Deuteronomy 1:13 (ESV)
Choose for your tribes wise, understanding, and experienced men, and I will appoint them as your heads.
Experienced men, and I will appoint them as your heads. The third criteria that Moses required from his judges is a man of experience. The word Experienced here is translated also as "Known" or "Respected". They were those who were well known and thought of by people for their wisdom, godly conduct, for their noble achievements.
How others view us is important. We may say, 'All that matters is how God thinks of me. It doesn't matter what man thinks of me!' That is indeed true, that we should not seek glory from men. However, when we do live a life that glorifies God, without seeking our own glory, we produce the fruits that other people will naturally begin to notice. Jesus Christ, while He was growing up, had favour from God and men (Luke 2:52) though He had not yet revealed who He was, nor was seeking His own glory at all. Joseph was only a prisoner, but because everyday he lived a Spirit-filled and Spirit-led life, people around him naturally began to notice him. Eventually even the Pharaoh noticed him, and gave this report about Joseph:
Genesis 41:38-39 (ESV)
And Pharaoh said to his servants, "Can we find a man like this, in whom is the Spirit of God?" [39] Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, "Since God has shown you all this, there is none so discerning and wise as you are.
How others view us is a truer assessment of our character than how we would like to judge our own selves. Our heart is wicked and deceitful above all things, and we always want to think highly of ourselves. Thus what we think of our own selves is not usually a true image of who we are. It is distorted and puffed up with self-love and self-worship. Only what God and other people bear witness of ourselves is the true evaluation of who we are. This it is why Christ said:
John 5:31 (ESV)
If I alone bear withness about myself, my testimony is not deemed true.
Not that Christ's testimony of Himself was not true (John 8:14) because Jesus was God and He was always truthful and there was nothing of self-glory in Him. Jesus did not need any witness from men to testify of Him (John 5:34), only the Father and the Holy Spirit. But we are not Jesus, and we do need other people to testify of us. If we say things such as 'God knows my heart, He knows I'm a Christian', yet the world cannot confess likewise, how can we prove that God thinks such a thing about us? If God knows if a person is a Christian, then the world must also know, naturally. If we have no spiritual 'references' who can testify of us, we must ask ourselves, are we really right with God? Are we really living a life as light of the world, as a city that is set of a hill? Or are we living in disobedience and covering it up with the excuse: 'Well, God knows my heart'. Yet we do not realize that God is greater than our heart, and He knows all things. His standard of judgment is far greater and harsher than our heart or our neighbours'. If we cannot fool our neighbours with our sins, what makes us to think that we can fool God?
Importance of spiritual references are stressed all over the New Testament. When Paul was saved, and desired to join the brethren, they were all afraid of him, and did not believe him. But it was Barnabas that gave the reference of Paul's brave works for Christ and the Gospel:
Acts 9:27 (ESV)
But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles and declared to them how on the road he had seen the Lord, who spoke to him, and how at Damascus he had preached boldly in the name of Jesus.
Without Barnabas there could have been no Paul. It was not Paul himself who went to the apostles and testified of himself that he had seen the Lord, that he had boldly preached Christ. But it was Barnabas, a man himself approved, who gave the witness of Paul. Therefore was Paul the more credible, than if he had ascribed greatness to himself and boasted of his experiences. Because of another's reference, Paul was welcomed to the congregation, and was able to serve God as an apostle. Paul does indeed later boast of himself in his epistles, but not without great shame and feeling foolish in speaking such a way (2 Corinthians 11:1). It is because Paul knew Solomon's advice in Proverbs:
Proverbs 27:2 (ESV)
Let another praise you, and not your own mouth; a stranger, and not your own lips.
Paul himself also gives good references of others in Romans 16. Read the passage here and see how important it is to be well known or thought of by other people:
Romans 16:3-13 (ESV)
Greet Prisca and Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus, [4] who risked their necks for my life, to whom not only I give thanks but all the churches of the Gentiles give thanks as well. [5] Greet also the church in their house. Greet my beloved Epaenetus, who was the first convert to Christ in Asia. [6] Greet Mary, who has worked hard for you. [7] Greet Andronicus and Junia, my kinsmen and my fellow prisoners. They are well known to the apostles, and they were in Christ before me. [8] Greet Ampliatus, my beloved in the Lord. [9] Greet Urbanus, our fellow worker in Christ, and my beloved Stachys. [10] Greet Apelles, who is approved in Christ. Greet those who belong to the family of Aristobulus. [11] Greet my kinsman Herodion. Greet those in the Lord who belong to the family of Narcissus. [12] Greet those workers in the Lord, Tryphaena and Tryphosa. Greet the beloved Persis, who has worked hard in the Lord. [13] Greet Rufus, chosen in the Lord; also his mother, who has been a mother to me as well.
After reading the above, we can't say anymore such foolish things as, 'I don't care what people think, I'm right with God'. For if we are right with God, as we can read above, we are naturally well thought of and respected by other people who are right with God. It can't be avoided. No one lights a lamp to be hidden underneath the bed, but it is lifted for all men to see. We are to declare our good works to the world so that all men might see and glorify God the Father.
And Paul goes even further, saying that a leader in the Church must be a man who is well thought of even by the unbelievers:
1 Timothy 3:6-7 (ESV)
He must not be a recent convert, or he may become puffed up with conceit and fall into the condemnation of the devil. [7] Moreover, he must be well thought of by outsiders, so that he may not fall into disgrace, into a snare of the devil.
If our actions do not match up even to the low moral standards of the outsiders, how can that person be right with God, who judges the heart? How can such a man be a leader? It is not possible.
Just as we will receive good reports about us from people when we do good, when we do evil we are naturally bound to receive evil report. For example, see how Paul gives this bad reference of Demas:
2 Timothy 4:10 (ESV)
For Demas, in love with this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica. Crescens has gone to Galatia,Titus to Dalmatia.
Demas was once a faithful worker of the Lord, fellow worker of Paul, counted among great men such as:
Philemon 1:24 (ESV)
and so do Mark, Aristarchus, Demas, and Luke, my fellow workers.
But Demas turned his back on Paul, the Gospel work, and perhaps on the Lord as well, as he went to Thessalonica. And Paul testifies that it was because of his love for the world, for the lusts of the flesh, the lusts of the eyes and the pride of life, as John says. Now forever is his name shamefully spoken in all nations as the 'One who forsook the Lord for the world'. What people think of us DOES matter. Let us fear, and be a worker approved, both by God, and by men:
Romans 14:17-18 (ESV)
For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. [18] Whoever thus serves Christ is acceptable to God and approved by men.
2 Timothy 2:15 (ESV)
Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.
Getting back to the translation of the word as "Experienced": Experience is an essential ingredient for a leader. First reason is, an experienced leader can take sympathize with those who are going through the same things that he has gone through in the past. When we have a role model who has gone through the exact same thing that we are going through now, and when we see how they have handled the challenges and the difficulties and how they prevailed in the end or solved the problems, it is surely a comfort for us. They give us hope, that there is a way out. Their advice is sweet to our ears, for they have gone through the same tunnel. Their words and advice have authority, for they truly understand our situation. And we respect such leaders, for they have special knowledge that we could never attain by learning, but only by experience.
Who is the experienced leader that God has set as Head over us? It is Jesus Christ. The experience of Jesus Christ is great comfort to us. Knowing that our Lord has gone through it all before us, gives us so much encouragement. We know that though we die, because we are in Him, we will rise again from the dead like He did. We know that we will go to Heaven, because Christ went before us there to prepare a place for us. We know that when we are hated and rejected by the world, it has hated and rejected Him first. As Christ held His peace to His offenders, we also hold our peace to those who offend us. Just as Christ followed the Father and did those things pleasing to Him, we also follow Christ and do those things pleasing to Him. Just as Christ was tempted in all points, yet was without sin, we also know that though we are tempted, God will provide a way for us to escape every sin.
And we respect and honour Jesus Christ our captain of salvation because He has also experienced something we can never experience: the wrath of God. We may do greater miracles than Christ did, and have the entire world to turn against us and kill us with the most horrifying death, worse than the cross. But we will never go through that special experience that Christ went through for us on the cross. We will never know what that is like, to undergo eternities worth of spiritual torment for the sins of mankind. But we admire Christ because of His experience, and can only wonder what Christ felt as the sin of the world was laid on Him.
Christ alone is therefore fit to be our Head, for He is fully sufficient in all these three areas: of wisdom, understanding and experience. As it is written:
Ephesians 1:22-23 (ESV)
And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, [23] which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.
Only Christ is worthy to be called our Head, our Judge, our Leader, our Teacher:
Matthew 23:8-10 (ESV)
But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all brothers. [9] And call no man your father on earth, for you have one Father, who is in heaven. [10] Neither be called instructors, for you have one instructor, the Christ.
Let us worship Jesus Christ who alone is wise, who alone has the Spirit of understanding, who alone has all the experience and knowledge, for He is God, the Ancient of Days, who has been from everlasting to everlasting. Only He is worthy to be called our Leader. Leaders in the church are only slaves of Jesus Christ, who in the palm of His hand holds all lords, kings and princes of the world. We must worship Christ our King, Bowing down to Him, knowing our wisdom, understanding and experience is like dirt compared to the glory of His Majesty. Let us fall down and worship Him who is the Beginning and the Ending, Alpha and the Omega. Let all the nations bow and kiss the hand of Christ in allegiance to Him. Praise be to Christ our only Potentate:
1 Timothy 6:15-16 (ESV)
He who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, [16] who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see. To him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen.
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Monday, October 10, 2011
A man of understanding
Deuteronomy 1:13 (ESV)
Choose for your tribes wise, understanding, and experienced men, and I will appoint them as your heads.''
The second character of a leader that Moses required in the judges is a man of understanding.
The definition of this word Understanding in Hebrew is:
A primitive root; to separate mentally (or distinguish), that is, (generally) understand:--attend, consider, be cunning, diligently, direct, discern, eloquent, feel, inform, instruct, have intelligence, know, look well to, mark, perceive, be prudent, regard, (can) skill (-ful), teach, think, (cause, make to, get, give, have) understand (-ing), view, (deal) wise (-ly, man).
When Solomon asked God that He give him the ability to "discern", he was using the same word Understanding as above. He desired the ability, the understanding to separate or to distinguish between good and evil:
1 Kings 3:9 (ESV)
Give your servant therefore an understanding mind to govern your people, that I may discern between good and evil, for who is able to govern this your great people?"
Just as God in creation separated light from darkness, Heaven from Earth, leaders need the ability to discern between what is the truth and the lie, what is from God and what is from man and the devil, what is good before God's eyes and what is evil, what is beneficial and what is harmful. Without such discernment it is impossible to govern and lead a family, church or nation in a way that pleases God.
Remember when Jesus Christ said to the Church of Laodicea:
Revelation 3:15-16 (ESV)
I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! [16] So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth.
Christ is telling the Church of Laodicea that they have no discernment. It is all mixed, lukewarm, grey area. There was no person of understanding in the midst that could say: 'Enough is enough! This is evil before Christ's eyes. We must not do this. We must do that which is good. This is not from the Spirit of God but from the spirit of the world!' There was no clear line between things of heaven and the things of the earth, because they lacked understanding. They knew not the difference between the clean and the unclean. Therefore it was a lukewarm mix, displeasing to Christ's palate.
Understanding is not only to separate things mentally, but it is also to put things together. That is the meaning of the word "Understand" that Christ uses in this passage:
Mark 7:14-15,17-23 (ESV)
And he called the people to him again and said to them, "Hear me, all of you, and understand: [15] There is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile him." [17] And when he had entered the house and left the people, his disciples asked him about the parable. [18] And he said to them, "Then are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him, [19] since it enters not his heart but his stomach, and is expelled?" ( Thus he declared all foods clean.) [20] And he said, "What comes out of a person is what defiles him. [21] For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, [22] coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. [23] All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person."
The disciples did not have understanding, that is, they could not put together mentally what Christ was saying with the occurrences of life to make sense of the parable. They could not put together that by 'things going in a person,' He meant food going in the stomach, and by 'things going out of a person', He meant the sins that proceeds from the heart that defiles the person.
It was by this kind of understanding that we believers were saved. Firstly, when we put our own wickedness together with His holiness, our actions with the Word of God, we understood how far we have fallen short of His glory. By this understanding God made us to see how we have grossly offended and violated His standards. We understood that God is angry with us, when we put together our own sins with the sins of the characters in the Bible. We saw that we deserve to die, like the characters did in the Bible. But when we were drowning in our own guilt, desiring to hide from the wrath of God, the Father revealed to us His Beloved Son, hanging on the Cross, taking the punishment for the sin of the world. God enabled us to put together in our minds that it was for OUR sins that He was crucified. Christ's death meant nothing to us previously, when we were without understanding. But when Christ by His Spirit made us to link our sins to His cross, we were united with Him by faith. His death we reckoned to be our death to sin, and His life from the dead we reckoned to be our life to God.
A man of understating is therefore a man that thinks. He is a man that considers, ponders, meditates over the things of God:
2 Timothy 2:7 (ESV)
Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything.
Without thinking, there can be no understanding. God will not give understanding to a man who does not think over the things of God. God has given us an amazing mind, that is able to launch deep and wide into things, and is able to process many information. He has given us logic, that can link one thing to another, cause to effect, to make sense of things. He has not given us this mind to be used on vain things, on evil things. But He gave it to be spent thinking over the things God has said, over the things He has made and has done, that we may know and understand Him.
Listen to what Christ says:
Matthew 6:26-30 (ESV)
Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? [27] And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? [28] And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, [29] yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. [30] But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?
See how Christ says, 'Look at the birds of the air', and 'Consider the lilies of the field'. He is commanding us to look and think over God's creation, and understand how God provides and cares for all that He has made, especially us who are made in His image. But because we don't think over God's creation, and understand that God governs and controls all things, including us, by the power of His word, we worry and are anxious. Without thinking we are not able to receive such understanding that leads us to life and happiness.
Understanding, however, like all good things, is something that is given by God. It is surely something that we do, but the ability and the faculty is a gift that is given by God:
1 John 5:20 (ESV)
And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true; and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.
No man can ever understand the things of God unless God reveals them to the man. Just as no insect will ever understand a man, likewise it is infinitely more impossible that a man can understand God. But God makes it possible, by giving the man a little bit of His own mind, through His Spirit, that he may know Him:
1 Corinthians 2:11-12 (ESV)
For who knows a person's thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. [12] Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God.
So a man of understanding is someone who has received the Holy Spirit by God's grace. The man who understands therefore has nothing to boast of. He must be thankful that God has considered his meditations worthy, and by grace rewarded him with understanding:
Psalm 104:34 (ESV)
May my meditation be pleasing to him, for I rejoice in the LORD.
Our meditations are a way of loving God. As the greatest commandment says:
Deuteronomy 6:5 (ESV)
You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.
The meaning of the word "heart" here can also be translated as Understanding, or Mind. We are to love God will all our mind, all our understanding, with all that we are. For to not love Him is to not think about Him:
Romans 1:28-29 (ESV)
And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. [29] They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips,
When we don't meditate on God, God will fill our mind with trash, with evil, sin and darkness. This is because we clearly show that we don't love God when we don't think about Him. When we don't place our thoughts on God but on other things, it shows that God's word has no place in our hearts, and that we hate Him. Let us examine ourselves if God is in our minds, or if there is sin our minds:
Isaiah 55:7 (ESV)
let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the LORD, that he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
If God is not on our minds, Bible says we are nothing different from an animal who has no understanding:
Psalm 49:20 (ESV)
Man in his pomp yet without understanding is like the beasts that perish.
When we seek God will all our hearts/minds, then God will be found by us:
Jeremiah 29:13 (ESV)
You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.
Psalm 27:8 (ESV)
You have said, "Seek my face."My heart says to you, "Your face, LORD, do I seek."
And God is a rewarder to them that diligently seek Him with all their heart:
Hebrews 11:6 (ESV)
And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
A man of understanding therefore is a man who diligently seeks God with his mind. The two cannot go separate. The man of understanding is not someone who is stagnant, who just sits still and expects understanding to naturally into him. But the man of understanding is someone who perpetually pursues after God with all his might, expecting the gracious fruits from God for his mental toil.
A man of understanding is therefore a man of faith. He is a man that believes that it is worthwhile to spend hours, days, months and years thinking about the things of God. He believes that God will reward him in this pursuit, not with some vain knowledge or empty wisdom, but revelation of His own Self. The man of understanding is one who loves God, and wants to know Him above all things. He has not much room in his mind for anything else, for it is filled with God. He is a man that has gladly given up knowing other things, that he may only know Jesus Christ and Him crucified:
1 Corinthians 2:2 (ESV)
For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.
The world may call such a man a fool, one who desires to know nothing but God, but God considers him as a wise and understanding man, for he has chosen the most important thing.
Other characteristics and fruits of the man of understanding Solomon outlines for us:
1) He is a man who does takes sin seriously and delights in the wisdom of God:
Proverbs 10:23 (ESV)
Doing wrong is like a joke to a fool, but wisdom is pleasure to a man of understanding.
2) He is a man who does not look down on his neighbors, one who considers others better than himself. Man of understanding does not speak rashly of others:
Proverbs 11:12 (ESV)
Whoever belittles his neighbor lacks sense, but a man of understanding remains silent.
3) He is a man who is able to take rebukes from others and reform himself:
Proverbs 17:10 (ESV)
A rebuke goes deeper into a man of understanding than a hundred blows into a fool.
4) He is a man that can discern what is the thoughts and the intent of another person's heart:
Proverbs 20:5 (ESV)
The purpose in a man's heart is like deep water, but a man of understanding will draw it out.
5) He is a man, as a leader, can bring prolonged peace and order, and is in favour with those he rules:
Proverbs 28:2 (ESV)
When a land transgresses, it has many rulers, but with a man of understanding and knowledge, its stability will long continue.
The man of understanding must however remember that God is the only one who understands and knows all things. He must not think that he understands all things or even 'most' things, because there are things of God that we cannot understand even with the Holy Spirit's help:
Philippians 4:7 (ESV)
And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
As Paul has said:
Romans 11:33 (ESV)
Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!
God infinitely larger than our tiny minds can ever find out. The best we can do is the bow down to Him and to worship Him forever. He alone is the King who reigns, He alone is the Creator who by His power simply thought and spoke the world into being. Let us humble our weak minds before the Mind that made us, and Him who thought of an unthinkable way for us to be forgiven and be reconciled back to Him. Praise be to Him:
Jeremiah 10:12 (ESV)
It is he who made the earth by his power, who established the world by his wisdom, and by his understanding stretched out the heavens.
Isaiah 40:28 (ESV)
Have you not known? Have you not heard?The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable.
Choose for your tribes wise, understanding, and experienced men, and I will appoint them as your heads.''
The second character of a leader that Moses required in the judges is a man of understanding.
The definition of this word Understanding in Hebrew is:
A primitive root; to separate mentally (or distinguish), that is, (generally) understand:--attend, consider, be cunning, diligently, direct, discern, eloquent, feel, inform, instruct, have intelligence, know, look well to, mark, perceive, be prudent, regard, (can) skill (-ful), teach, think, (cause, make to, get, give, have) understand (-ing), view, (deal) wise (-ly, man).
When Solomon asked God that He give him the ability to "discern", he was using the same word Understanding as above. He desired the ability, the understanding to separate or to distinguish between good and evil:
1 Kings 3:9 (ESV)
Give your servant therefore an understanding mind to govern your people, that I may discern between good and evil, for who is able to govern this your great people?"
Just as God in creation separated light from darkness, Heaven from Earth, leaders need the ability to discern between what is the truth and the lie, what is from God and what is from man and the devil, what is good before God's eyes and what is evil, what is beneficial and what is harmful. Without such discernment it is impossible to govern and lead a family, church or nation in a way that pleases God.
Remember when Jesus Christ said to the Church of Laodicea:
Revelation 3:15-16 (ESV)
I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! [16] So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth.
Christ is telling the Church of Laodicea that they have no discernment. It is all mixed, lukewarm, grey area. There was no person of understanding in the midst that could say: 'Enough is enough! This is evil before Christ's eyes. We must not do this. We must do that which is good. This is not from the Spirit of God but from the spirit of the world!' There was no clear line between things of heaven and the things of the earth, because they lacked understanding. They knew not the difference between the clean and the unclean. Therefore it was a lukewarm mix, displeasing to Christ's palate.
Understanding is not only to separate things mentally, but it is also to put things together. That is the meaning of the word "Understand" that Christ uses in this passage:
Mark 7:14-15,17-23 (ESV)
And he called the people to him again and said to them, "Hear me, all of you, and understand: [15] There is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile him." [17] And when he had entered the house and left the people, his disciples asked him about the parable. [18] And he said to them, "Then are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him, [19] since it enters not his heart but his stomach, and is expelled?" ( Thus he declared all foods clean.) [20] And he said, "What comes out of a person is what defiles him. [21] For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, [22] coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. [23] All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person."
The disciples did not have understanding, that is, they could not put together mentally what Christ was saying with the occurrences of life to make sense of the parable. They could not put together that by 'things going in a person,' He meant food going in the stomach, and by 'things going out of a person', He meant the sins that proceeds from the heart that defiles the person.
It was by this kind of understanding that we believers were saved. Firstly, when we put our own wickedness together with His holiness, our actions with the Word of God, we understood how far we have fallen short of His glory. By this understanding God made us to see how we have grossly offended and violated His standards. We understood that God is angry with us, when we put together our own sins with the sins of the characters in the Bible. We saw that we deserve to die, like the characters did in the Bible. But when we were drowning in our own guilt, desiring to hide from the wrath of God, the Father revealed to us His Beloved Son, hanging on the Cross, taking the punishment for the sin of the world. God enabled us to put together in our minds that it was for OUR sins that He was crucified. Christ's death meant nothing to us previously, when we were without understanding. But when Christ by His Spirit made us to link our sins to His cross, we were united with Him by faith. His death we reckoned to be our death to sin, and His life from the dead we reckoned to be our life to God.
A man of understating is therefore a man that thinks. He is a man that considers, ponders, meditates over the things of God:
2 Timothy 2:7 (ESV)
Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything.
Without thinking, there can be no understanding. God will not give understanding to a man who does not think over the things of God. God has given us an amazing mind, that is able to launch deep and wide into things, and is able to process many information. He has given us logic, that can link one thing to another, cause to effect, to make sense of things. He has not given us this mind to be used on vain things, on evil things. But He gave it to be spent thinking over the things God has said, over the things He has made and has done, that we may know and understand Him.
Listen to what Christ says:
Matthew 6:26-30 (ESV)
Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? [27] And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? [28] And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, [29] yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. [30] But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?
See how Christ says, 'Look at the birds of the air', and 'Consider the lilies of the field'. He is commanding us to look and think over God's creation, and understand how God provides and cares for all that He has made, especially us who are made in His image. But because we don't think over God's creation, and understand that God governs and controls all things, including us, by the power of His word, we worry and are anxious. Without thinking we are not able to receive such understanding that leads us to life and happiness.
Understanding, however, like all good things, is something that is given by God. It is surely something that we do, but the ability and the faculty is a gift that is given by God:
1 John 5:20 (ESV)
And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true; and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.
No man can ever understand the things of God unless God reveals them to the man. Just as no insect will ever understand a man, likewise it is infinitely more impossible that a man can understand God. But God makes it possible, by giving the man a little bit of His own mind, through His Spirit, that he may know Him:
1 Corinthians 2:11-12 (ESV)
For who knows a person's thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. [12] Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God.
So a man of understanding is someone who has received the Holy Spirit by God's grace. The man who understands therefore has nothing to boast of. He must be thankful that God has considered his meditations worthy, and by grace rewarded him with understanding:
Psalm 104:34 (ESV)
May my meditation be pleasing to him, for I rejoice in the LORD.
Our meditations are a way of loving God. As the greatest commandment says:
Deuteronomy 6:5 (ESV)
You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.
The meaning of the word "heart" here can also be translated as Understanding, or Mind. We are to love God will all our mind, all our understanding, with all that we are. For to not love Him is to not think about Him:
Romans 1:28-29 (ESV)
And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. [29] They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips,
When we don't meditate on God, God will fill our mind with trash, with evil, sin and darkness. This is because we clearly show that we don't love God when we don't think about Him. When we don't place our thoughts on God but on other things, it shows that God's word has no place in our hearts, and that we hate Him. Let us examine ourselves if God is in our minds, or if there is sin our minds:
Isaiah 55:7 (ESV)
let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the LORD, that he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
If God is not on our minds, Bible says we are nothing different from an animal who has no understanding:
Psalm 49:20 (ESV)
Man in his pomp yet without understanding is like the beasts that perish.
When we seek God will all our hearts/minds, then God will be found by us:
Jeremiah 29:13 (ESV)
You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.
Psalm 27:8 (ESV)
You have said, "Seek my face."My heart says to you, "Your face, LORD, do I seek."
And God is a rewarder to them that diligently seek Him with all their heart:
Hebrews 11:6 (ESV)
And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
A man of understanding therefore is a man who diligently seeks God with his mind. The two cannot go separate. The man of understanding is not someone who is stagnant, who just sits still and expects understanding to naturally into him. But the man of understanding is someone who perpetually pursues after God with all his might, expecting the gracious fruits from God for his mental toil.
A man of understanding is therefore a man of faith. He is a man that believes that it is worthwhile to spend hours, days, months and years thinking about the things of God. He believes that God will reward him in this pursuit, not with some vain knowledge or empty wisdom, but revelation of His own Self. The man of understanding is one who loves God, and wants to know Him above all things. He has not much room in his mind for anything else, for it is filled with God. He is a man that has gladly given up knowing other things, that he may only know Jesus Christ and Him crucified:
1 Corinthians 2:2 (ESV)
For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.
The world may call such a man a fool, one who desires to know nothing but God, but God considers him as a wise and understanding man, for he has chosen the most important thing.
Other characteristics and fruits of the man of understanding Solomon outlines for us:
1) He is a man who does takes sin seriously and delights in the wisdom of God:
Proverbs 10:23 (ESV)
Doing wrong is like a joke to a fool, but wisdom is pleasure to a man of understanding.
2) He is a man who does not look down on his neighbors, one who considers others better than himself. Man of understanding does not speak rashly of others:
Proverbs 11:12 (ESV)
Whoever belittles his neighbor lacks sense, but a man of understanding remains silent.
3) He is a man who is able to take rebukes from others and reform himself:
Proverbs 17:10 (ESV)
A rebuke goes deeper into a man of understanding than a hundred blows into a fool.
4) He is a man that can discern what is the thoughts and the intent of another person's heart:
Proverbs 20:5 (ESV)
The purpose in a man's heart is like deep water, but a man of understanding will draw it out.
5) He is a man, as a leader, can bring prolonged peace and order, and is in favour with those he rules:
Proverbs 28:2 (ESV)
When a land transgresses, it has many rulers, but with a man of understanding and knowledge, its stability will long continue.
The man of understanding must however remember that God is the only one who understands and knows all things. He must not think that he understands all things or even 'most' things, because there are things of God that we cannot understand even with the Holy Spirit's help:
Philippians 4:7 (ESV)
And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
As Paul has said:
Romans 11:33 (ESV)
Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!
God infinitely larger than our tiny minds can ever find out. The best we can do is the bow down to Him and to worship Him forever. He alone is the King who reigns, He alone is the Creator who by His power simply thought and spoke the world into being. Let us humble our weak minds before the Mind that made us, and Him who thought of an unthinkable way for us to be forgiven and be reconciled back to Him. Praise be to Him:
Jeremiah 10:12 (ESV)
It is he who made the earth by his power, who established the world by his wisdom, and by his understanding stretched out the heavens.
Isaiah 40:28 (ESV)
Have you not known? Have you not heard?The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable.
Friday, October 7, 2011
The cross of Jesus is our wisdom
Deuteronomy 1:13 (ESV)
Choose for your tribes wise, understanding, and experienced men, and I will appoint them as your heads.''
Choose for your tribes wise. Here Moses gives the criteria for who shall be the judges over the people of Israel. First is a man who has wisdom.
Knowledge may be gathered through hard study, but wisdom is only given by God. It is a product of heaven. When we think of wisdom, we think of the wisdom of Solomon. Yet we forget that wisdom was given to him by God from above as a gift:
1 Kings 4:29 (KJV)
And God gave Solomon wisdom and understanding exceeding much, and largeness of heart, even as the sand that is on the sea shore.
And as we read, the wisdom of Solomon was the wisdom of God, being an impartation of God's own wisdom to him:
1 Kings 3:28 (KJV)
And all Israel heard of the judgment which the king had judged; and they feared the king: for they saw that the wisdom of God was in him, to do judgment.
So wisdom is not to be thought as simply how much information a man has gathered in his brain, or as something that is worked up by a man's own strength through prolonged thinking or meditation. It must be given from heaven from God's own mind and deposited into the mind of the man by God's Spirit. Any other "wisdom" cannot be called wisdom at all, but to God it is only foolishness:
1 Corinthians 3:19 (ESV)
For the wisdom of this world is folly with God. For it is written, "He catches the wise in their craftiness,"
Therefore, in order to be truly wise in God's eyes, we must first reject counterfeit "wisdom" that grows from the world. We must become fools first, in worldly standards:
1 Corinthians 3:18 (ESV)
Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise.
This is what Paul desired to do once he came to know the Lord Jesus. He realized all the human "wisdom" and education that he had been taught were useless in becoming wise in God's terms. He realized that they were nothing but a hinderance to him knowing Jesus:
Philippians 3:4-8 (ESV)
though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also. If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: [5] circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; [6] as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. [7] But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. [8] Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ
After we have counted every wisdom we know from the world as nothing but rubbish, how then can we gain the wisdom that is from heaven? Firstly, we must seek the wisdom from God in prayer and petition. We must kneel and beg at His holy throne for wisdom. We must seek and ask that He sends His Holy Spirit that we may have a little bit of His own wisdom. Isn't this how Solomon became wise? Did he not ask the Lord in prayer that God may give him wisdom?
1 Kings 3:9-12 (ESV)
Give your servant therefore an understanding mind to govern your people, that I may discern between good and evil, for who is able to govern this your great people?" [10] It pleased the Lord that Solomon had asked this. [11] And God said to him, "Because you have asked this, and have not asked for yourself long life or riches or the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself understanding to discern what is right, [12] behold, I now do according to your word. Behold, I give you a wise and discerning mind, so that none like you has been before you and none like you shall arise after you.
God is pleased when we forsake our own efforts to gather wisdom from the dead resources of the world, and ask Him for wisdom. God is pleased when we are humble and admit that we are nothing but absolute fools, and when we depend on Him alone for wisdom. God was pleased with Solomon's humility, because he said that he is "only a little child" (1 Kings 3:7) and did not know anything. God surely loves those who say 'I know nothing', and humble themselves, begging only for a bread crumb of wisdom to fall from God's table.
Not only prayer, God has given us one ready resource through which our wisdom may come. Wisdom comes through the Word of God, the Bible:
2 Timothy 3:15 (ESV)
and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.
God, through our seeking prayer, makes us to be wise through the Holy Scriptures. And the Holy Scriptures does not make us just wise, as though for no purpose, but gives us the wisdom that leads us to salvation. So the only worthy wisdom that we can have is wisdom that makes us wise for salvation. And such wisdom is from God alone.
There are wisdom out there that leads to eternal death. This is the 'wisdom' in doing evil:
Jeremiah 4:22 (ESV)
"For my people are foolish; they know me not;they are stupid children; they have no understanding. They are ''wise''-in doing evil! But how to do good they know not."
Some people are very intelligent, and "wise" in worldly sense, but they use this wisdom to do great sins. Hitler was undoubtedly a very "wise" man, but to do what? In killing people, in hating people, in cleverly carrying out the will of Satan. What a wasted mind and wisdom! See how God calls such people, who are "wise" in doing evil: foolish, ignorant, stupid, without understanding. God didn't think Hitler was wise at all, for he condemned himself to Hell with his own wisdom to sin. Any wisdom that makes us to be buried in our sins is not God's wisdom, but is wisdom from the devil:
James 3:15 (ESV)
This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic.
Let us therefore take special attention to the Holy Scriptures, which is able to make us wise unto salvation for our own selves, and that which helps us to assist others to have salvation.
But the most thing we must remember in our seeking for wisdom in prayer and Scriptures, is that wisdom is not a 'thing', but that Jesus Christ Himself IS the wisdom of God:
1 Corinthians 1:30 (ESV)
And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption,
1 Corinthians 1:24 (ESV)
but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.
Colossians 2:2-3 (ESV)
that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God's mystery, which is Christ, [3] in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
Jesus Christ is the wisdom of God. Wisdom is a living Person. To be wise, therefore, means to have Jesus Christ, and to have the Spirit of Christ living in us. There is no other wisdom, and every other wisdom than Christ nothing but utter foolishness to God. We must therefore seek Christ in our prayers and find Christ in Scriptures. Christ is the Wisdom that leads us to eternal life. Hear Christ's cry through the voice of wisdom in Solomon's proverbs:
Proverbs 8:35-36 (ESV)
For whoever finds me finds life and obtains favor from the LORD, [36] but he who fails to find me injures himself; all who hate me love death."
Jesus Christ is the Wisdom of God that came from heaven:
James 3:17 (ESV)
But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere.
Christ was this pure, peaceable, gentle, open to reason, merciful, good, impartial and sincere Wisdom that God sent from heaven to us. Yet we despised Him, and rejected this wisdom that God offered to us. For we loved our foolishnesses above God's wisdom:
John 3:19 (ESV)
And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.
We crucified Him, thinking that Christ was a fool. We esteemed God's Wisdom as foolishness. We laughed and scorned at Him, as though He were a joke. How much did the murderers of Christ laugh that He could not even come down from a Cross, if He was indeed the Son of God as He claimed to be:
Matthew 27:39-40 (ESV)
And those who passed by derided him, wagging their heads [40] and saying, "You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself! If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross."
Yet they did not realize that the Cross was God's wisdom to save mankind from the fate of eternal hell. To them it looked as foolishness, that God would be so weak to die a shameful, public death, on a cross, where murderers, thieves and the scums of mankind die? It was unthinkable, horrendous, and scandalous. It was a stumbling-block to them that they could not get across:
1 Corinthians 1:22-24 (ESV)
For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, [23] but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, [24] but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.
The Cross is the hidden jewel that is hidden inside the treasure box of wisdom that is Christ. This is the highest wisdom that a man can attain to, because it was foolishness on God's side:
1 Corinthians 1:25 (ESV)
For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
It was indeed a "foolish" thing for God to do, to throw away His own Son, to save our lives from Hell. To forsake His own Beloved Son for a season, that He may have us - pathetic filthy sinners - forever. It was not a wise thing to do. But because of this, we are saved from eternities to eternities in the agony of Hell. There is no higher wisdom than this for a man to attain. Simply to know that God made this "foolish" decision to offer up His own Son for us, make us wiser than all the ancients.
Let us then, seek wisdom from God in prayers and in study of the Bible, that we may know Christ, and especially what He has done for us on the Hill of Golgotha. This is what makes a person wise. Not knowing the Gospel is what makes a man eternally foolish, stupid and ignorant in God's eyes. We need leaders who know, love and study the Gospel of Jesus Christ, those who only hold Christ as their own wisdom. We need leaders who live according to this Gospel of Jesus, in loving, serving and dying for others. Christ will choose such men to be heads over His house. Let us be such men, and inquire deep into the Cross that saved our souls.
Choose for your tribes wise, understanding, and experienced men, and I will appoint them as your heads.''
Choose for your tribes wise. Here Moses gives the criteria for who shall be the judges over the people of Israel. First is a man who has wisdom.
Knowledge may be gathered through hard study, but wisdom is only given by God. It is a product of heaven. When we think of wisdom, we think of the wisdom of Solomon. Yet we forget that wisdom was given to him by God from above as a gift:
1 Kings 4:29 (KJV)
And God gave Solomon wisdom and understanding exceeding much, and largeness of heart, even as the sand that is on the sea shore.
And as we read, the wisdom of Solomon was the wisdom of God, being an impartation of God's own wisdom to him:
1 Kings 3:28 (KJV)
And all Israel heard of the judgment which the king had judged; and they feared the king: for they saw that the wisdom of God was in him, to do judgment.
So wisdom is not to be thought as simply how much information a man has gathered in his brain, or as something that is worked up by a man's own strength through prolonged thinking or meditation. It must be given from heaven from God's own mind and deposited into the mind of the man by God's Spirit. Any other "wisdom" cannot be called wisdom at all, but to God it is only foolishness:
1 Corinthians 3:19 (ESV)
For the wisdom of this world is folly with God. For it is written, "He catches the wise in their craftiness,"
Therefore, in order to be truly wise in God's eyes, we must first reject counterfeit "wisdom" that grows from the world. We must become fools first, in worldly standards:
1 Corinthians 3:18 (ESV)
Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise.
This is what Paul desired to do once he came to know the Lord Jesus. He realized all the human "wisdom" and education that he had been taught were useless in becoming wise in God's terms. He realized that they were nothing but a hinderance to him knowing Jesus:
Philippians 3:4-8 (ESV)
though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also. If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: [5] circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; [6] as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. [7] But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. [8] Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ
After we have counted every wisdom we know from the world as nothing but rubbish, how then can we gain the wisdom that is from heaven? Firstly, we must seek the wisdom from God in prayer and petition. We must kneel and beg at His holy throne for wisdom. We must seek and ask that He sends His Holy Spirit that we may have a little bit of His own wisdom. Isn't this how Solomon became wise? Did he not ask the Lord in prayer that God may give him wisdom?
1 Kings 3:9-12 (ESV)
Give your servant therefore an understanding mind to govern your people, that I may discern between good and evil, for who is able to govern this your great people?" [10] It pleased the Lord that Solomon had asked this. [11] And God said to him, "Because you have asked this, and have not asked for yourself long life or riches or the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself understanding to discern what is right, [12] behold, I now do according to your word. Behold, I give you a wise and discerning mind, so that none like you has been before you and none like you shall arise after you.
God is pleased when we forsake our own efforts to gather wisdom from the dead resources of the world, and ask Him for wisdom. God is pleased when we are humble and admit that we are nothing but absolute fools, and when we depend on Him alone for wisdom. God was pleased with Solomon's humility, because he said that he is "only a little child" (1 Kings 3:7) and did not know anything. God surely loves those who say 'I know nothing', and humble themselves, begging only for a bread crumb of wisdom to fall from God's table.
Not only prayer, God has given us one ready resource through which our wisdom may come. Wisdom comes through the Word of God, the Bible:
2 Timothy 3:15 (ESV)
and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.
God, through our seeking prayer, makes us to be wise through the Holy Scriptures. And the Holy Scriptures does not make us just wise, as though for no purpose, but gives us the wisdom that leads us to salvation. So the only worthy wisdom that we can have is wisdom that makes us wise for salvation. And such wisdom is from God alone.
There are wisdom out there that leads to eternal death. This is the 'wisdom' in doing evil:
Jeremiah 4:22 (ESV)
"For my people are foolish; they know me not;they are stupid children; they have no understanding. They are ''wise''-in doing evil! But how to do good they know not."
Some people are very intelligent, and "wise" in worldly sense, but they use this wisdom to do great sins. Hitler was undoubtedly a very "wise" man, but to do what? In killing people, in hating people, in cleverly carrying out the will of Satan. What a wasted mind and wisdom! See how God calls such people, who are "wise" in doing evil: foolish, ignorant, stupid, without understanding. God didn't think Hitler was wise at all, for he condemned himself to Hell with his own wisdom to sin. Any wisdom that makes us to be buried in our sins is not God's wisdom, but is wisdom from the devil:
James 3:15 (ESV)
This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic.
Let us therefore take special attention to the Holy Scriptures, which is able to make us wise unto salvation for our own selves, and that which helps us to assist others to have salvation.
But the most thing we must remember in our seeking for wisdom in prayer and Scriptures, is that wisdom is not a 'thing', but that Jesus Christ Himself IS the wisdom of God:
1 Corinthians 1:30 (ESV)
And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption,
1 Corinthians 1:24 (ESV)
but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.
Colossians 2:2-3 (ESV)
that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God's mystery, which is Christ, [3] in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
Jesus Christ is the wisdom of God. Wisdom is a living Person. To be wise, therefore, means to have Jesus Christ, and to have the Spirit of Christ living in us. There is no other wisdom, and every other wisdom than Christ nothing but utter foolishness to God. We must therefore seek Christ in our prayers and find Christ in Scriptures. Christ is the Wisdom that leads us to eternal life. Hear Christ's cry through the voice of wisdom in Solomon's proverbs:
Proverbs 8:35-36 (ESV)
For whoever finds me finds life and obtains favor from the LORD, [36] but he who fails to find me injures himself; all who hate me love death."
Jesus Christ is the Wisdom of God that came from heaven:
James 3:17 (ESV)
But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere.
Christ was this pure, peaceable, gentle, open to reason, merciful, good, impartial and sincere Wisdom that God sent from heaven to us. Yet we despised Him, and rejected this wisdom that God offered to us. For we loved our foolishnesses above God's wisdom:
John 3:19 (ESV)
And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.
We crucified Him, thinking that Christ was a fool. We esteemed God's Wisdom as foolishness. We laughed and scorned at Him, as though He were a joke. How much did the murderers of Christ laugh that He could not even come down from a Cross, if He was indeed the Son of God as He claimed to be:
Matthew 27:39-40 (ESV)
And those who passed by derided him, wagging their heads [40] and saying, "You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself! If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross."
Yet they did not realize that the Cross was God's wisdom to save mankind from the fate of eternal hell. To them it looked as foolishness, that God would be so weak to die a shameful, public death, on a cross, where murderers, thieves and the scums of mankind die? It was unthinkable, horrendous, and scandalous. It was a stumbling-block to them that they could not get across:
1 Corinthians 1:22-24 (ESV)
For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, [23] but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, [24] but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.
The Cross is the hidden jewel that is hidden inside the treasure box of wisdom that is Christ. This is the highest wisdom that a man can attain to, because it was foolishness on God's side:
1 Corinthians 1:25 (ESV)
For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
It was indeed a "foolish" thing for God to do, to throw away His own Son, to save our lives from Hell. To forsake His own Beloved Son for a season, that He may have us - pathetic filthy sinners - forever. It was not a wise thing to do. But because of this, we are saved from eternities to eternities in the agony of Hell. There is no higher wisdom than this for a man to attain. Simply to know that God made this "foolish" decision to offer up His own Son for us, make us wiser than all the ancients.
Let us then, seek wisdom from God in prayers and in study of the Bible, that we may know Christ, and especially what He has done for us on the Hill of Golgotha. This is what makes a person wise. Not knowing the Gospel is what makes a man eternally foolish, stupid and ignorant in God's eyes. We need leaders who know, love and study the Gospel of Jesus Christ, those who only hold Christ as their own wisdom. We need leaders who live according to this Gospel of Jesus, in loving, serving and dying for others. Christ will choose such men to be heads over His house. Let us be such men, and inquire deep into the Cross that saved our souls.
Thursday, October 6, 2011
Jesus Christ can bear our sins
Deuteronomy 1:9-12 (ESV)
"At that time I said to you, ''I am not able to bear you by myself. [10] The LORD your God has multiplied you, and behold, you are today as numerous as the stars of heaven. [11] May the LORD, the God of your fathers, make you a thousand times as many as you are and bless you, as he has promised you! [12] How can I bear by myself the weight and burden of you and your strife?
At that time. The time was when Jethro, Moses' father in law, gave the advice to Moses, right before Israel had reached Mount Sinai. So Moses is not speaking of the time when Moses appointed the 70 elders, which happened after Israel left Sinai, but the appointment of the captains to be judges of Israel, which was after the water from the rock in Rephidim and defeating of the Amelekites, events before Israel entered into wilderness of Sinai.
Why Moses is including this event, which happened before leaving Mount Sinai, is to show Israel how wicked they were in refusing to believe in God's promise that they would inherit the land, when His promise to Abraham of increased population was being fulfilled in them before their eyes. For read what God had said to Issac in confirming His promise to Abraham:
Genesis 26:4-5 (ESV)
I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and will give to your offspring all these lands. And in your offspring all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, [5] because Abraham obeyed my voice and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws."
Moses was saying here that the first part of this promise, that Abraham's offspring will be as the stars of heaven, was now fulfilled, Israel having gone from only 70 people when Jacob came with his house to Egypt, to be about 600,000 at time of Exodus. God has and was continuing to fulfill this promise right before them.
Moses is saying, 'If God has fulfilled this promise that He made to Abraham, why did the first generation that came out from Egypt believe not in the promise that they will conquer the land?' The first generation had all the evidence to believe that God was with them and that very same God who blessed them with increased population was willing to give them the promised land. They were therefore doubly condemned for their unbelief, for they clearly saw God's hand working. And Moses is worried that this second generation may follow after the unbelief of their fathers. Particularly, he is worried that they will believe not in the God's third promise to Abraham, the promise of the Messiah, through whom all the nations of the world would be blessed.
I am not able to bear you by myself. God had blessed Israel with blessings more than Moses could bear. God had blessed them so much, that they had multiplied as the stars of heaven, and thus they became unbearable for Moses to carry by himself. Firstly, this shows how God blesses His people. Moses surely could not handle Israel's blessedness; they expanded beyond his hands and control. Has not God blessed us His children with unbearable blessings? God makes our cup to overflow; He makes who are dying of thirst to have rivers of living water to flow from their hearts. Christ broke 2 pieces of bread and fed 5000 people to have 12 full baskets leftover. He always gives us unbearable, abundant blessings.
Grace is the unbearable blessing that turned our hearts over to Jesus Christ forever. When we were in the darkness of our sins, guilt and condemnation, light of the Gospel of Jesus appeared to our hearts, blinding the eyes of our heart with His glory. When we saw that God Himself became a man and had died for the sins - that we had committed against Him - it became an unbearable blessing that overflowed from our hearts. The gift of everlasting life that was given to a filthy sinners like us was inexpressible, unknowable and it was more joy than our heart could bear.
The blessings that God gave us in Christ overflowed from us, and had to be shared with people around us. That is what happens when we have unbearable blessings. Just as the Spirit of Christ overflowed from Moses to the numerous judges, when we have overflowing grace, it flows to others. Just as prophet Jeremiah said:
Jeremiah 20:9 (ESV)
If I say, "I will not mention him, or speak any more in his name," there is in my heart as it were a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot.
Prophet Jeremiah felt like the word of God was boiling up like a fire inside His heart that would break all his bones and burst forth if he did not open his mouth. If the prophet felt like this for a message about one nation's fall to Babylon, how much must we feel about the message of eternal judgment that is to come upon the WORLD? If Jeremiah felt like this of a message of condemnation, how much more must our Good News of God's grace and salvation burn in us like a fire in our hearts, waiting to be shared to others?
How can I bear by myself the weight and burden of you and your strife? Moses particularly could not bear the people of Israel alone because he could not bear their sin. Along with numerous blessings also came a multitude of sins, through thanklessness and complacence. Moses, before Jethro gave the advice, spent the whole day until evening listening to people's strife. He alone was the judge. He heard all Israelites' complaining, fighting, bitterness, etc. He alone could not handle this terrible weight of sin. In fact, it repulsed him so much that later he even disowns Israelites when the burden is about to crush him:
Numbers 11:11-15 (ESV)
Moses said to the LORD, "Why have you dealt ill with your servant? And why have I not found favor in your sight, that you lay the burden of all this people on me? [12] Did I conceive all this people? Did I give them birth, that you should say to me, ''Carry them in your bosom, as a nurse carries a nursing child,'' to the land that you swore to give their fathers? [13] Where am I to get meat to give to all this people? For they weep before me and say, ''Give us meat, that we may eat.'' [14] I am not able to carry all this people alone; the burden is too heavy for me. [15] If you will treat me like this, kill me at once, if I find favor in your sight, that I may not see my wretchedness."
Moses hated carrying the burden of Israel's sin so much that he says he would rather die than do this. Moses blames God for this discomfort that He has placed on his shoulders. He denies any association with this people, and wants nothing to do them. This is a picture of an inadequate saviour. Moses could not save these people at all from their sins. He hated the idea. And we can understand his heart. Don't we also feel weighed down to always hear of other people's complaints and sorrows, or when they confess their vile sins to us? It is a miserable thing to hear of people's sorrows and sins. And it is double the miserable because there is really nothing we can personally do to help them. We would rather hear of good things and peaceful things. We cannot bear other people's sins. That is Moses' heart at this moment. He desires to throw off the burden off his shoulders.
But our Lord Jesus Christ, unlike Moses, is able to bear the burden of our sin. Christ bore the full weight of our sins and sorrows, until it crushed Him on the cross of Calvary:
Isaiah 53:4-6 (ESV)
Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows;yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. [5] But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed. [6] All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned-every one-to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
Christ endured our scorning, our blasphemies, our ignorance, our carelessness, our pride, our hatred of Him. He endured it all on the cross, and bore the weight of our transgressions, and the burden of our punishment for them. He did not shake off the burdens and the chains of condemnation to which He was held, but as a Lamb to the slaughter He held His peace. He was released to the wilderness like the scapegoat on the Day of Atonement. He bore the weight of sin, and destroyed sin with Himself that we may not die like He did.
And Christ rose again, and as our High Priest He ever lives to continue to bear our sins. Even though the sins were committed against Him, He is able to listen to our confessions, and to sympathize with our sorrows. He alone cares, like no man cares. And Christ does not only care, but He can wash us from every sin, taking the power of sin away from us by His power. He crucified our sins with His own body on the tree, that they would no longer be a burden to us.
We must be thankful that Christ cares for us when no one else cared for us. See how Moses so easily became exhausted of Israel, even though they were his own brethren by blood. But Christ bears with us unto the end. Even if we sin against Him, Christ bears the load, not shaking off the burden of our sin, but rebuking us, chastising us, loving us, healing us, washing us. If Moses was our Saviour, we would have been in Hell long time ago. But Christ, Faithful and True, is our Saviour, our Friend who sticks to us closer than a brother.
How shall we then sin anymore against our loving Saviour, who forsakes us not though He bears long with us? Are we going to make Him weary further with our sins, though we once had killed Him with our sins? By no means. The time that we spent as Gentiles, doing the will of the devil, following the passions of our hearts, suffices us. We are now ashamed of what we did that made Christ die. What fruit did we have then, except death? We must stop sinning if Christ has redeemed us, and saved us by His own death. Let us not burden Him anymore with our vain worship that is mixed with sins:
Isaiah 1:13-14 (ESV)
Bring no more vain offerings; incense is an abomination to me. New moon and Sabbath and the calling of convocations- I cannot endure iniquity and solemn assembly. [14] Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hates; they have become a burden to me; I am weary of bearing them.
Let us bear the sins of others, as Christ bears our sins. By the power that Christ supplies we can forgive other people's sins towards us, and bear with their evil. We may, as Moses did, from time to time complain to God, but God has promised that He will not give us more temptations we can bear. Christ knows that we cannot bear the full load of other people's sins, but He gives us the strength to bear the offense of those whom He allows to sin against us. We can bear them with the love that Christ loved us:
1 Corinthians 13:7 (ESV)
Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
"At that time I said to you, ''I am not able to bear you by myself. [10] The LORD your God has multiplied you, and behold, you are today as numerous as the stars of heaven. [11] May the LORD, the God of your fathers, make you a thousand times as many as you are and bless you, as he has promised you! [12] How can I bear by myself the weight and burden of you and your strife?
At that time. The time was when Jethro, Moses' father in law, gave the advice to Moses, right before Israel had reached Mount Sinai. So Moses is not speaking of the time when Moses appointed the 70 elders, which happened after Israel left Sinai, but the appointment of the captains to be judges of Israel, which was after the water from the rock in Rephidim and defeating of the Amelekites, events before Israel entered into wilderness of Sinai.
Why Moses is including this event, which happened before leaving Mount Sinai, is to show Israel how wicked they were in refusing to believe in God's promise that they would inherit the land, when His promise to Abraham of increased population was being fulfilled in them before their eyes. For read what God had said to Issac in confirming His promise to Abraham:
Genesis 26:4-5 (ESV)
I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and will give to your offspring all these lands. And in your offspring all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, [5] because Abraham obeyed my voice and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws."
Moses was saying here that the first part of this promise, that Abraham's offspring will be as the stars of heaven, was now fulfilled, Israel having gone from only 70 people when Jacob came with his house to Egypt, to be about 600,000 at time of Exodus. God has and was continuing to fulfill this promise right before them.
Moses is saying, 'If God has fulfilled this promise that He made to Abraham, why did the first generation that came out from Egypt believe not in the promise that they will conquer the land?' The first generation had all the evidence to believe that God was with them and that very same God who blessed them with increased population was willing to give them the promised land. They were therefore doubly condemned for their unbelief, for they clearly saw God's hand working. And Moses is worried that this second generation may follow after the unbelief of their fathers. Particularly, he is worried that they will believe not in the God's third promise to Abraham, the promise of the Messiah, through whom all the nations of the world would be blessed.
I am not able to bear you by myself. God had blessed Israel with blessings more than Moses could bear. God had blessed them so much, that they had multiplied as the stars of heaven, and thus they became unbearable for Moses to carry by himself. Firstly, this shows how God blesses His people. Moses surely could not handle Israel's blessedness; they expanded beyond his hands and control. Has not God blessed us His children with unbearable blessings? God makes our cup to overflow; He makes who are dying of thirst to have rivers of living water to flow from their hearts. Christ broke 2 pieces of bread and fed 5000 people to have 12 full baskets leftover. He always gives us unbearable, abundant blessings.
Grace is the unbearable blessing that turned our hearts over to Jesus Christ forever. When we were in the darkness of our sins, guilt and condemnation, light of the Gospel of Jesus appeared to our hearts, blinding the eyes of our heart with His glory. When we saw that God Himself became a man and had died for the sins - that we had committed against Him - it became an unbearable blessing that overflowed from our hearts. The gift of everlasting life that was given to a filthy sinners like us was inexpressible, unknowable and it was more joy than our heart could bear.
The blessings that God gave us in Christ overflowed from us, and had to be shared with people around us. That is what happens when we have unbearable blessings. Just as the Spirit of Christ overflowed from Moses to the numerous judges, when we have overflowing grace, it flows to others. Just as prophet Jeremiah said:
Jeremiah 20:9 (ESV)
If I say, "I will not mention him, or speak any more in his name," there is in my heart as it were a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot.
Prophet Jeremiah felt like the word of God was boiling up like a fire inside His heart that would break all his bones and burst forth if he did not open his mouth. If the prophet felt like this for a message about one nation's fall to Babylon, how much must we feel about the message of eternal judgment that is to come upon the WORLD? If Jeremiah felt like this of a message of condemnation, how much more must our Good News of God's grace and salvation burn in us like a fire in our hearts, waiting to be shared to others?
How can I bear by myself the weight and burden of you and your strife? Moses particularly could not bear the people of Israel alone because he could not bear their sin. Along with numerous blessings also came a multitude of sins, through thanklessness and complacence. Moses, before Jethro gave the advice, spent the whole day until evening listening to people's strife. He alone was the judge. He heard all Israelites' complaining, fighting, bitterness, etc. He alone could not handle this terrible weight of sin. In fact, it repulsed him so much that later he even disowns Israelites when the burden is about to crush him:
Numbers 11:11-15 (ESV)
Moses said to the LORD, "Why have you dealt ill with your servant? And why have I not found favor in your sight, that you lay the burden of all this people on me? [12] Did I conceive all this people? Did I give them birth, that you should say to me, ''Carry them in your bosom, as a nurse carries a nursing child,'' to the land that you swore to give their fathers? [13] Where am I to get meat to give to all this people? For they weep before me and say, ''Give us meat, that we may eat.'' [14] I am not able to carry all this people alone; the burden is too heavy for me. [15] If you will treat me like this, kill me at once, if I find favor in your sight, that I may not see my wretchedness."
Moses hated carrying the burden of Israel's sin so much that he says he would rather die than do this. Moses blames God for this discomfort that He has placed on his shoulders. He denies any association with this people, and wants nothing to do them. This is a picture of an inadequate saviour. Moses could not save these people at all from their sins. He hated the idea. And we can understand his heart. Don't we also feel weighed down to always hear of other people's complaints and sorrows, or when they confess their vile sins to us? It is a miserable thing to hear of people's sorrows and sins. And it is double the miserable because there is really nothing we can personally do to help them. We would rather hear of good things and peaceful things. We cannot bear other people's sins. That is Moses' heart at this moment. He desires to throw off the burden off his shoulders.
But our Lord Jesus Christ, unlike Moses, is able to bear the burden of our sin. Christ bore the full weight of our sins and sorrows, until it crushed Him on the cross of Calvary:
Isaiah 53:4-6 (ESV)
Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows;yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. [5] But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed. [6] All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned-every one-to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
Christ endured our scorning, our blasphemies, our ignorance, our carelessness, our pride, our hatred of Him. He endured it all on the cross, and bore the weight of our transgressions, and the burden of our punishment for them. He did not shake off the burdens and the chains of condemnation to which He was held, but as a Lamb to the slaughter He held His peace. He was released to the wilderness like the scapegoat on the Day of Atonement. He bore the weight of sin, and destroyed sin with Himself that we may not die like He did.
And Christ rose again, and as our High Priest He ever lives to continue to bear our sins. Even though the sins were committed against Him, He is able to listen to our confessions, and to sympathize with our sorrows. He alone cares, like no man cares. And Christ does not only care, but He can wash us from every sin, taking the power of sin away from us by His power. He crucified our sins with His own body on the tree, that they would no longer be a burden to us.
We must be thankful that Christ cares for us when no one else cared for us. See how Moses so easily became exhausted of Israel, even though they were his own brethren by blood. But Christ bears with us unto the end. Even if we sin against Him, Christ bears the load, not shaking off the burden of our sin, but rebuking us, chastising us, loving us, healing us, washing us. If Moses was our Saviour, we would have been in Hell long time ago. But Christ, Faithful and True, is our Saviour, our Friend who sticks to us closer than a brother.
How shall we then sin anymore against our loving Saviour, who forsakes us not though He bears long with us? Are we going to make Him weary further with our sins, though we once had killed Him with our sins? By no means. The time that we spent as Gentiles, doing the will of the devil, following the passions of our hearts, suffices us. We are now ashamed of what we did that made Christ die. What fruit did we have then, except death? We must stop sinning if Christ has redeemed us, and saved us by His own death. Let us not burden Him anymore with our vain worship that is mixed with sins:
Isaiah 1:13-14 (ESV)
Bring no more vain offerings; incense is an abomination to me. New moon and Sabbath and the calling of convocations- I cannot endure iniquity and solemn assembly. [14] Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hates; they have become a burden to me; I am weary of bearing them.
Let us bear the sins of others, as Christ bears our sins. By the power that Christ supplies we can forgive other people's sins towards us, and bear with their evil. We may, as Moses did, from time to time complain to God, but God has promised that He will not give us more temptations we can bear. Christ knows that we cannot bear the full load of other people's sins, but He gives us the strength to bear the offense of those whom He allows to sin against us. We can bear them with the love that Christ loved us:
1 Corinthians 13:7 (ESV)
Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
Living faith establishes God's Kingdom on earth
Deuteronomy 1:7-8 (ESV)
Turn and take your journey, and go to the hill country of the Amorites and to all their neighbors in the Arabah, in the hill country and in the lowland and in the Negeb and by the seacoast, the land of the Canaanites, and Lebanon, as far as the great river, the river Euphrates. [8] See, I have set the land before you. Go in and take possession of the land that the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give to them and to their offspring after them.''
Go in and take possession. God tells Israel to possess the promised land, which is currently occupied by the Amorites and the Canaanites. This was not stealing of the land. Because the inhabitants of the land had sinned against God and violated against His commandments, they were officially being evicted from the land, to be replaced with new tenants who would bring forth the fruits of righteousness. Though in verse 7 God describes the land as being the "country of Amorites" and "land of the Canaanites", He clearly says in verse 8, "See, I have set the land before you", giving ownership of the land legally and wholly to Israel.
Thus going in and possessing the land of Canaan meant driving out the current inhabitants of the land. War was how the land of Israel was birthed. Israel was not going to an empty land where there were no occupants and putting their flag on it. They had to go to existing owners and destroy them in the authority of God. Likewise it is with the Kingdom of God. God's Kingdom is coming to reclaim the Earth, and to replace its space with God's inhabitants who love Him. New wine must be put into new wineskins, lest it burst the first. There must be demolition of the first building, in order that the new building may be established on the same ground. Old and the new cannot coexist. As much as light cannot mix with dark, the kingdoms of man must be destroyed in order that the Kingdom of God may be established upon it:
Daniel 2:44 (ESV)
And in the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, nor shall the kingdom be left to another people. It shall break in pieces all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, and it shall stand forever,
God is coming upon the earth to reclaim His position as King. No human being will ever reign as King anymore, only Jesus Christ the Son of Man. All who have been saved shall be subjects to Him, bowing down and worshipping Him as the King of kings forever and ever. God will not share His glory as King with no man, except with those whom He has rescued by His grace. God alone shall reign as Lord, and no devil, no angel, no man nor any created thing shall have any power to rule anymore outside of Him:
Revelation 11:15 (ESV)
Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, "The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever."
Likewise in us who believe is a battle between the Spirit and the flesh. There is currently in us an uncomfortable coexistence between light and darkness, things of God and things of man, things of the Spirit of God and things of flesh and blood. Even though we have been born again, and have a new nature of God's righteousness in us, but undoubtedly there is within us remnants of the nature of the devil, our previous spiritual father, no matter how much we want to deny it. It must be noted here however that only those who have truly been born again have this battle going on. Those who have not been born again are only evil, only sin, only the things of man, only the devil's nature and none of God's. However, if there is war at all, it means good news for us, for we know that we have been saved. If there is struggle with sin and wrestling with evil, we must rejoice because we are God's people, and that God lives in us.
Are we kicking out the old residents of sin from us? Though the battle may continue for the rest of our life, we know that we are going to the grave with our enemy. Death is therefore a gain and victory for us. Therefore we even look forward to when we shall die, for then our souls will go home to be with our God. Sin our enemy fights with us to the bitter end, because it knows that it only has short time left, for it knows once we draw out our last breath, then it will lose the war forever. How victorious is our life then as a Christian, even through our battles with sin in this life? We fight vigorously, but we fight assured, knowing that Christ has paid for the wages of sin, so we are as though fighting a snake without fangs. It is as it is written:
Isaiah 11:8 (ESV)
The nursing child shall play over the hole of the cobra, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder's den.
The land that the LORD swore to your fathers. The only assurance that Israel would be guaranteed to be victorious in their conquest was this word: "The LORD swore". God swore an oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob that He would give this land to their offspring. Abraham walked in this land, and so did Isaac and Jacob. They never did possess the land, but were sojourners only. But to them it was promised and sworn that their offspring, the nation of Israel, would possess it.
The first generation should have simply believed this oath of God as a child and gone into possess the land. If they had believed that GOD, who never lies anyway, actually swore an oath that He would give the land to them, they would not have been so terrified of the inhabitants. They could have had the confidence that was based on God's solid oath. It would have been as easy as a stroll in the park. Indeed, did not the second generation destroy the wall of Jericho simply by their walking around it seven times and shouting? Why? Because their walking and shouting had some power? No! Because God had sworn by His own self that they would inherit the land.
We can learn here that God's oaths only apply to those who believe in God's oath. Those who did not believe in God's oath that He swore to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the oath did not apply to them, and they could not possess the land. But to the second generation that believed in God's oath, the oath applied to them, and they went in the land. By faith the oath of God is applied.
Likewise, listen to Jesus Christ's oath to us:
John 5:24 (ESV)
Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.
This oath only applies to those who believe in this oath. Whoever does not believe that trusting in Jesus alone can give eternal life will not have eternal life. This promise of life is applied to our souls by faith. Faith is the assurance of things unseen. By believing that this promise is true, and by trusting in Christ, the person is moved from death unto life.
By believing in the oath of God, the second generation also lived by their faith. They fought by faith and was able to safely take possession of Canaan. Thus we are to ask ourselves, are we living by faith in Christ? Are we actually living as though Christ is taking us to heaven, and as though we have really been moved from death to life? Are we living as though we died with Christ on the cross, and we are made a new Christian, and that we are seated with Christ now in heaven? Are we living as though we have risen with Christ from the dead, that as His body rose from the dead we lived to God? Are we really believing? Or is our faith a dead, fake faith that is really self-deception and hypnosis rather that genuine faith in the realities of God. Are we living as though heaven and hell is real? If so, how can we dabble in sin, or not preach the Gospel to others? Is our faith in some fictional story, or is it in truth, in reality? If in truth and reality, there must be genuine action, if we truly believe these things to be so. If we believe that God is real, and that He truly spoke His words, we must live by this faith and do what He said.
The land of Canaan did not become Israel's by an intellectual faith only, but by living faith. Living faith is the only faith. God's promises became real for Israel as they fought with all their might, shedding blood, sweat and tears. It was not legalism, but it was faith. Likewise the Kingdom of God will only be realized through living faith that with all strength destroys idols, dies to sin and lives to God. God only rewards those who "diligently seek Him". Laziness is unbelief, and "lazy faith" is a contradiction. Let us stir in ourselves all our diligence, if we indeed trust in Christ's promise. Only through faith shall the Kingdom of God be established in this land. Though our faith may be small, as long as it is real, then shall we do great and impossible things for God's glory:
Matthew 13:31-32 (ESV)
He put another parable before them, saying, "The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field. [32] It is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown it is larger than all the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches."
Matthew 17:20 (ESV)
He said to them, "Because of your little faith. For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ''Move from here to there,'' and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you."
Turn and take your journey, and go to the hill country of the Amorites and to all their neighbors in the Arabah, in the hill country and in the lowland and in the Negeb and by the seacoast, the land of the Canaanites, and Lebanon, as far as the great river, the river Euphrates. [8] See, I have set the land before you. Go in and take possession of the land that the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give to them and to their offspring after them.''
Go in and take possession. God tells Israel to possess the promised land, which is currently occupied by the Amorites and the Canaanites. This was not stealing of the land. Because the inhabitants of the land had sinned against God and violated against His commandments, they were officially being evicted from the land, to be replaced with new tenants who would bring forth the fruits of righteousness. Though in verse 7 God describes the land as being the "country of Amorites" and "land of the Canaanites", He clearly says in verse 8, "See, I have set the land before you", giving ownership of the land legally and wholly to Israel.
Thus going in and possessing the land of Canaan meant driving out the current inhabitants of the land. War was how the land of Israel was birthed. Israel was not going to an empty land where there were no occupants and putting their flag on it. They had to go to existing owners and destroy them in the authority of God. Likewise it is with the Kingdom of God. God's Kingdom is coming to reclaim the Earth, and to replace its space with God's inhabitants who love Him. New wine must be put into new wineskins, lest it burst the first. There must be demolition of the first building, in order that the new building may be established on the same ground. Old and the new cannot coexist. As much as light cannot mix with dark, the kingdoms of man must be destroyed in order that the Kingdom of God may be established upon it:
Daniel 2:44 (ESV)
And in the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, nor shall the kingdom be left to another people. It shall break in pieces all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, and it shall stand forever,
God is coming upon the earth to reclaim His position as King. No human being will ever reign as King anymore, only Jesus Christ the Son of Man. All who have been saved shall be subjects to Him, bowing down and worshipping Him as the King of kings forever and ever. God will not share His glory as King with no man, except with those whom He has rescued by His grace. God alone shall reign as Lord, and no devil, no angel, no man nor any created thing shall have any power to rule anymore outside of Him:
Revelation 11:15 (ESV)
Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, "The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever."
Likewise in us who believe is a battle between the Spirit and the flesh. There is currently in us an uncomfortable coexistence between light and darkness, things of God and things of man, things of the Spirit of God and things of flesh and blood. Even though we have been born again, and have a new nature of God's righteousness in us, but undoubtedly there is within us remnants of the nature of the devil, our previous spiritual father, no matter how much we want to deny it. It must be noted here however that only those who have truly been born again have this battle going on. Those who have not been born again are only evil, only sin, only the things of man, only the devil's nature and none of God's. However, if there is war at all, it means good news for us, for we know that we have been saved. If there is struggle with sin and wrestling with evil, we must rejoice because we are God's people, and that God lives in us.
Are we kicking out the old residents of sin from us? Though the battle may continue for the rest of our life, we know that we are going to the grave with our enemy. Death is therefore a gain and victory for us. Therefore we even look forward to when we shall die, for then our souls will go home to be with our God. Sin our enemy fights with us to the bitter end, because it knows that it only has short time left, for it knows once we draw out our last breath, then it will lose the war forever. How victorious is our life then as a Christian, even through our battles with sin in this life? We fight vigorously, but we fight assured, knowing that Christ has paid for the wages of sin, so we are as though fighting a snake without fangs. It is as it is written:
Isaiah 11:8 (ESV)
The nursing child shall play over the hole of the cobra, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder's den.
The land that the LORD swore to your fathers. The only assurance that Israel would be guaranteed to be victorious in their conquest was this word: "The LORD swore". God swore an oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob that He would give this land to their offspring. Abraham walked in this land, and so did Isaac and Jacob. They never did possess the land, but were sojourners only. But to them it was promised and sworn that their offspring, the nation of Israel, would possess it.
The first generation should have simply believed this oath of God as a child and gone into possess the land. If they had believed that GOD, who never lies anyway, actually swore an oath that He would give the land to them, they would not have been so terrified of the inhabitants. They could have had the confidence that was based on God's solid oath. It would have been as easy as a stroll in the park. Indeed, did not the second generation destroy the wall of Jericho simply by their walking around it seven times and shouting? Why? Because their walking and shouting had some power? No! Because God had sworn by His own self that they would inherit the land.
We can learn here that God's oaths only apply to those who believe in God's oath. Those who did not believe in God's oath that He swore to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the oath did not apply to them, and they could not possess the land. But to the second generation that believed in God's oath, the oath applied to them, and they went in the land. By faith the oath of God is applied.
Likewise, listen to Jesus Christ's oath to us:
John 5:24 (ESV)
Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.
This oath only applies to those who believe in this oath. Whoever does not believe that trusting in Jesus alone can give eternal life will not have eternal life. This promise of life is applied to our souls by faith. Faith is the assurance of things unseen. By believing that this promise is true, and by trusting in Christ, the person is moved from death unto life.
By believing in the oath of God, the second generation also lived by their faith. They fought by faith and was able to safely take possession of Canaan. Thus we are to ask ourselves, are we living by faith in Christ? Are we actually living as though Christ is taking us to heaven, and as though we have really been moved from death to life? Are we living as though we died with Christ on the cross, and we are made a new Christian, and that we are seated with Christ now in heaven? Are we living as though we have risen with Christ from the dead, that as His body rose from the dead we lived to God? Are we really believing? Or is our faith a dead, fake faith that is really self-deception and hypnosis rather that genuine faith in the realities of God. Are we living as though heaven and hell is real? If so, how can we dabble in sin, or not preach the Gospel to others? Is our faith in some fictional story, or is it in truth, in reality? If in truth and reality, there must be genuine action, if we truly believe these things to be so. If we believe that God is real, and that He truly spoke His words, we must live by this faith and do what He said.
The land of Canaan did not become Israel's by an intellectual faith only, but by living faith. Living faith is the only faith. God's promises became real for Israel as they fought with all their might, shedding blood, sweat and tears. It was not legalism, but it was faith. Likewise the Kingdom of God will only be realized through living faith that with all strength destroys idols, dies to sin and lives to God. God only rewards those who "diligently seek Him". Laziness is unbelief, and "lazy faith" is a contradiction. Let us stir in ourselves all our diligence, if we indeed trust in Christ's promise. Only through faith shall the Kingdom of God be established in this land. Though our faith may be small, as long as it is real, then shall we do great and impossible things for God's glory:
Matthew 13:31-32 (ESV)
He put another parable before them, saying, "The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field. [32] It is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown it is larger than all the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches."
Matthew 17:20 (ESV)
He said to them, "Because of your little faith. For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ''Move from here to there,'' and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you."
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
There is no fear in love
Deuteronomy 1:6-7 (ESV)
"The LORD our God said to us in Horeb, ''You have stayed long enough at this mountain. [7] Turn and take your journey, and go to the hill country of the Amorites and to all their neighbors in the Arabah, in the hill country and in the lowland and in the Negeb and by the seacoast, the land of the Canaanites, and Lebanon, as far as the great river, the river Euphrates.
You have stayed long enough at this mountain. Israel had come to Mount Sinai on the third month after they had left Egypt. In Mount Sinai lsrael had received the Ten Commandments, and the covenant of works was confirmed by blood according to the words of the Law. Afterward Moses was in the mountain forty days and forty nights, to receive the tablets of stone and other rules and statutes. Yet while Moses was away this short time, Israel quickly began to break the commandments of God, and made a golden calf to worship. Afterward God desired to destroy them all, but Moses interceded for them, and asked that God take not His presence away from them. God heard the prayer of Moses. The tabernacle was first erected while they were still in Mount Sinai, and Moses received other ceremonial laws in the tent of meeting. And on the second year, on the second month, on the twentieth day, Israel left Mount Sinai to begin their journey again to the promised land. Therefore Israel stayed on Mount Sinai for about 1 year.
Sinai was not a short stop for Israel. It was an extensive, grueling 1 year course on the laws and the commandments of God. God likewise must take all His people to Mount Sinai of condemnation before He can take them to the promised land of justification. God must show His redeemed people the sinfulness of their sins before He can show them what Jesus Christ has done for them. A man who claims to be a Christian, yet does not appreciate what Christ has done on the cross, is either not a Christian at all, or has not yet visited Mount Sinai that is burning with fire of God's wrath.
When Israel came to Mount Sinai, they were afraid and trembling because of the voice of God that spoke the commandments through the fire and the smoke. God had descended on the Mountain with His holy and just wrath against all the unrighteousness of the world, against all lawlessness, lovelessness and evil of the land. It was a preview of the Judgment Day of God. For read the similarities between that Day, and when God came down upon Mount Sinai:
Zephaniah 1:14-16 (ESV)
The great day of the LORD is near, near and hastening fast;the sound of the day of the LORD is bitter; the mighty man cries aloud there. [15] A day of wrath is that day, a day of distress and anguish,a day of ruin and devastation, a day of darkness and gloom,a day of clouds and thick darkness, [16] a day of trumpet blast and battle cry against the fortified cities and against the lofty battlements.
People of Israel knew that Hell itself came down upon the Mountain of God. They felt that His just wrath was going to consume their souls like fire consumes the stubble. They knew that they, being sinners, would not withstand this blazing fire called God's righteousness. They condemned themselves, agreeing with God and their consciences that they deserved this fire, eternally. By His grace God was giving them a pre-judgment, they they would fear, stop sinning, and enquire diligently how they could become right with God on that Last Day and not be condemned forever:
Exodus 20:20 (ESV)
Moses said to the people, "Do not fear, for God has come to test you, that the fear of him may be before you, that you may not sin."
It is therefore because of God's grace that He gives His people previews of the Judgment and of Hell. It is not because He hates His people that He terrorizes them with these things, but because He loves them:
Revelation 3:19 (ESV)
Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent.
Contrariwise, if God does not show a person previews of Hell, wrath or judgment, it may very well be the the sign of God's hatred of him, not love. Therefore, we must be thankful to God if God makes us know of our condemnation before that Day, that we may repent, and trust in Jesus Christ as our salvation before it is too late. It is because of His love that He gives us warnings and shows us our sin. A loving father would do everything possible to stop His child who attempts to jump off a cliff. If that loving father would terrify the child by describing to him the gruesome detail of what would happen if he did fall off the cliff, you would not say that the father was being unloving. You would agree that it is what any right-minded fathers would do. It is likewise with God when He terrifies His own children with warnings. If His enemies run towards the cliff, what is it to God to warn them of their death? In His anger He would keep His silence against them, that they may fall off and die. Thus we ought to be afraid of God's silence more than anything, and be thankful if He does speak these things to us.
But it is not God's will that He leave His children to be oppressed under the fear of Mount Sinai forever. In Mount Sinai Israel could not worship God close, but had to worship Him from afar, for they were afraid lest His wrath and anger break out upon them:
Exodus 24:1 (ESV)
Then he said to Moses, "Come up to the LORD, you and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel, and worship from afar.
But this is not God's true heart, that His children be so far from Him because of fear. Firstly, this is because fear of God alone does not produce the fruits of righteousness that God requires. Israel feared so terribly when God spoke the Ten Commandments on the Mount, but how quickly did their fear cease and they began breaking God's Law? Fear-driven righteousness does not last long. Herod also feared John the Baptist, but fear alone did not make him repent of his adultery with Herodias, nor from ultimately delivering John over to death:
Mark 6:20,27 (ESV)
for Herod feared John, knowing that he was a righteous and holy man, and he kept him safe. When he heard him, he was greatly perplexed, and yet he heard him gladly.
[27] And immediately the king sent an executioner with orders to bring John's head. He went and beheaded him in the prison
It is not fear that produces true righteousness, but a revelation of God's love. As it is written:
1 John 4:16-19 (ESV)
So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. [17] By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. [18] There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. [19] We love because he first loved us.
We cannot love God without first having a grand revelation of God's love for us. When we are always terrified of God, we cannot love Him, but we hate Him. We run away from His presence, and wish that mountains would fall upon us to hide us from His presence. But when the Holy Spirit comes upon us, and reveals to us His love for us, and what He has done for us in Jesus Christ because of His love, we are rescued from slavish fear of Him, and become confident in our righteous standing before God. And in light of His unconditional love towards us, we begin to love Him back, and do that which is pleasing in His sight, keeping His commandments, not in order to be loved, but because we are loved. For imagine if Herod not only feared John, but also had loved him as Jonathan loved David. Herod would have done anything to preserve the Baptist's life. But because Herod had no love for John, he killed him. Likewise, when we fear God only without loving Him, we will commit great sins against Him. Thus we need to ask God for a revelation of His great love for us.
We human beings are only capable of reciprocal love. Only those who have received love from God and have seen this love in the face of Christ can love God and others. We are not capable of originating any love from ourselves, because only God is love. Therefore we need a revelation of God's love for us everyday. We need to know afresh what it is that Christ has accomplished for us on the Cross, and why. Only in this way we will become imitators of His love, and produce in us lasting, good fruits of righteousness.
God also does not want His children to be far from Him, because He loves us. It is a wonder why He loves us, since we have not done anything deserving of love. But He loves us, and desires to be close to us. God wants us to draw nearer to Him, not trembling as Israelites were on the Mount, but as Jesus Christ approaches His Father. We can go to God confidently through Christ, knowing that God sees us through the blood of His Son. We know that there is no more wrath, since Christ drank it all down, once for the lifetime of our sins. We don't need to be afraid that God will crush us, for God crushed His own Son. We need not tell Him we deserve Hell, for as far as God is concerned, we deserve eternal life, because Christ had died for us. What can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus? What can harm us, and what can stand between us and God? The obstacle has been removed by the blood of His Son.
Let us then go to Him, knowing that there is no more Mount Sinai for those who have come to the Mount Zion, the Mountain where Christ has been anointed King. Let us worship Him there, knowing that God has forgiven us of all transgressions. Shall we not believe in the love that God has for us? If we have been long condemned by our consciences, God says to us, 'You have stayed long enough in this Mountain'. It is time for us to lift the drooping hands and feeble knees and run into the arms of God, putting our trust in Jesus. God will not refuse those who come to Him by the way of Jesus. Amen:
Hebrews 10:19-22 (ESV)
Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, [20] by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, [21] and since we have a great priest over the house of God, [22] let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.
"The LORD our God said to us in Horeb, ''You have stayed long enough at this mountain. [7] Turn and take your journey, and go to the hill country of the Amorites and to all their neighbors in the Arabah, in the hill country and in the lowland and in the Negeb and by the seacoast, the land of the Canaanites, and Lebanon, as far as the great river, the river Euphrates.
You have stayed long enough at this mountain. Israel had come to Mount Sinai on the third month after they had left Egypt. In Mount Sinai lsrael had received the Ten Commandments, and the covenant of works was confirmed by blood according to the words of the Law. Afterward Moses was in the mountain forty days and forty nights, to receive the tablets of stone and other rules and statutes. Yet while Moses was away this short time, Israel quickly began to break the commandments of God, and made a golden calf to worship. Afterward God desired to destroy them all, but Moses interceded for them, and asked that God take not His presence away from them. God heard the prayer of Moses. The tabernacle was first erected while they were still in Mount Sinai, and Moses received other ceremonial laws in the tent of meeting. And on the second year, on the second month, on the twentieth day, Israel left Mount Sinai to begin their journey again to the promised land. Therefore Israel stayed on Mount Sinai for about 1 year.
Sinai was not a short stop for Israel. It was an extensive, grueling 1 year course on the laws and the commandments of God. God likewise must take all His people to Mount Sinai of condemnation before He can take them to the promised land of justification. God must show His redeemed people the sinfulness of their sins before He can show them what Jesus Christ has done for them. A man who claims to be a Christian, yet does not appreciate what Christ has done on the cross, is either not a Christian at all, or has not yet visited Mount Sinai that is burning with fire of God's wrath.
When Israel came to Mount Sinai, they were afraid and trembling because of the voice of God that spoke the commandments through the fire and the smoke. God had descended on the Mountain with His holy and just wrath against all the unrighteousness of the world, against all lawlessness, lovelessness and evil of the land. It was a preview of the Judgment Day of God. For read the similarities between that Day, and when God came down upon Mount Sinai:
Zephaniah 1:14-16 (ESV)
The great day of the LORD is near, near and hastening fast;the sound of the day of the LORD is bitter; the mighty man cries aloud there. [15] A day of wrath is that day, a day of distress and anguish,a day of ruin and devastation, a day of darkness and gloom,a day of clouds and thick darkness, [16] a day of trumpet blast and battle cry against the fortified cities and against the lofty battlements.
People of Israel knew that Hell itself came down upon the Mountain of God. They felt that His just wrath was going to consume their souls like fire consumes the stubble. They knew that they, being sinners, would not withstand this blazing fire called God's righteousness. They condemned themselves, agreeing with God and their consciences that they deserved this fire, eternally. By His grace God was giving them a pre-judgment, they they would fear, stop sinning, and enquire diligently how they could become right with God on that Last Day and not be condemned forever:
Exodus 20:20 (ESV)
Moses said to the people, "Do not fear, for God has come to test you, that the fear of him may be before you, that you may not sin."
It is therefore because of God's grace that He gives His people previews of the Judgment and of Hell. It is not because He hates His people that He terrorizes them with these things, but because He loves them:
Revelation 3:19 (ESV)
Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent.
Contrariwise, if God does not show a person previews of Hell, wrath or judgment, it may very well be the the sign of God's hatred of him, not love. Therefore, we must be thankful to God if God makes us know of our condemnation before that Day, that we may repent, and trust in Jesus Christ as our salvation before it is too late. It is because of His love that He gives us warnings and shows us our sin. A loving father would do everything possible to stop His child who attempts to jump off a cliff. If that loving father would terrify the child by describing to him the gruesome detail of what would happen if he did fall off the cliff, you would not say that the father was being unloving. You would agree that it is what any right-minded fathers would do. It is likewise with God when He terrifies His own children with warnings. If His enemies run towards the cliff, what is it to God to warn them of their death? In His anger He would keep His silence against them, that they may fall off and die. Thus we ought to be afraid of God's silence more than anything, and be thankful if He does speak these things to us.
But it is not God's will that He leave His children to be oppressed under the fear of Mount Sinai forever. In Mount Sinai Israel could not worship God close, but had to worship Him from afar, for they were afraid lest His wrath and anger break out upon them:
Exodus 24:1 (ESV)
Then he said to Moses, "Come up to the LORD, you and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel, and worship from afar.
But this is not God's true heart, that His children be so far from Him because of fear. Firstly, this is because fear of God alone does not produce the fruits of righteousness that God requires. Israel feared so terribly when God spoke the Ten Commandments on the Mount, but how quickly did their fear cease and they began breaking God's Law? Fear-driven righteousness does not last long. Herod also feared John the Baptist, but fear alone did not make him repent of his adultery with Herodias, nor from ultimately delivering John over to death:
Mark 6:20,27 (ESV)
for Herod feared John, knowing that he was a righteous and holy man, and he kept him safe. When he heard him, he was greatly perplexed, and yet he heard him gladly.
[27] And immediately the king sent an executioner with orders to bring John's head. He went and beheaded him in the prison
It is not fear that produces true righteousness, but a revelation of God's love. As it is written:
1 John 4:16-19 (ESV)
So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. [17] By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. [18] There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. [19] We love because he first loved us.
We cannot love God without first having a grand revelation of God's love for us. When we are always terrified of God, we cannot love Him, but we hate Him. We run away from His presence, and wish that mountains would fall upon us to hide us from His presence. But when the Holy Spirit comes upon us, and reveals to us His love for us, and what He has done for us in Jesus Christ because of His love, we are rescued from slavish fear of Him, and become confident in our righteous standing before God. And in light of His unconditional love towards us, we begin to love Him back, and do that which is pleasing in His sight, keeping His commandments, not in order to be loved, but because we are loved. For imagine if Herod not only feared John, but also had loved him as Jonathan loved David. Herod would have done anything to preserve the Baptist's life. But because Herod had no love for John, he killed him. Likewise, when we fear God only without loving Him, we will commit great sins against Him. Thus we need to ask God for a revelation of His great love for us.
We human beings are only capable of reciprocal love. Only those who have received love from God and have seen this love in the face of Christ can love God and others. We are not capable of originating any love from ourselves, because only God is love. Therefore we need a revelation of God's love for us everyday. We need to know afresh what it is that Christ has accomplished for us on the Cross, and why. Only in this way we will become imitators of His love, and produce in us lasting, good fruits of righteousness.
God also does not want His children to be far from Him, because He loves us. It is a wonder why He loves us, since we have not done anything deserving of love. But He loves us, and desires to be close to us. God wants us to draw nearer to Him, not trembling as Israelites were on the Mount, but as Jesus Christ approaches His Father. We can go to God confidently through Christ, knowing that God sees us through the blood of His Son. We know that there is no more wrath, since Christ drank it all down, once for the lifetime of our sins. We don't need to be afraid that God will crush us, for God crushed His own Son. We need not tell Him we deserve Hell, for as far as God is concerned, we deserve eternal life, because Christ had died for us. What can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus? What can harm us, and what can stand between us and God? The obstacle has been removed by the blood of His Son.
Let us then go to Him, knowing that there is no more Mount Sinai for those who have come to the Mount Zion, the Mountain where Christ has been anointed King. Let us worship Him there, knowing that God has forgiven us of all transgressions. Shall we not believe in the love that God has for us? If we have been long condemned by our consciences, God says to us, 'You have stayed long enough in this Mountain'. It is time for us to lift the drooping hands and feeble knees and run into the arms of God, putting our trust in Jesus. God will not refuse those who come to Him by the way of Jesus. Amen:
Hebrews 10:19-22 (ESV)
Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, [20] by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, [21] and since we have a great priest over the house of God, [22] let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.
Saturday, October 1, 2011
From God, Through God and To God
Deuteronomy 1:5 (ESV)
Beyond the Jordan, in the land of Moab, Moses undertook to explain this law, saying,
Moses undertook to explain this law. It was fitting that Moses undertook to explain the Law, since it was he who gave it to Israel. Indeed, it was not Moses, but God was speaking His commandments through him, but it is generally accepted in scripture that the Law was 'given by Moses':
Mark 10:2-3 (ESV)
And Pharisees came up and in order to test him asked, "Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?" [3] He answered them, "What did Moses command you?"
John 1:17 (ESV)
For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
John 7:19 (ESV)
Has not Moses given you the law? Yet none of you keeps the law. Why do you seek to kill me?
Therefore, Moses was the best person to interpret the meaning behind the Law, since it came through him. It was fitting that Moses do this, so that no future generation could interpret it or use it in another way. It would not matter if you were an elder of Israel or some great teacher, if your explanation of the Law was contrary how Moses has explained it, it would be wrong, because the Law did not come from you.
Likewise, God Himself is the best interpreter of the things of God. God Himself is the best Teacher of the things of God. Moses was God's pen, and as a pen he had an special understanding that was superior than others, but he is nothing compared to the Author of the Law. The Law came through Moses, but Moses is not the Lawgiver, nor the Judge. God is the Judge and the Lawgiver:
James 4:12 (ESV)
There is only one lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy.
Jesus Christ came to the world to explain the Law to us, since He is God: the Author, Lawgiver and Judge. And not only the Law, but He came to open the entire Scriptures to us, that we may understand its true meaning and interpretation, since He is the one who wrote it. Moses explained the Law before he died, but it was when Christ rose again from dead that He began opening the scriptures to His disciples, revealing it better than Moses ever could:
Luke 24:25-27,32,44-47 (ESV)
And he said to them, "O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! [26] Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?" [27] And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.
[32] They said to each other, "Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures?"
[44] Then he said to them, "These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled." [45] Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, [46] and said to them, "Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, [47] and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.
What Jesus Christ is saying in a nutshell, is that the Bible is about Himself: "And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself". Jesus is the main theme of the entire Bible. Jesus is the theme of the Law, through all its sacrifices, ceremonial rituals, through the impossibility of keeping the moral law, etc. Jesus is the one prophesied by David through Psalms, and through all the prophets. Doesn't matter if you are the greatest theologian in the world, or the most famous pastor, if your interpretation of the Bible does not end with Jesus Christ, you are wrong, for you are contradicting the Author of the Bible. As it says above, until we realize that the Bible is about Jesus Christ, our hearts will be as cold and dead as a stone. If we seek the scriptures to find peace, joy and fulfillment for ourselves, our hearts will always be lukewarm, to be spat out of our Lord's mouth. But when we begin to see Jesus and the Gospel in scriptures, and in everything else we see the glory of Jesus, then "our hearts burn within us". This burning heart, this zeal, this passion, then, happens within us only when we come to know that everything is about Jesus Christ. True fire only comes when we know more about Jesus. What agendas do we have today? When we read scripture, when we do our devotions, when we serve in the Church, what is our agenda? There should be no agendas, but that we may know more about Jesus Christ and His Gospel. Christ, Christ and more Christ is all that we need and all we should be focussed on.
So then, we see that the Scriptures were written by God through man, and is interpreted by God through the Holy Spirit and Jesus Christ Himself, and points to God; the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit. It is as Paul says:
Romans 11:36 (ESV)
For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.
If either of these From, Through and To are replaced with us, then we are heading for trouble. For let's say if we believed that FROM US are all things. We are believing that we, our power and strength, are the source of all things, that salvation was my decision, my faith, my willpower, my understanding, thus robbing God of His glory. Or if we admit that it was from God, but it is THROUGH US, we are equally heading for destruction. Because to believe this we are saying effectively, 'Yes, God saved me by grace, but it is ME that keeps the salvation, it is ME that makes me sanctified: my willpower, my resisting of temptation, my strength. Thus we are despising the Holy Spirit who is working all these things in us, and giving us, who have nothing good in us, good things everyday on the account of Christ's death. Or, if we say that, 'Okay, I will acknowledge that it is From God, and through God, but it is TO ME', this is also terrible. This is possibly the worst of all, for you are saying that the end of all things, of salvation, of ministry, of serving, is to ME: to my glory, to my fame, to my joy, to my satisfaction, to my reputation, to improve myself, to have the things that I want. This is using God for my personal gain. This is a rebellion against the very reason that Christ made us and saved us, that it was ALL for His glory alone.
How much are these three things spreading like a disease in Christianity today? Putting ME or US in any of those three things is what has been destroying the Church in the past few decades. How shall we restore it? We must declare with Paul that God takes place in all these three areas. We must not rob God's glory anymore. We must not worship ourselves any more. For you know what the devil says to himself: 'It is all from me, and through me and to me! It's all about me, me, me!' Yet the devil, and all who are like him will have their part in the Lake of Fire, because they give not their glory to God in these three things. Let us examine ourselves, and if we are violating any of these, let us repent, and give God the glory that He deserves:
Revelation 7:12 (ESV)
"Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen."
Beyond the Jordan, in the land of Moab, Moses undertook to explain this law, saying,
Moses undertook to explain this law. It was fitting that Moses undertook to explain the Law, since it was he who gave it to Israel. Indeed, it was not Moses, but God was speaking His commandments through him, but it is generally accepted in scripture that the Law was 'given by Moses':
Mark 10:2-3 (ESV)
And Pharisees came up and in order to test him asked, "Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?" [3] He answered them, "What did Moses command you?"
John 1:17 (ESV)
For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
John 7:19 (ESV)
Has not Moses given you the law? Yet none of you keeps the law. Why do you seek to kill me?
Therefore, Moses was the best person to interpret the meaning behind the Law, since it came through him. It was fitting that Moses do this, so that no future generation could interpret it or use it in another way. It would not matter if you were an elder of Israel or some great teacher, if your explanation of the Law was contrary how Moses has explained it, it would be wrong, because the Law did not come from you.
Likewise, God Himself is the best interpreter of the things of God. God Himself is the best Teacher of the things of God. Moses was God's pen, and as a pen he had an special understanding that was superior than others, but he is nothing compared to the Author of the Law. The Law came through Moses, but Moses is not the Lawgiver, nor the Judge. God is the Judge and the Lawgiver:
James 4:12 (ESV)
There is only one lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy.
Jesus Christ came to the world to explain the Law to us, since He is God: the Author, Lawgiver and Judge. And not only the Law, but He came to open the entire Scriptures to us, that we may understand its true meaning and interpretation, since He is the one who wrote it. Moses explained the Law before he died, but it was when Christ rose again from dead that He began opening the scriptures to His disciples, revealing it better than Moses ever could:
Luke 24:25-27,32,44-47 (ESV)
And he said to them, "O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! [26] Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?" [27] And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.
[32] They said to each other, "Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures?"
[44] Then he said to them, "These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled." [45] Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, [46] and said to them, "Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, [47] and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.
What Jesus Christ is saying in a nutshell, is that the Bible is about Himself: "And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself". Jesus is the main theme of the entire Bible. Jesus is the theme of the Law, through all its sacrifices, ceremonial rituals, through the impossibility of keeping the moral law, etc. Jesus is the one prophesied by David through Psalms, and through all the prophets. Doesn't matter if you are the greatest theologian in the world, or the most famous pastor, if your interpretation of the Bible does not end with Jesus Christ, you are wrong, for you are contradicting the Author of the Bible. As it says above, until we realize that the Bible is about Jesus Christ, our hearts will be as cold and dead as a stone. If we seek the scriptures to find peace, joy and fulfillment for ourselves, our hearts will always be lukewarm, to be spat out of our Lord's mouth. But when we begin to see Jesus and the Gospel in scriptures, and in everything else we see the glory of Jesus, then "our hearts burn within us". This burning heart, this zeal, this passion, then, happens within us only when we come to know that everything is about Jesus Christ. True fire only comes when we know more about Jesus. What agendas do we have today? When we read scripture, when we do our devotions, when we serve in the Church, what is our agenda? There should be no agendas, but that we may know more about Jesus Christ and His Gospel. Christ, Christ and more Christ is all that we need and all we should be focussed on.
So then, we see that the Scriptures were written by God through man, and is interpreted by God through the Holy Spirit and Jesus Christ Himself, and points to God; the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit. It is as Paul says:
Romans 11:36 (ESV)
For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.
If either of these From, Through and To are replaced with us, then we are heading for trouble. For let's say if we believed that FROM US are all things. We are believing that we, our power and strength, are the source of all things, that salvation was my decision, my faith, my willpower, my understanding, thus robbing God of His glory. Or if we admit that it was from God, but it is THROUGH US, we are equally heading for destruction. Because to believe this we are saying effectively, 'Yes, God saved me by grace, but it is ME that keeps the salvation, it is ME that makes me sanctified: my willpower, my resisting of temptation, my strength. Thus we are despising the Holy Spirit who is working all these things in us, and giving us, who have nothing good in us, good things everyday on the account of Christ's death. Or, if we say that, 'Okay, I will acknowledge that it is From God, and through God, but it is TO ME', this is also terrible. This is possibly the worst of all, for you are saying that the end of all things, of salvation, of ministry, of serving, is to ME: to my glory, to my fame, to my joy, to my satisfaction, to my reputation, to improve myself, to have the things that I want. This is using God for my personal gain. This is a rebellion against the very reason that Christ made us and saved us, that it was ALL for His glory alone.
How much are these three things spreading like a disease in Christianity today? Putting ME or US in any of those three things is what has been destroying the Church in the past few decades. How shall we restore it? We must declare with Paul that God takes place in all these three areas. We must not rob God's glory anymore. We must not worship ourselves any more. For you know what the devil says to himself: 'It is all from me, and through me and to me! It's all about me, me, me!' Yet the devil, and all who are like him will have their part in the Lake of Fire, because they give not their glory to God in these three things. Let us examine ourselves, and if we are violating any of these, let us repent, and give God the glory that He deserves:
Revelation 7:12 (ESV)
"Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen."
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