Humility Comes Before Honor

Does humility come before honor? Proverbs 15:33 and 18:12 tell us it does. But look around. Is that what you see?

Many politicians, athletes, entertainers, business leaders, academics – and even pastors – show little sign of humility. Instead, they exalt themselves, making sure everyone knows how great they are, and how inferior others are (especially those they see as competitors).

And if we’re honest, we must admit that we too are tempted to self-exaltation. This displays itself:

  • When we twist a story to make ourselves look better
  • When we mishandle a responsibility and try to cover up what happened
  • When we work harder to improve our external appearance than our internal character
  • When we respond to someone else’s success by speaking of our even greater success.

Furthermore, self-exaltation often seems to work. Others may well believe my twisted story that makes me look good. Self-promoting politicians often win elections.

Sure, we sometimes see the proud disgraced, the boaster brought low. But not always. Indeed, from our perspective, not in most cases.

So what is Scripture saying?

Consider Proverbs 15:33 in its entirety:

The fear of the LORD is instruction in wisdom, and humility comes before honor. (ESV)

The two halves of the verse are in parallel: Humility comes before honor as the fear of the Lord comes before wisdom. Furthermore, humility and the fear of the Lord go together. When we see and acknowledge how great God is and how small we are, we necessarily humble ourselves before Him. This humbling is one part of wisdom – and one necessary step to honor from God.

Seen in this light, the honor mentioned here is not honor from men. While humility on occasion will lead to honor from men, oftentimes it will not. But a humility tied to the fear of the Lord – a humility that bows before Him, that admits sinfulness and rebellion, that delights in Jesus as Lord, Savior, and Treasure – that humility always leads to honor from God.

Scripture emphasizes this truth again and again:

  • Isaiah: “The haughty looks of man shall be brought low, and the lofty pride of men shall be humbled, and the LORD alone will be exalted in that day.” (Isaiah 2:11 and 17)
  • A psalmist: “Be not afraid when a man becomes rich, when the glory of his house increases. For when he dies he will carry nothing away; his glory will not go down after him. For though, while he lives, he counts himself blessed– and though you get praise when you do well for yourself– his soul will go to the generation of his fathers, who will never again see light. Man in his pomp yet without understanding is like the beasts that perish.” (Psalm 49:16-20)
  • Mary: “And his mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation. He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts; he has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate; he has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty.” (Luke 1:50-53)
  • James: “Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.” (James 4:10)
  • Peter: “Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for ‘God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.’ Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you.” (1 Peter 5:5b-6)
  • Jesus: “Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.” (Matthew 23:12 – see also Luke 14:11 and 18:14)

So, yes: Humility comes before honor – the only honor worth pursuing, the honor and exaltation given by God. Humble yourself before Him – and He will give you the honor of saying to you, “Well done, good and faithful servant! Enter into the joy of your Master.” (Matthew 25:23)

Parents, Children, and Education: Rights or Responsibilities?

Parental rights are a key issue this election season – particularly with respect to what happens in public school classrooms. Former Virginia governor Terry McAuliffe stated in a debate last year, “I don’t think parents should be telling schools what they should teach.” He then lost the election to Glenn Youngkin by a substantial margin. Advocacy groups such as ParentalRights.org are promoting this issue at the national, state, and local levels, emphasizing locally the importance of school board elections.

There are indeed dangers to parents in our wider society. For example, some legal scholars are promoting a theory that parents’ rights are conferred by the state. One of these, Professor James Dwyer of William and Mary, says, “The reason parent-child relationships exist is because the state confers legal parenthood…. It is the state that is empowering parents to do anything with children.” Such theories are part of a larger movement (documented by Carl Trueman among others) that denigrates the family, exalts the state, and promotes the idea that we must discover who we are by looking inside ourselves.

Scripture presents a contrasting picture of the relationship between parents and children. But I would not label the Scriptural viewpoint as “parental rights.” It’s much closer to “parental responsibilities.”

Psalm 127:3 is key: “Behold, children are a gift [or “heritage”] from the LORD” (NAS). Note that there is no mention of the state in this verse! Children are created by God; they belong to God; He grants them to parents as gifts; and He entrusts parents’ with their care, their provision, their upbringing. Parents thus have the joy of playing a part in another’s story – an intensive, guiding part for 15 or 20 years, then an advisory part.

Certainly in fulfilling that role granted by God, parents have implied rights.

But the responsibilities are much clearer biblically than the rights. Consider the questions we ask parents at baby and child dedications. We never mention of rights; there is, however, a lengthy list of responsibilities found in Scripture, including:

Do you pledge as parents that, with God’s fatherly help, you will bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord, making every reasonable effort, with patience and love, to build the Word of God, the character of Christ and the joy of the Lord into their lives?

God calls every parent to the task of training up children (Proverbs 22:6, Ephesians 6:4). Parents here make a commitment to help their children live lives of personal obedience. Yet personal obedience is not the goal; faith is the goal. Through learning obedience to loving parents, our children can learn the joy of obedience to a loving God; this can then be a means of grace that God uses to bring the children to faith, and that very faith will bear fruit in genuine Christian obedience.

We also ask:

Do you promise to provide, through God’s blessing, for their physical, emotional, intellectual and spiritual needs, looking to your own heavenly Father for the wisdom, love and strength to serve them and not use them?

We as parents are tempted to use our children: As status symbols, as props for our egos, as accomplishments, as ways to succeed vicariously where we failed in our younger years. But biblically we are to provide for our children and serve them – not serving under them, but so to lead them that they grow into independent adults who by God’s grace love Jesus Christ, put Him first, and serve productively in society.

Now, if parents have the responsibility to train their children and to provide for the intellectual needs, they clearly are responsible for their children’s education. They are responsible for deciding how their children can be best educated. Some before God will choose to educate them at home; others will think it best to delegate part of their children’s education to a private or public school. But whatever the choice, the parents are responsible. God has entrusted them with their child. They must arrange for that child to be well-educated, intellectually, spiritually, and socially. To the extent that they delegate part of that responsibility to others, they must know what is being taught, how it Is being taught, and then in the home correct or combat any falsehoods or half-truths propagated in the school. Parents as a group, therefore, can and should influence what is taught in schools.

Now, the state does have a role in the lives of children. Most clearly the state has a responsibility to protect all citizens from law-breakers – and that includes protecting children from parents who clearly abuse or harm their children. The state also has a civic interest in seeing that children receive sufficient education to be good citizens. But the family precedes the state. Furthermore, as G.K. Chesterton wrote, the family is the “only state that creates and loves its citizens.” The governing state should rightly defer to parents on education and childrearing in general, acknowledging that the great majority of parents will do a better job of raising their children than any state institution. Laws for dealing with the exceptional cases of child abuse should not be extended to cases in which parents simply have chosen to raise children in a way contrary to the state’s preferred way.

When the Pinckney children were young, we had an interesting annual interchange in this regard with our local school superintendent in Massachusetts. As homeschoolers, we were required by state law to ask for approval from our superintendent. But before God, Beth and I did not believe the superintendent had the right or responsibility to judge whether or not we were fit to school our children. At the same time, we wanted to have a cooperative relationship with the schools in town and were quite willing to listen to any advice or counsel they might give. So, every year, we wrote a letter informing our superintendent of our decision to homeschool, asking if they had any counsel, but explicitly not asking for approval. And then a few weeks later, we received a return letter approving our homeschool. In this way, everyone was kept happy.

So, parents: Rejoice in the responsibility God has given you to raise your children. Take it seriously, with all its trials and pressures. In a few short years this season of your life will end, and you’ll feel as Beth and I did when our youngest left home: “Like Mel Gibson at the end of Braveheart – your abdomen is open and someone is cutting away at your guts.”

I encourage all of you – vote wisely this week, especially taking into account candidates’ views on education and parental rights.

But may we as a church stand alongside one another and assist one another in raising these precious children to know “the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit,” to His great glory and praise (2 Corinthians 13:14).

Vote? Why? Blessing the Land of Our Exile as Ambassadors of the Kingdom

Winston Churchill once said, “Democracy is the worst form of Government – except for all those other forms.”

That is easy to believe in these weeks before an election, when we can’t help but see attack ads and misleading campaign fliers, when candidates avoid answering questions time and again, when the media twist statements and positions to advance their own narratives, when it can seem as if no candidate is talking in depth about important issues that face our country or city or schools.

Yet in a world of fallen humans, all beset with sin – “all those other forms” of government fail spectacularly. In this country, “we the people” have an opportunity – an opportunity to have a voice. Should we use it?

By all means.

Let me remind you of some biblical principles, and then list some considerations as you decide how to use your voice.

Three Biblical Principles

Principle 1: Followers of Jesus are aliens, exiles, sojourners in any earthly country.

Peter addresses his first epistle to the scattered elect “exiles” or “aliens” or “sojourners” (1 Peter 1:1). He later refers to God’s people as “foreigners” or “temporary residents” (1 Peter 2:11). The picture is thus similar to the Jewish exiles in Babylon in the sixth century before Christ – living as foreigners, away from their own country, wishing they could return. But remember the letter the prophet Jeremiah sent those exiles, found in Jeremiah 29. They will remain in Babylon for 70 years – thus, for the rest of most of their lives. But God’s promises remain. They are to hold firmly to those promises – and, in the meantime, they are to “seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare” (Jeremiah 29:7).

Just so with us. In Christ, God makes us a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17). We obviously are “in the world,” but we, like Jesus Himself, are not “of the world” (John 17:14). We are aliens, exiles, foreigners, temporary residents here – indeed, ambassadors from King Jesus, as we make His appeal to those around us. And we seek the welfare of the country where we live both through that appeal and in other ways. Voting for the best candidates is one of those ways.

Principle 2: There is no political solution to our fundamental problem

We’ve already said that democracy is messy because we are fallen – we are rebels against God who are prone to self-righteousness, self-centeredness, ingratitude, pride, anger, hatred, groupthink, racism, corruption – the list could go on and on (see Romans 1:28-32 and 2 Timothy 3:2-5 for longer lists). Sin is so pervasive that “none is righteous, no, not one” (Romans 3:10). So if on the off chance we elect the very best candidate for every single office – we will still have elected sinners who will fail.

So all the utopians speak nonsense who say, “If we can only get rid of so-and-so, if we can only defeat this party, if we can only dominate this court or that legislature, if we can only elect this president or end global warming or end abortion – then we will save our country and all will be well.” No. The only hope for an enduring Kingdom that cannot be shaken is Jesus – and He promises He will bring it about, in His time, when He returns.

But that does not mean no improvements can be made! Thus our next principle:

Principle 3: In this world, glorify Jesus by working for improvements in your circle of relationships and in your city, state, and country.

The Jewish exiles had no illusions about transforming Babylon into a perfected Jerusalem. But they could work for improvements – and they did. God commands us to do the same. We can have the greatest impact in our own circles of relationships as we love our neighbors as we love ourselves, as we let our light shine before others so they see our good works and give glory to our Father (Matthew 5:16). But we can have at least some impact on the wider society – and at times in history, “some” has become “major.” Read, for example, of William Wilberforce and the eventually successful effort to end the slave trade.

Furthermore, even if we end up having zero impact on the wider society, loving our neighbor, working for the welfare of our city and country, and serving as ambassadors of Christ by proclaiming the Good News are worth whatever cost we bear. God has called us to this. He is glorified through the process – not only through the hoped-for result.

 

Considerations for this Election

1) Don’t believe media characterizations of candidates. Every media outlet has a political perspective, and many massage their stories to advance their preferred candidates. If you read or hear a particularly damaging excerpt from a candidate, search for the full essay or speech or interview. Often when heard in context, the excerpt is seen to be misleading.

2) Frequent media outlets that genuinely present contrasting views. I have found RealClearPolitics to do this far better than most – whatever your persuasion, every day you are likely to find something you think is great, as well as something you disagree with strongly.

3) Pay significant attention to judicial races, school boards, county commissioners, and state legislative races. In many cases these races end up having a greater impact on our lives than the national races. Yet because candidates have few resources, we don’t hear much about them. Under recommended resources above I’ve provided links to help you learn of candidates.

4) Consider seriously candidates’ position on abortion. In past years, when Roe v Wade was in place, there was little a congressman or senator at the state or national level could do to affect abortion policy. But after the overturning of Roe v Wade, there will be significant battles in NC and at the national level to pass legislation. Our country faces many important issues – but it is hard to imagine one more important, one closer to the heart of God than the protection of vulnerable, unborn children.

Please vote. Please work for the welfare of the city and country where God has placed you. Please glorify Jesus as you do so.

And then place your hope not in your vote, not in any political party or objective, but in His promise: “Surely I am coming soon” (Revelation 22:20). Amen. Come, King Jesus.

Draw Near To God Part I

[I derived portions of this post from two past sermons I have preached on Hebrews 4:14–16 and Hebrews 10:11–23. This post will be the first in a two-part series.]

 

A few weeks ago I preached on Mark 1:1–13. I pointed out that Mark uses the same language at the beginning of the book at Jesus’ baptism (Mark 1:10–11) as he does at the end of the book at Jesus’ death on the cross (Mark 15:37–39). They each read:

 Mark 1:10–11—10 And when he came up out of the water, immediately he saw the heavens being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. 11 And a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.

Mark 15:37–39—37 And Jesus uttered a loud cry and breathed his last. 38 And the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. 39 And when the centurion, who stood facing him, saw that in this way he breathed his last, he said, “Truly this man was the Son of God!”

I observed that Mark frames Jesus’ earthly ministry with proclamations of his identity as the Son of God paired with the tearing open of the heavens and the temple curtain. He does this in order to point us to this reality—Jesus secures access to the Father.[1] Here, I hope to take a deeper dive into what exactly that means for you if indeed your life is hidden in Christ. To do that, I turn to the book of Hebrews.

 

Drawing Near to God in Hebrews

The book of Hebrews goes to great lengths to exhort Christians to draw near to God. Along with many great promises, Hebrews highlights two foundational reasons for us to draw near to God: (1) Jesus is our great high priest, and (2) Jesus is the perfect offering for sins. These two realities go hand-in-hand. Here we will consider Jesus as our great high priest. In a forthcoming post, we will consider Jesus as our perfect sin offering.

 

Jesus our Great High Priest

Hebrews 4:14–16—14 Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. 15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. 16 Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

In light of this passage and the reality that God is the source of our life and joy, the natural question is, “Why does Scripture need to exhort us as Christians to draw near to God?” The short answer is, (1) we still sin, and (2) we are prone to unbelief. Thus, in response to a particular sin or sinful moment, the sin of unbelief tempts us to not trust in the work of Jesus. Therefore, we do not draw near to God in repentance. Rather, we often linger just outside the throne room of grace choosing to stay in our sense of guilt. This passage, though, gives us astounding reasons to not hesitate but to instead make a confident mad dash to our heavenly Father, even in the day of our sin. And these reasons find their footing in Jesus as our great high priest.

According to Hebrews 4:14–16, we should draw near to God because of two amazing realities: (1) Jesus is our great high priest, who has passed through the heavens, and (2) Jesus is our sympathetic high priest. Let’s consider these in turn.

 

Our Great High Priest Who Has Passed through the Heavens

First, Hebrews 4:14 encourages us to hold fast to our confession and draw near to God, because we have a great high priest, God’s own Son, who has passed through the heavens. In order to better understand the significance of Jesus’ high priestly ministry and his passing through the heavens, it is helpful to consider the Old Testament (OT) office of high priest that anticipated him. Thankfully, Hebrews gives us help here.

Recall, the location and length of the OT high priest’s work. He made atonement for the people in the tabernacle or temple. Specifically, he entered into the most holy place, behind the curtain where the ark of the covenant and God’s presence rested. He entered here only once a year (Lev 16:15–19; Heb 9:7). Furthermore, the ministry of each OT high priest only lasted as long as he lived. It was not permanent because he eventually died. Hebrews makes clear, as we will see below, that this location of ministry and this length of ministry were limiting factors with regard to atonement. The work of OT high priests was never going to solve man’s sin problem. The weight of man’s sin against an infinitely holy God demanded eternal priestly work in heaven itself, a place only one of divine nature could enter.

Unlike the OT priests, Jesus passed through the heavens (4:14). That is, in love, God sent Jesus, his Son, to earth in order to die, rise from the dead, and ascend beyond the heavens back into eternity. And Jesus did ascend, passing through the heavens. And he entered into the very throne room of God. And there he lives forever to make intercession for you! Only Jesus the high priest, as fully God and fully man, could enter into God’s presence to minister forever on behalf of men. Hebrews strikes this glorious chord of God’s salvation plan over and over.

Hebrews 7:24–25—24 but he holds his priesthood permanently, because he continues forever. 25 Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.

Hebrews 8:1–2—1 Now the point in what we are saying is this: we have such a high priest, one who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven, 2 a minister in the holy places, in the true tent that the Lord set up, not man.

 Hebrews 9:24—For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf.

Therefore, we can confidently draw near to God, into his very throne room, because Jesus, the Son of God, our eternal great high priest has gone in before us on our behalf.

 

Our Sympathetic Great High Priest

Second, Hebrews 4:15 encourages us to draw near to God, because we have a sympathetic high priest in Jesus. Again, Hebrews reminds us of the nature of OT high priests so that we can appreciate Jesus’ priestly ministry all the more.

The OT high priest was able to “deal gently with the ignorant and wayward” because of his own human nature and weakness (Heb 5:2). Now, we might be tempted to think that because Jesus never sinned, he could never relate to or understand our struggles. However, it is precisely the opposite. Because Jesus never sinned, he understands our struggles more than any other high priest ever could. Consider an illustration, which I heard from a former pastor of mine.

Imagine you go to the local fair or circus. There you see a strong man performing great feats of strength. This strong man takes a sturdy metal bar in his mighty grip. And, using his great strength, he cranks down on the bar until it finally gives under the extreme pressure and bends. This same strong man then takes another metal bar in his hands. Again, he cranks down on the bar using just as much force as before. This time, however, the bar does not bend. So he regathers himself, mustering up every last ounce of strength he has, and he cranks on the bar with greater and greater force. Still, the bar does not bend.

So now, I pose to you the same question my former pastor posed: Which bar endured the most force? Well the answer is obvious, isn’t it? The bar that never bent endured the most force. What’s the point? Well, we, of course, are the bar that bends. When temptation applies enough force on us, we give in to the pressure and sin. Often this does not require much force at all. However, Jesus is the bar that never bent. Because he never sinned, Jesus endured infinitely more pressure from temptation than you or I ever have or ever could. Therefore, Jesus is more intimately acquainted with temptation than any man before or after. Thus, Jesus understands you and sympathizes with you more infinitely and more intimately than you could ever imagine. This is Jesus’ disposition toward sinners. He is sympathetic, understanding, and welcoming.

We can confidently draw near to God, into his very throne room, because Jesus, our sympathetic high priest intercedes for sinners based on his sinless life.

 

Access Secured

Just as we saw in Mark’s gospel, Jesus our great high priest has opened the curtain to heaven’s mercy seat for us. Notice the purpose of our drawing near in Hebrews 4:14–16. We draw near in order to receive mercy and find grace to help in a time of need. When are we ever in greater need of help than in a moment of sin? Answer: Never. And what awaits us if we will but draw near to God? Answer: The very grace and mercy we need. In Jesus our great high priest, we find abundant reasons to not linger outside the throne room. Just look through the torn opening into the heavenly throne room, as Hebrews 4:14–16 invites us to. What do we see? There we see Jesus, our eternal, sympathetic high priest, sent for us by God, interceding on our behalf. And suddenly, our breath catches in our chest as he turns to look at us with a smile. And we hear an unbelievable, heavenly invitation ring out from the throne of our Triune God, who bids, “Why do you linger? Draw near. And come in boldly, my child. You are welcome here.” Let us heed these words joyfully, especially in the day of our sin.

[1] See Mark L. Strauss, Mark, ZECNT (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2014), 72.

3 reasons to commit to Cross-Cultural Worship

 

This weekend at DGCC we plan to have a joint service with our Kiswahili-speaking congregation. We will worship and honor the living God by singing, reading, and preaching God’s word in different languages and by developing deeper relationships with each other. Our commitment to grow into one body reflecting diverse cultures, tongues, and ethnicities is no easy task. The challenges of overcoming differences in language, culture, and expression can cause us to question diversity as a goal altogether. So why should we be committed to cross-cultural worship and diversity? Here are 3 reasons that should encourage us to keep this focus despite the difficulties.

A hope for today found in the Old Testament

Cross-cultural worship serves as a reminder that God’s promise to Abraham to bless all nations through His offspring (Genesis 22:19) is not only an Old Testament promise but is also a living and abiding hope today. Gathering together with believers across different tongues and ethnicities reminds us that Christ has come to fulfill this promise. It is through Christ, the promised descendant of Abraham, that God has blessed all people who come to Him to receive the free gift of salvation. This is our hope today! We pray that all nations – created by God and for God but now separated from Him because of sin – will return to Him and joyously worship together.

A forward look to Heaven

This is not only our hope today but also our future in the new heavens and new earth. That is, cross- cultural worship gives us a visual and auditory preview of what is described in Revelation 7:9.

“I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, And they cried out in a loud voice: “Salvation belongs to our God, who sits
on the throne, and to the Lamb.”

We bring this scripture to life when we gather in diverse congregations to worship. We get to see now what we will experience at the culmination of history when all of God’s people will gather around His throne to express joy and affection toward Him. Just as the promises of the past can ground our hope in Christ today, seeing our future unity in diversity deepens our delight in picturing that in the present age.

Gracious opportunities to love one another

While we wait for that fulfillment, we have the opportunity to express our genuine unity through loving one another across our differences. When language is a barrier, we are forced to listen more intently and speak more thoughtfully. When we interact with our brothers and sisters from different places and backgrounds we are encouraged to be focused on others and not ourselves. Interaction across cultures can help us be more careful to not offend and allow us to easily extend grace if there is a misunderstanding. While we should be mindful to do these things every day, cross-cultural engagement provides the environment for us to focus on these simple but impactful acts of love toward each other.

DGCC is committed to being a diversity-loving congregation not just because it is part of our DNA as a church but because when we gather together our diversity shows that our God is the God of all peoples, languages and cultures. He is worthy to be praised by all. So this Sunday, in our worship service and at our picnic, reach out across the cultural distance. Rejoice in our common Lord and Savior. And thereby live out the Old Testament promise; picture the coming culmination; and display the love of God for all peoples.

Does God Need Our Help to Fulfill His Plan?

[This devotion is a shortened form of a sermon preached February 24, 2019 in the series, Contradictions? How Delving Into Challenging Topics Unlocks the Riches of God’s Revelation. You can listen to the audio of that sermon via this link.]

Jesus said:

  • “As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you” (John 20:21).
  • He said: “Go … make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:18).
  • Paul says: God has entrusted “to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ” (2 Corinthians 5:20-21).

These statements and commands raise the question: Does God need us?

God is spreading His Gospel to every tribe and tongue and people and nation

He tells us this Gospel of the Kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and only then will the end come (Matthew 24:14).

So does God need us – His people, His church – in order to fulfill this promise?

Jesus also said: “The harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest” (Luke 10:2).

Doesn’t that sound as if God needs laborers?

God commands us to go and proclaim the Gospel. But sometimes that biblical command is coupled with an implied picture of God in heaven, wringing His hands, just hoping that maybe someone would go and do the work that He needs done.

Now – most who read their Bibles regularly know that image is wrong. Nevertheless: Don’t the statements above imply that in some sense God needs us?

The biblical answer is quite helpful to us. In summary, that answer is: God gives us a tremendous task and a tremendous privilege. He gives us tremendous power to fulfill that task. Actively depend on Him – and never trust in yourself, or take pride in yourself.

Let’s see how Scripture fleshes out that answer.

God Doesn’t Need Us

That God doesn’t need us is simple to prove from numerous Scriptures. We’ll limit ourselves to only three.

First, John 15:5. Jesus says:

I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.

This is not ambiguous! We can do nothing on our own.

But notice what Jesus says in John 5:30: “I can do nothing on my own.”

Thus: We can do nothing apart from abiding in Jesus. And He can do nothing apart from the Father. So in effect: We are like Jesus! Jesus was actively dependent on God the Father. We must be actively dependent on God the Son

So Jesus does not demean in saying we can do nothing apart from Him. Rather, He is saying that everyone who is fully human – including Himself – must depend on God at all times. Jesus lives out for us the type of active dependence we must have.

For our third Scripture, turn to Zechariah 4. Many Jews have returned to Jerusalem from exile in Babylon, and are beginning to rebuild God’s temple. This is a great work of God, a necessary step in God’s plan to redeem a people for Himself. It is also a difficult, expensive engineering task. So there is a need for laborers.

Yet what is word of the Lord? “Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit” (Zechariah 4:6). In effect God says: “You can’t even build a building apart from me.”

So: God has no needs that we could ever meet. He is the one with all power. He is the one who rules the world and controls all that happens. We need Him. He does not need us.

Fulfilling the Commission by Diligent Dependence

So: God commands us to go and make disciples, and God does not need us. How are these consistent? Let’s look more closely statements that call us to be God’s ambassadors.

  • Matthew 28:18-20: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore.… And lo I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
  • Luke 10:2: The verse opens with a statement of fact: the harvest is plentiful, the laborers are few. But the second part does not say: “So go out into the vineyard.” Rather, it says, “Pray!” He is Lord of the harvest. He will see that the harvest comes in. He will send the laborers. His power accomplishes the task.
  • 2 Corinthians 5.19-20: God has entrusted to us the message of reconciliation; we are indeed His ambassadors. But Paul then says, “God [is] making his appeal through us.” So He chooses to use us. But He is the one making the appeal.

Consider also 1 Peter 4:10-11. Peter tells us how to conduct all the ministries God gives us:

As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace: whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies— in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. (emphasis added)

The Apostle tells us why we must serve in God’s strength: So that He gets the glory! If we served in our strength, we could boast. But when we serve by His strength, we are humbled.

Thus,

  • We go out for the sake of His Name
  • We go in the power of His Name
  • We go diligently depending on Him for all that we do
  • We go in prayer, asking for His help every step of the way

Not by might, nor by power, but by His Spirit.

Viewing the Paradox via the Bible’s Storyline

Let’s step back and remember how reaching every people group with the Gospel fits into the overall storyline of the Bible.

God created mankind for His glory, to show what He is like. Man rebelled, rejecting God’s purpose in creating him. God could have destroyed all mankind immediately, thus displaying His perfect justice. Instead, to show not only justice but also love, mercy, and power. He instituted a millennia-long plan to create out of rebellious humanity a people for Himself, a people who would fulfill the purpose of the creation of mankind, a people who would show He is ultimate, not them. So He promises that a descendant of the first woman will crush the head of Satan. Then after rebellious mankind tries to make a name for Itself by building a tower up to heaven He scatters people, confusing their languages, dividing them into many different people groups. But then He calls a man, Abraham, and tells him all these people groups will be blessed in his descendant. And Abraham fathers this promised child only by God’s mercy and miraculous power.

Over the centuries God shows time and again that apart from Him we can do nothing. Despite the disobedience of His people:

  • He rescues Abraham’s descendants from slavery
  • He chooses the youngest of Jesse’s sons to be king
  • He promises that HE will build an eternal kingdom with a descendant of this man David reigning as king
  • And He promises through Isaiah that He will lay all the iniquity of His people on a suffering servant – whom He will then raise from the dead

So in the fullness of time He sends Jesus into the world to be born to a poor teenage girl. Jesus then lives out how to depend on God every minute of every day, thereby displaying God’s power, majesty and authority. And while evil men and Satan try to destroy God’s plan by killing Jesus, God in His power, authority, and love uses their very plan to fulfill His promise to redeem His people by a suffering servant. He then show His might and the sufficiency of the sacrifice by raising Him from dead.

And this risen Jesus then commissions us to go, like Him, in the power of God to be His ambassadors. He reminds us that we can never do this on our own. God will use His weak, powerless people to accomplish His great work. The earth must be filled with the knowledge of His glory; every tribe and tongue and people and nation must be a part of His people. And He will bring it about.

This, reaching the nations is not some minor sidelight in God’s overall plan. It is a key part of that plan.

God doesn’t need us to fulfill that plan – He could raise up workers from dried bones (Ezekiel 37) or even from stones (Luke 3:8). But He gives us the task, the privilege, and the power to go in His Name. He delights to use us, as we depend on Him and thereby fulfill His plan.

What Do We Ever Accomplish?

So let’s step back from our commission and ask: Can we humans really do nothing apart from Jesus?

What do we accomplish?

We have abilities, intelligence, experiences, family backgrounds, and education. Through these, we think, we plan, we research, we produce, we work hard; we train our minds and bodies, we develop our talents, we start and grow businesses; we write books, we perform jobs, we love our families, we raise our children, we serve our countries, we help our cities; and thereby many – Christians and non-Christian – accomplish something of value.

  • Something valuable to us.
  • Something valued by our society.
  • Something that seems good, useful, and helpful.

But note two points.

First: God needs none of that. He gives us even the breath we need to live! (Acts 17:24-25).

Second: All that we accomplish is a gift from Him. This is true whether we are Christians or not, whether we actively depend on Him in the process or not. As Deuteronomy 8:17-18 tells us:

Beware lest you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.’ You shall remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth.

So apply that idea to yourself: Not one iota of your success, your hard work, your contribution came from you apart from God (1 Corinthians 4:7).

Reflect on your accomplishments and goals. What do you have to be proud of?

In my case:

  • I earned a PhD
  • I am a husband and father
  • I planted a church
  • I brought the Perspectives class to Charlotte

List with me all that you could conceivably be proud of. And then pray:

All this is from you, Father God. Whatever in my life is good, fruitful, productive, helpful, loving, or wise is from you. Whatever is messed up, wrongheaded, hurtful, hateful, or foolish is from me. If You had not given me life and breath each second I would have been dead. If You had not graciously given me abilities, perseverance, empathy, and love, my life would have been one fruitless hell-hole after another. Yet in Jesus You have chosen me, You have loved me, You have set me apart as holy. You call me your child and assure me nothing will separate me from Your love. And You call me along with all Your people to be Your ambassador! All praise to You, O Father – I love You. May I serve You with what You do not need, and so glorify You. Fulfill Your plan – in part through the way You use me. Here am I.

So, always remember: It’s not about you, your ministry, your gifts, your calling – it’s all about God. It’s all about Jesus. You are here to show God’s image, to display Christ.

Thus we must have no pride and no despair. No self-exaltation. No church-exaltation. No country-exaltation. Only God-exaltation. Only Jesus-exaltation.

His is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever. Amen.

The Christian’s Acid Test

[With Hurricane Ian ravaging Florida and pouring rain on us, let’s turn to Pensacola, Florida in 1969, when Hurricane Camille was about to hit the US. Martyn Lloyd-Jones – then 70 and on his final trip to the US – preached “The Acid Test” on 2 Corinthians 4:17-18, which reads in part in the ESV, “This light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison.” This devotion is taken primarily from the final two-thirds of the sermon. You can download or listen to the entire sermon here; the book containing the nine sermons preached in Pensacola is available here – Coty]

In [2 Corinthians 4:17-18] we have the acid test of our profession of the Christian faith…. [Orthodoxy cannot be such a test.] Because of the terrible danger of a mere intellectual assent, orthodoxy, while it is absolutely essential, is not sufficiently delicate to merit the designation of acid test…. [Neither is morality nor experience.] If you make the test of experience the acid test, what have you to say to the many cults that are flourishing round and about us? After all these cults give people experiences….

[So what is the acid test?] The acid test of our profession is our total response to life, to everything that takes place within us and around us. Not partial but total…. The acid test of our profession is this: What do you feel like when you are sitting in an air-raid shelter and you can hear the bombs dropping round and about you, and you know that the next bomb may land on you and may be the end of you? That is the test. How do you feel when you are face-to-face with the ultimate, with the end? [Or we could put it this way:] The ultimate test of our profession of the Christian faith is what we feel, what we say, and what our reaction is when a hurricane … or a tornado or some … violent epidemic, a disease that brings us face-to-face with time and eternity, with life and death – [when one of these comes]. The ultimate question is, what is our response then? Because that is exactly what the apostle is saying here….

Paul is surrounded by many troubles and trials and problems. They could not have been worse. Yet he looks at them all and says, “For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.”…

So here is the great test for us. Can we speak like this? Do we speak like this? We may be orthodox. That is not enough. We may be good people. That is not enough. We may have had some great thrilling experience. That is not enough. How do we stand up to the ultimate questions?…

[Note that this is not stoicism.] Stoicism is the exact opposite of Christianity…. The philosophy of Stoicism is the philosophy of resignation. It is the philosophy of putting up with it, taking it, simply standing and refusing to give in. Stoicism is negative, whereas the very essence of Christianity is that it is positive. Christians are not people who are just bearing with things and putting up with them. They are triumphing. They are exulting. They are “more than conquerors” (Rom. 8:37)….

A Christian is a man or woman who has an entirely new view of the whole of life. How is this? It is through believing in the Lord Jesus Christ. There was a time when Paul could not speak like this. The problems and difficulties of life pressed upon him. He could not face them. But in Christ, everything changed. Paul will tell you in the next chapter of this epistle, “If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” (2 Cor. 5:17)…. Not that [the problems and difficulties] changed, but Paul has changed, and he sees them in an entirely different manner. Everything is seen in the light of Christ….

What has happened to him? Well, he is now in a new relationship to God. He knows God as his Father. He knows his sins are forgiven. He knows that nothing will be able to separate him from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus. He has believed the message concerning Jesus Christ and him crucified. That is the sole explanation. That is why he has an entirely new outlook, an entirely new view of the whole of life….

The difficulty with us is that we are all so immersed in the petty problems of life that we do not see life as a whole. And what this Christian faith gives us is the capacity to see life steadily and to see it whole….

[Christians have a new perspective in two respects. First:]

Notice how the apostle puts it: “Our light affliction, which is but for a moment.” Now this is most important. One of the first great things that becoming a Christian does to men and women is to give them a right view of time…. It is time that defeats people. Take a man and his wife who suddenly lose their only child. All their affection and interest had been settled on this child, and, oh, how happy they were together! Suddenly their son is killed in a war or drowned in the sea. Someone who is dearer to them than life is suddenly taken away, and they are bereft. And this is what they say: “How can we go on? How can we bear it? How can we face it? Six months, oh, how terrible. A year. Ten years. Twenty years. It’s impossible. How can we keep going? We’ve lost the thing that made life worth living.” The tyranny of time. Time is so long.

But Paul puts it like this: “Our light affliction, which is but for a moment.” Surely, you say, Paul was just a wishful thinker. This is just psychology, after all. How can he say “but for a moment” when life is long and arduous? Ah, the answer is quite simple. The apostle, as a Christian, knows what to do with time. There is only one thing to do with time, and that is to take it and put it into the grand context of eternity.

When you and I look forward, ten years seems a terribly long time. A hundred years? Impossible. A thousand? A million? We cannot envisage it. But try to think of endless time, millions upon millions upon millions of years. That is eternity. Take time and put it into that context. What is it? It is only a moment…. Christians are already seated “in heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Eph. 2:6). They belong to eternity, and they are free from the tyranny of time.

But notice the second respect in which Christians have a different perspective: “our light affliction.”… Watch what he says. The apostle does not say these [afflictions] are light in and of themselves. That is not what he says at all. What he says is that they become light when contrasted with something else….

The apostle Paul has a picture. Do you see it? Here he is with a table in front of him, and on the table is a balance, a pair of scales. There is a pan on one side and a pan on the other side, and he puts in one pan his toils, troubles, problems, and tribulations. And down goes the pan, with all that unbearable weight. But then he does a most amazing thing. He takes hold of what he calls “a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.”… He puts that on the other side. What happens? Down goes the pan, and that first weight was nothing. He does not say that it was light in and of itself but that when you contrast it with this “far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory” on the other side it becomes nothing….

Here is his secret. He sees into the glory by faith. And having seen that, everything else becomes light, almost trivial. Everything the world has to give means nothing to him now. He knows that all this can be lost in a second. If a hurricane comes, everything goes. In any case, death will put an end to it all. He does not live for that. “The things which are seen are temporal.” Your homes, your cars, your wealth, everything can vanish in a flash. There will be nothing left…. But as for these other things, … we have “an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven” by God for us (1 Pet. 1:4). Let your hurricanes come one after the other, and all together it will make no difference. Let men set off all their bombs in the whole universe at the same time, this inheritance remains solid, durable, everlasting, and eternal. That is the secret. Once you have had a glimpse of this glory, nothing else can depress you, nothing else can alarm you, nothing else can get you down….

[Note then the purpose of such afflictions.] Those afflictions make you look at “the things which are not seen.” So they work for you. They drive you to this glory. They force you to consider it afresh. Far from getting me down, says Paul, they make me more sure of the glory of which I have had a glimpse—“a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.” My dear friends, this has been the secret of the saints throughout the centuries….

The one question for each of us is this: Do we know something about this glory? Do we set our affections upon it? Do we live for it? Do we live in the light of it? Do we seek to know more about it? That is the secret of the Christian….

May God produce in this evil age a body of men and women who can look at this life, which they share with everybody else at the present time, and, when everything goes against them to drive them to despair, can say, “For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.”

How the Nature of God Shapes and Drives the Mission of the Church

[In Let the Nations Be Glad, John Piper writes that worship is the fuel of missions, because “you cannot commend what you do not cherish.” A new book by Daniel Hames and Michael Reeves – God Shines Forth: How the Nature of God Shapes and Drives the Mission of the Church (Crossway, 2022) – elaborates on that idea. Here are some excerpts, with page references – Coty]

Our aim is to set before your eyes God as he truly is: God who is so full of life and goodness that he loves to be known; not as a campaign to impose himself on us or on the world but to give himself and share his own life with the world. (21)

The glory of God is personal: the Father’s radiance is the Son. It is God the Son who comes to be with his people and, in doing so, shines upon us the truth of the Father. (31)

“The love of God does not find but creates that which is pleasing to it.”[Luther] In his love, God gives to us what we need to know him and have fellowship with him. It is all by his grace and does not rely on us in any way…. God truly loves us sinners and has done everything necessary to redeem us and bring us to himself. He is not interested in our intelligence, morality, or abilities so much as our loving trust and reliance on him in his goodness. (45)

The glorious fullness of the living God revealed in Jesus sets him apart from all other gods. His innermost being is a sun of light, life, and warmth, always shining out: radiant and outgoing. Other gods, however, are always pits of grasping neediness. (66)

The human soul is like an open throat. For you to be a “living being” is to be like a newly hatched chick in the nest. Not yet able to fly or hunt for yourself, you open your beak wide and cry out for the provision of your parents. You are created to desire and crave—and to have poured into you from outside—life and sustenance, whether physical or spiritual. For this reason, the very soul of a person can “thirst for God” like a deer panting for water (Ps. 42:2) or a man in a “dry and weary land where there is no water” (Ps. 63:1). To be human is to be a thirsting and hungry throat: to rely on, receive from, and eat and drink from the living God. The Lord has made us this way to show that he alone is the source of life and that we must go to him for it. (69-70)

When we set our hearts and hopes on anything that is not the living God, we are thrown back on ourselves. Gods that cannot speak will need us to find words. Gods that cannot carry us will need us to pick ourselves up. Gods that cannot freely love will need us to make ourselves loveable. Whether our god is reputation, possessions, or relationships, we will be let down. Exhausting our own supplies, and with no supernatural help from such non-Gods as these, we will become as demanding and oppressive as they appear to us. (71)

Having turned away from the God of glorious fullness [in the Fall], [humanity] condemned themselves to chase the fullness they now lacked in created things that could never meet their needs and desires…. Eve thought that eating the fruit would make her “like God”—something more than she already was. Yet, in the eating, she and her husband became far less than they were. They had, of course, been created to be like God in the first place, but now, heeding the whisper of the serpent, they were quite unlike God…. How the mighty had fallen! This was a fall not only from moral innocence and purity but from fullness and glory (75-76)

Given all we have seen, it is no wonder that our culture is overrun with issues surrounding identity. Since the garden, we do not participate in the fullness of God’s life, his image in us has been vandalized, and we are consumed with self-love. Sinners do not know who, why, or what they are. Many people want to improve themselves but simply do not know what “mended” or whole people would look like. Sensing our brokenness, we make wild stabs at solutions: political activism, radical moral codes, mindfulness, self-improvement, dieting fads, and so on. Increasingly, self-assertion is seen as the key to real happiness, and so, in the brave quest for “authenticity,” almost anything is to be applauded and honored. We recognize that some do not consider themselves beautiful, some are compelled to lie in their job applications, and others feel ill at ease with their biological sex. The answer to all this, we are led to believe, is to look in the mirror and to reach deep within to retrieve our “true self,” increasingly accept it, and let it shine. However quirky, socially unacceptable, or controversial our actions, we are encouraged to be “true to ourselves,” and those who do so most tenaciously are lionized. “You do you,” says the world. This self-assertion is a kind of mission, but one driven by the empty self and not by the glorious God of heaven. It reaches out into the world not to give but to take. Ours is a society utterly persuaded by this lie and largely unable to see the truth: all the talk of looking within and finding “it” within yourself will never solve the problem, because that is the problem. We are simply not designed for incurvature. (85-86)

Evangelism is, by definition, the good news of Christ, not only a warning about the last day. When it comes to motivating Christians to mission, the gospel that moves the missionary must be the same one he or she expects to win the hearts of the lost. If we burden Christians with the guilt of abandoning people to hell, it will be the message of guilt and hell they will pass on, rather than the message of the Savior of sinners and conqueror of hell. Jesus Christ will not be the jewel of the gospel they tell, but only the means to escape a terrible end. Not only this, but the resulting converts will have been motivated by their preexisting instinct for self-preservation. Disciples who are won not by the glory of the Lord to repentance and faith but by an appeal to their own well-being will continue in exactly the same direction. Their newfound faith will be more about themselves than about Christ. (110)

We may find ourselves emphasizing themes of the gospel like “grace” or “heaven” but not explicitly holding out Christ as the gift and as the treasure of heaven. We may offer the world the hope of transformed lives, healed hurts, and renewed communities, but make Jesus the means to these things rather than the center of them all. These things are blessings of the gospel, but if they are elevated to become its center and our focus, they will become nothing more than substitute gods. (113)

[Quoting Luther] “It is right to call the word of the minister and preacher which he preaches God’s word, for the office is not the minister’s and the preacher’s, but God’s; and the word that he preaches is likewise not the minister’s and preacher’s, but God’s.”… This could not be more astounding. In the word of God, even when it is spoken by fallible and sinful humans, God truly gives himself. This means that in our proclamation of Christ in sermons, evangelistic messages, and even conversations about the gospel, Christ the Word is present in power. God is speaking his own Word; God is enlightening with his own light; God is offering himself to those who hear. (116-117)

If God seems to us to be empty and needy, we will serve him with empty hearts, finally taking what we need from the world rather than freely blessing it. What we truly worship and cherish will, for good or ill, be revealed in our mission. It is possible to look completely theologically orthodox while doing this kind of mission. We may doggedly cling to the inerrancy of Scripture, the uniqueness of Christ, the doctrine of hell, and substitutionary atonement while—all the while—exposing the world to an undelightful God. The God we know—or think we know—is the God we will show to the world. If we ourselves do not constantly revel in his free justification of sinners, his self-giving love, and his Son poured out to death for us while we were still his enemies, then we will be ghostly, unhappy Christians holding out a black hole of a god to people already dying. (123)

[For those who go out with the gospel today,] considering the contours of the biblical narrative of God’s mission is of great value. Knowing the history of the church’s missionary efforts is inspiring. Understanding the latest theory and literature in missiology is enriching. But beneath all these is the irreplaceable foundation of knowing and enjoying God. (131)

God’s plan for “the coming ages” is not to surprise us with a glory other than his Son’s but to take us ever deeper into “the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus” (Eph. 2:7). In other words, in the gospel’s promised future, we will eternally enjoy the very glory that fuels our lives and mission today. (144)

Since we are sure of our future in the eternal embrace of Jesus Christ, we are people of hope. In our mission today, we invite the sinful, broken, and empty not to the hope of “heaven” as an ethereal afterlife but to the beauty, fullness, and glory of the Lamb who was slain for us. His delight is to fill his people with joy in him both now and forever. (145)

The cross is not simply the mechanism by which we receive a selection box of blessings of the new creation: the cross shows us exactly what sort of blessing this is. For the glory of God that will fill the earth at the end is the same glory we see in the death of Jesus. Specifically, the self-giving glory of the cross is the key to understanding the glory that is to come. (148-149)

The future we have to offer to our friends and neighbors is a world of unshakeable, unquenchable love. Can you imagine a life where you know, without any creeping anxiety, that you are perfectly and totally loved by God? Where you love him in return without any whisper of shame or inadequacy? A life where you are entirely secure in the love of those around you and are able to love them all without feeling exposed or vulnerable? Where you love people with such a generous freedom that you yourself only become more open and lovely? This is life in the glory of God and the light of the Lamb who was slain. (157)

The church’s mission is shaped and driven by the very nature of our God. All that we know of him, however limited by our present ignorance and sin, fills us with joy. Yet our hope of knowing him fully in the age to come can only increase our delight and anticipation, propelling us out into the world in overwhelmed gladness. How can we leave our friends, families, and colleagues in ignorance of the Lord whose purpose for all things is so good? Knowing his love that has reached out to us—and will one day reach out and fill all the world—what else can we do but reach out with that same love today? Gazing on the glory of the Lamb who was slain for us, and knowing that this is the glory that will shine in all the world, we may well sing with Wesley, ’Tis all my business here below to cry, “Behold the Lamb!” (160)

All Are One in Christ Jesus

[Small groups are one way we live out and express the unity we have in Jesus. As we encourage each of you to become part of a small group this fall, consider this devotion on Galatians 3:28, based on a sermon preached in 2007. You can listen to the audio of that sermon via this link.]

When Beth and I joined Nairobi Baptist Church in Kenya in the summer of 1983. we became part of a small group led by Som Dass, chairman of the elders and a Kenyan of South Asian origin. This was quite a different group from any we had been a part of previously. It was incredibly diverse:

  • Black Africans, White Africans, Asian Africans;
  • Kenyans, Zimbabweans, Ghanaians, Ugandans, Australians, Brits, and us (the only Americans);
  • Those who had grown up Anglican, Baptist, Catholic, Pentecostal, and animist;
  • Empty-nesters in their 60s, parents with teens, parents with young kids, and us, the youngest (we were 25 and 27, and Beth was pregnant with our first).

In other words: A group of people who would never have come together for any other reason – except that we were one in Christ. Underline that: NOTHING ELSE would have brought those people together. We had NOTHING in common – except Jesus Christ.

Over the 18 months we were part of that small group, we developed friendships, becoming close in a number of ways. But our unity in Christ predated our friendship. There was a supernatural unity forged by the Holy Spirit.

Being part of that group was a privilege. A tremendous privilege: To see the unity in diversity that IS the church. We were one. With all our differences, we were one body.

This is what our text describes: A people of incredible diversity united in Christ, made one in Christ:

“But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” (Galatians 3:25-28).

We are all sons of God through faith. We are all one in Christ Jesus, having all been baptized by the Holy Spirit, having all put on Christ, having all become sons of God and thus heirs of Him. This is central to the Gospel.

As amazing as this truth is to us today, it was even more amazing when Paul wrote Galatians. For at that time, many Greek men would thank the gods that they had been born a human and not a beast, a Greek and not a barbarian, a free man and not a slave, and male rather than female.

In contrast, Paul says: Whether you are Jew, Greek, barbarian, slave, free, male, or female: If you have faith in Christ, you are blessed in Him and ONE with all believers.

But what does it mean to be one?

This verse has been a frequent point of controversy in recent years, especially with regard to gender issues. We thus need to consider both what this verse does NOT mean AND what it means.

“One in Christ” Does Not Mean:

First, being one in Christ does not mean that we abolish all distinctions

There is not a blending of all races resulting in some amalgamation of them all. In Christ we are one – even as we maintain distinctions. For in the eternal state we maintain our ethnic identities:

“a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb” (Revelation 7:9)

How did John know they were from different tribes and nations? They maintained their distinctions! They differed from each other! They were ONE, they were a unity – but they were a unity made up of great diversity.

Christ does not abolish our distinctions

Second, being one in Christ does not mean that we abolish all roles

In recent years, this verse has been used by some to argue that there should be no role differences between men and women: “Look! The verse says, ‘There is no male and female.’ So must have the same roles in marriage and in the church.”

But this verse does not discuss roles in society or even roles in the church. Paul addresses those topics elsewhere, and is clear: Ephesians 5 teaches that husband and wife are one, and, within that unity, that there is biblical headship and submission. Similarly, 1 Timothy 2 teaches that within the unity that is ours in Christ, there is an authority structure in the church.

Third, being one in Christ does not necessarily mean we feel close to each other

Feeling close to each other is good, is biblical, is indeed something to strive for. But Paul doesn’t say, “You will all feel like you are one in Christ Jesus.” He doesn’t say, “You groups who have hated each other now will never have a dispute.” Indeed, in the New Testament we see strife on occasions between different cultural groups (for example, Galatians 2 and Acts 6).

Instead, diversity in culture leads to diversity of expectations for one another that can lead to tension and friction. There are times we are in fact one when we don’t feel like we are one. But the absence of feelings does not negate the unity the God has created in Christ.

Finally, being one in Christ does not mean we are one with every person who calls himself a Christian

As Galatians 3:26 says, we are sons of God through faith. And this isn’t just being in some general sense a “person of faith,” or even saying, “Lord, Lord” to Jesus. This is faith in the Christ of the Gospel: A holy God created man for His glory. Yet man failed to live up to that purpose. Instead we despised God, seeking joy and satisfaction elsewhere. But God sent His Son Jesus to die on the cross to pay the penalty for our sins. And the benefits of that death are available to all who respond in faith, saying, “I deserve Your punishment. Save me by the blood of Christ, my only hope.”

Anyone who doesn’t believe that is not in Christ, and is not one with believers – regardless of what label they might put on themselves.

Remember, throughout the book of Galatians Paul is arguing against his opponents who are preaching another gospel – which is no gospel at all. His opponents call themselves Christians. But Paul says that “gospel” does not lead to salvation. Paul even says those who preach such a false gospel are accursed. So surely Paul is not saying, “It doesn’t matter what you believe; just be sincere, have faith, and then you will be one in Christ Jesus.”

“One in Christ” means:

Here are five implications of our being one in Christ. We’ll begin with the flip side of the previous point:

First, being one in Christ means we are one across some differences in doctrine

All are one who are in Christ, who are saved by grace through faith in Christ. Thus we are one – whether we feel like it or not – with some with whom we have disagreements about important matters. Matters such as: baptism, the Lord’s Supper, election, gifts of the Holy Spirit, church polity, and many others. On some of these issues, we may end up separated organizationally. But we can still be one in Christ across organized churches.

The final point above stressed the need to avoid the error of ecumenism, thinking doctrine doesn’t matter. This point stresses the need to avoid the error of fundamentalism, exalting relatively minor points of doctrine to the point of division.

John Newton addressed this beautifully in a letter to a friend engaged in doctrinal controversy:

“If you account him a believer, though greatly mistaken in the subject of debate between you, the words of David to Joab concerning Absalom, are very applicable: “Deal gently with him for my sake.” The Lord loves him and bears with him; therefore you must not despise him, or treat him harshly. The Lord bears with you likewise, and expects that you should show tenderness to others, from a sense of the much forgiveness you need yourself. In a little while you will meet in heaven; he will then be dearer to you than the nearest friend you have upon earth is to you now. Anticipate that period in your thoughts; and though you may find it necessary to oppose his errors, view him personally as a kindred soul, with whom you are to be happy in Christ forever.”

Second, being One in Christ means there are no “Lone Ranger” Christians

Remember the legend of the Lone Ranger: A man in the wild West, outside the community, on his own, who rides into town to deal with evil people – and then disappears, once again isolated.

Some Christians think of salvation in those terms: “God saved me! Hallelujah! I have Him, so I don’t need anyone else.” Yes, God saved you as an individual – but He saved you IN CHRIST. He made you ONE IN CHRIST with all other genuine believers. You are reconciled to God in Christ AND in Christ you are put in relationship to other believers. As Paul says in 1 Corinthians 12:20-21

“As it is, there are many parts, yet one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I have no need of you,’ nor again the head to the feet, ‘I have no need of you.'”

Third, being one in Christ means we all have equal access to God

In the world around us, access to desired goods and services is not equal. Whether you have access to good health care, good jobs, good housing, and a good education depends on the country you are born in as well as your family, your language, and your race. Or consider acceptance into a social group. Often we must wear certain clothes, speak a certain lingo, be of a certain age, style our hair in a certain way, or we are not accepted. Not cool. Not cultured.

Most religions think of access to God in the same way: We only have access if we are of a certain ethnicity or if we behave in a certain way.

But Paul says: Everyone has access to God through faith in Jesus Christ! There is no distinction!

  • Jew or Gentile, the message is the same: Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved
  • Slave or free, the message is the same: Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved
  • Male or female, the message is the same: Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved

No group, no individual, has an inside track to God. All come the same way: Humbly, in repentance.

Fourth, being one in Christ means there is no difference in our position before God

We’ve just discussed our access to God. Access has to do with how we initially come into a relationship with God. This point – our position – has to do with our status once we are in relationship to Him.

Think of it this way: On an international flight, passengers are divided into coach, business class and first class.

  • In coach, passengers are crammed together, the seats barely recline, luggage is stuffed around your feet, and the person seated next to you may end up sleeping on your shoulder.
  • In business class, there are wider seats, more recline, space for luggage, and better food.
  • In first class, the seats fully recline, the food is excellent, and the flight attendants pamper you.

All passengers are on the same airplane. Yet their positions differ considerably.

Not so in our relationship to God. There are no first class Christians or coach Christians. Oh, we have different roles, responsibilities, and gifts within the church. But our position before God is the same: We are saved by grace through faith; we are in Christ; we are heirs of God. The benefits we reap come from Christ’s righteousness, not ours; our position is dependent on His work, not ours. That’s why there is no difference in position: His merit is credited to all who are in Him. So there is no difference in our position before God.

Finally, being one in Christ means we are really one in Christ

That is: our essential unity does not depend on our behavior. We are really one– whether we live it out or not.

  • Paul does not say: “There should be neither Jew nor Gentile.” He says, “There is neither Jew nor Gentile.”
  • He does not say, “There should be neither slave nor free.” He says, “There is neither slave nor free.”
  • He does not say, “Aim to be one in Christ.” He says, “You are all one in Christ.”

This is a central point in Galatians: Salvation is not about you living up to a set of rules, becoming good enough on your own to earn the privilege of entering God’s presence. Salvation is about being in Christ, having the Holy Spirit in you. And if that has happened – you are one with all other believers.

So in conclusion, let’s ask:

Do you live as One?

On the basis of the spiritual unity that is really ours, Scripture commands us to act like we are one: “You are One – so live like it!”

So I ask you: Among believers:

  • Do you live as one with regard to race? When you meet another believer, are you equally likely to invite that person into your home, regardless of race?
  • Do you live as one with regard to economic status? When you meet another believer, are you equally likely to invite that person into your home, regardless of dress, of employment, of class?
  • Do you live as one with regard to country of origin? When you meet another believer, are you equally likely to invite that person into your home, regardless of native country?

Or ask that question with respect to age, or physical fitness, or music preferences.

Broaden the idea now:

Do you care about your brothers and sisters in Christ – those who are one with you in Christ – around the world? Do you care about those who suffer from war, disease, and persecution? Do you live as if you are one with them?

Brothers and sisters: The unity in Christ we have in diversity is beautiful, wrought by God for His glory. You are living that out – live it out more and more – through small groups and in thousands of other ways.

We are one in Jesus – by His grace, may we live like it.

 

A Faithful Salvation: Crying Out to God

 

The book of Judges provides for us both good and bad examples of how God’s people respond to him. We see a people who are now in the land God promised their forefathers but they are surrounded by their enemies and are worshipping other gods. The people of Israel begin to disobey God by making covenants with their enemies, enslaving the inhabitants and worshipping false idols (Judges 1:27-2:11). God had commanded them to fully possess the land so they could worship him free from fear or compromise. Because they did not trust God’s strength they fell into a cycle of idolatry that frankly makes the book of Judges exhausting to read.

The people cycle through disobedience, disapproval, and distress over and over. They disobey; God disapproves; He then shows that disapproval by causing them distress. But because God is faithful to His promise never to forsake them (Deuteronomy 31:6-8) he continues to deliver them despite their disobedience. His deliverance is marked by their crying out to him. We should respond to God similarly when we are in distress for, in Jesus, we have a similar promise (Matthew 6:25-34).

Note the cycle in the following examples:

“And the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. They forgot the Lord their God and served the Baals and the Asheroth. Therefore the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he sold them into the hand of Cushan-rishathaim king of Mesopotamia. And the people of Israel served Cushan-rishathaim eight years. But when the people of Israel cried out to the Lord, the Lord raised up a deliverer for the people of Israel, who saved them, Othniel the son of Kenaz, Caleb’s younger brother.” (Judges 3:7-9, emphasis added)

“And the people of Israel again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord after Ehud died. And the Lord sold them into the hand of Jabin king of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor. The commander of his army was Sisera, who lived in Harosheth-hagoyim. Then the people of Israel cried out to the Lord for help, for he had 900 chariots of iron and he oppressed the people of Israel cruelly for twenty years.” (Judges 4:1-3, emphasis added)

“The people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord gave them into the hand of Midian seven years…. And Israel was brought very low because of Midian. And the people of Israel cried out for help to the Lord. When the people of Israel cried out to the Lord on account of the Midianites, the Lord sent a prophet to the people of Israel. And he said to them, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: I led you up from Egypt and brought you out of the house of slavery.” (Judges 6:1, 6-8, emphasis added)

The lesson for us is clear. We should cry out to God for help even when our troubles result from our own disobedience. Crying out to God for help when we are in distress not only shows our faith that he is able to bring relief but also glorifies God’s compassion for us in Jesus. You don’t ask for help from those who are either unwilling or unable to provide it. Israel cries out to God and in every instance he responds to their need by saving them from enemies. Their consistent failure to trust God and obey his commands leads to their distress; their crying out to Him then leads to God’s deliverance.

We should learn to trust God and so follow his commands. When we don’t exercise such faith, however, we have a subsequent opportunity to exercise faith: Faith that he is willing and able to save us. We shouldn’t pair our lack of faith in God’s strength on the front end, leading our disobedience, with a lack of faith in God’s mercy or compassion when we are dealing with the consequences of our sin. Let us aim, first, to obey him. Then, when we fail, may we trust that for those in Jesus he always exercises mercy and compassion. He will bring us to his heavenly Kingdom.

 

[This devotion elaborates on points made in the August 21 sermon. The audio of that sermon will be available shortly at this link.]