Monthly Archives: March 2014

We Choose Our Destiny

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WE CHOOSE OUR DESTINY 

“‘If anyone hears my words but does not keep them, I do not judge that person. For I did not come to judge the world but to save the world.

“‘There is a judge for the one who rejects me and does not accept my words; the very words I have spoken will condemn him at the last day. For I did not speak on my own, but the Father who sent me commanded me to say all that I have spoken. I know that His command leads to eternal life. So whatever I say is just what the Father has told me to say.'” John 12:47-50 NIV.

Could Jesus say any more clearly how intimately He related to the Father? His claim to oneness with the Father was spelled out and lived out in everything He said and did.

As human beings and according to the way we humans think, we have the mistaken idea that God will be our accuser when we stand before Him at the end of time. And yet the Bible teaches us that it is the devil, not God who is the accuser. We need to get rid of the notion that God will demand, ‘Why did you do this?’ or ‘Why did you do that?’ Enshrined in His gift of free will is the very judgment our choices will bring by the consequences of our choices.

There is a tendency in us to blame God when the choices we make bring the consequences we don’t like. Is there any logic in the outburst of the young girl, ‘Why did God allow this to happen?’ when her promiscuous behaviour produces either an unwanted pregnancy or worse? Did God tell her to sleep around? Did He force her to go to bed with every man she dates?

And when she decides to get rid of “the products of conception” and then faces the shame, guilt and condemnation of a conscience she cannot silence, is it God’s fault that she feels so bad? Did He tell her to get an abortion? Did He hide the truth from her until the deed was done and then beat her with the consequences?

The difference between God’s way and the devil’s modus operandi is this: God speaks the truth and does not hide the unpleasant consequences of our disobedience. He makes His requirements clear and warns us what will happen if we choose the path of self-will. He offers His grace but we must first make the choice to obey Him.

Satan, on the other hand, makes disobedience appealing. He lures us with self-gratification; he insists that it’s okay to satisfy our fleshly appetites now; he lies about the consequences; he waits until we have transgressed the boundaries and then beats us with condemnation. ‘You stupid fool! Look what you’ve done. You are a wicked person. You don’t deserve to live.’

Those who believe in Jesus can live life one of two ways. It all depends on whether or not we have embraced the truth of God’s word. We can be propelled into the future by our past, ashamed, apologetic, never knowing whether we have done enough to satisfy God’s requirements, acting like a slave who is bound to his master by rules and never able to accept God’s embrace and His affirmation, ‘My son; my daughter.’

On the other hand, we can be drawn into our future by God’s promises — believing the truth of His word and living up to who He says we are. He has cancelled our debt, and the written law with its demands and requirements. He knew we could never keep His law perfectly. He paid our unpayable debt, past, present and future and received us back into His family as greatly blessed, deeply loved and highly favoured sons and daughters.

He gave us the Spirit of sonship. We are no longer slaves but sons. We have all the privileges of sons. There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. No condemnation! No guilt! No shame! No barriers! Every promise we believe and embrace draws us nearer to who we really are.

God has made us responsible for our own judgment. When we stand before Him, what will our lives reveal? Obedience to His word and eternal life or rejection of what He said and an eternity of consequences we brought on ourselves because we thought we knew better?

It’s up to us to decide.

Faith Is The Glue

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FAITH IS THE GLUE 

“Yet at the same time many even among the leaders believed in Him. But because of the Pharisees they would not openly acknowledge their faith for fear they would be put out of the synagogue, for they loved human praise more than the praise of God.

“Then Jesus cried out, ‘Whoever believes in me does not believe in me only, but in the one who sent me. The one who looks at me is seeing the one who sent me. I have come into the world as a light so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness.'” John 12:42-46 NIV.

Secret believers! Held captive by fear!

This is the power of false religion. Because religion has its origin in the human mind, it needs humans to defend it and force to keep people from leaving when they know the truth; force, the only way humans know how to exercise power. Fear holds people in bondage and force protects their loyalty.

These religious leaders were bound by the fear of what their colleagues would do to them if they followed Jesus. Is it possible to believe but not to follow? Jesus said not. To follow Him means to take up the cross. Anyone who carried a cross was on the way to death. A disciple is one who has embraced his rabbi, his rabbi’s yoke, and everything his rabbi stands for. He is no longer his own person. He has died. These Jewish leaders, whom John said believed in Him, had not done that. They were afraid.

But fear and force cannot bind the conscience when it is convinced of the truth. How was it that the apostles and many thousands after them, were willing to lay down their lives rather than deny that Jesus is Lord? Did He threaten them with death if they refused to acknowledge Him? Did He destroy Peter for denying him with oaths and curses? What changed cowering men into courageous witnesses? The resurrection convinced them that He was the Son of God and not even death could scare them into submission to the Roman authorities or the bullying religious leaders.

But the reward for believing in Jesus far outweighs the cost! There is a revelation of the face of the Father in the face of Jesus that is reserved for those who recognize and embrace the truth that He and the Father are one.

Throughout the history of His people, Jesus had dealings with them in many different ways. He met Moses through the miracle of a desert bush that burned with an unearthly fire but was not consumed and revealed His name to him on the mountain. He revealed His glory in dreams and visions to His prophets, men like Isaiah and Ezekiel; He gave His personal protection to Daniel in the den of lions and his three colleagues in Nebuchadnezzar’s fire; He spoke in an audible voice to Abraham and Jacob and even wrestled with Jacob until he prevailed and became a prince with God.  But they never saw His face.

Now He was here on earth in person, in human form so that all men might see the face of God in Him; but only those who believed the truth of who He was would recognize in Him the nature of the Father He represented. To some He was a blasphemer; to others at best a prophet or just a good man. Only to those who believed in Him was He the face of the Father.

John lived and walked with Him for three and a half years. To him, Jesus was the Word become flesh…”We have seen His glory, the glory of the one and only Son, full of grace and truth.” John 1:14. Paul met Him on the Damascus road and, from then on He was, to him “the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.” Colossians 1:15. To the unknown writer to the Hebrews He was “the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of His being…” Hebrews 1:3.

How did Jesus respond to Philip’s request, ‘”Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us’? “Jesus answered, ‘Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.'” John 14:8, 9.

The miracle is that Jesus is just Jesus, good man, prophet perhaps, until faith opens the eyes and the heart sees Him as the Son of God and a mirror image of the Father. This is the glue that binds us to Him. We are not held to loyalty by fear or threats of death. To believe in Him is to see Him and to see Him is to love Him. “There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.” 1 John 4:18 NIV.

Whose Fault Is it?

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WHOSE FAULT IS IT?

“Even after Jesus had performed so many signs in their presence, they still would not believe in Him.

This was to fulfil the word of Isaiah the prophet: “Lord, who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?”

For this reason they could not believe because, as Isaiah says elsewhere: “He has blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts, so that they can neither see with their eyes, nor understand with their hearts, nor turn — and I would heal them.”

Isaiah said this because He saw Jesus’ glory and spoke about Him.” John 12:37-41 NIV.

This is John’s commentary on the ways of God.

Perhaps, after years of reflection on the life of the Master whom he had followed for three and a half years, heard, watched and puzzled over during the years of His public ministry, grieved over when He died and rejoiced over when He rose again, John began to understand the truths of the sacred Book he had come to love. The pieces of the puzzle were fitting together as he studied and meditated on the Scriptures and, with the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit, understanding began to grow.

Why were the Jews so stubborn in their unbelief? The many miracles that Jesus had done, which John called “signs”, had failed to convince them that He was their Messiah. No matter what He said or did, they remained unmoved. Like their ancestors, they resisted God’s love, rebelled against His covenant and rejected Him as their God, preferring their own ways in spite of the disasters it had brought on them, to the ways of God which would have brought them peace.

John realized that the prophet Isaiah had spoken of this phenomenon which was evident in the history of his people from the time that they were delivered from slavery in Egypt right up to his day. It was not God who had forced them to choose the way of disobedience. It was their choice, time after time, which led them down the path of war, destruction and exile.

How significant that John identified the Lord, whom Isaiah had seen in a vision while he was in the temple grieving the death of the king Uzziah, as Jesus, the second person of the Trinity! Throughout the Old Testament, it was the pre-incarnate Jesus, sometimes identified as “the angel of the Lord” and sometimes as God Himself, who had direct dealings with His people. Even the patriarch Abraham had glimpsed the Messiah by faith and rejoiced; and Moses had met Him at the burning bush and was introduced to Him as the “I AM”.

“Your father Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day; he saw it and was glad.” “You are not fifty years old,” they said to Him, “and you have seen Abraham!” “Very truly I tell you,” Jesus answered, “before Abraham was born, I AM!” John 8:57, 58 NIV.

The same Jesus whom their forebears had rejected then was the one they rejected now even though He had come in person to reveal the true nature of the Father. Like Pharaoh who had been given every opportunity to acknowledge the Hebrews’ God and submit to Him but persisted in disobeying until God hardened his heart, these people were in the same boat. Their hardness of heart was the consequence of their own choice. God was simply confirming in their hearts what they wanted.

This is a sobering fact. God gave and honours every person’s right to choose. Even if we choose to believe lies and follow the way of death, He will continue to confront us with the truth but He will not force us to choose against our will. We choose our own path and our own destiny even if it is to walk away from God and be separated from Him forever.

It  grieves His heart to see people going to their own doom because He has created us for better things but He will not violate the most priceless but risky gift He gave to mankind. It is up to us to heed His word, believe the truth and submit to His love — but if we don’t, He will confirm our choice so that it will be impossible in the end to change our minds.

And we will have no one to blame but ourselves.

Argue Or Acknowledge

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ARGUE OR ACKNOWLEDGE 

“The crowd spoke up, ‘We have heard from the Law that the Messiah will remain forever, so how can you say, “The Son of Man must be lifted up”?  Who is this “Son of Man”?’ Then Jesus told them, ‘You are going to have the light a little while longer. Walk while you have the light, before darkness overtakes you. Whoever walks in the dark does not know where he is going.

“Believe in the light while you have the light, that you may become children of light.’ When He had finished speaking, Jesus left and hid Himself from them.” John 12:34-36 NIV.

As the time drew nearer for Jesus to be crucified, His pleas to His people became more urgent. To His disciples He would give the assurance that the Holy Spirit would replace Him when He left. They would still have someone exactly like Him who would continue to instruct and lead them from within. But for those who were on the periphery, watching from afar and questioning everything He told them, there would no longer be His physical presence to show them the true nature of the Father.

Jesus did not answer their question. They had had more than enough evidence from His words and works to convince them that He was the Son of Man of whom He had spoken. Like their spiritual leaders, their skeptical attitude kept them from acknowledging Him as their Messiah.

But it was much more than giving intellectual assent to the evidence. To believe meant to commit to Him and to reproduce in their own lives what He was teaching and modelling.

John had begun his gospel with a commentary on Genesis 1. When God introduced light to a dark and formless world, it was first the light of truth embodied in Jesus, the second person of the Trinity that entered the world before He created the heavenly lights. He assigned the earth to Jesus to provide enlightenment to the human beings He was about to create in His image to know and have fellowship with Him.

Satan had already been abolished to the earth along with his fallen angel companions because of his bid to take over the throne of God. To create and place humans in an environment where Satan had influence was to throw them to the wolves unless they had the presence of God with them in the person of Jesus to counter the devil’s work.

“God is light; in Him there is no darkness at all.” 1 John 1:5b. There is nothing selfish, devious or shady about Him. He is everything that is kind, merciful, loving and generous. He is holy, utterly separate from anything wicked or imperfect. His plans and intentions for all mankind are only for good. Everything He does is intended to draw us towards Him and the transform us to be like Him.

Satan is everything that is opposite to God. Like darkness which is the absence of light, he is empty of everything that God is. His attitude and actions are all wicked and selfish. He is heading towards destruction and everything he does is designed to draw us towards him so that we can share in his eternal judgment and doom.

Jesus’ heart cry was always, ‘Believe in me,’ because faith in Him would effect a transfer from the power and influence of the selfishness and greed with which the human race was born to the realm of God’s rule where life would be lived in the light of His presence and in the supernatural power of His Spirit.

There was little time left to hear from the lips of Jesus the words that would bring them the hope of eternal life. Instead of arguing and contradicting Him, He urged them to heed and believe Him so that they could escape from the treadmill of self-centred living which was eroding away their opportunity to enter into the real life He was offering them — life that was enriched and fulfilled by loving God and caring for those who could not care for themselves.

The clock was ticking; the countdown had begun. In a few days death would remove Him from them. They would no longer see Him. Now was the time to respond or they might never have the opportunity again.

A Firstfruit Offering

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A FIRSTFRUIT OFFERING 

“The crowd that was there and heard it said it thundered; others said an angel had spoken to Him. Jesus said, ‘This voice was for your benefit, not mine. Now is the time for judgment on this world; now the prince of this world will be driven out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself. He said this to show the kind of death He was going to die.” John 12:29-33.

The Jewish Feasts are a symbolic display of Messianic history. Leviticus 23 records God’s instruction for the celebration of eight feasts every year, one weekly, four spring and three autumn festivals at set times. They were also connected to the annual harvest and the celebration of God’s goodness in providing for their physical needs. According to the ancient rabbis, Messiah would fulfil each feast in turn at His first and second comings.

Sabbath was the weekly feast which had a twofold purpose; it was a reminder that God rested after the completion of His great work of creation, and the gift of a day of rest to remind His people that they were human “beings”, not human “doings”.

Passover celebrated God’s deliverance of His people from slavery in Egypt. They were protected from the angel of death who “passed over” the land, killing the firstborn in every household that was not protected by the blood of a lamb on the door frames of their houses.

The Feasts of Passover, Unleavened Bread and Firstfruits all took place over a period of eight days, symbolizing deliverance from the power of sin, removal of sin symbolized by yeast and the gathering in of the firstfruits of the harvest. Pentecost took place fifty days after Passover and was a celebration of the ingathering of the completed harvest.

It was to the fulfilment of the Feast of Firsfruits to which Jesus was referring when He spoke of being “lifted up”. He would be lifted up on a cross to die as an offering of atonement for the sin of the world at three o’clock in the afternoon; the very moment when the high priest lifted the knife to kill the first Passover Lamb. His death would not only atone for the sin of all mankind; it would also remove sin’s impurity and uncleanness like the removal of leaven from the camp.

Just as the firstborn son in every Jewish family and the firstborn of all the flocks and herds belonged to God, so the firstfruits of the harvest were His and were to be offered to Him in a prescribed manner. They were to be “lifted up” to God as an offering – terumah – and placed in the hands of the high priest to feed him and his family. This terumah sanctified the rest of the harvest and ensured God’s blessing on the crop.

Just as Jesus fulfilled Passover and Unleavened Bread, so He fulfilled the Festival of Firstfuits. He offered Himself as a terumah by being “lifted up” on the cross and by placing Himself into the hands of His Father — His “high priest” — since, for Jesus, there was no one higher than God.

“It was now about noon, and darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon, for the sun stopped shining. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two. Jesus called out with a loud voice, ‘Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.’ When He had said this, He breathed His last.” Luke 23:44-46 NIV.

The Apostle Paul explains the significance of this terumah in his magnificent exposition of the resurrection.

“But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection came also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. But each in turn; Christ, the firstfruits; then, when He comes, those who belong to Him.” 1 Corinthians 15:20-23 NIV.

Because Jesus gave Himself both as an offering of atonement and a terumah, His resurrection guarantees both the removal of sin and the full harvest of those who are in him and will rise again.  Our hope of resurrection lies in His resurrection because the Father placed His seal of approval on Jesus’ offering by raising Him from the dead. Because we are “in Him”, we shall rise again when He returns to claim His kingdom.

Hallelujah!