Tag Archives: God

A Futile Objection

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A FUTILE OBJECTION

“One of you will say to me: ‘Then why does God still blame us? For who is able to resist His will?’ But who are you, a human being, to talk back to God? “Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it, ‘Why did you make me like this’?” Does not the potter have the right to make of the same lump of clay some pottery for special purposes and some for common use? What if God, although choosing to show His wrath and make His power known, bore with great patience the objects of His wrath – prepared for destruction? What if He did this to make the riches of His glory known to the objects of His mercy, whom He prepared in advance for glory, even us whom He also called, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles?” Romans 9:19-24.

“He made me do it!” Ever heard that objection from the mouth of a little kid just caught with his hand in the cookie jar? What a futile objection.

It’s the kind of argument Paul envisaged from someone who was trying to wriggle out of taking responsibility for his wicked actions. “It’s God’s fault,” he insists. “He made me like this.” Really! Like the young girl who finds out she’s pregnant after a one-night stand and whines, “Why did God allow this to happen?” Did God take her by the scruff of the neck and force her into a promiscuous lifestyle?

But is goes deeper than that. As much as we dare not blame God for our sinful behaviour, how can we scrutinise His justice and find fault with Him when we cannot fathom the depths of His nature or understand His ways? Of one thing we can be absolutely certain: God cannot do wrong. If He were able to act unjustly, He would no longer be God and He would not be eternal because injustice is sin which leads to death.

So what exactly is Paul telling us? Firstly, it is God’s prerogative to choose what kind of vessel to make when He begins to mould the clay. The clay is His and so is the choice of design and purpose.

Secondly, He creates each vessel according to His purpose. He always has the bigger picture in mind. He is writing His story – the one that puts His glory on display for the entire universe to see. Every detail must fit into His purpose and every character in the story must play his part in displaying God whether through His wrath or through His mercy.

Thirdly, God always takes into account His gift of free will to every human being. That does not make God subject to our choices but, in a mysterious way that we will never understand this side of heaven, God’s sovereignty overrides even our free will. Yet, at the same time, He holds every person accountable for his choices. He does not make us disobedient, nor does He want us to be disobedient just to carry out His plans but, at the same time, our disobedience is put to good use in the plot of His story! How does that work? I don’t know but God does!

Peter put these two ideas together with great skill on the day of Pentecost when he explained the strange goings-on to the astonished crowd.

“This man was handed over to you by God’s deliberate plan and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put Him to death by nailing Him to the cross.” Acts 2:23.

Here was Peter, placing the responsibility for crucifying Jesus squarely on the shoulders of his hearers, seeing God behind it all and, at the same time, offering them repentance and the opportunity to change and be a part of God’s story! Wow! How is that for a matchless story-line?

How can we marry these two ideas? God creates some vessels for wrath and yet He gives them opportunity to change their minds and waits patiently for them to receive His mercy. But He also knows they will refuse, and He writes them into His story – like Pharaoh… like Judas…! Is He unfair? Is He unjust? No way!

What’s the point? It’s not about pointing fingers at God and demanding “How could you do that to him?” but it’s about falling on your knees before him and weeping in gratitude, “Thank you, Father, for your mercy to me.”

Have you done that?

Acknowledgement

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

 

It’s A Mystery!

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IT’S A MYSTERY!

“What, then, shall we say? Is God unjust? Not at all! For He says to Moses, ‘I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.’

“It does not, therefore, depend on human desire or effort, but on God’s mercy. For Scripture says to Pharaoh, ‘I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.’ Therefore God has mercy on whom He wants to have mercy, and He hardens whom He wants to harden.” Romans 9:14-18.

Now we get to the difficult part. We view God through our human eyes and think that He has no right to do with people whatever He chooses.

Does that mean that God deliberately creates some people to show off His glory by making them wicked and then sending them to hell? The Bible never insinuates that He ever does anything like that. That’s the kind of thing a man-made god, capricious and unpredictable like its creator, would do!

We have to see the picture from God’s perspective. Since our forefather Adam’s decision to disregard God’s instruction and make his own rules, the entire human race has been in a state of rebellion against God, leaving Him no option but to allow the consequences of our rebellion take their course. To be true to His justice, He has to punish sin. His punishment comes in the form of death because death is the result of anything imperfect and corrupt.

God could have left it at that and allowed the entire human race to perish at its own hand. Instead, because of His mercy, He intervened by sending His Son to take the rap for us. Having removed the reason for our punishment, He invites whoever wants to, to receive His mercy and His gift of forgiveness, and get back on track to being restored to His image. With sin and punishment out of the way, those who entrust themselves to Him are in the process of being made holy; that is, being set free from sin to obey God for His purposes and for His glory.

So where do our rights come into it? As guilty sinners, the only right we ever have is to God’s justice – and that means eternal separation from Him. He put His law into our hearts at conception. Everyone instinctively knows what is right and wrong; and that makes us doubly guilty before God – guilty because we know what is right and guilty because we because we refuse to submit to His authority and choose to do wrong.

How can we question God if He chooses to show mercy to those who respond to His invitation to return to Him, and to reject those who reject Him? Take the case of Pharaoh to which Paul refers. The Biblical record indicates that God gave Pharaoh ten opportunities to listen to His instruction, and release His people, but five times Pharaoh refused.

Every time he refused to obey God, his heart became harder towards Him. It was not God’s fault that Pharaoh would not acknowledge His authority. Pharaoh made his choice and God simply confirmed it by making it impossible to for him change his mind. So whose fault was it that Egypt was destroyed? God’s fault? No! Pharaoh chose to ignore God’s warnings and take the consequences. And, in so doing, he inadvertently shone the light on God’s power and glory.

Does that mean that our destiny is in our own hands? Yes, in a sense it does, and yet, at the same time, in a way which is beyond our understanding, God miraculously intervenes and rescues us from our own stubborn rejection. Take Paul, for example. He would never have become the apostle he was, had Jesus not confronted him on the Damascus road. He needed that kind of shock treatment to wake him up to the truth.

And that is the mercy of God! If left to our own devices, would we ever turn to Him? I don’t think so. Self-will is too deeply entrenched for us to let go easily. The miracle is that some people actually respond to God’s mercy, turn away from their sin and follow the way back to Him. They are the ones who fulfil His will, enjoy His goodness and will experience the fullness of eternal life.

It truly is a mystery – this sovereignty of God!

Acknowledgement

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

 

Who?

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WHO?

“What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all — how will He not also, along with Him, graciously give us all things?

“Who will bring any charge against those whom God had chosen? It is God who justifies. Who is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died — more than that, who was raised to life — is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.” Romans 8:31-34.

What a grand climax! Paul must have enjoyed and used his legal mind to bring his readers to this point where he could show them how secure they were in what God has done. There is no court higher than God, and when He declares sinners not guilty, places them in a new position with Him — sons and daughters — and sees them already perfected, not even the devil himself can contradict or oppose His ruling.

Everything God did was done according to the highest legal correctness. Man’s debt of sin was paid in full by one who no debt of His own to pay. God could legally justify sinners and lavish on them all His mercy because of Jesus’ death. He wanted them back in His family and there is nothing to stop Him from bringing them home and restoring them to their privileged position as His own beloved children.

By His obedience, Jesus undid everything Adam brought on the human race by his disobedience. Adam was banished from the Garden of Eden — God’s lavish source of supply. He had to wrest a living from a hostile environment. Now, in Christ Jesus, we have access to all of God’s resources because we are His children. Is there anything excluded in the “all things”?

Adam was charged with breaking God’s commandment. He was found guilty, driven from his home and cut off from the presence of God.

“But now in Christ Jesus you who were once far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ.” Ephesians 2:13.

But through Jesus, guilty sinners are not only justified — declared not guilty because their debt has been paid; their status has been changed. They are a new creation; a new species who are no longer sinners but saints, set apart from sin to God as His sons and daughters

Adam was condemned to death for his crime, and brought death upon all of creation. But, through Jesus, we are no longer condemned but accepted, adopted and affirmed as His children, made alive by His Spirit.

“For He chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight. In love He predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with His pleasure and will — to the praise of His glorious grace, which He has freely given us in the One He loves.” Ephesians 1:4-6.

There is no other answer to Paul’s question, “Who?” than “No one!” There is no court of appeal higher than God, and His verdict is, “Not guilty! No charge! Case dismissed!” Every obstacle and hindrance between us and our heavenly Father has been removed. Even the great heavy curtain that shut people out of the Holy of Holies was torn from top to bottom.

But we still have an accuser and he is quick to jump in when we mess up, with his accusation and condemnation. What do we do about him? We silence his lies just as Jesus did, with the truth. We have God’s authority to speak what He has already spoken, “Not guilty!” When we sin, instead of going through the agony of guilt and condemnation, we go to our advocate — Jesus — who is in the presence of the Father making intercession for us. He places His blood between us and our accuser and speaks the truth — “Not guilty!”

“My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father — Jesus Christ the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.”         1 John 2:1, 2.

Acknowledgement

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

 

First The Diagnosis

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FIRST THE DIAGNOSIS

“Now you, if you call yourself a Jew; if you rely on the law and boast in God; if you know His will and approve of what is superior because you are instructed by the law; if you are convinced that you are a guide for the blind, a light for those who are in the dark, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of little children, because you have in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth – you, then who teach others, do you not teach yourself? You who preach against stealing, do you steal? You who say people should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? You who boast in the law, do you dishonour God by breaking the law? As it is written: “God’s nature is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.” Romans 2:17-24.

Ouch! This is quite an indictment; and a perennial problem!  James had to address the same issue in his letter.

“Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.” James 1:22.

But as it was then, so it is still true now.

Both Jew and Gentile were guilty before God for ignoring God’s holy standards.

Paul has already concluded that the Gentiles were guilty before God. Because of their indulgence in debauched behaviour, they chose to disregard God and make their own gods who would indulge their behaviour because they were just like their creators. The problem with the Gentiles was their lust after the flesh.

On the other hand, the problem relating to the Jews was a problem of self-deception spawned by pride. “You have to understand the difference between having the law and obeying the law,” Paul told them. “Being the proud recipients of God’s standards is not enough if you don’t obey them.” The law he was talking about, for the Jew was both the moral and the ceremonial law. The moral law was the expression of God’s character. The ceremonial law was intended to flesh out the moral law in their everyday lives and to develop a culture of understanding to prepare them for the coming of the Messiah.

The Jews despised the Gentiles because they were not part of God’s covenant people. They had not been rescued from Egypt by God’s mighty power and they did not receive God’s law. As far as the Jews were concerned, Gentiles were the scum of the earth and, like lepers, tax collectors and prostitutes, they were classified as untouchable “sinners”.

To the Jew, what Paul had to say was shocking. They, the Jews, were just as guilty before God as the Gentiles because, though they boasted about having God’s law, they did not obey it. In fact, some of the Gentiles were better than they because, without even having God’s law, they obeyed it because it was written into their consciences. No person on earth can be excused because he does not know right from wrong. Even if people don’t know the finer details of the law, everyone knows that it is wrong to lie, kill, steal, and commit adultery. They have a conscience which is aroused when they do these things.

Paul is not advocating that either Jew or Gentile can keep God’s law so perfectly that they will be found not guilty when God judges. Even if people are able to keep the letter of the law, what about what goes on in the heart? Jesus made it clear that actions begin with thoughts; behaviour is the end result of what had already gone on in the heart.

Where is this leading? It was not Paul’s intention to make people feel bad and then leave them there. He was painting a dark picture of humanity to prepare them for something really big that God has done to solve the problem. Every category of people in his day had to understand how hopeless their case was outside of God. He dealt with each group separately to show them the nature of their guilt.

Gentiles – idol worshippers; guilty because they refused to acknowledge God and went about setting up their own religion and following their own rules which led them eventually to reverse all God’s moral standards. Jews – equally guilty because they did not obey the laws that God had given them for righteous living. On top of that, they were proud and arrogant about their covenant relationship with God which did not actually benefit them because it was only on paper and not in their lives.

And the end result? Helpless and hopeless without God’s intervention!

The people of today are no different. We may not do what the Gentiles or the Jews did then, but our hearts are the same. The world is full of religions invented by people who refuse to acknowledge God and have created gods of their own who are to their liking so that they can continue their lifestyle without being accountable to the Creator. The tragedy is that they become just like the thing they worship.

But before we can apply the remedy, we must know the problem…

Acknowledgement

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

 

Tell It With Your Life

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TELL IT WITH YOUR LIFE 

“Again His Jewish opponents picked up stones to stone Him, but Jesus said to them, ‘I have shown you many good works from the Father. For which of these do you stone me?’ ‘We are not stoning you for any good work,’ they replied, ‘but for blasphemy because you, a mere man, claim to be God.'” John 10:31-33 NIV.

How nonchalant could Jesus be? Almost with tongue in cheek He challenged them. ‘For which of the good works I did are you wanting to stone me?’

Slowly but steadily the case for blasphemy was building against Him — unless, of course, He was telling the truth. If the Jews had had their way, they would have stoned Him there and then, but for one thing — it was not His time.

As far as they were concerned, He was guilty and didn’t even need a trial. Unlike Nicodemus and the blind man He had recently healed, they refused to recognise the Father as the source of the miracles Jesus performed. He was evil because He “broke” their Sabbath rules by healing on the Sabbath and then compounded His guilt by claiming to do His good works through God. What more evidence did they need?

Unfortunately for them, their action only compounded their guilt and not the other way around. Jesus had already indicted them for being blind. It was their wilful blindness that exposed their guilt because they refused to recognise Him for who He was. They had the Scriptures; they knew the Scriptures but they chose not to believe Him although it was clear that He was the one the Scriptures pointed to from Genesis 1.

In order for Jesus to be the perfect sacrifice for the sin of the world, He had to be innocent of all sin, and especially the sins of law-breaker and blasphemer of which He sworn enemies accused Him so that His death would be a perfect substitute for sinners.

“Jesus answered them, ‘Is it not written in your law, ‘I have said you are “gods”?'” John 10:34 NIV.

What is the point of this quote from Psalm 82:6? In Hebrew rabbinic teaching, this is called a remez — a hint. It is a portion of a portion of Scripture that makes no sense outside the context of the whole portion. Psalm 82 is an indictment of God’s people for their idolatry. They followed the gods of the surrounding nations and became like them — cruel, unjust, and oppressors.

God’s law taught them to treat all people with dignity because they were all created in the His image. They were to reflect the nature of their God by the way they treated their fellow men.

“God presides in the great assembly; He renders judgment among the “gods”: ‘How long will you defend the unjust and show partiality to the wicked? Defend the weak and the fatherless; uphold the cause of the poor and the oppressed. Rescue the weak and the needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked. The “gods” know nothing. They walk about in darkness: all the foundations of the earth are shaken. I said, ‘You are “gods”; you are all sons of the Most High,’ but you will die like mere mortals; you will fall like every other ruler.'” Psalm 82:1-7 NIV.

If the religious leaders knew their Scriptures, they would have understood that Jesus was turning their accusation back on them. They were accusing Him of blasphemy because He claimed to be the Son of God which He evidenced by doing what God required of a son.

They were supposed to be sons of the Most High by being generous and merciful, yet their very behaviour negated their claim. Like their ancestors, their lives displayed who their “god” was — their selfish and greedy selves. They were “gods” in the sense that they were being what their “god” was and doing what their “god” did. For all the vehemence of their accusations, their words did not stick because their behaviour spoke louder than their voices.

Instead of the case building against Jesus, it was building against His accusers. The day would come when they would put the final nail in their own coffins and the judgment of God would fall on them and their children. “His blood be on us and on our children.” Matthew 27:25 NIV.

Who is your God? Tell it with your life, not your lips!