Tag Archives: Christ

Christ’s Suffering Made Perfect

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CHRIST’S SUFFERING MADE COMPLETE 

Now I rejoice in what I am suffering for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions, for the sake of His body, the church. I have become its servant by the commission God gave me to present to you the Word of God in its fullness – the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the Lord’s people. (Colossians 1:24-26).

What was Paul talking about? It almost seems as though he was telling the Colossians that Jesus’s suffering for their salvation was not complete – that he, Paul, had to complete His suffering for the salvation of the church. For Paul to mean that is unthinkable. He wrote a whole letter to disprove the teaching of the Judaizers that Gentiles needed to become Jews before they could become Christians. He contended vigorously for the sufficiency of Christ’s death for our salvation.

If that was not what he meant, what did he mean? I am indebted to John Piper for his explanation.

http://www.desiringGod.org/conference-messages/filling-up-what-is-lacking-in-christs-afflictions

Jesus’s suffering on the cross was sufficient for the salvation of the world. There is nothing that needs to be added to what He has done to make us more acceptable to God than we are through Him. To try to add anything is to cancel out grace and put us back where the Jews were, trying to earn God’s salvation through good works or keeping the Law.

However, believers are called to suffer for Christ because, in that way His suffering becomes visible and real to the world. When people are willing to suffer joyfully and even to lay down their lives for Jesus, unbelievers begin to realise that they have a concrete reason for believing in Him. No one would go that far and suffer that much for a lie.

When a minister of the gospel is willing to lay aside his comforts and go to the remotest corners of the earth to carry the gospel to people who have never heard, to do without their comforts and live like they live, they are able to see the love that Jesus had for them, that He came from the Father to give His life for the world.

Paul recognised that Epaphroditus, as a representative of the Philippian church, had come to ‘complete what was lacking’ in their service to him (Philippians 2: 30). They could not all go to him in person, but they could send their representative to help Paul on their behalf. In the process, he became ill and almost died, but that was part of the expression of their love for Paul. Epaphroditus was not acting on his own – the Philippians were ‘in’ him, suffering for them as he ministered to Paul.

In the same way, Paul’s suffering was his way of showing people wherever he went that he was willing to forfeit his ease and comfort and suffer just as Jesus gave up His place and glory in heaven with the Father in order to show His love for them. Jesus’s death on the cross was much more than just a fact of history or a doctrine of the church. It was made real by those who laid down their lives to carry His message to the world.

‘His sufferings are completed in our sufferings because in ours the world sees His, and they have their appointed effect. The suffering love of Christ for sinners is seen in the suffering love of His people for sinners.’ (By John Piper © 2014 Desiring God Foundation. Website: www.desiringGod.org )

Paul knew that suffering was to be part of his calling. Ananias was sent to restore his sight after his encounter with Jesus on the Damascus road and to give him his commission:

. . . The Lord said to Ananias, ‘Go! This man is my chosen instrument to proclaim my name to the Gentiles and their kings and to the people of Israel. I will show him how much he must suffer for my name.’ Acts 9:15, 16.

Whatever form our suffering takes, if it comes to us in the course of our obedience to Jesus, and not the suffering that is part of the fallen world, we are also, in our place of witness, ‘completing what is lacking in the sufferings of Christ.’

SCRIPTURE TAKEN FROM THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

 

To Live Or To Die

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TO LIVE OR TO DIE

“Yes, and I will rejoice, for I know that through your prayers and God’s provision of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, what has happened to me will turn out for my deliverance. I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now, as always, Christ shall be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.” Philippians 1:18b-21.

This man, Paul, continues to amaze me! His concern was not to get out of prison but to have the courage to stand for Jesus whether it meant life or death. He relied on two things, the prayers of his fellow believers, and the Holy Spirit whom God had given to him at his new birth. Paul saw deliverance, not as freedom from imprisonment in Rome but freedom from his own fleshly nature which cowered at the thought of dying a gruesome death.

Prayer is a mystery, isn’t it? Why should the prayers of his brothers and sisters in Philippi make any difference to his attitude? Surely God was with him and the Holy Spirit in him there in Rome. What difference could their prayers make to him, whether he was courageous or cowardly in the face of impending martyrdom? That was his greatest concern. To face the sword or the wild beasts without flinching was more important to him than getting out of prison or staying alive.

Paul would rather die without shame than deny his Lord, and there was every possibility that he would be called on to make the choice of confessing that Caesar was Lord or facing the consequences. And with Nero there was no mercy. He hated Christians so fervently that no torture was too heinous to make them suffer for their loyalty to a Galilean Jew whom the Romans had crucified.

The thought of dying held no terror for Paul. His hope was in Jesus. He had met Him face-to-face on the Damascus road. He knew He was real, alive and with him. He knew that the moment he stepped out of his mortal body, he would be with Him forever and in the glory of the Father’s presence. In fact, he yearned for that day, the day of his release from the flesh, which had been his enemy from birth.

Living in his human, mortal body was a journey – daily dying to the demands of his sinful nature and learning to rely on the Holy Spirit who energised his spirit with the life of Jesus. He used every opportunity to rely on His strength in his human weakness. Paul was dead to himself and alive by the life of Jesus in him but, nevertheless, he found the thought of martyrdom at the hands of Nero daunting, to say the least.

The thought of the prayers of his beloved brothers and sisters in Philippi comforted him. In a way that only God understood, prayer was God’s way of engaging with His people to do His will. Of course He would give Paul the courage and strength to endure, but how much better when His people partnered with Him through prayer. Instead of feeling helpless, they could do something positive to help Paul face his trials with courage and know that, because God was a loving Father to them and to Paul, they could trust Him to do whatever was necessary to give Paul the victory.

Can you imagine life without prayer? What would it be like if we had no way of engaging with God in our suffering and in the suffering of those dear to us? How could we do God’s will if we had no way of communicating with Him? What would we do with our anxieties and fears if we could not cast them on the Lord? How could we express our love to Him and worship Him if we could not draw near to Him? We would not even be able to offload our misgivings and mistrust of Him if we could not talk to Him.

Prayer means a thousand things to us, and God knew that when He invited us to draw near to Him. Prayer is one of the greatest gifts a loving Father could ever give His child. Unlike many human fathers who are either too busy or too indifferent to listen to their children, God is passionate about our coming to Him, so passionate in fact, that He sent His Son to clear the obstacles out of the way so that we can approach Him without fear.

“Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, His body, and since we have a great high priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.” Hebrews 10:19-22.

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

 

It’s All About Him

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IT’S ALL ABOUT HIM

“Brothers and sisters, let me take an example from everyday life. Just as no one can set aside or add to a human covenant that has been duly established, so it is in this case. The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. Scripture does not say, “and to seeds,” meaning many people, but “and to your seed,” meaning one person, who is Christ. What I mean is this: The law, introduced 430 years later, does not set aside the covenant previously established by God and thus do away with the promise. For if the inheritance depends on the law, then it no longer depends on the promise, but God in His grace gave it to Abraham through a promise.” Galatians 3:15-18.

Without going into detail, the Bible clearly teaches that Abraham had four different kinds of “seed”.

1. It stand to reason that all Abraham’s natural-born children were his “seed”, That would include the all descendants of Ishmael and Isaac, even those who were not part of God’s selective history, that is, those who were set aside and not a part of the Jewish nation.

2. God chose Jacob, Abraham’s grandson, to be the father of Abraham’s special, natural seed – the children of Israel. These were the covenant people of God.

3. In Galatians 3:16, Paul narrowed Abraham’s seed down to one person, Jesus Christ, as Abraham’s unique seed because it was only through Him that all the promises God made to Abraham, would be fulfilled.

4. In Galatians 3:29, Paul identified believers as the spiritual seed of Abraham. Since God’s promises are received by faith, and the children of Israel failed to believe God and receive His gifts by grace, He opened the door to the Gentiles to be included in the family of Abraham if they received Jesus by faith. That made them the spiritual children of Abraham.

(www.audiowebman.org/bbc/books/NC/abrahams_seed/chpt_02.htm)

Do you understand, then, why Paul identified Jesus as the unique “seed” of Abraham? The covenant God established at Mount Sinai with the special natural seed of Abraham did not nullify, add to or subtract from His covenant with Abraham (Genesis 15). It was an interim covenant given to His people to show them how to live as His special people, and to teach them how impossible it was to obey Him without the Holy Spirit.

It was God’s intention to give the Holy Spirit back to those who trust in Him because, without the Spirit, people are still dead and unable to hear or communicate with God. The Holy Spirit would be only given when the barrier of sin between God and man had been removed. Only Jesus could remove that barrier by paying sin’s debt on behalf of sinners. Ultimately then, God’s promise to Abraham would be fulfilled through one man, Jesus, the “seed” of Abraham. In Him, all those who believe in Him are His seed by faith. Jesus Himself spoke of being a seed.

“Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But, if it dies, it produces many seeds.” John 12:24.

But Jesus was not just any old seed. He was the seed of Abraham, the offspring of God’s covenant people, the one whom God promised would come to crush the head of Satan.

“I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your offspring (seed), and hers; He will crush your head, and you will strike His heel.” Genesis 3:15.

Jesus was both the seed of the woman (human) and the seed of Abraham (Jewish); he was born of a woman and born into the Jewish nation. He came at a specific time and into a specific culture which had been prepared through God’s covenant with Israel at Mount Sinai to understand the ramifications of sin so that they could understand and appreciate the enormity of God’s grace.

That they failed by rejecting their Messiah was no fault of God’s, but it did open the door for God’s grace in Christ to be given to the whole world. God intended for His people to be the revelation of Himself to the world. It did not happen through His chosen people as a whole, but through a small group, called the Apostles, who went in obedience to His command, and took the message to the world.

Acknowledgement

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

 

Dead, But Alive

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DEAD, BUT ALIVE

“But if, in seeking to be justified in Christ, we Jews find ourselves also among the sinners, doesn’t that mean that Christ promotes sin? If I rebuild what I destroyed, then I really would be a lawbreaker.” Galatians 2:17, 18.

This is quite complicated reasoning. If the Jews who believed in Jesus, no longer meticulously kept all the minute details of the law in order to satisfy God’s righteous requirements, but trusted in Christ’s righteousness given to them through God’s grace, didn’t that mean that Jesus was deliberately causing them to be disobedient to God? Wasn’t Jesus making them “sinners”?

No, quite the opposite! God gave His Son as an atoning sacrifice for sin so that those who believe in Jesus and what He did to restore us to God, no longer need to work for acceptance with God by trying to obey His laws. Jesus fulfilled the law, and then died as though He were a sinner, in our place. To go back to law keeping as a way of satisfying God’s requirements would make us law-breakers because Jesus Himself did away with law-keeping as a way of being acceptable to God. We would be defying God’s instruction and setting up our own way to gain acceptance with Him.

Let’s use an Old Testament illustration. God gave the Israelites a promise. He said He would give them the land of Canaan as an inheritance. When they reached the border of the land. He instructed Moses to send in twelve spies to check it out (Numbers 13:1-3). Ten of the spies came back with a good report of the products of the land but put fear into the hearts of the people by describing the Canaanites as giants whom they could never overcome. They refused to believe God’s promise and incited the people to rebel against God and Moses.

Instead of trusting God and obeying His command, they complained against Him and against their leaders in spite of encouragement from Joshua and Caleb that God would help them overcome the Canaanites. God was angry with them because of their refusal to believe His promise and to take the land. They would not be allowed to enter the land He had promised to them. They would all die in the desert and their children would take possession of Canaan.

When they heard this, they mourned and decided they would go up and fight the Canaanites in spite of God’s instruction that they were not to go because He was not with them. Once again they disobeyed God, went into Canaan and were soundly defeated in battle. They had disobeyed God’s instruction twice – first to go, but they refused, and then not to go, and they went.

God gave His law to His people but they did not obey it. Then He sent Jesus who fulfilled and did away with the law as a way of salvation. Now Peter and his companions were wanting to go back to keeping the law as a way of pleasing God when God had given them Jesus to replace the law. That would make them law-breakers all over again.

“For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God. I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God for, if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!” Galatians 2:19-21.

Paul concluded his discussion with a compelling argument. Once he was dead because of the law; now he was dead to the law. All the law did for him was to reveal just how much of a sinner he was. Through faith in Jesus and the righteousness He gave to Paul, he was now joined to Jesus in a faith union which made him perfectly acceptable to God without having to do anything except trust and obey Jesus.

What was the point of Jesus’ coming to earth and dying on the cross if people could be righteous by their own efforts? For Paul, Jesus was all or nothing. Either Peter and those who were influenced by him, trusted Jesus for acceptance with God or they ignored Jesus and tried to do it on their own. They could not have both.

The same truth applies to us today. We are either joined to Jesus by faith and live our lives in union with Him plus nothing, or we abandon Him altogether and work hard to satisfy God’s holy standards by trying to keep rules. There is no middle road. As soon as we add rules to the mix, we cancel out grace, faith and righteousness and go back to slavery to fear because we will never know whether we have done enough or not.

Jesus said, “Follow me.” That’s all!

Acknowledgement

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

 

Bragging on God

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BRAGGING ON GOD

“Therefore I glory in Christ Jesus in my service to God. I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me in leading the Gentiles to obey God by what I have said and done – by the power of signs and wonders, through the power of the Holy Spirit of God. So from Jerusalem all the way around to Illyricum, I have fully proclaimed the gospel of Christ. It has always been my ambition to preach the gospel where Christ was not known, so that I would not be building on someone else’s foundation. Rather, as it is written, ‘Those who were not told about Him will see, and those who have not heard will understand.'” Romans 15:17-21.

What place is there for boasting in the work of God’s kingdom? Was it right for Paul to boast about his accomplishments?

First of all, let’s look as Paul’s motive. What was he trying to prove? Was he, like the little boy in the nursery rhyme, patting himself on the back and saying, “What a good boy am I?” It could be if we do not take into account what it cost Paul to do what he was doing. The list of hardships he suffered for the sake of the gospel was far more that most of us have ever had to go through, including beatings, shipwreck, imprisonment and persecution at the hands of his own people. What sane person would choose to endure these things unless he were committed to something or Someone much bigger than himself?

Secondly, was Paul taking the credit for what he had done? How could he when he was just a man? His was a partnership with the Holy Spirit where he did the preaching and the Holy Spirit confirmed His word with the power of signs and wonders. Had Paul preached anything other than the truth, he would have been on his own. It was God’s word that was confirmed to be the truth by the miracles that happened.

Strange, isn’t it that Luke said very little in his story about miracles! They were happening, but he did not major on them because they had their place in a much bigger story. The Book of Acts is not primarily about what the apostles accomplished but about a much bigger miracle, the church, beginning and growing in hostile soil and yet flourishing against all odds because it was the work of God, not a new religion started by man.

Thirdly, Paul’s ambition was about serving God, not himself. Oh yes, he had ambitions, but they were not self-seeking, self-exalting plans to make a name for himself. His ambition was to go where no one else had to gone to make Christ known where He was unknown. That meant that Paul had to take risks and travel to the farthest ends of the Roman Empire, but always in the will and under the supervision of the Holy Spirit.

The story of Acts reveals that he was not only ambitious but obedient. He went where the Spirit directed him. On the other hand, he didn’t sit around waiting for detailed marching orders. He made his plans and got on with the job. The Holy Spirit was there to redirect him when He wanted him to move in another direction.

So Paul could brag about his accomplishments with confidence because he was not bragging about himself as much as he was bragging on God. He could take no credit for himself for what had been accomplished. Without the Holy Spirit he was nothing but an empty shell, a mere human with no engine and no GPS.

One thing Luke’s story makes very clear. Paul and his fellow apostles were not in it for what they could get out of it. They had an assignment to complete regardless of the hazards they encountered along the way. It was not about how easy they could make it for themselves, but how faithfully they would carry out their commission until it was completed.

Paul’s words to his young partner, Timothy, at the end of his life are testimony to a job well done, words of confidence and assurance because he had fulfilled his side of the bargain.

“For I am ready to be poured out like a drink offering, and the time of my departure is near. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day – and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for His appearing.” 2 Timothy 4:6, 7.

Another boast? Yes, but a boast based on a life of faithfulness and obedience. What boast is there in saying, “I have done what I was told to do”? He did his duty; that was all. As for him, so for us. We shall receive our full reward if we have done our duty.

Acknowledgement

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.