Timothy Keller Quotations

Yesterday the world lost author, apologist, church planter and pastor Tim Keller. Although his many books have been very influential, his first was published only 15 years ago. Someone suggested that before getting involved with publishing, he waited to better express the message he wished to share with the world.

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The gospel is this: We are more sinful and flawed in ourselves than we ever dared believe, yet at the very same time we are more loved and accepted in Jesus Christ than we ever dared hope.

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I asked her what was so scary about unmerited free grace? She replied something like this: “If I was saved by my good works — then there would be a limit to what God could ask of me or put me through. I would be like a taxpayer with rights. I would have done my duty and now I would deserve a certain quality of life. But if it is really true that I am a sinner saved by sheer grace — at God’s infinite cost — then there’s nothing he cannot ask of me.”

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If Jesus rose from the dead, then you have to accept all that he said; if he didn’t rise from the dead, then why worry about any of what he said? The issue on which everything hangs is not whether or not you like his teaching but whether or not he rose from the dead.

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To find God we must repent of the things we have done wrong, but if that is all you do you may remain just an elder brother. To truly become Christians we must also repent of the reasons we ever did anything right. Pharisees only repent of their sins, but Christians repent for the very roots of their righteousness, too. We must learn how to repent of the sin under all our other sins and under all our righteousness — the sin of seeking to be our own Savior and Lord. We must admit that we’ve put our ultimate hope and trust in things other than God, and that in both our wrongdoing and right doing we have been seeking to get around God or get control of God in order to get hold of these things.”

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God’s grace and forgiveness, while free to the recipient, are always costly for the giver…. From the earliest parts of the Bible, it was understood that God could not forgive without sacrifice. No one who is seriously wronged can “just forgive” the perpetrator…. But when you forgive, that means you absorb the loss and the debt. You bear it yourself. All forgiveness, then, is costly.

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To be loved but not known is comforting but superficial. To be known and not loved is our greatest fear. But to be fully known and truly loved is, well, a lot like being loved by God. It is what we need more than anything. It liberates us from pretense, humbles us out of our self-righteousness, and fortifies us for any difficulty life can throw at us.

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Love without truth is sentimentality; it supports and affirms us but keeps us in denial about our flaws. Truth without love is harshness; it gives us information but in such a way that we cannot really hear it. God’s saving love in Christ, however, is marked by both radical truthfulness about who we are and yet also radical, unconditional commitment to us. The merciful commitment strengthens us to see the truth about ourselves and repent. The conviction and repentance moves us to cling to and rest in God’s mercy and grace.

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Christians will not, interestingly, benefit society if they’re just like everybody else in society. We’re not going to benefit a society filled with self-actualizers unless we really are different, unless we do believe Jesus died for us, unless we do believe that we live through the self-sacrifice of the great Jesus Christ, and therefore we’re going to live by self-sacrifice. You see, unless we are shaped deeply by that, then we’re really not going to be of any kind of benefit.

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An idol is anything more important to you than God. Anything that absorbs your heart and imagination more than God. Anything you seek to give you what only God can give. Anything that is so central and essential to your life, that should you lose it, your life would feel hardly worth living.

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The secret to freedom from enslaving patterns of sin is worship. You need worship. You need great worship. You need weeping worship. You need glorious worship. You need to sense God’s greatness and to be moved it — moved to tears and moved to laughter — moved by who God is and what he has done for you.

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Most of all the psalms, read in light of the entire Bible, bring us to Jesus. The psalms were Jesus’s songbook. The hymn that Jesus  sang at the Passover meal (Matthew  26:30; Mark 14:26) would have been the Great Hallel, Psalms 113–118. Indeed, there is every reason to assume that  Jesus  would have sung all the psalms, constantly, throughout  his life, so that he knew them by heart. It is the book of the Bible that he quotes more than any other. But the psalms were not simply sung by Jesus; they also are about him, as we will see throughout this volume.

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God directs his people not simply to worship but to sing his praises “before the nations.” We are called not simply to communicate the gospel to nonbelievers; we must also intentionally celebrate the gospel before them

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If a person has grasped the meaning of God’s grace in his heart, he will do justice. If he doesn’t live justly, then he may say with his lips that he is grateful for God’s grace, but in his heart he is far from him. If he doesn’t care about the poor, it reveals that at best he doesn’t understand the grace he has experienced, and at worst he has not really encountered the saving mercy of God. Grace should make you just.

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It’s not that you think less of yourself, it’s that you think of yourself less.

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When pain and suffering come upon us, we finally see not only that we are not in control of our lives but that we never were.

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It is remarkable that in all of his writings Paul’s prayers for his friends contain no appeals for changes in their circumstances.

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Human beings are so integral to the fabric of things that when human beings turned from God, the entire warp and woof of the world unraveled …We have lost God’s shalom — physically, spiritually, socially, psychologically, culturally. Things now fall apart.

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The irony is that many conservative Christians, most concerned about conserving true and sound doctrine, neglect the importance of prayer and make no effort to experience God, and this can lead to the eventual loss of sound doctrine… Christianity without real experience of God will eventually be no Christianity at all.

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Tim Keller on Romans 8:28

Romans 8 is all about living in a suffering world marked by brokenness… Verse 28 says: For those loving him, God works together all things for good. …Earlier in Romans 8, Paul discusses how things fall apart because the world is burdened with evil and sin. Things are subject to decay. Everyone will eventually experience the decay of their bodies; that’s the nature of things. The little grains of sand on the beach used to be a mountain. Everything falls apart; things do not come together.

This verse tells Christians to get rid of the saccharine, sentimental idea that things ought to go right, that things do go right, and that it’s normal for things to go right. Modern, Western people believe that if things go wrong, we should sue, because things ought to go right. But Christians have to discard that idea completely.

Christians have to recognize that if our health remains intact, it is simply because God is holding it up. If people love us, if someone is there to hug us or squeeze our hand, if someone loves us in spite of all our flaws—if someone loves us at all—it’s because God is bringing all things together. God is holding it up. Everything that goes well is a miracle of grace.

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Previously at Christianity 201:

• Tim Keller on Jesus in the Old Testament
• Keller’s Prodigal God and the Song, Reckless Love

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sources: Care (UK), Good Reads, Anchored in Christ, Crosswalk, Prayer Coach, Church Leaders, The Blazing Center, and Christianity 201

Judgmental Attitudes: Jesus vs. Ours

The past few months I’ve been dogged by a couple of people who have desired to judge my every take on every issue; every book I enjoy; every author I don’t enjoy; everything I say; everything I don’t say; … and on it goes.

The social media explosion has left us with much more transparent lives than we had previously. If you want to post things that are meaningful, or thought-engaging, you can expect critics. If you don’t want any of that, you can post pictures of cats. Today’s post is about judgmental attitudes. Jesus never evidenced what we would call a critical spirit, but some day he’s returning as judge.

The past few days I’ve been reviewing blog posts from previous years here, specifically reviewing 2013, 2015, and 2019. It’s a look back at what was important to me on those days. Like this one from a decade ago…

I believe in God,
the Father almighty,
Creator of heaven and earth,
and in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died and was buried;
he descended into hell;
on the third day he rose again from the dead;
he ascended into heaven,
and is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty;
from there he will come to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy catholic Church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and life everlasting. Amen

~Apostles Creed (see also a musical adaptation)

Years ago we went to an event that featured Steve Geyer, who was billed as a comedian, but really shared his heart for over two hours in a much more pastoral sense.

In one section he spoke about the surprising and unexpected things that take place in the earthly ministry of Jesus; things where the events and people and situations get turned on their heads, including the time Jesus is anointed with perfume by an uninvited guest to a party.

Three gospels carry this story. Mark (chapter 14) who is usually much more concise gives us more than Matthew

^Mark.14.1 Now the Passover and the Festival of Unleavened Bread were only two days away, and the chief priests and the teachers of the law were scheming to arrest Jesus secretly and kill him. ² “But not during the festival,” they said, “or the people may riot.”

³ While he was in Bethany, reclining at the table in the home of Simon the Leper, a woman came with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, made of pure nard. She broke the jar and poured the perfume on his head.

⁴ Some of those present were saying indignantly to one another, “Why this waste of perfume? ⁵ It could have been sold for more than a year’s wages and the money given to the poor.” And they rebuked her harshly.

⁶ “Leave her alone,” said Jesus. “Why are you bothering her? She has done a beautiful thing to me. ⁷ The poor you will always have with you, and you can help them any time you want. But you will not always have me. ⁸ She did what she could. She poured perfume on my body beforehand to prepare for my burial. ⁹ Truly I tell you, wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her.”

¹⁰ Then Judas Iscariot, one of the Twelve, went to the chief priests to betray Jesus to them.

Luke 7 is considered to be a different story that took place at a different time, but is a similar story that includes a parable that Jesus teaches:

³⁶ When one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, he went to the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table. ³⁷ A woman in that town who lived a sinful life learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee’s house, so she came there with an alabaster jar of perfume. ³⁸ As she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them.

³⁹ When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is—that she is a sinner.”

⁴⁰ Jesus answered him, “Simon, I have something to tell you.”

“Tell me, teacher,” he said.

⁴¹ “Two people owed money to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. ⁴² Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he forgave the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more?”

⁴³ Simon replied, “I suppose the one who had the bigger debt forgiven.”

“You have judged correctly,” Jesus said.

⁴⁴ Then he turned toward the woman and said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I came into your house. You did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. ⁴⁵ You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet. ⁴⁶ You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet. ⁴⁷ Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—as her great love has shown. But whoever has been forgiven little loves little.”

⁴⁸ Then Jesus said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.”

⁴⁹ The other guests began to say among themselves, “Who is this who even forgives sins?”

⁵⁰ Jesus said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”

As Steve Geyer referred briefly to this story he said,

“The One who will judge the earth is non-judgmental.”

That phrase really hit me. Here we see another example of the contrast between “Gentle Jesus, meek and mild;” (itself not a fully accurate rendering of the earthly ministry of Jesus) and the one who sits at God’s right hand from where “he will come to judge the living and the dead.” Mercy contrasted with justice. God’s love versus God’s judgment.

^{John 5:24} “Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life. ²⁵ Very truly I tell you, 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. ²⁶ For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself. ²⁷ And he has given him authority to judge because he is the Son of Man.

^{Acts 10:39} “We are witnesses of everything he did in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They killed him by hanging him on a cross, ⁴⁰ but God raised him from the dead on the third day and caused him to be seen. ⁴¹ He was not seen by all the people, but by witnesses whom God had already chosen—by us who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. ⁴² He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one whom God appointed as judge of the living and the dead. ⁴³ All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.”

^{Matthew 25:31} “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. ³² All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. ³³ He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.

³⁴ “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.

Jesus pours out love and compassion to so many in the gospel narratives, but just as a parent gently loves a child, so also does a parent not hesitate to bring rebuke, correction and discipline. (See this link for an interesting parallel between that and the work of the scriptures in our lives.) God’s justice must be satisfied, and yet, as I ponder Steve’s statement, I see even there a justice that is tempered by mercy and grace.

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Bonus content: Even though today’s story may not be exactly in all four gospels, I did a check to see what teachings/stories are found in all four gospels:

• Feeding the 5,000
• Identification of the betrayer at the Last Supper
• Jesus prays in Gethsemane
• Peter’s denials
• various elements of the death and resurrection

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Scriptures quoted today are NIV; all underlining in the creed and Bible verses added.

Jesus’ Posture Toward You is Eager Forgiveness

Last year at this time we introduced you to Matt Tracy who writes at Kingdom Ethos. To read today’s devotional, which is a sermon transcript, where it first appeared, click the title which follows.

Breakfast on the Beach: Peter’s Failure and Redemption

There’s an old Hindu teaching that says, “treat success and failure, profit and loss, happy occurrences and unhappy ones just the same.” In Islam, they teach that failure is a springboard to success. Truman Capote said that failure is the condiment that adds flavor to success.

Pretty much universally, across cultures and faith traditions, it is taught that failure is a chance to make something of yourself. Failure is absolutely inevitable; but it is solely up to us to rise above it and overcome. But, though there is some good wisdom to be found in the quotes I shared, our hope in failure as Christians is quite different. Our hope is not our own ability to “rise from the ashes,” so to speak, but in Jesus’ ability to call us out of failure through grace.

Peter’s story is one of the more famous examples of failure and redemption in Scripture. Peter’s story is going to remind us that we, too, believe that there is goodness to be found in failure. But not because it is a chance to pick ourselves up and make our own success, but because we worship a God who meets us in our failure with grace and calls us toward something greater.

The first part of Peter’s story occurs right after Jesus is arrested and brought before the high priest to be prosecuted:

So the band of soldiers and their captain and the officers of the Jews arrested Jesus and bound him. 

Simon Peter followed Jesus, and so did another disciple. Since that disciple was known to the high priest, he entered with Jesus into the courtyard of the high priest, but Peter stood outside at the door. The servant girl at the door said to Peter, “You also are not one of this man’s disciples, are you?” He said, “I am not.” Now the servants and officers had made a charcoal fire, because it was cold, and they were standing and warming themselves. Peter also was with them, standing and warming himself.

Now Simon Peter was standing and warming himself. So they said to him, “You also are not one of his disciples, are you?” He denied it and said, “I am not.” One of the servants of the high priest . . . asked, “Did I not see you in the garden with him?” Peter again denied it.

John 18:15-18, 25-27

Not wanting to be associated with Jesus for fear of suffering, Peter denied ever being a disciple in the first place.

We meet Peter again after Jesus is crucified and raised from the dead:

Peter is Recommissioned (John 21:1-17)

Jesus revealed himself again to the disciples by the Sea of Tiberias, and he revealed himself in this way. Simon Peter, Thomas (called the Twin), Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two others of his disciples were together. Simon Peter said to them, “I am going fishing.” They said to him, “We will go with you.” They went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing.

Just as day was breaking, Jesus stood on the shore; yet the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to them, “Children, do you have any fish?” They answered him, “No.” He said to them, “Cast the net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some.” So they cast it, and now they were not able to haul it in, because of the quantity of fish. That disciple whom Jesus loved therefore said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on his outer garment, for he was stripped for work, and threw himself into the sea. The other disciples came in the boat, dragging the net full of fish, for they were not far from the land, but about a hundred yards off.

When they got out on land, they saw a charcoal fire in place, with fish laid out on it, and bread. Jesus said to them, “Bring some of the fish that you have just caught.” So Simon Peter went aboard and hauled the net ashore, full of large fish, 153 of them. And although there were so many, the net was not torn. Jesus said to them, “Come and have breakfast.” Now none of the disciples dared ask him, “Who are you?” They knew it was the Lord. Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them, and so with the fish. This was now the third time that Jesus was revealed to the disciples after he was raised from the dead.

When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Feed my lambs.” He said to him a second time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Tend my sheep.”  He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, “Do you love me?” and he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep.” Very truly I tell you, when you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.” Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God. Then he said to him, “Follow me!”

John 21:1-17

I want to point out two takeaways from Peter’s story:

1. JESUS MET PETER IN FAILURE WITH FORGIVENESS

Did you notice that Jesus’ forgiveness of Peter in this story seems to be implied? As if the two mutually understood that reconciliation had occurred? You might have expected that Peter would fall at the feet of Jesus and beg him for forgiveness. Peter had turned his back on his friend and denied his own discipleship. But in this story, Peter, who, days prior, sinned against Jesus 3 times in a matter of hours; who was ready to go back to his old life as a fisherman and forsake his life as a disciple, jumped off the boat in absolute joy and swam to his friend. Jesus met him on the shore, not with condemnation or reproach or wrath; but with breakfast on the beach.

There was no punishment. There was no mourning. There was no holy wrath of God. Why? Because all of that had already been satisfied by Jesus himself on the cross. Peter’s debt was paid when Jesus proclaimed, “It is finished.” Like the father welcoming the prodigal son home, Jesus’ posture toward Peter was one of grace and eager forgiveness.

This story can inspire in you and I that same confidence: that Jesus’ posture toward you is eager forgiveness.

What does it mean to have a “posture of forgiveness?”

I think the best illustration I can think of is my relationship with my 2-year-old. I didn’t need to teach her to be defiant and strong-willed, and – to use the parenting term – “naughty”. My wife and I are trying to teach her how to apologize when she does something wrong. We want her to understand how to ask forgiveness of others. But our forgiveness is not predicated on her apologizing. We don’t withhold forgiveness if she refuses to say “I’m sorry mommy.” She’s two; she doesn’t really know what it means to be sorry about anything. That understanding will come with time. The truth is that before she even knows how to express remorse, we have already forgiven her. We want her to say “I’m sorry” because we want so badly to say “It’s okay, we love you and we forgive you.” We aren’t perfect; we lose our patience with her too often. But our posture toward our daughter is one of forgiveness. We are eager to forgive her because we love her.

Peter’s story is a reminder to all of us that in our failure we can approach our risen Lord with confidence because he has already paid the price for our failure on the cross. His posture toward us; his stance as looks upon us, is grace. He is eager to forgive you because he loves you.

I’m not saying that repentance is not necessary. Repentance is necessary. What’s not necessary is any fear whatsoever that when you repent, Jesus will not meet you with anything less than grace.

2. JESUS’ FORGIVENESS CALLED PETER TO A HIGHER DEGREE OF FAITH AND OBEDIENCE

From what I can tell, Peter was a guy who acted and spoke rashly. He had a zealous spirit about him that did not always manifest in the wisest behavior.

Case in point: before Jesus was crucified, men were arriving to arrest him:

“Then, Simon Peter, having a sword, drew it and struck the high priest’s servant and cut off his right ear (the servant’s name was Malchus). So Jesus said to Peter, “Put your sword into its sheath; shall I not drink the cup that the Father has given me?”

John 18:10-11

I find it remarkable that Peter was ready to go to war for Jesus. He had his sword at the ready. But when it became apparent that Christ came to die, not to fight, Peter was not nearly as enthusiastic about following him. When the rubber met the road, he was more than ready to dissociate from Jesus altogether. Peter’s loyalties changed when the stakes were raised.

On second thought, given human nature, maybe that’s not all that remarkable.

But just as Peter denied Jesus 3 times, he was also given 3 opportunities to reaffirm his love for Jesus, and 3 calls to renew his commitment – all the while sitting around a charcoal fire just like the one that warmed Peter as he denied Christ in the temple courts.

“Feed my lambs. Tend my sheep. Feed my sheep.”

In John 10, Jesus said “I am the good shepherd. A good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.”

Herein lies the significance of Jesus’ command that Peter take care of his flock: Jesus, who called himself the Good Shepherd, entrusted his sheep – his redeemed people – to none other than Peter. Peter would soon become a key leader of the early Church movement after Jesus was taken up into heaven.

Then, Jesus tacks on this curious phrase: “When you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.”

I would argue that this is a fourth calling; a calling that Peter initially ran from, but Jesus obeyed: a call to die. “Stretching out” one’s hands was a euphemism: Jesus was talking about crucifixion. He was hinting that Peter would also take upon himself the role of the “good shepherd” and lay down his life for the church.

John, having probably written this gospel after Peter’s death, provides a helpful interpretive aside, just in case his readers might have missed what Jesus was saying: Jesus was telling Peter how his ministry was going to end. He would be stretched out on a cross, and wrapped in grave clothes.

Peter’s death is not recorded in the Bible, but according to church tradition, he was crucified in Rome around 64 A.D. under Nero. But before he helped the Jesus movement spread to hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people throughout the ancient world.

Notice the pattern here:

Peter sins, Jesus forgives, Jesus calls, Peter obeys.

This pattern applies to us as well in our walk with Christ.

Jesus meets us in our failure, not only to eagerly forgive us, but to call us to an even higher standard. Forgiveness is not so that we have freedom to sin even more; it is so that we have the freedom to love Jesus and serve him in an even greater capacity. The forgiveness of Christ is a call to obedience.

Two takeaways from Peter’s failure and redemption story:

1. Jesus’ posture toward you is one of forgiveness. Sin has already been paid for, and there is no condemnation in him. That means you can approach him as you would a friend who invites you to breakfast on the beach.
2. The forgiveness of Jesus absolves you of your sin, but at the same time calls you to a higher standard of obedience. And though that isn’t always comfortable, Jesus doesn’t call you to anything that he himself did not experience – and that is comforting. Because Jesus overcame even death; and through faith in him, so will you.

To Such as These Belongs the Kingdom of Heaven

by Clarke Dixon

Then little children were being brought to him in order that he might lay his hands on them and pray. The disciples spoke sternly to those who brought them; but Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of heaven belongs.”

Matthew 19:13-15 (NRSV)

These verses are well loved and help us form the opinion of Jesus that he is very loving and kind. However, keep reading in Matthew’s account of Jesus and we will come across an entire chapter where Jesus rips apart a certain group of people. Here is a sampling:

But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you lock people out of the kingdom of heaven. For you do not go in yourselves, and when others are going in, you stop them. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you cross sea and land to make a single convert, and you make the new convert twice as much a child of hell as yourselves.

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which on the outside look beautiful, but inside they are full of the bones of the dead and of all kinds of filth. So you also on the outside look righteous to others, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!…You snakes, you brood of vipers! How can you escape being sentenced to hell?

Matthew 23:13-15; 27,28,29,33 (NRSV)

The entire chapter goes on like that!

What happened to “gentle Jesus, meek and mild,” as some people like to describe him?

Is Jesus a bit like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde? Was he prone to snapping, like some of us regular folk do? Actually there is a common thread here, and a consistency to Jesus. Whether Jesus was kind and welcoming of the children, or vigorous in lambasting the spiritual leaders, he had in mind the kingdom of God. “To such as these belongs the kingdom of heaven.” That could be said of the little children. It could not be said of the spiritual leaders. Yet they were the very ones who were supposed to be helping people move toward the kingdom of God, to living life as God’s kingdom people. In fact, they thought that if everyone would obey them, God would have to bring the kingdom. Yet to such as these does not belong the kingdom.

There are at least two ways in which the little children and the spiritual leaders are quite unalike.

First, the religious leaders were hypocritical, putting on a religious show for others while their character could be lacking. Whether they are being perfect little angels, or, let’s just say less than perfect, little children tend to be genuine. Little children are great at just being themselves.

Second, the religious leaders were also quite religious. When we think about it, little children are really not religious. They don’t become religious unless someone teaches them religion. The spiritual leaders were so religious that they got lost in the weeds of religion and could not smell the flowers in the Kingdom of God.

Jesus was not pulling a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde between welcoming the children and dressing down the spiritual leaders. Jesus was being consistent. In each case Jesus said what could and should be said with regard to the kingdom of God. The little children modelled life in the kingdom. The spiritual leaders were supposed to help people experience kingdom life but instead they only helped people experience their religion.

Matthew records for us how Jesus, on his way to Jerusalem, cursed a fig tree for not bearing fruit. This is symbolic of how the religion was not bearing good fruit. The city of Jerusalem, for all its religion, and being the centre of people’s religion, was not helping people experience the kingdom of God. A lot of that had to do with the spiritual leaders.

Not long after that Jesus told the religious leaders the parable of the bad tenants and said: “Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that produces the fruits of the kingdom” (Matthew 21:43 NRSV). This is a very important moment where the kingdom of God is defined as a people marked by what their lives are like, a people of whom you can say “to such as these belongs the kingdom of God.” This leads us to the words of Jesus as Matthew’s account draws to a close:

All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.

Matthew 28:18-20 (NRSV)

In teaching people to obey Jesus the disciples were not to help them trade getting lost in the weeds of one religion, Judaism, for getting lost in the weeds of another, Christianity, but rather to help people get what life looks like in the kingdom. Obeying the commands of Jesus is not about a new set of religious rules, but following the way of love. We are to trade the weeds of religion for the flowers of the kingdom.

In Conclusion

Are we like the little children who were welcomed by Jesus or are we more like the spiritual leaders who received a dressing down? Little children are better representatives of what life is like in God’s presence. They are genuine, not very religious, even playful. Little children are not perfect, nor even innocent. But they are real. The spiritual leaders, on the other hand, tried to give the impression of perfection, but Jesus knew better. So do many non-church-attending people in our day.

Are we good representatives of what life is like in the presence of God? Does the expression of our faith help people experience the kingdom of God? Or do they just experience our religion? Do people say of us “to such as these belongs the Kingdom of God”?

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Before they appear here each Thursday, Ontario, Canada pastor Clarke Dixon’s condensed sermons appear at his blog, Thinking Through Scripture.

Two Sides of God’s Kindness and Goodness: Grace and Mercy

Today is another day where we’re highlighting the writing of a new author, and this time around, the blog’s title caught my eye: Maddening Theology. The writer, Tim Madden is the pastor of Cornerstone Bible Church in Browndale, Pennsylvania. As usual, click the title which follows to read this where it first appeared.

The Difference Between Grace and Mercy

Grace and mercy are major themes throughout Scripture. They are both such a blessing to us, but have very different meanings. Often people confuse the two terms because of their similarities. Let’s simplify them here. We are going to oversimplify the terms here, so note that this is not an in-depth study.

GRACE: RECEIVING A BLESSING WE DON’T DESERVE

Grace is receiving a blessing that we do not deserve or have not earned. It can be thought of as God’s unearned kindness. Anything He gives us that we have not or can not earn is grace.

Some great verses concerning God’s grace:

Acts 15:11 “But we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will.”

Romans 3:23-24, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.”

II Corinthians 12:9a “But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”

MERCY: NOT RECEIVING PUNISHMENT FOR WHAT WE DESERVE

Mercy is also a gift of God’s goodness, but instead of being given something good, it is withholding the bad. Mercy is when we have earned punishment, payment for evil, yet instead of God giving us that, He withholds that punishment from us.

Some great verses about God’s mercy:

Deuteronomy 4:32 “The LORD your God is a merciful God. He will not abandon you, destroy you, or forget the promise to your ancestors that he swore he would keep.” 

Lamentations 3:22 “The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end.”

Ephesians 2:4-5 “But because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions-it is by grace you have been saved.” 

CONCLUDING THOUGHTS

How has God’s grace and mercy been given to you in your life? Why do we need both of these? How have God’s grace and mercy blessed your life recently?

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Because today’s article was shorter, we’re going to share another devotional from Tim, derived from the first five verses of Galatians. We’ll share those first, and then you can continue through the article here, or at the link in its title.

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^NLT.Gal.1.1 This letter is from Paul, an apostle. I was not appointed by any group of people or any human authority, but by Jesus Christ himself and by God the Father, who raised Jesus from the dead.

² All the brothers and sisters here join me in sending this letter to the churches of Galatia.

³ May God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ give you grace and peace. ⁴ Jesus gave his life for our sins, just as God our Father planned, in order to rescue us from this evil world in which we live. ⁵ All glory to God forever and ever! Amen.

The Apostle Paul’s 5 Gospel Declarations

In the book of Galatians the apostle Paul spends most of the book talking about grace. He tells us how we receive it, the fact that we cannot earn it, and how we should live in light of the fact that salvation is by grace.

However, in the first chapter of Galatians, he makes five declarations about the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ. They are found in the first five verses of the book.

1. Grace and Peace: This is the good news of grace and peace. God’s grace is huge! This grace brings peace between us and God. They are a package deal.

2. Only Through Jesus: This is a gospel that comes only through Jesus. It doesn’t come through Mohammed, good works, or belonging to a certain denomination or religion. It comes through grace and mercy by faith in Jesus Christ.

3. Delivered from Sin: This gospel delivers us from the consequence of sin. John 3:16-18 says our sin condemns us, but Jesus is the one who delivers us. He takes us from darkness to light.

4. According to God’s Will: This gospel was given by the will of God. It was His plan that Jesus would die on the cross to pay for our sin. There was no plan B.

5. This gospel brings God Glory: To glorify God is to make Him known and make Him famous. It is to see everything good in our lives and point to Him. This salvation, this gospel, glorifies God.

Have you received the gospel of grace through Jesus Christ? Have you been delivered from sin through His plan of sacrificing His Son Jesus Christ? Do you have peace with God brought through the work of Jesus Christ?

Possessing Automatic Grace

Today we’re back for a third time featuring the writing of Glenn Kaiser, a leader in the Jesus People USA community in Chicago which gave birth to Resurrection Band, Cornerstone Magazine and the Cornerstone Festival. Click the header below (there’s two today) to read this where it first appeared.

Roots

No plant, flower or life grows healthy and well if laced with bitterness.

“See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no root of bitterness springs up and causes trouble, and through it many become defiled.” -Hebrews 12.15

Two weekends ago I brought a message to a fellowship about holiness, both imputed by God and lived out/walked by followers of Jesus. That largely focused on verse 14. Here we see the verse immediately following it.

Injustices have happened since Adam and Eve blew off God’s command, God’s “No, all but that over there…” so to speak. The bitterness in human life is partly what came of that non-trust and disobedience toward God. How many bitter people have we known… perhaps ourselves during our lifetime?

Bitter people are not at peace, not happy, anything but fulfilled, often as self-righteous as the smug, uncaring powerful who seem to (as even God’s Word tells it) have plenty of everything and get along just fine while the godly so often suffer. One of the reasons I love and trust scripture is that this scenario is written, preached and sung about a great deal in The Bible.

So what of a sense of what I’ll call “automatic grace”? Doesn’t a follower of the Lord experience this? Of course we do on many levels. And then injustice comes our way, illness or heartbreak or shocking, perhaps very deep loss occurs. Where was God in all this?

I met a man in a cancer ward years ago, being asked to visit and pray for him which I did. He only wanted to know one thing which I admitted I could not answer- “Why?” He said he’d lived a good life, had given to others, was a veteran, had laid his life down right through and now incurable cancer, pain and the end of life came in terrible misery. I do not know whether he was in fact a bitter person but many have taken that option. Many do in such circumstances or similiar situations.

Is is possible to “fail to obtain the grace of God”? I believe it is. Every sinful choice, foolish decision opens such a door. It does not fully eradicate grace (“eradicate” by the way means to “tear up by the roots…”) in one’s life, but surely can cause one to not actually obtain it. To miss God’s grace in the Greek = “be late, come behind, come short” — instead of, rather than “looking upon, caring about and exercising oversight” re. His grace.

Jesus taught that it is in our heart, our deepest place within where real defilement comes from. How we NEED God’s grace, eyes to see and repentance from a bitter heart! Forgiving, sowing grace and love toward people, prayer that God will be merciful to them, even bless them is a tall order and maturing followers of Jesus will take that route — or perhaps “fail to obtain.”

I’ve known far too many who have ditched any faith relationship with God at this very intersection.

Thankfully, I’ve known and know a great many who walk in grace rather than bitterness, who seek and love and grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ their Lord.

We need to be mindful of our own root.

I wrote a lyric many years ago that concluded “Draw us from the bitter water, to the garden once again.” We need to tend our garden or things just… decay.

Mixed metaphor alert, but As the old preacher said: “The dog you feed is the one that grows.”

— This article (below) on a similar theme appeared the next day on Glenn’s blog, and we couldn’t post the one without the other! —

Rooted -and- Grounded

“that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love.” -Ephesians 3.17

I am convinced the more our roots are IN GOD’S LOVE our own sense of deception, pretense, desire for vengeance, control, harsh attitudes that DEMAND x, y or z from others begin to fade.

The thought struck me that Paul’s prayer for those in the church at Ephesus is totally relevant for us today. Well, for all in any time or place on earth.

Is love actually the soil we are planted in, in our relationship to Jesus? Is that the ground we live in, stand on, offer care and concern for others -from the stability of His love? Are we doing all (as scripture teaches) we do in love?

Believe me, if you fail in this, know [that] I do plenty! Yet the target, the mark, the place we seek, as the NRSV renders it, “you are BEING”, so it’s a process.

If it isn’t all about love what is our aim in life, work and relationships?

Lastly we best consider what the Spirit does to nurture good health and growth in the roots of such ground.

Prayer, His Word, repentance and confession of sin, actually living out the Word and example of Jesus, growing in the fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5) are all part of the weed-pulling and nutrient-imparting for the life of a growing Christ follower. Yes!

Adding to the Rules; Adding to the Text

I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this scroll: If anyone adds anything to them, God will add to that person the plagues described in this scroll. And if anyone takes words away from this scroll of prophecy, God will take away from that person any share in the tree of life and in the Holy City, which are described in this scroll.  – Revelation 22: 18-19 NIV

You must not add anything to what I command you or take anything away from it, so that you may keep the commands of the LORD your God I am giving you. – Deuteronomy 4:12 CSB

You must be careful to do everything I am commanding you. Do not add to it or subtract from it! – Deuteronomy 12:32 NET

I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned this over the past few months — because it’s been a major theme in our household — but we’ve encountered a number of people who, despite being Christ followers for a relatively short time, have sought to add a number of different restrictions or requirements to their faith that does not match the spiritual communities in which they find themselves, with the result that it has put them at odds with many in those same faith communities.

In other words, they have fallen prey to the trap of legalism.

Does the Bible speak to this?

Well, the whole book of Galatians is a response to the ‘Judaizers’ who wanted to impose the rules of their former religious observances to the simple grace offered by Christ. Of particular sensitivity was the requirement that males be circumcised. [Click here for the Bible Project video on Galatians.]

The Early Church had a document called The Didache, which we’ve introduced before. It would be similar to joining the church and receiving a “membership manual” of practices which defined their faith community. But nobody harbored any illusion that it was in some way ‘inspired’ or that it superseded scripture on any particular matters.  It remains in print more as an artifact of the culture of those believers in the first and second centuries.  (We last repeated an article about it in this post from last year.)

In Roman Catholicism, one finds The Catechism of the Catholic Church to be treated as a source with greater authority than the scriptures. So if you enter a classroom in a Catholic school, you will see a Ten Commandments poster which is completely missing #2, the one about ‘graven images.’ (The problem is resolved by splitting #10 as we know it into two parts. Don’t covet your neighbor’s stuff and don’t covet your neighbor’s spouse.)

The Catechism here is an addition to the Bible, and strangely enough, there are other documents, such as the teaching of the Mysteries of the rosary (joyful, luminous, sorrowful, glorious) which are actually an addition to the Catechism itself. Many other teachings (such as the beliefs about the scapular) are an additional part of surrounding Catholic culture that does not appear in the Catechism and certainly does not appear in scripture.

The Mormon* missionaries who I spoke with several years ago were also clear that if they were going to be marooned on the proverbial, hypothetical island for several months can could only take one book of “The Quad” (Bible, Book of Mormon Doctrine and Covenants, and Pearl of Great Price) with them, they would choose the Book of Mormon. I asked this question of several of them on many occasions over several years and the results were always the same, placing greater weight or emphasis on that book over the Christian Bible.

Jehovah’s Witnesses also place great stress on updates issues from their head office each year. When someone donated a large number of classic materials written by them, instead of simply tossing them in recycling, we asked their local representatives if they would like to receive them. They explained that those writings were no longer of interest, probably because they had been superseded by even newer writings from their head office.

Seventh Day Adventists greatly revere the writings of founder Ellen G. White. While no other secondary book dominates their denomination as in the three cases above, they end up at a completely different understanding of what it means to live in the New Covenant established by Jesus.

So when people approach me and make it clear that they have added additional requirements about things the Bible is not explicit about — forms of music, Bible translations, qualifications for ministry, types of preaching, etc. — I get the same reaction as I do toward members of fringe denominations who seek to impose secondary documents as having equivalence to Biblical texts.

We discussed this back in February, looking at Acts 15:19:

 “It is my judgment, therefore, that we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God.

It was Andy Stanley who drew my attention to verse 19. That last verse is one that Andy says he has posted on the wall of his office. He contrasted verse 19 with churches and organizations that try to put people in a box, or try to line people up with a specific church policy or regulation.

Or ask people to “clean up” first.

While we would never want to admit, in certain circumstances, most of us are Pharisees at heart.

The Message Bible renders verse 19 as:

We’re not going to unnecessarily burden non-Jewish people who turn to the Master.

Do we want to do the opposite? Make it too easy? Of course not. For a balance on this, you need to read to the end of the article as it appeared.

In conclusion, just be careful around people who seem to gravitate to a position of legalism. They’re not helping the cause of Christ, they’re not helping you, and really, they’re not at all helping themselves. To the latter case, the number of people who fall way from crippling legalism is quite high, and it was never what Christ intended for them.

Summary: When in doubt, err on the side of grace.

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*This group now prefers not to be called Mormons, but as we said in a discussion earlier this week, it’s going to be a difficult appellation from which to escape. The group is also known to most people as The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

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This article was updated 90 minutes after publication to correct confusion involving the sources used by SDA churches and the JWs.

 

Legalism Leads with the Law, Rather Than the Gospel

We’re back for a third time with author K.K. Hodge, who writes devotions at Inspirations from the Funny Farm and you can read this one at source by clicking the title which follows.

Legalism vs. Grace

Galations 2:16-21 (NLT) Yet we know that a person is made right with God by faith in Jesus Christ, not by obeying the law. And we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we might be made right with God because of our faith in Christ, not because we have obeyed the law. For no one will ever be made right with God by obeying the law. But suppose we seek to be made right with God through faith in Christ and then we are found guilty because we have abandoned the law.

Would that mean Christ has led us into sin? Absolutely not! Rather, I am a sinner if I rebuild the old system of law I already tore down. For when I tried to keep the law, it condemned me. So I died to the law—I stopped trying to meet all its requirements—so that I might live for God. My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not treat the grace of God as meaningless. For if keeping the law could make us right with God, then there was no need for Christ to die.

My daddy is a wonderful Christian man. We know that there was only one perfect Man who walked this earth, and His name was Jesus. Daddy isn’t perfect, but I know that my daddy has been made right through the blood of Jesus Christ. He loves to tell others about Christ. He helped to build the foundation for me to become the believer that I am today, and I want to be a witness like he is to others. He told me once that his goal is to share the plan of salvation with someone at least once every single day. When he told me that, I thought, “Wow, I want to be just like him!”

I remember a situation a couple of years ago in which a pastor caused my daddy to have a bit of a spiritual battle, and it had to do with legalism. I’m not a pastor. I don’t have a theological degree. I’m just a nurse practitioner and a farmer who has a heart for Christ and for sharing His word with others, but it is my opinion from studying God’s word that grace defeats legalism every time!

My daddy was raised in a Landmark Missionary Baptist Church. Actually, the church formed in my grandparents’, his parents’, home. They were charter members. It is still a wonderful church, and we have visited from time to time. They preach the word, no doubt. As young children, we attended a Southern Baptist Church, and in our teen years, we attended another Missionary Baptist Church. We were fed the gospel at both churches. I loved both churches. I grew in my faith at both churches. The church ordinances may have differed, but the fact remains that the gospel was being preached at both churches.

Did difference in ordinances make one church wrong and one church right? I’m not here to determine that. My belief is that if a pastor/preacher is preaching and teaching the word of God and the gospel of Jesus Christ, then that church is doing the right thing. How do we determine that the truth is being preached? Well, we have to study the word of God ourselves.

Back to my story, this man told Daddy that the women at the church Daddy attends wear lipstick, cut their hair, wear pants, and sometimes even wear shorts, and therefore, it is wrong for him to attend that church. Y’all don’t pull out your stones or torches just yet, but I’m going to tell you about me. This girl right here wears lipstick, cuts her hair, wears pants, and yes, on a hot summer day in south Mississippi, this girl even wears shorts! BUT, BIG BUT, not little but, this girl also loves Jesus Christ as her Lord and Savior more than anything else in this world. Am I going to die and go to hell because “the rules” of my church are different than “the rules” of another church? I must answer emphatically–NO! I know that my eternal home is in heaven. There is not even a shadow of a doubt in my mind!

I prayed a lot before I wrote this today. I don’t want anyone to think that I am making light of the choice of church in which one chooses to be a member. I merely want to point out that Baptists won’t be the only ones in heaven, y’all. There will be Baptists, Methodists, Non-denominationals, and Pentecostals there too (to name a few)! God isn’t going to just call one church home. He is going to call THE CHURCH. You don’t get to heaven by attending a certain church on Sunday and following the ordinances of that church. You get to heaven by placing faith in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. It’s a free gift of grace that was given to each of us when His blood poured out on the cross.

Legalism leads with the law rather than the gospel. The gospel stands on it’s own. It doesn’t need any help from us to give it strength. Paul reminds us of this in Ephesians 2:8-9 , “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.” We can’t work our way into heaven, but we work for the gospel and Christ because of the gracious gift of salvation.

But if works are taking the lead over the gospel of Jesus Christ, this is legalism. It’s human nature to distort the glorious truths of God, and I think we have all been guilty of trying to misuse that free gift of grace. God has given us all that we need for godliness. We desire to live for Christ, and we have deep convictions that the sins in our life dishonor God. But sometimes, in the midst of our pursuit for godliness, we forget that it is only by the grace of God that we can live for Him. Unfortunately, we sometimes tend to forget that any and all godliness comes from the Father. We become all puffed up and start projecting our standards on others. We soon begin to judge people and pressure them to conform to our “God lifestyle.” We forget about the principles that the word of God reveal to us, and we teach our own preferences and practices of the law.

In Galatians 2, Paul brought up an example of when Peter went to Antioch. When Peter first arrived, he ate with the Gentile Christians who were not circumcised. But later on, when some of the friends of James came, Peter wouldn’t eat with the Gentiles any longer. He was afraid of the criticism that he would receive because the other people insisted on the necessity of circumcision.

Paul later says, “Yet we know that a person is made right with God by faith in Jesus Christ, not by obeying the law. And we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we might be made right with God because of our faith in Christ, not because we have obeyed the law. For no one will ever be made right with God by obeying the law.” Those uncircumcised believers were believers too, and they have receive the gracious gift of salvation and eternal life just like their fellow circumcised believers.

We have to learn to balance the reality that our faith is through grace alone and by faith alone. We are called to glorify God, and we are called to follow His word. Grace teaches us to separate ourselves from cultural sin, but it never teaches us to use ourselves as the standard for grace. We must look to Christ as the standard, not ourselves! The important questions to ask yourself are, “Have I received the gift of salvation? Am I a child of God?”

If you know that the answer is yes, then you know. We aren’t perfect. We are perfectly imperfect children of a perfect God, and it is through Him that we are made right. We can’t do this thing called life on our own accord, but with God we can. We were created to glorify God. If what you are doing is sharing the gospel and bringing honor and glory to our Father, then keep on doing that! That is His desire for each of us. I leave you with this a word from 2 Corinthians 12:9 that assures us, ““Each time he said, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.” So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me.” Alone, we are weak, but the power of the Father works best in our weakness.

His grace is all we need!

 

Willing to Die for The Other

In deference to the various writers we feature, to avoid search engine confusion, we give each devotional a unique title here, and then include the author’s original title in the link which follows. I was going to call this “Willing to die for another;” but it occurred to me the writer also gets at the idea of what has been recently termed “the other;” the person who is not from our tribe, our ethnicity, our political persuasion. Certainly the efforts we make on behalf of the homeless and the refugees represent doing something for the other.

But there’s more going on in this article, which you’ll see has to do with the day it was written. The writer we’re featuring today, April Bumgardner, writes at Loving Every Leaf, and by clicking the header which follows, you can read this where it first appeared.

The Hard Grace of John 15:13

“No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you.” – John 15:13-14

Jesus spoke these words to his disciples, his friends, as they left the upper room after the Passover meal. He had washed their feet and was imparting his final memorable words to them as they made their way to the garden. What would our final words have been to friends at such a time? Jesus and his closest friends were on their way to pray, where he knew he would be betrayed and had already been betrayed. He knew he would eventually lay down his life, not only for them, but for all nations at all times, including, but certainly not exclusively, for ours.

He spoke to them not only as their Rabbi, but as their friend with great love and care. His impending sacrifice was not to be the first, for he had lived a life full of tiny deaths, full of service, compassion, and love for them all.

These famous words of Jesus were not only an extension of his “farewell speech” before his death, but an extension of his directive to remember him as he washed their feet and as he broke the bread and passed the cup (John 13, Luke 22:14-20). He was asking them to honor him by imitating him.

In reading this passage, and every passage about Jesus, we not only marvel at the beauty of his divinity and humanity, but also marvel at how we are called to the task of imitation. In every way, Jesus is our example. If we want to know what God looks like, God looks like Jesus. If we are left wondering who God is, we look to see who Jesus is.

Jesus, in the greater context of this passage, is reminding his friends it is costly to follow him. Yet, he invites them into an abundant life through abiding and resting in him. This passage follows a discussion of Jesus as the vine. In this analogy, we are branches which derive our sustenance from his richness and life. Without our obedience, we wither. Jesus leaves his friends new commands. His command is love. His command is peace.

Yesterday was an American holiday. It is what has inspired me to write this post. In the last few days I have read the above verse from the Gospel of John pasted over red, white, and blue standards with helmets or bald eagles or praying hands in the background. To be consistent with Jesus’ intentions, however, this verse cannot be applied to those who die in battle for their country, although it is ubiquitously misused in this way. Engaging in war is agreeing to play by the rules of the empires of this world. This is not the way of Jesus. Whether or not pacifism resonates with us, however we read the Sermon on the Mount, and in whatever way we interpret America’s presence in the world, we must understand that when Jesus lays down his life, he does so without being embroiled in battle against the Roman government or military. His sacrifice was a complete submission to the loving plan of the Trinity.

I make this point not to discredit anyone who has fought in a war, and certainly not to disrespect anyone who has lost a friend or a loved one in this way. But if we are to quote Jesus, we must hear him as he intended his words to be heard. We must apply them faithfully as hard words of grace delivered by the Christ who refuses to fight back. And so, we must deeply consider: what does it look like to follow Jesus?

Our identity is part of the problem. If we see ourselves essentially as American, Japanese, Canadian, German, Kenyan, etc., we will be blind to the teachings of Jesus that assume we are citizens of a “better country” (Hebrews 11:16). If we are honest with our nations’ history and military entanglements, we will recognize that countries do not consistently fight on the side of altruism and justice, that we are easily deceived by our national agendas. Regardless of how we view America’s military involvement on the international stage, one thing is clear from this passage: Jesus has no expectations for his friends to take the world by force.

To help us remember and focus on this truth, I am grateful for the vision of the Cosmic Christ who supersedes all nations and identities, yet lovingly embraces them as his own. This notion of the Cosmic Christ is found in the earliest creeds of the Christian faith, proclaimed among the earliest churches, naming Jesus as co-equal with God and Creator of all worlds.

“He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers – all things have been created through him and for him. He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together.” Colossians 1:15-17

If we belong to this Jesus who is “before all things,” we will not laud those who promulgate killing in the name of democracy or sovereignty or economic welfare or any other politically deemed good. Our ideology may have noble purposes, but we look to the Lion who is a slain Lamb and who proffers us the tree of life with leaves for the healing of the nations (Revelation 5:5-6, 22:2). The Creator, this Cosmic Christ, is not in need of our national defense.

If we follow Jesus, we will not recognize or participate in the ways of power and coercion. We will not try to rationalize the need for violence. Instead, we agree with Jesus that God’s way of peace is mightier than our insistence on force.

Bearing our cross (Luke 9:23) and dying for our friends are hard tasks, but we often dismiss these commands of Jesus by putting a false faith in the military, the factious, those walking in the ways of violence or power. Peter’s intention was good when he slashed at Malchus’ ear (John 18:10), but both the Jewish Rabbi and the Cosmic Christ condemns it.

“Put your sword back” (John 18:11).

We cannot follow Jesus and conflate our gratitude for his sacrifice with those who die in battle. He has called us to follow by a very different path. We may not all be called to stand in the place of physical death for a friend, but daily we are called to die little deaths in the way of humility, compassion, selfless love, and devotion to the Christ who walks in the way of peace.

“For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross.” Colossians 1:19-20

 

Only by God’s Spirit is Truth Revealed; Error Countered

This devotional blog operates on the premise that, while some of the original material is occasionally re-purposed, the book excerpts and work of other writers only appears once. But as I looked back at old posts, I realized I wanted to bring more visibility to this book which the publisher, Harvest House, has continued to keep in print.

The gift that I felt Bob George brought to the table was illustrations, in fact, closer to the time of printing, a companion volume was released containing illustrations and analogies which could be used with Classic Christianity.

This is excerpted from an early chapter about separating truth from error. The full title is Classic Christianity: Life’s Too Short to Miss the Real Thing.

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There’s a big difference between knowing what something says and knowing what it means. Millions of Christians know what the Bible says, but many do not know what it means, because that can only be revealed by the Spirit. Man’s pride rebels against the idea that he cannot understand spiritual truth on his own but this is what the Bible clearly says:

The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God for they are foolishness to him and he cannot understand them because they are spiritually discerned. (I Cor 2:14)

The reason why is very simple, there is no human alive who can read another man’s mind and if we cannot know what another human being is thinking how much less can we ever know what God is thinking? I Cor 2:11 reminds us of this:

For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man’s spirit within him? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.

How then can God teach us his thoughts? “We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God that we may understand what God has freely given us.” (v. 12) Man does not need the enlightening ministry of the Holy Spirit to understand the law; the law was given specifically for the natural man. We need the Holy Spirit to open our minds to the things having to do with the unfathomable riches of His love and grace, those things that “God has freely given us.” Those truths are described in I Cor. 2:9 this way:

No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love Him.

In order to understand the things that God wants to teach us regarding His grace we must have a humble, teachable attitude for “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” (James 4:6) Just as the same sun that melts wax hardens clay, the same message of God’s grace that softens the heart of the humble hardens the proud. The proud cannot receive grace because the proud will not receive grace…

That is why an uneducated but humble person will receive far more genuine and intimate knowledge of God Himself than a highly educated but arrogant theologian…

Bob George, Classic Christianity

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Publishers usually impose word limits for book excerpts, and so far we’re well within that, but as I thought more about this book, I remembered a section which greatly impacted me many years ago. If we have to take this down from the website for over-excerpting that’s fine, but at least subscribers will get to see it.

Making it practical

I sometimes wonder how often a story like the one which follows is the case in the lives of people we know.

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Late one night as I was drifting off to sleep, I was jolted by the harsh ring of the telephone. It was a neighbor, apologizing for the late hour, but asking for help. “What’s the matter, Sue” I asked

“It’s Stan,” she answered in a low and tired voice, “he’s drunk again please come over and talk to him.”

To Follow Jesus is to be Saturated in Forgiveness

For we live by faith, not by sight.
For we live by believing and not by seeing. – 2 Cor. 5:7 NIV, NLT

They told [Thomas], “We have seen the Lord!” But he replied, “I won’t believe it unless I see the nail wounds in his hands, put my fingers into them, and place my hand into the wound in his side.” …
… Then Jesus told him, “You believe because you have seen me. Blessed are those who believe without seeing me.” – John 20:25,29 NLT

Frequently we remind you that C201 contains devotional material from across the widest swath of Christian writers. Today’s piece features Justin Elwell, who is the Messianic Rabbi of a congregation in Montana. He holds two doctorates, one in Biblical Ethics and one in New Testament Studies. You can learn more about his congregation at this link.

Justin’s blog is called The Mountain Mench. You’re encouraged to look around there; starting with clicking the header which follows to read this at its origin.

“I’ll believe it …”

“I’ll believe it when I see it,” should not be an attitude we hold in faith. To do so would leave us in the realm of doubt, waiting for sensory confirmation in order to believe (II Cor. 5:7).

Forgiveness, is an elusive noun that is easy to define, but so much more difficult to do. In both Greek and Hebrew, forgiveness is derived from verbs; meaning to pardon, release, excuse, or send away.

Of all the concepts of faith that I have taught and counseled on, forgiveness is the most wrestled with, resisted, doubted, and dare I say, disbelieved. Why is that?

“I’ll believe it when I see it.” How hard it is for us to grasp forgiveness, and even harder to send away that which has been grasped: the offense.

The greatest obstacle to walking in forgiveness, is believing that the offender has really repented, was really sorry, or learned some type of lesson. Yet, that’s not what forgiveness is for. It is not for us to judge the efficacy of forgiveness in the life of the other, but to look deeply at how effective forgiveness has been in our heart. Have we let loose of the offense, and set the offender free in our heart?

I need not lay before you the scriptures on forgiveness, as that’s why the Bible contains them … go look them up … but suffice to say, forgiveness, like repentance, is a daily exercise in faith, rooted in God’s grace.

We do not deserve God’s grace. Furthermore, we do not deserve His forgiveness. Yet, both were freely given. Well, someone paid the price: Christ. Grace is costly, as is forgiveness. Yet it is a price you, and I, did not pay. Still, it is a debt we will carry when we do not release the offense; often in the form of bitterness, anger, resentment, and fear.

In teaching His disciples to pray, Yeshua/Jesus said, and I paraphrase, “Forgive us … as we forgive … “ To follow Yeshua is to be a person saturated in forgiveness: “Forgive them Father, for they know not what they do.” For sure, not easy; but then, we are not to rely on our strength or capability to forgive.

Imagine if we set a standard of “I’ll believe it when I see it,” regarding God’s forgiveness toward us? We would be paralyzed; unable to approach Him, pray to Him, worship Him. We would be locked up in a cage called unforgiveness, even more strongly: death.

I remember reading a rabbinic story years ago of a rabbi who inquired of an old study partner as to whether or not he believed a particular teaching in the Talmud. The man replied, “Of course!” The rabbi said, “I did not; until I did it.”

Forgiveness is difficult, not because of the other; but rather, some part of us still wrestling with it, with believing it. Until we do it, it will be theoretical. Once we do it, freedom.

“I’ll believe it when I see it,” may work for those in a condition of doubt; but, “I know it because He did it,” recognizes our continuing maturation in faith, a trusting Him that necessitates doing, especially the most difficult of His teachings, in order to know it personally.

We never graduate from the feeling of pain that accompanies forgiveness, as some part of us dies, each time, in the process. But, we find more freedom in what Messiah did for us, especially when we did not deserve it.

Forgiveness: “I believe it, because He said it.”

Be well. Shalom.

 

Conviction vs. Condemnation

So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. – Romans 8:1 NLT

If anyone hears My teachings and does not keep them, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world. – John 12:47 NASB

For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world should be saved through him. – John 3:17 NET

When he comes, he will convict the world about sin, righteousness, and judgment – John 16:8 CSB

For the kind of sorrow God wants us to experience leads us away from sin and results in salvation. There’s no regret for that kind of sorrow. But worldly sorrow, which lacks repentance, results in spiritual death. – 2 Corinthians 7:10 NLT

This morning our pastor made this observation on the difference between guilt and shame:

Guilt leads to conviction while shame leads to condemnation.

Over lunch, I told him that I thought there was a whole sermon in that thought alone, and decided to see what others have written on this. Here are some page-one search results:

The website Campus Ministry Today offered this distinction:

Conviction and condemnation can feel similar for a Christian. Conviction is from God and is necessary for joy. It should be cultivated. Condemnation is from Satan. It is a lie and should be resisted and thrown off.

The definition there actually contrasted shame with condemnation:

Condemnation is usually hazy, hateful and hopeless. Usually when Satan brings feelings of condemnation to a Christian they are vague. There is a general thought that “Something is wrong with me!” It often has to do with shame. Some say shame means feeling bad about who I am. Guilt means feeling bad about what I did. I wouldn’t die on a hill for that definition, but it can be a helpful distinction. Condemnation often traffics in hazy, vague shame.

Conviction in most ways is the opposite of condemnation. Conviction is high-definition clarity, helpful and hopeful. Condemnation can feel like a cloud of shame hanging over your whole being that you can’t even explain. Conviction is usually very specific. It may be a precise thought in your mind…

Conviction is rooted in love not hate. God loves you and wants the best for you. He brings conviction in your life to convince you of a better way.

The website Great Bible Study continues this

Condemnation comes from Satan and is meant to tear you down. Condemnation continually points out what a failure you are, and how badly you’ve messed up. Condemnation is showing you the problem, but avoiding the solution.

Jesus did NOT come to condemn the world (John 12:47). There is no condemnation in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1)…

…Conviction is known in the Bible as Godly sorrow. God’s Word tells us that Godly sorrow is what leads us to repentance (Romans 2:4)

On conviction specifically Charles Stanley writes:

Conviction is God’s loving hand steering us back to the path that leads to life…

Conviction begins even before salvation. The Holy Spirit reveals our wrongs to help us recognize that we need forgiveness. When we accept Jesus’ sacrifice on our behalf and choose to follow Him, we are born again. Only then are we free from the penalty of sin. At the same time, we are still human and will make some poor choices. So, even after we are His children, God continues to redirect us.

Conviction is different from condemnation…

The website Healing Streams places the distinctions in a chart form, and also offers two questions you can ask to determine the difference:

Finally, there is an excellent article at the site of Mark Ballenger. I encourage you to click through to read this in full. I’ve included his three main points and a very brief excerpt from each [note the second section may appear at first to disagree with some of the above authors]:

Condemnation Leads to Death. Conviction Leads to Life

…In love, God makes Christians aware of sin (conviction) without giving us the sentence (condemnation) for that sin. He sent his Holy Spirit to bring conviction and to allow humans to escape condemnation…

Condemnation Is for the Unbeliever. Conviction Is for the Believer

…While God is love and desires every human to repent of sin to be saved… and while God does save people from condemnation when they put their faith in Jesus Christ and repent of sin, God does actually condemn people. God is a loving God. But God is also a condemning God. If God did not condemn people for their sin, there would be no reason for him to have sent Christ…

…What is true is that once you become a Christian you will never be condemned by God ever again…

All Christians Will Experience Regular, Healthy Times of Conviction

One of the primary jobs of the Holy Spirit is to bring conviction to the Christian. When we are veering from God’s path, our conscience will convict us because the Holy Spirit now lives within our hearts…

…[C]onviction focuses on your behavior while condemnation focuses on your identity. Conviction leads you towards repentance and a stronger relationship with God. Condemnation leads you towards hiding, shame, and a weaker relationship with God…

Humans Bring Condemnation. The Holy Spirit Brings Conviction

We must leave the work of the Holy Spirit to him…

…Often times the harder you try to convict someone, the more condemning you will be.

Again this article is best read in full. He concludes:

…In short, conviction differs from condemnation because it leads to life for the believer. We must never ignore the Holy Spirits loving discipline. Conviction may hurt in the moment, but unlike condemnation, it will lead to more joy in the end.

 

 

Our Salvation: A Source of Hope and Worship

Today we’re featuring, for the first time, Kim Dunkelberger, who writes at Commissioned by Him. She is a poet and author who writes while facing physical challenges. This post actually came up today in a WordPress reader, which surprised me, because it was posted in 2019. I think we were simply meant to share this with you. It also serves as a clear presentation of the good news and salvation.

Click the header below to read this at her site, and then check out other articles.

Salvation – Praise God!

My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world.
1 John 2:1-2

After a difficult weekend that resulted in continued fatigue and brain fog at the start of the week, I was unable to focus on commentaries for the verses I was studying for the day. Instead, I closed my eyes to think about 1 John 2:1-2 and pray. Jesus’ name and the word propitiation were foremost in my awareness. Salvation was my meditation for the next hour while I praised God for this gift.

When I was first saved, I was very thankful. However, I admit that my awareness of the value of salvation was minimal in comparison to the depth of my appreciation now. Prolonged trials have caused me to draw closer to God, long for the day that I can be with Him, and think more about the means by which this is possible.

God created us to glorify Him…

“I will say to the north, ‘Give them up!’
And to the south, ‘Do not hold them back.’
Bring My sons from afar
And My daughters from the ends of the earth,
Everyone who is called by My name,
And whom I have created for My glory,
Whom I have formed, even whom I have made.”
Isaiah 43:6-7

However, none of us has loved and obeyed God perfectly – with the exception of Jesus…

for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God
Romans 3:23

Indeed, there is not a righteous man on earth who continually does good and who never sins.
Ecclesiastes 7:20

Therefore, we all deserve to go to hell…

These will pay the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power
2 Thessalonians 1:9

In His mercy, God provides a way to be forgiven for our trespasses though. He sent His perfectly sinless Son, Jesus, to die by crucifixion, bearing the punishment for the sins of all who would believe this truth. Instead of the torture of eternity in hell, God graciously gives eternal life with Him to all those who accept this gift…

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 6:23

For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit;
1 Peter 3:18

For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.
John 3:16

Salvation is God’s work; I cannot earn it. He called me. He died for me. He lives in me now. He will raise me to life in heaven after death. He offers this to all who will believe…

For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.
Ephesians 2:8-9

Jesus gave His life for me; the Father gave His Son. Even though my life is filled with trials, I am not bitter. How could I be angry with God when He has blessed me more than I deserve? How could I not love the One who loves me enough to lay down His life for me? How could I question Him when He is infinitely wiser than me? Instead of being angry, I praise Him, recognizing that anything this side of hell is pure grace.

It is true that my face does not smile as much as it used to; I’m not sure the smiling muscles work when my head hurts, my brain is foggy, and my energy is null. However, my soul is smiling; it is praising God for my salvation. Like Job, I grieve my losses but worship the source of my hope.

Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head, and he fell to the ground and worshiped. He said,
“Naked I came from my mother’s womb,
And naked I shall return there.
The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away.
Blessed be the name of the Lord.”
Through all this Job did not sin nor did he blame God.
Job 1:20-22

What Was “The Law” Prior to “The Ten Commandments?”

The forum site Reddit has a number of Christianity-related interest areas or what are called “sub-Reddits.” One of these is Ask a Christian. That’s where this question appeared.

Before Moses acquired the 10 commandments and the other specific laws from God, how did people know what God’s “laws and statutes” were?

The above is also a link to read the discussion for yourself. I thought we’d highlight the scripture passages here. Since I have no idea what translations were being quoted, I’m offering everything here in NIV.

The first quoted was Exodus 15:26:

He said, “If you listen carefully to the LORD your God and do what is right in his eyes, if you pay attention to his commands and keep all his decrees, I will not bring on you any of the diseases I brought on the Egyptians, for I am the LORD, who heals you.”

That was the basis for the original question:

I noticed Moses hasn’t even received the stone tablets or anything like that yet for the people to know gods laws to begin with.

Were there some pre-existing commands and decrees that I might have missed that the Israelites would have already known about? Were the commandments already existent in some form before this and the Moses tablets were simply a ceremonial “commemorative” edition of what already existed?

The first respondent quoted Genesis 26:5

because Abraham obeyed me and did everything I required of him, keeping my commands, my decrees and my instructions.”

noting that,

It seems that even before the laws and commandments were written down by Moses, God had given them to others (Abraham and Isaac, and therefore their posterity) orally (up to 700 years earlier), and they were known and kept until Moses wrote them down.

The original questioner (whose Reddit user name I won’t repeat here) said,

Thanks that makes more sense. It’s still strange to me if he expected all mankind to obey and worship him that he didn’t give these instructions and commands to all mankind and not just Abraham.

That brought another response from (…okay another stranger user name):

It’s potentially implied in Genesis that God did exactly that. The extent is uncertain because it’s not specifically recorded, but it’s at least clear that there was some kind of awareness of the God of the Bible outside of what’s recorded in scripture. The most significant example is Melchizedek, who is evidently a priest of the most high God operating in Salem, completely separate from and prior to Abraham.

Less concretely, if the Biblical narrative is broadly correct and all humanity came from Eden, then humanity would all have started from a point of awareness of God. The extent to which he laid out his commands following Eden is not clear, but the text seems to imply that at some point they were known before people fell away. For instance, Cain and Abel go to make sacrifices to the Lord – but the sacrificial law hasn’t been recorded at this point. So evidently it was already known in some capacity even before the sacrificial laws were given to the nation of Israel…

The original question (which I only quoted in part) had also mentioned Melchizedek. Is he key to this question? Maybe.

Another person commented,

The first law God ever gave was “Thou shall not eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.” All through Genesis He establishes laws and practices.

The original poster seemed to be looking for a more complete set of instructions, replying

Where in Genesis? Did I miss it? So far I’ve not seen anything indicative of god giving commandments and laws to mankind as a whole until Exodus (which even then it’s clear its laws are exclusive to Hebrews, no Canaanites. Ammonites, Jebusites etc etc allowed). Prior to that God simply directs individual Hebrew people in specific activities, like Noah building an ark. Or announcements regarding the future as in God telling Abraham he will be the forefather of a large nation which will experience slavery and eventual conquest etc. God telling Jacob not to be afraid to move his family into Egypt. And so on. Again if I missed something in Genesis akin to a Moses like declaration of the law for all people, please kindly direct me to the passage.

He/she seems to be looking for a specific example of a codified set of laws.

But if not, I guess my confusion is, how did god expect mankind to obey him before he provided a clear set of commands to be followed as he did with Moses? And further, how could he therefore see it fit to destroy people for disobeying laws they know nothing about? Instances like Sodom/Gomorrah, the tower of Babel, the “wickedness” prior to the flood. How did any of those people know anything about this god or his expectations if prior to Moses god didn’t yet make himself and his expectations clear?

So someone else provides an example:

Here is one — Genesis 17:10 — This is My covenant which you shall keep, between Me and you and your descendants after you: Every male child among you shall be circumcised;

At that point the discussion got a bit unruly. Social media tends to that, doesn’t it? At no point was anyone suggesting that the circumcision commandment was the only commandment.

But then it got back on track:

Moses is also not the first fella to write stuff down. There’s Enoch way before him, pre-Flood, that was considered a ‘scribe’ of sort, and walked with God. I’m sure he wrote down interesting stuff too..

In the end some Laws are just simply hardwired in our being with conscience, thus written ‘inside’ of us.

That last sentence would foreshadow the answer that would follow:

Paul tells us the law of God is written on our hearts in Romans 2. [Ed. note: See below for full citation] While the Israelites didn’t have a formalized legal system, there was still a knowledge of right and wrong. That knowledge was something they failed to live up to, just as we did, and their faith was counted as righteousness just like our faith is. The formalized legal system was not meant to be the means by which they obeyed God. It was only meant to be the means by which God more directly exposed their failures.

At that point the debate continued mostly over the above comment’s suggestion that, “The formalized legal system was not meant to be the means by which they obeyed God;” a statement which, while I would agree with it, only becomes clear after New Testament revelation; in other words, after we transition from acceptance from God through obedience to acceptance from God through grace.

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The context of Romans 2 concerns those [Gentiles] who did not have the law, but I can also see why it was quoted in the above discussion. Here is the full text of vs. 12-16:

¹² All who sin apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who sin under the law will be judged by the law. ¹³ For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God’s sight, but it is those who obey the law who will be declared righteous. ¹⁴ (Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law. ¹⁵ They show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts sometimes accusing them and at other times even defending them.) ¹⁶ This will take place on the day when God judges people’s secrets through Jesus Christ, as my gospel declares.

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The original question (2nd paragraph of this article) is also the link to the discussion.

If you’re interested in the “Ask a Christian” sub-Reddit more generally, go to this link. If you’re using a PC or laptop, you don’t need to sign up or get the app to read, but you do need to join in order to leave comments. I observed for about a year before joining, but then one day, there was a question I simply had to jump in and ask. There are also other Christianity-related sub-Reddits.

One last verse from the discussion; Genesis 4:7:

If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.

Are You an Outlaw, A Lawyer, or a Lover?

At Christianity 201, we’ve had a long relationship with Rev. Kevin Rogers, a pastor in Western Ontario, Canada whose writing appears at The Orphan Age. This is excerpts from a 4-part series. To read the introduction, where he sets up the distinction click this link. He says,

I see three categories of people when it comes to the acceptance and application of God’s law—we are all outlaws, lawyers or lovers.

To read the individual parts in full, click the headers which follow.

Outlaws

Outlaw culture is often glorified, and we all learned it early in life…So what does it mean to be an outlaw?

Merriam-Webster Dictionary says:

1 : a person excluded from the benefit or protection of the law

2a : a lawless person or a fugitive from the law

b : a person or organization under a ban or restriction

c : one that is unconventional or rebellious

Some perceived Jesus to be an outlaw based on his application of God’s Law. He and the disciples picked grain to eat on the Sabbath, brought healing to many on the Sabbath, did not always wash their hands before eating, association with people deemed unclean and a daily myriad of offenses drummed up by the faultfinders.

In spite of what the authorized experts had to say, Jesus was not an outlaw.

Matthew 5:

¹⁷ “Do not think I have come to get rid of what is written in the Law or in the Prophets. I have not come to do this. Instead, I have come to fulfill what is written. ¹⁸ What I’m about to tell you is true. Heaven and earth will disappear before the smallest letter disappears from the Law. Not even the smallest mark of a pen will disappear from the Law until everything is completed.

It is when we determine that laws are unfair, unattainable or illegitimate that we are tempted by outlawry. It’s easy enough to find reasons to minimize or defy human laws, but what about God’s Law? There are many outlaws that choose to live in opposition or resignation to what they perceive to be an unrealistic or impossible standard.

The Greek word for sin is hamartia. It is an archery term that means your arrow did not land on the target. When we recognize that we are sinners, we admit that our arrow went astray or dropped to the ground before the ideal target that God gives us to aim for.

Jesus came to hit the bullseye and inspire us to have an improved aim. We are to learn from the ways that fall short and allow God to perfect our aim. You may have given up on basketball or piano lessons, but the reason to learn God’s ways are not trivial options. God’s ways are a matter of life and death in a very real cosmic and earthly sense.

Every outlaw must live by a code that supports their values and will be deemed heroic by those sharing those values. But you cannot love God and at the same time have a complete disregard for the things God says. To know and disregard the law of God is to be truly lawless.

1 John 3:

⁴ Everyone who sins breaks the law. In fact, breaking the law is sin. ⁵ But you know that Christ came to take our sins away. And there is no sin in him. ⁶ No one who remains joined to him keeps on sinning. No one who keeps on sinning has seen him or known him.

⁷ Dear children, don’t let anyone lead you astray. The person who does what is right is holy, just as Christ is holy. ⁸ The person who does what is sinful belongs to the devil. That’s because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. But the Son of God came to destroy the devil’s work.

In recognizing that your aim is off, the key remedy is remaining joined to Jesus. As we  understand what Christ is doing, we find that he is taking away our lawless instincts. He is mending our broken bow and showing us how to aim true and hit the target. It is in our mimicry and imitation of Christ’s ways that we see through the fog and shoot for the bullseye. The apostle Paul understood this implicitly when he said,

1 Corinthians 11:

¹ Follow my example, just as I follow the example of Christ.

Lawyers

If the outlaw faces judgment, he is going to need a good defence lawyer. A lawyer will endeavour to prove that his client is not guilty, or at least not maliciously intent on breaking a law. The problem is that there will also be a prosecuting lawyer whose aim it is to prove that you are guilty.

There is an interesting phenomenon that happens to people trying to live up to God’s standards. If they are not rightly motivated inwardly, they will get obsessive about hacking their aim and telling others that they are the masters that can teach others how to achieve their spiritual aims.

It’s exactly the old adage that those who can’t, teach.

Matthew 23:

Jesus spoke to the crowds and to his disciples. ² “The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat,” he said. ³ “So you must be careful to do everything they say. But don’t do what they do. They don’t practice what they preach. ⁴ They tie up heavy loads that are hard to carry. Then they put them on other people’s shoulders. But they themselves aren’t willing to lift a finger to move them.

Watch out for people that try to load you down with high expectations but don’t offer any understanding or relief for the burden they lay on you. They may be legalistic in their passion for definition, but inwardly lack the law of God. They may have the authority to wield the law, but are more interested in winning their case than being personally answerable for the consequences that ensue.

Matthew 7:

²¹ “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. ²² On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ ²³ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’

Lawyers are often great communicators and can weave a story line that will either condemn or excuse a lawbreaker.

Watch my life carefully. I may appear to be a masterful persuader and still have a lawless heart. Fortunately, you will not have to answer for me. I stand before the one true judge that can truly condemn me or save me. Don’t be naïve and do look out for the Pharisaical lawyer in me and for the one in you.

Fortunately, God has mercy for outlaws and for self-righteous lawyers. Otherwise, we would be surely doomed.

Romans 9:

³⁰ What should we say then? Gentiles did not look for a way to be right with God. But they found it by having faith. ³¹ The people of Israel tried to obey the law to make themselves right with God. But they didn’t reach their goal of being right with God. ³² Why not? Because they tried to do it without faith. They tried to be right with God by what they did. They tripped over the stone that causes people to trip and fall. ³³ It is written,

“Look! In Zion I am laying a stone that causes people to trip.
    It is a rock that makes them fall.
    The one who believes in him will never be put to shame.”

Imagine that. Your faith in the goodness and mercy of God is the bullseye. Jesus died to save outlaws and lawyers and we are both.

Lovers

In essence, you become what you love. When it comes to the Law of God, are you a lover of His Law? You will not become Christlike if you do not love God.

If it’s true that we all fail to hit the target, there must be something that Jesus wants to teach us. When you are being coached in some ability, it is easy to get overwhelmed and distracted. So what will keep us in the game, so to speak? What is it about God’s Law that we can learn to keep us from becoming an outlaw or a lawyer?

That is a great question and one asked by an expert in law.

Mark 12:

²⁸ One of the teachers of the law came and heard the Sadducees arguing. He noticed that Jesus had given the Sadducees a good answer. So he asked him, “Which is the most important of all the commandments?”

²⁹ Jesus answered, “Here is the most important one. Moses said, ‘Israel, listen to me. The Lord is our God. The Lord is one. ³⁰ Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. Love him with all your mind and with all your strength.’ ³¹ And here is the second one. ‘Love your neighbor as you love yourself.’ There is no commandment more important than these.”

³² “You have spoken well, teacher,” the man replied. “You are right in saying that God is one. There is no other God but him. ³³ To love God with all your heart and mind and strength is very important. So is loving your neighbor as you love yourself. These things are more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.”

³⁴ Jesus saw that the man had answered wisely. He said to him, “You are not far from God’s kingdom.” From then on, no one dared to ask Jesus any more questions.     NIRV

Your aim always improves when you love from the core of your being. Loving God means loving the wisdom and perfection of what he is teaching us. Loving your neighbour and loving yourself flows from the love you find in God.

Jesus says that all law is grounded in love. Until you know that and agree to it, you will resist the true nature of God. Jesus is the highest expression of God’s Law. He fulfills the law of God.

Are you convinced by the Holy Spirit that the ways of God are desirable? Listen to this ancient song of praise for the ways of God. Listen to effect that the love of God has on the fabric of our life.

Psalm 19:

⁷ The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul;
The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple;
⁸ The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart;
The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes;
⁹ The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever;
The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.
¹⁰ More to be desired are they than gold,
Yea, than much fine gold;
Sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.
¹¹ Moreover by them Your servant is warned,
And in keeping them there is great reward.

¹² Who can understand his errors?
Cleanse me from secret faults.
¹³ Keep back Your servant also from presumptuous sins;
Let them not have dominion over me.
Then I shall be blameless,
And I shall be innocent of great transgression.

¹⁴ Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart
Be acceptable in Your sight,
O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer. NKJV

Talk about exactly hitting the target… love will do all of these things to establish your heart, mind and soul. We are taught by perfect love and changed from outlaws and lawyers. We are lovers of God’s Law.