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By The Numbers, 6

Published January 29, 2015 Uncategorized Leave a Comment
Tags: By the Numbers, Justification, Levites, Numbers, Sanctification

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LESSONS FROM A LEVITE

Numbers 8:1 -14

Who were the Levites? Simply put, the Levites were part of the tribe of Levi. Numbers 8 deals with the cleansing of the Levites. Just as Numbers 6, the Nazarite chapter, dealt with the Nazarite vow and how the Nazarite was to live in light of that vow, so this chapter will tell us all about the Levites and how they were to live in light of their calling.

According to Numbers 8:15, this is what the Levites were to be doing:

After you have sanctified them and presented them in this way, they shall go in and out of the Tabernacle to do their work. (Numbers 8:15 TLB)

What kind of work did the Levites do in the Tabernacle? What kind of service did they render to the Lord? Was it a cold, legalistic, formulaic, liturgical kind of service? No, not at all! To think that is to completely miss three important facts. First, the Levites did their work in a place where God dwelt. Stop and think about that. These special people worked in the presence of the One who had promised to bless His people; the One who was leading them and feeding them; the One who was going to lead them into a land He promised to give them. A God who treats His people with such care and compassion could never be treated in a distant, robotic fashion. Second, to think that the Levites were only concerned about laws and movements and words dictated by mere rote is to miss the significance of Numbers 7:89 —

When Moses went into the Tabernacle to speak with God, he heard the Voice speaking to him from above the place of mercy over the Ark, between the statues of the two Guardian Angels. (TLB)

We’ve never heard the audible Voice of God. I haven’t and I’m reasonably sure you haven’t either. Of course, He speaks to us everyday as we pray or read and meditate on His Word, but Numbers is talking about the audible Voice of God. How would you react if you actually heard God speaking to directly to you? Wouldn’t you be a little more reverent? Wouldn’t you stand still and pay attention? The Levites did their work in the very place God spoke to His people. And finally, the first four verses of Numbers 8 is all about light.

Tell Aaron that when he lights the seven lamps in the lampstand, he is to set them so that they will throw their light forward. (Numbers 8:2 TLB)

The Levites would do their work in the warm glow of God’s divine presence and voice, not in the darkness and shadows of a cold, hard room.

Not just anybody could serve the Lord like this, only the Levites could. What made them so special? Let’s find out.

Levi the misfit, Genesis 49:5 – 7

Simeon and Levi are two of a kind. They are men of violence and injustice. O my soul, stay away from them. May I never be a party to their wicked plans. For in their anger they murdered a man, and maimed oxen just for fun. Cursed be their anger, for it is fierce and cruel. Therefore, I will scatter their descendants throughout Israel (TLB)

Levi was special. So special that his dying father, Jacob, called him and his brother “men of violence and injustice.” They were wicked, angry, scheming murders. Yet Levi’s descendants were given the singular blessing of acting as priests of God. In Levi and his descendants we see the grace of God. Yes, members of Levi’s family were scattered in Israel, but this was because they would, in time, be the priestly tribe. It was an act of God’s grace that took a social misfit and cruel person like Levi and made him the head of the priestly tribe!

But Levi is not the exception to the rule. In the New Testament, God’s grace is explained for us to understand:

But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8 NKJV)

Jesus didn’t die for the righteous, He died for the sinner! That’s who God calls and uses even today: the misfits, the troublemakers, the drunkards, the murderers.

But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen… (1 Corinthians 1:27, 28 NKJV)

God surprises us by using people we might just pass over. Remember this:

But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look at his appearance or at his physical stature, because I have refused him. For the Lord does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” (1 Samuel 16:7 NKJV)

God’s grace: How He works

God’s amazing grace sees a man, not as he is, but as he will be. Such was the case with Levi’s descendants, and such is the case with each one of us. God’s grace is always reaching out and calling the sinner to Himself. Consider again the Levites. They were:

Called, verse 6a

Take the Levites from among all the Israelites… (NIV)

The situation with the Levites was a little different than that of Nazarites. Remember, becoming a Nazarite was up to the individual Israelite. He or she would decide whether or not they wanted to become a Nazarite and for how long. But it was God who called the Levites to serve Him; it was God who decided who be His priests. The Levites prefigured the election of the Church; a body of “called out” believers – people called out and set apart from the rest of the world.

It’s an interesting trait of the Bible: many things in the New Testament are foreshadowed in the Old. In both the case of Levites and Nazarites, we see how God works with people. He calls and we respond.

Cleansed, verse 6b

…make them ceremonially clean. (NIV)

Those whom God calls, He prepares. The Levites had to be made clean, which implies they were not. The Levites had to be made both spiritually and personally prepared to do the work to which they were called. Only a holy people could engage in a holy work. Of special note is that this washing or cleansing was done for them; they didn’t do it themselves.

And the sinner doesn’t clean himself up, either.

For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? (Hebrews 9:13, 14 NKJV)

This cleansing of the spirit is what God does for us. This act of God on our behalf is a practical reality, however, for it gives us a position and standing before God. In other words, while the Levitical priests were washed so that they could serve in the tabernacle, the sinner is washed by the blood of Christ so that he can stand in God’s presence completely justified. This is a profound change that took place at the moment of conversion. In addition, each and every born again believer now has a Divine power whereby he is enabled “to serve the living God.” What that means is this: not a single believer is able to serve God in his own strength any more than a single sinner is able to save himself.

Sanctified, verse 7

Do this by sprinkling water of purification upon them, then having them shave their entire bodies and wash their clothing and themselves. (TLB)

The Blood of Christ cleanses us. He purifies us because this is something nobody can do for themselves. This is God’s grace at work. But that doesn’t let us off the hook any more than the Levitical priests were absolved of any responsibility for cleaning themselves. Just as they had to wash themselves, so we have to work at staying clean as we walk through our lives. There’s sin all around us and we must be on our guard against letting it taint us. We have to take care to “shave off” any habit that might endanger our relationship with Christ. That’s our part of the sanctifying process.

Atoned For, verse 12

Next, the Levite leaders shall lay their hands upon the heads of the young bulls and offer them before the Lord; one for a sin offering and the other for a burnt offering, to make atonement for the Levites. (TLB)

Here’s something else no human being can do for themselves: make atonement for their sins. In very graphic fashion, the Levites learned that forgiveness of sins was made possible only through the process of substitution. Those offerings were given in place of the Levite.

It is only through substitution – Christ’s substitution for us – that we may be forgiven our sins and made ready to receive God’s grace. Jesus Christ was our “sin offering.” He was our substitute on the Cross. He was punished so we could be spared punishment.

But it was the Lord’s good plan to bruise him and fill him with grief. However, when his soul has been made an offering for sin, then he shall have a multitude of children, many heirs. He shall live again, and God’s program shall prosper in his hands. (Isaiah 53:10 TLB)

Consecrated, verse 13

Have the Levites stand in front of Aaron and his sons and then present them as a wave offering to the Lord. (TLB)

This is an interesting verse. Once an offering had been given to God for the Levite, the Levite himself had to be given to God. It’s no different for the Christian. Having been redeemed by the Blood of Christ, it’s up to us to yield ourselves to God.

Therefore I exhort you, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a sacrifice—alive, holy, and pleasing to God—which is your reasonable service. Do not be conformed to this present world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may test and approve what is the will of God—what is good and well-pleasing and perfect. (Romans 12:1, 2 NET)

Like or not, we belong to God. We were bought with the Son’s Blood. This may rub some of the more independent-minded believers the wrong way, but it is true, nonetheless.

You do not belong to yourselves but to God; he bought you for a price. So use your bodies for God’s glory. (1 Corinthians 6:19b – 20 GNB)

That last phrase, “use your bodies for God’s glory,” perfectly describes what real consecration is.

Onwed by God, verse 14

In this way you are to set the Levites apart from the other Israelites, and the Levites will be mine. (NIV)

The Levites were God’s property by His choice. They were His by grace. They were His by blood. Choice, grace, and blood. A three-fold cord cannot be easily broken.

A rope made of three cords is hard to break. (Ecclesiastes 4:12b GNB)

All these verses teach us the truth that God’s servants, be they Levitical priests or born again believers, must be pure in heart and sacrificial in spirit. God initiates the work in His people, but it’s up to us to keep it going. In the end, though, God demands undivided loyalty. The Levites were handpicked by God from among the population of Israel to serve Him. Christians have been handpicked by God out of the whole world to serve Him, too. And we belong to Him. Chosen by God. Saved by grace. Bought by the Blood of Jesus. Yes, the rope of three cords is not easily broken.

Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. (Romans 8:33 NIV)

By The Numbers, 5

Published January 28, 2015 Uncategorized Leave a Comment
Tags: By the Numbers, Numbers, Shekinah Glory

Numbers 9:15 – 23

At this point in the book of Numbers, the Israelites had been gloriously delivered out of the bondage in Egypt by the supernatural hand of God. The people had been numbered, organized, sanctified, and been given spiritual leadership and direction. They had made offerings and sacrifices to God and celebrated the great Passover feast. As far as God was concerned they were finally ready for their journey to the Promised Land. One thing remained: the Israelites needed to understand who was really leading them. Moses was certainly a powerful, towering personality. He was aided by spiritually endowed elders. And yet, they were not the ones the Israelites were to look to for guidance. The journey they were about to undertake was a serious one; the fulfillment of a promise God made to Abraham generations ago. Such a journey demanded the Israelites pay strict attention the God and God would make sure they couldn’t miss His presence.

Still, if you and I could could go back in time to watch the millions of Israelites trudging across the trackless desert, we might think them mad! Their journey seemed to be a hit-or-miss thing. One day walking straight, the next going round in circles, the next day going backwards. Yes, the journey from the Red Sea to the Promised Land was taken by the longest, most roundabout way possible, but it was the right way because it was God’s way. He was leading them by His very Presence. There’s a minor lesson here for Christians to take note of. Sometimes – maybe most of the time – God asks His people to do things or go places that don’t make a lot of sense to the natural mind. Sometimes God leads His people in a straight line, other times He makes them stand still, yet He’s still leading them. Sometimes it may seem as though God has left His people but we know nothing can make that happen.

For the Israelites, God’s presence looked like both a cloud and fire:

On the day the Tabernacle was raised the Cloud covered it; and that evening the Cloud changed to the appearance of fire, and stayed that way throughout the night. (Numbers 9:15 TLB)

Let’s consider God’s presence for a few moments.

Where did He come from?

The “cloud” was a powerful symbol of God’s presence among His people. Of course, God doesn’t really look like a “cloud.” This was the Shekinah glory, a term that is not found anywhere in the Bible. It was actually coined by Jewish rabbis from a Hebrew expression meaning, “he caused to dwell.” Throughout the Old Testament, God speaks of His intense desire to have a meaningful, intimate relationship with His people. The so-called Shekinah – variously described as a brilliant light, a cloud or mist or fire – refers to God’s accommodation to man. In other words, God made a way to make His presence seen and felt in our world. God is not a resident of our world, but in His love and concern for us, He found a way to “cross over” from His world to ours.

It took Solomon, writing long after the events of Numbers, to come to this inspired conclusion:

But can you, O God, really live on earth? Not even all heaven is large enough to hold you, so how can this Temple that I have built be large enough? (1 Kings 8:27 GNT)

This was not poetry. It was not merely the confession of a humble man. This is a statement of deep, theological fact. No tabernacle, no Temple, no locality on our planet is capable of containing our Almighty God. Trying to contain God would be like trying to bottle lightening. It can’t be done.

And yet, God made it happen to benefit His people. How this cloud was formed is unknown – we have no idea how God made it happen. Like the body of Jesus, everybody could see it and experience it, but there was a mystery about it. This cloud was God. He was not only IN it, He WAS it. The mysterious, ever-present cloud was to the Israelites the visible body of God.

Can you explain the Incarnation? Can you explain how the Son of God became the Son of Man? Can you explain the mystery of God appearing in the flesh?

Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority; but the Father who dwells in Me does the works.” (John 14:9, 10 NKJV)

The Israelites were to look to the cloud for direction. We are to look to Jesus for direction. The cloud hovered over the Tabernacle. We have this to think about:

Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? (1 Corinthians 16:9a NIV)

No Christian ever needs to look for the presence of God. There is, in fact, no place on earth a Christian may hide from God. God is IN you. The glory of God is IN you. All you have to do is learn to experience His presence and hear His voice. But that’s easier said than done. Remember this?

The Lord said, “Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.” Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave. Then a voice said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” (1 Kings 9:11 – 13 NIV)

Like the prophet Elijah, some of us are looking for God all over the place, but we don’t without realize He’s already within us.

When He came

Numbers 9:15 indicates the presence of God came to the Israelites ONLY after everything and everybody had been put in order. When the people had done everything God had told them to do, He came. This is not insignificant because it is the same with us today. God comes to us only after we have surrendered our wills to His. When a sinner does that, God takes up resident in Him.

But let’s consider the Christian for a moment. Why do you suppose so many born again believers, from time to time, feel as though God has jumped their ship? The answer to that question is actually another question: Has that born again believer jumped God’s ship? God certainly never, ever abandons us – the story of the Prodigal Son proves this to be true – but we Christians find it far too easy to abandon Him. When we do that; when we choose our way at the expense of God’s will, we will feel as though He has moved away. He hasn’t, but that’s how we feel. God has put that feeling in us to give us a clue. Yes, feelings are important when we learn how to understand them. If you feel as though God has left you, check to see where you are in your journey of faith. It may well be that something – some sin, some habit, some attitude – has come between you and God. God is still there, but you are unable to feel Him. The best remedy to that sad situation is simple: get right with God! Root out and dispose of whatever it is that is shielding His presence from you.

His Character

Two important Hebrew verbs are employed to describe the character of God’s presence. The first one is the verb which means “to cover,” and it’s used in verse 15. The second is the Hebrew verb meaning, “to settle,” in verse 17. Let’s read these two verses together:

On the day the Tabernacle was raised the Cloud covered it; and that evening the Cloud changed to the appearance of fire, and stayed that way throughout the night. (Numbers 9:15 TLB)

When the Cloud lifted, the people of Israel moved on to wherever it stopped, and camped there. (Numbers 9:17 TLB)

The expression, “wherever it stopped,” uses the verb sakan, from which those Jewish rabbis get their idea of the “Skekinah glory.” To understand the Jewish idea of the presence of God is to understand their concept of how God came and went, came and went, came and went. The Shekinah glory always moved ahead of the Israelites, guiding them, showing the way. When it came to rest – when it stopped – it hovered above the Tabernacle. When you stop and think about it, that’s really kind of sad. The Jewish understanding of God’s presence reveals something that breaks the heart. The cloud and the fire of His presence in the Old Testament symbolized God’s nearness to His people, but also His remoteness. Yes, the cloud could be seen, but it was always hovering above the Tabernacle. The Israelite could look at it and certainly see God’s presence, but he couldn’t get close. To that same Israelite, God was as near as a fire, but like a fire, he could only get so close.

Aren’t you glad Jesus came the way He did?

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:14 NIV)

This really is a phenomenal verse. The verb “became” means something very special here. It’s not “became” in the sense that when Christ became a man he stopped being what He was before. When Lot’s wife “became” a pillar of salt, she stopped being Lot’s wife, but when Lot “became” the father of Moab, he was still Lot. That’s the sense of what John wrote here. Christ, the eternal Word, became a man but He remained what He was before: the Second Person of the Trinity, the eternal Word of God. It’s a mystery, how these two natures – one Divine the other human – ever existed in one body, but they did and that was God’s accommodation to us.

Pause for a moment. Think about those Old Testament Israelites. We’re not all that far removed from them. They had all the same problems we have today. They had to feed their families. They had to face sickness and death. They faced an uncertain future. Some of them weren’t happy with their national leaders. Those were real-life problems they faced and they’re real-life problems we face, too. God came to them, after a fashion. He appeared as a cloud and as a fire, yet God wasn’t really any of those things.

And then there’s Jesus. God in the flesh. All God yet all man. Who can explain it? The declaration made in 451 AD known as “The Symbol of Chalcedon” does a pretty good job of it:

We, then, following the holy Fathers, all with one consent, teach men to confess one and the same Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, the same perfect in Godhead and also perfect in manhood; truly God and truly man…in two natures, inconfusedly, unchangeably, indivisibly, inseparably; the distinction of natures being by no means taken away by the union, but rather the property of each nature being preserved, and concurring in one Person and one Subsistence, not parted or divided into two persons, but one and the same Son, and only begotten, God the Word, the Lord Jesus Christ...

That’s the difference between God merely appearing as a cloud or as a fire and actually coming to us as the Son of Man.

But there’s more. John tells us that He “made His dwelling among us.” That’s a funny way of referring to “the Word became flesh.” The idea behind that phrase is that the Eternal Word, which assumed the human nature permanently (though not in its sin-weakened condition permanently) “pitched His tent among us.”

Yes, in the Incarnation, God dwelled among men for a time. But unlike that cloud and fire, God is still among us. But He doesn’t hover over us like a cloud. He doesn’t move ahead of us like a fire, lighting our way. He’s right inside us. In the Person of the Holy Spirit, God dwells within every single born again believer. You and I have something the Old Testament Israelites could only dream of: the abiding presence of God.

Only One Way

Published January 27, 2015 Uncategorized Leave a Comment
Tags: Exodus, Freedom, Ten Commandments

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In our politically correct hobbled society, the real challenge for the faithful is explaining the concept upon which both the Old and New Testaments rests: the exclusivity of true faith. In Exodus 20, we read the Ten Commandments. In the original Hebrew, they aren’t “commandments” but “statements,” and the first two statements God made are these:

I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. “You shall have no other gods before me.” (Exodus 20:2, 3 NIV)

That last statement galls many in a society that preaches a kind of moral equivalence of all world religions. One religion is just as valid as the other. One god is just as valid as another. Yet this is not what the one true God says.

And God spoke all these words… (Exodus 20:1 NIV)

It wasn’t Moses who concocted the notion of monotheism, it was God Himself who stated it: He is the ONLY God and man is to worship ONLY Him. There isn’t a lot of inclusivism in God’s first statement.

Over in the New Testament, the Son of God said something similar:

Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.” (John 14:6 NIV)

God didn’t get any more inclusive during the centuries between Moses and Jesus, that’s for sure! There is only one way, not many ways to God. However, as exclusive as true faith may be, it is open to anybody who would simply believe.

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. (John 3:16 – 18 NIV)

Exodus 20:2

The Ten Commandments is a document that has changed the world for the better. As important and as influential as the Magna Carta and the Declaration of Independence may be, they are eclipsed by the Ten Commandments. According to God Himself, the fact man ought to worship only Him is the first step toward making the world a better place in which to live.

Depending on whether you are a Jew or a Christian, the first commandment will be different. Remember, in the original Hebrew, these are statements not commandments, and the first statement God made is this declaration:

I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. (Exodus 20:2 NIV)

All the other commandments (or statements) rest on this one. It states in unambiguous terms that it is God who is speaking, not Moses or any other man; that what follows are God’s statements and not somebody’s opinions. This was important for the Israelites to know because, as God went on to state, it was He who delivered them from bondage in Egypt, not some human being, and because of that, the Israelites were in His debt. Because He did such a great thing for them, they needed to pay attention to His wishes, and His wishes included living by the following commandments.

This was a revolutionary concept which we call Ethical Monotheism; the notion that there is one God (Monotheism) and He is the Source of ethics and morality – or He dictates what is right and what is wrong. Why was this revolutionary? Just stop and consider the time in which Moses gave Israel God’s Ten Commandments: man was worshipping all kinds of gods, from gods that controlled the weather to gods that looked like animals. Every religion had their own code of right and wrong. What the people of God needed was what God provided: an objective morality that transcended human ideas and opinions.

If you take even the quickest glance at the Commandments, you’ll notice that most of them have to do with how we treat others. That’s included in the definition of Ethical Monotheism. God is concerned with how believers treat their fellow man. Not a single commandment has to do with what a believer should do for God. For three centuries, the Israelites had been exposed to the religion of Egypt which was all about what man should do for his gods. In the centuries to come, they would be surrounded by other pagan religions that also taught that man had to do many things to satisfy his gods – things like feeding them or sacrificing other people to them. But the Ten Commandments declared that what the one true God wants most of all is that His people treat all people well. Yes, even those commandments about not having false gods or not carrying God’s name in vain are about morality because how we treat God cannot be divorced from how we treat other people.

A new world

It’s not that God was building a new religion with His Ten Commandments or statements, it’s that He was building a new society that would mirror His vision of what real freedom was. Just how important is freedom to God? It’s the salient point of the Ten Commandments! He began, not with a declaration that He created the universe – an impressive act to be sure – but with the declaration that He set His people free from slavery. That’s how much God hates slavery and how important He thinks freedom is.

Jesus thought freedom was pretty important, too. But for the Christian, it isn’t freedom from slavery to another man per se, it’s freedom from sin and all kinds of oppression.

To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples.Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:31, 32 NIV)

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. (Galatians 5:1 NIV)

The authors of the Magna Carta and the Founding Fathers of America based their views of freedom on the Biblical fact that God wants all men to be free. That’s why, for example, the Liberty Bell has only one sentence on it, and it’s not a quote from Washington or Madison, but part of a verse from the Bible:

Proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof. (Leviticus 25:10 KJV)

God, the author and giver of the Ten Commandments, makes it clear that the way to a free society; the way for any human being to live in freedom, is by simply following His Commandments or statements. In other words, freedom God’s way has nothing to do with being able to do whatever you feel like doing. If the Ten commandments teaches anything, it’s that real freedom comes from exercising self-control.

Exodus 2:3

The second Commandment, by Jewish reckoning is this one:

You shall have no other gods before me.

It goes on to forbid the making and worshipping of idols or images. On the surface, it sounds like God is discouraging the reverence of things like totem poles or icons or statues, or the worship of false gods like the weather or fertility gods, or the Greek and Roman gods and so on. However, that’s a very limited view of this commandment. In our time, most people don’t worship the weather, although we talk about it all the time. Most people don’t worship statues or Zeus or Ra. But this Commandment is not irrelevant, in fact there’s a reason why it’s Commandment number one or two, depending on whether you are a Christian or a Jew. In our sophisticated age, there are just as many false gods as there were during the days of Moses. Things like money, popularity, power, celebrity, politics, education, beauty, love, art, flag, family, talent, health, the environment, all these things are the false gods of today, and the worship of false gods is the greatest hindrance to peace and goodwill on the earth.

In a sense, the rest of the Commandments descend from this one. God makes it plain that He and He alone is the only God and that He is alone is to be worshipped. But this should not be taken as a prideful or demeaning statement. It’s a logical one. If there’s only one God, then He is the one God who deserves to be worshipped. Furthermore, think about these things:

One God means there is one human race. Though we may all look different and speak different languages, we have all come from one Creator, or one Heavenly Father. In that sense, every human being is the brother or sister of every other human being.

Because we have the same Father, all people are equal; no one nationality or society is intrinsically more valuable than the other. That doesn’t mean every society is the same or every society is a good society. It means that in God’s eyes, no matter where you may live, what language you may speak, or what the color of your skin is, you are important to God and you are known personally by God.

And the fact that there is one God means that there is one moral standard for all people. These Ten Commandments, for example, were given by God to the Israelites, but since they came from God, they are good for all people. So if adultery is wrong here, then it is wrong over there. And because there is only one God, you can’t go to another god to get justification for your adultery.

A similar thought is expressed throughout the New Testament.

For God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son so that anyone who believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. God did not send his Son into the world to condemn it, but to save it. (John 3:16, 17 TLB)

By “world” in these verses, “people” is meant, not the planet on which they live. God loves the people of the world so much, He sent His only Son to save them. He wants very much to save them – to spare them the condemnation to come.

Both Testaments also insist that when man worships anything or anybody other than the one true God, bad things will surely result. This isn’t a religious superstition, it’s the ground rule God has established. Some of those bad things are obvious. When man worships power or money or race, his life becomes corrupt and he hurts those around him. Even the worship of very good things, like family or art or even classical music can inspire great evil. The example often cited for this is the movie A Clockwork Orange. In it, men rape and murder while classical music is playing. Education is another god of this age. But some of the most educated men in Germany came up with Hitler’s “final solution,” proving a great education is no guarantee of good character. Love is a gift from God, but it can become a false god that harms people. Think about how love of country, for example, when exalted above love of God, has resulted in horrible evil being committed against others.

This is why keeping God in the very center of our lives is so important. Worship of the one true God brings perspective to our sometimes very confusing lives. It may seem strange to you that this Commandment to worship the one true God results in better human beings and a better community, but it really shouldn’t. Like any parent, our Heavenly Father takes great joy in seeing His children live decent, moral, and ethical lives. And like any parent does, when His children behave, God blesses them.

Yes, Biblical faith is exclusive. There is only one God and only way to reach Him – through a living relationship with His Son, Jesus Christ. The freest people on earth are those who have been set free from the bondage to sin by Christ.

So if the Son sets you free, you will indeed be free. (John 8:36 TLB)

Grace, Promises and Faith

Published January 22, 2015 Uncategorized Leave a Comment
Tags: Faith, Grace, Promise

Grace, promise, faith: three words you see often in Scripture. Yet they are more than just words, they are also attitudes and ways of thinking. We need to define them before we attempt to understand how they are related to each other. First, what is “grace?” Very simply put, the word “grace” refers to the many gifts and blessings that come into our lives from God. “Grace” is not something we can earn or convince God we need more of. We do not merit any “grace” from God. “Grace” is sort of an all-encompassing term that covers all we receive from God through His Son. It goes without saying that the greatest “grace” of all is salvation through faith the Lord Jesus Christ.

Second, a “promise” is not unlike grace in that every “promise” is given to believers by means of God’s grace. From God’s perspective, a “promise” may be viewed as a sort of I.O.U. – a means by which the Lord guarantees that He will provide whatever it is He said He would. From our perspective, a “promise” rests on our complete trust in God and in His ability to provide what He said He would. It is not, however, a legal contract where one party stipulates pay (promises) for labor (merit). God’s “promise” to His people is something they do not deserve nor earn. All we must do is believe that God will deliver.

Third, “faith” is closely related to “promise,” especially in the context of what Paul is teaching in Romans. Abraham’s faith kicked in when God made him a promise:

I have made you a father of many nations. (Romans 4:17 NIV)

This is an important truth that a lot of Christians miss: real, Biblical faith exists ONLY as a response to divine revelation.

So then, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message comes through preaching Christ. (Romans 10:17 GNB)

Biblical faith has nothing to do with “believing in yourself” or in practicing some kind “positive thinking.” Granted, those things are important – a Christian ought to have self confidence and he ought to have a generally positive outlook on life. But Biblical faith must always rest in what God has said – what He has promised.

Galatians 3:10 – 25

But Christ has bought us out from under the doom of that impossible system [Jewish law] by taking the curse for our wrongdoing upon himself. For it is written in the Scripture, “Anyone who is hanged on a tree is cursed” (as Jesus was hung upon a wooden cross). Now God can bless the Gentiles, too, with this same blessing he promised to Abraham; and all of us as Christians can have the promised Holy Spirit through this faith. Dear brothers, even in everyday life a promise made by one man to another, if it is written down and signed, cannot be changed. He cannot decide afterward to do something else instead. (Galatians 3:13 – 15 TLB)

It is impossible, Paul taught, to be justified by the Law – by observing the many demands of the Jewish legal and religious systems. Christians are not Jews, so what does that teaching have to do with us? If Paul were writing to us, he might write something like this: Doing good things or living a good life doesn’t earn you points with God. For the Jews, when Jesus Christ hung on the Cross, He was being punished for their inability to adhere to those impossible legal and religious systems. Jesus was punished in their stead. Because of that, the Law was rendered useless. That’s the whole point of verse 13 –

Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law…

If that Law and it’s consequent curse were rendered powerless by the work of Christ, it could never work alongside of or supplement simple faith. This is what Paul is arguing. It made no sense for the Galatians to have faith in both Jesus and the Law. The work of Jesus ended the need for the Law, so why would any thinking person want to go back to it?

This is the tension that also exists even among Gentiles. Of course, we have nothing to do with the Law, but a great many of us think (consciously or subconsciously) our pure thoughts, good intentions, and upright lives can result in our ultimate justification and salvation. The fact is, like the Jewish Law, all those things – as good and as helpful as they may be – cannot save you or make you look worthy of God’s attention.

Galatians 3:16 – 18

Now, God gave some promises to Abraham and his Child. And notice that it doesn’t say the promises were to his children, as it would if all his sons—all the Jews—were being spoken of, but to his Child—and that, of course, means Christ. Here’s what I am trying to say: God’s promise to save through faith—and God wrote this promise down and signed it—could not be canceled or changed four hundred and thirty years later when God gave the Ten Commandments. If obeying those laws could save us, then it is obvious that this would be a different way of gaining God’s favor than Abraham’s way, for he simply accepted God’s promise. (TLB)

The impotency of the Law – or of good works – is demonstrated even further when Paul notes that the great Law came many, many years after the promise He made to Abraham couldn’t annul the covenant – the promise – He made to Abraham. What was the promise? It was not a promise to save people if they performed good works or obeyed the letter of a law, even it was the Law He gave them. The promise was simply this: salvation comes through faith.

Galatians 3:19 – 25

Why did God give the Jews the Law and all people a conscience? The answer is found in verse 19 –

Well then, why were the laws given? They were added after the promise was given, to show men how guilty they are of breaking God’s laws. But this system of law was to last only until the coming of Christ, the Child to whom God’s promise was made. (And there is this further difference. God gave his laws to angels to give to Moses, who then gave them to the people… (Galatians 3:19 TLB)

Without the Law, or even without your conscience, how would you know if you were ever in the wrong? That’s why God gave man those things – to show man his shortcomings and his need for a savior. However, the Law was shown by Paul to be inferior to faith because it was given as a temporary addition to faith. Not that it added anything to faith, but came after faith in terms of history. Furthermore, the Law was vastly inferior to faith because the Law was received by man through means of a mediator – Moses – while God’s promise was received directly from God. That is, God gave His promise directly to Abraham without any intermediary.

Before you get the wrong idea, the Law was in no way ever in conflict with faith. Both the Law and the promise came equally from God. It was man who never understood that. In short order man came to value the Law far above the promise, in effect, ignoring the necessity of faith altogether, but that’s not the way it should have been. Like man does with most of God’s blessings, he perverted and misused the Law.

John Piper’s observations are interesting:

God gave the Law originally as a railroad track to guide Israel’s obedience. The engine that was supposed to pull a person along the track was God’s grace, the power of the Spirit. And the coupling between our car and the engine was faith, so that in the Old Testament, like the New Testament, salvation was by grace, through faith, along the track of obedience – sanctification.

That’s how it should have been.

Galatians 3:29

Okay, what about us, what about those of us who aren’t Jews? What does all this have to do with Gentiles? Paul explains:

And now that we are Christ’s we are the true descendants of Abraham, and all of God’s promises to him belong to us. (Galatians 3:29 TLB)

That’s an exciting verse: all of God’s promises to Jesus – remember, He was referred to as “Abraham’s Child,” meaning whatever God promised to Abraham He promised to Jesus – now belong to us. But why did Paul write this to the Galatians? A group of itinerant preachers known as Judaizers were undermining the Gospel Paul and the other apostles were preaching – salvation by faith in Jesus alone – by saying that only through the Law could a person be a child of Abraham and receive all the promises. They didn’t eliminate faith in Jesus altogether, but sought to add elements of Judaism to simple faith. This false teaching infuriated Paul, and this was how he vented his frustration to the Galatians:

You foolish Galatians! Who put a spell on you? Before your very eyes you had a clear description of the death of Jesus Christ on the cross! Tell me this one thing: did you receive God’s Spirit by doing what the Law requires or by hearing the gospel and believing it? How can you be so foolish! You began by God’s Spirit; do you now want to finish by your own power? (Galatians 3:1 – 3 GNT)

Those Galatian Christians, Gentiles, were, in reality, the true children of Abraham by faith in Jesus and they, not the false teachers, would receive the promise. Because they were Christ’s they were also Abraham’s children and heirs.

This is what Christ has done for all who believe in Him. There are no “second class citizens” of heaven. Jew or Gentile doesn’t matter to God. What does matter is whether or not a sinner puts his full faith and confidence in what Jesus Christ did for them on the cross. William Temple observed:

My worth is what I am worth to God; and that is a marvelous great deal, for Christ died for me. Thus, incidentally, what gives to each of us His highest worth gives the same worth to everyone; in all that matters most we are equal.

Galatians 4:4 – 7

But when the right time came, the time God decided on, he sent his Son, born of a woman, born as a Jew, to buy freedom for us who were slaves to the law so that he could adopt us as his very own sons. And because we are his sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, so now we can rightly speak of God as our dear Father. Now we are no longer slaves but God’s own sons. And since we are his sons, everything he has belongs to us, for that is the way God planned. (TLB)

In these verses, Paul outlines God’s purpose in sending His Son. Actually, it was a two-fold purpose: (1) To redeem those under the Law, that is, the Jews. This He had to do for His people because the Law never made a single Jew a child of God. (2) That all sinners (Gentiles included) might be adopted into God’s family.

For the Jew, slavery had a special connotation. Historically they had been delivered from their bondage to the Egyptians by the power of God. But they were still in bondage – a bondage to the Law. Slaving day after day after endless day trying to live up to the demands of the Law did them no good. Jesus Christ came to set them free from that bondage by making the Jews God’s sons, and we all know a son of God can’t be a slave to God at the same time. The same thing applies to the Gentiles. We had been enslaved, not to the Law, but to sin. Christ came to set us free and through our faith in Him we also become sons of God.

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