Tag Archives: live

BLIND, DEAF AND DEAD

BLIND, DEAF AND DEAD

“‘Very truly, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live. For as the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son also to have life in Himself. And He has given Him authority to judge because He is the Son of Man.

“Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear His voice will come out — those who have done what is good will rise to live, and those who have done evil will rise to be condemned.'” John 5:25-29 (NIV).

These are either the words of a lunatic or they are the authoritative words of the Son of God.

John introduced Jesus to his readers as the “Word”. In Hebrew thought this meant God manifest in another form. It was John’s purpose to present Jesus as the Son of God so that all who believe in Him might have life through His name. His claims, therefore, had to be more than the wild babblings of a maniac. What He said had to be backed up by what He was and what He did.

Let’s look at the claims He was making in His attempt to convince His opponents that He was their Messiah. Jesus was doing more than setting out to prove that He was right and they were wrong. He was in a struggle for their lives and their destiny which hung on their acceptance or rejection of His words. 

Jesus had already, early in His ministry, begun to do “signs” to point to the truth of who He was claiming to be. Healing the paralysed man at the pool of Bethesda was His latest sign that had provoked this altercation with His religious opposition. They accused Him of breaking the Sabbath and calling God His Father, making Himself equal with God.

His response was shocking to them. Not only was He calling God His Father, but now He was also asserting that He was doing the things only God can do because the Father had given Him the authority to do them, for example, to Him was given the power to raise the dead, the authority to judge and equal honour with the Father. He even went as far as to declare that those who heard His word and believed in the Father would step over into the realm of eternal life.

The dead, both those who have already passed on and those who are alive in the natural realm but dead to the dimension of God, will hear His voice and those who respond to Him will cross over into an eternal life in His kingdom and under His authority because He is the Son of Man. Now that’s a loaded statement!

Jewish people, schooled in the Word of God, would immediately recognise that Jesus was referring to the book of Daniel where, in Daniel’s vision in chapter 7, he saw “one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into His presence. He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all nations and peoples of every language worshiped Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and His kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.” Daniel 7:13, 14 (NIV), and Jesus was claiming to be the fulfilment of that prophecy!

It’s no wonder His opponents were incensed by His words. They could not see the truth because they were blinded by their prejudice and their unwillingness to face their own wickedness and open their eyes and hearts to the truth.

They did not understand that Jesus was offering them, His avowed enemies, the opportunity to align themselves with Him and become part of the glorious kingdom He was introducing to His people. They persistently shut their minds to the truth of who He was and forfeited the greatest gift of all — life in union with Jesus in the presence of God in an eternal now and under His benevolent rule.

The same invitation is open to everyone who is willing to see beyond his/her own prejudice to the reality that Jesus is the Son of God and that His offer of eternal life is genuine because He is the truth and He spoke the truth.

Do you believe that Jesus is the Son of God? Have you submitted to His rule in your life?

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.

THE JUST SHALL LIVE BY FAITH

THE JUST SHALL LIVE BY FAITH

. . . The righteous person will live by his faithfulness (Hab. 2: 4b).

I cannot leave this verse without giving it fuller treatment because of its importance in Scripture.

“This great principle – “the just shall live by faith” – so inflamed the soul of Martin Luther that it became the watchword of the Reformation. It occurs first here in the small prophecy of Habakkuk but is then quoted three times in the New Testament. The term “just”, of course, means “justified” or “righteous”. God says a person is enabled to live righteously by his faith.” http://www.icr.org/article/just-shall-live-by-faith/

Paul’s first reference to Hab. 2:4, found in Rom. 1: 17, highlights God’s way of achieving righteousness. It comes through the gospel of God’s salvation. God’s righteousness is revealed through the gospel, a righteousness that is received as a free girt through faith. The great theme of Romans is God’s righteousness. How can a holy God forgive and receive sinners into His presence?

Through the atoning sacrifice of His Son, Jesus, He has revealed His justice in punishing sin, and at the same time justifying the sinner, absolving us from all guilt because the debt has been paid by one who had no sin of His own. His justice has been fully satisfied. He is free to impute righteousness to those who are unrighteous and receive us back into His family as His beloved sons and daughters.

Paul’s second reference to Hab. 2:4 is found in Gal 3:13, a companion letter to his letter to the Romans. Galatians was written to deal with a serious error that was being broadcast by a group of Jewish believers called Judaisers. They were insisting that Gentile believers be circumcised first before they could become Christians and identify with the church. Paul was adamant that anything added to faith in Christ for salvation nullified God’s grace and put them back under the law.

Just as they could only be counted as righteous through faith in Christ, so they could only be declared innocent through faith in Him. The two truths are closely linked. Without justification which we receive by faith in Christ’s finished work and the righteousness which He freely gives us through the same faith, we cannot approach and have fellowship with a holy God. We can do nothing to absolve ourselves from guilt and the punishment we deserve for our imperfection in God’s sight. He did it all to bring us back to Himself, and we receive it by faith and act on what He has done for us.

The third reference, Heb. 10: 38, emphasizes the importance of the life that flows from faith in what God has done for us. It leads into chapter 11, the great “faith” chapter in which the writer gives a resume’ of the heroes of the faith who obeyed God because they believed in Him. Faith that does not issue in obedience is sterile and useless.

Paul emphasised faith as the basis for salvation. James emphasised “works” as the evidence of faith. The two themes go hand in hand. Jesus applauded Zaccheus because he bore witness to the change in his heart by his willingness to make restitution for his greed and dishonesty.

The point of this revelation to Habakkuk was that every individual must take responsibility for what he does and the way he lives. Those who, like the Babylonians, were cruel and ruthless were accountable to God for what they did not only to God’s people but to all people. The problem was the attitude of their hearts. They treated others with contempt as lesser beings than themselves and thus they wiped them out or enslaved them with impunity. They would not “live” in the sense that their wickedness would take them to an eternal “death”.

Those who, by faith in God, live in dependence on Him, will be reckoned as righteous and will continue to experience true life when they pass from this life. Righteousness is imputed to those who believe God’s promises.

Abraham believed the Lord and it was credited to him as righteousness (Gen. 15: 6).

It does matter what we believe because our destiny depends on believing what God has done for us and living our lives on the basis of His promise.

“Those who by faith are righteous, shall live.”

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 Just Shall Live By Faith

THE JUST SHALL LIVE BY FAITH

. . . The righteous person will live by his faithfulness (Hab. 2: 4b).

I cannot leave this verse without giving it fuller treatment because of its importance in Scripture.

“This great principle – “the just shall live by faith” – so inflamed the soul of Martin Luther that it became the watchword of the Reformation. It occurs first here in the small prophecy of Habakkuk but is then quoted three times in the New Testament. The term “just”, of course, means “justified” or “righteous”. God says a person is enabled to live righteously by his faith.” http://www.icr.org/article/just-shall-live-by-faith/

Paul’s first reference to Hab. 2:4, found in Rom. 1: 17, highlights God’s way of achieving righteousness. It comes through the gospel of God’s salvation. God’s righteousness is revealed through the gospel, a righteousness that is received as a free girt through faith. The great theme of Romans is God’s righteousness. How can a holy God forgive and receive sinners into His presence?

Through the atoning sacrifice of His Son, Jesus, He has revealed His justice in punishing sin, and at the same time justifying the sinner, absolving us from all guilt because the debt has been paid by one who had no sin of His own. His justice has been fully satisfied. He is free to impute righteousness to those who are unrighteous and receive us back into His family as His beloved sons and daughters.

Paul’s second reference to Hab. 2:4 is found in Gal 3:13, a companion letter to his letter to the Romans. Galatians was written to deal with a serious error that was being broadcast by a group of Jewish believers called Judaisers. They were insisting that Gentile believers be circumcised first before they could become Christians and identify with the church. Paul was adamant that anything added to faith in Christ for salvation nullified God’s grace and put them back under the law.

Just as they could only be counted as righteous through faith in Christ, so they could only be declared innocent through faith in Him. The two truths are closely linked. Without justification which we receive by faith in Christ’s finished work and the righteousness which He freely gives us through the same faith, we cannot approach and have fellowship with a holy God. We can do nothing to absolve ourselves from guilt and the punishment we deserve for our imperfection in God’s sight. He did it all to bring us back to Himself, and we receive it by faith and act on what He has done for us.

The third reference, Heb. 10: 38, emphasizes the importance of the life that flows from faith in what God has done for us. It leads into chapter 11, the great “faith” chapter in which the writer gives a resume’ of the heroes of the faith who obeyed God because they believed in Him. Faith that does not issue in obedience is sterile and useless.

Paul emphasised faith as the basis for salvation. James emphasised “works” as the evidence of faith. The two themes go hand in hand. Jesus applauded Zaccheus because he bore witness to the change in his heart by his willingness to make restitution for his greed and dishonesty.

The point of this revelation to Habakkuk was that every individual must take responsibility for what he does and the way he lives. Those who, like the Babylonians, were cruel and ruthless were accountable to God for what they did not only to God’s people but to all people. The problem was the attitude of their hearts. They treated others with contempt as lesser beings than themselves and thus they wiped them out or enslaved them with impunity. They would not “live” in the sense that their wickedness would take them to an eternal “death”.

Those who, by faith in God, live in dependence on Him, will be reckoned as righteous and will continue to experience true life when they pass from this life. Righteousness is imputed to those who believe God’s promises.

Abraham believed the Lord and it was credited to him as righteousness (Gen. 15: 6).

It does matter what we believe because our destiny depends on believing what God has done for us and living our lives on the basis of His promise.

“Those who by faith are righteous, shall live.”

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.

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

Available on www.amazon.com or www.kalahari.com in paperback, e-book or kindle format, or order directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com.

Check out my blogsite at www.learningtobeason.wordpress.com

Free, Yet Slaves

FREE, YET SLAVES

Live as free people, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as God’s slaves. Show proper respect for everyone, love the family of believers, fear God, honour the emperor. (1 Peter 2: 16-17)

How could Peter’s readers be both slaves and free?

Slavery in his day was universal and, for the most part, harsh and cruel. Slave-owners were the wealthy elite, and slaves their possessions to do with as they pleased according to their whims and moods. Many slaves bore the scars of severe whippings, often for no legitimate reason. Every slave longed to be free, especially those who were badly treated. Even the thought of slavery was abhorrent to them.

Yet Peter urged his readers to live as slaves of God. Even slaves who believed in Jesus experienced a new freedom in their hearts in spite of their circumstances which they treasured. Why would they want to surrender that freedom to anyone, even to God?  They knew what it felt like to be free from guilt, shame and fear. Their hearts had been freed from these inner slave-drivers through the forgiveness bought by Jesus. Slaves though they were, they would have shuddered at the thought of going back into any kind of inward bondage.

Slave-owners, on the other hand, revelled in their right to treat other human beings just as they chose with no fear of reprisals. They could be kind or cruel as they liked.  Slaves were worth nothing more than any of their other possessions. They had paid good money for them and could squeeze as much work out of them as they could before their strength finally gave out.

But this was not to be the attitude of the believer, both master and slave. That way of doing things belonged to the old life. In fact, living like that was worse slavery than the slavery of the slaves who served them. It was all a matter of the heart. To be a slave to sin was to be dead already even though they still lived. To be free meant to be released from the power of the selfish and self-destructive lives they once lived.

Real freedom does not mean living without boundaries. To the Hebrew, that would be hell. True freedom means living within God’s boundaries. Boundaries are intended to protect, not to restrict. You would not leave your garden gate open and allow your toddler to wander into a busy street. Within minutes, that child’s life would be destroyed.

We humans have the inborn capacity to destroy ourselves because we came into the world with a natural bent towards sin. Self rules from the day of our birth. Selfishness destroys because it enslaves us and drives us to take care of ourselves at the expense of others. Sin always leads to death. Selfishness is at the heart of all sin. Every time we choose ourselves above others, we sin and we drive another nail into our coffins.

What is the solution? ‘Simple,’ said Peter, ‘be God’s slave.’ You have been given the freedom to make different choices now that you have been released from the power of your old nature and given the nature of God. Your old boundaries shut God out and restricted you to self-destructive living. You could not choose to live under God’s truth because you were His enemy. You hated Him and everything He stands for. His very commandments were like a red rag to a bull.

For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, ‘You shall not covet.’ But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of coveting. (Romans 7: 7b-8)

Through God’s mercy and the working of His Holy Spirit, you have been set free from your old nature. You have a new Master, Jesus Christ. His life in you has set you free from sin and death. But you have to put it into practice to make it effective. What does that mean? It means that you have to choose to become who you are, a slave of Jesus.

Slavery to Jesus is voluntary. You are free to choose to live your old way, but if you do, you will be enslaved by sin all over again.

Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey – whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? (Romans 6: 16)

Slavery to God is our escape route from slavery to sin and death. The amazing thing is that slavery to God is the only true freedom!

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

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.