When God Seems Distant

When we struggle, when we go through pain and hard times, we often feel as if God has forgotten us. We pray and no one seems to hear. We read the Bible and get nothing out of it. We feel abandoned, deserted.

Those are the feelings reflected in Isaiah 49:14. Zion – a name for Jerusalem, often used in Scripture to represent God’s people – cries out, “The Lord has forsaken me; my Lord has forgotten me!”

But God replies:

“Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you. Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are continually before me” (Isaiah 49:15-16).

Think of the most tender human moment – a mother nursing her baby. Consider the love, the care, the devotion, as she feeds this infant from her own body.

Now imagine that mother forgetting her baby is even there. She stands up, drops the child on the floor, notices nothing, and walks away.

Hard to imagine, isn’t it? We think that could never happen.

But God tells us: Even that may possibly happen, but He will never forget His people; He will never abandon them. Indeed, rather than just holding the baby to the breast, God has engraved His people into the palms of His hands. His people are ever before Him; they are part of Him. To abandon them would be to cut off part of Himself.

Thus Scripture assures us: God is for His people, He is with His people, He has reconciled His people to Himself in Christ, they are incorporated into Christ. He will not, He cannot forget His people.

Now, zoom the thought in close, making it personal: If I am in Christ, God’s love for me exceeds the love of a nursing mother for her child. He tenderly cares for me, He guards all my ways, He works all things together for my good and His glory. He will never leave me nor forsake me, but will bring me safely to His heavenly Kingdom.

What joy! What assurance!

But now zoom the thought out once again: If I am in Christ, I am part of His beloved people, part of the Bride of Christ, whom He will present to Himself in splendor, to His great joy, whom He is forming from those of every tribe and tongue and nation, who together are for the praise of His glorious grace. And in the new heavens and new earth, all of God’s people will love Him with all their heart, all their soul, and all their strength – and each will love you, each will be closer to you than your closest friend or family member today. Furthermore, this intimate friendship with God and with one another will never end.

No matter how you may feel, God will not forget you. If you are in Christ, He has great plans for you, together with all of His people. He is at work fulfilling those plans – amidst all the trials, difficulties, challenges, and horrors of this life. In Christ, you are engraved in the palms of His hands. Trust Him – and pray for His Kingdom to come.

What Do You Set Your Mind On?

What do you set your mind on?

We often set our minds on the past – how so-and-so talked down to me, how I failed or succeeded on that recent test, how nice it was to receive a compliment – or on the longer-term future: what job I want to be doing a few years from now, whom I will marry, how many children we should have, what retirement will look like. We also tend to set our minds on our immediate needs – such as what we will eat for dinner, what we will say to an angry child, how we will avoid a traffic jam, and how we will spend the weekend.

We can’t and shouldn’t avoid thinking about such issues. But the Apostle Paul tells us that our focus, our central mindset, should be different: “Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth” (Colossians 3:2).

Why are we to do this? He explains: “For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God” (Colossians 3:3). That is: The You that was focused on the things of the earth has died. Yes, you are still in the body. Yes, you still need to eat and sleep. Yes, there are still the pressures, joys, and sorrows of earthly life. But via the sacrifice of Jesus you are reconciled to God – and He promises that He will never leave you or forsake you, that He will bring you safely to His heavenly Kingdom, that He is working all things on this earth together for your good and the glory of His Name. He has united you with Christ so that He sees Him when He looks at you. You have an inheritance that will never perish, that has no blemish, that will never fade, kept for you in His presence – and He will grant that inheritance to you at exactly the right time.

Furthermore: “When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory” (Colossians 3:4). Jesus will come back at the end of the age to punish those who continue in rebellion against Him and to complete the work begun in all of His people. Our life is now hidden in Him, but on that Day the glory of our new life will appear. Note that “in glory” is not a location but a description of who we will be when Jesus appears. On the earth, in this fallen world, we may appear to be ruined, weak, and powerless; we may feel abandoned, hurt, and confused; we will be tempted to lose hope, to quit striving, to give up. But in the midst of all our trials, our true life remains protected with Christ in God – whatever happens around us or to us, it is safe with Him! And Jesus is certain to return. At that time we will appear with Him and be seen for what we truly are in Him: glorious, spotless, perfected, His delight and joy.

So set your mind today on such things – not that you ignore all these other concerns, but that you interpret all other concerns in light of who you are in Christ. Because of who you are in Christ, you can thank God for the gifts and kindnesses and joys around you; you can persevere through the trials and temptations; you can slough off insults, mockings, and demeaning words; you can love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you; you can love your neighbor as you love yourself.

Christian, Jesus is your life. He will return. In Him you are glorious, spotless, perfected. Set your mind on that– every minute of every day.

 

Sin and Confession

[This Sunday in our journey through the book of Psalms we reach the prayer of confession David prayed after committing both adultery and murder. We will only briefly review on Sunday the events leading up to this confession; here are edited excerpts from a sermon preached twenty years ago from that narrative. You can read the entire sermon – preached at the height of the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal – at this link. The four principles are taken from a sermon by Gary Vanderet – Coty]

The political leader of a great nation commits adultery and murder; an accuser then stands before him and confronts him with his sin. How does that political leader react? What insights does this give us into the nature of sin? We’ll learn four key principles about sin as we follow the story in 2 Samuel 11 and 12.

One clear night King David is out on the roof of his palace, looking down on his capital. He must be feeling some sense of pride and accomplishment when he notices a movement on another, lower roof. A lantern; water splashing. David peers and sees — a woman undressing, then bathing. He notices her great beauty.

Now, David already has multiple wives; if he simply wanted to engage in sexual relations, he had several women to choose from. But I suggest this was part of the problem, not part of the solution. Instead of following God’s intention that one man should be united in marriage with one woman in a one flesh relationship, David has followed the pattern of other prosperous men in the surrounding nations, indulging his sexual appetites by bringing attractive women into his harem. Indulgence inevitably leads not to satisfaction but to more and more indulgence.

So David figures this will be one more case of the same, one more beautiful woman for the harem. He inquires about her — but doesn’t get the answer he wants. He supposes this young woman to be unmarried, but not only is she married — her husband is one of David’s most loyal men, Uriah.

David now has a choice; either to commit adultery, explicitly breaking one of the Ten Commandments, and cuckolding one of his best friends — or to control himself. David chooses adultery.

Think about this: God uses David as a type of Christ, a foreshadowing of Jesus; God has called him a man after His own heart (1 Samuel 13:14). David himself has written “I delight to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart” (Psalm 40:8). Yet David violates that very law, explicitly, knowingly. Why?

Here we come to our first principle: Sin always deceives. Sin always promises something it cannot deliver. When we hear such promises, we are tempted to give in, to accept the deception and justify our actions. David must have done that; he knows he is doing wrong, but he tries to justify himself, perhaps by saying

  • “It’s only one night — I can go back to delighting in God’s law tomorrow;” or,
  • “She’s willing — we’re just consenting adults;” or,
  • “No one is hurt by this; Uriah will never know; indeed, no one will ever know;” or,
  • “Think of all I’ve done for this country; surely I deserve this one little fling!”

Have you ever heard such temptations? Satan is the deceiver, a liar and the father of lies, and he uses similar lies with all of us. Satan presents sin to us as the way to life, the way to enjoyment, the way to fulfillment — when really it is the way to death and destruction. Satan persuades us that engaging in sin will fulfill our desires, when sin gives satisfaction only to our least important desires, and that only briefly, leaving us dying for true love, for true joy, and for true peace. Sin always deceives.

David and Bathsheba have their fling, and she returns home. Weeks pass. David doesn’t see her again, and figures it is all over. Then one day he receives a message: “David, I’m pregnant.” Now, Uriah has been away from Jerusalem for months; when Bathsheba’s belly starts to grow, her adultery will be evident to all. According to the law, she should then be stoned — along with her accomplice (Leviticus 20:10).

David tries to think quick: “Let’s see, this many weeks have passed. It’s not too unusual for children to be born several weeks early. If I can just get Uriah home, he and Bathsheba will have sexual relations. Surely no one will raise questions then.”

So David has Joab send Uriah home. He and David discuss the war; then David encourages him to go home. But Uriah does not do so, telling David the next day,

“The ark and Israel and Judah are staying in tents, and my master Joab and my lord’s men are camped in the open fields. How could I go to my house to eat and drink and lie with my wife? As surely as you live, I will not do such a thing!” (2 Samuel 11:11)

Uriah’s statement must have cut David to the quick. Uriah has not seen his wife for months, but will not even visit her. What a contrast to David, who should have been out in the field with the army, but instead chose to indulge his sensual appetites — and to do that not with his own wives, but with the wife of this most loyal subordinate.

David proceeds to get him drunk that evening, hoping that this will overcome his loyalty, and that he will then sleep with Bathsheba. But even a drunk Uriah shows considerably more restraint that a sober David; Uriah does not go home. He sleeps on a mat at the palace with David’s servants.

So David has to come up with Plan B, and a monstrous plan it is. He writes a letter instructing Joab, the commander, to put Uriah in the front lines and then have the other soldiers abandon him. And then David has Uriah carry instructions for his own execution — because he trusts him! He knows this loyal servant will never think of opening the letter. This is murder, plain and simple.

Joab is more crafty than David, and manages to have Uriah killed without causing soldiers to ask questions. But the deed is done.

So what started as a one night stand, as a consensual relationship between two people, has led to destruction and death. And the destruction and death are far from over, as we will see. This is our second principle: Sin always destroys. Sin destroys our relationships to man and God, sin destroys what is best in us, sin destroys whatever we love most.

Don’t listen to anyone who tries to tell you that there is a sin that hurts no one. Sin always destroys.

Bathsheba mourns for her husband, and then moves into the palace as David’s wife. She grows great with child — and everyone in the palace is able to count. Everyone knows that Uriah had come home but never saw his wife. So at least the palace insiders know exactly what happened. Behind the king’s back, people are talking. But David pretends that this is a natural occurrence, that he is doing his old friend a favor by taking care of his widow. Bathsheba gives birth to a healthy boy — and to David all seems well. It looks like he has gotten away with adultery and murder.

However, “the thing David had done displeased the LORD.” (2 Samuel 11:27)

God acts by sending the prophet Nathan to David. He tells the king a story about a rich man who stole a pet lamb from a neighbor to prepare a meal for a guest. David is incensed, saying “As surely as the LORD lives, the man who did this deserves to die!” (2 Samuel 12:5). Nathan replies, “You are the man!” He continues speaking God’s words to David:

“I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul. I gave your master’s house to you, and your master’s wives into your arms. I gave you the house of Israel and Judah. And if all this had been too little, I would have given you even more. Why did you despise the word of the LORD by doing what is evil in his eyes?” (2 Samuel 12:7b-9a)

David thought all was covered up; he pretended that no one knew. Well, other people did know, but more importantly, God knew. God always knows.

This is our third principle: Sin is always discovered. In the long run, there are no secret sins. As Jesus Himself states, “There is nothing covered up that will not be revealed, and hidden that will not be known. (Luke 12:2)

Satan tempts us to believe that no one will ever know, that we can hide our sin; Satan is so effective in this that many of us are lying to ourselves, thinking that our sins are known only to us, thinking that we have succeeded in covering our tracks. But God sees all; everything is laid bare before his eyes; God will not be mocked. Sin is always discovered.

What is David’s reaction? Does he try to justify himself? Does he attack his accuser? Does he argue that Nathan shouldn’t have brought up the matter, saying, “This is private, and none of your business. Leave me alone! Let me deal with this among my wives and children!” No. David confesses simply, “I have sinned against the LORD.”

No excuses. No attempt to mitigate the seriousness of the sin. So Nathan replies immediately, “The Lord has taken away your sin.” This is our fourth principle: Confessed sin is always forgiven.

What is the nature of true confession? We can identify three characteristics from Psalm 51, David’s song of repentance, written on this occasion:

 (1) True confession addresses all those affected by the sin.

This was not a private matter between David and Bathsheba, or David and Uriah’s relatives. The king sinned, and all Israel suffered. So David must confess before all Israel.

(2) True confession admits that punishment is justified

We must be broken and contrite when we come before God and those we have sinned against; we must not downplay our sin or blame the other person, but admit that we deserve judgment.

(3) True confession depends on God’s mercy alone.

David calls out for God to act in accordance with his unfailing love, in accordance with his great mercy. He calls out to God to cleanse him, to wash him, and then — since the external washing is not sufficient — to change his very heart, to create a new heart within him.

David deserved death for his sin, both the ending of his life on earth and eternal separation from God. God forgave him; those of us who are saved will join David in praising God eternally, and David did not die on earth in punishment for adultery and murder.

But note that there were other temporal consequences of David’s sin. The judgment that Nathan states prior to David’s confession still holds. Israel and, in particular, David’s family suffer immensely from this sin. And Uriah remains dead. Forgiveness does not imply the absence of temporal consequences for sin. But, praise God, when we come to God with broken and contrite hearts, when we call out to God pleading for His mercy, when we depend only on the shed blood of Jesus to cover all our sins, God never turns his ear away. God always listens. Confessed sin is always forgiven.

So examine your own heart. Paul tells us, “If you think you are standing firm, take care that you don’t fall.” What sin are you knowingly engaged in? Are you loving the Lord your God with all your heart, and all your soul, and all your strength, and all your mind? Are you loving your neighbor as yourself?

My dear friends, sin always deceives. Sin always destroys. Sin is always discovered. Let us take the occasion of great sins by a great man to ask God with David:

Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. (Psalm 139:23-24)

When He shows you the sin in your heart, confess it — and then know the joy of living a life blameless before Him. Confessed sin — Praise God! — is always forgiven, by the blood of Jesus.

 

 

The Grace to Forgive, the Grace to be Made Holy

Someone sins against you terribly. You have a choice: Do you forgive or not?

At one level, the biblical answer is easy: Of course you forgive. When Peter asks Jesus if he should forgive the repetitious sin of his brother seven times, Jesus replies, “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy-seven times” (Matthew 18:21-22). If someone hits you on the right cheek, you are to turn the other to him also (Matthew 5:39).

These and other Scriptures emphasize that we are not to take personal offense. We are not to become bitter. We are not to hold grudges. We are to forgive one another from the heart. Indeed, we are to put the interests of the other above our own.

Yet that last statement can lead to questions about how we respond to sin against us. If we really have the interests of our sinning brother or sister at heart, we want them to cease from this sin. Surely that is in their interests. If our attitude towards their sin enables further sin, aren’t we harming our brother or sister by that attitude?

Consider a common example, in biblical times as well as in our own: A spouse commits adultery. Is forgiveness the right response? Or does forgiveness enable further sin – “My spouse will always forgive me, so I might as well continue to fulfill my desires”?

In this case, we have a specific example in the book of Hosea. And the answer is rather complex.

God tells Hosea to marry Gomer, a promiscuous woman who will continue having affairs after their marriage. This violation of the marriage covenant pictures God’s people violating their covenant with Him.

Gomer’s adulteries eventually lead her to being sold in the slave market. Yet God tells Hosea once again:

“Go again, love a woman who is loved by another man and is an adulteress, even as the Lord loves the children of Israel, though they turn to other gods.”…  So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver…. And I said to her, “You must dwell as mine for many days. You shall not play the whore, or belong to another man; so will I also be to you.” (From Hosea 3:1-3).

At God’s command, Hosea shows his wife great grace – buying the one who is already his, paying the price for her! This is tremendous forgiveness.

But this is not a license for her to continue in sin. Hosea is explicit: Their future relationship must be made pure; the adultery must cease. He must not respond to her sin by paying her back with his own affair; she must never return to that unfaithful life.

Just so with God and the people of Israel. God disciplines His unfaithful people (Hosea 2:5-13), eventually even destroying their country and sending them into exile. Yet all this is for redemptive purposes: He allures her, He speaks tenderly to her (Hosea 2:14), He purifies her now and forever:

I will betroth you to me forever. I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy. I will betroth you to me in faithfulness. And you shall know the LORD. (Hosea 2:19-20)

So Hosea exemplifies not only God’s forgiving love, but also His cleansing, sanctifying love. The restoration of the relationship is not an invitation to further sin; it does not enable further sin; rather, it is the opportunity for the relationship to become what God always intended marriage to be: An exclusive one-flesh relationship that in love, in grace, in mercy, and in holiness pictures His relationship with His people.

And this is what we find as part of the Bride of Christ: If we see God’s forgiveness in Christ as a license to sin without consequences, we are sorely wrong. We dishonor God. We trample on the blood of Christ (Hebrews 10:26-29). Indeed, if we persist in that attitude, we will receive no forgiveness. God does not forgive us so that we might continue in sin.

Rather, we are like Gomer: God forgives us so that we, His Bride, guilty of being adulteresses in the past, might return and seek Him, and so recognize and come to His goodness, thereby living to the praise of His glorious grace.

If that’s the relationship between God and His people – if that’s the reality behind every marriage, indeed, behind every marriage stained by adultery – how can we live out these truths, how can we picture these realities when we are sinned against?

These Scriptures lead to four clear principles – even though the outworking of the principles in specific cases is challenging:

First: Offer complete personal forgiveness. This does not downplay the severity of the sin against you; rather, this magnifies the extent of your much greater sin against God, for which He has forgiven you in Christ (Matthew 18:21-35).

Second: The sin should not remain secret, only known to the two of you. The adulteries of Gomer, the spiritual adultery of the people of Israel, are made public. How many people should know about this sin will vary from case to case. If the couple is part of a grace-oriented church that effectively practices church discipline, discussing the sin before the church body can be an important part of the healing process. But in every case, bring in wise Christians who are biblically sound and desire both your good and the glory of God – even if, especially if, the erring spouse does not want that to happen. Covering up the sin may seem to be good for the sinner, but it is that very cover-up that enables and makes more likely future sin. And that is the worst that can happen to the sinner.

Third: Work to restore unity and trust. Both have been violated terribly. Yet God has made the two one, even though we have worked to destroy that unity. Nevertheless, what God has joined together, man must not separate (Matthew 19:6). The restoration of unity and trust will take time; a period of physical separation may be part of the process of restoration. Once again, including others at this stage is necessary. Form a plan on how to go forward together with a wise Christian couple, and build in accountability for both spouses to that plan.

Finally: Christ perfects His Bride, making her holy (Ephesians 5:25-27). We see one way that happens in Hosea 2:14, where God says to His unfaithful Bride: “I will allure her … and speak tenderly to her.” Love the errant spouse. Woo him or her. Not in a grasping, needy sense – “I can’t live without you, please come back to me!” – but out of confidence in God, out of trust in His sovereign kindness, knowing you are forgiven such great sin, and knowing that He can take a heart of stone and turn it into a heart of flesh (Ezekiel 36:26), He can grant repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth and escape from the trap of the devil (2 Timothy 2:25-26). Love – and pray for God to act.

By God’s grace, your errant spouse – and anyone who sins terribly against you – can be a living example of God’s forgiving, redeeming, perfecting love. You can be His agent in bringing that about. The pain is real. The sin is great. Justice must be done. But if you are in Christ, justice was implemented at the cross; you are forgiven a much greater sin. So forgive from the heart. And may God be pleased to work through you and other Christians to glorify His Name even through such a terrible sin.

Our Incurable Disease

You have an incurable disease. All humans do. We inherited this disease from our parents, and they from their parents – all the way back to Adam and Eve.

There is no human help for this disease. Oh, we can alleviate a few of the symptoms through discipline, through accountability, through learning more self-control – but this disease is similar to the hydra of Greek mythology. When anyone cut off one of the hydra’s heads, two more immediately grew. When you learn to control one part of your disease – say, bursts of anger – more symptoms of the disease pop up – say, pride and arrogance.

But God in His grace and mercy offers you a cure. The question is: Will you accept it?

Scripture provides us with an apt picture of the way we are prone to resist this cure through telling the story of a leper in 2 Kings 5.

In the ancient world, leprosy was incurable. Naaman, a general in a powerful army, comes down with this disease. An Israelite servant girl in his household tells his wife of a prophet in Israel who can cure the disease. So Naaman’s king writes a letter to the King of Israel, telling him to cure Naaman of his leprosy.

The Israelite king is distraught, thinking the other is looking for a pretense to go to war. But when the prophet Elisha hears of the events, he tells the king to send Naaman to him.

Naaman arrives at Elisha’s place, bearing many gifts – he is a wealthy man and thinks he can pay handsomely for this service. He is an important man, and thinks this prophet will be impressed by his presence.

But Elisha doesn’t even come out to see Naaman. He simply sends a messenger, who instructs the general to go wash in the Jordan River seven times, and he will be cured. Hear Naaman’s response:

But Naaman was angry and went away, saying, “Behold, I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call upon the name of the Lord his God, and wave his hand over the place and cure the leper. Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them and be clean?” So he turned and went away in a rage (2 Kings 5:11-12).

Naaman’s pride almost causes him to miss this grace from God. But God shows him even greater grace, as He leads Naaman’s servants to appeal to him to try this simple task the prophet gave him. He washes seven times in the Jordan – and is cured.

Just so with us. God offers us healing of our incurable disease if we only turn to Jesus and trust Him with our lives. But so often we are like Naaman: We don’t like God’s plan. We want to prove our worth through some great deed we do for God. Or we want God to perform some grand visible miracle that will call attention to us. Or we want God to cure the disease in a different way, a way that seems better to us. “Just trust Jesus? Why? Why not some other way? Why not many other ways? How simplistic!”

Like Naaman, we can turn our backs and miss God’s grace because of our pride, because of our preconceived ideas about how God should work.

But praise God that He persists in the offer of the Gospel. As in Naaman’s case, He sends others to us to say again and again, “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved” (Acts 16:31).

Don’t despise the miracle of simple faith. Admit you are diseased. Confess that you cannot cure yourself. And throw yourself on God’s mercy offered to you through Jesus Christ.

When you, like Naaman, humble yourself before the One True God, He will save you – through the death, resurrection, and reign of the Lord Jesus Christ. And you will discover the love, joy, and peace you have so deeply desired.

All Good Is Because of Jesus

Listen carefully to what our Lord Jesus says:

Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. (Matthew 10:37-39)

That is: If we love anyone in our family more than we love Jesus, we are dishonoring Him; we are therefore not worthy of Him. If we do not deny to ourselves whatever prevents us from following Him closely, we are dishonoring Him by implying that these activities or people or pleasures are more important, more vital for us than He is; we are therefore not worthy of Him. Indeed, Jesus goes on to say that to succeed in everything we put our mind to in this life, but to lose Him, is to lose everything, to lose the only true life, and thus to fail at what is most important; but to give up whatever is necessary to follow Him – even what we think is the way to success, to joy, to fulfillment – is to find true life, what is most fulfilling and joyful.

Note first: If Jesus said these words and was not Immanuel, God with us, God in the flesh, He was not a great teacher or even an admirable man; these are the sort of words that cult leaders say to their followers. But if He was who He claimed to be, then these words point us to our greatest joy, our greatest good.

Second: Think of what Jesus is saying about family, and about all other good things in this life:

  • Family is a great gift. We are to honor our fathers and mothers (Exodus 20:12). We are to rejoice in our children, seeing them as gifts from God (Psalm 127:3-4).
  • Fulfillment in life is a great gift (John 10:7-10).
  • Accomplishment is a great gift (Proverbs 3:5-6).
  • Riches and honor and health are all gifts (1 Chronicles 29:12).
  • The ability to work hard is a great gift (Deuteronomy 8:18).

So if all of these come from God, what is the problem with loving them?

The problem is seeing them as something other than what they are, gifts. We don’t earn them. We don’t deserve them. We don’t create them. They are granted to us by a gracious God “who makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust” (Matthew 5:45). And He grants them to us – to all humanity – only because of Jesus.

Why only because of Jesus? Because God would have been perfectly righteous to have ended the human race with the first disobedience of Adam and Eve (Genesis 2:17). There would have been no more grace, no more gifts to men. But because He planned to crush the head of the serpent via Jesus, the descendant of the woman (Genesis 3:17), because He planned to send forth His Son in the fullness of time for the redemption and adoption of His people (Galatians 4:4-5), and because the redemption through Jesus would redound to the praise of His glorious grace (Ephesians 1:3-14), He spared them, instituted His Great Plan, and for millennia has granted undeserved gifts to all of mankind. Apart from Jesus, therefore, we have none of these gifts.

But Jesus is not only the source of all these good gifts, the reason we have any good – He Himself is far and away the greatest good.

Thus, while family is a great gift, Jesus is both the Brother par excellence (Romans 8:29) and the true Husband that every good marriage points to (Ephesians 5:25-32). While accomplishment and honor are great gifts, Jesus defines the greatest accomplishment and grants the only honor worth having (2 Timothy 4:6-8).

So, when we see Jesus for Who He is, we find that in Him we have unspeakable joy (1 Peter 1:8) – joy that is found nowhere else. Therefore, thank Him continually for His gifts – and gladly give them all up if that’s necessary to follow close to Him.

Who is to Put On God’s Armor?

Consider these well-known verses from Ephesians 6.

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil (Ephesians 6:10-11).

Who is to be strong in the Lord? Who is to put on God’s armor?

Our American individualism and the English language can cause us to miss an important part of what Paul is saying here. We tend to think he is saying, “I personally am in a battle with spiritual forces. I must put on God’s armor so that I might stand.”

Surely that is true. But the Apostle is emphasizing a different point.

For Paul is writing to the church; he is using the image of the church as an army. We are all individually part of that army.

Imagine that the alarm sounds, alerting an army that enemy forces are drawing near. But only one soldier takes up his weapons and is ready to fight. What would happen? He would be destroyed, and the army would be wiped out.

Paul is sounding the alert so that the entire army of God will be ready for the opposing forces of “the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 6:12).

So try reading the passage through verse 18 as Paul wrote it, as plural commands to “you all,” and not simply to individuals. Here are a few of those commands:

  • “You all be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might.”
  • “You all put on the whole armor of God, that you all may be able to stand.”
  • “You all fasten on the belt of truth and the breastplate of righteousness.”
  • “You all take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.”
  • “You all pray at all times in the Spirit.”

When we all take up our defensive armor and our offensive weapon – the Word of God – then we together will be able to stand firm against these spiritual forces.

For the war raging around us is not a set of individual encounters with the enemy. There is one big battle. And that battle is not mine or yours; the battle is the Lord’s (see 2 Chronicles 20:1-30, especially verse 15). So may we fight this fight together, holding our formation, helping each other to fasten on that belt of truth, assisting each other to wield the Word of God well, ensuring that each is helmeted rightly with salvation, encouraging each other that the breastplate of Christ’s righteousness is strong and impenetrable.  May we do this together with our brothers and sisters in Christ across this city, across this country, across this world, among all ethnicities and nationalities – and so defeat Satan’s minions as we together show God’s love and grace and mercy in the Gospel to those who have been duped and taken captive to do the Devil’s will (2 Timothy 2:26).

To Sin is to Despise God

If God were to confront you after you sin, what would He say?

Scripture tells us what God told David after his sins of adultery and murder:

I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you out of the hand of Saul. And I gave you your master’s house and your master’s wives into your arms and gave you the house of Israel and of Judah. And if this were too little, I would add to you as much more. Why have you despised the word of the Lord, to do what is evil in his sight? (2 Samuel 12:7-9)

Similarly, God could rightly say to those of us who claim to be followers of Jesus:

I delivered you out of the hand of Satan. I sent My Son to die for you. I anointed you with My Holy Spirit. I brought you into my family and gave you brothers and sisters in Christ to love you, care for you, and pray for you. I made you part of a kingdom of priests. I gave you life and breath and health and abilities and jobs and houses and food and clothing. I gave you earthly families and joys. And if this were too little, I would give to you even more – ask and you will receive! Why then have you despised My word, to do what is evil in My sight?

You see, God does not set arbitrary rules and then slap us when we violate them. He is not a cosmic killjoy looking down to see who He gets to punish today. Nor is He an uninvolved, distant enforcer who mechanically and dispassionately deals out retribution for misdeeds.

No. God is the gracious Giver who, despite our disobedience and rebellion, continues to provide all humanity with the good gifts abounding around us.  And if we claim to be in Christ, we say that He has saved us by completely unmerited grace, calling us out of darkness into His marvelous light. He makes us into a holy nation, a people for His own possession to proclaim His excellencies (1 Peter 2:9). He has adopted us into His family and made us joint heirs with Christ, promising to conform us to His likeness (Romans 8:14-17, 29). He works all things together for our good and His glory (Romans 8:28). He is an eternally loving Father to us, who knows how to give good gifts (Matthew 7:9-11) – and who knows how to discipline us for our good (Hebrews 12:7-11). Far from being arbitrary, the commands He gives us tell us how we can live in this fallen world for His glory and our joy (Deuteronomy 10:12-13).

So when we disobey, we, the creatures, are claiming to know better than He, our Creator. We are claiming that we discern our good better than He, the all-knowing One. We are claiming that we can run our lives better than He, our Designer. We are claiming that we have a better moral sense than He, the Source of all good.

And so to sin is to despise Him and His Word.

Yes, sin is a breaking of God’s rules. But it is much more.

  • It is complete foolishness, because it never leads to our greatest good.
  • It is grossly presumptuous, because it assumes we know more than God.
  • And it is a rejection of the Person of our heavenly Father, effectively spitting in His face, telling Him to get out of our lives and let us run them on our own.

Don’t despise God or His Word. Submit to Him. And find with David that His love is better than life (Psalm 63:3).

 

Do You Know Jesus?

Do you know Jesus? Listen to what John tells those of us who make such a claim:

Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked (1 John 2:4-6).

God saves us from the condemnation we deserve by Jesus’ sacrificial death in order that we might know Him, in order that we might be like Christ, in order that we might be “conformed to the image of His Son” (Romans 8:29). Indeed, Jesus commands us to be like Him! For He tells us that all of the Law and the Prophets can be summarized in two commands: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind…. You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (from Matthew 22:37-39).  And Jesus fulfilled these commands every minute of every day – loving God the Father, loving each person He encountered – whether He was gentle with them, as He was with the woman in Simon the Pharisee’s house(Luke 7:36-50), or He was harsh with them, as He was with the scribes and Pharisees (Matthew 23). He told each person exactly what he or she most needed to hear.

Note that our obedience is the result of being saved, not the means by which we are saved. We are saved by His grace as a gift, not as a result of anything that we do, so that no one has a reason to boast (Ephesians 2:8-9).

But when God opens our eyes and for the first time we know Jesus – when we see Him as our precious Savior, as our continual intercessor, as our rightful King, as our greatest Treasure – then we want to be like Him. We see Him as the perfection of all that humans should be. We see Him as displaying completely the image of God placed in mankind in the beginning (Genesis 1:27). And we see Him, yes, as loving God and loving man – and so the love of God is perfected in Him.

In verse 5 above, John then tells us an amazing truth: When God works in us to fulfill that desire to be like Jesus, we ourselves complete/perfect the love of God. Not that there was anything lacking in God’s love apart from the existence of mankind. But God always intended His love to be displayed in millions of redeemed humanity. He gives us the privilege of living this out, of loving with His love, and thus fulfilling the purpose of mankind’s creation – displaying the image of God.

So if we claim to know Him, but hate others; if we claim to know Him, but mock and degrade others; if we claim to know Him but harass or harm others; if we claim to know Him and consider others beneath us, then, says John, we are liars. The truth is not in us. We cannot know that we are in Him if we live like that.

For to know Him is to love Him, to desire to be like Him, to love others with His love. When we love others like that, we complete His love.

In this life, we will never do this perfectly – John has just said if we say we don’t sin, we lie, and that when we sin Jesus is our advocate, our propitiation (1 John 1:10-2:2). But those who know Jesus will fight the fight to love – they will fight the fight to be like Him – for that is their great desire and joy.

So do you know Him? Don’t depend on having gone through some religious ritual, or having signed some decision card, or having an experience a long time ago you consider saving faith. Are you walking today as Jesus walked? Is God’s love being completed in your life? If yes – rejoice in Him, and love! If not – confess your sins to the One who is faithful and just to forgive you for all unrighteousness by the sacrifice of His Son – and then, know Him, love Him, follow Him, and, like Him, love others.

What is Man that You are Mindful of Him?

When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him? (Psalm 8:3-4)

In comparison to God’s grandeur, we are nothing. We are infinitesimal. We are little specks of dust on a spinning ball.

Yet God grants us significance. He takes of His grandeur and stamps some portion on us. So David says He crowns us with glory and honor (Psalm 8:5).

Understand: That glory and honor is from Him – it is derived; it is not intrinsic to us. We have no glory, no status apart from what God has given us.

Many of history’s greatest tragedies – such as American slavery, such as the Holocaust – have come about because one category of mankind decided another category had no such status, no such glory, no such honor – they were subhuman.  But Scripture is clear: In this age, until Jesus returns, all humans have the status of image-bearers of God, no matter who they are or what they do (Genesis 1:27). Every person you encounter has this status – whatever their ethnicity, whatever their economic status, whatever their intelligence, whatever their education level, whether they live in utero or on a deathbed.

But Scripture hints that a time is coming when that will change. After Jesus returns, after the final judgment, there will be a class of humans without glory and honor, without the image of God. This class will not be racially based, nor based on intelligence, nor based on accomplishment. Rather, this class will consist of all those who continue in rebellion against their rightful King, those who are assigned to eternal punishment “away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might” (2 Thessalonians 1:9). And what will it mean for people to be away from His presence? David says, “I have no good apart from You” (Psalm 16:2). James tells us “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights” (James 1:17). Thus, whatever good we have, we received from Him (1 Corinthians 4:7). Indeed, God is the source even of ability and craftsmanship (Deuteronomy 8:18, Exodus 31:3).

Imagine, then, that state: No goodness remaining; no creativity remaining; no pleasure remaining; no friendship remaining; no beauty remaining; no productive work remaining; no vocation, no fulfillment. Only pride, self-righteousness, anger, hatred, and rebellion.

To be away from the presence of God is to be without any good, without any glory, without any honor. Thus it seems that those sent away from the presence of the Lord will lose whatever remains of the image of God in them. They will then eat and devour one another for all eternity.

C.S. Lewis captures this idea in The Great Divorce. He pictures those in hell as hating each other, and thus isolating themselves more and more from each other, so that hell seems to be a huge place. But when hell is seen from the perspective of eternal realities, it is a tiny, insignificant speck.

Thus we come again to the question: “What is man that you are mindful of him?” The remains of mankind consigned to judgment – having shed all glory and honor, having lost all goodness, all ability, all creativity, and all craftsmanship – will be insignificant. God will no longer be mindful of them. But those redeemed by His grace, those credited with the righteousness of Christ, those granted significance now and forever, will shine forth with His perfected image in them for all eternity (Matthew 13:43).

In this life, no one is subhuman. All have significance. All have the vestiges of the image of God.

But we all have been granted those vestiges for a reason: To glorify Him! To display that image! So: Be astounded at the significance God grants you! Repent, and humble yourself before Him! Then join the heavenly throng, and display His character, now and forever.