order man bears the dominion that reflects God's kingly reign and fatherly authority over all. In this order man bears the strongest resemblance to His creator, not for his benefit. Though it is of highest benefit to man. But so that God is in right position over His entire creation and most importantly in the greatest work of His hand: Adam and Eve.

We read with sadness, as Genesis continues to describe for us how man rejects the covenant blessings by violating the covenant requirement. God says: "in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die." We see as the curse of decay and corruption lands on Adam and Eve and so too we inherit this corruption. This corruption tarnishes and perverts the image which was given to us at the beginning. We see this clearly when we see the work of man's hands. He reflects God's image in his ability to build, but perversions most striking influence is seen in the tower of Babel. A monolithic tribute to mans unique gifts and yet cursing the God whose image these gifts are designed to reflect.

To our modern day, we bear this corrupt, sinful and perverted image. God gave us the ability to reason, and we use it to reason Him away. God gave us the ability to create and build and we use it feed our insatiable desire for our own glory. We see this corruption in every facet of human existence, from eating to sex; from leadership and authority to our treatment of our parents and our children.

The Law of God and the Veil

For many years God saw fit, not to reveal Himself clearly to mankind. Though His glory, His divine attributes were clear in nature, He saw fit not to reveal Himself in His grace and mercy. Then, very slowly He began to work with a small handful of people. He calls Abraham and makes a covenant of grace with he and his descendants. He allows the slavery and bondage of the Jewish people in Egypt. He redeems them through the Red Sea. Yet they are wicked and refuse to see His gracious gifts. Into this darkness and the darkened hearts of the people of Israel, He shines a ray of His glory in divine revelation to Moses on Sinai. Here is where redemptive history meets our text. Paul expounds for his readers, what is happening as Moses returns from his receiving of God's law, God's revelation.

The people see Moses' face and are afraid. Rightly so! They are not afraid because he glows. They are afraid, because they are witness to the real, pure and holy glory of the living God. Paul demonstrates for us why this is, why they fear this glory in the revelation of God through Moses. He calls it a ministry of death. He says that it is a ministry which is being brought to an end. Yet again he calls it a ministry of condemnation. The law, Paul says, is to bring condemnation. To kill them. They know and are terrified of God's holiness. As the writer to the Hebrews says: "It is a terrifying thing, to fall into the hands of the living God." Hebrews 10:31

God's glory in the Law says to man: "You are not righteous!" It proclaims to man the ultimate righteousness, which he cannot keep and has not kept. Moses' face reflected the pure glory of God towards the people and they shrunk back in horror. So Moses' put on a veil from that day forward. They could not bear the residual reflection left by Moses' brief time in the presence of God.

This is the veil to which Paul refers. This veil, this separation is what prevents God's glory from striking out immediately and destroying the sinful person. The veil existed for the people of Israel in that every time that the Law was read to their unregenerate hearts, they were turned on their heals and they literally could not take in the glory of the living God. In the same way, many today catch a glimpse of God's glory in His law and they run. We too should run, if it weren't for the ministry of life, given by the Spirit. For some we run, not by ignoring the law, but by picking and choosing small pieces that in our tiny and self flattering minds we don't see much struggle with. We make the sin that we don't struggle with BIG in our theology, yet the sin that we can't shake, we justify, we disguise or pretend it isn't even sin. For others, we hear the law and the door isn't close enough. "Just get me away!" Our society reflects this, doesn't it. These predominately (if statistics are to be believed) churched, believers in God, would have no mention of the name Jesus. All of this to keep the veil thick between them and the holiness that they rightly fear.

The Ministry of Life in the Revelation of Jesus

This is all incredibly bad news. There is no "self-help" program that can rectify this gulf between us and God. And this is what the Jews would always attempt to do. Maybe if we try really hard. If we interpret the ministry of death just right we'll get it. If we are meticulous, we'll achieve the requirement. "God knows your heart. He knows you want to please Him." The only problem is that we don't, not enough.

The problem is that you can't to the ministry of death seeking life. All it will ever do is condemn you. Into which Paul, by the Holy Spirit, gives this incredibly good news. If the news of the ministry of condemnation, is so bad that the glory God reflected in it causes us to recoil in horror. Then we need good news, far bigger than just being a better person. We don't need simply the shedding of a few sins.

In the garden we lost, in large part, the image and the reflected glory of God. We lost the ability to reflect this glory. We became children of lostness, children of wrath and we were marked by the image of Adam. John 1:14 "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth." You see glory, WAS in Jesus. And as He became a man, the face of Glory came into sight. Like Adam, but uncorrupted, Jesus came as a man. "Coming in the likeness of sinful flesh". Bringing the ultimate revelation of God. So that when we turn from our sinful human effort and place our trust in Jesus, Paul says here, that the veil is removed. The very object which prevents us from taking in the glory of God is taken out of the way. We are set free.

In the place of the dreadful and awesome ministry of death is the most GLORY-FILLED ministry of life. Paul calls it a ministry of righteousness. And the word ministry here is "Diakaneo", or ministration. This ministry is performed, not by us, but by the Spirit of God. Unlike anything that we do, it doesn't tarnish the image. It is the very ministry and act of giving life. And this glory, which I hope you are seeing is the image of the living God, is the wonderful image of God as it begins to reflect on our faces. "And we all with unveiled face, beholding the glory of God - in the face of Jesus - are being transformed into the same very image."

You see, it is as we see Jesus, the God-man, the last and most clear revelation of God to His people (Hebrews 1) that we are transformed. We don't take shape by programs, we take shape by beholding God in Jesus. And once the veil is removed, the ministry of death is no longer in effect and the Spirit of God begins to transform us, from one degree of glory to the next. We see here, God's purpose for His people. To reflect His glory, His image. The word Christian, means Christ-like!

Restoration of the Image of God

This verse is a promise to us. We are being transformed as we make our way to that glorious day when all things are consummated and we are complete in Christ. The day when we are restored to the image of God and all sin, imperfection and corruption is done away within us. What a glorious objective that we have. What grace is given to us, as trusting ones in the beloved! May the Spirit of the Living God, cause the Glory of God, the image of God revealed to us in the face of Jesus, proclaimed to us in His word to transform us until that glorious day when Jesus restores all of creation.

How is this done?

Just as God uses the means of rain, growth, planting and harvest to provide food for His creation, He uses particular means to reveal Jesus to His people in the same way to which Paul is referring. The Holy Spirit, uses the word, the scripture, to reveal to us the face of Jesus. And it is this revelation that IS the means of grace by which we are being transformed from one degree of glory to the next.

This is the purpose of this study. May God add His rich blessing to the next 8 weeks. May we dig deep together in His word and behold Jesus, wide eyed like children again! May we quit playing with lesser means and go right to the well and drink deeply.

Week 1 - From One Degree of Glory to Another - Preparation

2009-10-17T23:18:00.006-06:00

One of the most fascinating characteristics of human beings is our ability to be molded and changed by our exposure to other people. This is most clearly demonstrated in the relationship between parent and child. The other day my father and I were speaking on the phone. He said in disgust: "Boy do I sound like my father!" I replied: "To me you've sounded like Grandpa for a long time." God has indeed created us to be imprinted by the physical characteristics, personality traits and even the flaws of those with whom we spend the most time experiencing relationship. Like my father, we often recoil in horror to discover that we bear the mark far more intensly then we would sometimes like to believe.

This characteristic of ours is, in a very real way, a type or a pattern that was built in to us from the beginning. We were created by the Triune God in the image of God. He says: "Let us make man in Our image, after our likeness..." - Genesis 1:26.

The first part of your assignment is to read about and consider the gift of being God's image bearer given to our father Adam, in the creation account:
Genesis 1:26 - 28

The second part of your assignment is to read about the curse that our parents Adam and Eve received as a consequence for his violation of the covenant that God made with them:
Genesis 3

The third part of your assignment is to read about the glory that reflected on Moses' face as he would leave the presence of the Lord. Also consider the reaction of the Israelites, to the reflected glory of the Lord:
Exodus 34:29-35

Have a blessed week!

The Four Fold Gospel - Introduction

2009-10-17T23:08:00.003-06:00

"For this is the will of the Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I myself will raise him up on the last day." - John 6:40

Purpose
Jesus is indeed the "author and perfector" (Hebrews 12:2) of our faith. He is to be the glorious center of our theology and practice. It is the believer’s incredible joy to seek to enthrone Jesus as mighty and glorious King and yet too often our Christianity is more about us and less about Him.

With John the Baptist we cry: "He must increase, but I must decrease!" (John 3:30) This Sunday School class will seek to present Christ as He is presented in scripture following the C&MA formulation; 'The Fourfold Gospel":

Christ our Savior
Christ our Sanctifier
Christ our Healer
And Christ our soon Coming King

Format
The format of the lesson will include an exposition of the scripture(s) at hand that address the topic; a directed period of questions and discussion and a directed period of prayer and praise to Jesus.

In keeping with the upcoming years thrive-focus: each week, attendees will be assigned a memory verse that they will be expected to commit to memory, so that the Word will dwell in us richly.

Duration
The duration of this study will be 9 weeks; starting with an introduction and with each of the four portions of the Fourfold Gospel taking two weeks.

The Blog
This blog will serve an important role during our study. First, it will be the means by which you will receive the weekly assignments. Secondly, after a week is complete, I will post the study in written form. Finally, feel free to add comments and continue discussion or ask questions via the blog or by email (not posting here).