“Faith is…” Series, Pt. 14 | Faith is… Radiating the Glory of God

The Son radiates God’s own glory and expresses the very character of God… (Hebrews 1:3a)

For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. (Romans 8:29, ESV)

² Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. ³ All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure. (1 John 3:2-3, NIV)

What is the purpose, goal and ultimate end of this life of faith?

I think that we could come up with a wide and varied list of answers to the question. And, I do not think that any of those answers would be wrong or inappropriate. What I would say is that many of our answers would probably be much too shallow to accurately represent how God sees us. To think otherwise might somewhat naive on our part. God’s ultimate purpose for his people must be greater and grander than anything we could even conceive. If it is something that we could conjure up in our own minds and hearts we would be able to make ourselves equal to God.

The power of God to transform us from what we are to what he intends for us to be is something truly amazing. I say this, and I know that I do not fully understand what I am thinking. Just imagining a time in my future where I will be perfect. Where every action, thought and word will be correct. Thinking about a time where I will no longer be the source of pain or suffering to those I care for most. That I will no longer make a mistake in judgment that will bring about negative or unintended consequences to those I have never met. That truly is a wonderful thought. I can only dream about what that will be like

Over the course of this series I have hoped to expand our understanding of faith. Knowing what something is can help us to live better and choose better. But, faith is not like most other subjects. Faith, unlike many other things in life, is something that comes from God and works its way through us. Faith is dependent on an object. It is impossible to have faith in nothing. That is a contradiction in ideas. Faith always points to something outside of itself.

What I have come to realize is that our faith, this faith in Jesus, is not something that we strive for. While there are times that we can talk about pushing into our faith, or holding onto faith, the Christian faith is of a different nature. Faith in Christ takes hold of us, it pulls us forward, it calls us to go deeper. Christian faith is not something that has be fabricated from within. Christian faith is poured in from without because the object of our faith is so compelling, so transforming that it provokes action.

This begs the question, “Why do we not see this more often in those of us that profess faith in Jesus?”

I think that the major reason is that we have not accepted the fact about one of the most important effects of our faith in our lives. That effect is that God desires to make us like Christ in every way. And, one of the most compelling ways that we are made like Christ is to radiate the very glory of God to the world. At no point are we to point to ourselves or our won glory.

Fundamentally what this means is that at the center of our lives is not what is at the center of Jesus’ life. Everything that Jesus did he did because that was exactly what God wanted him to do. Everything that Jesus said was exactly what God wanted him to say. Jesus and God were so close together that Jesus described the relationship between himself and the Father as being one (John 10:30). I know the theological realities that this statement was pointing to. However, it would be a terribly short-sighted perspective to dismiss the relational reality that Jesus is describing.

Do you remember Jesus prayer for the disciples and all disciples to follow? Jesus prayed that we would all be one. How? Just like Jesus relationship with God the Father. John captured Jesus’ prayer on this issue and recorded it in John 17:

²⁰ “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, ²¹ that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. ²²The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, ²³ I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. ²⁴ Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. ²⁵ O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me. ²⁶ I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.” (John 17:20-26, ESV, emphasis added)

I highlighted one phrase of this passage, but the entire paragraph is so rich with implications about what God desires for us to become because of our faith in the Son of God. It would take more space than is available here to explore what this means. Just read and re-read that paragraph a couple of times and see how Jesus joins together, not only his life with that of the Father’s, but also how Jesus joins our lives with God’s life.

Everything that God desires for the Son, he desires to be seen in those that are becoming like Jesus. The closer we draw to Jesus and the closer we walk with Jesus, the more like him we will become. The more we become like Jesus, the more like him we will be in radiating the glory of God to the world.

“Faith is…” Series, Pt. 13 | Faith is… Receiving the Righteousness of God

For our sake [God] made [Jesus] to be sin [even though Jesus] knew no sin, so that in [Jesus] we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:21, ESV)

I will say this from the word go. If you can wrap your mind around this you will be well on your way to living a life that is pleasing to the Lord. If, however, you are like me, then you may struggle to make sense of how it could be possible for us to receive the righteousness of God in Christ.

This is possibly one of the most loving and compassionate verses of scripture in the Bible. It reveals the motivation in God’s heart toward us. Paul is telling us that as we go out into the world as ambassadors for Jesus what we are telling the world is that God has done something so awesome, so mind blowing that if we really thought about it we would break out into spontaneous praise! There are several key points of interest in this ONE verse that I want to highlight. I will break it down so that we can appreciate what Paul is saying.

1. Why?: “For our sake…”

Paul is saying that the reason that God has acted in the way that he did; the reason that we are the beneficiaries of God’s unmerited favor is because God was thinking about us from the beginning. This does not make us the center of God’s affections. What this describes is that the reason for Jesus dying was because God knew, understood and accepted the fact that without Jesus death there would be no life for anyone.

It was for OUR sakes that Jesus came.

It was for OUR sakes that Jesus lived.

It was for OUR sakes that Jesus died.

It was for OUR sakes that Jesus was raised again on the third day.

This is the why of Jesus entire life and ministry on earth. It was for our sakes! This cannot be understated, overstated, minimized or made too important. What Jesus did is beyond comparison. What Jesus accomplished can never be duplicated. What Jesus did can never be undone.

2. Who?: “God made…”

There is nothing in salvation that can be attributed to my efforts as a sinner. There is nothing that I can contribute to the process or the event. Salvation is such a gift from God that God did not and does not see fit to entrust me with any aspect of it. He knows that if I were to lay my hands on salvation I would so damage it that it would become useless. Not sure about this? Look at what Peter has to say on the subject. (What a wonderful passage of promise!)

³ Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, ⁴ to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, ⁵who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. (1 Peter 1:3-5, ESV, emphasis added)

The wonder of God’s love is that he secures the grace and salvation that he provides. He is unwilling that anyone should lose what he has carefully provided through the death of his Son. God does not even trust me to maintain it. God does that himself. This is grace through and through, from beginning to end.

3. How?: “made [Jesus] to be sin [even though Jesus] knew no sin…”

Right here, at this point we run into one of those theological puzzles. How is it that God has provided for us what we need more than anything else, his righteousness? The Scripture says that Jesus was made to be sin. The idea was that Jesus became sin. Not that Jesus committed a sin; not that Jesus sinned, but that somehow he became the very thing that I am, without actually being guilty of doing anything wrong.

I think you are beginning to see the difficulties here. How is this possible? There is a concept that we have to understand. It is described by a big word, but is can be understood rather easily. The concept is imputation. According to Theopedia “Imputation is used to designate any action or word or thing as reckoned to a person.” If you think of it this way it might help. I love to smear butter on a freshly baked dinner roll. The butter is not a part of the roll, but when I take the knife and I apply the butter, I imputed the butter to the bread.

This is the idea. Jesus did not change who he was, but something was added to him that was not his, in this case the sin of the whole world. This is why Paul says that God made Jesus to be sin, because if God had not, Jesus could not die as our substitute and redeem us from the very sin that was condemning us to hell. This is the miracle of Jesus’ life.

There is a great book by Peter Lewis, The Glory of Christ. In it he writes these amazing few sentences describing what was taking place when Jesus showed up on the scene as a human being, just like you and me.

“It comes to this: for our salvation it is as necessary that the Son of God be truly and fully human as that He be truly and fully divine. If this humanity is less than full and true, then he is inadequate as a mediator, incompetent as a sympathizer and disqualified as a redeemer. If (save for sin) He is not all that we are in our uttermost humanity, the He cannot perfectly represent us either in His life or in His death. If He does not descend to us from God, the He cannot lift us up to God.” (pg. 142)

The wonder and mystery of the incarnation is the linchpin that makes our redemption possible and sure. In the incarnation, God paved the way to the cross. And at the cross, Jesus became guilty of something he never did, your and my sin.

4. Where?: “so that in [Jesus]…”

As we move from the “Why” to the “Who” and pass through the “How” we arrive at the “where.” Where is it that God places us after Jesus has taken our place on the cross? This short clause packs a powerful punch in answering that for us. Listen to where God has put us. God has put us in him. But how can it do that? He can do that because that is what the plan was. Those two words, “so that,” right there are the arrows point to God’s design. But, what do those two words mean? What they mean is that

Based on what has been said before, what comes after IS GUARANTEED!

Do not miss that. Do not read this truth and just pass along as if something ordinary has happened!

This is the power of what is happening here in this verse. The reason that God is able to give to us what rightfully belongs to Jesus is because Jesus took from us what rightly belonged to us and made it his own. We are heading toward heaven because Jesus punched the ticket with a blood-soaked nail. This is not a cheap fare. The Gospel moves us from the Glory of God to the Grace of God. The journey from glory to grace goes right through the terrible door of the Judgment of God that falls directly upon Jesus.

The second part of this clause is that all of this takes place “in Jesus.” And here is where true Christianity is separated from all other religions, philosophical systems and ideologies of the world. If a person does not come to Jesus, trust in Jesus, hold to Jesus and rely on Jesus all of the benefits of God’s righteousness will not be enjoyed. And what’s worse they will never be applied to the sinner’s account.

Salvation in Christ is conditional. All of salvation depends on our staying in Jesus and only Jesus.

5. What?: “we might become the righteousness of God.”

This is the great truth of the Gospel. The Gospel, I believe answers this question: What is the ultimate goal of God’s redemption plan? The Gospel preaches Christ crucified, buried and raised so that we may become sons and daughters of God. So that we might become heirs and joint heirs with Jesus. So that we might be transformed, conformed, and renewed in every area of life. But, all of this presupposes that we are now something different. What we have become has changed. FOREVER!

God’s plan for salvation was not an afterthought. God knew what it was going to take to redeem a fallen human race. And Jesus willingly stepped down from his thrown at the right hand of God and stepped into the finite, fallen world of sinners. At the heart of this act of undefiled love is the understanding that without sacrifice the price of salvation would never have been paid. Without out Jesus’ death there is no imputed righteousness.

Conclusion

Faith in Christ, the kind of faith that sets a person free from sin, fear and all of the traps that lead to bondage can only come when we freely receive the righteousness of God. It is not something that can be won, earned or coerced. It must be enjoyed, plain and simple. To do otherwise is to jeopardize living into the full reality of God’s grace. Don’t make that mistake.

Receive what has been given. And, then do what you should be doing already, leave it all in God’s hands.

“Faith is…” Series, Pt. 12 | Faith is… Caring for the People of God

So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith. (Galatians 6:10, ESV, emphasis added)

For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. (1 John 3:11, ESV)

Faith is not just what we have inside of us. Faith must find its way out of us into the world in which we live. One of the areas where we must not forget to extend the grace that we have received is to those who are a part of our community of faith. Paul plainly tells us that we should love one another and that we must not miss the opportunities to do good to those of the “household of faith.” It would seem that Paul believed that it was easy to miss. As in most cases, the most familiar things are most often taken for granted.

If we cannot help one another, whom we know and see on a regular basis, how are we ever going to convince anybody else that we care for them? What we will create is a consumption-based relationship. People will come and receive from us because we are willing to give, but true and deep relationship will not be a part of our time together. The heart of the church is the joining of the hearts of its members.

This truth of our faith is an outgrowth of what Jesus taught the disciples. Without a caring church there will be no power in the testimony of the church in and to the world. Jesus’ clearest example shows that if we are not growing and participating in loving actions toward one another, our witness will amount to nothing.

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. (John 13:34-35, ESV)

Paul also joins in and expands on this point and lets us know that it is possible to fulfill God’s law when we love one another as Christ loves us. The idea here is not that we can do now what we could not do before without Jesus. What this next statement points to is that the purpose of the law was to help us love one another. Unfortunately, the law had the opposite effect on us.

Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. (Romans 13:8, ESV)

And again Paul says,

Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. (Romans 12:10, ESV)

John goes so far as to say that our love for one another is evidence of the very existance of God when he says,

No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us. (1 John 4:12, NLT)

God has chosen to use the bonds of love between members of the body of Christ as evidence of the Gospel, his existence and his ability to change the human heart. Too often we stop short of saying this. If we accepted this as a part of our faith and calling much of the bickering that we see in our churches would have to stop. But, this would mean that we had to live out the love that Jesus demonstrated toward us. We cannot fake this kind of love. We cannot behave our way into loving people like Christ loved the church. That is impossible.

Genuine love can only come by a radically changed heart. Only when we are willing to surrender our own desires to do what we want and to choose whom we will love can we begin to love biblically. An this may be where many of us falter. We want to be able to choose whom we love. But, Jesus had something to say about that (Matthew 5:43-48).

There is a question that I now find myself asking regularly. It is based on a Paul’s declaration in Galatians 2:20. This is the question:

Whose life am I living?

If I cannot answer this question I will not be able to move forward into what God desires for me in my life. What is worse is that if I cannot answer this question I have to ask some other questions about the “change” that was borne as a result of my profession of faith. There is a struggle to live a life of faith. This is natural, but which side appears to have the upper hand? Who keeps winning?

The second verse that started our discussion makes a subtle claim that I do not want us to overlook. John is declaring that the message that he and the other disciples took to the world and the nations was and is the same message that was delivered “from the beginning.” It would be somewhat naive to believe that John was thinking only of Jesus’ ministry. John, in his Gospel and in the letters, tends toward an eternal perspective. John, I believe, is pointing us toward the fact that God has always desired to express his love toward his creation. But, that is not enough. An important component of God’s plan was also to have love be the defining reality of all relationships.

The way that the Bible seems to describe the connection between our faith in Christ and our love for one another, there does not appear to be a way to separate the two. If we claim to have faith in God and there is little-to-no evidence of love for those that are also God’s children, then we are walking on dangerous ground. John said in his first letter that this is, in essence, an impossibility. If we love God then we must love one another.

If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. (1 John 4:20, ESV)

Read that verse again. John calls us liars for saying that we love God and then fail to show love toward our brothers!

Based on this verse, how are you doing? You cannot at the same time love God and hate your brothers in the faith. Love is a positive, intentional action toward those you see. There is no such thing as “passive” love. Love is action. Love is movement. Love is alive. Anything less than this betrays the condition of our own hearts.

In closing, I want to offer this prayer for you to consider and pray for yourself. Let it be a guide.

Dear Heavenly Father,

Your love for me is perfect. You demonstrated your love by sending Jesus to live, die, be buried and to rise again on the third day. Help me to feel deep within my heart the weight and power and breadth of your love in Jesus. Help me to take what you have put within me by the power of the Holy Spirit and share it with those who are a part of my family of faith. I know that I may not always like or approve of what they do, but that does not change that I should love them as Christ loved the church.

Father, help me to prove your love for me by loving others. I no longer want to be a liar. I desire for my life and testimony to agree. The only way that this will happen is by trusting in you to transform my heart. I recognize now that this is a daily act and a life-long process. Give me the strength and courage to surrender to your will, your plan and your purposes for my life.

In the name of Jesus the Savior I pray, Amen!

“Faith is…” Series, Pt. 11 | Faith is… Standing on the Word of God

“¹Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand;² By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. ³For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; ⁴And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures.” (1 Corinthians 15:1-4, KJV)

This is, according to Paul’s own understanding, the Gospel of Jesus Christ. One of the things that I am amazed by is that there are a lot of things “missing” from what we have commonly come to believe the Gospel is. There are many things that we must understand about the Gospel, but these come after we have received this simple message and believed what it says.

There are four key aspects that Paul says must be present in order for the Gospel to be “THE” Gospel. Those four revolve around the resurrection of Jesus.

Christ Died
Christ was Buried
Christ rose again on the third day
All this is was done “according to the scriptures.”

Over the last several months I have been coming back to this simple definition of the Gospel. I think that I have found that many time the message that proclaims the redemption of the human soul is not complicated. It is profound. The heart of the Christian faith is a miracle of unprecedented proportions. The entire Christian faith depends on the resurrection being true. If there is no resurrection there is nothing. Paul tells as much when he explains that if Jesus did not rise from the grave, then we all should be pitied (1 Corinthians 15:12-19). If any point of the resurrection account is questioned the entire thing falls apart.

Let’s take a few moments to look at each of these.

1. Christ Died

There are many who do not believe that Jesus actually died. The mystery of God becoming a man in the person of Jesus of Nazareth has been a point of contention for many people. But, to think that God would allow himself to be subjected to the humiliation and horror of death is not something that many are willing to accept. What we have to realize is that if Jesus did not die, we cannot live! His death had to be real and total.

2. Christ was Buried

The death of Jesus was like every other dead. It was total and complete. There was no life left in Jesus body. If it were not true, then Jesus would not be able to provide for us what we needed. Without a substitutionary death, I would not be able to experience the fullness of Christ’s life in me. The reason I can share in Christ’s righteousness is because he fully, completely and perfectly shared in my death.

3. Christ rose again on the third day

If Jesus did not come out of that grave, there is no hope of heaven and fellowship with our heavenly Father. Jesus comforted the disciples by telling them that he was going to prepare a place for them (John 14:1-3). When was that going to take place? After his death and resurrection! That is why the disciples could not make sense of what Jesus was saying. They wanted to follow Jesus, but Jesus let them know that the path that was laid out for him was not one that they could travel with him.

4. All this is was done “according to the scriptures.”

Of the four aspects of the Gospel that are necessary, this last one stands out. It stands out becuase Paul is essentially saying that God has staked his reputation and his “worthiness” as God on his ability to predict and fulfill the resurrection. Everything that happened to Jesus happened exactly how God said that it would. Everything that the Bible has to say about anything hinges on the Resurrection of Jesus having taken place! That seems like a big risk unless it actually happened.

As we have traveled on this exploration of faith, I have found that many times we do not understand the place of God’s Word in the development of faith. God’s provides his word to us to verify and to support everything that he is doing in, through and around us. Whenever we forgo using the word of God as God designed we will find that what we are trying may not work as well as we have planned.

I am thankful that God has awakened me to a this powerful truth. The Word of God, all of the the scriptures are not only sufficient for all that I need, they were designed to fulfill my every need in preparing me for living a life of faith. Paul tells Timothy to never lose sight of this amazing reality.

¹⁶ All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, ¹⁷ that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. (2 Timothy 3:16, ESV)

With each passing day I grow more convinced that the reason the Word of God does not have the effects that it describes is not because it does not work, but because we do not allow it work in us.

“Faith is…” Series, Pt. 10 | Faith is… Satisfied with the Person of God

¹ Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say,"… ⁸ And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. ⁹ But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” ¹⁰ And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.” ¹¹ He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” (Genesis 3:1a, 8-11, ESV)

What was the first sin? It has been described in different ways: pride, greed, ignorance, being deceived. In the end it doesn’t matter what you call the first sin, there is one undeniable reality that remains. At the root of the first sin was a failure to be satisfied by God and God alone.

As we look at what faith is, we must take the time to consider that faith must be pointed at something. Faith that is not moving, or said another way, faith that does not cause us to move is not faith. Faith is an action word. What makes this word different and unique when we talk about it in a Christian sense is that the object of our faith is not a place or state of being. The object of our faith is actually something that is really unexpected. As followers of Jesus and believers in the Gospel of Jesus, the object of our faith is God. God is the only object in all of the universe that is worthy of worship and devotion.

Now that we have the obvious statement out of the way, we have to take this a step further and realize what we are saying. God is not merely the one that calls us to a better life. God is the better life that we are striving to have. God is not merely offering us joy and peace and grace in this life. God is the joy and peace and grace that are lives need. To get to the point: If God is not enough, then nothing else will be either. What we have to see is that as we are looking for the things that God offers to us because of our relationship with Jesus, we fail to see that what God is offering to us is himself.

Look at this statement that Jesus gave to the disciples in John 15:

²⁸ Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. ²⁹ Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. ³⁰ For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30, ESV)

What is the location that Jesus is inviting us to? It is not someWHERE, but rather to someONE. Come to ME. Jesus is not saying that in being physically close to him we will find peace and rest. Jesus is saying that he is the peace and rest and if we are in relationship with him we will have what we are longing for.

I will admit, this is not an easy subject to think about or consider. But, we have to take the time to understand what this means for us. I don’t remember who said this first or who said it to me, but it has never left me. It goes like this, “We are so busy looking at God’s hands, that we have stopped looking at God’s face.” I don’t know about you, but this is very true of me. I can fall into the “give me” game that I forget that what God is interested is in the “with me” game. God wants us to be with him.

This is the sad scene that we find in Genesis 3. God has created paradise, but that is not enough. God has given freedom, but that is not enough. God has given them responsibility, but that is not enough. God has given them pleasure, and that is not enough. God has given himself, and we see that even this does not satisfy the first couple. Why was it so “easy” to trick and trap Adam and Eve into sin? It was easy because when we are given everything we want, we think that there is more to be had. There was nothing missing in Eden. Everything that they could have ever wanted was there, but in an attempt get more they lost it all. We still haven’t figured that out. We still are trying to exceed the boundaries of God’s love and grace.

There it is. The great sin is not that Adam and Eve disobeyed God. I am not diminishing this. The great sin was that they believed that they needed more than what God has provided for them. As we walk this path of faith, we must recognize that faith is not the ever increasing experience of new things. Faith is the simple delight in the same thing, in this case, God himself. God is the only thing, and he is also everything.

Where are you? Have you allowed the extravagant opportunities of this world distract you from the simple joy of fellowship with God? Has your heart been dulled by the constant barrage of stimuli offered to every sense? What is it that is keeping you distracted from looking forward to those moments spent with God in the “cool of the day”? Until we allow God to satisfy our every need, longing, desire and appetite we will struggle to live the abundant life that Jesus promised.

Faith is… totally and unashamedly satisfied with the Person of God.

“Faith is…” Series, Pt. 9 | Faith is… Surrendering to the Will of God

³⁹And he came out and went, as was his custom, to the Mount of Olives, and the disciples followed him. ⁴⁰ And when he came to the place, he said to them, “Pray that you may not enter into temptation.” ⁴¹ And he withdrew from them about a stone’s throw, and knelt down and prayed, ⁴² saying, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.” ⁴³ And there appeared to him an angel from heaven, strengthening him. ⁴⁴ And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly; and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground. ⁴⁵And when he rose from prayer, he came to the disciples and found them sleeping for sorrow, 46 and he said to them, “Why are you sleeping? Rise and pray that you may not enter into temptation.” (Luke 22:39-45, ESV)

One of the most difficult realities of the Christian journey is this: It’s not about me. Jesus did not die so that I could have everything I ever wanted. God did not orchestrate the greatest rescue mission in the history of the cosmos so that we could gather around dinner tables and reminisce about how bad it was “out there” before we were rescued. This kind of thinking goes in the face of what the bible teaches and, more importantly, it diminishes the worth and glory of God. Any and every failure on our part to live our lives according to the sacrifice of Christ is a travesty and an insult to God’s grace and love.
Continue reading ““Faith is…” Series, Pt. 9 | Faith is… Surrendering to the Will of God”

“Faith is…” Series, Pt. 8 | Faith is… Yearning for the Presence of God

¹⁰ For a day in your courts is better
     than a thousand elsewhere.
I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God
     than dwell in the tents of wickedness.
¹¹ For the LORD God is a sun and shield;
     the LORD bestows favor and honor.
No good thing does he withhold
     from those who walk uprightly.
¹²O LORD of hosts,
     blessed is the one who trusts in you! (Psalm 84:10-11)

If I had to pick one thing that should be the greatest desire for the follower of Jesus it would have to be this:

Believers in Jesus yearn to be in the presence
of God more than anything else.

For some this may be a bit much. How could this or why should this be the “greatest” desire that we hold as believers?

As I have thought about what “Faith” is I do not see how we can avoid this. What is it that we should want for ourselves? Should it not be what God our father wants for us? Should it not be to have, right now, the eternal fellowship that He has promised. The way that we think about what this means will depend on how we understand God and our relationship with him.

Continue reading ““Faith is…” Series, Pt. 8 | Faith is… Yearning for the Presence of God”

“Faith is…” Series, Pt. 7 | Faith is… Consummating the Mission of God

“²⁴ Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church, ²⁵ of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God that was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known, ²⁶ the mystery hidden for ages and generations but now revealed to his saints. ²⁷ To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. ²⁸Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ. ²⁹For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me. (Colossians 1:24-29)

What does it mean to consummate? Webster defines consummate in this way: “To finish, complete, make perfect or achieve.” So the question that we have to ask ourselves is this: In what way, or in what sense, does God’s Mission need to be completed. What is lacking? Continue reading ““Faith is…” Series, Pt. 7 | Faith is… Consummating the Mission of God”

“Faith is…” Series, Pt. 6 | Faith is… Cultivating the Mind of God

⁵ Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, ⁶ who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, ⁷but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. ⁸And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. (Philippians 2:5-8, ESV)

One of the ideas that the bible strives to communicate is that the way that God operates and the way that God conceives of things is not the same as we do. Now, this may sound like an obvious statement. And, I will grant that on the surface that would be correct. What I want to point out is that this is not the practical reality for most of us who claim the name of Christian. For most people who self-identify as a follower of Jesus, the way that we live out our lives make a significantly different story. We tend to live as if God agreed with, or at the very list tolerates, how we go about the business of life. Because, hey, we are not perfect, right?!

“Faith’s task in the life of the believer is to move closer and closer to the way that God thinks.”

What I have realized is that the primary reason that we have to understand that God operates and processes information and decisions on a different wavelength is because if I do not I will not be able to receive what God gives. The Bible is filled with promises and blessings and curses and God’s perspective is not limited by time, space or consciousness. God comprehends all things perfectly. He sees everything as it should be and works to make it so when it is not that way. Therefore, faith’s task in the life of the believer is to move closer and closer to the way that God thinks. When this happens we are able apprehend much of what God is doing even when we cannot comprehend all that he is doing.

I chose the passage in Philippians because it demonstrates the practical application of what it means to live a life that has cultivated the mind of God. Jesus is our ultimate and final example for everything in life. He is the one that has best demonstrated and actualized a God-centered way of thinking.

Paul in Romans provides us with more of a “cause and effect” kind of definition to this reality.

² Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. (Romans 12:2, ESV)

In the pursuit of a renewed mind what we will be able to discern is the will of God. Now that is not something to be overlooked or minimized. The age old question of every believer has been to know what is the will of God. The implication here is that this awareness will only come when the patterns of thinking that emanate from the world are replaced with those that emerge from God.

One of the key changes that occurs, and I would argue MUST occur, is that the way a Christian thinks must change. This is a non-negotiable of what it means to have faith and be a follower of Christ. We are not here to continue thinking in the patterns of the world. We must become more and more like our Savior having the same mind that Jesus had as he fulfilled God’s will.

“Faith is…” Series, Pt. 5 | Faith is… Crying out to the Heart of God

¹ I mean that the heir, as long as he is a child, is no different from a slave, though he is the owner of everything, ² but he is under guardians and managers until the date set by his father. ³ In the same way we also, when we were children,were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world. ⁴ But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, ⁵ to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. ⁶ And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” ⁷ So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God. (Galatians 4:1-7, ESV)

A Great Gift

Of all of the gifts that Christ has purchased for us through his death, burial and resurrection, adoption may be one of the greatest. I am not trying to categorize the benefits of our fellowship with God. We receive and enjoy them all at once even though our focus may be on one at any given time. What I am trying to demonstrate is that one of the fundamental realities that is true now, that was not true before our faith in Christ is that the very nature of our relationship with God has changed and shifted. We are no longer enemies deserving of wrath and punishment. We are now sons and heirs who are disciplined and restored by a loving father.

A Spiritual Reality

God has chosen to give us all of the rights and privileges that belong to Jesus!

When Paul was teaching the Galatian church about this new relationship with God he used the concept of adoption. This was something that they would have been familiar with, not because of its tender-hearted nature. Adoption had a greater legal implication for Paul’s hearers which we must understand as well.

Most scholars agree that Paul borrowed the concept of adoption from Greek or Roman law. The Jews did not practice adoption, and the word never appears in the Hebrew scriptures. In The Epistle to the Romans, Leon Morris says adoption is “a useful word for Paul, for it signifies being granted the full rights and privileges of [belonging to] a family [in] which one does not belong by nature.” One is not born a Christian; one becomes a Christian. This reminds me of my three-year-old friend Grace, who was not born a Roberts, but became a Roberts when her parents adopted her.

Morris continues, “This is a good illustration of one aspect of Paul’s understanding of what it means to become a Christian. The believer is admitted into the heavenly family,” a family to which the believer has no rights of his or her own. Not only did the concept of adoption help Paul explain how gentiles and Jews could be part of the same family of God, but it also allowed him to emphasize that salvation is not achieved through birthright but through God’s act of grace alone.

An adopted child is received as a gift by her new family, just as the adopting family is a gift to the child. In the same way, the spirit of adoption that Paul commends to the reader is one of gift. It is Paul’s way of describing the gift God gives to us in Christ. [Source]

As Paul considered how to best explain what Jesus had been able to do for the person who trusted in Him, he found this concept of adoption to be one of the clearest. It is important that we do not think of some kind of benevolent activity on the part of God. What God did in bringing us into His family was no small miracle (if there are any small miracles), nor was it something that was provided for us with little effort. The implications of what this means can NOT be exagerated.

By using the word “adoption,” God emphasizes that salvation is permanent for the Christian.

At the heart of this expression of faith is the confidence that God gives to His children. We grow in confidence because we are given access to God himself and not merely some celestial secretary that makes us wait in line.

The Greek word translated “adoption” is huiothesia, and it occurs only five times in the New Testament, all in the Church Epistles (Rom. 8:15, 23; 9:4; Gal. 4:5; Eph. 1:5). According toVine’s Lexicon it means: “the place and condition of a son given to one to whom it does not naturally belong.” Louw and Nida’s Greek Lexicon says: “to formally and legally declare that someone who is not one’s own child is henceforth to be treated and cared for as one’s own child, including complete rights of inheritance.” Huiothesia literally means, “to place as a son.”

… By using the word “adoption,” God emphasizes that salvation is permanent for the Christian, which is why it appears only in the Church Epistles. Some versions translatehuiothesia as “sonship,” but we believe that is not as good as “adoption.” While it is true that someone adopted into the family attains sonship (the status of a son), “adoption” is more accurate to the Greek meaning of the word, and it correctly expresses the fact that the adopted child is permanently placed in the family.

Birth seems so much more desirable than adoption that it is fair to ask why God would even use “adoption.” The answer is that the Romans recognized that when a baby was born, “you got what you got,” whether you liked it or not. This would include the sex of the child, birthmarks, etc. Thus, according to Roman law, a naturally born baby could be disowned from the family. However, people adopting a child knew exactly what they were getting, and no one adopted a child unless that specific child was wanted as a family member, so according to law an adopted child could not be disowned. He or she was permanently added to the family. Many early believers were Roman citizens, and using the word “adoption” was one of God’s ways to let the Church know that He chose the children brought into His family, and they could not be taken from it. The Roman historian William M. Ramsay writes:

“The Roman-Syrian Law-Book…where a formerly prevalent Greek law had persisted under the Roman Empire—well illustrates this passage of the Epistle. It actually lays down the principle that a man can never put away an adopted son, and that he cannot put away a real son without good ground. It is remarkable that the adopted son should have a stronger position than the son by birth, yet it was so.” (W. M. Ramsay, A Historical Commentary on St. Paul’s Epistle to the Galatians, Baker Book House, Grand Rapids, MI, reprinted 1979; p. 353.) [Source]

The Bible clearly teaches us that adoption is the method that God used to bring us into his family. Because of this God has chosen to give us all of the rights and privileges that belong to Jesus! Not only is this incredible, but it should also inspire our faith to cry out our loving father with more earnestness than ever before.

A Personal Story

My dad was raised by his grandmother because he was abandoned by his parents when he was about three years old. I have heard about growing up without a father or a mother and what effect that had on him. When I went to college I majored in Sociology and I began to have a better understanding of the dynamics and results of growing up in families that were not the ideal. You know.. the two parents, two and a half kids, one dog, one cat, and a house with a two car garage kind of family. It was during this time that a greater awareness of what my father could have been emerged.

Is he a perfect man? No, he is not. But, in light of the experiences that shaped and formed my life the one fact I am most thankful for is that my dad had a relationship with Jesus. My dad has said that he has always had a difficult time thinking of God as a father. This is understandable. What helped my dad was that the Bible also talks about relating to God as a friend, and it was this understanding that helped to shape my dad into the man and father that I have had to benefit of knowing and having in my life.

I am so thankful to that Friend of my father’s. Because of Him I never had to wonder or question my dad’s love for me. And because of my earthly father I have never struggled to remember that my heavenly Father’s love is enduring and unchanging.

Faith truly is crying out to the heart of God because God has adopted us into His family and has given us permission to call out to Him.