What About Israel? (Part Three)

What about Israel? (Part three)

Romans 10:1-21

Introduction:

We have begun exploring Paul’s treatise in Romans chapters 9-11, explaining the current state of Israel, and how they still fit into God’s plans. Paul has already said how he feels toward Israel, not just as a nation, but specifically toward his fellow Jews. We saw how they rejected Jesus when He lived among them, and rejected His offer of salvation by grace through faith alone. The result has been that the Gentiles who were not even looking for a savior were then offered salvation…and many have joyfully received Him.

But Israel, who claimed to be seeking righteousness, and to be waiting for the Messiah, sought to do so by works of the Law, and had rejected faith. So, when their Messiah arrived, they rejected Him out of hand, as most still do today. They stumbled over the stumbling-stone that God set up throughout all the ages. Faith in a substitutionary sacrifice has always been the stumbling point. Cain rejected the blood sacrifice, and most people do, today, as a matter of fact. Jews and Gentiles alike stumble over this issue. But the Jews are a special tragedy, since it was their king, their Messiah, for whom they had waited, who they ultimately rejected.

What is Israel’s Position, Now?

10: ¹Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved.

²For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge.

³For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.
So, where does that leave Israel? Has God abandoned them? Paul says they do have a zeal for God, but not based on a genuine knowledge of His righteousness; that because they are ignorant (agnoountes…without knowledge) of the holy righteousness of God, they have worked to establish their own style of righteousness, sourced in self-will; they have not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God. This is true of non-Jews, too. We insist that we can have a “do-it-yourself” salvation; a self-righteous standing before a holy God. Throughout the Bible, when people saw God, they usually collapsed in despair, seeing their own unrighteousness compared to His eternal Holiness. Isaiah 6 says that when the prophet Isaiah saw the LORD, he said “Woe is me! I am undone! I am a man of unclean lips!” The Apostle John simply collapsed. The prophet Daniel was in similar condition. No one who truly sees the holiness of God will ever again see himself as sufficient.

Paul goes on to further explain the plight of the Jews. He makes no excuses for their position, but also does not treat them as being “beyond hope”: Quite the contrary; his greatest desire is that they might be saved. They are his family, in the broader sense. He says that in terms of the righteousness of God (which they claim to desire), they have truly missed the point:

⁴For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.

The End of the Law for Righteousness

Paul declares that, had they embraced their Messiah, (as they say they will do, if He ever shows up, but in fact they did not do, when He did arrive), they would now be free from the Law of Moses as pertaining to personal righteousness.

⁵For Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the law, That the man which doeth those things shall live by them.

Paul quotes Leviticus 18:5, here: under the Law, it was said, “if you do these things you will live.” That is not what the Gospel says. Moses brought a Law, saying “DO THIS and live!” The Law (and most Human religions) says “DO!” (“Do or Die”, in fact.) But Jesus offers something entirely different: in Romans 7 we saw that the Law was specifically inaugurated to show us that we CAN’T “do the things of righteousness.” The more we understand the righteousness of God, the more completely we realize the hopelessness of attempting to achieve such righteousness through our own efforts. And that was the intent of the Law: that we should be driven to the Messiah as our only hope. So: Jesus died to fulfil the demands of the Law toward sinners (you and me), and said “it is finished!” Where the Law said “Do!” Jesus said “It’s Done!”

If they knew the Messiah, they would know that the righteousness He provides puts an end to the involvement of the Law in producing righteousness. Law never could produce righteousness; it could only advertise the lack thereof. The Jews constantly thought that they could produce righteousness through works, just as most world religionists insist today. God says they can’t. In fact, Paul pointed out in Galatians 2:21 that, if righteousness could be attained by means of the Law, then Jesus died for nothing.

Here, in Romans 10, he simply says that Christ is the “end of the Law for righteousness”, to everyone that believes. The word “end” is “telos” in Greek…and it simply means “the end”: “termination”…not “fulfillment”. Yes, Jesus was the fulfillment of the Law; but in this passage, it clearly says he was the end of the law for righteousness. Law keeping is not even to be the outward sign of righteousness, in this age. Jesus said (John 13:34, 35) “by this shall all men know ye are my disciples”…how? If you keep the law? No: “If you have love one to another.”

⁶But the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise, Say not in thine heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? (that is, to bring Christ down from above:)

⁷Or, Who shall descend into the deep? (that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead.)

⁸But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach;

⁹That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.

¹⁰For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

¹¹For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.
Paul points out the sharp contrast between Law and Grace. Grace says that the word of faith, preached by Christ and all his servants, is the truth; and that “if you believe it…you shall be saved.” Notice I left out the “confess” part. Not because confession of faith is not important, but because the faith part is what saves you. Genuine faith will result in confession of that faith, but a strict adherence to the idea that “confession with the mouth” is part of what saves you would exclude every mute person in history. Jesus said that whoever believes the Gospel has eternal life now, period. (John 5:24) Paul reiterated it when he told the Philippian Jailer, (Acts 16:31) “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved!”

Calling Upon the Name of the Lord

¹²For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him.

¹³For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
What does it mean to “call upon the name of the Lord?” By the host of passages that say, “believe…and be saved”, “look, and live”, etc., I would say that believing the Gospel, and claiming Jesus as your only hope for salvation is what moves a person from “death row” to full release in Christ. It requires a conscious decision: no one is “born saved”. If anyone tells me “Oh, I’ve always been a Christian!” I have serious doubts that they are saved at all. When we talk about “repentance” (which comes up a lot in scripture), usually the Greek word is “metanoia”…meaning a “change of mind”. There is a conscious change of mind involved, in choosing to take Jesus Christ as your savior…in deciding that His blood sacrifice is the payment for your sins. Whether it is public or private, spoken or silent, that decision must be made.

¹⁴How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?

¹⁵And how shall they preach, except they be sent? As it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!
Paul points out an interesting chain of ideas, here: He says, “Whoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved” (quoting Joel 2:32). That implies a conscious decision…a choice. Then he poses a series of questions: “How can they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe on Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach except they be sent?” This is “Missions,” friends! He is flatly telling you that if people don’t hear the Gospel they will not be saved. And that, if we are to be a part of the fulfillment of the Great Commission, we have to either be sending preachers or going ourselves as preachers. It can’t be any clearer. But obedience is scarce.

¹⁶But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Esaias saith, Lord, who hath believed our report?

¹⁷So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
Paul concludes that “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God”. That is a pretty solid passage pointing out the necessity of hearing and believing the Gospel, for salvation. We could already have concluded such a thing by reading Jesus’ promise in John 5:24 and many other, similar passages; Jesus said, “He that hears my Word and believes on Him who sent me, has eternal life…” Sounds pretty clear, all right. The problem is the response of the people. Paul states the problem, in the next few verses: Not everyone who hears the Gospel believes it.

¹⁸But I say, Have they not heard? Yes verily, their sound went into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world.

¹⁹But I say, Did not Israel know? First Moses saith, I will provoke you to jealousy by them that are no people, and by a foolish nation I will anger you.

²⁰But Esaias is very bold, and saith, I was found of them that sought me not; I was made manifest unto them that asked not after me.

²¹But to Israel he saith, All day long I have stretched forth my hands unto a disobedient and gainsaying people.
Israel, as a nation, has rejected the message of the Gospel, the messengers of the Gospel (the apostles and prophets) and the Messiah of the Gospel, Jesus Christ. So, can the Jews be saved?

Of course they can, exactly the same as anyone else! Unbelief is not the “unforgiveable sin”; otherwise every person in history would be unredeemable: we are all guilty of unbelief at one level or another. When a rebellious, proud, self-centered unbeliever (as I was) changes his mind (that is what “repentance” means) and chooses Jesus for his blood-sacrifice for sin, he is saved…regardless of his past unbelief and other sins.

Is Israel still God’s chosen people? Absolutely…but they are having a “time-out” right now. The time is coming when they will again be central to God’s rule on Earth…He says that His reign will be from Jerusalem, and that all the inhabitants of that city will be Holy to God, and they will be a nation of priests…a kingdom of priests. This is not the same as the promise that the Church will be kings and priests. We are a different group. The promises to Israel are to Israel. The promises to the Church are to the Church.

Paul points out, also, that they have had more than adequate warning. God said that the sound of the message has gone out to the whole earth, and that He would make His people jealous through a foolish nation, and through insignificant peoples (from human perspective, as they did not comprise nations, or clear-cut ethnic groups, but were simple tribes and villages.) He said that people who had made no attempt to seek the God of Israel, were going to find him, while the people who claim to be seeking God, are in fact being sought constantly by the one true God, and have consistently ignored His voice, down through the millennia…and so fail to see Him.

“Replacement Theology” is a Snare

There have been people for centuries—whole cults, in some cases—who have gotten the idea that the Church is the “new Israel”, and that God has permanently replaced Israel with the Church or even some particular nation. (There was quite a movement that believed Britain had replaced Israel, but it has lost momentum.) I don’t know how anyone can read Romans 9-11 and still believe that God had rejected Israel permanently. Perhaps, in their desire to “claim the promises” made to Israel, they honestly believe that they can seize the promises by fulfilling the Law at one level or another. But they are missing the point of relationship.

When I was a child, my father offered each of us kids $5 (a lot of money back then) to memorize a certain poem (Rudyard Kipling’s “If”). Suppose a neighbor child up the street had taken the initiative to memorize the poem, and tried to claim that prize? Should Dad have felt compelled to honor a promise he never offered to that child? There was a relationship involved: we were his offspring, and it was an exclusive relationship, whether anyone else approved or not. Could he have chosen to include them? Of course he could, but he was under no obligation to do so.

God entered into an exclusive, unilateral covenant with Abraham in Genesis 15. God made the promise, and there was nothing for Abraham to do but believe it. In similar manner God has continued to broaden and extend that relationship through faith to believers ever since.

But part of the promise was to the physical “seed” of Abraham. That promise, including the land and the lineage of the Messiah, was continually narrowed, not broadened. It was narrowed to Isaac, in exclusion of Ishmael, as well as Midian, and his five brothers; sons of Abraham with Keturah. (By the way, the promise to Isaac was never rescinded.) It was later narrowed to Jacob, in exclusion of Esau. Part of the promise (the coming Messiah) was narrowed to the house of David, and then many generations later, it specifically excluded Jehoiachin (also called Jeconiah, or Coniah), by name, saying that none of his offspring would inherit the crown, because of specific sin in his life. Finally, it centered upon the person of Jesus, who was the son of David through Mary; bypassing the cursed line of Jeconiah (from whom Joseph was descended), via the virgin birth. But the promise of the land remained to the children of Jacob—Israel—no other nation, or people. The Priesthood still was exclusively offered to the house of Aaron. None of those things changed until the destruction of the temple. Even now, if Israel was to rebuild the temple, they would have to come up with some Levites, and, hopefully, sons of Aaron, to serve as priests. But Jesus is the High Priest, in heaven, and will eventually reign on earth.

The promises to the Church are different, and not earthly, as a whole. They are heavenly in nature, and while we have the privilege of serving the God of Israel, we are in a different (and better) relationship. Ironically, any Jew today who believes in Jesus as his Messiah becomes part of this “New Man”, and is no longer technically part of Israel. He has “upgraded” to being part of the Bride of Christ. He is no longer just a “guest” at the wedding feast, but a part of the Bride.

How Should We Then Respond to Israel?

Once, years ago, I unexpectedly received an upgrade from economy to business class on an airliner. I was amazed at the difference in accommodations, leg-room, comfort and food! I was on the same aircraft as before, but in a completely different area, and was being treated accordingly. At the wedding feast of the Lamb, there will be many guests…but the Bride is in a special category. Don’t try to move into the “guest” area, when you are part of the Bride.

We must recognize the importance of Israel, and pray for the peace of Jerusalem: we are called to do both. Value the Jews highly, as a group, and as individuals. Reach out to them in friendship and Love. But don’t try to become a “part of Israel”, by attempting to keep the feasts and the Law. Continue to invite them to become part of the Bride, by Grace, through Faith.

Lord Jesus, help us to walk in the reality of our blessed relationship with the King, and seek to reach others for your Glory!

March 26, 2016March 26, 2016

How Important is the Resurrection?

How Important Is the Resurrection?

1^st Corinthians 15:13-19

Introduction:

Frequently we avoid an argument by “agreeing to disagree”, and there is perhaps nothing wrong with that practice, in principle. But we have been trained to avoid conflict, and to compromise, hoping for a peaceful resolution of any difference, to the extent that we don’t know where the limits are. We don’t know where to draw a line and say, “Here I stand; I can do no other!”

The Apostle Paul was savagely beaten on many occasions, left for dead after being stoned, imprisoned several times and finally executed for his faith. We fidget uncomfortably, and say, “Well, yes, that is wonderful, how he lived for Christ, preached his faith, and died for it, but we live in a safer world today, don’t we?” Well, I wonder: do we?

We have the same three enemies today: the World, the Flesh, and the Devil: Which of those three do you imagine to have changed? Satan certainly has not changed in the least. The Bible tells me that the flesh also has not changed—and in fact, if anything, it can only get worse. Has the World changed for the better? While it is true that for the first three centuries the Church existed, the Roman government viciously persecuted it, mercilessly torturing and murdering those who clung to the Name of Jesus, there are many nations today in which it is either illegal to be a Christian, or illegal to talk about it, or both. And in several of those nations it is quite common for a Christian to be either murdered for his or her faith or persecuted by the governments of those countries to the extent of confiscation of property, imprisonment, torture and even execution. We have been lulled to sleep by the relative peace and safety that we have enjoyed in this country for the last 200 years, so that when someone says something like “All religions serve the same God, and it doesn’t really matter what you call Him, or what you believe about Him”, we are only a little uncomfortable, because we have been taught that “Our way isn’t necessarily the only way…how can a billion Muslims all be wrong? Or, how can a billion Buddhists all be wrong?”

**How Do We Know Our Way is Right? Isn’t that “Narrow-minded?”**

In the first place, it isn’t “our way.” We are just following the instructions given and responding to the invitation given by Jesus Himself. Part of the answer to the implied question was given by Jesus, when he taught in Matthew 7:13, 14— He said, “Enter ye in at the narrow gate, for wide is the gate and broad is the way, that leads to destruction, and many there be that go in thereat: Because narrow is the gate, and narrow the way, which leads unto life, and few there be that find it.” If there seem to be relatively few who respond to the invitation of Christ, and believe His Words, it actually proves Him correct. He told us ahead of time that this would be the case.

In the second place, the way is not “narrow” because of the caprice of an angry God, or bigoted people, but because of the simple fact that, throughout History (beginning before the Creation) God has provided only one means by which sinners may approach a Holy God without fear of condemnation. We see the first promise in Genesis 3:15, the first book of the Bible, and can trace both the promises and the growing clarity of doctrine regarding the death and burial and resurrection of Christ all the way through the Old Testament. We finally see the fulfillment of all those promises, prophecies, and teachings, in the person of Jesus Christ, in the Gospels. But in the Book of the Revelation, the last book of the Bible, (Revelation 13:8) we find that Jesus is referred to as the “Lamb slain from the foundation of the Earth.” So we see that the provision for our salvation was actually made before the first human was even created.

This “Way” that has been alternately blessed and cursed by humans for the entire history of the Human race, is, in fact, the Way laid down by God before the creation. Jesus identified Himself as being that “Way”: In John 14:6, Jesus stated, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life: no man cometh unto the Father but by Me.” (That sounds narrow!) As modern Christians we are uncomfortable with things that are “narrow”. We are afraid of public opinion that labels us as “narrow-minded.” We are taught to think that the number of our choices dictates the quality of our life. And yet, I cannot remember ever hearing anyone complain about the “narrow” choices afforded by the reality of our dependence upon oxygen.

No one rebels against reality and declares himself free from the tyranny of breathing, unless he intends suicide. Why? Because it is simply a fact of life that mammals all have lungs and breathe air, while fish all have gills of one sort or another, and get their oxygen through water. We accept that fact, and no one says how “unfair” it is that we cannot choose to live in a pure nitrogen atmosphere, or to breathe water, as do the fish. We embrace the reality of our dependence upon oxygen, and no one complains about it. Why? Because it does not require conscious submission to an external authority. We are built to crave air, and cannot do otherwise. But we do rebel against the fact that we need a Savior!

How Can Jesus Be the Only Savior?

Interestingly, the book of Job was evidently written before the books of Moses, the Pentateuch. And, in his book, in the middle of a frustrating, tangled, verbose argument with his three friends, Job made a fascinating statement: (Job 19:25-27). He stated that his redeemer already lived (give that some thought!), and that he (the Redeemer) would stand upon the earth at the latter day. He definitely declared the eternality of the Messiah, and that he is coming…but the following statement is really astonishing: he says, “…though, after my skin, worms destroy this body, yet, in my flesh, shall I see God: whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another”. Job predicted his own resurrection, based on the Eternal life of His Redeemer. And, in so doing, he established which “coming of Christ” he was addressing. It was not the earthly ministry of Jesus, but the second coming: Job’s resurrection is still yet to come, but: when Jesus stands upon the Earth at the latter day, Job will be in his resurrected body, and his prophecy will be literally fulfilled. He will see God, face to face, with his own eyes.

Jesus was the Redeemer for whom Job was waiting, and he was the promised Seed of Woman in whom Adam trusted. He was the Judge of all the Earth with whom Abraham pleaded for the life of Lot. He was the literal Rock of Ages that was Cleft to bring forth the water for the two and one half million Children of Israel, and all their livestock in the desert. He was the Passover Lamb, under whose blood those same children of Israel had huddled, to escape the judgment on Egypt. He is the only Savior because He has always existed as the Savior of the human race.

How Important Is the Resurrection in the Bible?

The fact is; if Jesus was not resurrected, then He was not any of those things. The person in whom Job trusted had to die. Isaiah 53 predicts the suffering of the Savior, and clearly states that it is for our sins that He was killed. Psalm 22 describes the crucifixion in stark terms and it is clearly a prophecy of the Christ, as nothing even remotely similar ever had happened to David, the human writer of that psalm. But Isaiah 53 also claims that this suffering savior would not remain dead, because it says that after his death; after he “made his soul an offering for sin”, he would see his offspring (us!) and prolong his days.

Psalm 16:10 is also prophetic of the Messiah: Peter alludes to it in Acts 2:27 and points out that it is definitely not regarding David, the human writer of that psalm. You see, it stated that the person involved, though he would die, would not be allowed to decompose, and that his soul would not be left in Sheol, the place of the Dead. David died, and had been in the grave for over one thousand years when Peter was preaching there in Jerusalem. His body was thoroughly decomposed, and mummified, and his soul was still in Sheol, to that day. Peter declared that this psalm was specifically in reference to the resurrection of the Messiah, and testified that he and the other (hundreds of) disciples were all eyewitnesses to the resurrection of Jesus. He concluded that this was final proof that Jesus was indeed the long-awaited Redeemer.

Paul wrote, in Romans 1:4, that Jesus was “declared to be the Son of God, with Power, according to the Spirit of Holiness, by the Resurrection from the dead.” The Resurrection was God’s stamp of approval, showing that Jesus was really who He claimed to be. Without it, he was just another one of the victims of the Jewish leaders, and the iron fist of the Roman law. He would have just been a poor, deluded, poverty-stricken, pathetic Jewish carpenter who had overstepped the bounds of the society in which he lived, and it had cost him his life.

You see, those are the choices: either he was who he said he was, or he wasn’t. There is no real middle ground. If he was not the Messiah, then he was either crazy enough to think he was, or he was an incredible liar who ensnared millions of people with his false teachings, and who died the death a false prophet can expect, and his followers have simply duplicated his folly. But, there are a couple of problems with both of those scenarios:

In the first place, he didn’t act like or talk like a crazy man. He used very clear logic, analogy, and the authority of God’s Word to teach the people. And even His enemies recognized the power of His words. He was by no means incoherent, or illogical, nor did he teach anything that was in conflict with the existing scripture. He did teach things that contradicted the traditions of the Jews, and that is partly what caused the trouble. They hated Him for that.

In the second place, false teachers virtually always have an agenda: They are the “hallelujah hijackers”, and religious charlatans of history, who made grandiose claims and seized honor and/or wealth for themselves, availing themselves of privilege by one means or another. They usually eventually showed their true colors by vile immorality or treachery and violence, too, though there have been exceptions.

Jesus did none of these things: He sought no audience with the kings of the earth, nor with the rulers of the temple. He taught the poor, and healed the sick. When he worked miracles, both his friends and his enemies were conspicuously present. He seldom, if ever, did things in secret.

When he raised the dead (John 11, 12), proving his authority over death and His authority to give life, his enemies were there, as well…and they plotted to kill both Jesus and the man he had raised from the dead. (What insanity! If someone has proven his ability to raise the dead, wouldn’t you want him on your side?)

Jesus simply didn’t act like either a false teacher or a pathological liar. Even his enemies, well-versed in scripture though they were, could not refute his teachings. They could make no real accusation against Him, though they desperately wanted to do so. The Roman Governor, Pilate, could find no fault in Jesus, and said so, publicly. He eventually agreed to have him put to death only because he was afraid of yet another Jewish revolt, for which he could be held responsible.

How Important Was the Resurrection to the Disciples?

Remember that the eleven apostles had all been hiding in a locked upstairs room when Jesus appeared to them, entering the locked room and appearing in their midst. They were terrified that the Jewish leaders and Roman soldiers might not be satisfied to have murdered Jesus: they could decide to mop up His followers as well. That seems a reasonable response, to me. Since their leader claimed to be the Messiah, and they had fixed their hopes on Him, it follows that, when he failed to deliver the kingdom they thought he was to usher in, and was taken without a fight, given a mock trial, a savage beating and a criminal’s execution, they would feel completely devastated and hopeless, besides (possibly) feeling that they had been cruelly duped. They would certainly not feel like “telling people about Jesus”, if they were sure he was dead…and they were sure of that, because they saw it happen, though from a distance.

After He appeared to them (and continued to meet with them and the other 120 disciples and an extended group of 500 followers), they were filled with joy and relief, but were still pretty confused about what Jesus wanted them to do. They actually went back to their old jobs as commercial fishermen, and had to be called away from that error. They were completely convinced of his having been raised from the dead, but…how could they be used by God, as the timid, fearful men they had become?

Jesus’s last words before He ascended into Heaven were that they would be given power (“dunamis”, not “exousia”: ability, not just authority) when they received the Holy Spirit, and that they would be witnesses for him throughout Israel, and to the uttermost parts of the world. And that is just what happened.

Ten days later, at the feast of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit descended upon the disciples in Jerusalem, and the Church was born. The disciples were no longer in hiding. They were openly preaching, and willingly risked death to complete their assignment, the Great Commission. They had been transformed instantly from a terrified group of very confused men to bold, fearless apostles, whose thoughts were supernaturally clear, to the extent that their enemies were amazed that uneducated men could have such insight and wisdom. Apart from their being absolutely convinced, as eyewitnesses, that their Master was alive forever, and, of course apart from the indwelling Holy Spirit, the transformation simply could not have happened.

How Important Is the Resurrection to Us?

Paul makes this one absolutely clear for us in 1^st Corinthians 15:13-19

“¹³But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen: ¹⁴And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain. ¹⁵Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God; because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ: whom he raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not. ¹⁶For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised: ¹⁷And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins. ¹⁸Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished. ¹⁹If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.”

To summarize: If Jesus is not risen from the dead, then,

All Christian preaching is futile and wrong.
All Christian witnesses are found to be false
All Christian faith is misplaced and hopelessly wrong.
All of us are still condemned in our sins
All the millions who have died in faith, trusting in Jesus as the Christ, are utterly lost.

Paul concludes that, if in this life only we have hope in Christ (and not in an eternally living Messiah), then we are of all humans most pitiable…most wretchedly misled, and most miserably lost. And all of that is completely true IF Jesus is not risen from the Dead.

But we have the authority of God’s Word, as well as the historical testimony of transformed lives, and that of all those who have joyfully faced death, knowing their resurrected Lord. We are witnesses of that fact, as well, because He has also changed our lives. With the prophet Job, we can confidently say, “I know that My Redeemer Lives!”

Those who believe in Him are simply embracing the reality that God has provided one way by which we can have eternal life with Him.

Jesus said, (John 5:24) “He that hears my words and believes on Him who sent me has everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation, but has passed from Death unto Life.” We believe His promise, and are secure in Him.

Because…the truth is:

He Is Risen!

March 13, 2016

What about Israel? (Part 2)

What about Israel? (Part Two)

The Sovereign Mercy of God

Romans 9:14-33

Introduction:

We have begun reading Romans chapter nine. It is the beginning of the three-chapter “trilogy”, here in Romans, which addresses the future of Israel. It is not an easy passage to read, but it is worth studying out, because understanding this passage will eliminate a lot of false teaching that is common today regarding Israel and the church, as well as some other topics, including the security of the believer.

I want to tell you: this chapter was very difficult to me, for years. I got angry every time I read verses 18-20. I thought, “Now, wait! That is a valid question! I want an answer!” I actually had to set it aside for several years, eventually, and wait on God to make me able to understand it. The answer really is right here in God’s Word, but it is only available to those willing to believe God and trust His will.

Ultimately, as long as I am questioning God’s righteousness and Wisdom, this will be a closed chapter for me: a stumbling block at best. The beginning question, posed by Paul himself, is:

Is God Unrighteous?

And he answers the question in strongest terms. Let’s read it:

¹⁴What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid.

¹⁵For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.

¹⁶So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy.

¹⁷For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth.

¹⁸Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth.

¹⁹Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will?

²⁰Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?

²¹Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?

²²What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction:

²³And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory,

²⁴Even us, whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?
²⁵As he saith also in Osee, I will call them my people, which were not my people; and her beloved, which was not beloved.

²⁶And it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people; there shall they be called the children of the living God

In verses 14-26 Paul states that Mercy extends from God. God states that He, and He alone, has the right to choose upon whom he will pour His mercy. His foreknowledge must be considered along with His Sovereignty, here…God knows in advance the kind of person each will be, and where they will place their values. (Remember what we learned about Esau and Jacob in the preceding passage.)

Remember too, that, by definition, both Grace and Mercy can only be extended to those who do not deserve them. Grace is unmerited (unearned, undeserved) favor, while Mercy is the withholding of deserved punishment for real (not imaginary) guilt. So, if all the potential recipients of Mercy are guilty sinners, deserving their punishment, and God chooses to offer Mercy and Grace to only those in a certain category, that is his privilege, and He is being Merciful and Gracious to those few. To the rest He is not being unjust: he is being just…judicially righteous.

If a Federal judge offered a “program” to a group of hardened, convicted criminals whereby they could potentially have their records purged, but most of them rejected it, would he then be unable to make good on his offer to the few who accepted? Or would he simply follow through with the sentencing on all those who rejected the offer, and follow through on the “program” for all those who had accepted his offer? God has offered Grace to the whole human race, down through the ages. Statistically speaking, very few have responded in Faith.

I spoke with a Chinese immigrant a few weeks ago, who had come here with his teenage son, four years ago. He had recently divorced his wife, before having obtained a visa to immigrate to this country, but, as he explained to me, he and she had quarreled continuously during their marriage. Now that he is here, (he explained) he has “received God”. He still has limited English, but I asked whether he would have a chance to reconcile with his wife. He wasn’t sure…she is now a believer too, for which he is grateful—but he cannot help her immigrate, because he is no longer “related” to her. His hope is that his teenage son may become a citizen and move to bring his mother here…in which case, possibly reconciliation can happen. But he choked up and his eyes filled with tears, as he testified to the goodness of God in bringing him to a place where he heard and believed the Gospel, and where he can freely fellowship with other Chinese Christians. He had a respectable job in China; here, he is a janitor. But he is rejoicing, because he has a Walkman or iPod, or some such gadget on his belt, and all day, while he cleans toilets, he is listening to the reading of God’s Word in his own language. My question: Is God unjust to the Billion-plus people left in China? Nope. This guy wants to return as a minister to his people. This man and many others like him are evidence of God’s Grace. We are all condemned sinners, by birth.

Sovereign Mercy

If I were a potter, and if I intended to make fine china, rather than flower-pots, it follows that I will choose the correct kind of fine kaolin clay to begin with. The best human potter in the world cannot make fine china out of common red clay. Regardless of the workman’s skill, the character of the building material will be revealed in the quality of the resulting product.

But God created both the fine kaolin clay, and the common red clay. So, how could he blame either one for being what it is, right? Paul raises that rhetorical question: “Well, then, how can God blame anyone, since He made them the way they are?” He does not directly answer that question; instead, he reminds the “rhetorical questioner” that we are the created things, and God is the Creator.

We are not in a position to question His doing: He defines Righteousness. We have our own ideas, of course, but the fact is, by nature, we are each flawed in our thinking, and cannot second-guess the wisdom of God. Furthermore, it is an uncomfortable fact that all porcelain, whether for fine china or toilet bowls, is all made from that nice kaolin clay. So, in spite of our feeling that it is all due to personal, inescapable differences in the individuals, thus an unfair judgment from an unjust God, the fact is we were all made of the same mud. But here are some thoughts along the line of an answer:

To begin with, it is true that physical, mineral clay is inanimate and has no choices. Humans, on the other hand, are all created in the likeness of God, and all have choices. God knew from eternity past that there would be people who would never value Him for who He is. He created the whole human race in Adam, knowing that a large majority would surely reject Him. I do not have to understand His choice to go ahead with the creation; I do have to accept His sovereignty in making that choice. He is God. I am not.

One thing made clear throughout Biblical history is that every single person has choices to make and that they are held accountable for the choices they made in the light that they had. A person who rebels without any knowledge is less culpable than one who rebels in full knowledge of God. (Satan is the extreme example of the latter.)

What about Pharaoh?

Pharaoh is alluded to, as one whose heart God hardened. That is historically true: but, he had already declared (Exodus 5:2) that he “did not know God”, and initially, it says (Exodus 8:32 and others) that he hardened his own heart. God stepped in during the devastation of Egypt, and saw to it that Pharaoh continually hardened his heart, beyond reason, until everyone around him could see that he was fighting God, and that Egypt was being destroyed by God. Did Pharaoh have a free choice? Yes, he did, but once he had made that choice, God saw to it that he carried it to a ridiculous extreme.

Knowing in advance how various individuals would respond, God saw fit to set them in places that would ultimately demonstrate His glory and His mercy. In the case of the Church, according to verse 24, he selected those vessels of mercy from both Jewish and Gentile sources. According to Hosea 1:10, “In the place where it was said unto them, ‘Ye are not my people,’ (that would include us Gentiles), there it shall be said unto them, ‘ye are the sons of the living God!’” Interestingly, in the context where that verse was originally given, he was speaking of the restoration of Israel; not “saving the Gentiles.” But in Romans 9:24-26, we are told that, prophetically, it also included the Gentiles. I love reading God’s commentary on His own Word, because He has the authority to do and say things I never would have done, or even thought of. It is His Word, and He knows His own intent.

The vessels of dishonor he knew from eternity past, as well, and He chose to place them among both Jewish and Gentile nations. There have been men (and women) of monstrous evil from all sources. There have been heroic figures from all sources. And there will ultimately be people of faith from every nation, every ethnic group, every tribal group, and every language in the world. (Revelation 5:9, 10) By the way, there have been vessels of dishonor among believers, too. The Bible confesses the gross sins of many men and women of God, who, despite their relationship with their Savior, were sadly flawed. Some committed adultery and murder. Some lied, or denied they knew their savior at all. They were still believers, but in a “bad place, spiritually” (as people sometimes say, today) and it cost them dearly.

Finding the Treasure in the Field

Here is something else to consider: with few exceptions, a miner knows that he is looking for ore, not a stand-alone pure element. Gold, for example, is usually heavily mixed with (not compounded with) quartz, and Aluminum always is compounded (not just mixed) with oxygen or silicon. Similarly, Iron is usually compounded with oxygen, among other things.

The miner knows that he needs the richest ore he can find, but that even the best ore will require refinement, and that the refining process will produce dross, or slag, which in itself is usually not of great value, though it can sometimes be used for other purposes (sometimes with which to pave roads, or make abrasives.) But the oxides and other impurities are collected (mined) along with the desired elemental metals. The ore is valuable as ore, due to the metal it contains. God knew the hearts of men before he created them, and the “element” he was looking for was faith: the willingness to believe God. The human race is the ore: the people of faith are the treasure. Hebrews 11:6 states that without faith it is impossible to please God. And NO one is created with faith in God. We are created with a choice: we choose to believe Him, or we choose not to believe Him.

²⁷Esaias also crieth concerning Israel, Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved:

²⁸For he will finish the work, and cut it short in righteousness: because a short work will the Lord make upon the earth.

²⁹And as Esaias said before, Except the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed, we had been as Sodoma, and been made like unto Gomorrha.

³⁰What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, which followed not after righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith.

³¹But Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of righteousness.

³²Wherefore? Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumblingstone;

³³As it is written, Behold, I lay in Sion a stumblingstone and rock of offence: and whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.

Ultimately, the question is: “What will a person do with Jesus, the Christ?” Notice that he says, in verses 32-33 that a stumbling block was set up (the Person of Christ); alluding to Isaiah 8:14 and 28:16 where it says that whoever was offended by that stone would fall, but those who believed on Him would not be ashamed. He says that people who had not been the people of God were being called to be the people of God (quoting Hosea), and that in spite of the numerical growth of fleshly Israel, only a remnant would be saved—those who were saved by faith. He says the loss of Israel would have been as complete as that of Sodom and Gomorrah, except that God had promised to save a remnant. We are seeing here the fulfillment of what Jesus himself said, that few would enter in by the narrow gate, or desire to follow a narrow way…that most would follow the broad way to destruction. It referred to both Jews and Gentiles.

The result has been that the Gentiles who were not even looking for a savior were offered salvation…and many (but still relatively few, compared to the billions of Gentiles on earth today) have joyfully received Him.

Israel claimed to be seeking righteousness, and to be waiting for the Messiah, but they had sought to do so by works of the Law (v. 32), and had rejected faith. So, when He actually arrived, and came to them, they rejected Him out of hand (as they still do, today, largely). They stumbled over the stumbling-stone that God set up throughout all the ages. Faith in a substitutionary sacrifice has always been the stumbling point. People want to think they can earn salvation, or that they are already good enough on their own merit. From Cain to the Anti-Christ, the issue has always been that of “rejecting God’s plan”, and “choosing to supplant it with my own way.” It is interesting, in Jeremiah 2:13, that God called those to be two separate evils. “My people have committed two evils; they have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water.” But faith in God’s chosen Messiah is the treasure for which God seeks.

Jesus addressed this concept in one of the parables, telling of a man who joyfully sold all he had to buy a field he knew contained a treasure. And He said “the field is the World.” Jesus gave his life, and paid for the whole world, to gain the people who would place their faith in Him. He was the man in the parable. They were the treasure.

What about Us?

All humans today will fall into either one group or the other, just as in all other ages. And, even as believers, having been genuinely born again by Grace through Faith, and indwelt by God’s Sprit, we still have a moment-by-moment choice to make: will I, or will I not choose to believe God and follow Him by faith?

If I choose to disobey, it does not inactivate God’s Grace and Mercy, any more than the collective disbelief of ancient Israel negated the promises of God. God has not forgotten Israel, and He will not forget me. But: the disobedience of Israel has been very costly. And my disobedience is costly as well. This life is my only opportunity to “go to work with Jesus”, and to join him in saying “My food is to do the will of Him who sent me and to finish His work!” If I keep putting it off, there will come a time when I am out of time, and I will have very little to show for my life, when I stand before Him. Will He still love me and accept me? Yes! That fact is made abundantly clear in scripture. Will the same rewards be forthcoming? Nope. That fact is also crystal clear. Salvation is a gift… But rewards are earned.

We can pray for Israel, and love her as God’s chosen people, but above all, we should learn from her errors, and resolve to avoid making the same errors. Read the scriptures to find out the path God has chosen for the people of God, and the principles by which He calls us to live. Then choose daily to “trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding” (Proverbs 3:5, 6)

If you want to stir up more faith, remember; “Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.” (Romans 10:17) Go to God’s Word to feed your new nature, and grow strong in Faith.

Next time, we will continue to read, and study, to see how God is keeping His promises to Israel.

Lord Jesus, we pray for the peace of Israel, as you have commanded. We also pray that we will not be blind to your Word, but that we will believe you and follow you as befits the children of God. Please refine us to become the ambassadors of God that you have chosen us to be; conformed to your image, and committed to your service. Amen!

January 23, 2016January 31, 2016

No Condemnation (Part Three)

The Spirit of Adoption

Romans 8:14-27

Introduction:

We have studied the book of Romans over the last several months and we are currently in the middle of the eighth chapter. The key point in Romans eight is that “There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus….”

But there are various ramifications to the fact that there is no condemnation awaiting us. One is that, as believers, we are all indwelt by the Spirit of God. Another is the fact that we still have our old sin nature, and a constant battle of vigilance, as we learn to walk steadfastly with Christ.

But a third aspect of our new life in Christ is a subject that sounds familiar (because we use the same word in our culture) but which actually is much more profound than seems immediately obvious. This is the subject of Adoption, and along with it, the Spirit of Adoption.

There are numerous points made in verses 14-27. I am going to touch on just 15 of them:

We are already the Sons (Greek huios… “heirs”) of God.
We have …present tense… the Spirit of Adoption.
The Spirit assures us that we are the children, (Greek tekna: “born-ones”) of God.
Because we are the offspring of God, we are his heirs, but specifically “joint-heirs” (as opposed to co-heirs; which we will discuss later.)
We believers will all inherit in Christ; but how much we inherit is conditional upon how we serve and “suffer” with Him. (This is not asceticism, by the way. The word “suffering” is associated with the concept of submission, not specifically pain.)
There is Glory coming for all re-born believers, to one degree or another.
That Glory will be revealed when the Sons of God are announced and presented publicly.
The whole creation is waiting for that moment, because the whole creation labors and groans under the curse of God, and cannot escape it until the time appointed by God.
The World will enjoy freedom from the curse after the “Adoption” (Greek huiothesis: the placement of sons) which will occur at the redemption of our physical bodies.
We live and suffer through the indignities of this life in hope of the coming release.
That release is NOT yet seen …we live by faith, hoping in the promise to come.
The Holy Spirit indwells us, helping us to bear the infirmities of this life, and its trials.
We don’t even know how to pray, or what to ask, in prayer.
The Spirit prays for us, speaking the true needs of our hearts before the throne of God
God calls us Saints!

Now! That is a lot of information! Let’s break it down, idea by idea:

Who or What is the “Spirit of Adoption?”

The “Spirit” of whom Paul speaks, in the context of Romans chapter eight, is the indwelling Holy Spirit, not the human spirit (compare verse 16), nor our modern usage of, say, “getting into the spirit of things”. He says, in verses 14 and 15;

¹⁴For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.
¹⁵For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.

He is talking about the same thing that he said in Ephesians 1:13, 14, where he says that we have been sealed in Christ by the Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest, (or “down-payment”) of our inheritance until (there’s the “time clause”) the redemption of the purchased possession…” There in Ephesians, we can see that we are not yet in full possession of our inheritance, in the most practical sense; but we have the indwelling Holy Spirit as a continuing token of the coming fulfillment. Here in Romans, we have the indwelling Holy Spirit as a promise of our coming “placement as sons”. It is the same idea, but in a different context.

Galatians 4:6 echoes this concept, too, stating that “…because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, ‘Abba, Father.’” Here in Romans 8:16, 17 it says,

¹⁶The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:

¹⁷And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.

We are sons, and heirs, but we are not yet in a position to use all of our prerogatives as sons. Galatians 4:1 says that “the heir, so long as he is a child, differs nothing from a servant.” Until the day when God places us in full authority and honor, with Himself, we’re going to struggle along in this flesh, looking and feeling just like all the other people in the world.

The Holy Spirit keeps us safe until that day, and He reminds us constantly of who we are in Christ. So, then; why is he called the Spirit of “Adoption?” I thought we were to be born again as the children of God, not adopted, as if we were homeless puppies at an animal shelter. Well, unfortunately, we haven’t got an appropriate word in English to serve as the equivalent of the Greek word that is translated “adoption.”

What’s Hard to Understand about Adoption?

Let me preface my answer with the fact that “It isn’t what we might have expected it to be!”

Remember that, from God’s perspective, we are the Sons of God now (Greek huios) …already heirs, and already in perfect standing with Him. But we have very little authority, with good reason. We are too immature to safely use the authority of God, so He measures it out carefully, in small doses, and we live by faith, relying on His Wisdom, His provision, and His Grace.

Notice, too, (verse 16) that we are the “children” (“tekna”: off-spring…born-ones) of God. We are not waifs whom He has graciously rescued off the street, bathed, fed and clothed, and accepted as simply being his wards. “Offspring” (born-ones) means that we are his own progeny. That is what the new birth is all about. We are His legitimate children, not someone else’s kids for whom He has simply accepted responsibility.

Adoption, Then and Now:

In our culture, “adoption” virtually always means “legally taking charge of someone who is NOT your offspring, and accepting all future responsibility for their well-being, as well as (usually) affixing your name to them.” That is all great, and a wonderful, honorable thing, but, in most cases, a simple glance makes it obvious to anyone that the adopted child is not your “offspring.” (They don’t look like you!) But here’s the contrast: anyone who has been “born from above” is literally the offspring of God, whether they are really cognizant of that fact or not. To one degree or another, we will look like, act like, and smell like Jesus!

The New Testament word translated “adoption”, here, is the Greek word “huiothesis”. It means the “placement of Sons.” It is a reflection on the Greek and Roman practice of publicly recognizing one’s heir, so that all the people would know that that particular Son held the authority (and riches) of the Father. There was usually only one “heir”. All the others were “sons,” in the usual sense, but this one was the head of the family. With very rare exceptions, the heir was a natural son of the father. Adoption, as a rule, was only applied to one’s own offspring. And, in fact, in the Biblical sense, God only “adopts”, or, “recognizes as heirs”, those who have already been born as his children. No one else is eligible. (Remember, back in verse 9, he said if you do not have the Holy Spirit, you are simply not his.)

No “Universal Fatherhood of God”

Here’s something else to consider: we were not children of God before being born of God. (How can I say such a thing? Aren’t all people the children of God? Everyone assures us that this is the case.) Well…not everyone! Jesus told the Jews of His time (who called themselves the children of God) that they were not the children of God, but of Satan! He said (John 8:44) “Ye are of your father, the Devil!” That is pretty strong language! But Paul echoes it in Ephesians 2:2, 3, saying that we were “the children of disobedience”, and that we were “by nature the children of wrath, even as others”. The Bible does not teach the “universal brotherhood of man”, nor, most emphatically, the “Universal Fatherhood of God” Those are pious-sounding falsehoods taught by false teachers, to blur the perception of our need for redemption. Jesus said “Ye must be born again!” and “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” We have a terrible need, with terrible consequences for failure to meet that need.

All the “predestination” passages we can read are only true of us because we have been born again. We are now predestined to become like God. We are now predestined to be glorified as the heirs of God. We are literally His children, and (though it is not always readily apparent in this life) we are joint-heirs with Jesus. I am told that the word “joint-heir” is a legal specification, and is different than “co-heir.” I was a “co-heir” with my brother and sister. All the inheritance from my Mother was divided equally between us. But being a joint-heir means that all the inheritance in Christ is equally mine…not to be divided. All that the Father has given to Jesus is mine in Him. That is the advantage of being a “joint-heir.”

In terms of “glory” and “rewards,” though, it is apparent that equality is not the norm. When “awards ceremonies” occur in school sports programs, not every player gets the same awards. But: every player has the recognition of having participated. They were on the team.

1^st Corinthians 3:10-15 makes it clear that not everything we build into our lives will stand the test of the “refiner’s fire.” Much of what we count valuable will simply burn away, leaving only what was done in us by the Holy Spirit as having lasting value. There is a bit of a rhyme, saying:

Only one life; ‘twill soon be past! Only what’s done for Christ will last!

Our salvation is never at risk: That is definitely something the Holy Spirit has done in us. But our reward and eternal honor may very well be endangered by sloppy living as servants of God.

What About Suffering?

“…We suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.”

The Biblical word “suffering” does not mean “pain”, necessarily: it means “allowing Jesus to do in us the work He needs to do.” When Jesus came to John the Baptist, and John hesitated to baptize Him, Jesus said “Suffer it to be so for now…” The meaning, of course, was “submit to this: allow it to be the way I say.” We are to allow in our lives the things God decrees, and accept them as a way of glorifying The Savior…willingly accepting the burdens He assigns, and glorifying Him in them. Paul says,

¹⁸For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.

We do already have the first-fruits of the Spirit (because He lives in us), but we are waiting for the “Placement of Sons”—the “adoption”—which will only occur when we get our new bodies.

¹⁹For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.
²⁰For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope,
²¹Because the creature [creation] itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.
²²For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.
²³And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.

The reason the whole earth is waiting for that day, is because, from earthly perspective, it will occur at the beginning of the Millennial Kingdom: When Jesus finally reigns on Earth the curse will be lifted. Peace will reign for the first time since the fall of man. Predators will become herbivores. That’s what we will see the “leopard lying down with the calf,” and the “lion eating straw like an ox,” etc. We will receive our new bodies at the beginning of the tribulation, or thereabouts, actually, as far as I can tell, but the tribulation is anything but peaceful. The world will see the heirs of God for the first time at the beginning of the Millennium.

Therefore, in this life, we go ahead and suffer, to varying degrees. Philippians 1:29 says “for unto you it is given on the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on His name, but also to suffer for His sake.” In this country we have had a pretty easy time, whether we recognize it or not. But all believers, wherever we live, are looking forward to the same Blessed Hope. We are hoping to see the return of the Bridegroom, and we lift our heads expectantly, trusting in His Word, as opposed to our own eyes or public opinion. We see the increasing ruin around us as a symptom of the approaching Day of the Lord, and we hope more strongly in His imminent return.

²⁴For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for?
²⁵But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.

And we don’t wait alone: we are not left to our own devices: we are indwelt by the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Godhead. We can count on Him to know what is really best, and to pray for us and with us as we struggle to walk with God. Paul says,

²⁶Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.
²⁷And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.

Notice that it does not say “groanings which cannot be uttered in English”. It says “…cannot be uttered!” There are people who attempt to use this passage as a justification for “tongues” being used as a prayer language: Sorry, but, that is not what it says. The Holy Spirit knows the real needs in our lives, and He prays accordingly. I am honest enough with myself to admit that I frequently don’t even know what to pray. This passage confirms it, and tells me that it’s OK: God the Holy Spirit does know, and He takes over and gets the message across. I don’t hear it, or see it, and it does not result in my speaking in some other language. It is the Spirit of God, interceding before the Throne of God, on behalf of a Child of God. And he identifies those children—all of them—as Saints. That’s pretty deep stuff. God declares that you are Holy before Him, and set apart for His Service. Take that seriously, please! It is a precious truth.

Conclusion

What can we do with all this? Perhaps the only result of this teaching is that, as believers, we may accept the truth that we have each individually been “born from above” as the literal children of God, through faith in His shed blood. We have been created anew in His likeness, and we should expect to begin seeing His attributes in our lives. We should expect to resemble our Father. He says we are already holy to Him, and we are each, individually, called to His service.

We are frustrated, as was Paul, by the sin that still so easily besets us, but we can recognize that God has made a separation between ourselves and that old “Sin nature”: He is no longer concerned with it. He wants our new nature to come walk with Him, and learn His ways.

We can trust in God’s Holy Spirit to continue to lead us, and comfort us as we struggle and learn, and as we are grieved by the sin in ourselves and in the World. But we can also live in Hope, looking forward to our final release, relief and reward, in Him.

Lord Jesus, make real in our hearts the truth of Your Word, and teach us to live by faith. We look to You, moment by moment, for our strength and sustenance, as we live by faith in Your Name.

January 10, 2016

No Condemnation (Part Two)

The Enemy Within

Romans 8:4-13

Introduction:

Last time, we noted that, due to our new position in Christ, there is no condemnation awaiting us. This is “Positional Truth”: entirely dependent upon the fact that we are in Christ, and not at all dependent upon “how we are doing” in our walk with Him. This is an important distinction, because we tend to be far more conscious of how we feel or how we are acting at the moment—our condition—and we assume that God sees us the same way. Nothing could be further from reality…that is exactly the reverse of the truth. We see ourselves inaccurately, while God sees us clearly, and we need to adjust our thinking to match His, not the other way around.

The Christian has three major enemies. We frequently list them as

The World,
The Flesh, and
The Devil.

That is true, but it doesn’t give any information by which we may defend against those enemies.

“The World” (Greek kosmon), as used in scripture, can refer to the people, but in this context, it is the system of thinking and behavior that influences us all from outside our bodies. It may include peer pressure, advertising, propaganda, philosophy, human reasoning and entertainment of all sorts, none of which are evil in themselves, but all of which can be used to feed our natural bent to turn away from God and pursue our own interests and desires. It is mostly visible, though sometimes very subtle, and it is outside the gate, so to speak. It is all around us, some good and some bad; we are immersed in it, to one degree or another, and we are heavily influenced by it; but it is still outside us. It is the Enemy without the gate, so to speak.

The Devil, or Satan, is the Spirit controlling the pattern of the World’s thinking; he who desires to destroy all the works of God in us. He is the unseen hand behind the evil of the World. We can see the result of his influence, but we cannot see him. He will play along with us, and lure us to destruction through the World and the Flesh. But we don’t see him. He is the Invisible Enemy.

The Flesh (Greek sarka) is the Enemy within. Today we will focus on this enemy, and try to shape our thinking to match what God says.

Defining the “Flesh”

To begin with, I think it is appropriate to remind ourselves that the “flesh” in this case, is not the physical body. At other times in history, people have referred to this entity as their “lower nature”, as if it were some link to the animal world, but that is not appropriate, either, because, ironically, animals do not suffer from this affliction of sin. Animals (with the exception of the serpent, who was under Satan’s personal control) were not involved in the fall. They did not sin; they have never been given a free will with which to rebel against God.

In the Old Testament, Jeremiah 17:9 refers to the flesh, the Adamic nature, as “the heart”. It says that “the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.” Do you think that the scripture means the “central circulatory pump”, when it says “the heart is wicked, and deceitful?” Of course not…but neither is it speaking of the new creation which God describes, when He promises, “I will take away your stony heart and give you a heart of flesh.” (Ezekiel 36:26) The heart God proposes to give is a new creation—the same as the New Testament promises. Language being what it is, then, with all the possible ambiguities, it is important that we carefully read the rest of scripture, and carefully consider the intent, before we jump to conclusions that may wrongly use the Word of God.

The scripture consistently calls the Sin Nature the “flesh”, but contrasts it with “our bodies”. In this chapter, we are told that the “flesh” cannot be subject to God. The body certainly can be, however—it does exactly what we choose to do with it, and, in Romans six we were told that we are to yield our “members” (physical bodies) as “instruments of righteousness” for God to use to His own glory. That would be impossible if the physical body cannot be subject to God.

In Romans five we are informed that we were once “enemies” of God. Now why would that be? How could we become God’s enemies? Ephesians 2:3 says we “were by nature, the children of wrath”: We were born that way! But God intervened and provided a substitute, so, instead of every sinner dying for his or her own sins, one perfect sacrifice forever satisfied the righteousness of God, and allows us access to God through faith in that blood sacrifice. Believers were each given a new nature, created by God at the moment of saving faith, and that is our “new identity”. God no longer deals with the identity of our old nature (our Adamic nature; our Sin nature) though it is still there. He calls it the “Old Man” in Ephesians 4:22, and confirms that, even in a believer’s life, it can neither be redeemed nor repaired. It is irreparably corrupt, and just continues to get worse, if we feed it. What a hopeless situation it would be if we were left to fight this battle alone, like a toddler left alone to fend off the attack of a rabid skunk.

But We Are Not Alone!

No such thing has been suggested: Jesus promised, “I will not leave you comfortless.” (We are not alone!) He promised that he and the Father would make their abode with the believer, and that the Holy Spirit would indwell each believer personally. (John 14:16-23… read it!)

One may wonder, then, why the believer ever has a problem with sin: the answer is: In terms of day by day choices, the Lord has not reneged on His gift of a free will. He longs for our fellowship, but will not force himself upon us.

With all the above information as the backdrop for the message of Paul, we are invited to examine the source of our struggles in detail: We are told that Jesus condemned Sin in the Flesh by living a perfect life, and dying a perfect sacrifice, and we are told why:

⁴That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

So, the result of our being set free from our enslavement to sin is that the righteousness reflected in the Law of God (not the condemnation, and guilt) could be showcased and fulfilled in us. We are free to serve; but we can only do so via the ministry of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

Why is it so Hard to Live for God?

Because the old nature is actively sabotaging our efforts! And it always will!

⁵For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.
⁶For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.

I don’t like to keep hammering on this point, but: in case anyone has missed it; the concept of “death” in the Bible is a little different than how we think of it in our culture. We have been taught to believe that “when you’re dead, you’re dead!” …which doesn’t really explain much… but the fact is, when we are physically dead, our spirit and soul have been (usually permanently) separated from our physical body. When Adam ate the fruit of the forbidden tree, he and Eve died instantly, as promised, but it was not physical death. There we saw the first example of spiritual death—the spirit and soul of Adam and Eve were separated from God. Were they happy about it? No; they could no longer even stand to be in the presence of God. They fled from Him because they were guilty sinners; no longer the innocent creatures they had been. Not happy!

So…which kind of death is warned of, here in verse 6? Is Paul warning that if you sin, you will lose your physical life? Obviously not, because he just finished telling us of his own struggle against sin, in chapter seven. He did not die, physically, but he begged to know how he could be delivered from “the body of this death!” (What body? What death?)

As long as we live in these mortal bodies there exists the possibility of sin, and, with it, the repeated separation from fellowship with the living God; so that, far from loving His presence, we flee from Him, either in fear or resentment. That is separation from God, though it is a temporary condition, and, here in Romans Chapters 7 and 8, as well as other places, it is called “death”. And notice that in verse 5, he states that those who are living in the flesh focus their minds on the things of the flesh—they pursue their old carnal concerns and desires. Many of those old ways seem no different than the new; for instance, I still go to work when I am in the flesh, as well as when I am walking with God. But my motives are not the same. I am blind to the opportunities to honor God when I am “minding the things of the flesh.”

What’s the Problem?

In Romans 8:7, 8 we see why this is true:
⁷Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.
⁸So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.

The old nature has not changed its allegiance! Remember, it was an enemy of God by birth: that is where we got our old nature: Being born of Adam, we received the Adamic, fallen nature. Being born from above (born of God, born again), by Grace, we have received a new nature. But the old nature remains unchanged and unrepentant. The result is that as an unbeliever still “in the flesh” (positionally, that is—still unsaved) I cannot please God…period.

And, when I revert to sin, even as a saved man, I am functionally “in the flesh” again, though I already have been permanently transferred to the kingdom of God’s Son. Remember, God no longer sees me in Adam! He sees me only in Christ. He says that the Adamic nature is no longer the person He will deal with. The old nature has been separated from me as far as identity and authority, but not residency; just as Adam and Eve were separated from God in terms of fellowship, but not physical presence. They wanted out of His presence, because of their sin. I want to be separated from my old sin nature, just as Paul wanted to, and for the same reason. But God says it is already a “done deal”.

How Can We Escape our Bondage to the Flesh?

⁹But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.
¹⁰And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.

Here again is the issue of “positional truth:” If you have the Holy Spirit, then you have a new nature; and that new nature is the only one God chooses to address: He says that you (the new creation) are under the guidance and control of the Holy Spirit. Paul addresses this issue a little differently over in 1^st Corinthians 3:3. There he is speaking to immature Christians who are allowing the old nature to control their lives and their decision-making: he says they are “carnal”—fleshly. (The NIV translates this to say “worldly”, but the Greek word is “sarkikoi”, from the same root as “flesh”—“sarka”. “The world” is a different enemy, though it is certainly in partnership with the flesh and the Devil.)

He goes on to state that if you do not have the Holy Spirit, then you are not saved…you do not belong to Jesus. Every believer has been baptized into the body of Christ by the Holy Spirit, and has become a permanent part of the Body of Christ; the Church universal. Corresponding to that position, every believer has also been indwelt by the Holy Spirit, and Jesus says He will be with us forever. (John 14:16) Our gifts are often different, but our position is the same: in Christ.

Finally, he says, since Jesus Christ is in you (via the Holy Spirit, you are actually indwelt by the entire Trinity), then the body alone is subject to death: you (the new creation) have eternal life, and your spirit is alive with the Holy Spirit, and is forever separated from the death of the old sin nature. He also reiterates that the righteousness of Christ has been imputed to your account. He says that the “Spirit is life because of righteousness.” (Whose righteousness? That of Christ!)

Again, Paul is quick to let us know that the “flesh”—the old sin nature—is not the same as our physical bodies, as we noted in the introduction. He says:¹¹But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.

The word “quicken” means to “bring to life”. What would be the point of condemning the body, only to bring it to life again? It is the physical “mortal body” to which God will again grant life. The old Adamic nature is lost and cannot be redeemed. It remains the enemy of God.

¹²Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh.

You don’t owe your old self anything. You can’t improve it in any way, though it can temporarily look as though you did. The core issue remains the same: the old nature is not subject to God, and it cannot be made subject to God, no matter who does the re-training. Also, you cannot hope to “get it out of your system” by succumbing to its demands. That is like “eating all the brownies so they won’t tempt you.” That really doesn’t help! Don’t give in!

¹³For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.

When I am living according to the desires of the enemy within, in terms of fellowship, I am currently separated from God. 1^st John 1:5-7 says I cannot walk in darkness and simultaneously have fellowship with God. That is the “body of death” from which Paul begged to be freed.

But notice how he says we are to be freed: He says “Through the Spirit” we are to mortify the deeds of the body…the “body of this death” from which Paul sought freedom.

And that is the key to Romans chapters 6-8: Faith in the indwelling Holy Spirit! Please notice that we were not admonished to “change our ways”, “get right or get left”, “turn or burn”, or any other such tripe. People have smugly quoted these and other pious warnings for centuries, and such thoughts define the heart of religiosity; but they have nothing to do with either salvation or sanctification. It is only the self-satisfied prattling of the self-righteous religionists…not the voice of God. It is based on works, not faith; Law, not Grace.

What Shall We Do, Then?

Jesus originally called us to place our faith in Him for Salvation, by Grace. Now He calls us to confess that we cannot produce righteousness on our own, any more than we could save ourselves from sin. John 15:5 says, “…without me ye can do nothing.” He didn’t say “without me you can’t do as much.” He said “…without me ye can do nothing!”

We are called to allow the Holy Spirit to live through us, by faith…and He will produce the Fruit of the Spirit. In Galatians 5:16, God says “Walk in the Spirit and you shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh.” Remember, it’s a blanket promise: if the Holy Spirit is in control of your life, then the old sin nature will have no say at all… you will do the things God has called you to do.

Lord Jesus, by your Holy Spirit, enable us to do the things you have called us to do, and to be the men and women of God you have called us to be.

October 17, 2015

What Do We Know About Death?

Romans 5:12.
Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:

Introduction:

We have already seen our old condition and our old position as lost sinners, separated from God; and we have seen how God saved us. We already have seen that we were once enemies of God by nature: But how did we get that way? How did the world get to be such a mess?

We can see the beauty of the creation in the world around us, but there is a cruel reality hidden in all that beauty: virtually every living thing depends on the death of some other living thing, in order to survive. In fact, with the exception of green plants, which are capable of photosynthesis, thus making food from sunlight and water and mineral nutrients, all living things are utterly dependent upon the death of others to survive; in fact, even those green plants grow better with some dead things under their roots. And there are even carnivorous plants, which, though they can carry out photosynthesis, still consume insects as part of their diet.

Death is simply a stark reality for every living thing. Everything dies. We try to avoid death as long as possible, clinging to life, calling it self-preservation: in fact, every living thing strives for self-preservation, some more vitally than others. There are some plants, which, if cut off, both the root and the upper plant will die—neither can survive without the other, and neither can regenerate the lost part. Others may spring up from the roots, but the upper part, once severed, will die. Still others will aggressively seek to create roots, if they can reach the ground.

Years ago, I was given some willow logs, with which to make violin blocks and linings. A large limb had fallen during a storm, and the homeowners were happy to have me take it away. I didn’t have time to process it immediately, so I cut it into sections a few feet long, and tossed it on the ground, near my shop, expecting to get back to it soon. This was not a pile of green twigs; it was heavy sections of log, perhaps 10-12” in diameter, with rough, thick bark. But a few weeks later I noticed that it looked as though grass was growing all over those logs, so I went to see what it was. Every square inch of the upper half of each log, exposed to air and sun, had sprouted tiny willow leaves, processing sunlight and water. And when I turned the log sections over, the whole underside of each was covered with white roots, reaching for the soil. That is real vitality! The plant was doing its best to survive the twin catastrophes of the storm and my chainsaw.

But, if life is so precious, and if every living thing strives to stay alive, how did death come into the world? And why? Perhaps we need to answer some general questions concerning death, before addressing the specifics:

What is Death?

What is Death? (And what is it not?)

We have seen earlier, that spiritual death is the separation of the human spirit from God, and that physical death is the separation of the human spirit from the body. That is a nice, clinical definition, but it doesn’t really answer all the questions surrounding death. Besides, there is a third kind of Death, called “the second death”: it is eternal separation from God in eternal judgment, in the Lake of Fire. We don’t like talking about that, or even thinking about it, but that is separation, too…of the permanent sort. Now, let’s consider what Death is not:

Death is not “cessation of existence.” We tend to see death as the “cessation of life”…and in some sense, that is true…but in reality, the human spirit does not cease to live, any more than the angelic spirits cease to live. They, like we, are created beings, and, like them, we have a beginning point somewhere in time, but no real end…just a destination in eternity. We have a choice about that destination…they did, too. Some chose to rebel, and are eternally separated from God. Everything that was good in them withered away, leaving only the sin. We call them fallen angels, evil spirits, or demons. They were not offered the grace of God, because they sinned while knowing God face to face. We sin ignorantly, never having seen God, and knowing virtually nothing about Him. That does not relieve us from responsibility; it only makes us eligible for God’s Grace, if we choose to accept it. Grace is a gift from God. It cannot be earned, and is never “deserved”. But it can be actively sought, and willingly received.

Death is also not “natural”. It was not God’s original intent, nor was it a necessary part of the “cycle of life”, as the popular saying is today. We were created to be with God and like God throughout eternity, in fellowship with Him. Our real nature is eternal…and we can choose to be eternally with God, transformed into His likeness; or we can choose to flee from God, deny His existence, or even to actively, deliberately rebel against Him, maintaining our separation at all cost: and that can become our eternal state—separated from God.

Death is not a “friend”. 1^st Corinthians 15:26 says Death is the last enemy that God will destroy. But, for us, Death is a powerless enemy: God says “Death has lost its sting.” For believers, Death is “graduation day”…we leave our body and go directly to be with Him. The Grave has no victory over the believer’s life. We do not go down to “dusty death”, as Shakespeare wrote. Death, for us, is a shadow, at worst. Psalm 23 speaks of “walking through the valley of the shadow of death”…Notice: walking (not “falling”) through (not “into”) the valley (not “the pit”) of the shadow (not the “harsh reality”) of death. Death is not a friend, nor is it comfortable, but it has lost its ability to harm the believer.

So: How did Death Begin?

Romans 5:12 is a critical doctrine because it clears up several errors in human thinking:

For one thing, there are folk who believe that there was an earlier creation in scripture, before the one detailed in chapters one and two of Genesis, and that it was destroyed by God. They claim that to be the origin of all the fossils. They use this notion to try to reconcile what they think is scientific evidence with what seems to be scripturally obscure truths. They are saying that there was once a whole world of animals and people that all died before Adam was created, and that world was destroyed, so that the Creation we read about in Genesis 1:1-3 is a “start-over” rather than a real “Beginning”. But, if that were so, then Romans 5:12 is not true. Do you see why?

Romans 5:12 states unequivocally that Death came into the world through the sin of one man…Adam. That one man, a created individual (with no parents, just a Creator), was given the authority to make a decision, in Genesis 2:17—he was told that he must not eat the fruit of a certain tree, and that if he did so, then he would die on that day. He did eat, and he died spiritually that very moment—fellowship between God and Man was broken…Man was spiritually separated from God. Later, his spirit was separated from his body, as well, which is what we call physical death.

I am reasonably certain that he did not understand (nor do we) the incredibly diverse and horrible results that would spring from his decision to disobey. The whole human race was plunged into sin, and Death entered the world, as a part of the curse. Prior to the curse, there was evidently no necessity for death at all.

But, how could all the death that supposedly happened in the destruction of the earlier creation have occurred, if there was no death in the world until Adam’s sin? The two ideas cannot be reconciled. There either was death before Adam, or there was not. There cannot be a world full of dead things, and the fossils of dead things, etc., and never have been any death.

But: if the “old world” that was overthrown in 2^nd Peter 2:5 was specifically, and simply, the world before the flood (which is exactly what it says it was), then it all makes sense—and the fossils everywhere are the result of that cataclysm, not a separate, much older creation.

As a race, we are far too anxious to try to “reconcile the Bible” to modern science. Why should we do so at all? Why not do the reverse? Recognize that God is true and every man a liar by nature, then try to reconcile the science to the Bible. The people who study geology and paleontology with that idea in mind consistently discover that the Genesis Flood answers the questions of the Geologic Clock very satisfactorily. People who go with the reverse in mind have already decided the Bible is not true, and are looking for “proof”, so of course, they will find it.

There will always be those who reject the account of the Genesis flood out of hand, but, as a rule, those same individuals consistently reject ALL Biblical truth as fable. Unfortunately, the fact is that a “natural, random-chance, evolutionary, Mother Nature and Father Time” world-view and the Biblical Creation view, with a sovereign God and a fallen Creation are mutually exclusive. They cannot both be true…they could both be false, or the first could be true and the second fable or the first a lie and the second the truth. But they cannot both be true. You have to choose. It has never been a case of the “geologic clock” lying…it has only been a case of people consistently (and/or deliberately) misreading the “clock.”

Why did Death happen?

One thing we find out in Ephesians 3:10, 11 is that God had a purpose when he began the creation…actually, probably several purposes; but one thing we are told is that the entire “human experiment”, for lack of better term, is specifically intended to demonstrate the manifold Wisdom of God to the angelic hosts, for all eternity, and (Ephesians 2:7), throughout eternity, to show the riches of God’s Grace to all created beings, in his kindness toward us through Christ.

Perhaps to some folk that won’t mean much, but it did, to me. Knowing that God is using my life to demonstrate His own Wisdom to the angelic beings all over the universe makes all my inept muddlings seem a little more worthwhile. It seems to somehow add some eternal purpose to life.

We see the tragedies in life, and they are very difficult to reconcile with what we know as the Goodness of God. But we are less than toddlers, in terms of comprehension: we have no idea what is really going on in life. The harder things get on this Earth, the more important it becomes to know the God who holds the future, and to not lean to our own understanding, desperately hoping that we can somehow stave off disaster. God clearly says that disaster is coming. For example, we are commanded to “pray for the peace of Jerusalem”, and yet we are told that at the end, when Jesus returns, Jerusalem will be under siege as never before, and ready to be destroyed, overrun by its enemies.

We are commanded to spread the Good News of the death and burial and resurrection of Christ—the Gospel of salvation through His blood…but we are also told that few will believe it, and that the majority will choose to ignore the message or attack the messengers.

We can see, both scripturally and experientially, that the World, as a whole, is an Enemy of the God who created it. We can see that things have not improved over the ages—that the crucifixion would be just as likely today as it was 2000 years ago.

The coming Judgment is completely just and righteous…as a race, we deserve the coming destruction. As a race, we have emulated the sin of Adam, and followed in the steps of Cain, Esau, and Balaam. And, true to form, sin never affects only the sinner—there are always those who suffer the consequences of our sins, who were not the perpetrators…collateral damage, if you want to call them that. Our children, though guilty of their own sins, will also suffer the results of ours. A drunk driver doesn’t destroy only himself, but people in other cars, or pedestrians, or his own children, who are in his car and are destroyed with him. This is an eternal principle: while no one is punished for someone else’s sin, we are all affected by it.

The fact of the matter is that, spiritually speaking, the whole race was “in Adam” when he chose to sin. We all sinned with him. We didn’t just inherit his sin nature; we fell into sin with him, and have proven it on an individual basis, ever since. “Death passed upon all for that all have sinned.” Notice that the sentence is past tense: “…for all have sinned….” It does not say (present tense) “for all sin…”, though that is also true. The fact is, we sinned with him. But, what else can we learn from this passage? (There is a good side to this story:)

It was Adam, not Eve!

The other (less important in some ways, but still common and destructive) doctrine unseated by Romans 5:12 is the idea that Eve brought sin into the world: She absolutely did not. Was she involved? She absolutely was. But did she have the authority to make a decision for the whole human race? No! Only Adam had that authority. This passage, along with others, states clearly that Adam’s sin, not Eve’s, brought the destruction we see around us. (So don’t blame women!)

In fact, if we go back and read the record in Genesis 3:1-7, we see that nothing at all happened until Adam ate the fruit. It does not say that Eve sinned, and ran off to cover her nakedness with leaves, and then Adam followed her example. It says that after Adam ate, “then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they saw that they were naked”…etc. Why is this important?

Two Races of Man: “In Adam”, and “In Christ”

Perhaps it is a small point, to some, but Adam became the father of a fallen race—the whole human race. It was strictly his doing that brought about the fall. The theological term for this idea is called the doctrine of “Federal Headship.” Adam is the “Federal Head” of our fallen race. Jesus eventually headed up a new Man. The old Man is fallen: the New Man is not. So those who are born again through Christ are part of that “new Man”. And the new man did not come through the old man, but through the Woman.

The woman was physically separated from man before the fall…and, though she was affected by the fall, and involved in the fall, the “Seed of Woman” (from Genesis 3:15) was to be the Savior of the World. I don’t know whether that connection is theologically important, but it is there, and it seems worth pointing out. Jesus, as the only human without a human father—truly virgin-born—is the “Seed of Woman”, in the fullest sense.

In 1^st Corinthians 15:22, the distinction between the two races is made clear: “all in Adam died…all in Christ shall be made alive.” The issue of position—location—is before us again. There are two possible positions for a human: to be still “in Adam”, where they were born, or, having been born again (also called “born from above”), to be “in Christ”. If they are in Adam, they are still dead in their sins, and separated from God: if they have been born again as a child of God, they are “in Christ” and alive forever. That is a pretty sharp separation, there! It is literally the difference between life and death.

What about You?

If you have chosen Jesus as the blood-sacrifice for your personal sin, and placed your faith in His finished work at the Cross, then you are “in Christ”. The facts of Romans 5:12, though completely true in you, have also been set aside forever. God has imputed to you the righteousness of Christ, you are sealed in Him, and you will spend eternity with Him.

If you have doubts about where you stand with God, please speak to anyone here in the church. The Scripture is abundantly clear: you do not have to wait until you die to find out whether you have eternal life: You can know today.

Jesus said, “He that hears my Word, and Believes on Him who sent me, HAS everlasting life!” You can choose to place your trust in His blood this moment, and know that you have eternal life, because He promises that it is so.

Please choose life!

Lord Jesus, give us Your Grace for salvation; Your Grace for living; and Your Grace for day by day Service: for the sake of your Glory. Amen

October 4, 2015

Justified by Faith

**Justified by Faith—What Then?**

Romans 5:1-11

Introduction:

We have been studying the book of Romans, and have just completed chapter four, where we examined the question of “What saved Abraham?” We were able to determine that it was definitely faith that saved Abraham; that God definitely accounted him righteous based strictly upon faith. We saw that we are saved by the same means. When we placed our trust in Jesus as our savior, we became children of God, and were permanently counted righteous by the Holy God who had once condemned us as lost sinners. The righteousness of Christ was posted to our individual accounts as we trusted in Him.

That is our foundation: the righteousness of Christ. The rest of the epistle to the Romans is building on that foundation-stone, the Person of Christ in the individual’s life. So, the first thing Paul addresses is that particular aspect of our new life in Christ.

We ARE Justified, and we HAVE Peace with God

¹Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:

Therefore (on the basis of all that we read in chapter four) being justified (declared righteous) by faith (not works), we have (present tense) peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Now there is an awful lot in that verse alone! Notice this is peace with God. Peace between us and Him; He is no longer condemning us as lost sinners, as in Romans chapter three. We are no longer at war with one another. (Did you know that you were an enemy of God, by birth? Take a peek at verse ten, down below! It says that “when we were enemies” he died for us!) But now, we have peace with God through our Lord (Greek; “kurios” — master) Jesus Christ. Later on we will look at a different kind of Peace—the Peace of God. But this Peace is peace with God.

This is a positional truth: my position has changed: my location has changed, so, as a result, my standing has changed. I am now in Christ, so my standing has been changed from “dead in sins” to “alive in Christ”. I went from being condemned by God as a lost sinner to being declared righteous by that same Holy God, on the basis of faith in the blood of Jesus. I went from being an enemy of God by natural birth, to being a child of God by spiritual re-birth. I have peace with God, and it cannot be lost. Romans chapter four states that God will never again impute sin to me. He sees me as permanently righteous. Where? How? In Christ, through Christ, by means of Christ. (By the way, in case anyone is wondering, “Christ” is just the Greek form of “Messiah”— the anointed one.)

Consider, then: my standing has been permanently changed to being “In Christ”. But what about my “state?” My condition? My condition can change from day to day, or even from moment to moment. In fact, the Peace of God, that we mentioned a moment ago is completely conditional. It depends upon my “state”, not my “standing”. My standing is permanently perfect in Christ. My state varies wildly, like Oregon weather. But, in reality, my “state” or condition only has two possibilities, as well. I am either in fellowship, or out of fellowship. There is no “in-between.”

We will address the issue of fellowship more fully as we read more.

We HAVE Access to God

²By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

In Hebrews 10:19-22, (turn there) we see that we are invited to “draw near” to God “through the veil, that is to say, His flesh”. Remember the tapestry they called the “veil” in the temple? It was a thick opaque fabric that hung from floor to ceiling (60 feet tall), between the Holy of Holies and the rest of the Holy Place. Only the high priest could enter there, and that only once a year. There was no other approach to the Ark of the Covenant; the Mercy Seat—the throne of God. And the priest had to go under the veil to enter.

When Jesus died on the cross, the veil in the temple was torn from top to bottom. The way was opened for any believer to enter. We are told in Hebrews 10 that the veil represented the body of the Messiah. When he died, the veil was torn; and the way to God is open. We are to enter through that veil: through his broken flesh at the Cross. There is no other access to God. The access we have, initially, at salvation, is by faith in Jesus and his shed blood. The continuing access we have as believers is by the same means. The reason we can speak in prayer, and know that God hears us, is because we have access to him via the Lord Jesus Christ. We enter His presence in the sure knowledge of his sacrifice giving us access to the Father. This is why Jesus said (John 14:6) “No man cometh unto the Father but by Me.” He meant it quite literally.

This is both a positional and a conditional truth. Because I am in Christ, positionally, I have access to God, and He will never condemn me. He is literally my Father, now; whereas, before I was in Christ, He was only my creator. He is available to me regardless of my condition. But, if I am not in fellowship with Him, then I still cannot approach Him in prayer without confessing my sins. Psalm 66:18 says “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the LORD will not hear me.” It is not that He cannot hear me; it is that He will not listen, if I am in sin.

1^st John 1:5-7 states three things:

God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all
If I say that I have fellowship with Him, but I walk in darkness, I am lying. I can’t have fellowship with God when I am in sin…when there is unconfessed sin in my life.
If I walk in the light as He is in the light, I can have fellowship with him (and with other believers.)

There are two uses of the noun “light”, in scripture. One is in regard to natural light—photons—physical light. The other has to do with spiritual light; moral light—the continuing knowledge of God. Jesus is the Light of the world in the second sense, and will someday be the light of the world in the physical sense as well. I think the scripture makes it clear in Genesis that He was originally the physical light of the world, but gave that function to the heavenly luminaries on the fourth day of creation. They will not be needed after the New Heaven and New Earth are in place. The Lamb will once again be the light.

So: for the moment, the light in which we are to “walk” is the light of God’s Word, illuminated by the Holy Spirit. We are told that if we do not walk in the light, we cannot have fellowship with God. (By the way, this is an eternal truth. There has never been a time when a person could be in sin and have fellowship with God. Amos 3:3 indicates that two cannot “walk together, except they be agreed”.)

We have access to God by faith. We come to him, knowing that we are saved, but still sinners. We approach through confession (1^st John 1:9) believing that he will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Then we can bring our worship and praise and thanksgiving, or make our petition, praying for others or ourselves.

It helps me to remember the proper order of things when I think of the admonition that we are to “cast” our cares upon Him. (1^st Peter 5:7) Using the letters of the word “CAST” in an acrostic:

C (Confession)
A (Adoration—worship, praise, etc.)
S (Supplication…intercessory prayer, prayer for mercy, blessing, specific needs, etc.)
T (Thanksgiving)

Now: does my prayer have to take this exact form? Of course not. But if I am hiding sin in my heart, I need to be aware that God does not obligate himself to listen to other issues. The sin issue must be dealt with first. After that, we are free to bring our thoughts and concerns to Him. By the way, this is how we receive the Peace of God. (Philippians 4:6, 7) “Be careful for nothing, but in every thing, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God, and the Peace of God which passes all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” Do you see how that is a conditional Peace?

He gave a command: “Be anxious for nothing, but in every thing, by Prayer…” Do you see how, if you do NOT obey the command, you will not receive the Peace? So, the condition was obedience…obedience to a specific command.

Before we move on, let’s compare the two ideas; position and condition: When we say that salvation is “positional, not conditional” do we mean that there are no conditions to be met in order to be saved from our sins? No—there were two conditions: Jesus said “He that hears my words” (there’s the first condition) “and believes on Him who sent me” (there’s the second condition) “HAS everlasting life.” There’s the promise. But the fact is, after having met those two conditions (hearing the Gospel and believing in it), there are no more conditions. The transaction is permanent. And our standing in Him is secure forever, because it is unconditional. My state is another matter, entirely, and depends on how I am responding to Him right now.

But our future is secure, and we hope in the Glory of God

We Hope in the Glory of God

We know that the Glory of God is what sustained the nation of Israel during their flight from Egypt; in a pillar of cloud by day, and a pillar of fire by night. His glory stood between them and the pursuing army the night before they crossed the Red Sea. His glory filled the tabernacle, so that none could enter, on the first day is was completed, and His Glory shone from Sinai, filling the sky and air with thunder and dark clouds. Later, that same burning glory shone from the newly completed Temple that Solomon had built.

The disciples were witnesses of his personal glory: God the Son, in His glorified body, on the mount of transfiguration. We will be transformed to be like him, in our new bodies. And, today, the hope of his glory now sustains us, as we live in a life that is not particularly glorious, and is sometimes filled with grief and pain, disease, and death. We know how life got that way, and are looking forward to seeing the end of the story, as we have already been told how it ends.

We Glory in our Hard Times

³And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience;
⁴And patience, experience; and experience, hope:

⁵And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.

Meanwhile, knowing the glory of God, in the dimmest sense, we ourselves can, and should glory in tribulations, knowing that the hard times we now endure will have wonderful results; increasing our patience, building experience, and deepening hope. The hope we have in Christ affects us in a positive way, not negative. Even if we hope for things we do not live long enough to see, we are not made ashamed, because it results in the Love of God flowing through us by the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

Consider how many millions of God’s saints have lived their whole lives in hope of His coming, knowing it would happen, but not knowing when…just like you and I. In fact, even the Old Testament believers were looking for the coming Messiah. Job said “I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that He shall stand upon the earth in the latter day…” Job lived about 2000 years B.C.! And he was living in hope, waiting for a coming Redeemer. The effect upon his life was that he trusted God in the hardest of times. His testimony was good, and he has eternal reward.

But where did we start out?

Remember Where We Started

⁶For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.

⁷For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die.

⁸But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
Paul briefly reminds us that it is specifically through Jesus’ death that we have access to God. He says that we had nothing to offer—we were without strength. And, as a final reminder of our real (former) position outside of Christ, he reminds us that we were not “innocent bystanders”, but decidedly ungodly. We were not “nice little misguided waifs”, but hell-bound sinners!

We would find it a hard decision to deliberately give our life for someone else. All our training and nature says “preserve self at all cost”. Even if we could see that the person involved is a valuable, righteous person, and a good man, to boot, it would be hard. Military personnel receive rigorous enough training that they might do so. A parent might do so, for a child; or a spouse for his or her partner. These are all examples of responding to the need of friends, family, etc. But Jesus did not die for “good people”, or for his friends—he died for bad people, his enemies: us.

What is the Result?

⁹Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.

¹⁰For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.
¹¹And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement.

So (Paul’s logic continues), since Jesus deliberately died for us when we were lost, rebellious, hell-bound sinners, how much more, now, as the children of God, will we not be kept by Him? He did the hard part of the work to save us when we truly were of very questionable value. Now, since we are the literal children of God, He sees us as being of unquestionable worth… not because of anything we have done, but because of the new creation He has made in us. He will not lose us under any conditions. Paul says that as we were reconciled (permanently) with God through his death, we shall (continually) be saved by his life. As a result, we rejoice in God, through Christ, because we now have that reconciliation. He has declared us righteous, and we are already reconciled to God…whether we feel that way or not.

Jesus spoke briefly on this subject, too: He said that He knows His sheep, and they hear His voice, and they follow Him, and He gives them eternal life, and they shall never perish.

Do you see why this is a critically important doctrine to a believer? Paul is making a point of letting us know the logic of and the security of the believer’s standing with God. He is arming us against the creeping, whispering fear that comes to the believer and suggests, “Well, now you’ve done it! God will never forgive you now! You promised Him you would never do that again, and here you are again, wallowing in sin! You may as well just give up!” (From whom do you think that attack is coming? God is giving you the defense against that attack!)

If you understand that Jesus died for you when you were an enemy of God, and utterly lost, and that as a re-born child of God, you are infinitely more precious to God now than ever before, then you should be able to see that He will never allow you to be lost. He will continue to keep you in Christ, and will continue to shape your life into His own likeness, rebuilding you to be to His Glory.

Let’s daily learn to trust Him more, and allow him to shape us in that way.

Lord Jesus, give us the Grace to trust in your mercy, and in your Love. Teach us to walk with you by faith, and to be a blessing to those around us as a result. Help us to grow to be the men and women of God that you have called us to be.

September 19, 2015

Abraham’s Saving Faith: Grace and Imputation

The Faith of Abraham

Romans Chapter 4

Introduction:

In Chapters 1-3, Paul has just finished explaining the Salvation offered through Grace…and the fact that it is the only solution offered by God for the completely epidemic Sin of the human race. All are involved; all are infected; all are guilty; all are condemned. So…all are included in the offer of salvation through the single sacrifice of Jesus Christ. God completely “levels the playing field”, in terms of a person’s eligibility for the gift. No one is excluded for reasons of origin, depth of depravity, or relative personal worth (as humans see worth). We are told that the whole world is condemned already. (Jesus confirmed this, and said that believing in Him is the way to accept God’s offer of salvation.)

Paul stated that justification (which means “being declared righteous”) is available strictly on the basis of faith in Jesus’ shed blood. (Romans 3:25) He further pointed out that the teaching of Grace, far from annulling the Law of God, confirms its truth and authority. The Law is what sheds the light of God’s spiritual “pathology” on the life of every human, and declares that we are all fatally infected with sin. One can either admit that truth, or deny it. We can “demand a second opinion”; but the only other sources of such information are either consciously subject to the will of God, and will cite his Law as their authority to diagnose, or they are in conflict with the Law of God, and will either attempt to set aside the authority of God or deny it completely. We eventually have to choose who to trust.

What Saved Abraham?

4 ¹What shall we say then that Abraham our father, as pertaining to the flesh, hath found?

²For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory; but not before God.
Paul raises Abraham as a case in point, through whom he simultaneously explains the principle of Grace and the principle of Imputation. He poses the question, “Was Abraham justified by works or by faith? If it was by works then he had something to boast about.” But God doesn’t permit boasting, in regard to Grace. Paul points out that Abraham was declared righteous when he believed God, not when he began doing the things he was famous for. The works were a result of faith. The faith was what moved God to declare him righteous. (See Genesis 15:6)

³For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness.

⁴Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt.
Paul follows this with the statement that (obviously) when a person works, their reward is wages, not a gift. If I work for employers, they owe me my wages. They are legally bound to pay me. I do not consider my wages a gift. But Grace specifically means “un-earned favor”. If you can do anything to earn it, then it is not Grace. You cannot mix Grace and works. Either God’s Grace is what saves you or you think you can earn his favor, and will try to save yourself by works. There is no middle ground.

What is the Weak Link?

Where I work, we build ocean-going barges. The chain “towing-bridles”, attached to the barges, are huge… they have to be, to pull the enormous weight of the loaded barge, and not snap in heavy seas, as they are slacked and jerked taut again by the waves and the raw power of the sea-going tugboat. (How huge am I talking about? Each separate link weighs 126 pounds or more. Each link is cast in a mold that encapsulates the next link, so that the whole chain is a series of 126-pound cast-steel links. There are much bigger ones out there: these are just what we use.)

Now, consider: if I took one of those links out, and replaced it with binder twine, what would the strength of the chain be? Obviously the weak link would be the binder twine, and, in fact, it would not even hold the weight of the chain, let alone pull the barge. In fact, if I ran hundreds or even thousands of loops of the twine through the two adjacent links, it would still be impossible to approach the strength of the chain—and the twine would be decidedly the weakest link.

So what is the point of this illustration? A chain is only as strong as its weakest link. If my works are, at any level, responsible for my salvation or my security in Christ, then, ultimately, my security is completely dependent upon my works, as they are undeniably the weakest link. When God says salvation is “by Grace, through Faith”, what possible value can my works add? God’s Grace, by Jesus’ finished work at the Cross is the power of God for salvation. If it is not enough, then I am lost. It is as simple as that. I cannot add to Grace by works…but I can respond to Grace by works, because of faith…just as Abraham did. Grace is what saves us…not works.

So, what is “Imputation?”

⁵But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.
Paul introduces a Old Testament truth, here: the idea that one thing can be “counted for” another; that, by faith, righteousness can be “added to the believer’s account.”

This is an accounting term: when I take a paycheck to the bank, it is just a piece of paper: it has no intrinsic value. But it authorizes the bank to “post value to my bank account”, and, based on that posting, I can make purchases or withdraw cash from that account. This is a fairly important idea, because there is a parallel in the salvation offered at the Cross. When Jesus died for me, he wrote a “check”, in His own blood, payable to the bearer, for the value of “eternal life, and eternal righteousness”. Now, consider: when I take my paycheck to the bank, if I fail to endorse that check, they will not honor it. The value of the check will not be posted to my account.

So how do we “endorse” the “check” Jesus wrote for us at the Cross? By faith: By placing our trust in His finished work. The facts are simple: Jesus really did write the check, if you want to call it that, in His blood, at the Cross, and he offers it to us as a gift. Now: you can do whatever you want with that check…you can toss it aside, judging it worthless; you can set it aside, thinking you may want it at some more convenient time (which still does not get you the value of the gift); or you can place your faith in that blood sacrifice, and the righteousness of Christ is instantly and permanently imputed (posted) to your account. God will eternally see you in the righteousness of Christ…He will never again see you as a condemned sinner.

Let’s look at 2^nd Corinthians 5:21 “For He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him”

This is the ultimate substitution. In Abraham’s later story, we see that God provided a substitute for Abraham’s son, Isaac. A ram was offered in his place. Throughout the Old Testament, we can see that all the blood sacrifices were a substitute for the sinner, at one level or another. And that is why Jesus was called “the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world.” He is the substitutionary sacrifice through whom we can be made righteous before God. He did not become a sinner for us: He became sin. We do not imitate him to become righteous. His righteousness was applied to our accounts by Grace through faith, and, by faith we imitate him, honor him, and depend on His righteousness in our accounts; not at all upon our own works.

⁶Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works,

⁷Saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered.

⁸Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin.
David also described the blessedness of a person whose sins are covered…who has had righteousness “imputed” to him without works. The doctrine of imputation means that God has “posted righteousness to my account”. He has counted me righteous. Not because of anything I have done or can do…I am a sinner, and my whole character apart from Him is to rebel against the righteousness of God. God says in Romans 8 that my sin nature not only is not subject to the law of God, but it cannot be. So how could I be declared righteous?

How is Righteousness Imputed?

⁹Cometh this blessedness then upon the circumcision only, or upon the uncircumcision also? for we say that faith was reckoned to Abraham for righteousness.

¹⁰How was it then reckoned? when he was in circumcision, or in uncircumcision? Not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision.
Paul takes his time getting to the explanation, but we already had a clue back in Romans 3:25—Jesus was the propitiation (the sacrifice that satisfied the righteousness of God) for our sins through faith in His blood.

When Abraham first “believed God”, it was simply regarding the promise of a coming “seed”; that his progeny would be without number. But the specific singular word for “seed” is used. Remembering that Paul used and quoted the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament, just as Jesus did, I looked up the word for seed in the Septuagint…and it turns out that the word used there is very specific, the promise of the land is to a specific (singular) seed, while the promise of numerous offspring is plural. It gets more specific later on, but Abraham was looking forward to Christ, just as Abel did, and as did the other men and women of faith.

We look back to Him, and we believe—they looked forward and they believed. They understood enough of the gospel and the character of God to make a decision: so do we. The book of Job was possibly the earliest book of the written word of God, and he knew about the resurrection, and the second coming, and redemption, and life after death. The Old Testament saints were not ignorant.

¹¹And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had yet being uncircumcised: that he might be the father of all them that believe, though they be not circumcised; that righteousness might be imputed unto them also:

¹²And the father of circumcision to them who are not of the circumcision only, but who also walk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham, which he had being yet uncircumcised.

¹³For the promise, that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.
Paul carefully reminds the readers that Abraham was still an uncircumcised heathen when God made his promise and Abraham believed. He points out that God declared him righteous then, not 25 years later when he was circumcised. So his circumcision was an outward mark of something that had been an inward reality for 25 years.

Paul says that those who believe are the spiritual offspring of Abraham, whether or not they bear the physical mark of Judaism. In fact, the whole point is that the two ideas are almost unrelated, as there are thousands upon thousands of people (millions, actually) who bear the mark of some sort of faith, but do not have that faith. Jews who did not trust in the Messiah, as Abraham did, but only had the mark of circumcision, were just as lost as the millions today who have been baptized (or circumcised, or both) but have no relationship with the God who chose that sign. Not all Jews were saved, and not all members of churches today are saved… even if the church they attend is faithfully preaching the Gospel. It completely depends upon the individual: do you or do you not place your dependence on Jesus’ finished work—his shed blood—at the Cross?

If someone attends a church that does NOT faithfully preach the Gospel, it just means it is less likely that the person is saved…but not impossible; they may have heard the good news elsewhere, and may already have personally placed their faith in God to save them via the shed blood of Christ. One by one, God saves those who believe…not those who attend a particular church or wear a certain kind of clothing, give money, were born of a certain family, etc. He saves them one by one, by Grace, through Faith alone.

But a real believer has literally been born again, and has a new Father and a New Nature. A baby Christian is hungry for the Word of God; the milk of God’s word. So a genuine believer will not remain comfortably in a church where God’s Word is not taught. He or she will increasingly grow hungry and dissatisfied in the absence of sound teaching from the Word of God.

¹⁴For if they which are of the law be heirs, faith is made void, and the promise made of none effect:

¹⁵Because the law worketh wrath: for where no law is, there is no transgression.

¹⁶Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed; not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham; who is the father of us all,

¹⁷(As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations,) before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were.

¹⁸Who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken, So shall thy seed be.

Law and Grace are Separate, but they Work Together

Paul emphasizes the mutual exclusivity of Law and Grace: he says that if the promise was based on Law, then Faith is made void, and the promise has no effect, because the truth is, the Law brings judgment, not salvation. If there were no rules, there would be no consequences for breaking rules; but there are rules, and there are consequences for breaking them. So he concludes that it is by faith, not law, so that Grace is the only means by which we can receive that promise. The result is that all those who hear and believe the Gospel are saved by Grace, and Abraham has literally become the father of many nations, by faith. People from every nation on earth have heard and believed the Gospel.

¹⁹And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah’s womb:

²⁰He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God;

²¹And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform.

²²And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness.
He also reminds us that Abraham was no dummy—he knew the odds of his becoming a father at that age—but he rejoiced. He was strong in faith…he did not even consider the deadness of his own reproductive organs or those of Sarah, his wife…he believed God’s promise. Specifically, he believed that God was able to fulfill His promises, and that His character was such that he would do so. Paul concludes that on that basis, his faith was accounted to him as righteousness.

²³Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was imputed to him;

²⁴But for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead;

²⁵Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification.
Paul goes on to say that this was not written just for Abraham’s sake, but for ours, that we might have God’s righteousness applied to our own accounts, as we place our trust in God who raised Jesus from the dead. He says that Jesus was Crucified for our sins—but he was resurrected so that we could be declared righteous…the Resurrection was God’s declaration that He was satisfied with the payment. (Romans 1:4)

From the Cross, Jesus said “It is Finished!” At the Resurrection, God said “Amen!”

Conclusion:

So how will you respond to the promises of God? To begin with, you have to know what He has promised to you. But then, day by day, you can choose to believe Him…or not.

Jesus said “he that heareth my word and believeth on Him that sent me hath everlasting life…”; (that’s present tense: “…has everlasting life”.) Do you trust him for that promise? If so, then you have eternal life now.

What about where he says “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give unto you; not as the world giveth, give I unto you: let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” Do you believe that one, too? Just as you have been once-for-all born again by faith, and you trust in his promise to keep you, for eternity, you can daily experience His peace by faith, trusting in His wisdom and strength to guide and protect you.

Lord Jesus, grant us the Grace to hunger for your Word, and to be filled with your Spirit and your Wisdom. Draw us into an ever deeper relationship with you.

Amen!

September 5, 2015

Bad News Concluded; Good News Begun

The Bad News Concluded; the Good News Introduced

Romans Chapter 3

Introduction:

Paul has just finished condemning (for cause) all of three groups of people:

Immoral Sinners (those who ignore moral values and restraints)
Moral Sinners (those who adhere to at least some moral values and restraints, and are sure that because of that they will be on good terms with God) and
Religious Sinners (including the Jews: those who adhere to some form of religious piety, whether based on the Word of God or not…but in this case he specifically addressed the Jews, as they did have the Word available.)

That pretty well sums up the human race, doesn’t it? Biblically, we could divide the whole race into two groups: Jews and Gentiles. We could also state that within each group there are people who ignore all moral restraint, and others who adhere to some (or many) moral values. Paul systematically proved that all these groups were under judgment for sin, and ended with the idea that the Jews were under special judgment because they knew the Law and ignored it.

That is a pretty negative premise with which to begin, though it certainly “levels the playing field,” if that is considered a good thing: no one has a special advantage, and no one is treated unfairly. Paul is simply completing the Bad news as the necessary foundation for the Good News. But I am sure that to each of the groups mentioned, it was shockingly bad news; especially to the Jews who thought they were already on God’s side, and destined for heaven.

So what advantage IS there to being a Jew?

3: ¹What advantage then hath the Jew? or what profit is there of circumcision?

²Much every way: chiefly, because that unto them were committed the oracles of God.

Paul, a Jew, poses the question, “Then what possible advantage is there to being a Jew?” His answer? “There is much advantage in every way, but the chief advantage was that to them were entrusted the oracles of God.” As far as I can tell, every single Old Testament prophet was a Jew, unless you recall that Abraham was an Iraqi, later referred to as a homeless Syrian; and none of the immediate progeny of Jacob had ever heard the word “Jew”. That was a later descriptive term applied first to the tribe of Judah and those associated with him, and later to all the children of Jacob (also called Israel).

Melchizedek was certainly not a Jew, though he was the one who blessed Abraham in the name of the Most High God. But every single one of the writers of the Old Testament were Jews, as were all but one of the writers of the New Testament (and that one is questioned by some). (Luke may have been a Gentile, as “Luke” is a Gentile name. But that would suggest that anyone with a Jewish name must be a Jew. (Joe? Sarah? Steve? Elizabeth? Where do you want to stop?) That is clearly not sufficient reason to make such an assumption.) I really do not know what Luke’s origin may have been, but without controversy, all of the other writers were Jews. Is that a privilege? An honor? Looks like one to me. Would it at least tend to give them an “inside track” as far as an opportunity to know the God of the Universe? I would think so.

Further, in every village where Paul (and the other apostles) preached, they began with the synagogue—the Jewish elders in that village. Why? Well, for one reason, they had been waiting for the Messiah for a long time, so it was fitting that they should hear the message first. But a practical reason is that those believing Jews, who had already trusted in the coming Savior, and the blood of his sacrifice, had also been soaking in the Written Word for their whole life; memorizing it, studying it, meditating upon it, and receiving teaching concerning it. They were in a position to vault into Christian maturity far more rapidly than a Gentile, who, even if he were a proselyte to Judaism, could only recently have begun to understand the Word of God. Thus, it was possible for Paul to be run out of a town by the unbelievers, but leave behind a fledgling church with ordained elders…after three weeks or less in some cases!

But what about all those Jews who don’t believe in Jesus?

³For what if some did not believe? shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect?

He follows his line of reasoning a little further, saying, If some of God’s people fail to believe God’s Word, does that diminish the faith (or faithfulness) of God? Nope. In fact, it underscores it, as He continues faithful regardless of the sin of his people. In the case of the nation of Israel, God demonstrated this truth later on, showing that there will come a time when the believing remnant of Israel will ultimately turn to God as a nation, and finally, “all Israel will be saved.” Not every offspring of Jacob in history: all the living remnant of Israel. God never took his hand off their history, though they repeatedly took their eyes off of Him.

We see a similar truth in the Church: the Church has failed God in every way, over and over, but Jesus said “I will build my Church, and the Gates of Hell shall not prevail against it!” God knows his sheep, and Jesus said He will not lose a single one of them. So, in answer to the question about God’s reliability, Paul says:

⁴God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written, That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged.

The result is that God is absolutely correct in His Judgment, and no accusation against Him will ever be right. (Notice that the truth of God’s Word is not dependent upon those who believe it. My believing it does not make it true. The World’s denial of it does not make it untrue. God’s Word, and, in fact, Truth as a principle, has to stand or fall on its own merit. It either is true or it isn’t. And since The Bible claims to be all true, it either is all true, or it simply isn’t true.)

⁵But if our unrighteousness commend the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God unrighteous who taketh vengeance? (I speak as a man)

⁶God forbid: for then how shall God judge the world?

⁷For if the truth of God hath more abounded through my lie unto his glory; why yet am I also judged as a sinner?

⁸And not rather, (as we be slanderously reported, and as some affirm that we say,) Let us do evil, that good may come? whose damnation is just.

While it is true that Man’s sin is met by God’s Grace (and judgment…don’t forget the Holiness of God), it is foolish to think, “Well, then, more sin means more grace, right?” I used to think Paul was setting up a “straw man” as it were, because I could not imagine someone being goofy enough to teach such a thing, but there are evidently cults teaching just that, today, and advocating really wallowing in filth, so as to inherit more of the grace of God.

Paul says they are worthy of the condemnation they will receive. We should meditate frequently on Isaiah’s response to his vision of God. In Isaiah 6:1-8, Isaiah saw Jesus on the Throne of God, and was devastated at his own guilt, and the guilt of his people, compared to the utter Holiness of God. The Angelic response to God’s presence was similar: they cried out, “Holy, Holy, Holy is the LORD of Hosts! The whole Earth is filled with His Glory!” All of those who saw Him were primarily impressed with the Holiness of God, above all His other attributes.

Other prophets had similar visions and experienced similar dismay. Some simply passed out—they nearly died at the revelation of the Holiness of God. No one got inspired to “go and sin more energetically”: not one! Remember too: Jesus told people “Go, and sin no more!”
Don’t ever get the idea that Jesus is “soft on sin.” It is completely true that He loves sinners, but it is equally true that He hates sin… all of it.

Please bear in mind that Jesus, the Jesus that we admired in Bethlehem, and in Jerusalem, in the temple, and at the Cross, is also the one the Bible identifies as “the Judge of all the Earth.” And Jesus, himself, personally confirmed that truth. (John 5:22)

V. 9-20 Paul’s Conclusion to the “Bad News” of the Gospel

⁹What then? are we better than they? No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin;

In verse 9, the “we” and “they” are Jew and Gentile: Paul speaks from the Jewish perspective, and confesses that the Jews are no better than the Gentiles, in spite of the advantages they were given. They still ran away from God, pursuing sin, and their history proves it time after time.

¹⁰As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:

¹¹There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.

¹²They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.

¹³Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips:

¹⁴Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness:

¹⁵Their feet are swift to shed blood:

¹⁶Destruction and misery are in their ways:

¹⁷And the way of peace have they not known:

¹⁸There is no fear of God before their eyes.

¹⁹Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.

²⁰Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.

Paul concludes in verses 9-20 that there is not one person in the whole natural human race, who is free from sin; and that, collectively, we are a total loss. He says, “There is none righteous, no not one.” In verses 9-12, he quotes Psalm 14:2, 3. (Turn there and read it.) Notice in Psalm 14, he is not talking about the Jews, nor about any particular group of people. He is definitely talking about the whole human race. He also quotes Psalm 5:9, 140:3, and other passages, applying those as well, as a blanket condemnation of the whole world. He concludes in verse 19, 20 that all the world is guilty before God, and that no flesh can be justified (“declared righteous”) by works of the Law, since by the Law is the knowledge of sin. Law is only the light that reveals our lost state: it cannot save us.

V. 21-28 Divine Contrast

²¹But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets;

²²Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference:

²³For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;

²⁴Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:

²⁵Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God;

²⁶To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.

Finally, in verses 21, 22, the righteousness of Christ imputed—apart from law-keeping— is revealed, and it is completely validated by the Old Testament prophets (specifically David, as we shall see later on.) That righteousness is only available to those who place their faith in Him, but it is applied to all that do so. It is “unto all (therefore available to all) and upon all (applied to all) them that believe.” Verses 21-25 are all in reference to the same individuals…and it is all past tense…a “done deal.”

Verse 23 (with which most Christians are thoroughly familiar) states that “ALL have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” But the point that is missed, is that he is talking about believers! He is saying (in v. 22) that there is no difference (among believers) because all were the same unclean, guilty sinners, and (in v. 24) that all have been freely declared righteous (justified) by GRACE, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. (“Redemption”, in this particular passage, comes from the word “lutro-o”, meaning to be set free from slavery. In other passages it comes from one of two other words: “agorazo” or “exagorazo”. The first, “agorazo”, means “bought in the marketplace”. Jesus literally bought us with his blood. The second implies being “bought out of the marketplace”—that is, that He bought us OUT of that slave-marketplace of sin and that we have been removed from it forever. “Lutro-o” carries the final idea; that we have been set free, eternally, to serve out of Love; not fear.) All of these points are completely true of all believers in Christ…those who have trusted in the shed blood of the historical, Biblical Jesus Christ for their salvation.

v. 25 specifies that our faith is to be in the blood of Christ—not a creed, not a code of morality, not a church membership, nor an ethnic identity; but through the person and work of Christ: specifically, faith in His shed Blood. That is a pretty important concept and frequently is omitted in Bible teaching, today. I don’t know whether it is due to ignorance, personal revulsion at the concept of a blood-sacrifice, or rebellion against the stated need for it. But this was the error of Cain, if you recall, and it seems to increasingly be the error of the modern Church. Cain thought that he could bypass the “gore” of a blood sacrifice, and go straight to a worship experience with God. God sought to correct Cain’s error, explaining what was wrong: Cain compounded the error by killing Abel. Take note that those who deny their need for a Savior, or deny the efficacy of Jesus’ blood, will always attack those who recognize that need and who place their faith in His blood. This is a Biblical principle, and has been consistently borne out in human history.

v. 26 Paul says that Jesus himself is not only righteous, but that He is the only one who can authoritatively (and effectually) declare a sinner to be righteous. He declares those who believe in Him (this implies consciously placing one’s faith in him for salvation, not just believing he exists, or whatever) will be “declared righteous” by Him. The word “Just” means “righteous: having a right standing before God”. “Justified” means “declared Righteous”.

The Conclusion:

²⁷Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith.

²⁸Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.

v. 27: Some final questions are posed: “Where is boasting?” It is excluded by the law of faith. That is an interesting concept: “the Law of Faith”. Saving Faith always produces level ground and true humility. How could I be “proud to be a Christian?” The fact of my salvation was predicated upon the fact of my absolute guilt as a sinner. There can be no pride there, surely. Paul’s conclusion in verse 28 is that a man is justified by faith (alone) without works of the Law.

²⁹Is he the God of the Jews only? is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also:

³⁰Seeing it is one God, which shall justify the circumcision by faith, and uncircumcision through faith.

³¹Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law.

There is a brief transition in ideas, in verses 29-31. Paul poses the rhetorical question “Is God the God of the Jews only?” (Now some Jews and many Gentiles would have automatically said “yes” because they completely misunderstand who God really is, and thus miss the fact that there is only room for one Sovereign in the universe. There is only one God, in fact, and that God must be the God of all things and all people…there is none other.) Paul concludes then, that the same God has to accomplish the justification of all… both Jew and Gentile. He asks one final rhetorical question: “Do we make void the law, through Faith?”

The answer, resoundingly, is “NO!” (“God Forbid! Yea, we establish the Law.”) But how could the preaching of the Grace of God establish (i.e. “build up; strengthen the position of”) the Law of God?

When we consider the role of God’s Law, throughout History, we can see that Grace is always the conclusion of the Law. By accepting God’s Grace, in salvation, we confess that the Law is correct in condemning us, and agree that we cannot possibly please God in the flesh.

If that is not what you think, in terms of the meaning of Grace, then I would suspect that you do not understand your genuine need for a Savior, and I would question how in the world you were saved. How could you place your faith in an unseen Savior, confessing your sin by so doing, if you do not see yourself as a hopelessly lost sinner apart from His Grace?

But we do see ourselves that way, and we do trust in His Grace. And we rejoice in our Savior.

Lord Jesus, help us to see you in your Holiness, to see our own crying need for your Grace, and to daily seek your face in confession and prayer, and the study of your Word.

Amen!

August 26, 2015

Bad News, Part 2

The Bad News, Part Two: the Nature of God’s Judgment

Romans 2:1-29

Introduction:

Last time we met, we discussed the reality of Sin, and God’s reason for hating sin, while still loving the sinner. We saw that the “list” of sins, at one level or another, covers all of us. But we all seem to find reasons to point a finger and think, “Well, I’m not as bad as those other folks.” Last time we addressed the “Immoral Sinner”. But the fact is that the “bad news” of Sin reaches to every human in history. The Moral sinner still thinks he is somehow above the rest of the “unwashed heathen”, just because he doesn’t run to the same degree of excess as they do. So, God addresses the “moral sinners” as a group:

God’s Judgment is Upon the Moral Sinner

¹Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest: for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest doest the same things.

Paul resumes his dissertation on the utter lostness of Man’s condition by challenging the moralists: He states that whoever they are, when they look down their noses at others, because of perceived sin in the other person’s life, they condemn themselves as well, as co-sinners. The “list”, above, in chapter one, was all-inclusive. (Know anyone who never disobeyed his parents? Never was covetous, or envious, etc.?) Not only does it cover everyone, the things on the list are all condemned under verse 18 as the stuff regarding which God’s wrath is revealed from heaven. (Remember, it says that the Wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all unrighteousness.)

So, maybe you have never committed adultery, but you have thought about it. You never have stolen anything, but you have envied someone else for what they had…etc. He is demonstrating that all the listed items are just symptoms of the same fatal disease. There is no such thing as a “little bit” sinful. We are all infected with the same disease. That’s why Paul can confidently state in verse one that “…thou that judgest doest the same things.” You have the same disease!

God’s Judgment is According to Truth

²But we are sure that the judgment of God is according to truth against them which commit such things.

Paul states that the judgment of God is according to truth. That is good to know, in the sense that I know God will never accuse me of something I didn’t do. On the other hand it means that nothing I have ever done or thought or imagined has been hidden from him. He knows my deepest secrets, and my most twisted, ugly passions. He knows it all. And, apart from the saving grace of God through Jesus Christ (as we will see in chapter 3), I will be judged according to truth for all of it. I shudder to imagine such a calamity. My condition would truly be hopeless.

³And thinkest thou this, O man, that judgest them which do such things, and doest the same, that thou shalt escape the judgment of God?
⁴Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?
⁵But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God;

In light of my own guilt before God, Paul says that, especially as a moralist, condemning others, I should expect the judgment of God. He says “do you think (you who judge another and do the same things) that you will escape the judgment of God”? The implied answer: “Absolutely not!”

In fact, he suggests that anyone so inclined, confident in their own goodness, is, in fact, despising the goodness and tolerance and patience of God by ignoring the call of God for repentance. He goes on to say (verse 5) that it is directly due to their own hardness of heart and absolute lack of repentance that, far from impressing God with their “morality”, they are treasuring up for themselves more wrath from God. That is a sobering thought, isn’t it?

God’s Judgment is also According to Works

⁶Who will render to every man according to his deeds:

Verse 6 makes it clear that God will give every sinner exactly what he deserves. There will be no exceptions. (What he hasn’t said yet is that there is an escape, and that God will no longer see as sinners those who appropriate that promise! But we are getting ahead of ourselves here.)

⁷To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality, eternal life:
⁸But unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath,
⁹Tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile;
¹⁰But glory, honour, and peace, to every man that worketh good, to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile:
¹¹For there is no respect of persons with God.
¹²For as many as have sinned without law shall also perish without law: and as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law;
¹³(For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified.
¹⁴For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves:
¹⁵Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another;)

God says that those who “earn” eternal life will get it…and that those who don’t will receive utter damnation. (What???) Wow! How do you earn eternal life? Actually, it can’t be done. No one can earn Grace. The definition of Grace, in fact, is “Unearned merit”—undeserved favor.
There are people who cling to this passage as proving that it is possible to earn salvation. But, in the first place, he says “…those who by patient continuance in well-doing, etc….” he doesn’t say, “…those who decide at some point they had better clean up their act and fly right!” No one but Jesus has ever lived a sinless life. God is not “grading on a curve!” He says all who “have sinned” will be judged…and perish.

In the second place, if we look ahead just a little, at chapter 3, we see that Paul concludes that the whole world is condemned under sin, and that every mouth is stopped…no one has a defense or an argument against the judgment of God. It is complete. And he clearly states the reason why: Romans 3:23: “…for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” Perfection is the standard, and no one measures up.

God’s Judgment is According to the Law

Twice in this passage (v.7-15) the phrase appears, “to the Jew first and also to the Gentile”. It is clear that national or ethnic origin is no safety net. If you fall from the “high-wire” of God’s perfection, there is no humanly accessible “safety net”. Apart from the Grace of God, we are truly lost, regardless of who we are, or where we came from. We are truly fallen creatures. The Jews, who have the Law, and believe they have an “in” with God through it, will be judged by the Law, according to verse 12…and condemned for breaking it.

So, what about Gentiles who seem to do, by instinct, the things the law calls for? Doesn’t it say right here that they have become “a law unto themselves?” It surely does! A broken law! No one has a perfectly sinless life. The fact is, I can’t obey the rules even when I make the rules. I am a lawbreaker by nature and by choice. It says here that they (the Jews) who have the Law are judged by the Law, and those who sin without the law shall perish without the law: “Perish!” Not “be saved!” But, over in John 3:16 it says, “…that whosoever believeth in him should not perish…” Aha! So, when it comes to salvation, the issue is not behavior, but belief! Romans 2:7-15, far from providing a loophole in the judgment of God, solidly closes the last loophole. In fact, later on, in Romans 8:7, he states not only that my sin nature is not subject to the Law of God, but that it cannot be. It is corrupt and lawless by nature.

He says that the righteousness pertaining to Law depends completely upon obedience to the law (complete obedience). And that the only thing guaranteed by having the law available is that it will judge the hearers who do not obey!

God’s Judgment is According to the Gospel

¹⁶In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel.

Notice that here, he states another standard of judgment—or, more specifically, WHO will be the Judge. In verse 2, he said they will be judged according to truth. In verse 6 he says they are judged according to works. In verse 12 he states that the possessors of the law will be judged by the Law. But in verse 16 he says that the secrets of men will be judged by Jesus Christ. He also states that the standard will be “my gospel”. The judgment will be in accordance with the Gospel of God’s Grace, as laid out in this epistle. How so? Everyone who has heard it will be responsible for what they did with the message. A certain ruler (Pontius Pilate) in Matthew 27:22, asked “What shall I do with Jesus, who is called the Christ?” That is going to be the ultimate question for everyone who has heard the Gospel: “What did you do with Jesus Christ?” It doesn’t matter who the sinner is, the question will be the same. That is why Jesus said in John 3:18, “He that believeth not is condemned already because he has not believed on the only begotten Son of God.”

God’s Judgment is Upon the Religious Sinner:

(There is no “Get out of Jail Free” card for the Jews…or for any other religion.)

¹⁷Behold, thou art called a Jew, and restest in the law, and makest thy boast of God,
¹⁸And knowest his will, and approvest the things that are more excellent, being instructed out of the law;
¹⁹And art confident that thou thyself art a guide of the blind, a light of them which are in darkness,
²⁰An instructor of the foolish, a teacher of babes, which hast the form of knowledge and of the truth in the law.
²¹Thou therefore which teachest another, teachest thou not thyself? thou that preachest a man should not steal, dost thou steal?
²²Thou that sayest a man should not commit adultery, dost thou commit adultery? thou that abhorrest idols, dost thou commit sacrilege?
²³Thou that makest thy boast of the law, through breaking the law dishonourest thou God?
²⁴For the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you, as it is written.
²⁵For circumcision verily profiteth, if thou keep the law: but if thou be a breaker of the law, thy circumcision is made uncircumcision.
²⁶Therefore if the uncircumcision keep the righteousness of the law, shall not his uncircumcision be counted for circumcision?
²⁷And shall not uncircumcision which is by nature, if it fulfil the law, judge thee, who by the letter and circumcision dost transgress the law?
²⁸For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh:
²⁹But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.

So, finally, in verses 17-29, Paul turns and addresses the People of the Covenant—the Jews. They are confident in their superiority because they are the offspring of Jacob. They have the Law, and know what it says. They rest in that confidence. They are proud that, as a Nation, they “hold the patent on God”, so to speak. “We have the one true God, and you do not! Have a nice day!” They knew the will of God, and approved of the wisdom of His Word. They were confident that they themselves were guides to the blind (“international chaplains” as it were), and instructors of fools, a light to those in darkness (all of which was supposed to be true) and a teacher of babes. To these self-righteous Jews, Paul said “you have the “form of knowledge and of the truth in the Law”. (Oops!) So maybe the “form” was all they had? And maybe formalism is insufficient when it comes to our relationship with God? Evidently that is the case. We see that today as well.

So, Paul proceeds to tear down their playhouse: he says that they were hypocrites, not really following the law they advocated, nor practicing what they preached. He suggests that in spite of their teaching righteousness, they were practicing unrighteousness. They may have angrily denied all the things he laid at their feet, but remember, specifically, how Jesus upgraded the interpretation of the Law: He stated that if one “looked upon a woman to lust after her” that he had already committed adultery inwardly. So, all the things Paul was suggesting would at least be an inward reality. But it was evidently generally true outwardly, as well, because he concluded, in verse 24, that the name of God was routinely blasphemed among the Gentiles, specifically because of their bad testimony. What a crying shame! The people of the Living God, who were supposed to be a nation of Priests, and the emissaries of God, were instead his biggest problem. And they were still proud of their claim on “holiness”, though they were just as unholy as those Gentiles they despised. (Does this sound familiar? Do churchgoers still do this today?)

Paul corrected their thinking, by saying that their blood relationship to Abraham did not make them the “children of Abraham” (by the way, Jesus said the same thing), nor did their physical mark of “sanctification” (namely, circumcision) make them truly sanctified. He concludes that being a Jew, in God’s eyes, demanded being one inwardly, and that all these outward trappings of “holiness and piety” were not impressing God one little bit.

Now: I have heard this passage used to teach that the true members of the church (the Body of Christ) because of the inward transformation, have literally become Jews. That is not true: this idea is easily refuted, because, if nothing else, in Acts 15, both Peter and James refer to the Gentile believers as “Gentiles.” This is a matter of practical reality: they were being specifically exempted from the Jewish dietary and Levitical laws, because they were Gentiles.

Perhaps an even more important point is that in Galatians 3:28 Paul says that “…in Christ there is neither Jew nor Gentile…” Do you see the implication? Even the Jewish believers, in Christ, were no longer “technically” Jews, any more than we are “technically” Gentiles…they are a part of the “new man” described in Ephesians 2:15…a group “called out” for the name of Christ out of every nation, tribe, people and tongue, in whom there is no longer Jew, nor Gentile, bond nor free, etc. Does that mean the Roman slaves who trusted in Jesus were suddenly freed from their masters? Nope…not physically, they weren’t. Does it mean that they were forever made equal in value and standing with God, to every other believer, even if that believer happened to be their owner, physically? Yes! Absolutely, it does. Do we all have the same gifts and tasks in Christ? Nope. Do we all have the same hope of our calling (Ephesians 4)? Absolutely, we do. And the same overall job to do? Yes, we do! Do I have a piece of land waiting for me in Palestine? No! The idea is laughable!

I am a member of the BRIDE of Christ, not one of the guests at the wedding! However noble and exalted their position may be, that of the Bride is far better: we are personally joined to the Bridegroom.

Conclusion:

Paul has systematically condemned three categories of sinners: immoral sinners, moral sinners and religious sinners, and has demonstrated that they are all equally lost.

Now, we have jumped ahead in the book, and have seen that God’s answer to the problem of Sin is equally all-encompassing: Jesus’ blood at the Cross, and his physical resurrection from the dead are our only Hope. We will place our faith there, and read on to learn more about it.

God help us to increase in Faith and Love, and the Knowledge of your Word! Fill us with your Spirit and transform us into your likeness!