Tag Archives: boast

HANDCRAFTED BY THE MASTER

Bible Study, , ,

HANDCRAFTED BY THE MASTER

For it is by grace you have been saved through faith – and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast.  For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do (Eph. 2: 8-10).

What a different picture from the one Paul painted in the previous verses! We are no longer dead and stinking but alive to God and objects of His grace and favour. How sad that religion drives many branches of so-called Christianity. What do I mean by “religion”? Religion flourishes by rules and ritual. Religion is a “do-it-yourself” attempt to reach God or to satisfy the perceived demands of a god.

Even believers in Jesus often erroneously think that their response to what God has done for them is to “work for God”. But God’s word tells a very different story. God sent His Son into the world to rescue us from the plight sin put us in, not for our sake but for His sake. He wanted a family of sons and daughters bound to Him by love, not a group of slaves bound to Him by fear.

He did everything necessary to bring us back to His original plan because of His mercy. We did nothing to deserve His grace and we can do nothing to earn it. He did it for Himself so that the minions who rebelled against Him would be confronted with the truth – God is love.

Humans find it difficult to accept a free gift so great that it transfers us out of the devil’s clutches and places us in the hands and under the care of a gracious Father. We would rather attempt to repay God for His kindness in some futile way which does not impress God at all. God is not a tit-for-tat God like the gods of the heathen. If you do this for Him, He will do that for you. Everything He did to save us from self-destruction, He did for Himself, and He gives is to us as a free gift of His grace.

But that does not mean that we simply take everything and give nothing back. As sons and daughters of God, there is a response He requires of us, but it is not a response of repaying our debt. It is the response of the children of God who adore their Father and serve Him out of love and gratitude.

A study of the gospels will reveal that there are five characteristics of a true son which Jesus mirrored in His life on earth.

  1. A son loves his father

A religious leader once asked Jesus, “Which is the greatest commandment?” to which Jesus replied, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength.” Love for God is the atmosphere in which a son of daughter lives.

  1. A son trusts his father

If there is no trust between a father and his child, he then lives like a slave in fear. Love and trust are the basis of the other three characteristics of a son or daughter.

  1. A son submits to his father

Jesus is the perfect model of a submissive son. Even when He faced His greatest battle in the Garden of Gethsemane, He submitted to the Father’s will, and not with gritted teeth but with love and trust.

During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with fervent cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. Hebrews 5:7

  1. A son obeys the father

A son does not grudgingly obey or give in to the father under compulsion. Obedience is the hallmark of love. Jesus said to His disciples, “If you love me, you will do what I command you.”

Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered 9 and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him 1 Hebrews 5:8-10

  1. A son serves his father

This is not the service of a servant but the service of partnership, doing the Father’s will with Him to fulfil the Father’s greater purpose of establishing His kingdom on earth.

The good works of which Paul speaks are not random acts of kindness because we feel sorry for people in need. They are the integrated actions of God’s people which reveal His character to an ungodly world. When we live in harmony and fellowship with the Father, He will reveal His will to us and enable us to carry out His plans in partnership with Him to bring a wayward family back to Himself.

Whatever it involves in the way of acts of compassion and kindness towards others, God wants to reveal Himself through us so that those who have been deceived by the devil into hating God, will see Him in us and turn to Him in faith.

Paul said that we are God’s masterpiece, handcrafted by Him to carry out His will on earth by doing what He planned for us to do long before we were born.

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

Have you read my first book, Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing)? You’ll love it!

ISBN: Softcover – 978-1-4828-0512-3,                                                                              eBook 978-4828-0511-6

Available on www.amazon.com in paperback, e-book or Kindle version, on www.takealot.com  or order directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com.

My second book, Learning to be a Disciple – The Way of the Master (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing), a companion volume to Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart, has been released in paperback and digital format on www.amazon.com.

 

Rejoice And Beware!

Bible Study, , ,

REJOICE AND BEWARE!

“Further, my brothers and sisters, rejoice in the Lord! It is no trouble for me to write the same things to you again, and it is a safeguard for you.

“Watch out for those dogs, those evildoers, those mutilators of the flesh. For it is we who are the circumcision, we who serve God by His Spirit, who boast in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh – though I myself have reasons for such confidence.” Philippians 3:1-4a.

The Christian life is a life of joy. If anyone had reason to complain, it was Paul. In spite of his loyal and sacrificial service for Jesus, he had gone through the mill at the hands of hostile hoards – from the Romans, despite the fact that he was a Roman citizen – and from the Jews. Nevertheless, the joy that was deep within him sustained him through the hard times. Why?

Paul’s joy did not arise from his circumstances but from his union with Jesus. What he counselled others to be and to do always passed through the laboratory of his own experience. His letters were not only the product of his understanding of the Scriptures, but also the witness to his personal life as a believer in Jesus.

Paul could easily have turned on Jesus. How could his Master, a God of love, allow him to be treated like that? Was he not a faithful and loyal follower? Was he not entitled to a reward for his hard work? Was this the way God treated His children?

This may be the attitude of some today, but we never read of Paul whining about his hardships. On the contrary, he rejoiced in what he suffered and counted it a privilege and an opportunity to put his Master on display. Instead of collapsing in a heap of self-pity, he waited expectantly for the outcome and he was never disappointed.

The very church he was addressing was, in part, the aftermath of an unpleasant incident in Philippi where he and Silas were beaten and imprisoned for delivering a slave girl of demons. Instead of bewailing their fate, they sang and prayed so enthusiastically at midnight that they kept the whole prison awake. And God’s response…an earthquake that shook the prison, freed the prisoners and resulted in the salvation of the jailer and his household.

Paul knew how to rejoice in the Lord and he also knew what rejoicing instead of complaining accomplished. He called it a safeguard. Praise is a safeguard against the wiles of the devil. He delights in luring us into feeling sorry for ourselves and hard-done-by when things go badly for us. If there is one thing that spoils our fellowship with God, it’s self-pity. And what is self-pity? Someone once called it “ingrown eyeballs”!

Rejoicing in the Lord is the antidote. After all, God is still in charge, not matter what happens in life, and He works it all out for our good when we trust Him. When we rejoice in Him and not in our circumstances, we will remain steadfast and unshakeable in spite of what is happening around us because He never changes.

With his counsel to rejoice in the Lord, Paul also issued a warning. Be careful of the “dogs”. Who were they? The very same ones who troubled the Galatians to the point that they were led astray. They were the ones who trailed after Paul and tried to undo his work by insisting that believers in Jesus be circumcised first and keep the Mosaic Law. For Paul they were nothing more than stray dogs, roaming around and opportunistically devouring whoever they could.

“Stay away from them,” urged Paul. The real circumcision party are those who are circumcised in heart, not mutilated in the flesh. The seal of God’s ownership is not in the flesh but in the heart – the presence of God’s Spirit who is the arabon, God’s engagement ring, and the promise of eternal life for those who are marked by the Spirit.

If there is to be any boasting at all, it is not to be about our achievements for Jesus, but about His achievement for us. This is the safest place to boast because it takes the gaze off ourselves and places it where it belongs, on Jesus, the one who did everything that God required for us.

Paul was about to launch into recounting his CV if it was of any value at all in impressing God, so that he could be considered righteous in God’s sight. He had every reason to boast in what he had become in the flesh but it was all to no avail. His best shot fell short and he was doomed unless…

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 Rule Of Faith

Bible Study, , , ,

THE RULE OF FAITH

“May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything; what counts is a new creation. Peace and mercy to all who follow this rule – to the Israel of God. From now on, let no one cause me trouble, for I bear in my body the marks of Jesus.

“The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers and sisters. Amen.” Galatians 6:14-18.

In spite of the efforts of his opponents to discredit him and to rob him of his apostolic authority, the real Paul comes out in the final words of this letter. It’s not about circumcision – it’s about the cross. To his last breath Paul would fight to defend the efficacy of the death of Jesus. While the Judaizers might boast in their conquests over the souls of men, Paul will only boast in the power of Jesus’ death to save from sin through the grace of God and to recreate men and women in His image through faith in Him.

The cross of Jesus is, in the end, the great divide between sinner and saint, between those who insist on seeking God their own way and those who humbly submit to the way He chose to bring us back to Himself.

To the Jew it was distasteful to think that a man who claimed to be God would choose to die, and to die in such an ignominious way at the hands of the Romans, to reconcile men and women to Himself. They preferred to dodge the writings of their own prophets rather than to believe that Jesus was their Messiah.

To the Gentiles it was equally foolish to believe in just one of many thousands of “criminals” who had been executed by crucifixion. What could that do to bring peace to their conscience and change their lives? Their own gods could not save them. What could a dead Jew do to make the difference?

To Paul, however, the cross was not an object of shame to dodge but the very cut-off point between his old life of pointless self-effort and a new life of the forgiveness, freedom and righteousness he did not have to earn. He bore in his body the marks of his commitment – the scars of human hatred which were mute testimony to his faith in Jesus so tenacious that nothing or no one could tear him away from loyalty to Him. Were the Judaizers willing to suffer for sake of circumcision?

With all the confidence in the world, he could pray a simple benediction over those who read his letter and believed the truth, be they of the first or twenty-first century and everyone in between: “Peace and mercy to all who follow this rule – to the Israel of God.” The true children of Israel, the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, are not those who rigidly try to keep rules but those who adhere to one simple rule – the rule of faith. When faith rules, the heart is at peace in the full assurance of God’s mercy.

Everything that Paul needed to say had been said. It was now up to his readers to believe the truth or leave “The Way” and do their best to undo their sinful past by doing it their way. How tragic that throughout the ages people still disregard the revealed will of God and try to bypass the cross!

We may wear it as an ornament around our necks; we may decorate our churches inside and outside with every shape and size of cross; we may even mark the place where someone lies buried with a cross. In the end, however, if the invisible cross of Jesus has not been the instrument of death to ourselves and our selfish ways, and the beginning of a new life in Christ, the cross will be as meaningless to us as it was to the Roman soldiers who routinely drove nails through the hands and feet of their helpless victims.

“In the cross of Christ I glory

Towering o’er the wrecks of time;

All the light of sacred story

Gathers round its head sublime…

“Bane and blessing, pain and pleasure

By the cross are sanctified;

Peace is there that knows no measure,

Joys that through all time abide…”

(John Bowring – 1825)

http://cyberhymnal.org/i/n/intcross.htm

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.

First The Diagnosis

Christian life, , ,

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.