Tag Archives: faith

Going For The Throat

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GOING FOR THE THROAT

“So again I ask, does God give His Spirit and work miracles among you by the works of the law, or by your believing what you heard? So also Abraham “believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” Understand, then, that those who have faith are children of Abraham.

“Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: ‘All nations will be blessed through you.’ So those who rely on faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.” Galatians 3:5-9.

Paul had to go for the throat of the pernicious teaching of the Judaizers before it took hold of the Gentile believers and strangled the life out of them before the church was one generation old. What better source could he appeal to than the Biblical record of Abraham, who was the father of the Jewish nation?

Since Abraham preceded Moses and the Law (and the Torah tells the story of Abraham and God in detail), surely Abraham must be the one who models the relationship with God that we are to follow. The children of Israel were no example because they not only failed to follow God’s way of doing life, but they also twisted it to suit their own ends. They turned God’s provision for the forgiveness of sins, the sacrificial system (which was a picture of what Christ had already done on the cross from before the beginning of time), into an excuse for sinning.

What was the gospel according to Abraham? God put him into right standing with Himself because Abraham believed His promise. He took God at His word and, except for a few deviations along the way, acted on it instead of trying to gain favour with God in his own way. God had given him some hefty promises:

“I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” Genesis 12:2, 3.

Now I don’t know how much Abraham understood or appreciated God’s promises then; after all, they were so far in the future that he would not see their fulfilment in his lifetime. And then there was the matter of a son. None of this would happen if he did not have a son. God hadn’t said anything about a child yet, but it stands to reason that he could never become a great nation without him and Sarah starting the ball rolling.

The “son” promise came later. Years passed. He and Sarah were settled in the land of Canaan. God had told them to get up and go, and they got up and went, but they were only sojourners in the land, not landowners. How could a single couple take over a whole country? In any case, they didn’t even have a family, let alone a nation!

Then, one night, God spoke again – another promise and this time one that addressed his unspoken dream, “You will have a son,” God assured him. “Do you want to know how many ‘sons’? Look up at the stars. Can you count them? No? Then you won’t be able to count your descendants either.”

Abraham gazed up into the night sky. Myriads of stars twinkled down on him. He was looking into the future and a picture began to take shape – people, millions of people, just like God said, but they weren’t only his blood descendants. They were people from every nation gathered into one big family, a family of people who had faith in God.

“Do you know what, God?” he whispered, “I think you can do it. I know you can do it!” There and then, Abraham was catapulted into a new relationship with God. “You are my man! We are now partners in my big plan. It will take thousands of years to accomplish, Abraham, but it will all begin with you because you trust me.”

So where does circumcision and keeping the law fit into God’s scheme of things? It doesn’t. It was designed for another purpose and it was only a temporary arrangement. Paul will go on in his vehement defence of the gospel, to explain what the law was intended to do. But for now he gave his readers a glimpse of what trusting God was about – entering into a partnership with Him so that He can fulfil His big plan for the whole world through those who believe in Him.

What is His big plan? To shower supernatural favour on the whole world, Jew and Gentile, through Abraham because Abraham chose to believe His promise. Can you see why Paul had to strangle this false teaching before it took hold of the church? God cannot carry out His plan if people insist on trying to gain the favour He has already freely given us through Jesus.

He wants to get on with blessing all the nations of the world through the church, not to put up with our puny effort to keep the rules, which doesn’t get us anywhere, anyway.

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.

 

One Small Step Backwards…

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ONE SMALL STEP BACKWARDS...

“We who are Jews by birth and not sinful Gentiles know that a person is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So, we too have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law because, by the works of the law no one will be justified.” Galatians 2:15, 16.

This sounds like a bit of a tongue-twister, doesn’t it? What is Paul saying?

Peter and his fellow disciples, in their association with Jesus, had experienced a rude awakening. As part of a religious system that relied heavily on their performance for acceptance with God, they thought that their law-keeping was what He demanded to satisfy His requirements. Jesus taught them that the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob was actually their Father, and that He was calling them into a relationship of intimacy with Him as their sons, just as Jesus was His Son, and the model of sonship they were to follow.

Sin had alienated them from the Father, and no amount of trying to do the right thing by observing rules and carrying out rituals could undo their sinful behaviour or change their sinful nature. They were not “sinful” Gentiles, those who worshipped idols and engaged in depraved behaviour but that didn’t make them any better than those who did. Everyone fell short of God’s perfection and they could do nothing about it.

Jesus’ untimely death on a cross, which they thought was a terrible tragedy, turned out to be the opposite. It was God’s pre-ordained way of dealing with the sin they could not get rid of by rule-keeping. Jesus died in the place of sinners to satisfy God’s righteous demand for the payment of a huge debt. He died as an atoning sacrifice for all people for all time so that God could accept as not guilty everyone who submitted to Jesus as their rightful Lord.

What, then, was Peter thinking when he slipped back into his old pattern of behaviour, thinking he was better than the Gentile believers and withdrawing from fellowship with them? It was a backward step, and would have serious repercussions if it was what he really believed. Even his temporary lapse into the fear of man affected his standing before God.

Everyone who takes the step from confidence in his own efforts to satisfy God’s holy requirements to trusting in Jesus for acceptance with God, has a standing in God’s grace which enables him to approach the Father with confidence. Because of Jesus, he has been declared “not guilty”. His sin has been removed; he has been washed clean of sin’s pollution and he had been given a new nature, one that makes him a son, not a slave. He is indwelt by the Holy Spirit and, through Him, has been restored to oneness with the Father and able to call Him “Abba”.

One small step backwards for Peter was actually a huge fall from standing in the grace of God to standing in his own righteousness which God declared was like filthy rags in His sight. The great Apostle Peter was unwittingly in danger of disqualifying himself by being afraid to stand up for what he believed.

Thank God for Paul’s boldness and for his clear understanding of the gospel. Without it we would not have the letters his wrote to the Roman and Galatian churches which give us a clear explanation of what God did through Jesus Christ to reconcile us to Himself. It was through trial and error, struggle and debate that the truth of the gospel began to emerge in the early church. We are blessed to share in the great heritage passed down to us from the church of the past.

Thank God we learn from our failures as much as from our successes. Peter must surely not have forgotten the lesson, and become stronger for it. Of course it all depends on whether he received Paul’s rebuke or not. We have a clue to his attitude in his second letter which we have preserved for us in the Bible. He obviously held Paul in high esteem because he wrote this:

“Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him. He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures to their own destruction.” 2 Peter 2:15, 16.

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.

 

 

Guard Your Own Heart

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GUARD YOUR OWN HEART

“Accept one another whose faith is weak without quarrelling over disputable matters. One person’s faith allows him to eat anything but another, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables. The one who eats everything must not treat with contempt the one who does not, and the one who does not eat everything must not judge the one who does, for God has accepted him. Who are you to judge another man’s servant? To their own master servants stand or fall. And they will stand, for the Lord is able to make them stand.” Romans 14:1-4.

Is this really a problem today? Who cares what another believer eats or wears or even drives or lives in?

In the Apostle Paul’s day, it was an issue for both Jew and Gentile believers – Jews because their conscience was shaped by the dietary laws of their religion and culture, and Gentiles because they bought their meat from the market after it had been offered to idols.

There were two matters of conscience that had to be dealt with: What effect did the food they ate have on their spirits, and did meat offered to idols in a pagan temple have any power to influence them? But, for Paul there was another and more subtle problem – that of judging.

From God’s perspective, judging was more serious than what a person ate. Remember what Jesus said about food? Since it goes into the stomach and passes out of the body, it does not have any power over a person’s heart. It is from the heart, not from what one eats, that wickedness in all its forms originates, and what one eats cannot change the heart, for good or evil. On the other hand, judging another person is a subtle form of idolatry because the one who judges sets himself above the other person.

What about eating meat that had been offered to idols? Does that meat not have the power to influence the eater for evil? Was there not some sort of demonic transfer that took place when the meat was offered to the idol? It all depends on what a person believes.

Never forget that the devil is a liar and that the only language he speaks is the language of lies. His most powerful weapon is deception. He holds people captive to fear only if they believe that he still has power over them. Jesus exposed and utterly defeated him at the cross but he tries to hold people captive by suggesting that he has power over them.

It is up to every believer to decide who his master is? How tragic that many Christians still fear the devil although they say that they trust in Jesus. In the everyday, practical issues of life, we have to ask the question, “Did the cross work?” According to Jesus, when He cried out, “It is finished!” on the cross, He completed everything necessary to reverse what Adam did in the Garden of Eden. He made a public spectacle of the devil, unmasked and defeated him and took away his power to deceive and destroy.

“When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave all our sins, having cancelled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; He has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.” Colossians 2:13-15.

What kind of food we eat and where we got it from should never be an issue because it has no power to influence our hearts except the power we give it when we act out of fear and not faith. However, when we judge someone who has no problem with what he eats because our faith is weak, we usurp the role of master and set ourselves up as the standard of judgment.

“Let it go,” said Paul. “He has a Master who will take care of him. It’s not your problem.” When we try to control someone else, we subtly expose our own insecurity. When we judge another, we expose our own guilt. Our mouths are the mirror of our hearts. By focussing on someone else’s supposed weakness or guilt, we deflect attention from ourselves in case we are exposed.

What is the solution? Rest in Jesus and take care of your own conscience. Trust God. You are not responsible for your brother’s conscience.

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.

 

So Simple, Really

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SO SIMPLE, REALLY

“Moses writes this about the righteousness that is by the law: ‘The person who does these things will live by them.’ But the righteousness that is by faith says: ‘Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’ (that is, to bring Christ down) or ‘Who will descend into the deep?’ (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). But what does it say? ‘The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,’ that is, message concerning faith that we proclaim: If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” Romans 10:5-9.

Why do we humans make complicated what God has made so simple that even a child can understand?

Righteousness which is achieved by keeping God’s law, takes hard work, is uncertain, and in the end is unattainable. No matter how hard anyone tries, he has already blotted his copybook because he was born with a sinful nature. He is not a sinner because he sins; he sins because he is a sinner.

Where does that leave us? Judged, condemned and sentenced to death! But God threw us a lifeline – Jesus. And Paul says, “You don’t have to try to find Him in heaven or in the grave. All you have to do is speak His name – Jesus, Lord – because He is alive and as near to you as your breath.”

“For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess faith and are saved. As Scripture says, ‘Anyone who believes in Him will never be put to shame.’ For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile – the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on Him, for ‘Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.'” Romans 10:10-13.

Can it be any simpler? For the Jew and for the Gentile it is exactly the same. It takes no more than the conviction of the heart that God raised Jesus from the dead and  confession of the mouth that God made Him “both Lord and Messiah” (Acts 2:36) to catapult us into the blessings and benefits of a new life in Christ Jesus.

God is not asking for an emotional “meltdown” before we can experience His salvation. The realisation that Jesus is alive and that He is the Son of God, is all that is needed to change the direction of our lives and secure our destiny as sons and daughters of God. Repentance may or may not be the result of an emotional storm, but it does require a change of mind. All God asks of us is that we understand what He has done for us, and receive it by believing it in our hearts and confessing it with our mouths.

In that one simple act of faith and confession, God sets us on the path to recovery; He begins the process of restoring us to who He designed us to be in the beginning, sons and daughters created in His image to be one with him; and what He made us to do – to manage the earth in partnership with Him as His vice-regents.

He is doing what the Hebrews called tekkun olam – fixing everything that was broken, to the horizon i.e., into eternity. What a hope! And He does this through His representative -Jesus. This is salvation – it is not a free ticket to heaven when we die; that is only one of the benefits and the end result of the process which begins when we believe and receive Jesus as Lord. Salvation is the journey to wholeness, back to where the human race began before sin intruded and interrupted God’s plan.

God has already determined, from before the foundation of the world, what we shall be and what we shall do as members of His forever family. He has an inheritance for us – our allotted possession which is ours by right as His sons and daughters. What is our inheritance and how do we possess it? According to Peter, our inheritance is His divine nature which we possess through His very great and precious promises.

“His divine power had given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness. Through these He has given us His very great and precious promises so that, through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.” 2 Peter 1:3, 4.

And all this by simply believing and receiving Jesus Christ as Lord!

Acknowledgement

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

 

On Or Under The Rock?

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ON OR UNDER THE ROCK?

“What, then, shall we say? That the Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have obtained it, a righteousness that is by faith; but the people of Israel, who pursued the law as a way of righteousness, have not attained their goal. Why not? Because they pursued it not by faith but as if it were by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone.

As it is written:

“See I lay in Zion a stone                                                                                                                   that causes people to stumble                                                                                                         and a rock that makes them fall,                                                                                                   and the one who believes in Him                                                                                                       will never be put to shame.”

Romans 9:30-33.

Isn’t the imagery of the Bible beautiful? Jesus…a rock? This statement conjures up all kinds of mental pictures about the one in whom we are called to put our trust.

Bedrock – strong, stable and immovable, a solid foundation upon which to build a life; cornerstone – holding the building together, giving strength to the structure; stumbling stone – causing people to trip and fall because they will not accept the truth of who He is; cleft rock out of whom flows living water like the water from the rock that satisfied the thirst of the children of Israel in the desert; crushing rock that destroys those who refuse to believe in Him; mighty rock in a barren land that gives shade and shelter to those who hide in its shadow.

Elizabeth Clephane – (1830-1869) – captured the spirit of these beautiful thoughts in her hymn:

“Beneath the cross of Jesus                                                                                                                 I fain would take my stand,                                                                                                             The shadow of a mighty rock                                                                                                           Within a weary land;                                                                                                                           A home within the wilderness,                                                                                                            A rest upon the way,                                                                                                                 From the burning of the noontide heat,                                                                                           And the burden of the day.”

http://www.hymnsite.com/lyrics/umh297.sht

Why did the Jews stumble over Jesus? They thought they knew better. Isn’t that the reason why people still stumble over Him today? For whatever reason – religion; childhood traditions; beliefs they have accumulated through misunderstood life experiences – they choose to believe their own beliefs rather than the truth.

What is it about Jesus that causes people to stumble? The cross!

“Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles.” 1 Corinthians 1:23.

Both Jews and Gentiles missed it. The Jews expected a warrior Messiah, disposing of the Romans with mighty acts as He did when He delivered His people from slavery in Egypt. A crucified Messiah was abhorrent to them! They missed the bigger picture – slavery to sin and death and the greater deliverance their Messiah came to bring. They tried so hard to gain acceptance with God through their puny efforts at righteousness, only to miss it because righteousness is a gift given to us at Jesus’ expense.

 

The Gentiles missed it because God’s wisdom made no sense. Their gods had to be magical and powerful, yet manageable… and visible and plural because one god couldn’t do everything. They needed to manipulate them to serve their own ends so they created them in their image. A God who was invisible and spiritual and loving was too much for their minds, so they also tripped over the rock.

The problem is that those who fall over the rock will one day fall under the rock. The only safe place is on the rock!

Acknowledgement

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