Posts Tagged 'Life'

Human Life Is Sacred

Published January 17, 2015 Uncategorized Leave a Comment
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Suppose you’re walking your dog along the beach when all of a sudden the dog bolts and gets away from you and runs out into the ocean. At that exact moment, you hear a commotion down the beach and you look out and see somebody screaming, struggling to keep afloat. The stranger is drowning, but so is your dog. You love your dog very much, but you don’t know the stranger. Your impulse is to save the dog. But what will you do?

Dennis Prager gives that scenario to illustrate how people view human life.

Since the 1970s, I have asked students if they would first try to save their drowning dog or a drowning stranger. And for 40 years I have received the same results: One third vote for their dog, one third for the stranger, and one third don’t know what they would do.

How did we get to the place where two thirds of human beings wouldn’t save a drowning stranger but one third would save a dog? The fact is, for much of American history – at least up until the 1960’s – Americans were taught that human beings were created in God’s image while animals were not. For the past 50 years that’s not what’s been taught and it shows. No wonder there is some confusion when it comes to who or what to save. Too many of us follow our hearts and feelings rather than acknowledge the sacredness of human life. Too many of us don’t know how to differentiate between our feelings and our values, or as Prager puts it, “between our feelings and revelation (divinely revealed values).”

All of us feel more for a being we love than for a being we don’t know, let alone love. Therefore something must supersede our feelings. That something must be values. But these values must be perceived as emanating from something higher than us; higher than our opinions, higher than our faculty of reason, and even higher than our conscience. And that higher source is God.

Indeed. Dennis Prager is right. The only reason to save a stranger at the expense of your dog is that that stranger is a human being, created in God’s image. Your feelings may tell you otherwise, but God’s revelation must always supersede those feelings.

Let’s see what the Bible, God’s final revelation to man, says about this issue.

Do not murder

This is one of the Ten Commandments and is often misunderstood. The word really is “murder,” not “kill.” A human being is never to murder another human being. This prohibition, however, is much older than the Mosaic Covenant.

The Noahic Covenant, Genesis 9:5, 6

And for your lifeblood I will surely demand an accounting. I will demand an accounting from every animal. And from each human being, too, I will demand an accounting for the life of another human being. “Whoever sheds human blood, by humans shall their blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made mankind.”

There are plenty of covenants in the Bible, which makes sense because our God is a covenant-making God. This one, though, is not widely known. It was made between God and Noah after the flood waters receded. It is unique among all the covenants between God and man because it was made quite literally at the very beginning of a new humanity on earth.

Noah was given three commands upon leaving the ark. The first was similar to the command God gave Adam and Eve: to have children to refill the earth. The second one reaffirmed man’s dominion over all creation except that while there was complete harmony with creation originally, God this time instilled a “dread fear” of man in creation and man was to include meat in his diet. Part of this command included draining all the blood from animals killed for food. This was probably looking forward to the Jewish sacrificial system. But it was God’s third command to Noah that is most significant. The absolute sanctity of man’s blood is stressed because he was created in God’s image. Even though that image in man has been greatly flawed, it is there all the same and therefore killing a human being is a crime against God Himself. The life of the one who takes the life of another person is to be taken as punishment. God could exact this punishment Himself, but He has chosen to act through His representatives on earth: man. This is capital punishment and it is not a suggestion from God, it is a command. That’s pretty simple, and it would remain so until more elaborate rules were given later on in the Mosaic law.

According to Numbers 35, failure to abide by this command would result in dire consequences.

If you did this, you would defile the land where you are living. Murder defiles the land, and except by the death of the murderer there is no way to perform the ritual of purification for the land where someone has been murdered. Do not defile the land where you are living, because I am the Lord and I live among the people of Israel. (Numbers 35:33, 34 GNB)

This command was not given only as part of the law of God to Moses for the Israelites. It was given to all mankind and there is a high price for disobeying it. The decline of society we are witnessing today may, in part, be due to the man’s stubborn refusal to follow the Lord’s command to take a life for a life. It’s not just punishment, it’s an acknowledge of the sanctity of human life.

The Mosaic Covenant, Exodus 20:13

This commandment has been misunderstood for generations because it has been mistranslated. It is not “killing” but murder that is prohibited. This makes this commandment a cousin to the command given to Noah. Very simply put, according to God you may kill but you may not murder. This is an important distinction. The word “kill” in Hebrew refers to the taking of any life, human or animal, either deliberately or by accident, either legally or illegally. But the Hebrew word for “murder,” which is used here, means only the taking of a human life on purpose. That’s why we say things like, “I killed a mosquito,” not “I murdered a mosquito,” or “The worker was accidentally killed,” not “The worker was accidentally murdered.”

That this commandment cannot refer to “killing” is clear because the Torah allows for killing another human in times of war and as capital punishment. The Bible does not allow for two popular positions held by society today: opposition to capital punishment and pacifism. In terms of capital punishment, it is the only law that appears in each book of the Torah. And remember, it predates the law of Moses, making it applicable to all mankind. In a free society, of course, you are free to hold an alternative view, but you are not free to cite the Bible in support of it because, as should abundantly clear, the Bible teaches only one thing: murders are to be put to death. Why? It is because man is created in God’s image and murder is a crime against God. The ultimate crime is not, in one sense, the taking of a human life, but harming the image of God in him. That ultimate crime deserves the ultimate punishment.

The Priestly Covenant, Leviticus 19:16

Do not go about spreading slander among your people. ‘Do not do anything that endangers your neighbor’s life. I am the Lord. (NIV)

The idea behind this verse is better understood in context of how we treat one another. Verse 15 teaches us to honor people and to treat all people fairly, whether rich or poor. Verse 16 prohibits lying about another person and possibly putting their life at risk. And verse 17 deals again with how we treat our neighbor. The standard being put forth here is close to the teaching of the New Testament that forbids taking vengeance and demands love for both neighbor and stranger alike. So sacred is life that we need to be careful in even how we talk to and about people, so as not to provoke violence that could lead to death.

Protecting the innocent

The question Cain asked God was an important one: “Am I my brother’s keeper?” How far are we supposed to go in looking after our neighbor? Where does our responsibility end in terms of his welfare? Sure, we are commanded NOT to murder our neighbor, but what the positive side: love and concern? Deuteronomy helps us out.

Deuteronomy 19:1 – 10

These verses deal with the so-called “Cities of Refuge,” God’s solution to the problem of an accidental killing. Nothing else like these cities of refuge existed in the world. If a man accidentally killed someone, he could flee to one of six designated cities and live without fear of being killed.

Justice is very important to the Lord, even justice for the unintentional killer. The willful murderer would be punished swiftly, but there was a safe haven for the one who killed accidentally.

We don’t have cities of refuge today, but there is a great lesson to be learned from them. Elisabeth Elliot writes:

Where does your security lie? Is God your refuge, your hiding place, your stronghold, your shepherd, your counselor, your friend, your redeemer, your savior, your guide? If He is, you don’t need to search any further for security.

She’s absolutely right about that. God is our “city of refuge.” We sinners are completely safe in Him – safe from all of Satan’s accusations.

Deuteronomy 21:1 – 9

What about a murder where there is only a victim but no apparent perpetrator? It happens; even today many murders go unsolved. God instituted a plan for that, too. The murder of a human being, as we have noted, is a crime against God Himself because that human being was created in God’s very image. Justice must be satisfied, therefore a sacrifice must take place.

Then the elders of the town nearest the body shall take a heifer that has never been worked and has never worn a yoke and lead it down to a valley that has not been plowed or planted and where there is a flowing stream. There in the valley they are to break the heifer’s neck. (Deuteronomy 21:3, 4 NIV)

There seems to be a lot of “pomp and circumstance” attached to this, but there is a reason that has little to do with God. The people of Israel – and we – are to learn something vitally important. First, willful murder is a serious offense. There is no more serious offense against another human being than the willful shedding of blood. But secondly, that murder is an offense against God. In order to satisfy His demand for justice, these steps put forth by Him needed to be observed as a reminder that while the murder itself was a grievous crime indeed, harm to God was also caused and also needed to be atoned for.

Promote righteousness

When we read about the rules the Lord gave the Israelites concerning murder, they may seem to us to be unduly complex. However, God was and is still building a new society and a new people. He began with Israel and continues with the Church of Jesus Christ. We may be living in this fallen world, but we are citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven. Our law is a higher law. Part of that law goes beyond just doing or not doing certain things. Part of that law is living in such a way as to promote righteous living in others. That’s why God was so concerned that His people live such obviously different lifestyles than those of the nations surrounding them. Christians ought to live with the same deliberate concern for how we appear to those around us. It’s not that we should aspire to be social misfits or freaks; it’s that we should simply live lives that line up the Word of God.

Human life is indeed sacred and how we live our lives is part of that sacredness.

THE GOSPEL OF JOHN, 2

Published January 25, 2010 Uncategorized Leave a Comment
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The Word Becomes Flesh, John 1:1—5

The Gospel of John begins magnificently.  It not only establishes the eternity of the Son of God, but it confronts the popular false teachings of John’s day head on.  The Stoics and Greek philosophers of the New Testament era all spoke of “the word,” the logos, a cold intellectual and philosophical abstraction.  Here, though, the real Word is presented as the Person of the Living God, living and walking among men, who came to recognize Him, worship Him, and bore witness of Him to the world.   The idea of the Incarnate Word is prevalent in John’s Gospel, yet the word logos only appears in verses 1 and 14 of the first chapter.  It is clear, though, that the idea of the Word as being the personal revelation of God to man left an indelible mark on the heart of John and was never far from his mind.  He even wrote of the Word in Revelation—

13He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God.  (Revelation 13:19)

Scholars often refer to the first 15 verses of chapter 1 as the “Logos Hymn.”

1.  The Prologue, verses 1, 2

1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2He was with God in the beginning.

The very best way to study these two verses is phrase-by-phrase so as not to miss a single morsel of spiritual nourishment.

  • In the beginning was the word.

These opening words are clearly intended to remind the reader of the opening words of Genesis.  “In the beginning” was the creation of the material universe, yet the Word existed even before then.  This is another way to say that the Word has been in existence from all eternity.   Perhaps as a slight at the heretical teachings that claimed the Word was created, John establishes in no uncertain terms that He was not created; the He existed before anything was ever created.  Perhaps as a nod toward Judaism, John uses this phrase to acknowledge the Word, existing from all eternity, was also present at the creation of the Hebrew religion.

Just as God is eternal, so is the Word.  He is, as John would later write, “the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending” (Revelation 1:8).

  • Was the Word.

Both John and the Christians and the heretics taught their followers about the logos—the word.  But like the word “god,” it meant something completely different to them.  This is why John went to such lengths to explain who the real Word is as opposed to what the false teachers were saying he was.  For John, the Word was a Person, to the Greek philosophers, the word was hard to define.  Philo, a Greek philosopher whose ideas of “the word” influenced many false teachers of his day, used the word “logos” over a thousand times, but never with a firm definition.  But John leaves no doubt about the real Word.  The real Word, John wrote, was “with God.”  The small word “with” is packed with meaning which does not translate well into English; in the Greek it indicates a kind of forward motion toward something or being “face to face” with someone.  The Word, then, is described as being “with God,” but He was with God in the most intimate relationship possible.

Being “with God” as John wrote, can also imply personality and co-existence with God and it strongly suggests an expression of God.  These are very big ideas to be sure, but Merril C. Tenney offers a helpful summary:

This is the real meaning of the phrase.  Unity of nature rather than similarity or likeness is implied.  The eternal co-existence and unity of the Word with God is unmistakably asserted.

  • The Word was God.

This is a straight forward statement of fact.  In fact, in the Greek it is much more forceful as John places the predicate before the subject.  To we 21st century Christians, the fact that the Word, Jesus Christ, is God, is a statement of an obvious fact.  However, to 1st century Christians such a blatant statement would have been met with cheers of vindication from John’s readers.

  • He was with God in the beginning.

If verse 2 seems like a repetition of what John said in verse 1, that’s because it is.  Again, it is very forceful in the Greek:  “This One was in the beginning face-to-face with God.”

Many fine Biblical scholars have written pages and pages on these two verses of John 1, but probably the best commentary of all is Proverbs 8:27—30

27 I was there when he set the heavens in place, when he marked out the horizon on the face of the deep, 28 when he established the clouds above and fixed securely the fountains of the deep,  29 when he gave the sea its boundary so the waters would not overstep his command, and when he marked out the foundations of the earth. 30 Then I was the craftsman at his side. I was filled with delight day after day, rejoicing always in his presence.

2.  Four relationships with the Word, verses 3—5

This section describes four basic relationships of the Word—

(1)  To the world, verse 3

3Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.

The implications of the verse are staggering and cannot be overstated; one by one, all things in the material universe came into being through this Word.  The word “made” (egeneto) means “became,” not “constructed,” referring to an event, not a process.  The amazing universe in which we live, with all its intricate complexities, owes its origin to the imagination of its Creator, expressed in through His Word.

The second half of the verse, “without him nothing was made that has been made,” is emphatic, as though to guard against first century false teaching that taught certain things were really created by inferior creators, with God supervising.  What John made clear is a doctrine known as the “primacy of Christ.”   A similar thought is beautifully expressed in Colossians 1:16 and Hebrews 1:2—

16For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him.  (Col. 1:16)

2[B]ut in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe.  (Heb. 1:2)

(2)  To life and light, verse 4a

4In him was life, and that life was the light of men.

An important distinction should be pointed out:  John wrote IN, not THROUGH.  That first clause means that from all eternity life was in the Word.  The word “life” is zoe , and it occcurs 36 times in this Gospel.  It is frequently coupled with the adjective “eternal,” and most often refers spiritual life, occasionally to physical life.  What is alluded to here is that the Word is seen as Source of all life, both physical and spiritual—that is, “life from above.”

As the Word is the great Source of all life, so He is also the Source of all light.  Here is another allusion to the book of Genesis:  the first act of God’s creative week was the creation of light.  In Psalm 36:9 we read another instance of where the idea of light and life is mentioned—

9 For with you is the fountain of life; in your light we see light.

Jesus Himself, the Incarnate Word, described Himself as being “the light of the world” in John 8:12.  The peculiar thing about this particular Light is that while it shines in the darkness, it is not appropriated by sinful men (1:5).

(3)  To men, verse 4b

[T]hat life was the light of men.

Where there is light, there is life.  Since the fall, mankind has been characterized by darkness, evil, and hatred, all antonyms of light.  Truth and love are the synonyms of light.

The Word is God’s personal revelation to men.  We refer to it as being personal because the Word proceeded from God, directed to man, like a beam of light shining into the darkness, illuminating hidden objected.

(4)  To darkness, verse 5

5The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.

The first thing we notice in verse five is the change from the imperfect to the present tense:  not only was the light shining throughout the darkness that existed before His coming; it continues to shine to this day after His coming.  In other words, the coming of the Word into the darkness of a sinful world was not like a sudden burst of light that came and went, but rather like a continual beam of light, forever eliminating any vestiges of the darkness.

However, verse 5 is made up of two clauses, one a promise, the other a response.  The response of the darkness to the Light depends on our interpretation of the second clause.  The traditional interpretation is this:

  • The sad fact is, as John noted, while the Light is blazing like the noonday sun, “the darkness has not understood” the Light.  The “darkness” refers to fallen mankind, their souls shrouded by sin, disbelief, and rebellion.  Mankind, epitomized by the Jews, did not accept or appropriate the Light.

In recent years, another view has gained a sizeable following:

  • The darkness did not “overcome”, or “overpower” or “extinguish” the Light.  The idea is that despite how Christ was treated, it did not stop His light from shining.

Both views have merit; however, the traditional view is likely the correct one.  While it is true that the darkness did not extinguish the Light, that view does not fit the immediate context.  Note what verse 11 says—

11He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.

Though the world is seen as a hostile power, opposing the Light of the Word, it must be stressed that the Light not only shines in the dark world of sin, but it also shines into the hearts of individual sinners to chase the darkness of sin out.  When a sinner appropriates that Light, the Light triumphs over the darkness and a sinner is saved.  In time, the Light will return as a conquering Light, reshaping and recreating the world He originally created.  This day is a day we all look forward to.

William Hendriksen offers the following synthesis of 1:1—5:

a.   In the beginning.  When the universe was created, He already existed.

b.   At the creation.  All things came into being through Him.  Not a single thing in all creation came into being apart from Him.

c.   After the fall.  The world lay in the darkness of sin and hopelessness.  When the Light came, life was made manifest and He offered it to those dying in their sin.  However, the world at large rejected this offer of light and life, and violently opposed God’s message of truth and love.  But to individuals who respond in faith to the Light, eternal life is given.

©  2010, WitzEnd

A Survey of Ecclesiastes, 1

Published May 16, 2008 Uncategorized Leave a Comment
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LIFE: THE MOST FRUSTRATING THING IN THE WORLD

1. Introductory Comments

The writer of Ecclesiastes is Solomon, a fact well established among conservative Bible scholars. Solomon is also responsible for Proverbs and the Song of Solomon. But Ecclesiastes is completely different from those two books in both tone and content. If the book of Proverbs illustrates the wisdom of Solomon, then Ecclesiastes indicates the man’s foolishness.

Ecclesiastes is one of the most puzzling books in the entire Bible mainly because of its unorthodox statements about life and extreme pessimism. The correct interpretation of this book is made possible when it is viewed through the lense of the New Testament. Ecclesiastes shows us man’s wisdom apart from God. When we consider the great questions of life without God, we will always arrive the wrong conclusions, as Solomon did throughout Ecclesiastes. This likely explains why atheists and unbelievers love to quote from this book; interestingly, Voltaire often cited verses from Ecclesiastes in his writing.

Man has always sought happiness without God. Every day, most people in most parts of the world try to find meaning in their lives without considering God. The inestimable value of Ecclesiastes is that is shows us how absurd that quest is. Solomon was the wisest man who ever lived, and that great wisdom was a gift to him from God. Yet, despite that, for a time in Solomon’s life, he tried to find pleasure and meaning apart from his Creator. His conclusion was that his quest was vanity. That word occurs over 30 times in Ecclesiastes; it means “empty” or “purposeless.” Satisfaction in this life is fleeting and temporary at best without Jesus Christ. Although the many conclusions and opinions Solomon makes in this book are not inspired, Scripture is inspired. This is why time and again Solomon prefaces some many of his thoughts with, “I said in my heart,” or “Under the sun,” or “vanity.”

God showed Job, an admittedly righteous man, that even he was a sinner in God’s sight. In Ecclesiastes, God will show Solomon, a very wise man, that even he was a fool in the sight of God.

2. Frustration #1: Nature and History, 1:4-11

The first thing Solomon finds in his quest for meaning is that when man looks at life’s physical environment, he finds only the answers the material world can give. In these eight verses, Solomon takes on the role of a scientist and historian.

First, as a scientist, Solomon studies nature and the world around him and reduces everything to a simple cause-and-effect. In fact, Solomon cites examples of natural phenomena in the order of their creation: (1) the solid earth, (2) the rising and setting of the heavenly bodies, (3) air currents, (4) the flow and evaporation of water. Solomon studied all these things looking for meaning to his life. But he, like the scientist, can only describe the physical laws he sees, he cannot go beyond that. Studying nature without knowledge of God cannot lead a person to God. That’s the frustration Solomon feels at this point. The Biblical view of nature is somewhat different, however. Scripture plainly teaches that all nature testifies to the existence of a Creator, even though it does not compel a belief in Him (Psalm 19; Romans 1:20). But Solomon isn’t interested in God, all he wants is proof; proof of meaning.

He is frustrated because, as he observes the ebb and flow of nature, it seems to be meaningless to him.

He doesn’t fare any better as the historian, either. If the solid earth gives no stability and yields no answers, what help can there be an endless succession of birth and death? In fact, when you study history, you will find exactly what Solomon has found: men and women struggling to find meaning in their experiences, yet all their work was in vain, for they, like Solomon, found nothing. Every generation tries to find satisfaction from some “new thing,” but every “new thing” is really just a variant on the past (verse 9).

Naturally, there have been great inventions over the years, but what Solomon has in mind is that one thing that would enable a man to break out of nature and the monotony of history into meaning. Man is always looking for the one thing that will give his life meaning. Interestingly, with all the great strides in science and technology man has made in the past two centuries, each generation, thinks itself the greatest, yet still struggles to find meaning.

3. Frustration #2: Wisdom, 1:12-18

Here we see the inquiring mind at work, searching for meaning. Yet even acquiring all knowledge left Solomon empty. In his first mention of God, in verse 13, Solomon states that God has given man something that the rest of nature does not have: the constant, though often worrying, urge to make sense life. Animals don’t have that; they live within their world of instincts. But man is driven to understand how his life works so that he can ultimately control and direct his instinctive desires.

Verse 15 is such a profound verse. In our time, we have “straightened out” many of the twists of the past and added many comforts and security to life. But we, in our life time, have seen how in a instant, all that security can be stripped away by one single act of terrorism, and how a dormant group of people can revive the horrors of the past and destroy what is truly good and meaningful in life.

Even Christians, who have a fuller revelation of God through Jesus Christ, still cannot comprehend how the Divine mind works. Often, “God’s ways are not man’s ways.” But, through faith, we are able to see that in everything God works for good the those who love him, Romans 8:28.

The problem with knowledge is that we are finite, but eternity is all around us. We can always find more things wrong than we can make right. G.G. Atkins offers these profound thoughts:

We do, however, posses the power by the grace of God and the mystery of our own creative personalities to take the raw material of experience and our own always unfinished selves, and make of life an enterprise worthy of its cost and promise. The crooked can be made straight, in highways, in society, and in the soul; not always easily or soon, and always at a price. But we have not choice save to try it.

4. Frustration #3: Unlimited wealth, 2:1-11

To most people, unlimited wealth suggests the possibility of unlimited happiness. Money can buy pleasure, and to be sure Solomon probably tried everything in they way of pleasure. We can only speculate as to what pleasures Solomon explored, searching for meaning. He mentions a few:

  • He surrounded himself with people who could make him laugh, but eventually the jokes grew stale (verses 1-2).
  • He turned to sensual pleasures, things like wine (verse 3).
  • He turned to hobbies, perhaps thinking a more sensible use of money would give him satisfaction (verses 4-8).

The final words of verse 8 may well refer to his many wives, though the Hebrew is extremely obscure. Not finding satisfaction in one night stands, he seeks it marriage.

In this frustration, we see something interesting. Solomon is looking for peace and meaning in worthwhile pursuits. No one could deny that building projects are themselves sinful or wrong. Hobbies don’t have to be sinful. Marriage is noble institution. Yet, even these innocuous pursuits yield nothing but disappointment if God is not part of the pursuit.

5. Frustration #4: Death, 2:12-23

If a person cannot find abiding happiness in work and wealth and worthwhile activities, what is left? Nobody lived a life as Solomon did. And if they tried to, even they would find it monotonous. But Solomon reached the conclusion that even so, it is better to wise than to be a fool. And yet, the wise man isn’t all that far removed from the fool, since they both come to the same end. All the wisdom of the ages cannot keep the wisest man from his fate: death.

It is true that thanks to advances in medicine, human life spans have been lengthened, perhaps as many as 15 or 20 years, but when you compare two decades to a millennium or eternity, those extra years don’t make much of a difference.

In verse 17, the Teacher concludes that he hates life, that it is meaningless, “vanity.” Remember, the Hebrew word means “purposeless.” It made no sense to Solomon that he should work so hard to create things, only to die. Thomas Edison is a good example of a man who created many of the things we use and take for granted today. He was a genuine genius, yet he died just like everybody else. What good did all his brain power do him in the end? All his inventions didn’t extend his life a minute.

John Harvard, the man who founded Harvard University, was a Christian, and he left his vast fortune to the Church to spread the Gospel. Today, there isn’t much left of the Christian faith on the campus of Harvard.
Solomon realized this thousands of years ago. It is a waste of time to work for something, only to turn it over to a fool. He had the same problem, and 1 Kings 12 describes it in detail.

Verses 24-26 give an excellent summation of Solomon’s exploration so far. These verses are easily taken out of context, but in context they are quite profound. You can wear yourself out trying to find meaning in life by studying nature or history; you can make the pursuit of money and luxury your goal in life, thinking your possessions will bring you peace. But you will end up frustrated because you are grounding yourself in the material world, which does not hold the key to satisfaction. Why not simply take your daily life from God?

Note the words of 1 Timothy 6:6-19.

To walk with God means that we are able to ask for wisdom when we need it and are able to use it rightly with the help of the Holy Spirit. God, through His Word, communicates to us His will for our lives, which gives us meaning and purpose.

Nobody needs to be as foolish as Solomon was. Through Jesus Christ, we are able to live lives full of meaning; be content with our lives, secure in the knowledge that our very lives are in God’s hand.

The Christian Life

Published February 22, 2007 Uncategorized 1 Comment
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Hebrews 12:1, 2

An Brief Exposition

The one great outstanding feature of the Christian is that they have LIFE. This life is not a common natural life lived in the flesh, but the new Spirit-born life of God, which makes them a new creation. This new life is—

1. An energetic life “Let us run the race.” One who is in a race is always wide awake and alert. He is single-minded in his goal: he is determined not only to finish the race, but to win the race.

2. An ordered life “The race set before us.” It is not a blind rush in no particular direction.. The course of the Christian life is clearly defined. The Word of God and the example of Christ makes the way plain.

3. A persevering life “Run with patience.” The believer must be patient, enduring ups and downs as he runs the race. We are to be patient in well doing, doing all for the glory of God.

4. An upward life “Looking unto Jesus.” We are to look to Jesus because we press on for the prize of His eternal life and reward. In steadily beholding Him we are lifted up above the things of earth and being conformed into His likeness (Phil. 3:13—14).

5. A believing life “Looking unto the Author and finisher of our faith.” It is simply a life of faith in the Son of God; faith that He who has begun the good work of faith in our hearts will finish it (2 Timothy 4:7, 8). A finished faith is a faith that produces a life of satisfaction in Christ.

6. A self-denying life “Lay aside every weight.” When an athlete is training for his race, he doesn’t care about fashion. If one is to follow Jesus, they must be willing to deny themselves some of life’s passing fancies. An athlete must battle fatigue as he runs the race. He must fight against the aches and pains of a prolonged race, but he does so, he doesn’t give into his body; “In the Warriors Code there’s No Surrender! Though his body says STOP, his spirit cries NEVER.”

7. A hopeful life “Who for the joy that was set before him.” Christ lived and suffered and died in the hope of seeing the travail of His soul. The faithful servant will be rewarded. Salvation is full of grace, but the works of the saved will be rewarded.

8. A public life “We also are compassed about with a great cloud of witnesses.” We, like those mentioned in the eleventh chapter, are also surrounded by a cloud of witnesses. Every individual Christian has a cloud of witnesses. May we run our heavenward race so that they, too, will be led to glorify the Father in heaven.

So, how are you running today?

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My Conservative Identity:

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