Resisters

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. -- John 3:16

Like most people, I believe in free will.  Everyone acts as though man can choose, even those who declare that God has His elect who will be saved while He has chosen in His indisputable wisdom and sovereignty that others will go to hell. 

The words of John 3:16 are in red.  Jesus said that the Father loves the world to the extent that He was willing to send His only begotten Son to save it.  God loves the world.  It is what someone called an objective universal. 

Not only is divine love universal, it is unilateral -- as the Apostle John says in his first epistle:  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).  We did not love God.  We did not even know God.   Humanity is such a wreck that the Lord would be perfectly justified not only in not bothering with us but in positively condemning each and every one of us.  Yet Jesus says that He was not sent into the world to condemn the world but to save it (John 3:17).

Despite all the Lord has done, despite the redeeming work of Christ in His Incarnation, His death, His  burial, and His resurrection, it still comes down to us.  We decide whether we will be condemned or delivered.  Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already … (John 3:18).

There may well be some people who adopt universalism because it has that liberal, I’m-ok-you’re-ok new agey vibe to it.  Genuine Christian believers, though, may become open to universalism because they grasp the nature of God’s love.  Too, there is this plain statement by Paul:  For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive (1 Corinthians 15:22).  It may be argued, reasonably, that this applies only to the elect.  After all, if we are all dead in trespasses and sin (and we are), how can a dead person respond to God’s call?   

The blood of Christ opened the way for all.  The veil was rent from top to bottom.  The partition that separated the elect from those outside of God’s sovereign choosing was taken down:

For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility …  that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two … through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father.  So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God  … In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit (Ephesians 2:14-22).

Strictly speaking, I am not a universalist.  I think it possible for a soul to resist the love and grace of God, to be so self-absorbed as to consign itself eternally to the fires of hell.  But I also think it is possible for any soul, anywhere, anytime to respond to the Holy Spirit’s call, to recognize and respond positively to God’s offer of reconciliation.  In the end, those separated from a loving, forgiving, compassionate God will have no one to blame except themselves, while those who have accepted the gift will have no one to thank and praise but Christ alone.

Mixed Messages

For the Levites left their common lands and their possessions and came to Judah and Jerusalem, for Jeroboam and his sons rejected them from serving as priests of the Lord.  Then he appointed for himself priests for the high places, for the demons and the calf idols that he had made – 2 Chronicles 11:14-15 (NKJV)

It might be considered ironic that Jeroboam had been chosen by God to lead the ten northern tribes of Israel as a result of the apostasy of Solomon and his son, Rehoboam.  Jeroboam quickly became enamored of his own power and position.  Rather than trusting God who had put him on the throne, holding to the truth and traditions of Moses and the Patriarchs, Jeroboam wanted a nation that was loyal to him alone. He decided that he was not content with being an obedient servant of the One True God nor was he willing to allow another power to possibly rule over his people and divert their devotion from him.  He would exalt himself above God.

We can read in Isaiah 14:12-21 about the fall of one called Lucifer – the light-bearer, “son of the morning”.  This depicts, as it were, a rebellion in heaven, but it has a general application in every place and in every age, indeed, perhaps in every human heart.  Pride is the original sin.  If I say that I can go my own way and do what I want, though it hardly sounds sinister and certainly not diabolical, it is exactly that when it is the attitude I take with regard to God. 

I don’t doubt that many in the northern kingdom were happy to see those stick-in-the-mud traditionalists leave for Judah.  Those priests and Levites probably thought they were special just because of their tribe and what was in the old scrolls.  Why, they probably wrote that themselves and said it was from Moses.  And anyway, who was Moses?  Times have changed.  Those Levites needed to check their privilege. 

The people of the breakaway tribes also knew that Rehoboam who ruled Judah and Benjamin was far from perfect himself.  Had not God rejected him as their king? 

This is something I think we all have to watch, too, with regard to the church, the cultural, politics, and government.  If God puts someone in charge, are we obligated to obey the rules?  Are the rules now God’s will?  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).  There are those who will demand that Christians adhere to this.  Yet, obviously, if an authority is acting contrary to God’s will, demanding, as the government may do these days, that we violate our conscience and disobey Christian principles, we are obligated to not obey.  

The rabbi Gamaliel gave this advice to the religious leadership of his time regarding the followers of Jesus the Nazarene, “So in the present case I tell you, keep away from these men and let them alone, for if this plan or this undertaking is of man, it will fail; but if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them. You might even be found opposing God!” (Acts 5:38-39).  A little while before this, Peter and John had summarized the position of Christians across all epochs: Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge, for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard (Acts 4:19-20).

Like the priests and Levites giving up their homes and their possessions among the northern tribes, we have decided to become citizens of another kingdom.  While we remain in this world, we are not of it. Some of us in various places on the planet are asked to surrender our lives because we will not turn from the truth.  Christians have been persecuted, tortured, abused, imprisoned and killed because they would not renounce the Lord.  Even in this country, in our modern, enlightened and oh-so-tolerant age, Christians are penalized for refusing to bake a cake or take pictures or otherwise participate in and endorse something that the Bible says is wrong.  It is pretty mild compared to having one’s head removed, but it is annoying nonetheless, and it is likely a sign of worse things to come. 

Not everything that God allows is God’s will.  Some things that start out as God’s will may easily end up being perverted and twisted by man’s will and man’s arrogance.  Truth wins in the end, but many fall in the battle.  Fear not.  It is not Valhalla nor virgins that wait for the entrance of the faithful witness, but a robe of righteousness, a martyr’s crown, and a word from the lips of the Lord Himself, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant … enter thou into the joy of thy lord.”

Payback

Though you soar aloft like the eagle, though your nest is set among the stars, from there I will bring you down, declares the LORD. -- Obadiah 1:4

Sometimes I get upset about the state of things.  I see what appears to be the triumph of evil, the destruction of traditional institutions, the family and marriage.  Right and wrong are redefined.   Those who have taken power and authority upon themselves, often by deception and subterfuge, appear to have the upper hand. 

I read elsewhere a little while ago where someone thinks that the problem is that the right people are refusing to step up and take charge.  We are allowing ourselves to be led by the deviant, perverted, deluded, and stupid. 

You know what?  Those are the people who want the job.  I don’t.  I don’t know anyone with a lick of sense who would want to take Hillary Clinton’s place on the Democrat ticket.  The reason sex scandals and corruption are so prevalent among politicians is because that’s more or less the kind of mixed up, twisted, sick individual who is desperate enough to run for political office and lie about anything and everything they have ever done. 

Maybe it is just my personality, but I have a hard time believing that a genuinely good person who understands the truth of the Gospel and trusts God really wants to run the lives of other people.  We know there are times when we must help bear another's burden, offer a hand to one who has stumbled on the way.   We do that out of love and concern, but, as soon as they are on their feet, we are happy to see them making their own decisions and living their life as they choose to the fullest.  There is a huge difference between helping a fallen brother stand on his own and wanting to carry him around – or have him carry you.

I am not against Christians stepping into positions of influence or even positions of secular power if they feel they are called to such.  But a person better be sure he or she is called by God.  It is risky business, and the one who puts a foot on that highway must walk in humility.  But I will leave in your midst a people humble and lowly.  They shall seek refuge in the name of the LORD … they shall do no injustice and speak no lies, nor shall there be found in their mouth a deceitful tongue … and none shall make them afraid. (Zephaniah 3:12-13).   

The world looks bad right now.  It may get worse.  What I know is, though, that the arrogant and the deceitful, the faithless and those who turn from God to seek their own ways will be brought down.

You know, they have gone so far as to try rewriting history, to write God out of it.  They are the ones who will be written out, except, perhaps, as a footnote or to illustrate a cautionary tale.  They look big and they fly high, but they are insignificant, and the higher they fly, the farther they must fall.

No-Step Boogie

And he said, The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground.  He sleeps and rises night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows; he knows not how.  The earth produces by itself, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear.  But when the grain is ripe, at once he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.  – Mark 4:26-29

Last night I was reading in MOTT about the Tower of Destruction and the difference between growing and building.  When you build a house, you have an idea of what you want.  You take it, perhaps, to an architect who creates a blueprint.  You hire a builder who then raises the structure according to the plan.  The blueprint tells the plumber where to run his lines, the electrician where to put switches and outlets.  It tells you which way the doors should swing.  Everything is laid out.  It’s a system – as Bob has been talking about recently.

By contrast, to grow something, we put a seed in the ground.  And we wait.  If it isn’t raining much – not a problem around here so far this year, we can water, but there’s not much else that depends on our planning or intervention.  We can rest.  We don’t really know how growth takes place.  We can certainly cut things down too soon, but if we are patient, the harvest will come regardless of our designs and maneuvers.  Or it will not. 

I suppose we could argue that there is a design built into the seed, in the DNA, that is similar to our blueprint, but a living thing does not develop solely on the basis of its genetic inheritance.  In fact there is reason to think that environmental stresses and stimuli can, in effect, throw switches that turn on or turn off certain characteristics present on the gene. 

Thus another difference in growth as opposed to building is that growth includes adaptation.  The nature of the harvest is dependent, of course, on the seed sown, but also on the conditions.  The same grapes grown in a period of hot, dry weather will have a different flavor than those in a wetter, cooler season.  The fertility of the soil and the minerals present or absent cause adjustments in development and maturation. 

God does have a plan for us, for each of us. 

And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up [that is, "the perfecting of"] the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ … speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ,  from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love (Ephesians 4:11-16).

In general, ultimately, we know where we are all headed.  But how that happens -- especially on an individual basis, the processes involved, the time it takes, the conditions that cause this growth, we do not know.  We can nurture and be watchful at times, just as we pull weeds from our garden and water during extended dry spells, but the end, the harvest to which God aims is something largely beyond our control.   

It is God Himself who watches, who touches here and stirs there, who send the right message and the right messenger at just the right moment, who frightens when we need to alerted, saddens when we need to weep, delights when we need to laugh, and soothes when we need to be reassured.  

My brother and sister barleycorn, it is not just the field for which our Lord cares, but each stalk where it stands.  In this we rest and trust. 

 

The Letter

You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life. - John 5:39-40

Charles Spurgeon, consistent with Origen's view of Scripture, gives us a meditation upon this passage:

Jesus Christ is the Alpha and Omega of the Bible. He is the constant theme of its sacred pages; from first to last they testify of him. At the creation we at once discern him as one of the sacred Trinity; we catch a glimpse of him in the promise of the woman’s seed; we see him typified in the ark of Noah; we walk with Abraham, as he sees Messiah’s day; we dwell in the tents of Isaac and Jacob, feeding upon the gracious promise; we hear the venerable Israel talking of Shiloh; and in the numerous types of the law, we find the Redeemer abundantly foreshadowed. Prophets and kings, priests and preachers, all look one way-they all stand as the cherubs did over the ark, desiring to look within, and to read the mystery of God’s great propitiation.  

Still more manifestly in the New Testament we find our Lord the one pervading subject. It is not an ingot here and there, or dust of gold thinly scattered, but here you stand upon a solid floor of gold; for the whole substance of the New Testament is Jesus crucified, and even its closing sentence is bejewelled with the Redeemer’s name.  

We should always read Scripture in this light; we should consider the word to be as a mirror into which Christ looks down from heaven; and then we, looking into it, see his face reflected as in a glass-darkly, it is true, but still in such a way as to be a blessed preparation for seeing him as we shall see him face to face. This volume contains Jesus Christ’s letters to us, perfumed by his love.  

These pages are the garments of our King, and they all smell of myrrh, and aloes, and cassia. Scripture is the royal chariot in which Jesus rides, and it is paved with love for the daughters of Jerusalem. The Scriptures are the swaddling bands of the holy child Jesus; unroll them and you find your Saviour. The quintessence of the word of God is Christ.

The scribes and the experts in the law in the days of Jesus' ministry on the earth had the groomsman's coat but not the Groom.  It may be that is the case with many today who have their texts and their prooftexts and their pretexts, wielding the letter like a hammer while turning from the Spirit who gives life to both Word and worshipper. 

I confess it has too often been the case with me that my knowledge outran my wisdom.  Or, perhaps, as Paul says of some of his Jewish brothers in Romans 10:2, my zeal was not sufficiently tempered by knowledge of the Scripture's purpose. 

Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God, who has made us competent to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life (2 Corinthians 3:5-6).

He Spoke With Authority

And all spoke well of him and marveled at the gracious words that were coming from his mouth. And they said, Is not this Joseph's son? - Luke 4:22

Last week we were talking about miracles as part of the revelation as opposed to meeting a need.  It strikes me as I write that Jesus did not turn stones into bread to satisfy His own hunger when it was suggested by the devil because it was not revelatory.  The devil knew who He was.  Perhaps it is good that we not try to prove ourselves to the Accuser, whatever form he takes.  Anyway, what was true of the works of Jesus is true as well of His words.  He comes to bring the Gospel, in His Incarnation, His signs, and His words.  The prophets, Isaiah in particular, spoke of the One who would bear good news to His people.  Jesus had gone to Nazareth and was in the synagogue there on the Sabbath where He read from the scroll what we know as Isaiah 61:1-2: 

The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me,
because the LORD has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor;
he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives,
and the opening of the prison to those who are bound;
to proclaim the year of the LORD's favor,
and the day of vengeance of our God;
to comfort all who mourn;

When He finished reading, ... he began to say to them, Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.  "Gracious words" can also be "words of grace".  Jesus spoke eloquently, but, far beyond eloquence, His words carried with them the power of salvation.  If they were received, those words would impart grace to the hearer. 

However, despite the wonder created in the hearts of His auditors that day, they almost immediately began to react against this onslaught of grace.  They remembered the boy raised in the house of Joseph the carpenter.  They remembered Jesus Himself working and sweating like all common men.  Those residents of Nazareth were unable to reconcile the image of the one who had walked among them as a child and a young man for so many years with Him proclaiming Himself the prophesied messenger.  Soon, they had worked themselves into such a frenzy that they attempted to murder Jesus solely for telling them the truth about Himself.

I was reading on the blog of Vox Day (Theodore Beale)  -- which I do not necessarily recommend, about his debate over a couple of books with one Philip Sandifer.  Sandifer is an atheist who, in discussing the existence, power, and authority of God, says:

I have no concern whatsoever that his authority is legitimate, however. It is not, at least over what I understand to be me, Philip Sandifer. The self that I am solipsistically invested in has an independent consciousness from your god. I am but a sinner, cast out into a material world and fundamentally separated from your god. But where you view my sin as my imprisonment in a lowly, materialist prison, I view it as my freedom from the tyrant you choose to serve.

Jesus spoke with authority.  This is offensive to people like Sandifer who would, even if they believed a Creator existed, deny that the One who created them had any right to tell them what reality looks like (i.e., give the Law).  These poor folks are convinced they are so intelligent they can "understand their experience in the world" apart from God.

(Seriously, man, I've been there — still got the shovel.  You ain't even figured out how stupid you are yet.)

John Milton knew this dude: 

Here at least
we shall be free; the Almighty hath not built
Here for his envy, will not drive us hence:
Here we may reign secure, and in my choice
to reign is worth ambition though in Hell:
Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heaven.