Tag Archives: witness

SECURE!

Christian Life, ,

There’s a channel on my Openview decoder called People’s Planet which is essentially dedicated to conservation and animal programmes. “Monkey Helpline” airs the work of a rescue centre near Durban that cares for injured and orphaned vervet monkeys who fall victim to dogs and vehicles in the urban area.

This facility cares for and raises many orphaned baby monkeys because they are left abandoned through the loss of their mothers in the dangerous urban areas. One gets to see just how well equipped they are for life in the trees from birth by their life in the care of a surrogate mother.

Baby monkeys are born with strong fingers with which they cling to the underside of their mother’s fur. She puts a protective arm around him now and again as she moves on the ground or leaps in the trees. Very seldom does a baby monkey fall except when mother is injured or killed.

I am constantly amazed at God’s intimate provision for every creature He has made so that they fit perfectly into the life and habitat He has made for them.

So carefully has God also planned and created us for now on this earth and for eternity with Him.

However…

Eternal security is often debated among theologians and the rest of us. Once saved, always saved? Can we lose our salvation? Can we be lost if we have been saved?

Like the never-ending debate on election and free will, there are two seemingly irreconcilable sides to the story. The Bible is full of reassurances that He will keep us safe on this earth until we enter our eternal home. Yet, there are also stern warnings against falling away. So, how is it possible that anyone can fall away who is being protected by God’s power in this life?

Once again, there is no easy answer since both sides are true although unexplained. Like the issue of election and free will, we are to believe the truth and leave God to be God in His sovereignty and wisdom.

Deuteronomy 29:29 NLT
[29] “The Lord our God has secrets known to no one. We are not accountable for them, but we and our children are accountable forever for all that he has revealed to us, so that we may obey all the terms of these instructions.”

So, let’s look at what God’s Word has to say so that we can obey rather than question His wisdom.

Firstly, we have every reason to believe that those who trust God and obey His word to the end of their days will be received with joy into His eternal kingdom. The assurance we have is that God holds onto us.

John 10:27-30 NLT
[27]” My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. [28] I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one can snatch them away from me, [29] for my Father has given them to me, and he is more powerful than anyone else. No one can snatch them from the Father’s hand. [30] The Father and I are one.”

What can be more secure than that! God holds us with such a firm grip that no outside force can separate us from Him.

Colossians 3:3 NLT
[3] “For you died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God.”

Romans 8:35, 37 NLT
[35] “Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death?”…
[37] No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us.

No earthly circumstance, however dangerous or threatening, can ever drive a wedge between us and God’s love.

How much more reassurance do we need than this?

Now, let’s look at what Scripture says about the possibility of being lost.

2 Peter 1:10-11 NLT
[10] “So, dear brothers and sisters, work hard to prove that you really are among those God has called and chosen. Do these things, and you will never FALL AWAY. [11] Then God will give you a grand entrance into the eternal Kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”

Does this mean that we can fall away?

Hebrews 6:4-6 NLT
[4] “For it is impossible to bring back to repentance those who were once enlightened—those who have experienced the good things of heaven and shared in the Holy Spirit, [5] who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the power of the age to come— [6] and who THEN TURN AWAY from God. It is impossible to bring such people back to repentance; by rejecting the Son of God, they themselves are nailing him to the cross once again and holding him up to public shame.”

It seems that people can fall away by deliberately turning away.

There is a bridge between being secure and not falling away.

“DO THESE THINGS , and you will never fall away.”

What “things” is Peter referring to?

2 Peter 1:3-9 NLT
[3] “By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know him, the one who called us to himself by means of his marvelous glory and excellence. [4] And because of his glory and excellence, he has given us GREAT AND PRECIOUS PROMISES. These are the promises that enable you to share his divine nature and escape the world’s corruption caused by human desires. [5] IN VIEW OF ALL THIS , MAKE EVERY EFFORT TO RESPOND TO GOD’S PROMISES. Supplement your faith with a generous provision of moral excellence, and moral excellence with knowledge, [6] and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with patient endurance, and patient endurance with godliness, [7] and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love for everyone. [8] The more you grow like this, the more productive and useful you will be in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. [9] But those who fail to develop in this way are shortsighted or blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their old sins.”

Although God’s promises are powerful and true, they are only effective when we believe and apply them to our own lives. Baby monkey is only safe when she clings onto mommy’s fur. Faith is only faith when we activate that faith by clinging to the One who promised.

Galatians 5:19-21 NLT
[19] “When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, [20] idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, [21] envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life WILL NOT INHERIT THE KINGDOM OF GOD.”

Can you see the picture now? We declare the sincerity of our faith in Jesus by our attitude to His Word. He will hold on tightly to those who love Him enough to do what He says.

John 14:21 NLT
[21]”Those who accept my commandments and obey them are the ones who love me. And because they love me, my Father will love them. And I will love them and reveal myself to each of them.”

Forget theology and theological debates!

Our security, then, depends on faithfulness, God’s faithfulness to us and our faithfulness to Him. In partnership, we are assured of a “grand entrance” into His eternal kingdom.

So, again…

2 Peter 1:10-11 NLT
[10] “So, dear brothers and sisters, work hard to prove that you really are among those God has called and chosen. Do these things, and you will never fall away. [11] Then God will give you a grand entrance into the eternal Kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”

Election and free will are not contradictory but work in partnership… God chooses us and we choose Him. So also, our salvation is secure because God holds on to us and we cling by faith to Him.

There is a another aspect we need to consider. Salvation is also a two-way street. Although God chose us before time, when we turn from sin to the Lord in faith, He responds by restoring us to sonship. He makes us alive, forgives our sin, cleanses us from unrighteousness, gives us His own nature, and adopts us into His family as true sons and daughters.

Is it possible, in this new standing with God, that a son or daughter of God, once born again, can never be unborn? That child may become estranged from the Father through his rebellious behaviour but he will always be a son.

Scripture seems to make a distinction between “sons” who live sinful lives, obeying the dictates of the flesh, and children of God who live in obedience to the Holy Spirit. The former will not inherit the kingdom while the latter will receive a grand welcome into the kingdom.

Life in the kingdom includes the promise of rewards for faithfulness, i.e., positions of authority and responsibility in God’s kingdom. Does this mean that God’s children, though saved, will receive no reward in eternity if they persist in sin? We can only ponder these things.

However, John gives us yet another angle to our assurance of eternal security. He makes a case for those who do not sin as a way of life. First, he says that those who walk away were never part of us.

1 John 2:18, 19 NIV
[18] “Dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. This is how we know it is the last hour.”
[19″These people left our churches, but they never really belonged with us; otherwise they would have stayed with us. When they left, it proved that they did not belong with us.”

Apparently, “these people”. refers to those who were “antichrist” because they denied the true humanity of Jesus.

1 John 4:2-3 NLT
[2] “This is how we know if they have the Spirit of God: If a person claiming to be a prophet acknowledges that Jesus Christ came in a real body, that person has the Spirit of God. [3] But if someone claims to be a prophet and does not acknowledge the truth about Jesus, that person is not from God. Such a person has the spirit of the Antichrist, which you heard is coming into the world and indeed is already here.”

John’s test is simple…

1 John 3:7-9 NLT
[7] “Dear children, don’t let anyone deceive you about this: When people do what is right, it shows that they are righteous, even as Christ is righteous. [8] But when people keep on sinning, it shows that they belong to the devil, who has been sinning since the beginning. But the Son of God came to destroy the works of the devil. [9] Those who have been born into God’s family do not make a practice of sinning, because God’s life is in them. So they can’t keep on sinning, because they are children of God.”

…and his test is…

1 John 3:10, 14 NLT
[10]”So now we can tell who are children of God and who are children of the devil. Anyone who does not live righteously and does not love other believers does not belong to God….
[14] If we love our brothers and sisters who are believers, it proves that we have passed from death to life. But a person who has no love is still dead.”

Since the “law” of the New Covenant consists of two commandments in place of the 613 laws of the Old Covenant,

1 John 3:23 NLT
[23] “And this is his commandment: We must believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as he commanded us.”

we can easily recognise those who are God’s true children. These are those who cannot live habitually in sin because…

  1. They have been born again through the Word of God.

1 Peter 1:23 NIV
[23]” For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God.”

  1. They cannot continue in sin because God’s Word (seed) is in them.

1 John 3:9 NIV
[9] “No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in them; they cannot go on sinning, because they have been born of God.”

As a young man, David learned this truth.

Psalms 119:9-11 NIV
[9]”How can a young person stay on the path of purity? By living according to your word. [10] I seek you with all my heart; do not let me stray from your commands. [11] I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.”

So, for John, the case is closed.

Those who believe and receive God’s Word are born again into God’s family. They have God’s Word in them which keeps them from habitual sin. They will not fall away.

Those who do fall away show that they were never born again. They left because they were never part of God’s family.

So, we have the assurance, if we have truly been born from above by the power of God’s Spirit,

1 John 3:1 NIV
[1] “See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!…”

How do we have this assurance?

Romans 8:14-16 NIV
[14] “For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. [15] The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” [16] The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.”

The lives we live either corroborate the witness of God’s Spirit in us or deny that we are truly God’s children.

THE CHURCH, GOD’S “BULLSEYE” – 10c

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Now let’s go back to God’s purpose for the church on earth.

‭Ephesians 3:6 NLT‬
[6] “And this is God’s plan: Both Gentiles and Jews who believe the Good News share equally in the riches inherited by God’s children. Both are part of the same body, and both enjoy the promise of blessings because they belong to Christ Jesus.”

‭Ephesians 3:10-11 NLT‬
[10]”God’s purpose in all this was to use the church to display his wisdom in its rich variety to all the unseen rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. [11] This was his eternal plan, which he carried out through Christ Jesus our Lord.”

The goal of the church is to be God’s showpiece to all of creation. This includes the powers and principalities, led by God’s arch enemy, that attempted to unseat God and take the throne of the universe for themselves. The entire created order of the universe would know by looking at the church, that God’s wisdom in all its variegated facets, prevailed.

Despite all odds, God pulls off a daring plan to overcome every attempt to derail His plan. Since the heavenly powers disqualified themselves by their desire to dethrone God, He created, redeemed and perfected another race, humans, who would be His new “divine counsel”, ruling the nations with Jesus in eternity.

Even the physical world, also corrupted by sin, eagerly awaits the day when all God’s children come of age.

Romans 8:19 NLT‬
[19] “For all creation is waiting eagerly for that future day when God will reveal who his children really are.”

The church, then, has a unique and specific purpose on earth, preparing all its members for their heavenly reign. The Bible gives us three pictures of the church, each of which hones in on one of its functions on earth.

  1. Ephesians 1:23 NLT‬
    [23] And the church is his BODY; it is made full and complete by Christ, who fills all things everywhere with himself.

On one occasion, Jesus encountered a man who wanted to join the disciples to follow Him. Jesus cautioned him with words that have been misunderstood and misrepresented in much preaching.

‭Luke 9:57-58 NLT‬
[57] As they were walking along, someone said to Jesus, “I will follow you wherever you go.” [58] But Jesus replied, “Foxes have dens to live in, and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place even to lay his head.”

Jesus was not saying He was poor. Fixes and birds don’t live in dens and nests. They have babies in dens and nests. He was explaining that, at that moment, He, the head, had no body on which to lay His head so that He could reproduce Himself.

On the day of Pentecost, the church was born and Jesus and His body were connected and completed. Through His body, He would build His church until the full number of Jews and Gentiles are called in.

Thus, the body of Christ, in union with and obedience to Him, would be His representatives on earth. The church would reveal His nature to the world and and call unbelievers to obey the gospel and become part of His body. The church’s function is to WITNESS to Jesus on earth.

‭Acts of the Apostles 1:8 NLT‬
[8] “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere—in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

Through the Holy Spirit in them, they would reflect Jesus to the world.

How? By their supernatural love…

‭John 13:35 NLT‬
[35] “Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.”

… and their supernatural unity…

‭John 17:23 NLT‬
[23]” I am in them and you are in me. May they experience such perfect unity that the world will know that you sent me and that you love them as much as you love me.”

  1. ‭1 Corinthians 3:9 NLT‬
    [9] “For we are both God’s workers. And you are God’s field. You are God’s BUILDING.”

The second picture of the church is a building, set apart for WORSHIP. God’s building is a temple, built out of living stones, in which the Holy Spirit lives, individually and corporately. This temple replaces the physical temple in Jerusalem and becomes the ‘naos’, the Holy of Holies where God and man meet at the Mercy Seat.

‭Hebrews 10:19, 21-22 NLT‬
[19] “And so, dear brothers and sisters, we can boldly enter heaven’s Most Holy Place because of the blood of Jesus. ‭‭
[20] By his death, Jesus opened a new and life-giving way through the curtain into the Most Holy Place.
[21] And since we have a great High Priest who rules over God’s house, [22] let us go right into the presence of God with sincere hearts fully trusting him. For our guilty consciences have been sprinkled with Christ’s blood to make us clean, and our bodies have been washed with pure water.”

‭John 4:23-24 NLT‬
[23] “But the time is coming—indeed it’s here now—when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. The Father is looking for those who will WORSHIP him that way. [24] For God is Spirit, so those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth.”

‭‭ individually, we are God’s temple…

‭1 Corinthians 6:19-20 NLT‬
[19] “Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, [20] for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body.”

…and corporately, the church is God’s temple…

‭1 Peter 2:5 NLT‬
[5] “And you are living stones that God is building into his spiritual temple. What’s more, you are his holy priests. Through the mediation of Jesus Christ, you offer spiritual sacrifices that please God.”

  1. The third picture of the church brings us to the heart of the church – the WOMB. The womb is the centre and purpose of intimacy. A man and a woman are united in marriage to become one to reproduce through their intimacy.

‭Malachi 2:15 NLT‬
[15]”Didn’t the Lord make you one with your wife? In body and spirit you are his. And what does he want? Godly children from your union. So guard your heart; remain loyal to the wife of your youth.”

Intimacy speaks of absolute knowledge, absolute trust, absolute acceptance, and absolute faithfulness.

The church is the BRIDE of Christ, the pure virgin whom He has chosen and perfected for Himself for intimacy. He nurtures her in preparation for the day when they come together as one. Marriage between a man and a woman on earth is to be a picture of the relationship between Christ and His church.

‭Ephesians 5:22-27 NLT‬
[22]” For wives, this means submit to your husbands as to the Lord. [23] For a husband is the head of his wife as Christ is the head of the church. He is the Savior of his body, the church. [24] As the church submits to Christ, so you wives should submit to your husbands in everything. [25] For husbands, this means love your wives, just as Christ loved the church. He gave up his life for her [26] to make her holy and clean, washed by the cleansing of God’s word. [27] He did this to present her to himself as a glorious church without a spot or wrinkle or any other blemish. Instead, she will be holy and without fault.”

Our engagement period is a preparation for marriage during which we separate ourselves from all others and adorn our wedding gown with good works.

‭Revelation 19:7-8 NLT‬
[7] “Let us be glad and rejoice, and let us give honor to him. For the time has come for the wedding feast of the Lamb, and his BRIDE has prepared herself. [8] She has been given the finest of pure white linen to wear.” For the fine linen represents the good deeds of God’s holy people.”

The bridal gown is Jesus’ own righteousness which He gave His bride. She adorns her gown with the jewels of good works, every unselfish deed that shows her love by blessing others.

These three symbolic pictures of the church give us a clearer understanding of the functions of the church during her life in earth. This “composite woman”, made up of all the individuals in Christ’s body, is here to witness, to worship, and to be the womb through which God gives birth to His purposes by impregnating her with the seed of His Word.

Is it any wonder, then, that church is so precious to Jesus that He focuses all His attention on her protection, provision, and purpose in His dealings with the world!

Let me remind you again for your encouragement and hope…

‭Ephesians 1:20-23 MSG‬
[20-23] “All this energy issues from Christ: God raised him from death and set him on a throne in deep heaven, in charge of running the universe, everything from galaxies to governments, no name and no power exempt from his rule. And not just for the time being, but forever. He is in charge of it all, has the final word on everything. At the center of all this, Christ rules the church. The church, you see, is not peripheral to the world; the world is peripheral to the church. The church is Christ’s body, in which he speaks and acts, by which he fills everything with his presence.”

Jesus is working, through His Spirit, in every individual member of the church by His grace so that each one, in his/her uniqueness, becomes a replica of Himself on earth. In this way, like all the pieces in a mosaic which make up a picture, the world will catch a glimpse of the real Jesus. Every small group of people doing life together is a picture of Jesus. So, the church as a whole witnesses to the power in us to overcome selfishness and to be God’s family in the world.

CHECK THE FRUIT!

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CHECK THE FRUIT!

“There was a man sent from God whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light.” John 1:6-8 (NIV).

Don’t you love the way John puts John the Baptist into the correct perspective? If you have travelled with me through Luke’s gospel, you will have seen how Jesus struggled to teach His disciples to interpret what was going on from the perspective of the kingdom of God, but at that time they just didn’t get it. He promised them that things would be different after Pentecost — and they were! Once they had the Holy Spirit in them, they saw things from God’s point of view just like Jesus did.

Although he was a prophet, John the Baptist’s ministry was unique and special. Just in case anyone mistakenly thought that he was the Messiah, John, the writer, assured his readers that John the Baptist was only a witness albeit a powerful one.

How did John the Baptist bear witness to the light? His preaching on repentance had a twofold purpose — to call God’s people back to a life of generosity and service and to prepare them for the coming of the Messiah who would immerse them in the Holy Spirit.

The religious leaders had led the people away from what God wanted into what they thought God wanted, religious people who meticulously kept the minutest details of the law at the expense of loving God by being kind and generous to all people. John’s preaching was fiery and explicit. He called his curious congregation who went to hear what he had to say, “a brood of vipers, a bunch of bastards — fatherless people!”

“Return,” he urged them. “There is someone coming who is far greater than I. My baptism in water is only a preparation for His baptism of fire.” What Jesus was about to do would be like the fire that consumes the chaff that is beaten off the wheat — He would expose and get rid of everything in His people that was incompatible with God – greed, selfishness, unkindness, pride and arrogance. He was not interested in religious rigmarole. He wanted real people who would love God and love their neighbour.

John the Baptist had no desire to promote himself. His only mission was to prepare the way for the coming one by alerting the people to their need to get back to the simplicity of God’s way and to recognise the Messiah when He arrived because He would continue what John began.

“The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through Him, the world did not recognise Him. He came to that which was His own, but His own did not receive him. Yet to all who did receive Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God — children born not of natural descent or a husband’s will but born of God.” John 1:9-13 (NIV).

There is a sad note in John’s story — in spite of what John the Baptist preached and testified to, neither the world at large nor God’s people recognised or acknowledged the Messiah when He came. His own people, who should have known Him because they had been taught His Word from their mother’s breast, refused to receive Him.

Since the day when they were taken into covenant relationship with God at Mount Sinai, they persisted in rebelling against God’s best way to live and going their own way with disastrous consequences; yet they never learned. Now, here they were, repeating history all over again.

Except for a few! In God’s story there are always those, few in number, yes, but true children of God who take what God says seriously, act on it and are welcomed into God’s family as dearly loved children. John hastens to add that this is not about natural birth. The Jews assumed that, because they were born Jews and had been circumcised — an external sign of their Jewishness, they were “in” and everybody else was “out”.

John made sure that he told them that it didn’t work like that. There had to be another “birth”, a supernatural one that brought them back into the family of God and reproduced the character of God in them.

How tragic that this erroneous thinking, (that being born into a Christian family makes them Christians), has crept into the church as well! Some branches of the church bring their babies into the family of God by “Christianising” them and “confirming” that ritual when they are of age and yet they have never been supernaturally “born” into God’s family by receiving Jesus as the Son of God and the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of sonship (Romans 8:14-16). 

Jesus said, “Check the fruit. That’s the real test.”

Acknowledgement

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

PAUL’S DESIRE — GOD’S INTENTION

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PAUL’S DESIRE — GOD’S INTENTION

“First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is being reported all over the world. God, whom I serve in my spirit in preaching the gospel of His Son, is my witness how constantly I remember you in my prayers at all times; and I pray that now at last, by God’s will the way may be opened for me to come to you. I long to see you so that I may impart some spiritual gift to make you strong — that is, that you and I may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith.” Romans 1:8-12.

Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles, took his job seriously. He had been commissioned by his Lord to take the good news to the world. This did not necessarily mean that it was his personal responsibility to preach to every Gentile in the world. That would have been impossible then, even if he had all the technology and all the facilities we have today.

Paul relied on God’s amazing strategy of multiplication. It was God’s plan that the church grow by multiplication, the same strategy that works in nature. In spite of the slow modes of transport then, people, including believers, moved around from place to place and wherever they went, believers spread the story of Jesus.

Some new churches began through the work of faithful men, for example, men like Epaphras, who started the church at Colossae. Other churches sprang up as ordinary believers witnessed to their faith in Jesus as they moved around. No one knows how the church at Rome began but nevertheless Paul felt responsible to visit the believers in Rome, to ensure that they were on the right track and to strengthen them in the face of persecution.

The city of Rome was the hub of the Roman Empire. Paul knew how influential the church there was and it was his task to ensure that they understood and believed the truth of the gospel.  The news of their faith had already spread to the whole world. Paul would not exaggerate lest he be thought a liar. He rejoiced in their faith but he also prayed faithfully for them. They were in the firing line for both persecution and error.

Life for believers anywhere in the empire was an uphill battle. They were the targets of hostility from both Jews and Gentiles and the pernicious false teachings of self-proclaimed “apostles” who twisted the truth or added to it to make it more palatable. Part of Paul’s commission as an apostle was to interpret the events of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection and to teach the infant believers the truth that would steer them through the morass of false teachings.

This responsibility included the churches he did not personally found. The letter to the Roman church was borne in his heart as he battled the Judaisers, Jewish “believers” who insisted that Gentiles first be circumcised before they could embrace Jesus as their Lord. Paul was enraged by any teaching that subtracted from the sufficiency of Jesus for salvation by adding rules and ritual to faith in Him.

The church in the province of Galatia, possibly more than one church group, was hounded by these false teachers and had been taken in by them. Paul wrote a heated and emotional letter to them, pleading with them not to throw away their salvation by adding the law to their faith in Christ. Even submitting to circumcision would disqualify them from receiving God’s grace in Christ.

Paul’s letter to the Romans is like Mount Everest in the mountain range of New Testament letters. Through it, Paul paved the way for his intended visit to them by giving them a detailed explanation of God’s righteousness revealed through justification by faith in Christ alone, no doubt flowing out of his hot defence of the gospel to the Galatian believers. He wanted to see them face-to-face, to connect with them, to fellowship with them and to share his heart with them in person. A letter was good but a personal visit was better.

He was submitted to the will of God, no matter how much he longed to go to Rome. Little did he know, when he penned his letter, that his visit to Rome would be sponsored by the Roman government and his accommodation provided at Rome’s expense right in Caesar’s palace, albeit as a prisoner chained to a Roman soldier! All the better because his witness would spread throughout the palace guard and infiltrate Rome from the very top.

Talk about God’s wisdom in action! Paul may not have thought it up, but he certainly recognised it when it happened. In this masterplan of God, Paul’s desire to visit Rome and God’s plan to take him there, came together.

“Now I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that what has happened to me has actually served to advance the gospel. As a result, it has become clear throughout the whole palace guard and to everyone else that I am in chains for Christ. And because of my chains, most of the brothers and sisters have become confident in the Lord and dare all the more to proclaim the gospel without fear.” Philippians 1:12-14.

Acknowledgement

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

 

THE BOOK OF ACTS – CAUGHT IN THE ACT!

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CAUGHT IN THE ACT!

“One day on my way to Damascus, armed as always with papers from the high priests authorising my action, right in the middle of the day a blaze of light, light outshining the sun, poured out of the sky on me and my companions. Oh king, it was so bright! We fell flat on our faces. Then I heard a voice in Hebrew, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you out to get me? Why do you insist on going against the grain?’

“‘I said, ‘Who are you, Master?’

‘”The voice answered, ‘I am Jesus, the One you’re hunting down like an animal. But now, up on your feet — I have a job for you. I’ve hand-picked you to be a servant and witness to what’s happened today, and to what I am going to show you.'” Acts 26:12-15 (The Message).

Did a day ever go by that Paul did not remember his encounter with Jesus? He remembered every detail as though it had happened yesterday. As he recalled it in the presence of the king, his entourage, the governor and all the dignitaries in the Great Hall that day, he relived those moments, felt the electricity of the Divine Presence once again and melted in the atmosphere of perfect Love.

The words of Jesus were branded on his heart. The Voice, like the sound of a thundering cataract, echoed and re-echoed around the caverns of his mind, supporting and steadying him through every danger and trial he experienced on his journey of life with his Master, and leading him ever on to greater heights of obedient love.

He didn’t care what they accused him of doing, what they said about him or what they tried to do to him. Nothing could change or take away from his encounter with the risen Jesus, from the glory of the Presence that melted his hatred, his anger, his hostility and aggression towards those who believed in Him, and changed him in an instant from a vicious persecutor to a hopeless, helpless, passionate lover of Jesus.

“‘I’m sending you off to open the eyes of the outsiders so they can see the difference between dark and light, and choose light, see the difference between Satan and God, and choose God. I’m sending you off to present my offer of sins forgiven and a place in the family, inviting them into the company of those who began real living by believing in me.'” Acts 26:16-18 (The Message).

Instructions like that should have sent a fanatical Pharisee into a frenzy of protest, had they come from the lips of anyone else than those of his new-found Lord. Go to the Gentiles! Outrageous! Never! But Paul had new eyes and a new heart. Instantaneously he was transformed. He saw, with the eyes of Jesus, the Gentiles as people, not “dogs” or inferior scum to be brushed aside with contempt. Go to the Gentiles? Anything, Lord, if it comes from your lips!

What made the difference for Paul? What should make the difference for us? Not “knowledge” which does nothing to change our hearts. It is only the real, vital, living presence of Jesus that can transform our stony hearts. When we “see” Him, we are changed. When we gaze on Him, we begin to reflect His glory. No work, service, labour, or doing things for Jesus can accomplish what moments of contemplation in His presence can do. There is no substitute for His presence.

Paul saw Him and for the rest of his life he continued to gaze on his Beloved. This is his secret: “And we, who with unveiled faces, all reflect (contemplate) the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into His likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.” 2 Corinthians 3:18 (NIV).