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Immanuel

Published December 24, 2014 Uncategorized Leave a Comment
Tags: Christmas, devotion, Immanuel, Incarnation

To Christ, all the prophets bore witness; but none so clearly, forcefully, fully, and evangelically as Isaiah. This singular prophet spent a lot of time on the person, the offices, the work and suffering of our Lord, but also on His glorious conquests – spiritually during His first coming and materially in His Second. When reading the prophecies of Isaiah concerning Jesus Christ, we have an outline of His ministry and of this world’s redemption.

Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel. (Isaiah 7:14 NKJV)

And this verse, more than any other, encapsulates a view of Christ and His mission; our Lord’s history in a single verse.

Christ is God

First of all, this verse tells us in no uncertain terms that Jesus Christ is God. This, of course, shouldn’t surprise Christians, but it was a baffling thing for Isaiah’s listeners to hear. For 2,000 years, Christians have had verses like these that serve to back up what Isaiah spoke:

Before anything else existed, there was Christ, with God. He has always been alive and is himself God. He created everything there is—nothing exists that he didn’t make. Eternal life is in him, and this life gives light to all mankind. His life is the light that shines through the darkness—and the darkness can never extinguish it. (John 1:1 – 5 TLB)

For in Christ there is all of God in a human body; so you have everything when you have Christ, and you are filled with God through your union with Christ. He is the highest Ruler, with authority over every other power. (Colossians 2:9, 10 TLB)

[Jesus Christ] was God, [He] did not demand and cling to his rights as God, but laid aside his mighty power and glory, taking the disguise of a slave and becoming like men. And he humbled himself even further, going so far as actually to die a criminal’s death on a cross. Yet it was because of this that God raised him up to the heights of heaven and gave him a name which is above every other name… (Colossians 2:6 – 9 TLB)

Jesus Christ, admired by many people of many different faiths, was not a prophet. He was not a “good man.” He was higher and loftier than any angel or seraph. Jesus Christ was and is God. He is the Son of God, but essentially God Himself. That’s what Isaiah said and that’s what dozens of New Testament verses say. It’s the supreme truth above all others. Jesus Christ is God.

For the people of Isaiah’s day, the idea of “Immanuel,” “God with us,” was nothing new. God had been in the midst of them before. Historically, God was with the Israelites as both a fiery pillar and a fluffy cloud. He dwelled in their midst over the mercy-seat. His presence came and went and came again for generations. But this was something new. For the first time, God would come in all His fullness, in all His glory, and in all His power in the Person of Jesus.

Why not? God can do whatever He wants to! Is it so hard to believe that the God who created the universe can visit us as a man? To dispute the possibility of the doctrine of the Incarnation is to limit God’s power.

Our Lord Himself said this:

He told his disciples, “I have been given all authority in heaven and earth.” (Matthew 28:18 TLB)

Jesus Christ was given unlimited authority, or if you will, “all power.” Power to bless. Power to heal. Power to save. Power to pardon and regenerate the vilest of sinners. Power to give eternal life to all who believe. As God, Jesus also has the power to judge all people. Consider –

For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. For it is written: “As I live, says the Lord, Every knee shall bow to Me, And every tongue shall confess to God.” So then each of us shall give account of himself to God. (Romans 14:10 – 12 NKJV)

Yes, Jesus Christ is God. The prophets foretold it. Jesus Himself spoke of it. His attributes prove it. Jesus Christ is God. But there is more to “Immanuel.”

Christ is near

Remember, “Immanuel” means “God with us.” In His own essence, God the Father is above us, under us, all around us. He is beyond us. He is behind us. As the governor of the universe God is everywhere, all the time.

But as “Immanuel,” this awesome God is “with us.” He is right where we are.

He is with us in our humanity. Again, the prophet Isaiah said it best:

For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given… (Isaiah 9:6a NKJV)

God’s Son has been given. A child was born to Mary. Divinity wrapped up in flesh. It’s a stunning verse that our minds are unable to fully comprehend. The Creator and creature in one Person. Jesus Christ. The eternal and the finite joined together. He assumed out nature – He was clothed in our flesh. Born of a woman, fully man yet fully God. God was “with us.” Not as fire or as a cloud or as the glory of the Shakina, but as one of us.

Yes, Jesus was a “with us,” but He had a purpose. He came to us as one of us to save us. God didn’t come to earth just to “get away from it all.” He didn’t come to earth just see how things were going down here. God came to earth to save mankind. Can you imagine?

For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross. (Colossians 1:19, 20 NIV)

The word “fullness” is what drives home the truth of Christ’s deity. For some, Christ is great man or supreme spiritual being but not quite God. But the apostle understood the Incarnation in absolute terms: all of God fills, completes and pervades the Person of Jesus Christ. But Paul understood something else: there is a sense of permanence in the Incarnation. That’s what the word “dwell” implies. Some people think that “Jesus became God” or that Jesus was merely a role that God assumed for a few years. Yet “God with us” is not a temporary arrangement any more than the Incarnation is temporary. The permanent, eternal fullness of Deity in Christ and the permanent fullness of man in a single Person is the only basis for reconciliation. The great transaction that occurred at the Cross was not a play or a drama. It was a real event with eternal consequences. The consequences for sinful man are obvious. The work of Jesus makes peace possible between sinful, rebellious man and his Holy God. But rarely do we ever speak of the consequences for Jesus Christ. When the “Immanuel” event took place, our Lord took on aspects of mankind for all eternity.

He is “with us,” in all the stages of life. In the helplessness of infancy, God is with us. In the exuberance of childhood, God is with us. In the maturity of adulthood, God is with us. Through all the joys, the pain and the temptation of life, God is with us. He is with us as our Savior, our Friend, our constant Companion, our Deliverer, our dependable Advisor. He is with us in life, and He will be with us in death.

For I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from his love. Death can’t, and life can’t. The angels won’t, and all the powers of hell itself cannot keep God’s love away. Our fears for today, our worries about tomorrow, or where we are—high above the sky, or in the deepest ocean—nothing will ever be able to separate us from the love of God demonstrated by our Lord Jesus Christ when he died for us. (Romans 8:38, 39 TLB)

That’s the real implication of “Immanuel.” There is no escaping Him.

Am I a God who is only in one place and cannot see what they are doing? Can anyone hide from me? Am I not everywhere in all of heaven and earth? (Jeremiah 23:23, 24 TLB)

It’s not an exaggeration to say that God hates sin – He hates our sin. But how He loves us! Paul wrote that it “pleased” God to have His fullness in His Son. The Incarnation “pleased” God. Why did God find it so pleasing? What aspect of “Immanuel” pleased God? Maybe it has something to do with this:

For in Christ there is all of God in a human body; so you have everything when you have Christ… (Colossians 2:9, 10a TLB)

As sinful creatures, we have so many needs. We need health. We need wisdom. We need guidance. We need so much, but when we have Christ, we have everything we need. No wonder God the Father is so pleased with His “Immanuel.”

With US

“Immanuel,” “God with US.” He is with us. What do we do with such great knowledge? Do we ignore Him? The sad fact is, most Christians have become experts at ignoring and avoiding the God who went to such extremes to be with them. We are good at paying lip service. But we are terrible at being obedient. We are good at saying we love Him, but rarely do we show Him. Because He is with us, He demands our love, our confidence and our obedience. “Immanuel” is the greatest wonder in the universe, yet it means so little to so many.

This Christmas season, let’s take time to consider “Immanuel.” “God with us” is so profound we can scarcely realize its ramifications. So let’s start with worship. “Immanuel” demands our sincerest worship – not just on Sundays but every day of the week. We are to be obedient. We are to seek His will and fulfill it. We are to be devoted to Him. “Immanuel” ought to be last thing we think about at night and the first thing we think about in the morning.

We are not our own bosses to live or die as we ourselves might choose. Living or dying we follow the Lord. Either way we are his. (Romans 14:7, 8 TLB)

Don’t you know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and who was given to you by God? 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 7:19, 20 GNB)

There is no doubt about it: God is with us. And we owe Him more than just our gratitude.

Some Christmas Lessons

Published December 22, 2014 Uncategorized Leave a Comment
Tags: Christmas, Christmas story, lessons

There are a lot of important lessons to be found in “the Christmas story.” Of course there are the usual lessons we hear about every Christmas in church: things involving the Incarnation, the fulfillment of prophecy and so on. But there are some other lessons to be learned for those with eyes to see.

For example, we can learn something from the Romans. Rome was the governing authority of the ancient world. When the Savior of the world was being born; when God was putting His plan of redemption into play; when Heaven came down to Earth, the governing authority was concerned about one thing: collecting taxes. In other words, the Romans wanted to maintain their sway over the population by forcing them via regulation to do what they wanted them to do. The government didn’t care about Jesus and it’s no different today. Our politicians, a little more tactful than their Roman counterparts, though no less tyrannical, are still unconcerned about Jesus, even though they tack His Name on the end of a speech every now and then. The church needs to understand that it’s not the governments job to proclaim or promote Jesus as Lord. It’s their job. Americans have been fortunate in that their government, up until recent years, has been generally receptive to Jesus. But now, not so much. It’s a heartbreaking lesson to be learned, but the government is not necessarily a friend to the church of Jesus Christ.

Another lesson we can learn comes from the angels. The big announcement of Christmas was delivered by angels. The lesson here is that God will do whatever it takes to get His message through to man. Sometimes He uses angels. He speaks to us through His Word. He also speaks to us through His Holy Spirit, through other people, and even through circumstances and miracles. God is God, and He can choose His method of communication.

The shepherds teach us a third lesson. Did you ever wonder what would have happened if the shepherds simply ignored the message of God given by the angels? What if these shepherds “had better things to do?” Like go shopping. Or cook breakfast for the wife. Or cut the grass. The big lesson here is one that Christians in 21st century America need to learn: respond properly to the God’s Word. Don’t ignore it. Don’t run from it. Don’t treat it with contempt. Just do what God tells you to do.

Then there are the parents. Hardly anything needs to be said about Mary and Joseph. What child could do any better than to have a mother who put fulfilling God’s will above anything else in her life? What about a father who gave up his home, his plans for the future, and his comfort, to peruse a Word from God that he wasn’t even 100% sure about? Talk about Godly parents! Serving God and being obedient to Him was more important than anything else. They risked life, limb, and ridicule because God meant everything to them.

Finally, we can even learn something from the baby. If we could go back in time and see the birth of Jesus, we’d notice that painters and artists got it all wrong. There was no halo around baby Jesus’ head. Handel’s “Messiah” was not sung as He was being born. There was nothing extraordinary about baby Jesus. Gloria Gaither, though, was someone who got it right:

He was just an ordinary Baby

That’s the way He planned it, maybe

Anything but common would have kept Him apart

From the children that He came to rescue…

He was just an ordinary Baby,

That’s the way He planned it, maybe

So that we would come to Him and not be afraid.

God came to us in an unremarkable, almost mundane way. Today, God is still revealing Himself in everyday life in such a way that it takes spiritual discernment to notice.

There are some other lessons we may learn from the Christmas story.

A humble birth, Luke 2:1 – 7

Caesar Augustus, the adopted son of Julius Caesar, concocted this brilliant scheme to tax everybody throughout the Roman Empire. It was an ambitious undertaking necessary to fund his army and to keep on living in the lap of luxury. Not only ambitious, it was terribly inconvenient for the citizens.

Everyone was required to return to his ancestral home for this registration. And because Joseph was a member of the royal line, he had to go to Bethlehem in Judea, King David’s ancient home—journeying there from the Galilean village of Nazareth. (Luke 2:3, 4 TLB)

The inconvenient part – having to return to the place of one’s birth – was not part of the Roman imperial decree, but rather it was a Jewish custom. It seems as though Rome permitted at least some freedom in how Caesar Augustus’ registration was to be carried out. Joseph’s ancestor was King David, therefore he had to make the journey, along with his very pregnant fiancé, to Bethlehem. A question arises as to why Mary accompanied Joseph. The two were not married so neither Roman nor Jewish law required her to accompany Joseph for this registration. Some scholars have advanced ideas like these: Mary went with Joseph because she loved him; she loved Bethlehem; she wanted to have Joseph with her when the baby was born; or it was because of the leading of the Holy Spirit.

And here’s the lesson. It wasn’t Caesar Augustus who was calling the shots. He may have thought the census and registration were his big idea to further his own political agenda, and Mary may have had many reasons for accompanying Joseph on the arduous trip to Bethlehem, but behind the scenes it was God pushing history along in the direction He wanted it to go. Everything that happened was quietly orchestrated by God to fulfill His Word. Generations before the birth of Jesus, we read this stunning prophecy:

O Bethlehem Ephrathah, you are but a small Judean village, yet you will be the birthplace of my King who is alive from everlasting ages past! (Micah 5:2 TLB)

So you see, everything hinged on getting Joseph and Mary to Bethlehem.

And while they were there, the time came for her baby to be born; and she gave birth to her first child, a son. She wrapped him in a blanket and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the village inn. (Luke 2:6, 7 TLB)

Most of us know Jesus wasn’t born on December 25. A lot of people get bent all out of shape trying to figure out when He was born but they are missing the whole point of the story. It’s not when He was born that’s so important, it’s that He was born!

But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. (Galatians 4:4, 5 NKJV)

It all happened in God’s own good time. It wasn’t the circumstances of the world that prompted the birth of Jesus as this particular time. It wasn’t any human reason that moved God. This is a very important lesson for us to learn. We pray for friends and family; we ask God to meet needs, and there is always an expectation that He will answer a prayer based on our timetable. It doesn’t always work out that way because God’s time isn’t always our time. But one thing in for certain: God’s time is always the right time!

Angelic announcement, Luke 2:8 – 20

The Son of God could have entered our world the first time as He will the next time: in power and glory. But He didn’t. The first time Jesus came to us, He came in the weakest, most humble way possible. George MacDonald expressed it like this:

They were looking for a king

To slay their foes and lift them high;

Thou camest, a little baby thing

That made a woman cry.

It was to the shepherds that the angels appeared, giving the good news that something wonderful had happened in Bethlehem.

The Savior—yes, the Messiah, the Lord—has been born tonight in Bethlehem! How will you recognize him? You will find a baby wrapped in a blanket, lying in a manger! (Luke 2:11, 12 TLB)

A millennium earlier, David kept his father’s sheep in these same pastures. Being a shepherd was a lowly occupation, so it’s no wonder God chose to reveal the good news to them. This night was all about humility from start to finish.

Among the good news delivered to the shepherds was this:

Glory to God in the highest heaven,” they sang, “and peace on earth for all those pleasing him.” (Luke 2:14 TLB)

Considering the distinct lack of peace on earth, did the angels get it wrong here? The peace being referred to here is not peace between men, but peace between God and man. Jesus came to earth to bring peace into man’s hearts.

For God was pleased to have all his fullnesst dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross. Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation… (Colossians 1:19 – 22 NIV)

You have to admire these shepherds. They probably didn’t have a lot of education and certainly no social standing. They knew about sheep. They didn’t know theology. Yet there was no doubt in their minds that what they heard was true. Their decision to go to Bethlehem was immediate. They didn’t stop to think about it or debate it. They just went.

Seeing God’s salvation, Luke 2:21 – 38

For 40 days after the birth of her child, the mother is considered “unclean” according to Jewish law. As a sinner, Mary need to bring a sacrifice to the Lord. Also according to Jewish custom, the baby was both circumcised and named on the eighth day. Over and over again in the Gospels, we see Jesus living and acting in complete harmony with His faith. This is why He was able to say in complete honesty:

Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. (Matthew 5:17 NIV)

He was an ordinary baby, and an ordinary man.

Joseph and Mary, while at the Temple, offered turtledoves as their sacrifice. This offering was evidence of their poverty, and it was made for Mary, not for Jesus. It’s an interesting piece of trivia to take note of: Jesus Himself never offered a sacrifice.

That day a man named Simeon, a Jerusalem resident, was in the Temple. He was a good man, very devout, filled with the Holy Spirit and constantly expecting the Messiah to come soon. (Luke 2:25 TLB)

Not everybody was like this man Simeon. A lot of Jews those days were not looking for the Messiah. Absorbed in their own trivial affairs, so many for so long had been merely going through the motions, yet they had no hope. Even the priesthood had become worldly and corrupt.

But this fellow was one in a million. Led by the Holy Spirit, he was at the Temple at the exact moment Jesus and His earthly family were there. Somehow, he was aware that this baby was his long-awaited Messiah:

“Lord,” he said, “now I can die content! For I have seen him as you promised me I would. I have seen the Savior you have given to the world.” (Luke 2:29 – 31 TLB)

God had promised Simeon that he would “see” the salvation of God. What he saw that day was a baby. Salvation is not what you do; salvation is a Person: Jesus. Once again we have another lesson in Simeon. He was old. He didn’t have to be at the Temple. But he was there. He spent a lifetime not only waiting for the Messiah to come, but he expected the Messiah to come. Simeon, like Joseph and Mary, was devoted to God. When a person is devoted to God, there’s no telling what good things will happen to them. There are a lot Christians missing out of God’s best because they haven’t given Him their best.

By the Numbers, 3

Published December 18, 2014 Uncategorized Leave a Comment

When you read Numbers, sometimes your eyes glaze over. A lot of people don’t like history, and Numbers is full of history. A lot of people don’t like to figure out how to pronounce strange looking names, and there are lot of funny looking names in Numbers. Some Bible readers are of the opinion that there is so much material in Numbers that seems to be either not necessary or unimportant for the modern Christian to know and understand. The problem with that line of thinking is that it ignores the fact that the Holy Spirit, the One who inspired the Bible, thought the book of Numbers was so important He made sure it was included in the canon of Scripture. So there. Because it’s in the Bible, you should know what’s in it and how what’s in it applies to you and your walk as a believer.

Speaking about glazed eyeballs, we’re looking at chapter 4 in this study. It contains detailed instructions for the tribes that would be looking after the Tabernacle and the priests. In Numbers 3, the Lord spends a lot of time detailing the work of the Levites as it related to the sons of Aaron. They were the priests who ministered before the Lord and the Levites ministered to the priests. Aarons four sins – Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar – were consecrated to the Lord. It’s a serious thing to be consecrated to the Lord, by the way. The Lord takes consecration very seriously even if His people don’t. Two of Aaron’s sons didn’t take their service seriously enough:

But Nadab and Abihu died before the Lord in the wilderness of Sinai when they used unholy fire. And since they had no children, this left only Eleazar and Ithamar to assist their father, Aaron. (Numbers 3:4 TLB)

The incident referred to here can be found in Leviticus 10. What these two priests did was so awful in God’s sight, we read this:

Then Moses said to Aaron and his sons Eleazar and Ithamar, “Do not mourn—do not let your hair hang loose as a sign of your mourning, and do not tear your clothes. If you do, God will strike you dead too, and his wrath will come upon all the people of Israel. But the rest of the people of Israel may lament the death of Nadab and Abihu, and mourn because of the terrible fire the Lord has sent. But you are not to leave the Tabernacle under penalty of death, for the anointing oil of Jehovah is upon you.” And they did as Moses commanded. (Leviticus 10:6, 7 TLB)

That seems pretty tough, not being allowed to mourn over the death of two family members. But remember, God was trying to teach something to His people – ALL of His people. How these priests acted in public was supposed to teach the lesson. What Nadab and Abihu was so bad they didn’t deserve to be mourned over by their families. Seem a bit extreme? Perhaps. But nothing is more important or vital than being obedient to God. This is problematic for the modern Christian. Modern Christians always want to approach God their own way. They want to establish their own rules for living, bypassing God’s. Nadab and Abihu tried to approach God in a way not sanctioned by the Lord:

But Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, placed unholy fire in their censers, laid incense on the fire, and offered the incense before the Lord—contrary to what the Lord had just commanded them! (Leviticus 10:1 TLB)

And they paid the ultimate price for doing it their way. God takes obedience just as seriously today as He did back then. And just because disobedient Christians don’t combust into flames in front of our eyes today doesn’t mean God hasn’t noticed their disobedience. In fact, the overriding lesson of these early chapters of Numbers is really a three-fold one:

No sins are left unjudged. For non-believers this is a big deal. They will be judged according to how they lived on earth. For we believers, even though we’ve been judged in Christ, there is a natural law that has been established by the Lord. When we willfully disobey the Lord, we will reap what we’ve sown in this world. Just think about what happened to David. His whole family suffered because of his sin with Bathsheba. Yes, no sins go unnoticed by God.

Even God’s servants are not exempt from judgment. Nadab and Abihu were ministers – they were consecrated to do the priestly work of God. When they disobeyed and died for that sin, the number of Aaron’s sons was cut in half.

Future generations are affected by service today. This is stunningly brought out by the fact that “they had no children.” There were no sons to pick up the slack.

Because of man’s predilection to disobedience, God had to be very precise in giving the Levites their duties. That’s why Numbers 4 seems to go on and on. Transporting the Tabernacle, God’s dwelling place among His people, and its furnishings was a big deal. Certain tribes had to look after certain parts of it. For example, it took over 2,000 Gershonites to look after the curtains of the Tabernacle. That’s a lot of curtains. But it teaches us an important thing: no work done for God is a small thing. Caring for the holy vessels was done by Aaron and his remaining sons, teaching us that consecrated hands need to handle holy things.

The care and transport of the Tabernacle and its furniture and furnishings was done by three tribes or families: the Levites, the sons of Kohath (Gershonites) and the sons of Merari. The work done by these servants of God was –

Varied

Each family had a different responsibility. For example, Merari was in charge of the “foundational things.”

And the appointed duty of the children of Merari included the boards of the tabernacle, its bars, its pillars, its sockets, its utensils, all the work relating to them, and the pillars of the court all around, with their sockets, their pegs, and their cords. (Numbers 4:36, 37 NKJV)

There’s a lesson here for Christians. Foundational truths are important and should always go first. Nobody becomes a theologian the moment after their conversion! Who does the work of the sons of Merari? In God’s plan, it’s evangelists and believers who witness to the lost, sharing their faith. They proclaims the simple, foundational truths of the Gospel: “you must be born again.”

Merari carried the foundational parts of the Tabernacle, and these things were heavy. The foundational truths of the Gospel may be simple, but they are heavy, and they need to handled accordingly. We who handle the Word of God need to keep this in mind. We can’t be careless or flippant when we are sharing our faith with one who is lost. Everything a person believes is hung on the foundational truths they are told.

The sons of Gershon, part of the Kohath clan, were in charge of all the things that united all the other things.

The duties of the children of Gershon in the tabernacle of meeting included the tabernacle, the tent with its covering, the screen for the door of the tabernacle of meeting, the screen for the door of the court, the hangings of the court which are around the tabernacle and the altar, and their cords, according to all the work relating to them. (Numbers 4:25, 27 NKJV)

All the stuff Merari carried – the sockets and pillars – may be heavy, foundational, and strong, but pretty much useless – naked – with no coverings! Gershon could well represent the pastor. He’s the guy in church who takes a lot of different doctrines and theological ideas, binds them together and, hopefully, makes sense of them for you. But Gershon couldn’t do his work until Merari did his. The pastor can’t do all the work; he needs the help of faithful members – people who go out and share the Gospel with the lost.

The what about those sons of Kohath?

Their duty included the ark, the table, the lampstand, the altars, the utensils of the sanctuary with which they ministered, the screen, and all the work relating to them. (Numbers 4:31 NKJV)

All those articles represented the approach to God. They were placed in such a way as to indicate the way to God’s presence. No service could take place in the Tabernacle until all those things were in their assigned places. Nothing could happen without the sons of Kohath, representative of the teacher. Can you imagine trying to have a Bible study without a teacher? The teacher, who is often the pastor (though not always), is one who takes the complex doctrines of the Bible, and shows how they apply to your life and mine.

These three gifts – evangelist, pastor, and teacher – belong to the Church just as they belonged to the Tabernacle. God gave them to the Church as surely as He gave the children of Israel the Tabernacle and all it stood for.

Some of us have been given special ability as apostles; to others he has given the gift of being able to preach well; some have special ability in winning people to Christ, helping them to trust him as their Savior; still others have a gift for caring for God’s people as a shepherd does his sheep, leading and teaching them in the ways of God. Why is it that he gives us these special abilities to do certain things best? It is that God’s people will be equipped to do better work for him, building up the Church, the body of Christ, to a position of strength and maturity… (Ephesians 4:11, 12 TLB)

Appointed by God

The thing we need to notice is that all the work done by members of these three tribes was assigned by God Himself. This wasn’t Moses’ idea. It wasn’t the idea of the leaders of these tribes. It was God who decided which tribe would do what job. No human being takes upon himself the work of God unless he called by God to do so. Our God is an orderly God; and He wants things done in an orderly fashion. Can you imagine just anybody in Israel grabbing the various pieces of the Tabernacle and then trying to fit them together in an effort to set it up again? It would be a joke! It would be like watching Laurel and Hardy trying to move that heavy piano up those steep stairs. That’s why so many churches fail or are failing. They are being led by people who have no clue what they are doing because they aren’t called to be doing that job. And that’s why so many Christians themselves are failing: they’re doing it wrong. If they’re struggling in their walk with Christ, they’re trying to do it their way, not His. They’re living like Nadab and Abihu.

All Christians are called by God to serve Him. That’s a given. And there are some things we should be doing simply because we are part of His family. Things like loving each other, like sharing our faith with the lost, and like praying and giving. These things are the least we should be doing. But beyond those things, we are all given gifts by God. Not native talents, but spiritual gifts. And using these gifts in the church is our assigned duty. Just as the tribes of Israel each had an assigned duty, so each Christian – each church member – has his.

Reward

Those who were called by God and set apart by Him each received a special reward:

Remember that the priests and all the other members of the Levite tribe will not be given property like the other tribes. So the priests and Levites are to be supported by the sacrifices brought to the altar of the Lord and by the other offerings the people bring to him. They don’t need to own property, for the Lord is their property! That is what he promised them! (Deuteronomy 18:1, 2 TLB)

What does that mean to us? The New Testament tells us that we – Christians – are like a nation of priests.

…for you have been chosen by God himself—you are priests of the King, you are holy and pure, you are God’s very own—all this so that you may show to others how God called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light. (1 Peter 2:9 TLB)

Our reward in serving God is God Himself. His presence in our lives is our reward for faithful service.

But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint. (Isaiah 40:31 TLB)

Law and Grace

Published December 15, 2014 Uncategorized Leave a Comment
Tags: Election, Galatians, Grace, Law

A huge chunk of the Old Testament is taken up with teachings on the Law. When we read books like Exodus, Leviticus, and Deuteronomy, we are reading about the Law. As Christians, we dismiss the Law. Yet we shouldn’t. The Law was given to Israel by God; it came from the very heart of God. It may not apply to Christians, but we certainly should know about the Law. Jesus Himself was known to have said things like this:

Don’t misunderstand why I have come—it isn’t to cancel the laws of Moses and the warnings of the prophets. No, I came to fulfill them and to make them all come true. (Matthew 5:17 TLB)

As Christians, we would rather talk about grace. Most of us have been taught that the Old Testament is all about Law while the New Testament is all about grace. That’s partly true, but partly wrong. In the Old Testament, the Law is prominent but grace is there, lurking in the background. In the New Testament, grace is obvious but the Law is still there, in the shadows.

Is there a conflict between the Law and grace? Does grace nullify the Law completely? Since the Law is present in the New Testament, Christians should try to understand why it’s there and resolve the tension that may exist between the Law and grace.

Galatians 5:1 – 11

Paul was probably the greatest theologian who ever lived. He was probably the greatest thinker in history. He possessed a towering intellect, and yet he never divorced doctrine from life. He always sought to integrate the two, doctrine and life, so that doctrine could actually change a life. Typical of Paul, his letters followed a pattern. First, he would put forth some heavy duty doctrinal ideas. Reading these parts of his letters requires patience and sometimes a dictionary. He uses big words to teach his big ideas. Thankfully, though, he always followed his purely intellectual teachings with a “how-to” section. In other words, first he would tell you how you should live, then he would show you how to live. Galatians 5 begins Paul’s showing you how to live.

So Christ has made us free. Now make sure that you stay free, and don’t get all tied up again in the chains of slavery to Jewish laws and ceremonies. (Galatians 5:1 TLB)

This verse represents Paul’s summation of what preceded it, namely, that the Law brings slavery but faith brings freedom. Another translation of this verse goes like this:

Plant your feet firmly therefore within the freedom that Christ has won for us, and do not let yourselves be caught again in the shackles of slavery. (JBP)

Or, maybe you prefer this translation:

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. (NIV)

Well, no matter which version you prefer, the idea Paul is advancing is best summed up like this:

You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? (Galatians 3:1 NIV)

That’s pretty strong language! The “bewitching” took the form of some false teaching that had infiltrated the church. These Galatians had once been heathens, in bondage to heathenism. Upon hearing the Gospel, they exchanged their bondage to heathenism for Christ’s free grace. But this new-fangled false teaching said that while faith in Christ was important, it wasn’t enough. If you wanted to be saved, you needed Jesus and the Law of Moses. That’s how false teaching works, by the way. There’s usually an element of truth in it. The false teachers, Judaizers by name, made a career out of following Paul and the apostles around, slipping into churches they founded, and teaching their perversion of the Gospel. For them, salvation was Jesus + the Law.

Paul’s point of contention with the Galatians was that it was totally crazy of them to give up the wonderful freedom they had found in Christ, to go back into having to obey a bunch of burdensome regulations. It was Christ who had set them free from their slavery to sin. They couldn’t set themselves free.

This is an important point to make note of. We cannot set ourselves free, either from the Law (in the case of Israelites) or from sin (in the case of the Galatians and us). Only Christ can do that. However, there is a definite sense of co-operation. That is, we must co-operate with the Holy Spirit in living the Christian life in freedom. Even though Christ lives in us, we must determine to keep standing firm in the freedom Christ has won for us.

The thing the Judaizers were trying to get the Galatians to practice in order to secure salvation was circumcision. This incensed Paul.

Listen to me, for this is serious: if you are counting on circumcision and keeping the Jewish laws to make you right with God, then Christ cannot save you. I’ll say it again. Anyone trying to find favor with God by being circumcised must always obey every other Jewish law or perish. (Galatians 5:2, 3 TLB)

Keeping part of the Jewish Law meant keeping all of it. It’s as if Paul were saying, “You think it was rough being in bondage to sin. Wait till you try obeying the Jewish Laws!” No wonder he called them “foolish.” And Paul would know! He was a strict observer of the Jewish Law until Christ set him free.

It was so serious to add anything to Christ’s gift of free grace, Paul adds this:

Christ is useless to you if you are counting on clearing your debt to God by keeping those laws; you are lost from God’s grace. (Galatians 5:4 TLB)

In the strongest language possible, Paul says the consequences of seeking salvation beyond the simple Gospel are dire indeed. They would literally lose God’s grace because Christ would have nothing to do with them. It’s not that God would abandon them, it’s that they would abandon God. Turning to the Law, or anything else, for salvation after having experienced Christ’s free grace is fatal.

If anyone sins deliberately by rejecting the Savior after knowing the truth of forgiveness, this sin is not covered by Christ’s death; there is no way to get rid of it. There will be nothing to look forward to but the terrible punishment of God’s awful anger, which will consume all his enemies. (Hebrews 10:26, 27 TLB)

Why so dire? E.M. Bounds offers a bit of wisdom that goes a long way toward ansering that question:

All God’s plans have the mark of the cross on them, and all His plans of death to self in them. But men’s plans ignore the offense of the cross or despise it. Men’s plans have no profound, stern or self-immolating denial in them. Their gain is of the world.

He’s absolutely correct. Seeking salvation through any means other than the supernatural means provided for by Christ through the Cross is not profound at all and it elevates man to an unnatural height far beyond the place assigned him by his God. Not only that, it devalues Christ and God’s grace.

John 1:14 – 17

This group of verses is remarkable in it’s implications as far as God’s grace toward sinful man is concerned.

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 testified concerning him. He cried out, saying, “This is the one I spoke about when I said, ‘He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’”) Out of his fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

What kind of person could ever minimize what happened in the above paragraph? What kind of hard heart could disregard that kind of grace? Leon Morris comments:

God’s grace to His people is continuous and is never exhausted. Grace knows no interruption and no limit. In contrast to the Law, it stresses the dynamic character of the Christian life. “Grace” means an ever-deepening experience of the presence and the blessing of God.

To give that up and simply walk away from it takes a special kind of cold, hard heart. No wonder Paul’s warning to the Galatians was so stark!

God the Father literally gave sinful man all He had when He gave His only Son to make a way of salvation. To accept God’s grace through a relationship with Jesus Christ is to become part of His family – that’s how close we become to God through Jesus. Lee Strobel makes this clear when he wrote –

Believing the right things about Jesus isn’t enough. You’re not adopted as God’s child until you confess and turn away from your wrong doing and receive the freely offered gift of forgiveness and eternal life that Jesus purchased with His death on the cross. Until that, you’ll always be on the outside looking in.

Ephesians 1:3 – 10

This passage is perhaps the most profound in all of Scripture concerning salvation. In it, Paul shows us how God laid the plan for our salvation long before He actually created the material universe.

The source of all blessings

How we praise God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every blessing in heaven because we belong to Christ. (Ephesians 1:3 TLB)

In the Greek, it’s simply “blessing,” in the singular. Paul doesn’t distinguish between material or spiritual blessings. All those things that benefit us in some way come from God simply because we belong to Christ. That’s important to note. It’s not out of love for us, although God does love us. It’s not out of obligation or even compassion. God blesses us because we belong to Christ.

To be “in Christ” denotes a kind of “union of persons.” It’s Paul’s way of describing a relationship so close there really are no words to adequately describe it.

Salvation enacted before time

Long ago, even before he made the world, God chose us to be his very own through what Christ would do for us; he decided then to make us holy in his eyes, without a single fault—we who stand before him covered with his love. His unchanging plan has always been to adopt us into his own family by sending Jesus Christ to die for us. And he did this because he wanted to! Now all praise to God for his wonderful kindness to us and his favor that he has poured out upon us because we belong to his dearly loved Son. (Ephesians 1:4 – 6 TLB)

Election is a Biblical doctrine no matter how hard it may be to understand. God chose us. Salvation is always HIS initiative. Our salvation is so important to God, He began His initiative before the creation of the universe! When a sinner responds to that initiative, that sinner becomes part of “the elect,” a group of believers God knew would become part of His great family. One scholar put it this way –

This new people, the church, is not the result of a hasty, temporal expedient, but is a part of God’s eternal purpose…

And part of that eternal purpose is to take a man, corrupt and covered in the filth of sin, and clean him up, re-creating and re-making him into someone holy. This happens when God’s grace is operating in his heart. At that moment, that redeemed sinner is made part of God’s family. Paul uses the term “adoption,” and without delving into the deep theological significance behind it, let’s just say that only God the Father is able to take a person estranged from Him and in an instant make him part of His family. The person can’t do that. He can’t make himself part of God’s family. This is wholly a work of God.

So overflowing is his kindness toward us that he took away all our sins through the blood of his Son, by whom we are saved; and he has showered down upon us the richness of his grace—for how well he understands us and knows what is best for us at all times. (Ephesians 1:7, 8 TLB)

Our adoption was purchased through the death of Christ. It was that sacrifice that resulted in the forgiveness of our sins. The idea of the “blood” of Christ is significant. It shows how valuable we really are to God! We are equal in value to Him as His Son is.

Again, the words of Hebrews 10:26, 27 ring in our ears –

If anyone sins deliberately by rejecting the Savior after knowing the truth of forgiveness, this sin is not covered by Christ’s death; there is no way to get rid of it. There will be nothing to look forward to but the terrible punishment of God’s awful anger, which will consume all his enemies. (Hebrews 10:26, 27 TLB)

Considering what God did for us, in us, and to us, we can understand how serious a thing it is to willfully turn your back on Christ’s salvation. This isn’t merely backsliding referred to here; it’s a selling out of your soul to the world. It’s apostasy. No wonder Paul called the Galatians “foolish” when they were just contemplating messing up God’s perfect plan of salvation.

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