Tag Archives: faith

Case Concluded

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CASE CONCLUDED

For, ‘In just a little while, He who is coming will come and will not delay.’ And, ‘But my righteous one will live by faith. And I take no pleasure in the one who shrinks back.’ But we do not belong to those who shrink back and are destroyed, but to those who have faith and are saved (Heb. 10: 37-39).

The writer concluded his magnificent case for the superiority of Jesus over all the people and systems of the Old Covenant with two quotes from Habakkuk:

‘He who is coming will come and will not delay.’ (Hab. 2: 3). And

‘But my righteous one will live by faith. And I take no pleasure in the one who shrinks back.’ (Hab. 2: 4)

The first quote should read: For the revelation awaits an appointed time; it speaks of the end and will not prove false. Though it linger, wait for it; it will certainly come and will not delay.

What was the writer’s point? To understand, we need to back up to his whole concluding argument. Having proved without a doubt the superiority of Jesus’s high priesthood and sacrifice over the Levitical system, he issued a serious warning that, to go back the Judaism was to trash Jesus, His blood and the work of the Holy Spirit, to remove themselves from God’s grace and to put themselves under judgment because, outside of Christ, there is no forgiveness of sin.

For those who “shrink back”, judgment is coming, as surely as it was for the Israelites who shrank back from believing God’s promise and refused to enter the Promised Land. Judgment came to the people of Judah in the form of the Babylonian captivity as God prophesied through Habakkuk because the Jews failed to trust God by obeying Him and walking in His ways. Jesus is coming soon to bring judgment on those who shrink back from following Him because the price is too high.

The second quote was an encouragement to persevere in spite of the circumstances. Judgment would surely fall on those who went back, to dodge persecution but, for those who kept trusting God in spite of suffering, there was a rich reward. God’s pleasure rests on those who put their trust in Him and obey His word, regardless of the cost.

These readers had started off well by paying the price for their faith and suffering joyfully all the indignities heaped on them by both unbelieving Jews and the officials of the pagan government of Rome. The danger was that they were becoming weary of this way, and they were seeking an easier way to make life a little more comfortable, not realising the implications of drawing back.

Faith is only true faith when it perseveres through the difficulties which make faith legitimate. Faith has no value when it has no need to be exercised. God has no pleasure in “fair-weather” believers whose faith is radiant when there is no need to trust Him. The true value of faith lies in the confidence one has in the faithfulness of God when the wind blows and the storm rages and the world is utterly dark.

The entire message of the Bible is that there is limitless grace for those who return from their own way to follow God’s way. His mercy is extended to anyone who repents of sin and trusts in Him for His provision of forgiveness through the blood of His Son. But, on the other hand, there is no mercy for those who reject His offer of salvation and choose their way over His way. Why should He have mercy on those who trample the blood of Jesus underfoot? God paid the highest possible price for our salvation. There is nothing more He can do.

The writer concluded his warning with a word of encouragement. The history of his readers proved that they were once sincere believers and followers of Jesus, the Messiah. His reassurance and confidence was that they would not give it up but continue to press on in spite of their hardships, and would eventually receive the end result of their perseverance, the eternal salvation which no one could take from them.

Faith and perseverance – two non-negotiables on this journey into life. Shrink back, and you lose it all; persevere and you will receive your reward – a place in God’s forever family and everything He promised as your inheritance.

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.

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Take The Long Look

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TAKE THE LONG LOOK

 

In all this you greatly rejoice, though now, for a little while you may have to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of you faith – of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire – may result in praise, glory and honour when Jesus Christ is revealed. Though you have not seen Him, you love Him; and even though you do not see Him now, you believe in Him and are filled with inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls (1 Peter 1:6-9).

Peter could not be more positive than he was in these three sentences, as well as those that went before. If we place these truths side by side with Paul’s in Ephesians 1: 1-3, we have an amazing declaration of what these early believers had in Christ compared with what their pagan or Jewish beliefs had offered them.

Let’s unpick these sentences and explore what he was actually saying.

The first thing that stands out is that their present circumstances (and we know that Peter wrote to encourage them to keep on believing in spite of the ‘fiery ordeal’ – ch 4: 12 – they were suffering), were transient and were nothing compared with what lay ahead for them if they kept their eyes on the big picture. Their suffering would not last forever; it was only a part of this life. It would come to an end when they entered into the presence of the one they loved.

Suffering for their faith in Jesus was inevitable but it had a purpose. Like gold refined in the fire until all the impurities were removed, their confidence in God had to be put to the test to remove the dross. Everyday, comfortable living would not do it. It had to be purified in the fires of adversity until nothing would move them from their trust in God. After all, faith was the invisible link between themselves and God. Without their trust in Him, they had no connection with Him and with everything that was theirs through Jesus.

Why do Christians suffer? The age-old question does have an answer – to put us into situations where we are forced to cast ourselves on God alone. It is a natural, inborn flaw is us to be suspicious of God. Adam was before he even sinned, and we are too because we inherited it from him.

How can we ever navigate a world full of trials and adversities of every kind if we do not trust God implicitly? How can we learn to trust Him if our faith is not put to the test? When the crunch comes, do we crumple up, scream and give up or do we keep going because we are secure in Him?

The next thing I see is that these believers were going somewhere. Life for them was not just a jumble of meaningless events and purposeless living. They were being groomed for something beyond this life which was indescribably wonderful beyond their imagination. Was this just a pipe-dream, the fantasy of someone’s fertile brain? Definitely not! Why could Peter be so confident about what he wrote? The hope of which he wrote was not just a futile wish but a declaration of fact because it was backed up by the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.

The whole point of Jesus’s coming, His living and dying and the miracle of His rising again was to accomplish something – not for Himself initially but for them – to rescue them from their plight and restore them to their rightful place in the family of God so that they could enjoy the glorious things God had prepared for them and for all who follow them through faith in Jesus.

Instead of being drowned in the misery of what they were suffering, Peter urged them to look ahead. The very things they were called to endure for the sake of their faith in Jesus were proof that they were on the right road. At the end of the tunnel there was the real life they had been promised – ‘the salvation of your souls’. Their broken and imperfect souls would be restored – made whole, unblemished and pure so that they could stand before God in the perfection of His beauty and enjoy Him forever.

Was it worth enduring the suffering? A thousand times, yes!

When you are faced with the uncomfortable experiences which are part of your lot as humans in an imperfect world, or the ridicule thrown at you because of your refusal to take part in the debauchery of sin or even, as some are doing right now, losing their heads because they refuse to deny their faith in Jesus, there’s a glorious light at the end of the road.

Rejoice, because you’re on the right road and at the end of it your destination is heaven!

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.

 

The Righteousness Of Faith

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THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF FAITH

“For through the Spirit we eagerly wait by faith for the righteousness for which we hope. For in Christ neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.” Galatians 5:5-6.

“The Christian life,” says Paul, “operates on a completely different principle from the old system of the law.” The law makes us look within and continually evaluate ourselves on our performance. We can never be sure whether we have been obedient enough, attained the standard, and satisfied the demands of the law. We focus on what we have achieved or failed to achieve rather than on the attitudes and motives of our hearts.

We develop an attitude of self-righteous pride, like the Pharisee in the temple whose prayer was nothing more than self-congratulation and contempt for the tax collector whom he despised because he was a sell-out to Rome. Circumcision is the doorway to this way of life. It enhances self-awareness and self-satisfaction which cancels out faith in Jesus and trust in His finished work.

“The Christian life,” said Paul, “is the way of faith in the righteousness of Jesus which He gives to us as a free gift, not trust in ourselves to attain the perfection of God which He requires for us to be acceptable to Him.” It does not matter whether we are circumcised or uncircumcised, Jew or Gentile, a member of the covenant people of God or not. What matters is whether or not we have faith in the death of Jesus to forgive our sin, cleanse us from all unrighteousness and clothe us in His perfect righteousness which He gives freely to those who believe in Him.

Where does circumcision fit in? It doesn’t because new life in Jesus Christ is based on faith, not on performance. Keeping the law does not produce love. It produces pride in myself and contempt for other people who do not do what I do. Even the Law taught God’s people to treat each other with kindness and mercy and not cruelty like the Egyptians treated them when they were in slavery to them.

Everything God has done for us through Jesus is intended to bring our old selfish sin nature into submission to Him and to nurture our new nature which has been recreated in the image of God.

“Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all and in all.” Colossians 3:9-11.

Paul also spoke about righteousness as something we hope for. Does that mean that, in the end it is possible that we might not receive this gift which is the only thing that makes us acceptable to God? No, because hope in the Bible has a different meaning from the hope we express in our everyday lives.

When we say that we hope that something will happen, there is an element of uncertainty because we have no foundation upon which to base our hope. “I hope it will not rain today,” we say when we need good weather for an outing to the beach, but we cannot be sure because no one can control the weather. In the Bible, our hope is based on what God has promised. He has already declared that it will happen and we put our confidence and expectation in what He has said. It is a hope until it becomes a reality. Faith in Him is the energy that makes our hope a fact.

“Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see,” Hebrews 11:1.

God has promised us the gift of righteousness through Christ’s death for us. We do not have to work for it. It is His gift to us now, but we will only experience the full effects of Jesus’ righteousness when He returns to restore everything to perfection. We live now in the hope of His righteousness, and on that basis we have confidence that everything He has promised will be given to us on that day.

We will always be imperfect as long as we are in this body, but God sees us in Christ as already perfected. We live now in the faith that God accepts us because we are “covered” by the righteousness of Jesus, just as we are “covered” for the repair of our vehicle in the case of an accident, or for the loss of property when something of ours is stolen, if we have an insurance policy.

We can love freely because we are not trying to impress God but living out of the confidence that we are who He says we are, His children who resemble Him because we have His Spirit in us.

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.

 

 

 

Who Needs A Guardian?

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WHO NEEDS A GUARDIAN?

“Before the coming of this faith, we were held in custody under the law, locked up until the faith that was to come would be revealed. So the law was our guardian until Christ came that we might be justified by faith. Now that this faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian. So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptised into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave not free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus, If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” Galatians 3:23-29.

Interesting how Paul wove Jewish history and Roman culture together to help his readers understand why they were not obligated to obey the Law of Moses! Having explained that the law was given for the purpose of teaching God’s people what sin is, that He is a holy God, and they could not approach Him without sacrifice and a mediator, he went on to explain how the law acted as a guardian until Christ came.

In a Roman household, little children were cared for by a paidagogos, a slave whose task was to care for and teach the children until they reached the age when the sons were “adopted” by the father and the daughters by the mother. The sons would don the toga virilis, the toga of manhood, and take his place at the father’s side to learn the father’s business. For the Jewish son, it was his bar mitzvah which was his rite-of-passage to manhood.

The law acted as a custodian for the people of God. They were like spiritual children who needed rules and regulations to spell out how God wanted them to live. Rules are what children understand best, even if they don’t obey them. Another way to understand the law is to see it as a boundary fence, so that those who live inside the boundaries are safe. One does not open the gate for a toddler to play in the street. He does not understand how to keep himself safe in a dangerous place

When Christ came, instead of boundaries, God gave His children direct access to Himself through Jesus, and the Holy Spirit who lives within the believer as a personal Paidagogos, a companion and guide, steering the believer from within to live in the safety of God’s ways. The law was only meant for immature children, to keep them from destroying themselves. When a person reaches maturity, he no longer needs the do’s and don’ts of the law because he is mature enough to make the right choices through his childhood training.

An immature child is nothing but a slave, but when he reaches maturity, he sheds his slave status and becomes a son. So it is with us. When Jesus came, He rescued us from being slaves to the law and restored us to being sons and daughters in God’s family. When we receive Him by faith, He moves us from slavery to sonship and puts the Spirit of sonship into our hearts. He transfers us into a new family that is made up of people from every group on earth, Jew and Gentile, male and female, slave and free.

That means that no one is better than anyone else. All are on the same level and have the same status – children of God. Why, then, should Gentiles be forced to accept circumcision as a pre-requisite for faith in Jesus and entrance into God’s family? In fact, why should any requirement except obedience to Jesus’ commands – to be baptised and to remember His death – be a requirement for participation in the family of God?

The argument is futile and foolish and based on a complete misunderstanding of the gospel. The gospel is good news about Jesus, what He had done to set us free from every “yoke of bondage” that demands that we need to obey rules to gain God’s acceptance, and to be yoked with Him because He did it all for us.

Children in a family do not have to perform to gain their father’s love and approval, He loves them because they are his own flesh and blood. We are Jesus’ “flesh and blood” because He bought us back from Satan and made us His own again.

“In bringing many sons to glory it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the author of their salvation perfect though suffering. Both the one who makes men holy and those who are made holy are of one family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers.” Hebrews 2:10, 11.

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.

 

Torah!

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TORAH!

“Why, then, was the law given at all? It was added because of transgressions until the Seed to whom the promise referred had come. The law was given through angels and entrusted to a mediator. A mediator implies more than one party; but God is one.

“Is the law opposed to the promises of God? Absolutely not! For if a law was given that could impart life, then righteousness would certainly have come by the law. But Scripture has locked up everything under the control of sin, so that what was promised, being given through faith in Christ Jesus, might be given to those who believe.” Galatians 3:19-22.

Wow! This is a mouthful! What was Paul getting at? Let’s unpick this passage bit by bit and try to understand what he was explaining.

Why did God give His people the Law? We must understand the word torah, which is translated law, from God’s point of view. It does not mean law in the same way as we understand it from a western point of view. Torah means teaching, rather than a rigid set of rules. Through the Torah, God was teaching them how to live the right way in line with who He is.

We must remember that, for 430 years, the descendants of Jacob lived in Egypt under Egyptian rule. When they finally left Egypt, they were an undisciplined bunch of slaves who had lived under the whip of Egyptian taskmasters. Once they were free from their cruelty, they had to learn how to live with one another under a different set of rules. It was not okay to do to one another what the Egyptians had done to them. But who was going to set the standards and tell them how to live?

Firstly, then, the Torah defined for them what was right and wrong and how to put right what they did wrong. Paul said it was because of transgressions. Sin is sin, but we don’t know what sin is until we are told what it is. That’s what the law does. For example, how do we know it is wrong to steal unless we are told that it is wrong and what to do about it when we do steal?

Secondly, God’s people had to learn that they could never reach His perfect standard by obeying His teaching. There was always a pull towards doing wrong and, just like little children, as soon as they were told not to do this or not to do that, they did it because of their natural bent towards rebellion. No amount of rules would keep them on the right way. They needed a change on the inside and no law could do that.

Thirdly, the Torah was intended to develop a culture that would prepare them for the coming of the Messiah. The sacrificial system with its different kinds of sacrifices, many reasons for offering sacrifices, and rituals they had to observe, were all intended as visual aids to show them and prepare them for the coming of God’s perfect sacrifice, the Lord Jesus Christ.

They had to understand what sin was, a falling short of God’s holy standards, and what it did, making the sinner unclean; hence the need for the death of an animal and the offering of its blood, not only as a substitute for the sinner but also to cleanse the offerer from the pollution of sin.

The priestly system taught them that they could not bounce into the presence of a holy God because sin separated them from Him. He was unapproachable except through His appointed mediator, the high priest and the offering of the prescribed sacrifices. When Abraham’s “seed”, Jesus, came, He fulfilled all the pictures the law painted of the right way to approach God.

So, the Torah was not opposed to the revelation of God’s grace through His Son; it was a preparation for His coming. Without the Law, who He was and what He did would have made no sense to His people. But when He came, and when He died on the cross as an atoning sacrifice for all the sin of all the people for all time, there was no need for anyone to obey the law as a way of approaching God any more. The priesthood and the sacrificial system were fulfilled and done away with in Christ.

God does not need human mediators to stand between Him and His people. Jesus is the perfect Mediator because He is both God and man. God does not need animal sacrifices to teach us how terrible sin is – that it demands the shedding of blood to be forgiven. His own Son shed His blood, a once-for-all sacrifice for the forgiveness of sins, not just for Jews but for the whole world.

Why would Gentiles need to be circumcised, then? They do not need a physical sign to set them apart as God’s children. The Holy Spirit in them is the sign of God’s ownership. Doing all the things that the law demands and that are only pictures of what Jesus came to do is a foolish backward step. God did away with all that by sending His Messiah and now all we have to do is receive Him by faith and He takes us right into the presence of the Father, forgiven, clean and acceptable to God.

And He changes our nature and puts His Spirit in us so that we live according to His torah, not because we have to but because we can.

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.