Tag Archives: value

A Hopeless Situation

Bible Study, , ,

A HOPELESS SITUATION

“What advantage, then, is there in being a Jew, or what value is there in circumcision? Much in every way! First of all, the Jews have been entrusted with the very words of God. What if some were unfaithful? Will their unfaithfulness nullify God’s faithfulness?

Not at all! Let God be true, and every human being a liar. As it is written: “So that you may be proved right when you speak and prevail when you judge.”

But if our unrighteousness brings out God’s righteousness more clearly, what more shall we say? That God is unjust in bringing His wrath on us? (I am using a human argument). Certainly not! If that were so, how could God judge the world?” Romans 3:1-6.

Lest his readers thought that being a Jew was of no value at all, Paul quickly showed them that the problem lay, not with the law or with the righteousness of God but with the unfaithfulness of the people who received God’s word. The Jews were highly favoured and privileged to have God’s word. They had the advantage of being in covenant with God and they had the sign of the covenant to prove it.

The problem lay, not with God but with the people. As he has already made clear, having God’s word and being in covenant with Him was of no benefit to them if they did not show it in their daily lives. After all, was it not God’s purpose that, by living out His instructions to His people, they were to show their Gentile neighbours what He is really like?

But then Paul responded to another hypothetical question. Is God not being unjust by judging people who break His law, when their very sinfulness shows up His righteousness?

What kind of logic is that? Do people really think like this? It would be the same as arguing that criminals should not be punished because what they did shows us just how right the government is to make laws that judge wrongdoers!

“Some might argue, ‘If my falsehood enhances His truthfulness and so increases His glory, hy am I still condemned as a sinner?’ Why not say – as some slanderously claim that we say – ‘Let us do evil that good may result.’? Their condemnation is just.” Romans 3:7, 8.

God’s glory is not revealed so much in contrast to human wickedness as in the justice of His judgment. As Paul rightly argues, how can God judge sin if we sin in order to show up His righteousness? This is a very twisted argument, to say the least. Since much of God’s judgment comes to us through the consequences of our wrongdoing, He does not deliberately create bad consequences because He takes delight in punishing us. Consequences are the natural result of overstepping His boundaries.

No parent would tell his small child, “Don’t play in the street. You will be run over by a car,” because he arranged for a car to hit him. He warns his son because of the real danger of it happening. Similarly, God gives us boundaries within which He knows we are safe, and outside of which there is danger because of the very laws which hold the universe together.

The greatest tragedy of all is that people who rebel against God’s laws do not realise that they are not hurting God. They are hurting themselves and wasting their lives when God has so much for them if they would only heed what He says and live within the safety zone.

So, whether a person is a Gentile who has no knowledge of God’s word but has a conscience which he ignores, or a Jew who has God’s covenant and God’s word but does not obey it, the outcome is the same.

“What shall we conclude then? Do we have any advantage? Not at all! For we have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under the power of sin.” Romans 3:9.

Acknowledgement

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Simply Be Yourself

Christian Life, , ,

SIMPLY BE YOURSELF

“‘When you’re invited to dinner, go and sit at the last place. Then when the host comes he may very well say, ‘Friend, come up to the front.’ That will give the dinner guests something to talk about! What I’m saying is, if you walk around with your nose in the air, you’re going to end up flat on your face. But if you’re content to be simply yourself, you will become more than yourself.'” Luke 14:10-11 (The Message).

Strange how pride and self-promotion actually do the opposite of what we want to achieve! Jesus gives us a bit of homely wisdom which may not appear to be important in the bigger scheme of things but it will make a big difference to our lives in the long run. ‘Don’t promote yourself,’ He said, ‘Let someone else recognise who you really are and give you the place of honour.’ When we are so self-absorbed that we see no-one and nothing else, we are likely to trip over our own big feet!

King David, in his teenage years as a shepherd caring for sheep and living close to nature, made a discovery which influenced his whole life and contributed to his greatness as Israel’s model king. He captured his discovery in his most-loved psalm – Psalm 23. We miss the impact of what he was saying in the translation. “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not be in want,” is so familiar to us that we are comforted by the promise of God’s faithful provision for all our needs. But why should we be amazed that God does what He said He would do because He is who He is – a loving and caring Father?

The underlying thought in this observation is far more significant than God’s faithful provision for His children, as great a promise as that is for us. God is far more interested in who we are than in our circumstances. Let’s explore the deeper meaning of David’s words. “The Lord is my authority (implying that He has the last word – no-one can contradict or oppose Him); therefore I shall never be diminished.”

God is all for giving us understanding of who we really are. Our sin nature has an inbuilt capacity to diminish us in our own estimation and Satan has a field day with our ‘self-worth’. We have to bolster it up by self-importance and self-promotion, like the person who elbows his way to the top of the table. Jesus assures us, ‘You don’t need to do that because your real worth lies in who you are, not where you sit or who notices you.’

We evaluate ourselves, very often, by the way we feel, and our feelings follow our interpretation of events. For example, a woman who was molested as a child feels dirty, guilty and responsible for what happened to her. She interprets her worth according to her feelings and, consequently, diminishes herself and believes that everyone else diminishes her as well.

When Israel was in slavery in Egypt, they were diminished to the status of ‘property’ and were treated like possessions to be handled by their slave-owners as they chose. God had to re-educate His people to the realisation that they were people, not possessions and precious and beloved to Him. His first promise, hidden in the words of His preamble to the Ten Commandments (“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of slavery, out of the land of slavery…”), has this assurance hidden in the Hebrew words, ‘Your authority grows inside the boundary of your submission and worship’. In other words, ‘As long as you submit to and worship me as your God, you will never be diminished.’

There’s the key to understanding who we really are, not in the attention and accolades we seek from so-called ‘important’ people (who are they really but ordinary people like ourselves), but in the value God puts on us as His sons and daughters, created in image to reflect Him. And so Jesus concludes, ‘If you’re content to be simply yourself, you will become more than yourself’.