Swarup Ministry

Prayer Request for VBS

2014-03-06T16:17:00.001+05:30

Dear Friends and Prayer Partners,

I come to you with the burden and with prayer concern to uphold "Swarup Ministry" in your Prayers.because I do believe that Prayer changes everything for Gods glory.

This Summer Vacation we will be having a One week Vacation Bible school for Children which is the most interior part of Maharashtra state in India.This V.B.S will be in the month of may most probably in the second or third week.

Pray for the all children that they would know about Jesus Christ as their personal Savior.
Pray for the team as they prepare the venue and all physical arrangements for the same.
Pray for us as we prepare the lessons and all the stuff which is needed for Children ministry.
Pray for all the physical and financial need for the same.
Pray for the safe journey.
Pray for the Great Harvest.

THANK YOU AND GOD BLESS YOU ALL.

SWARUP MINISTRY

for more detail please contact

Pastor Swapnil Nashikkar +91 97627 84 107
www.facebook.com/Swapnil Peter Nashikkar

2013-08-14T15:14:00.003+05:30

“Love is a commitment that will be tested in the most vulnerable areas of spirituality, a commitment that will force you to make some very difficult choices. It is a commitment that demands that you deal with your lust, your greed, your pride, your power, your desire to control, your temper, your patience, and every area of temptation that the Bible clearly talks about. It demands the quality of commitment that Jesus demonstrates in His relationship to us.”
― Ravi Zacharias, I, Isaac, Take Thee, Rebekah: Moving from Romance to Lasting Love

tags: marriage, relationships

205 people liked it

“We have a right to believe whatever we want, but not everything we believe is right.”
― Ravi Zacharias

174 people liked it

“I think the reason we sometimes have the false sense that God is so far away is because that is where we have put him. We have kept him at a distance, and then when we are in need and call on him in prayer, we wonder where he is. He is exactly where we left him.”
― Ravi Zacharias, Has Christianity Failed You?

tags: god, inspirational, prayer, religion

102 people liked it

“What I believe in my heart must make sense in my mind.”
― Ravi Zacharias

92 people liked it

“In the 1950s kids lost their innocence.
They were liberated from their parents by well-paying jobs, cars, and lyrics in music that gave rise to a new term ---the generation gap.

In the 1960s, kids lost their authority.
It was a decade of protest---church, state, and parents were all called into question and found wanting. Their authority was rejected, yet nothing ever replaced it.

In the 1970s, kids lost their love. It was the decade of me-ism dominated by hyphenated words beginning with self.
Self-image, Self-esteem, Self-assertion....It made for a lonely world. Kids learned everything there was to know about sex and forgot everything there was to know about love, and no one had the nerve to tell them there was a difference.

In the 1980s, kids lost their hope.
Stripped of innocence, authority and love and plagued by the horror of a nuclear nightmare, large and growing numbers of this generation stopped believing in the future.

In the 1990s kids lost their power to reason. Less and less were they taught the very basics of language, truth, and logic and they grew up with the irrationality of a postmodern world.

In the new millennium, kids woke up and found out that somewhere in the midst of all this change, they had lost their imagination. Violence and perversion entertained them till none could talk of killing innocents since none was innocent anymore.”
― Ravi Zacharias, Recapture the Wonder

tags: generations, innocence-lost, societal-degredation

84 people liked it

“There is no greater discovery than seeing God as the author of your destiny.”
― Ravi Zacharias

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“Yes, if truth is not undergirded by love, it makes the possessor of that truth obnoxious and the truth repulsive.”
― Ravi Zacharias

69 people liked it

“I thank the Lord that, even though things were so wrong in my life here, I finally was brought to the realization of what all those struggles were about. There are some wonderful things from your painful past, things with a beauty you may not have realized at the time.”
― Ravi Zacharias, Walking from East to West: God in the Shadows

64 people liked it

“These days its not just that the line between right and wrong has been made unclear, today Christians are being asked by our culture today to erase the lines and move the fences, and if that were not bad enough, we are being asked to join in the celebration cry by those who have thrown off the restraints religion had imposed upon them. It is not just that they ask we accept, but they now demand of us to celebrate it too.”
― Ravi Zacharias

60 people liked it

“Unless I understand the Cross, I cannot understand why my commitment to what is right must be precedence over what I prefer.”
― Ravi Zacharias, I, Isaac, Take Thee, Rebekah: Moving from Romance to Lasting Love

tags: commitments, marriage, relationships

58 people liked it

“I remember the time an older man asked me when I was young, "Do you know what you are doing now?" I thought it was some kind of trick question.
Tell me," I said.
You are building your memories," he replied, "so make them good ones.”
― Ravi Zacharias

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― Ravi Zacharias, Jesus Among Other Gods: The Absolute Claims of the Christian Message

53 people liked it

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― Ravi Zacharias

tags: atheism, knowledge, supernatural

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― Ravi Zacharias

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― Ravi Zacharias

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― Ravi Zacharias

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“Faith in the biblical sense is substantive, based on the knowledge that the One in whom that faith is placed has proven that He is worthy of that trust. In its essence, faith is a confidence in the person of Jesus Christ and in His power, so that even when His power does not serve my end, my confidence in Him remains because of who He is.”
― Ravi Zacharias, Jesus Among Other Gods: The Absolute Claims of the Christian Message

34 people liked it

“With no fact as a referent, what is normative is purely a matter of preference.”
― Ravi Zacharias, The Real Face of Atheism

tags: fact, relativism

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“Capturing the beauty of the conversion of the water into wine, the poet Alexander Pope said, "The conscious water saw its Master and blushed." That sublime description could be reworked to explain each one of these miracles. Was it any different in principle for a broken body to mend at the command of its Maker? Was it far-fetched for the Creator of the universe, who fashioned matter out of nothing, to multiply bread for the crowd? Was it not within the power of the One who called all the molecules into existence to interlock them that they might bear His footsteps?”
― Ravi Zacharias, Jesus Among Other Gods: The Absolute Claims of the Christian Message

31 people liked it

“But life's joys are only joys if they can be shared.”
― Ravi Zacharias

29 people liked it

“The four absolutes we all have in our minds: love, justice, evil, and forgiveness.”
― Ravi Zacharias

29 people liked it

“It is easier to hide behind philosophical arguments, heavily footnoted for effect, than it is to admit our hurts, our confusions, our loves, and our passions in the marketplace of life's heartfelt transactions.”
― Ravi Zacharias, Can Man Live Without God

28 people liked it

“Truth by definition excludes.”
― Ravi Zacharias, Jesus Among Other Gods: The Absolute Claims of the Christian Message

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“Changes in language often reflect the changing values of a culture.”
― Ravi Zacharias

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“Worship is a posture of life that takes as its primary purpose the understanding of what it really means to love and revere God.”
― Ravi Zacharias, Jesus Among Other Gods: The Absolute Claims of the Christian Message

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“I am absolutely convinced that meaninglessness does not come from being weary of pain; meaninglessness comes from being weary of pleasure. And that is why we find ourselves emptied of meaning with our pantries still full.”
― Ravi Zacharias, Can Man Live Without God

22 people liked it

“Every other person who is at the heart of any religion has had his or her beginning either in fancy or in fact. But nevertheless, there is a beginning. Jesus' birth in Bethlehem was a moment preceded by eternity. His being neither originated in time nor came about by the will of humanity. The Author of time, who lived in the eternal, was made incarnate in time that we might live with the eternal in view. In that sense, the message of Christ was not the introduction of a religion, but an introduction to truth about reality as God alone knows it. To deny Jesus' message while pursuing spirituality is to conjure an imaginary religion in an attempt to see heaven while sight is confined to the earth. That is precisely what Jesus challenged when he said, "I have come that [you] may have life" (John 10:10). His life spells living. Your life or my life, apart from Him, spells death.”
― Ravi Zacharias, Jesus Among Other Gods: The Absolute Claims of the Christian Message

21 people liked it

“The Samaritan woman grasped what He said with fervor that came from an awareness of her real need. The transaction was fascinating. She has come with a buket. He sent her back with a spring of living water. She had come as a reject. He sent her back being accepted by God Himself. She came wounded. He sent her back whole. She came laden with questions. He sent her back as a source for answers. She came living a life of quiet desperation. She ran back overflowing with hope. The disciples missed it all. It was lunchtime for them.”
― Ravi Zacharias, Jesus Among Other Gods: The Absolute Claims of the Christian Message

20 people liked it

“We do not live so that we can eat, nor do we just eat so that we can live. Life is worth living in and of itself. Life cannot be satisfied when it is lived out as a consuming entity. When it is filled by that which satisfies a hunger that is both physical and spiritual in a mutuality that sustains both without violation of either, only then can life be truly fulfilling.”
― Ravi Zacharias, Jesus Among Other Gods: The Absolute Claims of the Christian Message

19 people liked it

“Teaching at best beckons us to morality, but it is not in itself efficacious. Teaching is like a mirror. It can show you if your face is dirty, but it the mirror will not wash your face.”
― Ravi Zacharias, Jesus Among Other Gods: The Absolute Claims of the Christian Message

WEBNODE :: First blog :: swarupministry

2013-06-13T17:10:00.001+05:30

WEBNODE :: First blog :: swarupministry

TREASURE CHEST OF LOVE

2012-09-24T15:22:00.000+05:30

TREASURE CHEST OF LOVE

Personal Evangelism

by Ron Gilbert

John 3:16: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life” (NLT). Romans 5:8: “But, God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners” (NLT).

These are scriptures that are familiar to most of us and are very special for all of us. These words demonstrate just how much God loved us. When we realize his love we also realize his sacrifice implies how valuable we are to him. We are truly a treasure in the eyes of God.

The purpose of this presentation is to help each of us begin seeing each other through the eyes of Christ and recognize that every person we know or get to know is valuable to God.

A service should be planned with a sermon based on John 3:16 and Romans 5:8. Another idea is to preach on the topic, “Sharing your faith with non-believing friends and family” based on Exodus 18:1-12.

At the close of the message believers will be asked to place the name of one person into the black treasure chest. This name should be a person that they care enough about that they are willing to pray for him or her everyday until that person becomes a believer.

The plan is simple but requires a strong level of consistency and commitment from all believers who are willing to participate. There are certain questions that believers should answer if they are considering making this commitment:

Question 1: Are you willing, with God’s help, to reach out to the person you will place in the black treasure chest?

Question 2: Are you willing to pray for him or her everyday untilthey become a believer? No matter how long it might take?

Question 3: Are you willing to pray for yourself everyday, that God will use you in some way to reach out to that person with the love of Christ?

Question 4: Are you willing to pray for whomever God chooses to use to reach him or her?

Question 5: Are you willing to put your commitment in writing by completing a commitment card that includes the person’s name and also includes your signature?

Question 6: Are you willing to publicly come forward and place the commitment card in the black treasure chest?

If the believers answered “yes” to all of these questions, they should be encouraged to complete the card and begin (or continue) their daily prayers for the salvation of their friend or loved one.

In the Treasure Chest of Love, we have two treasure chests that serve as visual reminders of our commitment to reach the lost for Christ, as well as making a public statement regarding our willingness to pray for the salvation of others. One is a black treasure chest, and the other is white. These treasure chests do not need to be big or fancy; simple containers of the right color will do.

The black treasure chest signifies two things:

The color black signifies that the people whose names were placed inside do not know Jesus Christ, and therefore live in darkness.
The Treasure Chest signifies that we recognize how valuable these people really are, both to us and to God. Remember, “…while we were still sinners Christ died for us.”

The white color of the second treasure chest signifies that a person has become a believer. They have moved from a life of darkness into a new life filled with the light of God and “…their sins shall be as white as snow,” Isaiah 1:17-19 (NLT).

It is always amazing how much excitement is generated when people are watching a sporting event and their team scores. How much more excitement should there be when someone becomes a believer in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior! We have a great example from the angels themselves in Luke 15:10: “I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents” (NIV).

To help celebrate their new life in Christ, a time of celebration should be held in the worship service each time a person who’s name is in the black chest becomes a believer. In this time of celebration, we move the name of the new believer from the black to the white treasure chest. This serves three purposes.

It demonstrates to the new believers that they have a group of people who care and are happy about their decision;
encourages the believers that made the commitment to pray and reach out to others, showing that God still answers prayer; and
helps convince the entire church that the names they individually committed can still be reached.

When possible this celebration event should be planned when both the person who placed the name in the treasure chest and the new believer can be present. It is very special when they both can come forward and physically remove the new believer’s card from the black treasure chest and place it in the white treasure chest. Then the pastor, or other believer influential in the lives of one or both people, should pray over them.

This is an opportunity to invite others to place the name of someone they care about in the black treasure chest. The pastor should use this opportunity to remind the people how important it is to pray everyday for the names that they have committed.

This may sound unusual, but we recommend, when you first begin the Treasure Chest of Love initiative, that you ask the believers to only put one name in the black treasure chest. WHY? Most of us pray for people we care about, but most of us do not pray EVERYDAY for that person. This initiative focuses on the fact that the greatest resource we have for reaching someone is prayer. We need to prove to ourselves that we will pray for one before we start praying for many. Once an individual has proven to oneself that he or she is willing to follow through on the daily prayer for one person, he or she is welcome to place other names in the treasure chest. Remember to refer to it as a treasure chest and not just a box, to remind ourselves how valuable the non-believer is in the eyes of God.

It is recommended that at some point during every service, ideally during the pastor’s prayer time, that the pastor take the two treasure chests in his or her hands and pray for the names within. This would be done collectively for all names in each chest, and not separately for each individual name within the chests. Remember to include the people whose names have been transferred from the black treasure chest to the white treasure chest as they begin this new life with Christ. This prayer time:

Demonstrates to the church that the pastor cares about those they care about.
Reminds and encourages those who have placed a name in the black treasure chest to never give up and to keep praying.
Encourages others to pray and participate. If the people see the pastor is serious then they will be serious.
Shows that God answers prayer.

It is our prayer that this focus on reaching out to those we love and care about will produce great answers to prayer and many new believers will be brought into God’s kingdom.

I have had the opportunity to use this method of personal evangelism since 1992 when my wife and I were in the West African country of Ghana. We began the work there with one small group of believers in the capitol city of Accra and one small rural preaching point. These small groups took on this initiative very seriously and within two years we had five organized churches, fifteen preaching points and 1500 members. We were able to organize the district with 750 present for that first district assembly in 1994. We were ordered out of the country within a few months of the organization of this new district but the work did not fail! Instead it continued to grow! Now instead of one district there are three, and all are led by the people of Ghana.

As a pastor for several years after that I was able to use this initiative and see churches that were struggling come back alive and on fire for God with a desire to reach those they loved and cared about. One specific example was a man by the name of Dick.

Dick brought his wife to church for 20 years but had always sat in the foyer. He was a wonderful older gentleman that everyone loved, but most people had long ago given up on reaching him for the Lord. We introduced this initiative and Wanda, his wife, came forward in tears and placed Dick’s name in the black treasure chest. We had TV monitors in the foyer and Dick saw Wanda place his name in the treasure chest.

One Sunday night about three months later, as the service was beginning, I was walking past Dick and spoke to him as usual when he grabbed my jacket sleeve. He looked up at me with tears in his eyes and said, “Pastor will you walk with me?”

“Of course Dick, where do you want me to walk with you to?” I asked.

“I want you to walk with me to the altar so I can get my name out of that black treasure chest,” he said. “I have been under so much conviction ever since my name went there that it is time I accepted Christ as my personal Savior. I cannot wait any longer.”

Dick and I began walking toward the altar. On the way he stopped and grabbed Wanda’s hand and asked her to join us. When the church realized what was happening the prayers began simultaneously across that church and the celebration began.

I must tell you that I did not have to ask for people to celebrate. I did have to finally ask them to settle down, but I must admit we all enjoyed the celebration for a long time.

Dick’s name was the first to come out of the black treasure chest at that church. It was the driving force for seeing that 70-year-old church come alive and grow from 200 people to over 400 within the next two years.

God then asked us to move to South Asia. As I was leaving, Dick, an old Navy man, gave me a special gift. He had served on the ship named the USS Franklin during World War II. When they decommissioned that old ship and cut it into pieces he was able to get some of the wood decking as a souvenir. One of the great treasures in my office is the piece of that deck that was a gift from Dick for me to remember to pray for him everyday. When I am discouraged about someone I am praying for, God always brings my eyes to that old piece of ship’s deck and reminds me to never give up. God still answers prayer.

2012-08-28T12:21:00.000+05:30

Evangelism in the Changing
Context of India

DR. SIGA ARLES·
Some Personal Reflections:

Signs of the recent revival were still 1;here at the Asbury
Theological Seminary in the Blue Grass land of Kentucky,
where I spent the years 1972 to 1975 for the first phase of my
theological studies. Key '73 brought a sense of renewal to my
own commitments to Christ, the Gospel and Ministry. Soaked
in the evangelical and holiness interpretation that was super
prevalent at ATS, when I returned to start as a theological
teacher at the South India Biblical Seminary in Bangarapet,
I was deeply concerned to "evangelise"'.
But the claims of the commitment to evangelise that were
assumed as the value and ethos of the seminary soon appeared
remote and useless. We were found to be experts in "hit and
run" evangelism with our weekend preaching and outreach
package, Sunday schools and Summer Schools of Evangelism.
We concentrated on the rural sector. Twenty or more villages
and nearby towns were targetted for Saturday evening outreach
and Sunday Schools through students teams which were
systematically assigned as from the Field Education
Department. Villagers blamed us for our comfortable campus
life from which we went "preaching at them", They said: "You
only think of us as targets when you need us ... You really do
not care for us ... You do not try to understand our struggles
or empathise with our pains ... ". As I took student teams to
various villages, I heard these remarks and felt they sounded
right! These poor and illiterate villagers were supersensitive
to perceive our shortfalls in motives.
Later we started. a comm,unity development scheme with
foreign aid. But this did not take us deep into the context or
*Dr. Siga Arles is Professor of Missiology at Serampore College.
EVANGELISM IN THE CHANGING CONTEXT OF INDIA 59
its transformation - it was all peripheral, superficial and
skin deep. The work force got their salaries out of these
programmes, the budgetted monies were spent, the children
and adults were mere targets, just numbers for our reports
and - as the experienced and saintliest amongst us whispered
to the novices, "to be kept at a distance".
Disheartening! Time paSsed in slow motion in this rural
sector unlike even in the cities of India. Later, I remember,
we shifted gears from the rural emphasis to two new areas.
One, to develop a "Christian Muslim Friendship Society" as
an interaction between the Muslims in Bangarapet town and
us, the Seminary community. This was the inter-religious
dialogue movement at an evangelical setting. Sam Bhajjan,
Dwight Baker, Acharya Daya Prakash Titus and such others
were invited to share with us alluding to the common elements
and riches of our faiths. Our students prayed hard that some
Muslim will convert to Christ out of. this but the ardent
articulations steered clear of any such "conversion" motto.
Honestly, I think, the seminary was pushed into this new
mode of relating to the Muslim community by the initiative of
few students (one in particular, who was no academician but
drawn from a factory labour union leadership into a
commitment to Christian ministry). The seminary was neither
set for such inter-religious relationships despite evangelical
fervour, nor prone to absorb the new trends of dialogue
developing concurrently within the ecumenical institutions.
The second was to get involved with the Lions and Rotarians
who represented the merchants and middle class men and
women. Inviting them to a cultural programme ending in a
modernised dramatic presentation of the story of the Prodigal
Son brought a response breaking the years of separation as
one merchant said "I had supplied rice and grains for over 20
years to you all but this is the first time I had come into your
campus!" I said to myself, "well then, thus far, with the greatest
fervour for evangelism, my colleagues seem to have done a
fantastic, but fruitless, remote control, evangelism from a
distnace" and wondered about the ways to get closer to the
actual people, who could make a difference to the town and
thus to its surrounding villages.
60 INDIAN JOURNAL OF THEOLOGY
AB a result of these two ventures, we were definitely getting
closer to the local community of Hindus and Muslims. It was
then that the community persuaded us to start a quality
convent-style educational institution for their children. "You
Christians are good in providing good education" they said
and called us to serve them! A Macedonain calll! This should
open a wide opportunity to influence the society and infiltrate
the non-Christian community with Christian input. The
decision to start the school was made.
At this time my sabbatical leave took me to Scotland where
I enrolled for a Ph.D. in Missiology. I chose to research into
the history of theological education in India.l and to evaluate
the impact of the twin foci of the theologies of mission that
were developed in the post-independence India by the
evangelical and ecumenical streams. The polarisation among
the two intensifies with hardened hearts in both camps while
lip service is done in consultations wherein words are mouthed
about working together and holding together. My research
study built within me a deep desire to disown the polarised
identities and to strive towards a balance, a holism, a holistic
understanding of the gospel, ministry, mission and the Church.
The British set up awakened new concerns within me. The
question of the poor and the need for promoting the
establishment of an organised socio-political set up of proper
structures to build prospects for the poor in India - this was
one such new concern. I was certainly determined to enable
theological education from a holistic perspective without
yielding to the subtle temptation of getting sucked into the
polarised understanding of either extremes of interpretations.
Upon return I was saddled with the administrative load as
Principal of the seminary and yet carried the responsibility
for shaping the school for the children as requested by the
parents. There were children of the town's leading doctors,
business families, municipality chairman, bankers, factory
workers and anybody who was somebody in that area! Also
the children of the well-to-do villagers came from all the nearby
villages to our school and within a short time, the school
obtained the kind of reputation that started to put pressure
on us to expand the school to accommodate more children.
EVANGELISM IN THE CHANGING CONTEXT OF INDIA 61
The monthly parents meetings drew the parents in big numbers
to interact with us on "values" and we were shaping the
thought patterns and challenging the parents to a value based
understanding of the educational process and their role along
with us in the growing of their children, the future citizens of
the town and villages of our area. I was excited with the
thought that a decade or two will see a vast change for the
impact of· the Gospel on my people. Chidren will absorb
Christian values. They will know the scriptures and the truth
of the Word - the truth will set them free. Their parents also
will open up. Mission and evangelism will happen with less
resistance. I do not know what the educatioinal missionaries
of yester years expected. But I dreamt of brighter days ahead.
But the dream was shattered. An alien chairman who came
from a different part of the country and understood evagelism
in its narrow definitions influenced the seminary board to
close the school with his pious (but foolish) jargon "our calling
is to train evangelists and Church planters, not to run primary
schools". The shattering of the dream had large impact on my
thinking. It aroused in me questions on the way evangelism
needs to be understood in the Indian setting.
Should it be "Evangelical Evangelism"?
Defining "what is evangelism" at Berlin in 1966 and
strategising "how to evagelise" at Lausanne in 1974 (later at
Pataya in 1980 and at Manila in 1989), the Lausanne
evangelicals2 have gained momentum to promote evangelism
with a wide variety of emphases and methods. They insist
that all evagelism should result in the conversion of the people
to Christ as the only way and in the building up of the Chruch
in every land. Evangelical Evangelism has remained true to
the authority of the scripture and to the uniqueness of Jesus
as the only Christ from God. It learnt to ride the colonial
horse but also the disembark and strive alongside of the natives
as exemplified by the Newbigin variety. It moved from soul
concerns to the body concerns setting up its many structures
for relief and development which pumped millions into the
mission fields. The rise of the radical evangelical thought and
~ractice under people such as Carl Henry, JohnStott and Ron
62 INDIAN JOURNAL OF THEOLOGY
Sider was simultaneous with the rise of world networks for
evagelism through Crusade ministry of Billy Graham's
Evagelistic Association, Uterature Ministry of George Verwer's
Operation Mobilization, Jesus film ministry of Bill Bright's
Campus Crusade, Youth ministries of Loren Cunningham's
Youth With A Mission, Strategic ministries of Luis Bush's AD
2000 and Beyond Movement and many more. Peter Beyerhaus'
defence against the ecumenical evagelism; Donald McGavran's
authorising of caste based and ever splitting Church for the
sake of growth; Ralph Winter's pragmatisation of the growth
impulse; John Robb's war against territorial spirits; Paul
Eschlemann's saturation evangelism and a score of other
images and emphases caricature evangelical evangelism around
the world. Incidentally, much of this appears North American
in origin. With dollar power, these quickly internationalise
themselves and work positive wonders for evangelism, while
yet defeating the many attempts at unity since often new
American denominations go international to build their own
denominations in the name of building the kingdom of Christ.
Much confusion results in this denominational upsurge not
only within the body of Christ but to the other sheep who are
yet to be brought in.
Should it be "Ecumenical Evangelism"?
Exactly a century after the unfulfilled dream of William
Carey, the World Missionary Conference at Edinburgh in 1910
desired to evangelise the world within a generation. But for
the delay and pessimism that followed druing the two World
Wars and the economic depression, the men of the twentieth
century could perhaps have accomplished this desire.
Skepticism of this period led to rationalism as reflected in the
processes of rethinking missions with William Hocking,
reinterpreting orthodoxy, christianity and biblical tradition
with Barth, Brunner and Bultmann, repenting political
ideologies with Bonhoeffer and CF Andrews. There was the
major readjusting of the self understanding of Christian faith
in the midst of other faiths with Hendrik Kraemer at
Tambaram 1938 when evangelism was understood from a nontraditional
pattern. The disembarking from the colonial horse
EVANGELISM IN THE CHANGING CONTEXT OF INDIA 63
from the late forties let the world missionary enterprise to
take on board the study of the implications of the rapid social
change that the world was going through; and tQ plan for the
participation of the Christian Church in the task of nation
building. The fifties and sixties saw the worldward journey of
the ecumenical theology of mission with a methodological
revision of the mode of theologising. "Doing theology in context"
. became the driving force guiding a worldwide change of mission
strategy. Mission, in the biblical model of the logos becoming
flesh, became interpreted as incarnationa!. Theological
Education Fund engineered this metamorphosis in the third
world seminaries. Contextualisation, motivated by the culture
orientation in hermeneutics and political orientation in the
pursuit after the socio-economic justice for all, began to emerge
as the large theme in theology ~d the dominant theme in
missiology.
Ecumenical evangelism took the shape of political action for
some and dialogue for others. The first meant entering into
the arena of the struggles of people and spelling out liberty
and justice in political terms whereby the structural
modifications were called for either peacefully or, if need be,
violently. The second meant to dialogue at philosophic, religious
and practical levels with an intent to learn and mutually
influence, not necessarily to demand crossing of boundaries.
To ecumenical evangelism, to ensure the growth of the gospel
influence was superior to the growth of the number of the
converts. Baptism as a communal rite was redundant and the
boundary lines of the Church was mythical. Hence, whether
somebody had the opportunity to hear the gospel or no, whether
he/she believed in Jesus or no, ecumenical evangelism felt
fulfilled in as much as it could see that it existed and co-lived
in peace and harmony with some amount of social interaction.
It may appear crude but acceptable to say that ecumenical
evangelism attempts to be "a gospel-less evangelism
prepagating a cross-less Christ to develop a Church-less
christianity for anybody anywhere without prescribing the
option of membership."
There are numerious social values in the mission activity of
ecumenical evangelism. But bereft of the soul, it can only
64 INDIAN JOURNAL OF THEOLOGY
promote prosperous and polished corpses. The soul of being
"made a new" and "made alive" in Christ when lacking, as
Paul narrated to the Ephesians, people will but remain dead
in sin. If there be any other way for sin to be atoned, then the
historic claims of the cross of Christ becomes all vain. Thus
ecumenical evagelism stands in need to clarify the place of the
cross, the importance of Christ, the meaning of the Church,
the method and significance of belonging to it and the purpose
and missioin of the Church in relation to the purpose and
mission of Jesus.
Evagelism in the Indian setting:
Evagelism can be considered "evangel"ism, a "good news"ism,
wherein evangel is a universally applicable message, which in
spite of undergoing necessary local applicational modifications,
will reamin true to its basic definition emerging from the
canon of Christian faith. Not oIily the principle of good news
is seriously to be considered but also the person of the good
news. It is in the presentation of the person of Jesus Christ
that true evangelism shall happen in India as elsewhere. In
the fullness of time, Christ came. The gospel enters a prepared
soil at kairos time. Times keep changing. But gospel does not
keep changing. It enters into every turbulent situation to bring
the calm and peace, the hope and joy.
India keeps changing. Yet evangelism in India happens
coping with the national changes. I shall attempt here a quick
summary of evangelism in India - in outline form without
details and notes.
The Traditional phase: AD 54 - St. Thomas at Kerala and
Madras.
The Roman phase: The Sixteenth Century: Francis Xavier
at Goa.
The Protestant pioneer phase: The Eighteenth Century
1706 - the German Lutherans Ziegenbalg and
Pultschau at Tranquebar;
1793 - the Baptist Englishman Willaim Carey and
his team at Serampore;
1790s onwards - the British chaplains such as
Henry Martyn;
EVANGELISM IN THE CHANGING CONTEXT OF INDIA 65
The Colonial phase: The Nineteenth Century.
The arrival of various mission societies: The Anglicans
(CMS, SPG, CEZMS).
The Congregationalists (LMS),
The Reformed Churches: The American
Board, The Scottish Presbyterians
The Methodists (MMS).
The Basel Mission and others.
The Beginnings of the Christian Mass Movements
(Madras and Andhra).
The Decennial Missionary Conferences
The Ecumenical phase: The Early Twentieth Century.
The formation of united theological training
programmes (UTC 1910).
The formation of the National Missionary Council
(1914).3
Evangelistic Forward Movement (Sherwood
Eddy, KT Paul, HA Popley).
The Mass Movement Study by Waskom Pickett
(1930-32)4
The Lindsay Study of Christian Higher
Education (1929-30)5
The participation in national independence
The Indian Church phase: The Mid-Twentieth Century
The birth of the Church of South India (27
September 1947)6
The history of the churches and their involvement
in evangelism.
RW Scott, Evangelism in India, Geneva: wee
Ecumenical Studies, 1952.
NCC sets up stuides on Rapid Social Change
leading to CISRS formation 1957.
Church's concern for Nation Building, CISRS, 1962.7
Hunger for Justice, CASA, 1970.
Church and Social Justice, CSI, CISRS 1972.
The Evangelical phase: The formation of the Evangelical
Fellowship of India, 19518
Parachurch structures: 1952 VBS, 1953 Union
Biblical Seminary;
66 INDIAN JOURNAL OF THEOLOGY
1954 YFC &UESI; 1960s OM, EHC, FEBA,
FMPB, IEM, etc.,
"Mushrooming of indigenous missions" 50s,
60s, 70s.
1973 Federation of Evangelical Churches of
India.
1977 India Missions Association.
Evangelical separatist trends on the rise: FECI, AETEI,
ATN
The Holistic phase: The 1980s - 1990s
An interpretative summary
The mass movement conversions were a large enough
phenomenon that the National Christian Council initiated a
study of it in the 30s. The mass move1!lents were sporadic and
regional. In the second half of the century, evangelism has
become predominantly the task carried out by the parachurch
evangelical structures and the indigenous missions. When
compared with them, the Church of the mainstream is
extremely limited in its direct evangelism. New (mostly
American) Church denominations have arrived in India and
are active in evangelism (part of which is more of sheep stealing
from the mainstream churches). On the whole there is a lot of
evangelism happening in the country of which we could say:
India is still wide open for the gospel of Jesus Christ
Opposition is there but not as large as to hinder the growth
of the Church.
The Church is not as active as she needs to be in
evangelism.
The Parachurch structures have a lot of activities and
training for evangelism.
Evangelism apperas still foreign funded and
denominational.
A lot of cooperative networking is taking shape in the
1990s.
A Case Study: Holistic Evangelism
In 199::; when I inherited the role of directing the work of
the Karnataka Evangelistic Association, as a missiologist, I
EVANGELISM IN THE CHANGING CONTEXT OF INDIA 67
wished to undertake an experiment and develop an example of
what mission work in the Indian setting should be. Slow and
steady we have attempted to develop a holistic mission activity
wherein the fight against the forces of darkness (in terms of
the invisible forces causing fear and illness - which are cast
out through fastings and prayers) and the forces of social evils
(in terms of the visible forces causing economic exploitations,
social stratifications and religious opiums) are carried on.
Simultaneously, the fight against illiteracy, unemployment and
wasteful social customs are carried on through adult literacy
classes, job oriented training programmes and teaching sessions.
Whereas all this is good for the people and when they receive
our ministry well and change for the better (economically as
well as socially), it is indeed good news! But on top of this, we
present the claims of Jesus Christ that he stands at the door
and knocks, "If any ... hears and opens ... " he will develop a
relationship leading to atonement, adoption and assurance.
The way to the Father, the abundance of life in Christ (after
the cleansing and justjiication), and the power of the Holy
Spirit (to live in the light) are offered for free acceptance. Almost
every alternate month there are groups of people from the
Lambadi trlbals, the local Kannadigas and the migrant Tamils
and Telugus who enter the fold of the Church through baptism
in one or the other of our mission fields. There is no compulsion.
In the last baptisaml service it was my joy to see 6
Kannadigas among whom was a graduate farmer and his wife
and mother in law, a lorry driver, a professional thief who has
come to new life in Christ and a mother whose grief at the loss
of a married daughter led to search and find peace in Christ.
We in the KEA partner with all other agencies: literature
work with the Bible Society, Scripture Gift Mission, Operation
Mobilization; cassette ministry with the World Cassette
Outreach of India; radio ministry with the FEBA and TWR;
film ministry with the GIFTS of Karnataka and the Campus
Crusade for Christ; crusade ministry with the Billy Graham
Evangelistic Association; adult literacy work with EFl COR;
development work with SKIP and Church work with existing
Church denominations. In establishing such partnerships, we
experience the body to which we belong in Christ. Such is the
68 INDIAN JOURNAL OF THEOLOGY
holism that we instill within our structure and we find this
fulfilling. .
To build coordination with all other organisations, we
developed a series of annual mission conferences for the whole
state of Karnataka from which is now born a new structure
for coordination: The Karnataka Missions Network. Through
this attempts are being made to do relevant research into the
needs and people groups of Karnataka, to set up district level
activities to revive the Church and to set up mission stations,
to enable service to the uplift of the poor and to enlarge the
Church in the state of Karnataka.
What we attempt is holistic evangelism. In 1996, I attended
the National Consultation on Evangelism, held at Hyderabad.
About a hundred organisations working all over India were
represented through their Directors or Secretaries, who shared
reports of their work and indicated what they were planning
as their target for the next few years. It was full of positive
information and courageous faith and vision. I came away
from this consultation with a sense of awareness that
evangelism is alive in India.
There were references to oppositions and problems in parts
of India.
But they were not large enough to stop the work anywhere.
The opposition was largely from groups such as RSS
(Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh), BJP (Bharatiya Janata
Party), VHP (Vishwa Hindu Parishad).
It also came through clear that
Evangelism is being well planned by many agencies in
India.
It is enabled by international input, mainly from
evangelical structures.
There are statewide networks for evangelism formed by
AD 2000 movement.
Many local congregations are involved in active evangelism.
Challenges from the Changing situations of India:
1. "Hit and run" or irresponsible evagelism will not be
acceptable as political trends are popping up a communally
based Hindu government under BJP.
EVANGELISM IN THE CHANGING CONTEXT OF INDIA 69
2. "Holistic evangelism" where the care of the people and the
provision of skill development are foremost in the agenda
will suit Indian needs.
3. "Local Resourcing of the Local Congregations in Mission"
should be explored.
4. Foreign funds should be strictly used for developmental
work. alone.
5. Participation in the natioin in terms of nation building
should be taught at local congregational level to involve in
local education, panchayat administration,· slum and rurual
development, political participation in building stable
government, etc.,
6. The Church should continue her educational, medical and
relief involvements.
7. The Church should not compromise her faith while yet
striving to build harmonious relationships with people of
other faiths.
8. The Church should inculcate into the context and set
an example of service, sanctity and good living to
authenticate her gospel, eradicating corruption and power
politics.
9. The Church should speak and take lead for the welfare of
other communities also and not only be concerned for its
own welfare needs.
10. The Church should develop a sense of urgency as there is
much openness and reception to the gospel from among
the poor dalits and tribals as well as OBCs.
Fears are many among Indian Christians as to the
bleankness of the future in India for the process of Christian
living and witness. The coming to power by parties that have
a fundamentalist and fanatical religious mandate frighten the
minorities and cause anxiety. But as much as history teaches
us, the gospel always penetrated into hard contexts and faced
unwelcome situations. Higher the persecution, greater was
the growth of the faith community. Hence, perhaps one should
rejoice in the hope that the Church's witness in India may
have a brighter future and evangelism may happen in better
ways in the twenty first century.
70
Reference
INDIAN JOURNAL OF THEOLOGY
1. Siga ArIes, Theological Education for the Mission of the Church in India:
1947·1987, Studies in the InterculturaI History of Christianity, No.76
PeterLang, 199i.
2. Refer to the reporlsof the conferences published by the Worldwide
Publications: One Gospel, One Race, One Task, 1966; JD Douglas (ed.),
Let the Earth Hear His voice, 1975, Consultation on World Evangelization:
Lausanne Occasional Publications: 1980, Manila Manifesto, 1989.
3. Kaj Baago, A History of the National Christian Council of India, 1914·
1964, Nagpur; NCCI, 1965.
4. Waskom Pickett, Christian Mass Movements in India, New York:
Abingdon Press, 1933.
5. AD Lindsay, Report of the Commission on Christian Higher Education in
India, London: OUP, 1931.
6. Bengt Sundkler, Church of South India: The Movement towards Union,
1900·1947, London: Lutterworth Press, 1954.
7. PD Devanandan & MM Thomas (Eds.) Christian Participation in Nation
Building, Madras: CLS, 1960.
8. Robert McMahon, To God Be the Glory, Delhi: Efl, 1971.
9. Siga ArIes & Ben Wafi (eds.), Pilgrimage 2100: Self Reflection on Indian
Evangelisation, Bangalore, 1998.

.Financial Aid | Bible Colleges Directory

2012-07-07T12:00:00.001+05:30

.Financial Aid | Bible Colleges Directory

2012-07-07T10:46:00.001+05:30

Did the 'God Particle' Create Matter?

by

Larry Vardiman, Ph.D.

Introduction
The book of Genesis is probably the most important book ever written. In reality, it’s the foundation of all true history and true science. Above all else, it’s the foundation of God’s revelation, as given in the Bible. If Genesis were somehow removed, the rest of the Bible would be incomprehensible. It would be like building a house without a ground floor or a bridge with no support.¹
Chapter 1 is the foundational chapter of Genesis, since it summarizes the creation of the earth and everything in it. And Genesis 1:1 is the foundational verse of the foundational chapter, speaking of the primeval creation of the universe itself: “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth” (Genesis 1:1). It’s been pointed out that if a person really believes this passage, he’ll not find it difficult to believe anything else recorded in the Bible. If God really created all things, then He controls all things and can do all things. Dr. Henry Morris, ICR’s founder, carefully studied this verse and paraphrased it as follows: “The transcendent, omnipotent Godhead called into existence the space-mass-time universe.”² Another way to say this is: The all-powerful triune God created mass, space, and time out of nothing. God exists separate from His creation.
Modern Science
The modern scientific method was developed in the 16th and 17th centuries. Many Christians contributed to the procedures for doing science. The use of careful observation, experimentation, the development of laws, hypotheses, and theory, and the use of mathematics were all important parts of its development. Scientists like Isaac Newton, Francis Bacon, Johann Kepler, Blaise Pascal, and many others who were Christians believed Genesis and honored God in their science.³ Yet as science progressed and more was discovered about how our world functions, many scientists became arrogant and began to reject Him. As the Bible says, “When they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened” (Romans 1:21).
Today many scientists reject Scripture as a legitimate source of truth and attempt to find entirely “natural” explanations for the origin of the universe. They go so far as to say you can’t be a scientist if your explanations of our origins depend upon actions of a supernatural being. Biologists who are under the sway of evolutionary theory and physicists who believe in billions of years since the origin of the universe generally avoid references to a creator. When they or the media mention God, it’s often only as ridicule. For example, the use of the term “God particle” when referring to the search for the Higgs boson in elementary particle physics is a thinly-veiled attempt to mock the belief in a supernatural creator. Interestingly, most scientists dislike the term “God particle” because they don’t want their research tainted by such an association.
The Higgs Boson, or the “God Particle”
One of the most active large research projects today is the search for an extremely small but energetic particle that is thought to be the key to understanding how mass appeared shortly after the Big Bang. The Higgs boson is a hypothetical elementary particle that has not been observed but, if found, would dramatically advance the 70-year development of a model of elementary particle interaction. Its existence was predicted along with other particles by the so-called Standard Model. The Standard Model describes how leptons, quarks, gauge bosons, and the Higgs particle fit together and explains how the Higgs mechanism takes place, which in turn explains why elementary particles exhibit mass. The discovery of the Higgs boson would finally validate the Standard Model, since it’s the only elementary particle predicted by it that hasn’t yet been observed.⁴
Experiments to find the Higgs boson are currently being performed using the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Switzerland, shown in Figure 1. The LHC is expected to be able to answer the question of whether or not the Higgs boson actually exists. One possible signature from a simulated proton-proton collision that would demonstrate the Higgs boson’s existence is shown in Figure 2. The Higgs boson is believed to decay almost immediately after such a collision into two jets of hadrons (composite particles made of subatomic elementary particles held together by strong nuclear forces) and two electrons, visible in Figure 2 as lines. In December 2011, two experiments at the LHC independently reported that their data hint that the Higgs particle probably exists with a mass of about 133 proton masses. The range of mass for the Higgs particle is now thought to have been narrowed considerably to between approximately 122 and 138 protons. It is expected that the LHC will have a definite answer by the end of 2012.⁵
Why Scientists Dislike the Term “God Particle”
The Higgs boson doesn’t have any specific religious connotations, but it may help unlock processes that occurred at the time of creation. “Calling it the ‘God particle’ is completely inappropriate,” said Oliver Buchmueller, from the German research team of “Higgs hunters” at CERN. “It’s not doing justice to the Higgs [boson] and what we think its role in the universe is. It has nothing to do with God.”⁶
Scientists hope to discover the invisible Higgs field because the theory of its existence is foundational to the proponents of the Big Bang, the most typically accepted explanation for the origin of mass and space. Those who embrace the idea that the universe came into existence through rapid expansion during conditions of extreme density and heat, that planets and life resulted from the Big Bang, and that matter obtained mass because of a cosmological collision anticipate the discovery of this “God particle.”
In the 1960s, British scientist Peter Higgs first proposed the existence of the new physics field, now known as the Higgs field, as an explanation for differences between strong and weak fields in physics. The proposal developed into the idea that in the Higgs field, interaction between the electromagnetic field and the weak field resulted in matter taking on mass. The nickname “God particle” describes the agent that supposedly gave mass to the most basic building block of the universe.
“Without it, or something like it, particles would just have remained whizzing around the universe at the speed of light.…Hearing it called the ‘God particle’ makes me angry. It confuses people about what we are trying to do here at CERN” said Pippa Wells, a researcher with CERN’s Atlas team.⁷ A spokesman for CERN, James Gillies, agrees with Wells: “Of course it has nothing to do with God whatsoever….But I can understand why people go that way because the Higgs [boson] is so important to our understanding of nature.”⁸
According to people who have investigated the subject, the term “God particle” originated with a 1993 book by U.S. Nobel Prize winner Leon Lederman about the history of particle physics, The God Particle: If the Universe Is the Answer, What Is the Question?⁹ Yet others who recognize how significant the current research on the Higgs boson is continue to use religious themes for it. Lisa Randall, a theoretical particle physicist and cosmologist at Harvard University, recently entitled her latest book Knocking on Heaven’s Door.¹⁰ She wasn’t thinking about the God of the Bible, however, but about natural laws that cause particles to be organized and exhibit mass. She believes, for example, that the Higgs field associated with Higgs particles causes space to function like a fluid causing particles which move through it to exhibit mass.
And, yet, neither Randall nor any other scientist can explain where such natural laws originated. Her physics is based upon a pantheistic view of the universe, at best. It’s legitimate to try and understand how mass, space, and time originated, but not if the processes we use to explain their origin don’t involve the Creator. The search for the “God particle” is an attempt to understand the Big Bang theory more fully. The Big Bang says that the universe began as an infinitesimal point and expanded outward, creating space and mass billions of years ago. Although this idea may seem consistent with the description of creation in Genesis 1:1, it is thought to have happened billions of years ago, while the Bible says it happened in one 24-hour day only a few thousand years ago. The theory is also presented as a natural event that didn’t require God’s involvement.
Several years ago, Carl Sagan declared to me through correspondence his full confidence in the Big Bang theory and its billions of years, but he admitted to one major problem. He couldn’t understand where the laws of nature came from. He realized that his view of origins depended upon the laws of nature being present first. Yet he had no explanation for their origin because he didn’t believe in God. Scripture provides the reason why he had this problem: “But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him” (Hebrews 11:6).
Conclusion
Sadly, scientists who have the best seat in the house to observe God’s handiwork through a microscope or a telescope often seem to be the first to deny that He is the Creator. Because they deny He is Creator, they fail to grasp the ultimate explanation for the world around us. Scripture says it best: “For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse” (Romans 1:20).

References

Morris, H. M. 1976. The Genesis Record. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 17-36.
Ibid, 41.
Morris, H. M. 1982. Men of Science, Men of God. San Diego, CA: Master Books.
Griffiths, D. 2008. Introduction to Elementary Particles, 2nd ed. New York: Wiley-VCH.
Reich, E. S. Detectors home in on Higgs boson. Nature News. Posted on nature.com December 13, 2011.
Evans, R. The Higgs boson: Why scientists hate that you call it the ‘God particle.’ Reuters, December 14, 2011.
Ibid.
Ibid.
Lederman, L. and D. Teresi. 2006. The God Particle: If the Universe Is the Answer, What Is the Question? New York: Dell Publishing.
Randall, L. 2011. Knocking on Heaven’s Door. New York: Harper Collins Publishers.

* Dr. Vardiman is Senior Research Scientist, Astro/Geophysics at the Institute for Creation Research.

Cite this article: Vardiman, L. 2012. Did the “God Particle” Create Matter? Acts & Facts. 41 (3): 12-14.

Does God Exist - Six Reasons to Believe that God is Really There - Existence of God - Proof of God

2012-07-07T10:10:00.001+05:30

Does God Exist - Six Reasons to Believe that God is Really There - Existence of God - Proof of God

Ministerial Sharing

2012-06-06T13:34:00.000+05:30

Dear all my Prayer partners,

It was a great joy to write about ministry which by the Grace of God I had in Summer days.

It was a great opportunity to do ministry amongst youths and in Children in different places."When God calls he calls accurately" I learned it in this summer.

From May 3rd we as a Church busy with our Vacation Bible School up to 13th of May.Near about 145 children attended the VBS. Many families gave them a refreshing Snakes and Tea for VBS teachers.on last day we end up with children programs and Lunch for the Children and Guest.Thank you for the Great Leadership of Our Church's' President Mr.Sushilkumar Jadhav,Rev.Abraham Shrivastav, Mrs Ujwala Govande, Mr.Sushil Rathod,Mr.Deepak Jadhav and all committee members.

Then on 22nd to 24th we had "NIRA -- BHIMA YOUTH CONFERENCE" in Nasarapur which is 145km from Baramati.Which is surrounded by Sahyadri rang hills.It was pleasant and right place to shape the young generation to be pillars of the Church.it was a day of commitment for youths and one evening we had a Prayer walk to "Baneshwar".God has Blessed us through this ministry.I thank God for Good and Christ centered leadership of Rev.Abraham Shrivastav, Pastor Vijay Pawar, Mr.Deepak Jadhav, Mr.Subhaschandra Patil Mr.Nitish Dube, Mr.Vishal Pagi, etc.I pray that God may use these Leaders for His purpose and to expand His Kingdome to unreached.God Bless.

From 26th to 2nd of June 2012 I was invited to Manmad City In Nasik Dist by "Saint Barnabas Church".

It was an 2nd opportunity to be a minister for Children. I and my wife could able to do great ministry amongst children.On Sunday 27th on Pentecost Day I Preached in Church about the "Holiness of Church" and "Pentecost Before and After". On 28th we started our Children VBS by teaching them some New songs in marathi language and stories from the Bible.Many of them gave their life to Lord. Everyday we had a Teacher Devotion for VBS Teachers and Volunteers the Topic was "Gods perspective towards Teachers". It went up to 2nd June and on the last same day.We had Good Programs of each class.when we ended up the things and ready to come back to Baramati all children were crying for us.It was a very touching movement for me and my wife to see the HARVEST coming up.Our eyes were filled with tears for the children.I thank God for giving me this opportunity and calling us for the main purpose amongst Children.

Please Pray for our Children ministry,that God may use us mightily for unreached children.
Pray for ministry with Church of Christ Baramati as a "Church planter" arround Baramati villages and towns.
Pray for the need of good material for children ministry.

The Fundamentals of Forgiveness (Genesis 45:1-28) Study By: Bob Deffinbaugh

2012-03-21T15:29:00.000+05:30

The Fundamentals of Forgiveness (Genesis 45:1-28)
Study By: Bob Deffinbaugh
Introduction
Near a town in the state of Washington, millions of gallons of radioactive atomic wastes are being stored in huge underground tanks. The tanks have a life expectancy of 20 or 30 years. The wastes within them will remain deadly for about 600 years.80
We live in a society which, like those tanks in Washington, is trying to store up anger that sooner or later is going to break forth, causing pain and misery for many. We are all familiar with the popular bumper sticker in Dallas which reads, “I’m Mad Too, Eddie.” The other day I saw one that said, “I’m Mad At Eddie.” Basically, there are far too many hostile people going around looking for some way to unload their anger. Anger takes a tremendous toll on those about us:
Eighty percent of all murders are committed by people who have some relationship with the victim. Somebody gets angry, there’s a gun or knife handy, and tragedy results. According to hospital records, innumerable parents have inflicted serious injuries upon their small children in fits of temper. One authority estimates that 60,000 children a year in America are beaten to death, that more children under five years of age are killed by their parents than die of disease.81
Besides hurting others, anger is killing us. Suppressed anger and bitterness are eating away at our health and peace of mind:
Research indicates that unprocessed anger can produce all sorts of physical disorders. Dr. Leo Madow in his book, Anger, suggests that these physical problems range all the way from arthritis to asthma, from urinary disorders to the common cold. And we have known for a long time that anger can cause serious emotional disorders when it is not handled effectively.82
All of this should compel us to conclude that anger is one of the great problems of our time.
Dr. Leon Saul, psychiatrist and author, writes, “I believe man’s hostility to man is the central problem in human affairs … that it is a disease to be cured and prevented like cancer, TB, or smallpox, and that its cure will result in healthier, better living—not only for society in general but for each individual in particular.”83
While it is not the solution to every instance of anger,84 forgiveness is the answer to much, if not most, of the anger we experience in life. Unresolved anger leads to bitterness, hostility, and revenge. Forgiveness leads to freedom and reconciliation. No character in the drama of the book of Genesis better illustrates the fundamentals of forgiveness than Joseph, and no chapter more clearly defines and describes the essentials of forgiveness than chapter 45.
Those years which Joseph spent in slavery and prison could have been the occasion for a slow burn that might have ignited into an explosion of anger at the sight of his brothers. How angry Joseph could have been with God for getting him into such a situation. But Joseph recognized that God was with him in his sufferings and that these were from the loving hand of a sovereign God. Most of all, Joseph could have been angry with his brothers, who had callously sold him into slavery.
The high point of Joseph’s relationship with his brothers comes in chapter 45, for it is here that there is a reconciliation brought about between them. This was made possible on the brothers’ part by their genuine repentance, regretting their sin with regard to Joseph, and reversing their actions when a similar situation was presented with regard to Benjamin. But on Joseph’s part, reconciliation was achieved through his sincere and total forgiveness of his brothers for the evil they had committed against him.
Forgiveness is a vital part of the Christian experience. It is necessary in terms of our relationship with God:
For if you forgive men for their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions (Matthew 6:14-15).
Forgiveness is also an essential part of our responsibility toward others, both friends and enemies:
Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. And be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you (Ephesians 4:31-32).
You have heard that it was said, “You shall love your neighbor, and hate your enemy.” But I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you; in order that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous (Matthew 5:43-45).
Let us, then, seek to learn the lessons on forgiveness which this chapter offers us.

A Speech to the Speechless
(45:1-15)
Then Joseph could not control himself before all those who stood by him, and he cried, “Have everyone go out from me.” So there was no man with him when Joseph made himself known to his brothers. And he wept so loudly that the Egyptians heard it, and the household of Pharaoh heard of it (Genesis 45:1-2).
It may appear at first glance that Joseph simply was overcome by his emotions so that he was compelled to disclose his identity. I have already suggested that this was not the case.85 Even when his emotions did involuntarily emerge, Joseph simply left the presence of his brothers, wept, and returned (cf. 43:30-31). Joseph revealed himself to his brothers because they had evidenced real repentance, which made reconciliation possible.
Now that it was time to reveal himself, Joseph wished this to be done alone. I find several possible reasons for Joseph expelling the Egyptians from his presence before he made himself known to his brothers. First, this was a family matter. It was to be an intimate time, and outsiders would not add anything to that moment. Perhaps also Joseph felt that the full release of his emotions, held in check for years, would cost him the esteem of his servants. Mainly, however, I believe that it was for another reason that Joseph commanded everyone to leave except his brothers: it was in order to deal with the matter of the sin of his brothers in strictest privacy. If Joseph intended for no one but his brothers to observe the outpouring of his emotions, it didn’t work, for “the Egyptians heard it” (verse 2), and this report even reached Pharaoh’s ears (verses 2, 16).
Previously, I have tended to read verses 3-15 from Joseph’s perspective without much attention to how his brothers must have responded, but Moses carefully describes the emotional trauma they underwent:
Then Joseph said to his brothers, “I am Joseph! Is my father still alive?” But his brothers could not answer him, for they were dismayed at his presence. Then Joseph said to his brothers, “Please come closer to me.” And they come closer. And he said, “I am your brother Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt. And now do not be grieved or angry with yourselves, because you sold me here; for God sent me before you to preserve life. For the famine has been in the land these two years, and there are still five years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvesting. And God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant in the earth, and to keep you alive by a great deliverance. Now, therefore, it was not you who sent me here, but God; and He has made me a father to Pharaoh and lord of all his household and ruler over all the land of Egypt. Hurry and go up to my father, and say to him, ‘Thus says your son Joseph, “God has made me lord of all Egypt; come down to me, do not delay. And you shall live in the land of Goshen, and you shall be near me, you and your children and your children’s children and your flocks and your herds and all that you have. There I will also provide for you, for there are still five years of famine to come, lest you and your household and all that you have be impoverished.”’ And behold, your eyes see, and the eyes of my brother Benjamin see, that it is my mouth which is speaking to you. Now you must tell my father of all my splendor in Egypt, and all that you have seen; and you must hurry and bring my father down here.” Then he fell on his brother Benjamin’s neck and wept; and Benjamin wept on his neck. And he kissed all his brothers and wept on them, and afterward his brothers talked with him (Genesis 45:3-15).
Put yourselves in the sandals of these brothers for a moment. They had been treated graciously by Joseph, given the hospitality of his home and his table and bountiful provisions for their families back in Canaan (cf. 43:32-44:1). Then they were stopped and searched, each of them being found with their money in their sack and Benjamin with Joseph’s cup in his possession (44:6-13). Their guilt was acknowledged and all were willing to remain as Joseph’s slaves, but Joseph refused to detain any except Benjamin, the “guilty” party (44:14-17). Judah then made an impassioned appeal for mercy on his aged father, offering himself in place of Benjamin (44:18-34).
It is at this point that chapter 45 begins. Judah and his brothers anxiously await a verdict from Joseph, one that will affect the course of their lives. Without knowing who Joseph is or what he intended to do, the brothers saw this potentate send everyone out of the room. They could perhaps see the tears flowing down his cheeks and his chest heaving with emotion. But what was the source of this great emotion? Was it anger, which would lead to further trouble? How could it be otherwise?
If they thought the worst had come, it had not, at least in their minds, for now this Egyptian blurted out in their own tongue, “I am Joseph!” That was the worst news they could ever have hoped to hear. It brought them no relief, but only new avenues of anxiety. It was bad enough to stand before a powerful Egyptian governor who was angered at the theft of a cup, but to realize that he was their brother whom they had sold into slavery—that was too much! Before, they at least had a hope that this judge would be impartial and that mercy might motivate him to accept their appeal. But now their judge must surely be their enemy, whom they had unjustly condemned. How could they hope for better treatment from him? No wonder they were petrified (cf. verses 3ff.).
Fear and guilt were written on their ashen faces, and their silence confirmed this to Joseph. They had nothing more to say, no more appeals left, no hope for mercy. Every word recorded in the first 15 verses of chapter 45 is spoken by Joseph because his brothers were speechless (verse 3). Not until Joseph had demonstrated that he had forgiven them and loved them did they speak (verse 15).
Joseph’s first words declared his identity, followed quickly by an indication of concern about his father (verse 3). He, like Judah and the others, cared greatly for his elderly father. The thought of Jacob’s grief was unbearable to Joseph as well as to the rest. But he also cared for his brothers. They must have shrunk back from him in horror, but Joseph asked them to draw near (verse 4).
Nowhere in this chapter is the sin of his brothers minimized. At the very outset Joseph identified the treatment they had given him as sinful. Forgiveness, you see, does not seek to minimize sin, but to neutralize it. We must remember, though, that they have already come to the point of recognizing their actions as sin (cf. 42:21) and of repenting of it (chapter 44). Since they have come to recognize the magnitude of their sin, Joseph need not belabor that point. The stress, instead, falls upon the totality of the forgiveness he has given them or, as the song writer has described it, “grace greater than all my sins.”
Joseph’s words are filled with hope and encouragement. Verses 5-8 assure these men that their sin had not thwarted the purposes of God. “You sold me,” Joseph said, “but God sent me” (verse 5). Their purpose was to destroy, but God’s was to save. Men may sin by attempting to do what is unacceptable to God, while at the same time they are accomplishing what God has purposed.
… this Man, delivered up by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death (Acts 2:23).
The doctrine of the sovereignty of God assures us that while men may do the wrong thing for the wrong reasons, God can cause that “evil” to accomplish His good and perfect purposes.
We know that the righteous God hates all sin with a perfect and irreconcilable hatred; but it is his prerogative to bring good out of evil, and no sin can be committed without his knowledge, or in opposition to his holy counsels. Sinners are as really the ministers of his providence as saints, and he glorifies himself by the wickedness which he hates and punishes, as well as by that holiness which he loves and rewards.86
In the words of sacred Scripture, “For the wrath of man shall praise Thee; …” (Psalm 76:10).
Salvation, not destruction, was the purpose of God in what had happened. How, then, could Joseph even consider doing to his brothers what they feared? The famine, now two years long, had five years remaining before it had run its appointed course. Jacob and his sons must come to Egypt where Joseph could provide for them, thus sparing the nation. While God did not sanction their means or their motives, Joseph was destined to go to Egypt where he would be the instrument by which Israel would be spared as a remnant and which would later be kept alive by a “great deliverance” (literally, an “escaped company,” verse 7, margin, NASV).
This prophecy goes beyond the previous revelation given to Abram concerning Israel’s sojourn in Egypt:
And God said to Abram, “Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, where they will be enslaved and oppressed four hundred years. But I will also judge the nation whom they will serve; and afterward they will come out with many possessions” (Genesis 15:13-14).
Abram was not told that the “land that is not theirs” would be Egypt, nor was he told how Israel would come to live there. Neither is it mentioned that their “exodus” would be some kind of escape. The point of all this is that even if Joseph was aware of God’s words to Abram, he could not have known all that he spoke here to his brothers. There may well be, then, an element of prophecy here. God may have revealed to Joseph at some time (such as when he was in prison?) His purposes in allowing him to suffer rejection and persecution.
In the final analysis, it was not his brothers who were responsible for sending Joseph to Egypt, but God, for the purpose of bringing about their salvation. And in the process Joseph was elevated to his position of power and prominence, advisor to Pharaoh87 and ruler over all of Egypt. We have a saying, “All’s well that ends well,” which finds a measure of truth in these words of Joseph. Joseph’s explanation of all that had happened and God’s reason for it is followed by an exhortation to return quickly to the land of Canaan, get their father, their families, and their flocks and return to Egypt (verses 9-13).
Approximately a year had passed since Joseph’s brothers had first arrived in Egypt, but this delay was not due to any apathy or aloofness on Joseph’s part—he simply had to wait patiently until his brothers had evidenced a change of heart and mind (repentance). Now Joseph urges his brothers to quickly bring their father down to Egypt (verse 9) where they would live near him in the land of Goshen. Here, it would seem, his family would be able to pasture their flocks, be relatively close to him, and yet remain somewhat distant from the urban populace of Egypt, who disliked Hebrews (cf. 46:34).88
In these verses there is a noticeable emphasis upon the glory and splendor which Joseph has attained in Egypt. For some this appears to be out of character for Joseph, who has previously been marked by modesty and humility. Why would he now flaunt his position before his brothers? There are several explanations, one or more of which may satisfy our concerns.
First, the glory which Joseph now possesses would serve to encourage his brothers, who are guilt-ridden for the wicked deed they committed against him by selling him as a slave. Joseph would thus be reminding them that his humiliation and suffering were the means to his promotion and exaltation. Look what their sin had brought about in Joseph’s life! Second, it would comfort Jacob and assure him of Joseph’s ability to provide for the entire family during the famine. Finally, it was a glory which Joseph desired to share unselfishly with his brothers. His motive would thus be Christ-like:
These things Jesus spoke; and lifting up His eyes to heaven, He said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify Thy Son, that the Son may glorify Thee, even as Thou gavest Him authority over all mankind, that to all whom Thou hast given Him, He may give eternal life. And this is eternal life, that they may know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent. I glorified Thee on the earth, having accomplished the work which Thou hast given Me to do. And now, glorify Thou Me together with Thyself, Father, with the glory which I ever had with Thee before the world was, … And the glory which Thou hast given Me I have given to them; that they may be one, just as We are one; …” (John 17:1-5, 22).
With this, Joseph fell upon the neck of his closest brother, Benjamin, and wept. Benjamin likewise wept on his neck. Finally, Joseph wept on the rest of his brothers, who, in the end, were relieved sufficiently to begin conversing with him. It would be a long time before these men could fully grasp the grace of forgiveness which was granted by Joseph.

Pharaoh Is Pleased
(45:16-20)
It is incredible that Joseph’s desire was to save his family rather than to seek revenge. He virtually insisted that his brothers leave quickly and bring down their entire family as soon as possible. But the icing on the cake was the confirmation of Joseph’s hospitality by none other than Pharaoh himself.
Now when the news was heard in Pharaoh’s house that Joseph’s brothers had come, it pleased Pharaoh and his servants. Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Say to your brothers, ‘Do this: load your beasts and go to the land of Canaan, and take your father and your households and come to me, and I will give you the best of the land of Egypt and you shall eat the fat of the land.’ Now you are ordered, ‘Do this: take wagons from the land of Egypt for your little ones and for your wives, and bring your father and come. And do not concern yourselves with your goods, for the best of all the land of Egypt is yours’” (Genesis 45:16-20).
Pharaoh had received the report (if indeed he had not heard Joseph weeping loudly himself, cf. verse 2) that there was a reunion between Joseph and his brothers. We almost expect Pharaoh to be pleased, but such a response would have to be unusual. We know that Hebrews were not well thought of by Egyptians (43:32; 46:34). If Pharaoh knew the specifics of how Joseph had come to Egypt, he would certainly not have any warm feelings toward his brothers.
I can think of only two reasons why Pharaoh should be so pleased to hear of the arrival of Joseph’s brothers. The first reason is obvious: Pharaoh had the greatest respect for Joseph. Joseph had virtually saved his kingdom and would greatly enhance his position in Egypt (cf. 47:13-26). Anything that pleased Joseph would make Pharaoh happy.
There is yet another explanation for the joy of Pharaoh which I believe to be very instructive. It also helps us to better understand why Joseph sent out his Egyptian servants when he revealed his identity to his brothers. It would seem that Joseph never informed Pharaoh of the injustice done to him by his brothers. Joseph did insist to the butler and the baker of the Pharaoh that he was innocent, yet he did not reveal the guilt of his brothers:
Only keep me in mind when it goes well with you, and please do me a kindness by mentioning me to Pharaoh, and get me out of this house. For I was in fact kidnapped from the land of the Hebrews, and even here I have done nothing that they should have put me into the dungeon (Genesis 40:14-15).
While Joseph maintained his own innocence, he never exposed the guilt of his brothers or of Potiphar’s wife. As a result, Pharaoh did not have to overcome any feelings of anger toward Joseph’s brothers and thus could warmly welcome them as long-lost relatives who had finally found their way to their brother. Silence about the sins of others makes their restoration a much easier process.
Joseph was a very capable administrator, as we have already seen (chapter 41). While it is not stated, Joseph surely had spoken with Pharaoh about his brothers before he asked them to come to Egypt and promised them the land of Goshen (verse 10). It was no coincidence, then, when Pharaoh confirmed Joseph’s offer, extending the offer of Egypt’s finest and commanding them to take wagons on which to bring Jacob and the women and children (verses 17-20). His generosity extended even beyond that which Joseph had indicated. The goodwill of both Joseph and Pharaoh were confirmed. The sooner they returned to Canaan for their families and flocks, the better.

Joseph’s Journey Instructions
(45:21-24)
Before their departure to Canaan, Joseph gave his brothers provisions for their journey, as commanded by Pharaoh, as well as some last minute instructions.
Then the sons of Israel did so; and Joseph gave them wagons according to the command of Pharaoh, and gave them provisions for the journey. To each of them he gave changes of garments, but to Benjamin he gave three hundred pieces of silver and five changes of garments. And to his father he sent as follows: ten donkeys loaded with the best things of Egypt, and ten female donkeys loaded with grain and bread and sustenance for his father on the journey. So he sent his brothers away, and as they departed, he said to them, “Do not quarrel on the journey” (Genesis 45:21-24).
Provisions for the journey would probably have been as before (42:25), including grain, bread to eat, something to drink, and fodder for their animals. Also, each of the brothers was given a change of clothing This should come as no surprise, for when the silver cup was discovered in Benjamin’s sack, all of the brothers tore their garments as a sign of mourning (44:13).
Benjamin was given five changes of garments and 300 pieces of silver. We have seen partiality before. Isaac preferred Esau above Jacob. Jacob favored Rachel above Leah. In every instance, partiality had disastrous effects. Why, then, did Joseph also show partiality to Benjamin? Of course, Benjamin was the only other son of his mother. And Benjamin did not have a part in the sale of Joseph either. But was this partiality toward him wise?
I believe that Joseph’s actions were deliberate and with good intention. Partiality was one of the factors in Joseph’s rejection by his brethren (cf. 37:3-4). Joseph had shown partiality toward Benjamin just as his father had persistently done, but now his brothers had chosen not to sacrifice him for their own gain. Joseph, I believe, did not avoid showing partiality toward Benjamin because that is the way life is. Some people are better looking than others. Some are good athletes, while others are not. Some are smarter than others. Life is full of distinctions. Joseph did not stop making distinctions because they would always exist, and his brothers would have to learn to live with them. Our Lord seemed to place Peter, James, and John in a privileged position, and John was called “the one whom Jesus loved.” Repentance and conversion do not make our problems go away, but they do give us the strength to deal with our problems.
Joseph sent his father ten donkeys loaded with the best that Egypt had to offer, the “first fruits” of what lie ahead (cf. verse 18). I would imagine that this gift far outclassed the “best of the land” which Jacob had sent by his sons (cf. 43:11). As they parted Joseph gave his brothers one last word of instruction, “Do not quarrel on the journey” (verse 24). As we read this Scripture before preaching on this text, a number of people in the audience laughed. I don’t blame them, because I have to smile each time I read it. Joseph knew his brothers well. I imagine that quarreling was a part of the bad report that he had given his father many years before (37:2). Being sons of four mothers, such rivalry would not be uncommon. Probably the only thing they ever agreed upon completely was doing away with Joseph. They, like the many rival groups in Jesus’ day, could unite when it came to rejecting one who threatened them all.
Joseph had good reason for supposing that his brothers might quarrel on the journey home. Not long before this he had overheard a conversation which they did not think he could understand:
Then they said to one another, “Truly we are guilty concerning our brother, because we saw the distress of his soul when he pleaded with us, yet we would not listen; therefore this distress has come upon us.” And Reuben answered them, saying, “Did I not tell you, ‘Do not sin against the boy’; and you would not listen? Now comes the reckoning for his blood” (Genesis 42:21-22).
Although they were forgiven, they would face a great temptation to try to assess the precise measure of guilt of each person. The buck would be passed, and a heated argument would no doubt ensue. All of this was profitless since all had been forgiven. Their trip would be a happier one if they focused upon grace and not guilt.

Jacob Rejuvenated
(45:25-28)
I can visualize what the return of Jacob’s sons must have been like. Jacob, like the father of the prodigal son, must have anxiously waited for any sign of his returning sons. Since Benjamin was among them, his interest was intense. Every passer-by was carefully scrutinized to see if he were one of his sons. Jacob’s fears probably intensified as the days passed. Every conceivable mishap would be considered. Finally the silhouette of the sons appeared on the horizon. Meticulously, each head was counted, and to his great relief, all were present, especially Benjamin. But what of all those extra persons and the carts which accompanied his sons? What did this mean?
Then they went up from Egypt, and come to the land of Canaan to their father Jacob. And they told him, saying, “Joseph is still alive, and indeed he is ruler over all the land of Egypt.” But he was stunned, for he did not believe them. When they told him all the words of Joseph that he had spoken to them, and when he saw the wagons that Joseph had sent to carry him, the spirit of their father Jacob revived. Then Israel said, “It is enough; my son Joseph is still alive. I will go and see him before I die” (Genesis 45:25-28).
The words “Joseph is alive” were impossible to believe. How could this be true? Hadn’t his sons assured him that Joseph had died? Wasn’t the evidence compelling? Now Jacob may have been old, but he was far from senile. Things just did not add up. There had to be some explaining by his sons. Painful though it was, I believe that the whole sordid story was spelled out. I am persuaded that confession was made because it was necessary in order to convince Jacob that Joseph was alive. It also seems to underlie the prophecy Jacob made concerning Joseph:
Joseph is a fruitful bough, A fruitful bough by a spring; Its branches run over a wall. The archers bitterly attacked him, And shot at him and harassed him; But his bow remained firm, And his arms were agile, From the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob (From there is the Shepherd, the Stone of Israel)” (Genesis 49:22-24)
Isn’t it interesting that Joseph is never said to command his brothers to confess to their father, nor is their confession reported by Moses. But why should it be made public? This was a family matter that was dealt with in private. Just as Joseph had asked the Egyptians to leave his presence when he dealt with matters between himself and his brothers, so we are not present for their confession to Jacob. Moses wrote these things for our instruction (I Corinthians 10:11), not to satisfy our curiosity.
All of the evidence led to the conclusion that Joseph was indeed alive. The broken spirit of Jacob was immediately revived. He now yearned to see his son before his death. And lest we think that Jacob was on the verge of death, let us recall that he had yet seventeen years to spend with his son in Egypt (47:28). All that Jacob had feared was going against him suddenly appeared in its true light. It was the hand of God in his life, sparing him from the physical and spiritual death of Canaan by preparing a place for him in Egypt.
Conclusion
If the key word for chapter 44 is repentance, then the key to chapter 45 is forgiveness. These two elements are essential for any genuine and lasting reconciliation: repentance and forgiveness. Let us give careful attention to this matter of forgiveness as it is illustrated in the life of Joseph.
A Definition of Forgiveness
If we are to be a forgiving community, we must first of all know what forgiveness is. While several Greek and Hebrew words are employed to convey forgiveness, essentially forgiveness means to release or set free. It is used of the cancellation of a debt, of release from a legal obligation, and of the termination of marriage by divorce (which frees the divorced party to re-marry, cf. Deuteronomy 24:1-4). In general, we can say that forgiveness is a conscious decision on the part of the offended party to release the offender from the penalty and guilt of the offense committed. This release not only frees the offender from guilt and punishment, but it also frees the forgiver of anger and bitterness.
Forgiveness is not leniency or overlooking sin. Only once in the New Testament do we find reference to sin being “passed over”:
… for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed, … (Romans 3:23-25).
Here, God “passed over” man’s sins not because He took them lightly, but because He took them so seriously that He shed the blood of His only Son. He “passed over” the sins of the past, knowing that the price would be paid when Christ appeared and was rejected of men and put to death on the cross of Calvary. When we pass over sins, it is because we do not wish to deal with them—ever, now or later.
Forgiveness is not free. Sin must always have a price that is paid. But forgiveness is the decision on the part of the offended to suffer the penalty due the offender. If a banker pardons a loan, it means that the borrower does not have to repay his debt, but it also means that the lender suffers the loss of the money loaned and not repaid. If society pardons a criminal, it means that society suffers the consequences of the criminal’s act, not the criminal. If I go to your house and break a vase and you forgive me for my error, you suffer the loss of the vase, not I.
This definition of forgiveness perfectly describes the pardon which God offers to men through the cross of Jesus Christ. All men have sinned against God and deserve the penalty of eternal destruction (Romans 3:23; 6:23). But God loved us and sent His Son to die for our sins so that we might have eternal life (John 3:16). God did not overlook our sins, but He bore the penalty for them. That is genuine forgiveness. And all who place their trust in Jesus Christ as the One who died for their sins will experience this forgiveness. It is this forgiveness which all men must either accept (resulting in salvation) or reject (resulting in damnation):
He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God (John 3:18).
Finally, our definition of forgiveness must include the fact that true forgiveness is not earned. If a man commits a crime and he serves out his prison sentence, he is not forgiven; he has simply paid his debt to society. If a man cannot pay back a loan within the time allotted but is forced to pay it out over some more extended period of time, his debt has not been forgiven. If our forgiveness is the kind that demands that the person “pay for it” before we will forgive, then we are not giving forgiveness. That may be justice, but it is not mercy. It may be law, but not grace. Just as we can in no way contribute to the forgiveness and salvation which Christ has accomplished on the cross of Calvary, so no one we forgive can be forgiven and yet forced to pay for their offense against us.
Principles of Forgiveness
Having defined biblical forgiveness, let us seek to lay down some principles of forgiveness which we learn from the example of Joseph in Genesis 45.
(1) Biblical forgiveness should be granted quickly. Joseph could hardly have granted forgiveness to his brothers here in chapter 45. The forgiveness that was expressed for the first time here by Joseph was first experienced here by his brothers, but long before this, Joseph had forgiven these men in his heart. How else could he have walked so closely to his Lord and so cheerfully and faithfully served, regardless of his circumstances? Joseph had experienced the freedom of forgiveness long before his brothers.
In the New Testament, anger is always to be dealt with quickly:
Be angry, and yet do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and do not give the devil an opportunity (Ephesians 4:26-27).
The sooner forgiveness is granted and reconciliation is achieved, the better it is for all involved:
Make friends quickly with your opponent at law while you are with him on the way; in order that your opponent may not deliver you to the judge, and the judge to the officer, and you be thrown into prison (Matthew 5:25).
(2) Biblical forgiveness should be granted privately. I see a great deal of wisdom in Joseph requiring his servants to leave the room while he dealt with the sins of his brothers. It made matters much easier for Pharaoh and the Egyptians to be ignorant of all the injustices these brothers had committed against Joseph. This, too, is according to biblical instruction:
Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all transgressions (Proverbs 10:12).
A fool’s vexation is known at once, but a prudent man conceals dishonor (Proverbs 12:16).
He who covers a transgression seeks love, But he who repeats a matter separates intimate friends (Proverbs 17:9).
And if your brother sins, go and reprove him in private; if he listens to you, you have won your brother (Matthew 18:15).
We should always seek restoration and reconciliation on the lowest, most private level so that the fewer there are who are aware of the sin, the easier the offender can be forgiven and forgotten.
(3) Biblical forgiveness must be given freely and unconditionally. Forgiveness is free in that the forgiver willingly accepts the loss or pain personally. In brief, forgiveness is a matter of grace, not works, and grace does not make demands upon the one who receives it. Joseph must have forgiven his brothers long before they had come to repentance. He did not wait to see the anguish of their souls until he forgave them, but he did so freely and without requirement. This suggests also that forgiveness may be refused. As He was dying upon the cross, our Lord said, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34).
That forgiveness accomplished by His death on the cross is rejected by many. Those who perish do not do so because there is no forgiveness, but because they have rejected God’s forgiveness.
(4) Forgiveness that is biblical must be granted sacrificially. The price of Joseph’s forgiveness was more than twenty years of separation from his father, slavery, and even a sentence in prison. Not a small price to pay, but then forgiveness does not come without sacrifice. Because of this, forgiveness is better shown than said. Joseph never actually used the word “forgive,” but his words and actions conveyed it. Just as it is too easy to say, “I’m sorry,” so it is possible to glibly say, “I forgive you.” Genuine forgiveness has a price tag, and few are those who are willing to pay it.
(5) Biblical forgiveness is not provisional, but permanent. Just as conditions cannot be demanded before forgiveness is granted, neither can they be laid down for forgiveness to remain in force. Seventeen years after Joseph assured his brothers they were forgiven, they feared that this grace had terminated at the death of their father (50:15-21). While we will hardly “forget” the transgressions of others against us, we can certainly refuse to call them to remembrance or to dredge them up in the future.
For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more (Jeremiah 31:34).
(6) Biblical forgiveness seeks the correction and restoration of the offender. I fear that what has been said might lead to the conclusion that once forgiveness is granted, all need for correction is gone. Not so! I believe that Joseph forgave his brothers years before he saw them, but remember that it was a year or so until he disclosed his identity to them. This was because he needed to be assured that they had changed their attitude toward their sin (repented).
When our children sin we may very well need to spank them as well as to forgive them. We may forgive the thief for stealing our money, which we may never see again, but the law still exacts a punishment for theft. A forgiving spirit dissolves our anger and animosity toward the offender, and it commits our vengeance to God, since He alone knows the extent of the sin (cf. Romans 12:11-21; I Peter 2:21-25).
Forgiveness, as I understand it, deals first of all with our personal animosity and violated rights in such a way that we can deal with sin impartially and lovingly, or we can commit the matter entirely to God where we cannot or should not take matters into our own hands. Forgiveness, like one facet of love, seeks the best interest of another, even at our own expense. But since we do seek the good of the other party, correction may be required (cf. Matthew 18:15ff.; Galatians 6:1).
Perhaps the best analogy comes from the dealing of God in the life of the disobedient saint. Since all the sins of the Christian, past, present, and future, are forgiven at Calvary, God will not punish the saint who is forgiven once for all. But there is still the need for discipline and correction. The forgiveness of our sins assures us that God is rightly related to us, but discipline causes us to draw more closely to him.
“My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, Nor faint when you are reproved by Him; For those whom the Lord loves He disciplines, And He scourges every son whom He receives.” It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us and we respected them; shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good, that we may share His holiness. All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness (Hebrews 12:5-11).
The Basis of Forgiveness
All of us should realize that forgiveness is a mark of godly character and conduct. Our problem is not knowing we should do it, but the doing of it. How can we forgive those who have hurt us so deeply? Let me make several suggestions.
(1) Seriously consider the Scriptures which command us to forgive (cf. Ephesians 4:25-32; Colossians 3:12-17, etc.). Recognize that forgiveness is not an option, but a command.
(2) Consider your own sinfulness and the forgiveness which God has freely given you.
And Jesus answered and said to him, “Simon, I have something to say to you.” And he replied, “Say it, Teacher.” “A certain money-lender had two debtors: one owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. When they were unable to repay, he graciously forgave them both. Which of them therefore will love him more?” Simon answered and said, “I suppose the one whom he forgave more. And He said to him, “You have judged correctly.” And turning toward the woman, He said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave Me no water for My feet, but she has wet My feet with her tears, and wiped them with her hair. You gave Me no kiss; but she, since the time I came in, has not ceased to kiss My feet. You did not anoint My head with oil, but she anointed My feet with perfume. For this reason I say to you, her sins, which are many, have been forgiven, for she loved much, but he who is forgiven little, loves little.” And He said to her, “Your sins have been forgiven” (Luke 7:40-48).
The more we are aware of our own sinfulness and the forgiveness we have received, the easier it is to forgive others.
(3) Meditate upon the sovereignty of God in the offense committed against you. Can you say, like Joseph, “And as for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good …” (Genesis 50:20)? The doctrine of the sovereignty of God means that whatever evil is committed against us has been designed by God to come into our lives for a purpose that is good (Romans 8:28). Job’s suffering at Satan’s hand (and by God’s permission—Job 1, 2) resulted in praise to God, instruction for Satan, and a lesson for Job. In the final analysis, Job was blessed far more than he had been before his trials began (cf. Job 42:10-17). When a messenger of Satan buffeted Paul, it was to produce humility and to teach him that God’s strength comes in our weakness (II Corinthians 12:7-9). Behind our enemy is a loving God, who brings affliction and suffering into our lives for our good and His glory.
(4) Give careful consideration to the matter of servanthood. Usually we find that when others mistreat us we battle with our offended pride, and we struggle because our rights have been violated. Forgiveness originates from a servant-like attitude.
Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind let each of you regard one another as more important than himself; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bondservant, and being made in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross (Philippians 2:3-8).
The supreme example of humility is our Lord Himself. He set aside His rights and prerogatives in order to be rejected of men and hanged (innocently) upon a cruel cross. Servanthood for our Lord spelled out suffering and shame for the good of others. Forgiveness is not so difficult for the humble as it is for the haughty. If our sinless Savior was willing to die on the cross for sinners, is it such a great thing for Him to ask us to sacrifice our own interests for those of others?
Servants, be submissive to your masters with all respect, not only to those who are good and gentle, but also to those who are unreasonable. For this finds favor, if for the sake of conscience toward God a man bears up under sorrows when suffering unjustly. For what credit is there if, when you sin and are harshly treated, you endure it with patience? But if when you do what is right and suffer for it you patiently endure it, this finds favor with God. For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps, who committed no sin, nor was any deceit found in His mouth; and while being reviled, He did not revile in return; while suffering, He uttered no threats, but kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously; and He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed. For you were continually straying like sheep, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Guardian of your souls (I Peter 2:18-25).
(5) Meditate on the characteristics of biblical love. It is not an emotional feeling, but a decision of the will. Its earmarks are described by Paul for us to contemplate:
Love is patient, love is kind, and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things (I Corinthians 13:4-7).
Have you found the forgiveness of your sins in the work of Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary? Jesus Christ, the sinless Son of God, came to earth and took upon Himself the reproaches of men and the rejection of God. He became sin for us (II Corinthians 5:21) and suffered its painful consequences. You may find forgiveness from your sins by trusting that Jesus Christ died in your place and bore your sins on the cross.
My Christian friend, are you harboring anger and bitterness because of the sins others have committed against you? I pray that you will find the freedom of forgiveness that Joseph experienced which enabled him to be reconciled to his brothers and to minister to them for his own good, the good of his brothers, and the glory of God.
80 Margaret Johnston Hess, “What To Do With Your Anger,” Eternity, April, 1972, p. 15.
81 Ibid., p. 14.
82 Robert C. Larson with Neil C. Warren, “You Can Be Angry and Still Be Good,” Moody Monthly, December, 1974, p. 51.
83 Leon J. Saul, The Hostile Mind (New York: Random, 1956), p. 14, as quoted by David W. Augsburger, The Freedom of Forgiveness: 70 X 7 (Chicago: Moody Press, 1970), p. 59.
84 Sometimes anger is called for, as is expressed by this passage from The Temptation to be Good by A. Powell Davies (p. 119):
“That is one of the truly serious things that has happened to the multitude of so-called ordinary people. They have forgotten how to be indignant. This is not because they are overflowing with human kindness, but because they are morally soft and compliant. When they see evil and injustice, they are pained but not revolted. They mutter and mumble, they never cry out. They commit the sin of not being angry.
“Yet their anger is the one thing above all others that would make them count. If they cannot lead crusades, or initiate reforms, they can at least create the conditions in which crusades can be effectual and reforms successful. The wrath of the multitude could bring back decency and integrity into public life; it could frighten the corrupt demagogue into silence and blast the rumor monger into oblivion. It could give honest leaders a chance to win.” Quoted by Norman V. Hope, “How To Be Good--And Mad,” Christianity Today, July 19, 1968, p. 5.
85 See Lesson 44.
86 George Bush, Notes on Genesis (reprint ea.; Minneapolis: James Family Christian Publishers, 1979), II, p. 335. Bush goes on to add, “Yet for our humiliation let us remember that the nature of sin is not altered by the use that God makes of it. Poison does not cease to be poison, because it may enter into the composition of healing medicines.” Ibid.
87 “The phrase a father to Pharaoh, a recognized title of viziers and high officials, J. Vergote interprets as virtually ‘king’s adviser’ (p. 114f.).” Derek Kidner, Genesis: An Introduction and Commentary (Chicago: Inter-Varsity Press, 1967), p. 207.
88 “It is believed that in these days the Egyptian court was held in Zoan or Tanis, perhaps twenty or twenty-five miles directly north of Goshen.” H. C. Leupold, Exposition of Genesis (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1942), II, p. 1095.
“Goshen is a name which remains unattested, so far, in Egyptian remains; but 47:11 gives us the name it bore in later times, ‘the land of Rameses.’ This name, coupled with the fact that the district was fertile (47:6) and near to Joseph at court, suggests that it was in the eastern part of the Nile delta, near Tanis, the seat of the Hyksos kings of the seventeenth century and of the Ramessides of the thirteenth century, the probable periods of Joseph and Moses respectively.” Kidner, Genesis, p. 207.

2012-03-19T14:50:00.000+05:30

Good Friday Meditations
Copyright 2003-2004 by William Meisheid

Meditation 1 - Seeing the Obvious

"They will look on the one they have pierced." Not just those gathered around this wooden cross erected on the darkening hill of Golgotha--haven't we all looked upon him? For close to two thousand years humanity has looked back on this seminal, defining moment. It has looked back on the one they have pierced. Yes, all of us have pierced him, for all of us have sinned. As Paul so aptly will remind us in Romans 3:23, it is sin that has placed him there, nailed him to that barren tree, and we are all sinners, each and every one of us.

It is not unusual that this should be so, this universal reflection on the one now hanging in the dusty heat of the afternoon sun. It is because the crucifixion of Jesus Christ is the nexus point, the pivotal moment in all of human history. Everything that came before led up to this moment and everything that has happened afterward is the outworking of it, looking back to it.

As Peter will soon tell the assembled elders in Jerusalem, which will be recorded in Acts 4:11-12, "He is the stone you builders rejected, which has become the capstone. Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved."

From the first promise to Eve as mankind was banished from the Garden of Eden that her seed would crush the head of Satan, to the Jews standing that very day throughout the Roman Empire, all of whom awaited the coming Messiah represented in the fifth Passover cup, the Cup of Elijah; everything in the life of the people of God since their creation has pointed to this moment. From David blessing Jerusalem as the city of God, to Nehemiah saving it for the future Messiah to walk in, to the revolt of the Macabees preserving the temple and priesthood from the Abomination of Desolation, so that the High Priest might this very morning pronounce that "it is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish"; everything has pointed to this one decisive moment.

As Moses lifted up the serpent in the physical wilderness of Sinai to heal the stricken nation of Israel, so now Jesus is lifted up in the spiritual wilderness of Golgotha to heal the whole stricken human race. Salvation is found in no one else, no one who came before, and no one who will come after. Not in Amon Rah of Egypt, or Ahura Mazda of Persia, not in Surya or Buddha or Hari Krishna of India, not in Confucius or Chang Tao-ling of China, and not in Mohammed of Islam, not in the Passover lambs killed every year, or the scapegoat sent into the wilderness on the Day of Atonement, not in the daily sacrifices of the priests of Israel or in the Law of Moses, which no one alive can fully keep. No, they will not, they cannot save us. There is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved. There is only one way, one truth, and one life. It is in the singular name of the one that the Romans have just pierced. It is in the name of the one whose hands and feet are at this moment nailed to the rough wood standing before us. It is not the thief to his left, or the thief to his right. It is in him and him alone, it is in Jesus the Christ whom we look upon for our hope of redemption.

Look upon the one you have pierced.

Meditation 2 - God is in Control

"For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen." We say that two thousand years later upon reflection, but at this moment it does not appear to be so. If anything it appears that God has failed, that the Messianic mission of Jesus, his bringing of the Kingdom of God, has been aborted by the concerted actions of evil men.

There is a scene in C.S. Lewis' Christian allegory The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe where Aslan, who represents the Lion of Judah, is bound on the stone table and killed by the White Witch. With a shriek, the assembled agents of darkness celebrate their apparent victory. They think they have won. Aslan is dead, his power was a myth. But they, like the evil perpetrators of Golgotha, were wrong.

Lost in both of these moments, one fictional and symbolic and one real and eternal, is a true understanding of the genuine power of sacrifice and its ability to transform and heal at the deepest level of creation and existence, to cure even death itself. Yesterday in the upper room, Jesus counseled his disciples about the nature of sacrifice saying, "whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant" and speaking of himself he said, "the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."

The unique power and glory of God's kingdom is based on sacrifice and service, on the deep, deep agape love of God. The apostle John will later express the truth of this in his great statement learned by every new Christian that "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life."

Paul will later address the same theme when writing to the Philippians when he will say "Jesus,who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God,but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men.And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.” Yes, the death we now see overtaking him.

In stark contrast to this culture of loving sacrifice, the kingdoms of man and their glory are built on the raw exercise of power and we see that power being exercised by Rome at this moment. In the end Jesus' innocence did not matter to Pilate. The only thing that carried any weight was what was best for Rome, what would maintain its undiluted power. That made crucifixion important weapon of statecraft, since it was the most dehumanizing and power affirming death that Rome could inflict, reserved for those who would be made examples of.

That raw self-serving decision is contrasted with the kingdom of God, currently laying its cornerstone in this man bleeding out his life on the cross. Its power is in its acceptance of rejection. It is being solidly built on sacrifice and not just any sacrifice. No, this sacrifice is of the very life of God the Son, with all this being done so that we might be healed from our sin and degradation.

While we are still sinners, in the midst of our continued rejection of his efforts, he still dies for us.

Look upon the one you have pierced.

Meditation 3 - Abraham and Jesus

"Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son." God had asked Abraham to make the fundamental sacrifice, that of his future, his inheritance, his hope. He submitted his will to the will of God and met the challenge placed before him.

With that in mind, what do we see when we look at the cross before us? Beyond any of the spiritual and symbolic images that it may invoke, there is one central tenant, one core fact that we cannot deny: God did not spare His only son. Instead he hangs there on a Roman cross, crucified.

God the Father did not ask anything of Abraham that He himself would not one day do. However, for Abraham and Isaac the call to sacrifice was only a test. Not so for God the Father and his only son, Jesus Christ. There is no ram caught in the bushes nearby, bringing at the last moment a welcomed deliverance. No, the die was cast in the eternal heart of God and sealed by Adam’s first sin, then made final and sure by every sin that followed after.

The cup of sacrifice has been raised to Jesus’ lips and it will not pass him by. There is no reprieve for the lamb slain from the foundation of the world.

When we look within this one all encompassing sacrifice, we see the echos of all the sacrifices that God has in the past, or will at any time in the future, ask each of us to make. From this singular moment of agape, self-sacrificial love, all other acts of sacrifice find their true significance, their eternal grounding, their meaning and purpose.

So, as we look back on our past offerings and face whatever sacrifices that lay ahead, we can know that nothing we offer will ever be forgotten, no effort we make will ever be lost in the dustbin of time. Every effort will find its proper place, its appointed purpose within this single transforming moment.

As you survey this wonderous cross, where the Prince of Glory hangs to die, with love so amazing, with love so divine, what small demand then is God asking of you today?

Look upon the one you have pierced.

Meditation 4 - Death Has Lost Its Sting

"O fail not, with thine immortal power, to hold me, that I quail not, in death's most fearful hour". As death approaches us, whether our real physical death, or the symbolic death of our hopes and desires, or even the death of someone we love and care for, will we "quail not'?

The apostle Paul will later encourage the Corinthians with the following statement, "Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?" [1 Cor 15:55] Well, at this moment the sting appears very real. Jesus' life is inexorably ebbing away, flowing down the rough wood of the cross in a steady bloody stream, onto the ground below. Except for John, his disciples are scattered, disillusioned. Peter, the self-assured, denied that he even knew him. The sting of his approaching death is biting not just him, but also all those who have believed in him. At this moment everyone is confused and hurting and no one undestands why the river of precious blood runs down that wooden stake.

We shouldn’t be surprised. Doesn't death always bring out this same question? Why, God, why? Death, however it comes, whatever the circumstances, never seems to fit. It always wounds us deeply; it always seems unfair. I am sure that those who love Jesus are at this very moment asking God that same question. Why, oh God, did you allow this to happen?

But God is silent. Though creation itself is screaming out in pain and fury, God is silent. While we pound and cry against the silence, do we also fear that stillness? Do we cower, shrinking back from death's most fearful hour, the hour in which we are forced to wait for God to speak?

Oh God, in your time, not ours, fail not, with thine immortal power, to hold me that I will quail not in death's most fearful hour.

Look upon the one whom you have pierced.

Meditation 5 - Taking Hold of What Has Taken Hold of Us in Christ

It is one thing to not shrink back in fear from what lies ahead, even if it is our death, but it is quite another to actively embrace the path that God has set before us. When we think of courage, especially spiritual courage, we think of the heroes of the faith. However, they did not act in rash bluster, garnering up momentary courage for a quick decision. David's choice to stand before Goliath was built on a life of not shrinking back from what God had placed in his path. Before going out to fight David said to Saul, "Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God. The LORD who delivered me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine." David saw the current moment and its problem in the light of all that had gone before between him and his God.

When Nehemiah placed his life on the line before the King of Persia over the future of Jerusalem, it was the result of months of prayer. When first hearing of the ruined state of the City of God he sat down wept and then for many days mourned and fasted and prayed before the God of Heaven. Just before going into the presence of Artaxerxes, the Persian king, Nehemiah prays "O Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of this your servant and to the prayer of your servants who delight in revering your name. Give your servant success today by granting him favor in the presence of this man." Nehemiah then took wine and gave it to the king, but he also allowed his sadness over Jerusalem to show. He had never been sad in the king's presence before, since emotional displays such as this could result in his execution. The king asked him, "Why does your face look so sad when you are not ill? This can be nothing but sadness of heart." Nehemiah, even though he was very afraid, spoke boldly to the king, "May the king live forever! Why should my face not look sad when the city where my fathers are buried lies in ruins, and its gates have been destroyed by fire?" Not only did he not shrink back in fear, but like David he actively took hold of the task that God had laid out for him, even if it meant his death.

On Palm Sunday, when Jesus approached Jerusalem, he like Nehemiah wept over its ruined spiritual condition, but added to his saddness was also its coming destruction. Jesus said, "If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace--but now it is hidden from your eyes. The days will come upon you, when your enemies will build an embankment against you, and encircle you and hem you in on every side. They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls. They will not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognize the time of God's coming to you."

No, Jerusalem and its leadership did not recognize the path, the possibilities God had laid out before them. The question to us then is not whether we will shrink back in fear, but instead will we recognize the time of God's coming to us and actively embrace the path that lies before us. Jesus now hangs suspended over Jerusalem because he succeeded where it failed.

He embraced his calling. Will we embrace ours?

Look upon the one you have pierced.

The Seven Last Words of Jesus

First - Luke 23:34 "Jesus said, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing."

If there was any doubt about the sincerity of Jesus' messianic mission, any concern about his full embracing of his death as the true sacrificial lamb, this should lay it aside. He begins his participation in the sacrificial drama with a redemptive request. Earlier Jesus had told his disciples, "I lay down my life…No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord." He was not the prisoner of plotting and circumstance. When Peter attempts to intercede at his arrest Jesus cuts his effort short saying, "Put away your sword! Shall I not drink the cup the Father has given me?" No, he chose to be here. He chose the cross.

Sometimes when we hear this first utterance of Jesus we look at those who maneuvered the circumstances to accomplish this horrible event and wonder, “How could they have possibly done such a thing. How could they be so blind?” Yet aren't we also among those who caused this to happen? Isn't it also our sin that binds those nails deeply into the rough wood? Are we not all as guilty as they? Weren't our voices also part of the crowd yelling, "Crucify him", as we symbolically participated in the Palm Sunday liturgy?

Like them, our solace is found in these words of mercy. We too are included in the company of ignorance and granted his forgiveness.

“Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”

Second - Luke 23:43 "I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise."

Jesus continues his sacrificial participation by giving those present a foretaste of what is possible for us all. He signifies the whole reality of what was happening on the cross by redeeming the life of one sinner, by snatching the first soul from the maw of hell. Out of the crucible of his impending death, he prophecies a single redemption, setting the stage for all redemptions to come.

The teachers of the law had called him a blasphemer for telling the paralytic that his sins were forgiven. Now, while in the midst of crucifixion for this and other supposed blasphemies, he again offers not only forgiveness, but also hope; the hope of resurrection to one who moments before had no hope.

I can almost feel the gnashing teeth of any Sadducees who might be close enough to hear his words. They steadfastly refused to believe in anything after death. To them, Sheol was the end and by crucifying this troublemaker they believed they were getting rid of him forever.

In sharp contrast to that hopeless view of death are these expectant words of Jesus. They give hope not only to the thief hanging next to him, but to us also, to all of mankind. As we each follow their footsteps into the jaws of our own impending death, we too hold onto the hope of our resurrection, the hope of our being with Jesus in paradise.

"I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise."

Third - John 19:26-27"…he said to his mother, 'Dear woman, here is your son,' and to the disciple, 'Here is your mother.'"

The author of Hebrews will later write, "Both the one who makes men holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers." In this intimate exchange with his mother Mary and his disciple John, Jesus takes the bold step of bringing us all of us into the Holy Family of God, making all of redeemed mankind his brother.

Earlier Jesus had told his disciples, "The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son does remain forever. So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed." What greater freedom is there than to become part of the family of God.

As he lovingly counseled his disciples last night, he said to them, "I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit--fruit that will last."

Do you not see that we are brothers and friends, members of a sacred company, our adoption assured by the words of him who has the power to adopt us all.

"…he said to his mother, 'Dear woman, here is your son,' and to the disciple, 'Here is your mother.'"

Fourth - Mark 15:34 "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?" My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

We can all feel the absolute agony of that cry. It strikes a cord deep within our own souls, within our sense of utter aloneness. The author of Hebrews will later observe, "Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity." Yes, even the Son of God experienced the fundamental pain of the human race, that of being separated from the ground of our being, of being separated from God. He who had known no sin, would, by accepting the will of his Father, "become sin on our behalf." And, in becoming sin, in that moment, would have the Father would turn away from him.

Jesus, the Son of God, made our sense of loneliness and alienation his own. For one moment in all the time of eternity, from everlasting to everlasting, the unbroken connection within the trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, is mysteriously broken, and the pain of sin and separation enters the heart of God and the pain of His creation is shared within the Trinity.

For God so loved the world that gave His only begotten son and in doing so accepted forever the consequences of that choice and made it His own.

Thank you, God.

"Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?" My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

Fifth - John 19:28 "I thirst."

Was this mere physical thirst, the natural, though gut-wrenching result of crucifixion, caused by the fluid loss from the scourging, and then the continuous bleeding from nails pulling on his tortured flesh? Or was this something deeper, a stark spiritual thirst, expressing the desire of the sacrificial Lamb of God to consume the sin of the entire world?

The previous evening, in the Garden of Gethsemane, He had prayed that this cup might be taken away from him. Instead, he submitted to the Father's will and agreed to drink from this cup, a cup containing the sin of all mankind. When Peter attempted to defend him in the garden Jesus asked him, "Shall I not drink the cup the Father has given me?"

We thirst for many things: significance, success, relevance, and many other attempts to fill the ache deep within our souls. James and John wanted to sit at Jesus' left and right hand in the kingdom. But while we thirst for significance, Jesus thirsted for the cup of sacrifice and the consumption of all sin, transforming it into all forgiveness.

Would that our thirst for significance would also be transformed into a thirst for righteousness, that our dry cracked lives would be replaced by streams of living water, washing us in holiness and cleansing us into a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but instead holy and blameless before the Lord our God.

Are you thirsty for God?

"I am thirsty."

Sixth - John 19:30 "It is finished."

We have come to the moment, the central moment, the nexus point of all creation. His agonizing work is completed, mankind's vile sin has been consumed, the debt paid, and now the hidden mystery at the center of creation is revealed. "The Lamb slain from the foundation of the world", as John will later write, has accomplished his appointed work. He had tried to tell them, but they did not comprehend. He had said, "unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit…for this purpose I came to this hour." That hour is near its end and the purpose is reaching its fulfillment.

The Son of God is now ready to fall and bring the long suffering to fruition, to bear the fruit of redemption. The power of sin is broken, the sting of death no longer breeds its fear, for the balm of Gilead has been spread upon the pain of mankind, and healing is available to all who seek it.

We seek that balm knowing that whatever Jesus starts, he finishes, and we are confident of this, that he who began a good work in us will carry it on to completion. One day, the Son of God will also say to us, "It is finished."

Seventh - Luke 23:46 "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit."

The son, abandoned to sin, now turns in faith to his Father in the sure hope of resurrection, taking the first steps on the path that all of us who follow him will tread upon.

Earlier, Jesus had told his disciples "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me." With his impending death only moments away, Jesus becomes the first man, the first born among many brothers, to walk the path of redemption, showing the way for all of us to follow. Redemption is now, by faith, in the hands of God the Father.

There is no better place for it to be. Looking forward to this beginning moment of salvation Jesus had said, "I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father's hand."

With Jesus' hand wrapped tightly around us and his fingerprints on our soul, we finally arrive, with him, at the end of our journey.

Father, into your hands we commend our spirits.

2012-03-19T14:46:00.000+05:30

From C.S. Lewis' The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe:

"You have a traitor there, Aslan," said the Witch. Of course everyone present knew that she meant Edmund...

"Well," said Aslan. "His offence was not against you."

"Have you forgotten the Deep Magic?" asked the Witch.

"Let us say I have forgotten it," answered Aslan gravely. "Tell us of this Deep Magic."

"Tell you?" said the Witch, her voice growing suddenly shriller. "Tell you what is written on that very Table of Stone which stands beside us? Tell you what is written in letters deep as a spear is long on the firestones on the Secret Hill? Tell you what is engraved on the sceptre of the Emperor-beyond-the-Sea? You at least know the Magic which the Emperor put into Narnia at the very beginning. You know that every traitor belongs to me as my lawful prey and that for every treachery I have a right to a kill...that human creature is mine. His life is forfeit to me. His blood is my property..."

"It is very true," said Aslan, "I do not deny it...Fall back, all of you," said Aslan, "and I will talk to the Witch alone..."
...
The rising of the sun had made everything look so different - all colours and shadows were changed that for a moment they didn't see the important thing. Then they did. The Stone Table was broken into two pieces by a great crack that ran down it from end to end; and there was no Aslan...

"Who's done it?" cried Susan. "What does it mean? Is it magic?"

"Yes!" said a great voice behind their backs. "It is more magic." They looked round. There, shining in the sunrise, larger than they had seen him before, shaking his mane (for it had apparently grown again) stood Aslan himself.

"Oh, Aslan!" cried both the children, staring up at him, almost as much frightened as they were glad.

"Aren't you dead then, dear Aslan?" said Lucy.

"Not now," said Aslan...

"But what does it all mean?" asked Susan when they were somewhat calmer.

"It means," said Aslan, "that though the Witch knew the Deep Magic, there is a magic deeper still which she did not know: Her knowledge goes back only to the dawn of time. But if she could have looked a little further back, into the stillness and the darkness before Time dawned, she would have read there a different incantation. She would have known that when a willing victim who had committed no treachery was killed in a traitors stead, the Table would crack and Death itself would start working backwards..."

"And now," said Aslan presently, "to business. I feel I am going to roar. You had better put your fingers in your ears."

And they did. And Aslan stood up and when he opened his mouth to roar his face became so terrible that they did not dare to look at it. And they saw all the trees in front of him bend before the blast of his roaring as grass bends in a meadow before the wind.

Last week I read Christus Victor by Gustuf Aulen. Aulen's book is considered by many to be an important recovery of the original Christian understanding of the atonement. Most Christians tend to think of the atonement in terms of satisfaction, often with the legal twist seen in penal substitutionary atonement. In this view, which hardly bears repeating, Jesus dies in our place to satisfy God's justice. As Aulen notes, this view, while common among modern Christians (the Orthodox are the exception here), was not the original Christian understanding. Satisfaction theory was a more recent invention, taking full shape round 1027 with Saint Anslem's treatise Cur Deus Homo? (Why did God become man?). During the Protestant Reformation the notion of legal satisfaction (i.e., God's justice requires a death-sentence to achieve satisfaction), a slant going beyond Anselm's seminal work, took final shape and became the antecedent view in Western Christianity.

But for the first thousand years of the church a different view held sway, a view Aulen labels Christus Victor. It is also called the "classical" or "ransom" view of the atonement. Aulen describes the central idea:

[T]he central theme [of this] idea of the Atonement [is] a Divine conflict and victory; Christ--Christus Victor--fights against and triumphs over the evil powers of the world, the 'tyrants' under which mankind is in bondage and suffering, and in Him God reconciles the world to himself.

In the New Testament these "evil powers" are most closely identified with Sin, Death, and the Devil. In many places in Paul's writings Sin, Death, and the Devil almost function as synonyms. Collectively, these are the powers that hold humanity "hostage." We are the "captives" of Sin, Death, and the Devil. And without Christ we are doomed. Thus, according to Christus Victor theology, Christ comes to earth to do battle with and ultimately defeat Sin, Death, and the Devil. And by defeating these enemies Jesus sets humans free.

Colossians 2.20
Since you died with Christ to the elemental spiritual forces of this world, why, as though you still belonged to the world, do you submit to its rules...

Romans 8.37-39
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

1 Corinthians 15.20-26
But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. But each in turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him. Then the end will come, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death.

One aspect of ransom theory was how the first Christians interpreted passages like this:

Mark 10.45
For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.

1 Timothy 2.5-6
For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all men...

Most modern Christians read these verses through the prism of satisfaction theory. In this theory the ransom is paid to God to satisfy God's demand for justice. But the first Christians didn't see it that way. The first Christians believed that the Devil held humanity captive and, thus, the ransom was being paid to the Devil. God, in this view, is wholly loving and benevolent. Satan demands the blood and the death. Not God.

I like to call ransom theory "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe Theory" because, as seen above, it is the theology behind the actions of Aslan and the White Witch. Due to his sin, according to Deep Magic of Narnia, the White Witch has a rightful claim upon Edmund. As she says: "That human creature is mine. His life is forfeit to me. His blood is my property..." This is how the first Christians saw the fall of Adam and Eve and all humanity since Eden. Because of our sin the Devil "owns" us, our blood is the Devil's property.

So Christ, like Aslan does for Edmund, substitutes himself for us. Christ pays the blood ransom setting us free from the Devil's rightful claim. And thus are we saved. The White Witch kills Aslan instead of Edmund. The Devil kills Christ instead of Adam and his offspring.

But it gets even more interesting than this. In The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe something else happens beyond the substitution. The Witch kills Aslan, but that's not the end of the story. There is a Deeper Magic that the Witch doesn't know about. And this Deeper Magic brings Aslan back to life, cracking the Stone Table and, thus, ending the era of sacrifice in Narnia. But more than ending sacrifice, Aslan also defeats Death itself: "the Table would crack and Death itself would start working backwards..."

The Stone Table cracks because Aslan tricks the White Witch into taking an innocent victim: "Though the Witch knew the Deep Magic, there is a magic deeper still which she did not know: Her knowledge goes back only to the dawn of time. But if she could have looked a little further back, into the stillness and the darkness before Time dawned, she would have read there a different incantation." Interestingly, some of the Church Fathers, Gregory of Nyssa in particular, articulated something very similar regarding Christ's defeat of the Devil. Specifically, in the Incarnation God hides himself in human form. Kind of like a Trojan Horse. The Devil can clearly see that Christ is special, perhaps even the Messiah, but still just a man. So Satan kills Jesus thinking he will thwart God's plan. In the words of St. Augustine, the Devil took the "bait." Like a fish taking a worm on a hook. Like the White Witch killing Aslan thinking that would be the end of the story.

So the Devil takes Jesus down into hell, his Citadel of Sin and Death, where all humanity, starting with Adam and Eve, are being held captive. There the Devil tries to lock Jesus up with the rest of humanity when--Surprise!--the Devil discovers that Jesus isn't just a man. Jesus is God Incarnate. The Devil has been fooled into letting God into hell. Jesus then leads a jail break, cracking open the gates of hell and freeing humanity, leading them up to heaven. These events are called the harrowing of hell and are recounted in a couple of places in the New Testament:

1 Peter 3.18-20a
For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive by the Spirit, through whom also he went and preached to the spirits in prison who disobeyed long ago...

1 Peter 4.6
For this is the reason the gospel was preached even to those who are now dead, so that they might be judged according to men in regard to the body, but live according to God in regard to the spirit.

Ephesians 4.8-10
This is why it says:
"When he ascended on high,
he led captives in his train
and gave gifts to men."
(What does "he ascended" mean except that he also descended to the lower, earthly regions? He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens, in order to fill the whole universe.)

Again, for the first thousand years of church history this was how Christians understood the atonement. Our modern theory of satisfaction didn't arrive until much later. But one of the reasons the modern version did take over was due to the fact that people began to be increasingly uncomfortable with the power afforded the Devil in ransom theory. Could the Devil really have a rightful claim on humanity? Does God really have to bargain with the Devil to free humanity? And isn't the whole notion of tricking the Devil into killing Jesus a little outlandish? Questions like these swirled around ransom theory from the very beginning, but they grew more and more acute until, finally, one atonement theory was swapped for another around 1027.

Now why am I going into all this for a Good Friday meditation? Well, because I agree with Aulen that something was lost when we turned our backs on the original understanding of the atonement. I agree with Aulen that we should return to the first Christian understanding of the atonement.

But the immediate objection to this is that if we were to return to the original Christian understanding wouldn't that mean readopting all those shenanigans associated with the Devil? The deal making, the trickery and all that weirdness?

Aulen says we don't. And his argument goes like this. All this drama about the Devil is just that, a drama, a story told to get across some very important ideas. Read literally, the details about Christ's defeat of the Devil are hard to swallow. But the theological truths associated with this drama are so very, very right. And right in ways that the modern satisfaction theory is so very, very wrong.

Aulen discusses, among others, three ways ransom theory gets it right.

First, it is true that all the deal making and trickery in ransom theory looks strange. But it points to a key theological insight: the non-violence of God. As Aulen writes:

[T]his whole group of ideas, including the semi-legal transaction with the devil, the payment of the ransom-price, and the deception, is presented, often explicitly, in order to deny that God proceeds by way of brute force to accomplish His purpose...He overcomes evil, not my an almighty fiat, but by putting in something of His own, through a Divine self-oblation.

This is a huge contrast between ransom theory and, say, modern penal substitutionary atonement. In penal substitutionary atonement violence is an intrinsic feature of God. God's blood lust and violence drives the whole mechanism. It's paganism all over again.

But in ransom theory God is non-violent. God demands no blood price. More, God even deals with the Devil non-violently. God overcomes evil by self-sacrificing. The Devil--like the White Witch--craves blood. Not Aslan. And not God.

Second, the legal transaction between God and the Devil--the White Witch claiming that Edmund is her "lawful prey"--shouldn't be taken to mean that God and the Devil are equals. Rather, as Aulen writes, "in the Fathers the essential idea which the legal language is intended to express is that God's dealings even with the powers of evil have the character of 'fair play.' Thus this point connects with the last. Evil is overcome not by an external use of force, but by internal methods of self-offering."

Finally, what are we to make of the drama of "tricking" the Devil? What theological insight does that communicate? In response to this question Aulen writes that "behind all the seemingly fantastic speculations lies the thought that the power of evil ultimately overreaches itself when it comes in conflict with the power of good, with God Himself. It loses the battle at the moment when it seems victorious."

Here, then, is the dramatic power of ransom theory. The climax of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. The upside down logic of Good Friday. The scandal. The stone of stumbling. The foolishness.

The lamb that was slain is the Lion of Judah.

There, on the cross, where it seems that death is now victorious, a Deeper Magic is at work.

2012-02-22T16:18:00.000+05:30

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कृपया आपण आपल्या प्रार्थना विनंती ०९८५०५२७४१९ अथवा pastor.swapniln@rediffmail.com वर पाठवावे.

आपल्यासाठी आम्ही जरूर प्रार्थना करू.

2012-02-22T15:55:00.000+05:30

2012-02-22T15:24:00.000+05:30

Glorifying Jesus Through Costly Discipleship

By Stephen Venable

I. Glorifying Jesus by following Him in truth

…saying, “The Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised the third day.” Then He said to them all, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily,and follow Me. ²⁴ For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it. ²⁵ For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and is himself destroyed or lost? Lk 9:22-25

Our goal is to examine the meaning of the passage and the heart of discipleship that Jesus is trying to convey through four key phrases from this text: “come after Me”, “let him deny himself”, “take up his cross daily”, and “for My sake.”

A. COME AFTER ME

He said to them all, “If anyone desires to come after Me…

1. Remembering the Person Talking

When we continue reading and hear the intensity of what Jesus beckons us to, we must keep in mind Who it is that says these words. Jesus is so devastatingly severe, but He is the kindest Man you will ever know – full of love, desire, and gladness. Thus, we can and must know that there is nothing harsh or angry in His commands toward His people.

2. The Invitation to Imitation: Discipleship is Conformity to a Person

a. The context of Jesus’ summons for His disciples to deny themselves, to die daily, and to lose their life is His own sober declaration that rejection, persecution, and death was His own path. Verses 23-26 cannot be separate from verse 21-22.

b. To be His disciple (to be a Christian) is not an abstract lifestyle – it is to be like Him. While this includes many things, the focus of this passage is on following Jesus on the path of sacrifice, loss, and death.

By this we know that we are in Him: ⁶ the one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked. I John 2:6

For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps. I Peter 2:21

My little children, for whom I labor in birth again until Christ is formed in you… Gal 4:19

But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh… Romans 13:14

c. The single, greatest crisis that stands before the Church is that the belief and practice of what is called Christianity is drifting further and further from the identity, the teaching, the life, and the work of Jesus Christ.

d. Related to discipleship, it is becoming normal for a lifestyle to be championed and endorsed that does not conform to Jesus’ example, does not agree with His teaching, and that does not bring Him glory.

e. At the judgment seat there is only one standard of righteousness and one version of Christianity that God will endorse and approve of: that which is built on the foundation of Christ and Him crucified – a life that mirrors and magnifies Jesus.

¹¹ For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. (I Cor 2:2 – Christ and Him crucified) ¹² Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, ¹³ each one’s work will become clear; for the Day (the Day of the LORD) will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one’s work, of what sort it is. I Corinthians 3:11-13

B. DENY YOURSELF

If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself...

1. The Most Fundamental Question of our Existence

With these words Jesus has something far deeper in view than merely abstaining from things we like. He is speaking to the most fundamental questions of our existence: why were we created? why are we breathing right now? why did we wake up this morning?

a. The foundation of reality from the biblical perspective is that all things exist for the glory of God. Sinful man exists entirely for himself rather than God. This is the root of all depravity and wickedness. Our culture is potently narcissistic (self-absorbed & self-consumed).

b. Through these words, Jesus is calling for a complete reorientation of our entire existence. In order to be in relationship with Him, one must completely renounce all self-service and deny (or lose) their very life itself and instead exist for His sake.

Now large crowds were going along with Him; and He turned and said to them, ²⁶ “If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple. ²⁷ “Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. Luke 14:26-27

c. What Jesus demands is love so consuming and allegiance so fierce that all things are brought into submission and made subservient to the singular cause of the glorification of Another.

d. It is a radical, violent renunciation of self-affirmation, self-promotion, self-ambition, self-preservation, and self-gratification for the sake of love for Jesus and the renown of His name. Stated positively, it is a passion for His glory that consumes all other motivations and pursuits, such that all things in our life serve Him rather than ourselves.

Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. I Cor 10:31

2. Denying Self-Denial

a. We must be keenly aware that the way the Christian life is often presented in our day militates against actual adherence to Jesus’ words. Instead of calling us to deny ourselves, Jesus is almost always presented as the one who affirms ourselves.

b. His virtue is often extolled precisely only through the benefits He will bring to us. Some groups emphasize the forgiveness of our sins, some emphasize the size of our bank accounts, some the quality of our marriage, some the healing of our body, some revival, some the emotional satisfaction of our soul, and some the morality of our society.

c. Some of these emphases are biblical ideas and some are not. Yet the motivation of the messages still largely flows from the same spring of narcissism. In all of them, Jesus is seen as the means to whatever we imagine will bring human well-being and fulfillment.

d. In our hearts we believe that God exists for us rather than us existing for Him. Whereas the gifts of God, which are too bountiful to number, exist to lead us into the exaltation of the Giver, we have instead come to believe that the Giver exists to bestow the gifts.

e. Instead of denial of self for His sake we have created, marketed, and preached a message of Jesus existing for affirmation of self for our sake. This is the systemic problem we face when we try to grapple with these words and their meaning.

f. Rather than the Cross being presented as our path to follow for His sake, it is presented as the path He walked in order to secure pleasure and leisure for our sake. This is insanity.

C. TAKE UP YOUR CROSS DAILY

…let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily,and follow Me.

1. Meaning

a. When seen in its ancient context, this phrase has only one possible meaning. This meaning has different applications, but there is no question what Jesus was referring to.

b. The only time someone would actually carry their cross in the ancient Roman empire was after they had been sentenced/condemned to death. From wherever the sentencing occurred, they would carry the crossbeam to place of their execution – just as Jesus did.

c. For those who follow Jesus, every day is supposed to be a death-march. It is clear from the New Testament that the apostles understood Jesus’ command in all of its sober literalness. Paul directly refers to these words from Jesus at least five times in describing his own life:

⁷ But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. ⁸ We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; ⁹ persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed— ¹⁰ always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. ¹¹ For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus’ sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. II Cor 4:7-11

⁹ For I think that God has displayed us, the apostles, last, as men condemned to death…¹⁰ We are fools for Christ’s sake, but you are wise in Christ! We are weak, but you are strong! You are distinguished, but we are dishonored! ¹¹ To the present hour we both hunger and thirst, and we are poorly clothed, and beaten, and homeless…We have been made as the filth of the world, the offscouring of all things until now.¹⁴ I do not write these things to shame you, but as my beloved children I warn you… ¹⁶ Therefore I urge you, imitate me. 1 Corinthians 4:9-16

Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? ³⁶ Just as it is written, “For Your sake we are being put to death all day long; we were considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” Romans 8:35-36

Why are we also in danger every hour? ³¹ I affirm, brethren, by the boasting in you which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily. I Corinthians 15:30-31

d. Paul experienced “needs”, “distresses”, “stripes”, “imprisonments”, “tumults”, “labors”, “sleeplessness”, “many tribulations”, “chains”, “hunger and thirst”, “nakedness” and said he was “poorly clothed”, “beaten”, “homeless”, “defamed”, “reviled”, “struck down”, “chastened”, “dying”, and “poor”.

2. Normal Christianity

Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you; but rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ’s sufferings, that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy. If you are reproached for the name of Christ, blessed are you, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you… I Peter 4:12-14

a. When our comfort, convenience, honor, or well-being are no longer legitimate criteria for decision making, the result is a life that joyfully descends into the crucible of suffering so that His glory might be seen more brightly. Paul not only suffered far more than us for Jesus, he had far more joy in Jesus than we do.

b. The very clear relationship that is stated over and over again in the New Testament is that the apostles understood their suffering and that of the Church to be a living out of the sufferings of Christ- just as Jesus said of true discipleship. (Acts 9:15-6, Col 1:24, II Cor 1:5)

c. Put simply, if our discipleship is to be Christoform, it must be cruciform for all believers until the Day of LORD. Just as He suffered before entering into His glory, we must do the same.

d. Sacrifice for the name of Jesus, suffering persecution, and martyrdom are not radical, missional, or eschatological – they are normal. These things are tragic, sober, and profoundly difficult but they are to be expected as part of the normal life of the Christian as they follow Jesus and are conformed to Him.

Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. II Timothy 3:12

If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. ²⁰ Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they kept My word, they will keep yours also. ²¹ But all these things they will do to you for My name’s sake, because they do not know Him who sent Me. John 15:19-21

…and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together. Rom 8:17

e. We must soberly ask if the absence of persecution in America is due to a fundamental change in the world or rather a reflection of the relative impotency of our choices and our witness. Has the world gotten less evil or have we suburbanized godliness? Have we subtly put up boundary lines on where and when evangelism can happen in order to ensure that we are protected from tribulation and persecution?

3. Practical Application

From the heart posture of violent resistance to all forms of selfishness, we must be compelled into a willingness and readiness to make deeply sacrificial choices and costly decisions that radically undermine our comfort, honor, and convenience:

a. Sacrificing pleasure, quantity, and frequency in what we eat

b. Sacrificing our time to use it for devotion to Jesus and love for others

c. Sacrificing our money so that we suffer loss and we are able to be rich toward God and the things on His heart

d. Putting the needs of others above our own, even when that is costly to our comfort

e. Loving our enemies to our own hurt and loss as a witness of the truth of Jesus

f. Choosing to minister to those who cannot repay us (the outcast and the marginalized) instead of those who will honor us for our service

g. Standing for truth (in love and gentleness) before His people even when it causes offense and the loss of our reputation

h. Declaring the gospel of Christ faithfully, even when it could result in mocking, beating, or our own death (either domestically or in foreign missions)

D. FOR HIS SAKE

But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. ⁸ More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, ⁹ and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, ¹⁰ that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; ¹¹ in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. Philippians 3:7-11

1. The question that remains is “how?” How do we actually overcome the mountain of self-preservation to live a sacrificial lifestyle that brings glory to Jesus? The fulfillment of Luke 9:23-26 in our lives hinges completely on three words: for His sake.

2. The fuel for a life of sacrifice and costly obedience is the revelation of the glory of Jesus crashing in upon the weakness of the human heart. Paul, in a direct commentary on Luke 9:23-26, offers a window into how he could lose everything and call it refuse or dung. The key was the surpassing worth of the knowledge of Christ Jesus.

3. The glory of Jesus is both the motivation for embracing sacrifice and the goal or outcome of it in God’s design. He is magnified through the sacrificial love of His people as they suffer for His name’s sake with joyful hearts.

4. In this light we can see that the reason Jesus’ call to discipleship finds so little resonance in the modern Church is not because Luke 9:23-26 is difficult to understand. Rather, it is because the glorious, majestic Christ of the Bible that conquered the hearts of those young men who sat with Him on the road to Caeserea Philippi is a virtual stranger to us.

5. Conversely, the ultimate remedy to our almost complete neglect of Jesus’ words is to seek Him, to know Him, to see Him, to treasure Him, and adore Him as He is worthy of. In time, the beauty of Jesus will constrain even our frail hearts into total, unreserved abandonment to His preeminence in all things.

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. ¹⁶ For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. ¹⁷ And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist…that in all things He may have the preeminence. Colossians 1:15-18

2012-02-22T14:55:00.000+05:30

2012-02-22T14:43:00.000+05:30

I. The relevance of suffering

A. Normal Christianity

Just as instances of miraculous deliverance, provision, protection, and healing are part of the normal Christian life in this age, so also is suffering of various kinds and degrees. And just as the LORD has a design to magnify Jesus in displaying His miraculous power, He also has a design to magnify Jesus in restraining His power. The glory of God is in the face of Christ as exalted King and Suffering Servant.

1. The Afflicted Way

¹³ “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. ¹⁴ Becausenarrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it. Matthew 7:13-14

¹¹ …and they consoled him and comforted him for all the adversity that the LORD had brought upon him. Each one gave him a piece of silver and each a ring of gold. Job 42:11

I know, O LORD…that in faithfulness You have afflicted me. Psalm 119:75

In the world you willhave tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome… Jn 16:33

¹² Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. 2 Tim 3:10-12

Therefore let those who suffer according to the will of God commit their souls to Him in doing good, as to a faithful Creator. 1 Peter 4:19

2. God’s Design

a. The common idea that obedience and faithfulness to Jesus in this age will result in a consistent ascent of comfort in domestic affairs, peace in relationships, and popularity or favorable recognition in ministry is foreign to the New Testament. The question is not if we will suffer, but rather when and how.

b. Having this delusion shattered is necessary if we are to glorify Christ in the midst of it and if our hearts are to persevere through it. To persist in error related to God’s leadership and suffering will leave one either offended with God (for not fulfilling His supposed obligation to procure our comfort) or condemning themselves (for the supposed sin or unbelief that has caused it).

… ³⁶ Still others had trial of mockings and scourgings, yes, and of chains and imprisonment. ³⁷ They were stoned, they were sawn in two, were tempted, were slain with the sword. They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented — ³⁸ of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and mountains, in dens and caves of the earth. ³⁹ And all these, having obtained a good testimony through faith… Hebrew 11:36-40

c. All hardship we face comes with the promise that the tender compassion of Jesus is with us in it, the assurance of the ultimate eradication of it, and the confidence that God has a design for it – a design for His glory and for our good.

B. Tribulation and Great Tribulation

1. Remembering the Context of Our Lives: the Nature of the Present Age

…who gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present evil age… Galatians 1:4 (cf. Rom 13:12, II Cor 4:4, Eph 5: 15-16, Eph 6:12, II Peter 1:19, II Pet 3:11-13)

a. We live in an age of darkness and wickedness, looking for the dawning of the age of light and righteousness. As such, God’s outward reward for righteousness and His judgment of wickedness is for the most part (not completely) restrained.

Blessed are you poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. ²¹ Blessed are you who hunger now, for you shall be filled. Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh. ²² Blessed are you when men hate you, and when they exclude you, and revile you, and cast out your name as evil…But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation.²⁵ Woe to you who are full, for you shall hunger. Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep ²⁶ Woe to youwhen allmen speak well of you… Luke 6:22-26

b. We are commanded to set our hope fully on the Day of the LORD when He will judge all things. Lacking a clear vision of the return of Jesus we inadvertently misappropriate the promises of the age to come into the present evil age – this blurring is disastrous.

Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ… I Pet 1:13

…teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age, ¹³ looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ… Titus 2:11-13

2. The End of this Age

Now as He sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things be? And what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?”… Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake…For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be. And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved. Matthew 24:3, 9, 21-22

It was granted to him to make war with the saints and to overcome them. And authority was given him over every tribe,tongue, and nation. Revelation 13:7 (cf. Rev 6:9-11, Daniel 12:7)

a. The biblical presentation of life in this age is tribulation unto great tribulation. Due to the circumstantial ease we experience in the West, we often view that suffering is normative for the 1^st century and the last, but that in between it is not to be expected.

b. This stark dichotomy between the present-day and the end of the age is both unbiblical and extremely myopic historically. Furthermore, it inevitably leads to a romanticizing of suffering in its eschatological context.

c. At the end of the age Jesus is going to cause a global humanitarian crisis beyond what our minds can fathom and lead His people into that crucible of suffering and persecution so that they might bear witness of His glory to the peoples of the earth.

d. If we are offended at Jesus leading us into suffering right now, we will even more so when we are hurled into wars, pestilence, famine, and martyrdom. And if we do not understand how to glorify Jesus in suffering now, we will have little capacity to glorify Him then.

II. Glorifying Jesus in the midst of suffering

A. The Challenge of the New Testament

⁴⁰ …when they had called for the apostles and beaten them, they commanded that they should not speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go. ⁴¹ So they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for Hisname. Acts 5:40-41

²² Then the multitude rose up together against them; and the magistrates tore off their clothes and commanded them to be beaten with rods. ²³ And when they had laid many stripes on them, they threw them into prison, commanding the jailer to keep them securely… ²⁵ But at midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them. Acts 16:22-25

² My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, ³ knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. James 1:2-3 (cf. Romans 5:3-4)

²⁴ I now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ, for the sake of His body, which is the church. Colossians 1:24

⁶ And you became followers of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Spirit… 1 Thessalonians 1:6

Blessed are you when men hate you, and when they exclude you, and revile you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of Man’s sake. ²³ Rejoice in that day and leap for joy! For indeed your reward is great in heaven…But I say to you who hear: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, ²⁸ bless those who curse you, and pray for those who spitefully use you… Luke 6:22-28

B. The Phenomenon of Sacrificial Love & Joy in Suffering

1. We want to avoid suffering at all costs, using whatever resources we have to stay immune from its reach – even at the expense of others. And when our options are depleted and we finally must succumb to it, our response typically borders on the total opposite of the Bible.

2. If our plans are disrupted, if we are unrecognized, overlooked or mistreated, if we are inconvenienced and our aspirations thwarted by the needs of others, if we experience sickness or pain, if our comfort is stripped from us, and if we are suddenly hemmed in by limitation, our primary reaction is anger.

3. It may be the quiet anger of resentment, the cold anger of hard-heartedness, the conniving anger of manipulation, or the burning anger of rage, but it is not joy. If this is the case as those who sincerely love Jesus, what of the unregenerate man?

C. Magnifying Jesus & God’s Design

The contrast between the biblical reaction to suffering and that which is common to man explains why pain and persecution is such fertile ground for magnifying Christ.

1. Two primary (not only) ways that we magnify Jesus in this age while He is not with us are: 1) by rejoicing in Him in the midst of suffering; and 2) by mourning for Him in the midst of ease. These two acts both expose the worthlessness of what has captured the devotion of humanity and the exceeding worthiness of Jesus to capture the devotion of humanity.

2. When we shed tears of joy in the midst of sickness, or beatings, or mistreatment, or pain of any kind, it reveals that whatever was lost through those things does not compare to the beauty of who Jesus is – a treasure which we possess and can never lose.

3. When we weep with longing in the midst of circumstantial comfort it declares that the pleasures of this life are fundamentally insufficient and paltry compared to how infinitely precious Jesus is.

III. the fellowship of suffering: the apostolic heart & the glory of Jesus

A. The Invitation to Imitation – Self-Denial for the Glory of Christ

1. Denying Self-Denial

a. When considering these familiar words from Jesus we must be keenly aware that the way the Christian life is often presented in our day militates against actual adherence to them. Instead of calling us to deny ourselves, Jesus is almost always presented as the one who affirms ourselves.

b. His virtue is often extolled precisely through the benefits He will bring to our health, our relationships, our finances, and our emotions. Jesus is preached as the one who will give us a good life and lead us to the fulfillment we have vainly sought through the things of the world. Self-denial has been diluted to where it is simply abstaining from utter indulgence and opulence.

c. Instead of denial of self for His sake we are at risk adopting a message of Jesus existing for affirmation of self for our sake. Ultimately the question we must face is this: how can we respond to the command to sacrifice the very things that are constantly presented as the benefits of Christianity?

2. The Surpassing Worth of Jesus

²⁵ Now great multitudes went with Him. And He turned and said to them, ²⁶ “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple. ²⁷ And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.Luke 14:26-27

a. What Jesus demands is love so consuming and allegiance so fierce that all things in are brought into submission and made subservient to the singular cause of the glorification of Another.

b. It is a radical, violent renunciation of self-affirmation, self-promotion, self-ambition, and self-gratification for the sake of love for Jesus and the renown of His name. Stated positively, it is a passion for His glory that subsumes all other motivations and pursuits, such that all things serve Him rather than ourselves (cf. I Corinthians 10:31).

c. When our comfort, convenience, honor, or well-being are no longer legitimate criteria for decision making, the result is a life that joyfully descends into the crucible of suffering so that His glory might be seen more brightly.

Luke 9:22-31

Philippians 3:7-21

…saying, “The Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised the third day.” ²³ Then He said to them all, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily,and follow Me. ²⁴ For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it. ²⁵ For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and is himself destroyed or lost? ²⁶ For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, of him the Son of Man will be ashamed when He comes in His own glory… ²⁷ But I tell you truly, there are some standing here who shall not taste death till they see the kingdom of God.” ²⁸ Now it came to pass…that He took Peter, John, and James and went up on the mountain to pray. ²⁹ As He prayed, the appearance of His face was altered, and His robe became white and glistening. ³⁰And behold, two men talked with Him, who were Moses and Elijah, ³¹who appeared in glory and spoke of His decease which He was about to accomplish…

⁷ But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. ⁸ Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ ⁹ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; ¹⁰ that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, ¹¹ if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.¹² Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me… ¹⁶ Nevertheless, to the degree that we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule,let us be of the same mind.¹⁷ Brethren, join in following my example, and note those who so walk, as you have us for a pattern. ¹⁸ For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ: ¹⁹ whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame—who set their mind on earthly things. ²⁰ For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, ²¹ who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body…

B. The Apostolic Embodiment of True Discipleship

1. The Fellowship of Suffering

a. The very simple relationship that is stated over and over again in the New Testament is that the apostles understood their suffering and that of the Church to be a living out of the sufferings of Christ- just as Jesus said of true discipleship. (cf. Acts 9:15-16, Col 1:24, II Cor 1:5, II Cor 4:10)

b. Put simply, if our discipleship is to be Christoform, it must be cruciform until the Day of LORD. And just as He suffered before entering into His glory, we must do the same.

c. Repeatedly this is fellowship of suffering is said to be “for His sake”, referring once again to the quintessential call to discipleship from Jesus and the purpose of magnifying Him.

For to you it has been granted on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake… Phil 1:29 (cf. Jn 15:21, Acts 5:41, I Cor 4:10, II Cor 4:10-11, Phil 3:7-8, I Pet 4:14, 16)

d. Biblically these sufferings are primarily presented as coming in the form of persecution, but not in any way limited to it. Paul experienced “needs”, “distresses”, “stripes”, “imprisonments”, “tumults”, “labors”, “sleeplessness”, “many tribulations”, “chains”, “hunger and thirst”, “nakedness” and said he was “poorly clothed”, “beaten”, “homeless”, “defamed”, “reviled”, “struck down”, “chastened”, “dying”, and “poor”.

2. Our Challenge

…and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together. Rom 8:17 (cf. Phil 3:10, I Cor 4:9-16, Jn 15:19-21)

a. In the New Testament the apostolic lifestyle is presented as exemplary, not exceptional. We are warned that if we do not suffer with Jesus we will not be glorified with Him.

b. We must soberly ask if the absence of persecution in America is due to a fundamental change in the world or rather a reflection of the relative impotency of our choices and our witness. Has the world gotten less evil or have we suburbanized godliness?

c. Have we subtly put up boundary lines on where and when evangelism can happen in order to ensure that we are protected from tribulation and persecution?

d. God has a design for the glory of Jesus in suffering – may He find that purpose fulfilled in us.

Catherine’s Three Wishes – A Make-A-Wish Story | InspirationalArchive.com

2011-11-18T15:22:00.000+05:30

Catherine’s Three Wishes – A Make-A-Wish Story | InspirationalArchive.com

What Is a True Christian? by Jeremy Walker

2011-11-05T14:07:00.000+05:30

What Is a True Christian?

Article by Jeremy Walker July 2011

A Christian is someone who has obeyed the gracious command of Jesus Christ, "Look to me, and be saved, all you ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other" (Is 45.22). As one believing into Jesus, the individual who was once a lost and wandering sinner is made a new creation in Christ and a true disciple of the Lord: old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new (2Cor 5.17).

But how can you tell if you really are a Christian? How can you know if you have been born again? What are the definite marks of a new creation in Christ?

The apostle John addresses both the new birth and its evidences. He wrote his gospel so that we might know that Jesus is the Christ, believe, and be saved (Jn 20.31). Later, he wrote his first letter so that believers might "know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God" (1Jn 5.13). John's first letter will help us to answer the vital question: "What is a true Christian?"

There are many things which the world - and many outwardly religious people in the world - assumes are certain marks of true Christianity. These things fool many into imagining that they are true believers when they are not. Even many Christians build their assurance on these things, and find that they fail them when they need them, because they form no sure foundation. These are inconclusive indications.

An excellent book by Gardiner Spring called The Distinguishing Traits of Christian Character suggests seven things that are not, in themselves, conclusive marks that a professed work of grace is true or false.

Visible morality. An outwardly upright character is no sure indication of love to God. A fair appearance does not necessarily indicate true heart righteousness (1Sam 16.7). There are many people who can maintain the facade of morality without ever possessing eternal life and developing true conformity to Jesus Christ.

Head knowledge (mere speculative knowledge or intellectual perception) as opposed to spiritual understanding of the truth (Rom 1.21; 2.17-20; Jas 2.19; 1Cor 2.14). It is possible to know a great deal about Christ without truly knowing Christ; a man can know a lot of the Bible, without ever bowing to the God of the Bible.

A form of religion. Many have the appearance of religion without the reality, the form without the power (2Tim 3.5; Mt 25.1-12; Is 58.2-3). The Pharisees are the prime example of such people: a great reputation for religion, but a heart far from God.

Eminent gifts. Some have great natural abilities (and, perhaps, verbal dexterity - the gift of the gab - is something that is often taken to indicate a heart for God), which they employ even in religious contexts (again, the gift of ready speech is one that people often mistake as a sign of true godliness). Balaam and Saul both enjoyed eloquent prophetic experiences without entering the kingdom (Mt 7.22-23). John Bunyan was known as "a great talker in religion" before he became a true believer, and several of his characters in Pilgrim's Progress demonstrate the same problem.

Conviction for sin. We must be careful here. Conviction for sin is necessary for salvation but not necessarily joined with salvation (note also that many Christians feel conviction for sin far more acutely after they are saved than before, and that some who are brought up in godly homes and converted young may have relatively little clear and distinct sense of sin). Awareness of and a sense of guilt concerning sin do not mean that a man is saved or will be saved (Jude 14-15). Ask King Saul, King Ahab, or Judas.

Strong assurance. There is a difference between believing you are saved and believing in Christ and therefore being saved. It is possible for someone entirely persuaded that they are right with God to be wrongly persuaded (Mt 3.7-9).

Notable time or manner of one's professed conversion. Even unusual and distinctive experiences do not demonstrate that one's profession of faith is genuine. There are some who live and die trusting in the memory of a moment - perhaps some warm and fuzzy feeling, or raising a hand or walking an aisle or responding to a call - without ever having known true spiritual life.

There is almost nothing more dangerous than to imagine oneself saved and yet to remain unsaved. There is nothing more blessed than to know oneself a Christian grounded on a solid foundation, as the Spirit witnesses in the heart and to the work he is accomplishing in those whom he indwells. To recognise these inconclusive indications for what they are liberates the true believer from the tyranny of mere subjectivism, and strips away the flawed and rotten supports on which we - and others - too often build our hopes.

What, then, are the Scriptural indicators that a genuine work of grace has taken place in the heart of a sinner? When John writes his letter, he does so in carefully-planned circles. Like an aircraft circling the same territory, John notes the same heart-terrain repeatedly. At least four indispensable indications of true Christianity become plain as we circle through John's letter.

The first indication is a humble and wholehearted embrace of the divine diagnosis of and remedy for sin (1Jn 1.7 - 2.2; 2.12-14; 3.5, 6, 23; 4.2, 9-10, 13-16; 5.1, 5, 10-13, 20). A Christian man has an accurate view of himself as a sinning sinner. He acknowledges the just judgments of a holy God (Ps 51.4; Lk 15.18; 18.13). This Spirit-wrought conviction of sin leads to genuine repentance as his heart breaks over his godlessness: he becomes revolted by his sin and turns from it and forsakes it because it offends the Lord God (Jl 2.12-13). With repentance is joined faith in Jesus as the Lord Christ is presented in the gospel in his might and majesty, his meekness and mercy. Faith receives Jesus, looks to Jesus, comes to Jesus, flees to Jesus, leans upon Jesus, trusts in Jesus, holds to Jesus, and rests upon Jesus. Let us remember that this is the essential point and gives birth to all that follows: the dying thief never had an opportunity to manifest the other three marks of saving faith (though he would have done had he lived), but still the Lord assured him, "Today you will be with me in Paradise" (Lk 23.43). Whoever trusts in Jesus, though he believes one moment and dies the next, has his life hid with Christ in God.

The second indication is a humble reverence for and joyful devotion to God and his glory (1Jn 1.3-5; 2.12-15; 3.1-2; 4.12-13, 19; 5.1-2). A radical reversal of priority has occurred: the idol Self is toppled and God reigns in the heart. A change has occurred: a heart that by nature is enmity with God (Rom 8.7) has been replaced by one that loves God entirely (Lk 10.37). The man who lived for self now lives for God, offering himself as a living sacrifice (Rom 12.1-2). Gratitude for grace received and delight in God himself issues in joyful service of the Lord of glory. This is a man convinced of God's excellent glory, for its own sake: he would, if called upon, serve without reward for he recognises God's worthiness to be served: Romans 11.36 seems entirely pleasing and proper to him, for God in Christ is now at the pinnacle of his thinking and feeling and doing. The testimony of such a man's heart is "Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is none upon earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart fail; but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever" (Ps 73.25-26). He believes it, knows it, pursues it, and repents afresh because he does not know and feel and prove it more. He is concerned for God's name and God's people and therefore his time, energies, graces, gifts, faculties and efforts are consecrated to God, whether in the apparently spectacular or the genuinely mundane (1Cor 10.31). His chief end and great delight is to glorify God and to enjoy him now and forever. God in Christ is all in all to him, and he longs to know and feel and prove it more.

The third indication is a principled pursuit of godliness with an increasing attainment in holiness (1Jn 2.3-8, 15-16, 19, 29; 3.3, 6, 10, 24; 4.13; 5.2-5, 21). The hypocrite likes the reputation of holiness, but the true child of God is satisfied only with the substance. He considers his ways, and turns his feet back to God's testimonies (Ps 119.59). The world no longer sparkles as it did - or, at least, his attraction to it and affection for it have been fundamentally altered - and now he lives for God, called to be holy as God himself is holy (1Pt 1.16). The bonds to sin have been broken, and the persistent habit of unmortified sinning has been shattered because of his union with Christ. The new root brings forth new fruit (Mt 7.20; 12.33-35). His obedience - though not yet perfect - is universal (throughout the whole man), habitual (a regular and consistent part of life), voluntary (he does it willingly, not because he is forced) and persevering (he continues to pursue obedience to the end). He has taken up his cross, and continues to do so daily, as a disciple of a crucified Christ (Mt 16.24-25). He pursues Christlikeness - it is the burden of his private and public prayers. He increasingly manifests the fruit of the Spirit (Gal 5.22-23); he has no love for the world (Jas 4.4); the previous pattern of conformity to, company with and compromise for the sake of the world is over (2Tim 3.4; 1Cor 16.33). This is not sinless perfection, but laborious progress. It does not mean that a Christian faces no battles but rather than he fights great battles, opposed as he now is to a raging and committed enemy of malice and power (Rom 7.13-25). Sometimes he wanders; sometimes he is on the back foot; sometimes, grievously, he backslides. However, the tone and tenor of his life is one of advance. The trajectory of his life over time is upward. The points plotted on his spiritual graph are not a seamless upward curve, and there are painful plateaus, but the line of best fit indicates persevering progress over time as sin dies and godliness is cultivated.

A fourth mark that John identifies is affection for and attachment to God's redeemed people (1Jn 2.9-11; 3.10-18, 23; 4.7-11; 4.20 - 5.2). This is more than natural affection (just liking them), mercenary attachment (what you can get out if it), party spirit (a gang mentality), or mere presence (just turning up at the right place at the right time). The true Christian loves God's people because they are God's people, even though they may be unlovely in themselves. In that sense, he needs no other reason, and yet he has several. He loves them because of what they are to God, loved by him and saved by Jesus, and it is therefore Godlike to love them. He loves them because of what they are in themselves, marked out increasingly by the image of God, by likeness to the Jesus whom he loves. He loves them because of what they are to him, members together with him of the one body of which Jesus is the saving and sovereign head (1Cor 12.12-14, 26-27). He loves not in word only: it is manifest in his thoughts and deeds (Eph 4.1-6, 12-16, 25-32). He is a true churchman: he does not simply "do church" but views and responds to the saints individually and gathered together with affection, commitment, service and investment. He is not a spectator but a servant, concerned not just to get out but to put in.

These four marks will invariably be present in a true child of God. They will not be perfect until glory, but they will be present now.

We cannot afford to be fooled, imagining ourselves saved when we are not. This is a most desperately dangerous condition to be in, and a devastating conclusion to daw. We do not need to be confused, either always doubting or building on a wrong foundation. We can know whether or not we are saved. John writes so that we can be sure, knowing ourselves saved and enjoying eternal life.

If these indispensable indications, these marks of a true believer, are not in your heart and life, then you are not a Christian, whatever you claim or imagine, and you should not fool yourself nor dishonour Christ by claiming his name without walking in his ways. You blaspheme Jesus and expose him to scorn by taking the label of a true believer but living apart from his gracious power and saving wisdom. The hypocrite gives other unbelieving men a reason to scorn and deride true religion by pretending to what he does not have. We see this written on a large scale when those professing to be a true church depart from the truth, teach their own concoctions, live without godliness, and give occasion for men to blaspheme. "Call that Christianity?!" No! No, it is not Christianity - it is an empty masquerade that gives opportunity for sinners to deride or despair of Jesus, which leaves your hands with the blood of men upon them, and which will ultimately damn you if you are not saved from it. It is better to know yourself outside than falsely to imagine yourself inside: you must therefore flee to Jesus, and acknowledge your need, repent of your sin, and trust in the Saviour.

But if these things are present in you and true of you then you are a Christian, and you should not dishonour Christ by denying the source of grace in you. Some doubting and fearful saints are terrified that they will lay claim to God's grace in Christ without having it, and so walk in shadow if not in darkness, robbed of joy and neither being blessed nor blessing others as they might. But consider: these things simply do not grow in the soil of the unregenerate heart, and to possess them without a Christian testimony is to know the privileges of the kingdom without wearing its livery. It might give the impression to some that the fruits of grace can grow in natural soil, and imply that unconverted men can attain to true godliness and genuinely Christian morality, and so prompt a despising of the work of God's Spirit. Others might be profoundly discouraged, imagining that a man can show marks of true holiness but not really be saved, and so wonder if they can ever truly testify, "I am his, and he is mine." Friend, if you have these things in you, then honour the God who put them there by owning yourself saved of God, and live accordingly.

"Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my anxieties; and see if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting" (Ps 139.23-24). If you need Jesus, go to him now and you will be saved. If you have Jesus - if he has you - then hold fast, love him, serve him, and rejoice in him, for you are a child of God, and he will keep you to the end, perfecting that which he has begun in you.

Jeremy Walker is a pastor of Maidenbower Baptist Church. He blogs at The Wanderer and is co-author of A Portrait of Paul: Identifying A True Minister of Christ (Reformation Heritage Books, 2010).

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