sanc's blog

Face Death

2012-01-23T16:30:00.000-08:00

Look Death Square in the Face

In October I took a car trip south to Phoenix for a conference. The conference was awesome, but God was much, much more. He showed me unspeakable love turn after turn and opened my eyes. I became aware of a deeper calling to live the image of Christ. Less of me, more of Him. This was right when I was doing great in my life, that I received a vision of His love. He loves precious and cheerful sacrifices. Remember Christ when they wanted to make Him King, and He slipped away from the five thousand to escape to a mountain and be alone (John 6:15)? I can assure you, no one is knocking on my door forcing me to be King, and it's not likely to happen anytime soon for sure. But the application is usable. Christ-follower, are you feeding the crowd with the Bread of Heaven? If you're not running hard against the grain of self-sufficiency, find a friend who will covenant to discipline you to be different.

'The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning' Ecc. 7:4

Jesus' temptation was living in His own strength and His own identity. That is why He described discipleship as continually hating one's own life (John 12:25). What happened in the incarnation of God in the womb of Mary? Jesus set aside the favor & exercise of deity. What happened in the early hours of prayer every morning for Jesus during His three year ministry? Jesus set aside the favor & exercise of deity. When His potential was its zenith He fled into the image of an unrecognized attendant and died. He looked death straight in the face. He didn't just gaze at it on occasion. No; it was a continual mirror by which He corrected all His steps. "Better to go to the house of mourning than to the house of feasting" (Ecc. 7:2). Mourning allows the heart to connect with the disenfranchised, who God is already passionate to undertake. Mourning allows a whole community to hope in God as one. Abundant salvation awaits those who continually take up a fresh image of brokenness. True harmony and Body unity awaits.

Death means holding perfectly still, "Be still and know that I am God" (Ps. 46:10). It also means "the life I live now, I live by faith in the Son of God" (Gal. 2:20) There is no way to measure how much power could come into our works, if we would pursue the discipline. I have found that when I come up for air out of a time of stillness, there has measurably been more of God's power happening through me and around me. People get right with God left and right. I'm getting right with God too. It is a great place to experience.

It is hard, at times. Very, very hard because it hurts. It's confusing. As soon as the pain comes from the emptiness to go without "things to be doing to remember who I am," even if you thought you were trusting God in those do-ings, trust me, you might go a little crazy when you surrender "do-ing" completely. But this is where deeper trust develops. Busyness delays what God desires to demonstrate. Bring death to kiss self-effort. Repeat it, over, and over and over, till it becomes practice. Looking back, I am so thankful that the LORD invited me to pure death. Recall Abraham, who waited 25 years for the promise of having a baby. He started off, trusting God to do it. Later he seemed to have forgotten that his body was already dead. His flesh wanted to "help God out" who he still trusted, mixing faith-with-self-effort, and he acquired Hagar. Don't give in to Plan B!! (I know, it seems impossible!) God wants to be the hero of your story. If you have an accident, if Plan B and Plan C continually make you trip and fall down into self-sufficiency, don't surrender to the mistake. Get up. Go back. Trust in God, alone. Sarah stopped sweating and then brought forth Isaac. God's faithfulness is not dependent on whether you conceived Ishmaels here and there as a Christ-follower. It is dependent on His integrity alone. Dear Christian, God is unconditionally the hero of your circumstances. He will unconditionally perform His promise.

Don't Wait for False Life to Kill You

I'm still on this journey that started in October. I am not sure where I am going. Yes - that hurts, a lot. Faith-alone, instead of faith+my own contribution, is more challenging and more counter-intuitive than any other Spiritual discipline. Even blogging tempts me back to self-sufficiency. Don't wait till you fall in exhaustion from false sources of life. Offer yourself to His discipline well before you see signs of corruption. Get uber-upset with any force in your life which feels phony, beginning with the log in your own eye first. Could you stop right now, and pursue Him afresh through mourning and sacrifice of 'the great Christian life'?

May the LORD enlighten your eyes and mine too, to pursue the full measure of the love of God!

'No eye has seen, No ear has heard, No mind has imagined what God has in store for those who love Him.'

1 Corinthians 2:2

Isaiah 54

2011-12-25T12:16:00.000-08:00

"Sing, O childless woman,
you who have never given birth!
Break into loud and joyful song,
O Jerusalem,
You who have never been in labor.
For the desolate woman now has more children
than the woman who lives with her husband,"
says the LORD.
"Enlarge your house; build an addition.
Spread out your home,
and spare no expense!
For you will soon be bursting at the seams.
Your descendants will occupy other nations
and resettle the ruined cities.

Fear not; you will no longer live in shame.
Don’t be afraid; there is no more disgrace for you.
You will no longer remember the shame of your youth
and the sorrows of widowhood.
For your Creator will be your husband;
the LORD of Heaven’s Armies is his name!
He is your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel,
the God of all the earth.
For the LORD has called you back from your grief—
as though you were a young wife abandoned by her husband,”
says your God.

“For a brief moment I abandoned you,
but with great compassion I will take you back.
In a burst of anger I turned my face away for a little while.
But with everlasting love I will have compassion on you,”
says the LORD, your Redeemer.
“Just as I swore in the time of Noah
that I would never again let a flood cover the earth,
so now I swear
that I will never again be angry and punish you.
For the mountains may move
and the hills disappear,
but even then my faithful love for you will remain.
My covenant of blessing will never be broken,”
says the LORD, who has mercy on you.

"O you afflicted one,
Tossed with tempest, and not comforted!
I will rebuild you with precious jewels
and make your foundations from lapis lazuli.
I will make your towers of sparkling rubies,
your gates of shining gems,
and your walls of precious stones.
I will teach all your children,
and they will enjoy great peace.
You will be secure under a government that is just and fair.
Your enemies will stay far away.
You will live in peace,
and terror will not come near.
If any nation comes to fight you,
it is not because I sent them.
Whoever attacks you will go down in defeat.

I have created the blacksmith
who fans the coals beneath the forge
and makes the weapons of destruction.
And I have created the armies that destroy.
But in that coming day
no weapon turned against you will succeed.
You will silence every voice
raised up to accuse you.
These benefits are enjoyed by the servants of the LORD;
their vindication will come from me.
I, the LORD, have spoken!"

Beckoning Turns

2011-10-16T20:42:00.000-07:00

I was deeply impressed lately by a trip from Salem, Oregon to Phoenix, Arizona. Every bend and vista stole my breath and my imagination. My heart was swollen with excitement and joy. I could not believe it, each moment I was breathing and present in places I've always dreamed of seeing.

I kept pace and a map in my hand. I was intent on avoiding major roadways, and to my joy the most direct routes were the "scenic" ones. Incredible was each moment as I peered across new lands. I saw lakes populated not with people but with animals. I saw farms and forests and mountains and barren lands.

I had set up my hotel reservations and made a rough plot of how to go the night before I left. Anticipating what I might see was nothing like actually entering it.

I left Salem at 12:08 Sunday afternoon, intent on reaching Phoenix by 2:45 the next day. I took I-5 down to Eugene, OR where I diverted permanently forthwith from any daytime interstate traveling. I found that Route 58 is a lot more mild in incline and descent than Route 22 or Route 20. Additionally it meanders southeast instead of taking me along rigid southernly or easternly directions.

This hooked me up with Route 97, and coupled with the backside of the Cascades from 58, it made for several hours of pine forest and flat terrain. I drove past Crater Lake and flinched a bit, knowing I'd miss it. It was exchanged for arriving at Klamath Falls and crossing the California border at about 5:30 PM. I took Route 39 which morphed into 139 across the border. My goal was to reach Reno by sundown. I didn't make it. I was well in the interior of Northern California before I lost all light. I could see forests in the dark, and was completely delighted. I drove past Eagle Lake in the dark. I could tell it was there. The moon was full, and it was following me over my left shoulder all the way. It lit up the lake like a silver cloud.

I realized how high Modoc Forest really was when I descended from up high with sharp turns into Susanville. I ate dinner for 4 bucks and called my kids who were going down for the night. From Susanville to Reno it took another couple hours. It was nearly 10 PM by the time I escaped the time trap that Reno is (it is blocked for easy freeway access on the west side by the Sierra Nevada Mountains - and the only other route south starts about 40 minutes east of Reno). My husband Ben signed off as I began the southernly way past Reno. On mapquest I had noticed that it should take seven hours of driving and in a sense my heart sank. Looking back however, this was one of the greatest parts of the trip.

The first thing I noticed was that I was crossing BLM lands. I remember my dad making me read various news articles when I was growing up. Thanks to that education I remember learning how environmentalists battled heavily with ranchers over their cattle's access to graze on public lands, and making a profit to boot. They had cattle guards on Highway 395 south that kept them from entering the towns. In the dark I saw:

This, I had never done before: share the road with cows. "Okay, here we go," I said to myself as I leaned forward trying to see any odd forms in the headlights. It was a little disconcerting when the highway dipped down with a short horizon. I imagined coming up over an incline and discovering a cow in the road. I was a little stressed, but really excited all at the same time. It got even cooler. Next I saw this sign:

I knew that deer are the cause of accidents, so I was even more excited, and scared. A little while later, I saw neither cows nor deer, but I saw these:

The cottontail rabbits were cute and small, but the jackrabbits were huge, like maybe two feet tall with its ears? They were all alongside the road, looking around and making decisions on whether they were going to cross, or just watch the show of cars go by. Honestly, I saw a car once every couple minutes maybe. I was almost completely alone except a multitude of rabbits. I started coming around the side of a rocky protrusion and saw another sign:

Wow! I couldn't believe it! Wild bighorn sheep, living in the desert? Now I'm even more excited... and scared on what I'd find in the road in the dark! Will I see one? Well, I didn't. I did see one of these, though:

Clear as day. This guy was shooting straight across the road in a gallop right between me and the oncoming car, who may have had to show down. Amazing! I had no trouble seeing him in the headlights, for sure. Almost as tall at the withers as my German Shepherd. My heart was thrilled!

I was still making my way south. The last sign I saw, I was most confused by. "What?!? What IS that? Cattle, deer, rams, jackrabbits... what more is out here?"

I'm not kidding. The sign I saw was a lot like this only more vague. I described it later to a woman in Nevada saying "it has big horns coming out of its head and has a giddy-up in the back [and i bent my leg up behind me for effect and gave myself devil horns to demonstrate]. Do you know what that is?" I was told it could be antelope. It wasn't till I got home and did a little research - did you know that there are wild burro herds that rome Nevada? I never knew that! So awesome!

Beatty was the last major town before reaching Las Vegas, and Vegas is where my hotel reservation awaited. I knew what Beatty was. Beatty was the gateway to Nellis Air Force Base, which houses the infamous Area 51 - the place where they stockpile and perform tests on captured aliens and UFOs. I only spent like 15 years of my life learning all about it. Oh yes - I, in my former unsaved life, was an alien enthusiast. I can still tell you gobs of established fact concerning extraterrestrials. Let me tell you something pertaining to Area 51: There are stories of floating lights at the base of the mountains, and no one can explain their odd movement.

As soon as I noticed mountains on my left (to the east), it was time to rally my spirits and pretend like I believe that all of that is false. Too late - as soon as I arrived what did I see but the most awkward lights - huge, bright lights - just sitting there on the mountains. Why. Tell me. What's so necessary to turn on a blazing light on the side of the mountain in Nevada in the middle of the night, pray tell? My conspiracy radar flared up. I wondered if it was propaganda, to try and discredit those who make honest reports. Sure, shine the most average light which is completely explainable. If the government can get worried people to report on these, they might wipe away all the cases as nonsense. Of course! "I know what you're up to, sneaky dudes," I said in the dark... scared. Oh no; I don't believe in aliens (yeah right!).

"Toja," short for "I told you so"

Aliens, cows, and strange animals with giddy-up in the rear. I got out at Beatty for gas at something like 3 AM. Wanted to ask the clerk if she ever heard any stories of UFOs in the area. By then I'd been driving for fifteen hours and was a little spacey. ;) I couldn't stay awake anymore. Had to take a power-nap, so I pulled into the cemetery and slept for about 20 minutes. Cemeteries are fine, because as you know ghosts are complete nonsense.

Just about when I hit the horizon in approach of Las Vegas I had to stop for another power-nap at the desolate entrance to a Native American reservation. When I woke up, I was sad to see dawn break. Las Vegas was absolutely amazing. Every sign is designed with light bulbs. I had reserved my room for a whopping $30. 'Course, the stay was bittersweet, beginning at 6:30 AM and ending at 8:00 AM, just long enough for a leisurely freshening up - no sleep. It was alright. The sun was out and it was bright, and I was headed for Hoover Dam! Worshiping the LORD while driving across was a flooring experience.

The drop beneath was deep, I dare not look - but I saw the mountains! Crossing into Arizona, it took several hours to reach Kingman which intersects with historic Route 66.

Instantly I was reminded of the fictitious "Radiator Springs" in the animated Disney Pixar movie "Cars," and the mountains (near Needles, CA) in the background sealed the deal.

photo by Kathy Weiser

I arrived at 2:45 PM in Phoenix - which is EXACTLY the time I prayed to arrive! I'm not kidding - and I almost had a heart attack with joy. Only God could have made me arrive on-time spanning four states and 26 hours!

It was the Free Grace Alliance National Conference that brought me all that way, and the meet wrapped up on Wednesday at 2:30. I knew the trip back was going to be awesome but I had no idea how so. I took the testimony of John Doan and his wife Kathy. John is at almost every conference, because he's the A.V. tech. He goes to New Harvest Church in my hometown and it is always great to reconnect with him. He said Sedona was just amazing. So I decided to go home differently and head due north to Flagstaff. I'm so glad that I went that way, because the cactuses were unbelievable. I got out of my car at a vantage point and was warned not to veer too far because of poisonous animals which lurk in the desert.

Unfortunately for me I was stuck in rushhour in Phoenix, so I didn't arrive in Sedona till the end of daylight. My eyes drank in things I had rarely seen before. I began the uncanny sense from our LORD that being in 24/7 worship on this trip was going to bring me unprecedented delights, and His inclination in my soul came about. Take a look:

SR 89A took me through a ravine with tall coniferous trees - I almost felt like I was home as I went around turns at 25 mph. All except for that red rock! Everything about the landscape was dramatic in this place. I was sure to grab specimens:

I had so many other adventures in mind, but it was night! All I cared about was figuring out which city to spend the night. At 7:30 I called El Portal which had the best rate, but they were already full! So I called Motel 6 and reserved a room (warning - I'm arriving late!). Beatty closed down at about 8 PM, and they only had five motels to choose from; otherwise, off to the next city which was a good two hours away. They assured me they would be there to check me in no matter what.

Even then, my adventures were not done for the night. On the way, the LORD showed me a shooting star!

I've only seen that a few times in my life! How cool! Packing in and packing out of the hotel was so easy - usually I am not organized but my two pink duffle bags kept things really simple. That's the nice thing about not having to fly: you can bring as many beauty products and shoes as you want. It's the way to go!

In the morning I spent a good hour and a half investigating for evidence of belief in aliens.

This was all I found, and most places weren't even opened yet. Beatty is important to me because of the novel PAWN, which my dad wrote in the late 90's. No, it didn't create a big fan base. The main characters debate the merit of staying in the "seedy motel at the edge of town." An overweight lady in a pink bathrobe is the motel's manager. She greets them and memorable dialogue takes place. Where is this motel? Where is the woman in the pink bathrobe? Both sides of town had brand new motels, so that didn't fit. I went in the mart adjacent the town's only gas station, looking for alien memorabilia. Nothing to see. The chamber of commerce was open. It was a small house with not much to look at, but I had a wonderful talk with an overweight gal in a pink tanktop! Close 'nuff!

395 was calling me north and for a bit the roads were empty. Guess what crossed the road?

Aww! This baby coyote was spry in his wisdom to get out of the way! Traffic slowed for construction soon after, delaying me a whole hour. We picked up speed and in another twenty minutes they tried to do it again. Pulled the map out because Route 6 was a hundred feet behind me. Chills took over - I was going to take it. I was headed straight for the White Mountains - a route through the eastern Sierras of California!

Roy Tennant, 2011, FreeLargePhotos.com

I accelerated on this new route and gripped the wheel tightly. Delights had been coming at a steady rate, but the Spirit sensed they were coming more plentifully. The mirages and the sun in my eyes taught me to be diligent to take in every sight.

I noticed fields of pure white that looked like snow on the peaks, only they settled in depressions along the foothills of many mountains. No one was around. Curiosity and joy took control, and my former coffee cup received the content of discovery.

The soil underneath was a rich, even moist clay, which partially explains why this area experiences flash floods. Ever so lightly I touched the white dust with a fingertip for scientific precaution. Next, inserted in mouth - salt for sure!

Words are unfair.

Just before reaching California I drove alongside Boundary Peak. I gulped when I saw how approachable it looked - how high must I be? The mountain scattered boulders of white granite with mica flecks that glimmered in the sunlight. Stopped to search some smaller samples.

Route 6 took me straight to a former mining town, Benton. Was amazed to find a historic building as old as my hometown.

I meditated for a moment on Route 120 which appeared on the map as a remote shortcut to the western loop of 395. 120 it is. I saw this sign and fell silent.

photo by jimmywayne

"No."

I felt like I couldn't breathe. Of course, this area looks exactly like the places they're pictured to roam. My eyes opened wide as I searched for them on every hill, unfortunately I began to weep which made it more difficult to see.

The desert prairies turned over into what I call the Land of Paintings.

There were a few varieties of ground cover, red and purple in color.

It took me awhile before scale set in to see that the yellow dusting the mountains were not midstory shrubs, but deciduous canopy - probably aspens.

It is October. I wept. How come I'm here? I didn't have to try, and here I am. It's unfair that I should be. "It's a gift," I said aloud, but the Holy Spirit already knew that.

Every turn gave me new reason to cry joy. I had no words, only awe and gratitude. The switchbacks got more intense and the rocks turned a beautiful windblown.

Sagehen Summit came at 8,139 feet and ushered a new land to the west. Mono Lake in the foreground beckoned me to return to the lofty Eastern Sierras beyond.

Before descending too far I stopped at a historical marker, Mono Mills. I needed to take a walk to settle the tears. In 1881 teams of horses prepared lumber at this remote mill to lay a local railroad. I imagine that when it was completed they released the horses into the wilderness, and their descendants can be seen in the mountains to this day. I wanted to search for items to remember the place. These are my treasures:

The picture has no scale, but the pinecone is larger than my hand. There were occasional samples of the rock to the left; a sedimentary rock of pink feldspars and quartz. The wood I collected off the floor was proximal to an interesting twisted tree. I didn't know till writing this post that it is not legal to do so, nor what species it is. This piece is from a bristlecone pine tree. It is the oldest living organism in all of planet earth.

The oldest individual is dated to 4,700 years old and named "Methuselah," after the oldest living person in the Bible. I blink my eyes and shake my head as I write this. When I was a teenager I began to dream of seeing it for myself and all I knew was that it grew "somewhere in California." Not just anywhere, but in this select part of the Sierras. When I wasn't striving, I saw. Hmph....

As I rounded Mono Lake I passed the entrance to Yosemite National Park short about five minutes of entering it. Ascended via 395 back up into the mountains.

The road traveled alongside a creek and mountainsides with interesting striations.

I decided to stop for a traditional roll-the-pant-legs wade in the creekbed. I'll always be good for this in California, which most often delivers. Unlike Oregon, with the Cascade's boring igneous basalts. These ones turned out to be uniformly disinteresting to me, so I went on my way.

395 descended into uppity Carson City sprawl and I tried to not let it get me down. Had a nice conversation with some believers at the gas station. Pushed arduously through Reno in rush hour. Came out the other side with the goal of reaching the Oregon border by dark. Not quite - I lost all light in Modoc forest. No matter - the full moon was now over my right shoulder and I could see many things including this little guy.

Grey foxes live in the area. I thought it was a cat and it was about as tall as one, but as it scurried into the grass on the shoulder, its tail seemed abnormally long and poofy, and he utilized it to center his movements. Hello, fox! I saw you!

My spirit is different after this. I feel like I've lived a lifetime in a few days. I can't explain the peace and happiness that lingers. I love people, because God loves them. If however I had brought a friend or family with me, it wouldn't have been the same. Precious was this escape into my joy in Him. God's word to me was this trip was all about His joy in me. Will I ever know love intensely like this in some other way, again? His ways are different than mine, and His heart is set for it. To know the God we know.... What compares?

Who's Your Daddy?

2011-10-03T16:23:00.000-07:00

How long has the Godhead been in close-quarters intimacy with each other? From eternity. John 1:1-2,

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

Jehovah's Witnesses think that they have crucified the doctrine of the deity of Jesus Christ (removed Jesus from being equally God as the Father is God - as we would reply in our doctrines, the Godhead is Trinitarian) by changing "was God" to "was a god." But the evidence of a Trinitarian relationship between Jesus and the Father is made much more resounding by one other word, used two times in this very first introduction to the identity of Jesus Christ: that word, is "with." Jesus was God and With God, from the beginning. Amazing, then, that at the end of the Gospel of John what He is inviting his faithful disciples in the upper room to do (John 13-17) is be "with God" and therefore have the same experience of abiding with God that He has always had. Our Savior is an Abider. He has always been abiding with God. He is at the core of God and has been in the Bosom forever, and will continue to be so. What does an abider look like?

1 - In tune with the needs and wishes of someone else, always carrying around the interests of another as a framework for what choices need to be made.

2 - Obedient, listening and subservient to the heart of someone else. Makes a good representative to a foreign nation (and we are "ambassadors" for Christ).

3 - Intimate relationship is made possible through deep love. Love overlooks the differences (and in our case, sins) to see the value and innate image of God inside their soul, even if on the outside not everything matches or is identical or is cleaned up.

This is parallel to a read of Romans 4-8, where we discuss how we involuntarily replicate the "image" of the "first Adam," until Romans 8 when we employ the Spirit to put to death the deeds of the flesh, after reckoning our minds dead to sin in chapter 6, and after we have received the Spirit as a unearned and unstrived for gift-of-God like Abraham in Romans 4. In Romans 8 we finally take up the image of the "last Adam" (Jesus Christ), who is the image of God, and we are also made in that same image - yet we do not have the power apart from God to carry it out in our lives (Rom. 5:17).

Love sees the image of God, and confirms the image, and aids the image. Identifying with another NEVER means we are identical. There is great variety and diversity in the house of God (2 Tim. 2:20). So it is with the Godhead. The Son will always be the One heard and seen, the Savior who came and will have a body of flesh forever. The Father is always seated (as far as I know?), never rises. When God spoke on Mt. Sinai the voice of God was so terrible that His people said, "if we hear the voice of the LORD our God anymore, then we shall die" (Deut. 5:25) so they asked Moses to go and talk to God to save them from further experience. God met their desire by giving His people the Word, Jesus Christ, who was not terrible in voice but like a Lamb, completely approachable.

Variety is something God has in His heart. He designed this world choc-full of variety because differentiation is a part of who He is. With all the differences between the Father and the Son, they know each other, intimately. The word for their kind of "knowing" is perichoresis. They are always listening to each other, and finding each other fascinating, being willing to represent each other, giving their own will over, wanting to gain the satisfaction of the other. That is the intimacy Jesus had With God. When Jesus comes to earth and walks and teaches and does signs, what is He doing, but showing us in everything He does, in everywhere He goes and everything He says, that He is "With God." He talks about it from start to finish. He models it, too. Jesus models the answer to our need for salvation: Be like Him. Be "With God." "Abide in Me and I will abide in you." When we abide with Him we are the Image.

'Perichoresis' by Derrick

When Moses came with the law, God appeared hierarchical. "Do this, do that." Not much development of why we should. Just a whole lot of fear if we did not. Alternately, how do we feel about obeying God when the stage of God becomes the Godhead, with their differences and needs on display to each other and the world? Have you watched a man and his wife make a decision together? What did it reveal about their character to watch them respond to each other? The Israelites largely thought it difficult to believe God as approachable and available for relationship. Moses seemed special because he was a prophet. It was not the best portrayal. But the price-tag of revealing their relations is immeasurable; that Jesus would leave heaven and die. That's why it says in the beginning of John that "the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ" (1:18).

We never "learn" that God is approachable until we see that Jesus is in relationship with God, and God answers all His prayers, and Jesus obeys Him completely because of the Father's love. Now that we have seen the character and love of God in action between the two, we can see that God is wide-open with an invitation for us to experience the same relationship. And just in case we were wondering if the invitation is official, it is - but only faithful followers in the upper room discourse have categorically attained it. Consider how exclusive Jesus is with most believers in the Gospel of John....

Be a Somebody - Be an Ambassador

In John 2:24 Jesus talked to those who were starting off well because they "believed in Jesus." But they hadn't been yet sanctified to abide. Jesus knew what was largely "in man" and it wasn't the Father. For that reason, "Jesus did not commit Himself to them." The word "commit" is the same word used as "believe" or "faith" in the Gospel of John. John was explaining, "But Jesus did not believe in them." Later, Jesus does believe in (commit Himself to) His disciples, and John 6 is the dividing line. In John 6 He teaches that if anyone wants eternal life they must eat Him and drink Him for their daily needs. When they get to the other side of hearing that, most disciples turn away permanently (6:66) because it's so difficult to understand and believe, but Peter says, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life." These disciples are sanctified and willing to stay with Him and take Him in. By the time of the upper room Jesus has found viable candidates for replicating the image of the Abider-God. John 14:22-24,

Judas (not Iscariot) said to Him, “Lord, how is it that You will manifest Yourself to us, and not to the world?” Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him. He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine but the Father’s who sent Me.”

After Judas departs, Jesus reveals His emptiness apart from everything the Father has given via intimacy. John 17:6-8,

“I have manifested Your name to the men whom You have given Me out of the world. They were Yours, You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word. Now they have known that all things which You have given Me are from You. For I have given to them the words which You have given Me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came forth from You; and they have believed that You sent Me.

It is very similar to say, "If I were by myself, this would mean nothing, and I would have no purpose. But because I choose to represent the heart of another, now I'm a somebody."

Even the Demons Believe and Tremble

It's the mutual giving of honor that honors each person of the Godhead.

Who do you honor? Who do I honor in the moments of my life? Everybody wants to be an advocate for significance. Everybody wants to represent goodness or God Himself. Maybe you are an orthodox believer in God. You believe that Jesus Christ is who He says He is. That's good. You will certainly go to heaven when you die. God is faithful, and He cannot deny Himself (2 Tim 2:13). Maybe you once believed in Jesus Christ -- maybe you have evolved to embrace atheism. You also will go to heaven because of God's faithfulness toward those who are His. What distinguishes an abider from everyone else, from the orthodox to the atheist? The answer is, where their "resources" (8:44) come from.

Unless believers stay in that submissive, perfect, loving closeness with God (which does at times require some honest obedience, Romans 8), we get CUT OFF from that flow (resources) of God sharing Himself - His heart, His thoughts, His strategies, His purposes. Again, Jesus is speaking to believers in Him (Jn. 8:31) in the context of this passage of scripture I refer to as the "who's your daddy?" passage. These are brand-new believers from the moment earlier who need to catch up. They really need to hear the recent sermon Jesus presented on the Bread from Heaven, so He tells them the theological jist of all John 6 in a single sentence: "If you abide in my word, you are my disciples indeed" (Jn. 8:31). But they are offended at abiding in God. John 8:37-55,

“I know that you are Abraham’s descendants, but you seek to kill Me, because My word has no place in you. I speak what I have seen with My Father, and you do what you have seen with your father.” They answered and said to Him, “Abraham is our father.” Jesus said to them, “If you were Abraham’s children, you would do the works of Abraham. But now you seek to kill Me, a Man who has told you the truth which I heard from God. Abraham did not do this. You do the deeds of your father.” Then they said to Him, “We were not born of fornication; we have one Father—God.” Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and came from God; nor have I come of Myself, but He sent Me. Why do you not understand My speech? Because you are not able to listen to My word. You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it. But because I tell the truth, you do not believe Me. Which of you convicts Me of sin? And if I tell the truth, why do you not believe Me? He who is of God hears God’s words; therefore you do not hear, because you are not of God.” Then the Jews answered and said to Him, “Do we not say rightly that You are a Samaritan and have a demon?” Jesus answered, “I do not have a demon; but I honor My Father, and you dishonor Me. And I do not seek My own glory; there is One who seeks and judges. Most assuredly, I say to you, if anyone keeps My word he shall never see death.” Then the Jews said to Him, “Now we know that You have a demon! Abraham is dead, and the prophets; and You say, ‘If anyone keeps My word he shall never taste death.’ Are You greater than our father Abraham, who is dead? And the prophets are dead. Who do You make Yourself out to be?” Jesus answered, “If I honor Myself, My honor is nothing. It is My Father who honors Me, of whom you say that He is your God. Yet you have not known Him, but I know Him. And if I say, ‘I do not know Him,’ I shall be a liar like you; but I do know Him and keep His word.

In eternity past, Satan stopped being an ambassador for God's purposes. He stopped honoring the heart of God. He started to speak for himself. Though he knows about God and trembles, he is condemned. He is out of fellowship with God and has never been offered redemption. He is forever excluded from the flow of perichoresis. Therefore: even though Satan was made to desire significance and to be an ambassador for God, he can only speak of God as an outsider, CUT OFF from intimacy. He can only guess about God as the most remote of observers. He can only? Lie.

It's the abiding intimacy that funds the truth-words, the promises, the power and the significance of Jesus Christ. His whole life was the perichoresis that accompanied Him. Witnesses involuntarily witness whoever they are spiritually intimate with.

Every moment of Jesus' ministry was pulled off by one tiny little secret of success:

And He who sent me is with Me.

John 8:29

Frenemies

2011-09-29T14:15:00.000-07:00

(frenemies are enemies who act like your friend)

If Jesus is the servant and friend of God, and Jesus is our Savior, how can we know if Jesus will always be there to be the centerpiece of our salvation and experience of eternal life? If, somewhere in the vast breadth of eternity Jesus separated Himself from God, would we lose eternal life? John 17:3,

And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.

John 17:23-23,

I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me. Father, I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory which You have given Me; for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.

What would happen if, down through the ages, Jesus grew tired of his place and decided to turn his back on God? Ever heard of anything like that in scripture? It calls into question the kind of being Jesus is. Is Jesus God Himself or some lesser deity or angelic in nature? Can angels and other beings turn their back on God? Why, yes - and they have! This is the original example, Ezek. 28:12-13, 14-17

You were the seal of perfection, Full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. You were in Eden, the garden of God.... You were the anointed cherub who covers; I established you; You were on the holy mountain of God; You walked back and forth in the midst of fiery stones. You were perfect in your ways from the day you were created, Till iniquity was found in you. By the abundance of your trading You became filled with violence within, And you sinned; Therefore I cast you as a profane thing Out of the mountain of God; And I destroyed you, O covering cherub, From the midst of the fiery stones. Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty; You corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor; I cast you to the ground, I laid you before kings, That they might gaze at you.

Judas was another instance. John 13:21-22,

When Jesus had said these things, He was troubled in spirit, and testified and said, “Most assuredly, I say to you, one of you will betray Me.” Then the disciples looked at one another, perplexed about whom He spoke.

It happened to King David. Ps. 55:12-14,

For it is not an enemy who reproaches me; Then I could bear it. Nor is it one who hates me who has exalted himself against me; Then I could hide from him. But it was you, a man my equal, my companion and my acquaintance. We took sweet counsel together, and walked to the house of God in the throng.

What's to say that Jesus wouldn't do that one day? God had invested Satan with a lot of power and influence. We say "it was pride that was Satan's fall," and it is. Pride is a one-word answer for believing that power and influence comes from ourselves, and our status stands independent of others because by nature we possess goodness and life. It is a false belief. How can pride be overcome? We need the kind of Savior who is eternally faithful to God. We need Him to remain subject to God meanwhile gathering a people from the earth to save from death and sin. We need one with the character of God Himself, to remain faithful and have the integrity to never turn his back on God. Jesus presents this argument to the Jews as their tool of discernment for whether He is the Christ and the Son of God, John 5:41-47,

“I do not receive honor from men. But I know you, that you do not have the love of God in you. I have come in My Father’s name, and you do not receive Me; if another comes in his own name, him you will receive. How can you believe, who receive honor from one another, and do not seek the honor that comes from the only God? Do not think that I shall accuse you to the Father; there is one who accuses you—Moses, in whom you trust. For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me; for he wrote about Me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe My words?”

Apparently the depraved heart of man loves the concept that men are sole originators of anything that brings life. But Jesus says in a way, "The message hasn't changed. It's just that I'm manifesting it in the flesh." Those who already "identified" God properly from the Old Testament have no trouble "identifying" God in Jesus Christ.

The heart of God is that He is not alone in Himself. All those who come in their own name and their own message should receive a red flag of alert. God never has to speak for his own credibility and reputation. Even if he was robbed all of humanity's praise, the rocks would cry out. God always uses another to testify of his own credibility and reputation. He uses the context of observable relationship in action to prove His identity. If the Father can be manifested in Jesus, the Father need not say a word. That's why the Son has such a critical role with the Father - because he isn't here to testify of Himself, or to do His own will or to seek His own glory. He is here to gain all those things for the Father. Jesus is completely empty of Himself. But: that doesn't mean that Jesus isn't gaining glory and His own interests while here - because everybody should gird themselves - the Father is doing that very thing for the Son right now in front of everybody's faces - and this is the point of sermons given by Jesus such as John 5:22-38,

Therefore the Jews sought all the more to kill Him, because He not only broke the Sabbath, but also said that God was His Father, making Himself equal with God. Then Jesus answered and said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner. For the Father loves the Son, and shows Him all things that He Himself does; and He will show Him greater works than these, that you may marvel. For as the Father raises the dead and gives life to them, even so the Son gives life to whom He will. For the Father judges no one, but has committed all judgment to the Son, that all should honor the Son just as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him. “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life. Most assuredly, I say to you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God; and those who hear will live. For as the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son to have life in Himself, and has given Him authority to execute judgment also, because He is the Son of Man. Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice and come forth—those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation. I can of Myself do nothing. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is righteous, because I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me. “If I bear witness of Myself, My witness is not true. There is another who bears witness of Me, and I know that the witness which He witnesses of Me is true. You have sent to John, and he has borne witness to the truth. Yet I do not receive testimony from man, but I say these things that you may be saved. He was the burning and shining lamp, and you were willing for a time to rejoice in his light. But I have a greater witness than John’s; for the works which the Father has given Me to finish—the very works that I do—bear witness of Me, that the Father has sent Me. And the Father Himself, who sent Me, has testified of Me. You have neither heard His voice at any time, nor seen His form. But you do not have His word abiding in you, because whom He sent, Him you do not believe.

There is no gaining of relationship going on here for Jesus. Jesus was not becoming the Son of God when he was ascended, nor when he was resurrected, nor when He was baptized. Jesus Christ has always been the Son of God. A Son is one who reflects the will of the Father, and it is this character that He had from eternity which allowed the Father to describe the accomplishment thus far to his revealing in the Jordan River: "This is My Son, in whom I am well pleased." The defining distinction of a "son" is that he is in constant Spiritual need from God (Rom. 8:14). This is why Jesus, though he had all "accomplishments" as the lofty Son of God, remained completely self-less. John 6:57,

As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on Me will live because of Me.

Sons are not those who lose God and regain God like human beings do in their fallibility. There is only one kind of "gaining" Jesus ever demonstrated, which is daily provisions for Spiritual life. The relationship has been established in eternity long before Jesus put on flesh. It's only that now it is unfolding before us in the Gospel of John. Jesus' state of abiding in God is pretty much the conversation of all doctrine in this Gospel, and everything to which He is inviting God's people in this Gospel. It is the means by which there is, and will be, any such "thing" as eternal life.

Our Savior, the Abider

2011-09-26T12:57:00.000-07:00

Today begins a new series on the theme of abiding with God; essential to the doctrine of the gospel. We recently read about Martha and Mary, whose faith was challenged to identify God-with-us, and in that post we touched on the invitation God gives to the church corporately to identify themselves as abiders. We read about Joseph and his persecutions for manifesting God-with-us, and before that we read how identifying believers firstly as abiders with God protects God's flock from sectarianism and grows the Kingdom of God.

Why does abiding matter? I will give a three-part response to frame its necessity. (I am trying a new way of breaking posts into more edible sizes.) After that I will exegete various passages excluding the Upper Room Discourse from the Gospel of John (chapters 1-12). I am hoping a steady approach will spark some interesting thoughts from readers.

All posts under this theme will be under the label of this introductory title "Our Savior the Abider."

The Ignore-Accuse Prison

2011-09-20T16:51:00.000-07:00

(transitioning on the theme of "identity" from the Gospel of John)

What is the "Ignore-Accuse Prison"?

This describes Joseph's sufferings in the book of Genesis. The "ignore-accuse prison" was Joseph's lot in life for thirteen years. Those he relied on would not let him fulfill the call God made on his life in the family, or in the community. When he was interacting, he was quickly accused. When he was taken into custody, he was quickly silenced. Joseph would have loved to perform what God set before him, and at the same time quickly resolve relational strife, but he could not have both immediately. Accusing and ignoring kept him isolated from those who could potentially defend and help him. Nevertheless they could not restrain God's plans, only help fulfill them.

Resentment snowballs. A little resentment within his family turned him into a slave, and once he was presented as a slave in Egypt, it was easy to indict him as a criminal. But Joseph never deserved slavery or prison. Nevertheless he's fruitful in his place of affliction. Everything he does prospers in his hand, because God is with him. In fact God blesses the whole prison because of one God-fearing man.

From the outset Joseph's greatest devotion was to God. His family was a close second. Joseph's relationship with his brothers is highlighted in scripture at the moment Joseph ran to his father to tattle on them (Gen. 37:2). His brothers hated him because he cared more for his father and more for doing what was right than maintaining the status quo. When he told his brothers that God had chosen him for his zeal, they turned intolerant. The truth of the matter is, God chose Joseph to go places and do things that few are presently prepared to undertake. And that should have been okay, but obtaining Joseph's silence at any cost began to look like the better choice. It grieved him deeply to lose his brothers' acceptance for the sake of what is right. When the stranger asked Joseph, "What are you seeking?" he could not have been more transparent -- "I am seeking my brothers" (Gen. 37:15-16).

Later in Egypt, Potiphar's wife was captivated by appearances. When she couldn't wield power over him in his subordinate position in the house, she wielded it by expelling him from the house. She had no tolerance for his success which she knew came from the one true God he constantly spoke about. She conspired to overpower him not only by falsely accusing his actions as criminal but also by belittling his ethnic disparity; "See, he has brought in a Hebrew to mock us" (Gen. 39:14,17). She was proud of her people and her gods. The package deal of Joseph-and-his-God were just a little too intimidating.

Joseph's God was not only present but armed with recompense. (He is the same today, blessing those who mourn.) Those who saw what Joseph could do did not know how to keep him down to size. They didn't want Joseph's ministry to compel them to engage God. They tried to sequester him within the ignore-accuse prison, but God only blessed him more. His favor was so obvious to everyone, it no longer made sense to constrain him. Joseph was released, of course, by the testimony of a lowly cupbearer. By then God had invested him with enough resources to bless an immeasurable number of people.

Joseph must have harbored a wide range of emotions toward the cupbearer. For two years he knew what Joseph was capable of doing but did not vouch for him. Surely Joseph's "companions" were disappointment, anger and hurt. Would the cupbearer ever come through? Hope in God sustained him through the years. When the cupbearer finally spoke out about Joseph's capacity, all his bitter feelings were replaced with overwhelming gratitude. The cupbearer set Joseph free at great personal risk to his own reputation. Potiphar was the Captain of Pharaoh's guard and had Pharaoh's trust. The cupbearer had himself spent time in the Captain's jail where he had met Joseph, and Potiphar had set his course with Joseph when he chose to defend his wife's reputation. Potiphar must have been incredulous as Joseph was brought forth.

Joseph's favor was readily apparent to everyone. For the small handful who betrayed him, the obvious flair for success God gave Joseph was tantamount to proof not only of Joseph's innocence, but the supremacy of Himself as the only Living God. Like the cupbearer, God gives an identity as one who is fully accepted and entitled to participate. His betrayers follow the cupbearer's example and begin a process of healing and restoration in Joseph's life.

Are You in Ignore-Accuse Prison?

Are you repeatedly accused? Are you typically ignored for some odd reason? If this seems to be your lot in life, what have you contributed to your own ignore-accuse prison? Have you been like everyone has at one point or another: prideful, selfish, or sinful? What does Scripture say? 1 Pet. 2:19-20,

For this is commendable, if because of conscience toward God one endures grief, suffering wrongfully. For what credit is it if, when you are beaten for your faults, you take it patiently? But when you do good and suffer, if you take it patiently, this is commendable before God.

If you have been accused and ignored for doing wrong, God is your redeeming "Joseph." He uses your evil for His good and will eventually set you free through the Holy Spirit. 1 Pet. 4:1-2

Therefore, since Christ suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same mind, for he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, that he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh for the lusts of men, but for the will of God.

If you have been accused and ignored and yet are innocent, you are "Joseph" to your brothers. God uses their evil for your good and will set you free also. 1 Pet 4:12-14,

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. On their part He is blasphemed, but on your part He is glorified.

Prisoners who hunger and thirst for righteousness have a cupbearer! His name is Jesus Christ. He is the Savior of everyone in captivity - deserved or undeserved. He promises to bring to light whatever you've done in the Holy Spirit. In the meantime, ask God to bless you like he did Joseph. God will grow you into a fruitful branch through faith. Your present imprisonment will make righteousness come alive to many more eyes than you will ever know. 1 Pet. 4:19,

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

Jacob's Blessing

Joseph is a fruitful bough,
A fruitful bough by a well;
His branches run over the wall.

The archers have bitterly grieved him,
Shot at him and hated him.

But his bow remained in strength,
And the arms of his hands were made strong
By the hands of the Mighty God of Jacob
(From there is the Shepherd, the Stone of Israel),

By the God of your father who will help you,
And by the Almighty who will bless you
With blessings of heaven above,
Blessings of the deep that lies beneath,
Blessings of the breasts and of the womb.

The blessings of your father
Have excelled the blessings of my ancestors,
Up to the utmost bound of the everlasting hills.
They shall be on the head of Joseph,
And on the crown of the head of him who was separate from his brothers.
Gen. 49:22-26

May we through patient endurance obtain similar favor from the LORD when the sons of God are revealed; and praise the Son of God from whom we receive so great a life!

Learning Life

2011-09-05T11:38:00.000-07:00

Getting life from God's Word is vastly freer than anyone's formulation of how to get it.

"The trees of the LORD are full of sap" Ps. 104:16

Mary was a young woman famous for learning at the feet of Jesus. She makes it sound easy. For me learning has not always been easy. When I was a teenager my parents had big expectations that I do well in college and outside of school I was subject to daily studies and written and verbal comprehension tests. I didn't handle it well, and as I grew up my attitude toward learning worsened. I felt so much pressure that by the time I found my own place on campus in college, I remember opening up a textbook and I could not even read a sentence. I just stared at the page. All I felt was stress when I looked at a book. I graduated college without reading for tests with a 2.4 GPA.

In spite of near failure at college it was in that time that I became a follower of Jesus Christ. After graduating I accidentally joined a cult who told me I was not saved. I needed to find truth in the Bible for myself. I spent the next three years trying to understand the nature of baptism and salvation. I thought I had answers on paper. However I got something more out of all that searching. It was by the life-giving experience of receiving love and restoration through His power and presence in His Word -- I noticed -- I finally enjoyed learning. Jesus changed me! For years I failed to identify who He is in relation to me and what it would do to me now. Why didn't I perceive what He was going to do? Later I went into the pre-nursing curriculum for a year and everything was different. I studied anatomy and physiology and got the highest score in about half of the exams. My attitude toward books transformed in the turning leaves of scriptures.

Mary had a true love for Jesus and meditated deeply before Him. She was praised for choosing the "better" thing in receiving the truth, because it was better than her sister Martha's attempts to earn God's intimacy through works. She attempted to be a captive listener, but I wonder if she really believed what she "learned." When their brother Lazarus died in John chapter 11 I would have thought that Mary would be first to understand that Jesus wants to give life right now, not just final resurrection from the dead. Mary didn't greet Jesus when He arrived "too late." She was only grieving. Consequently Jesus did not test her faith. She sat on the sidelines as an onlooker. Though Mary failed to anticipate what Jesus was going to do, she was so grateful afterward she poured all her wages on His feet. She finally identified Him correctly; that believing in Jesus was the same as believing in the presence of God.

To Martha's credit, she was a woman of action and she rightly interpreted Jesus through those lenses. Now she understood what Jesus would do for her and she applied her less-intensive base of scripture to trust in God's power. "But even now I know that whatever you ask of God, God will give You," she said to our Lord (Jn. 11:22). If the Father has given Himself to Jesus, then Jesus has given Himself to us. Jesus' rebukes always fell to strengthen Martha: "Did I not say to you that if you would believe you would see the glory of God?" (Jn. 11:40).

Jesus prayed out loud so that all would believe that the Father has sent the Son. It is through this amazing abiding relationship that Jesus showed He was God's only begotten heir, the first of many sons to come (Heb. 1:2, 2:10). Jesus was God and also With God from eternity and He came to us as such (Jn 1:1). When he prayed concerning Lazarus to the Father He showed us the intimacy of the Trinity and therefore displayed how approachable He is to us all. Identifying with another is integral to the image of God. When we identify with one another in the Body, we imitate Christ (1 Jn. 4:17, 5:1). We reflect Christ's image of the God-Man who was identified as With God; we also see the glory of God in our circumstances (Jn. 17:22-23; 14:13; 15:7-8).

Believing in Jesus is to trust Him to affect me because of who He is. Though I regret my GPA I have lasting joy over God's life-giving transformation in me. He will continue to do wonders I don't even dream of asking if only I abide in greeting Him and His people. He has glorified Himself in this small way of granting a love to learn. I believe that those reading here can identify many of their own experiences of Jesus giving life. Whether you are like Mary and are praised for learning or like Martha who was ready to see God's power, may we continue as one Body to encourage each other when in our human imperfections we miss the holy mark of receiving life right now by eyes of faith. God is with us -- grow deep.

Trust-Worthiness, a False Image

2011-08-08T15:43:00.000-07:00

Disillusionment in the Body of Christ

When we repeatedly see in others their differences, or failures, it makes us feel dissatisfied and depressed. We call such feelings "disillusionment." It is while experiencing disillusionment that our greatest choices in life are made. Here is a picture of someone who chooses foolishly, Luke 18:9-14,

Also He spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others: “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other men—extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess.’ And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

It's one thing to see what is "missing" in someone else. It's another to derive one's purpose out of their shortcoming. Comparing ourselves to others is not the way. Our self-worth isn't obliterated when we are humble. Humility restores our sense of self-worth. It assumes the equal value of everyone, but those who don't believe it fight and quarrel to make life "fair" (James 4:1-4). As we focus firstly on Christ and His love, our sins seem bigger and others' sins seem smaller. Knowing our own struggle with sin makes us hungry not to exclude others but to obtain peace and acceptance with others. It also fulfills our sense of purpose in living, and He richly blesses us with power and significance among the children of God.

What studies have been done noting the benefits of marriage, could be applied to believers. Many married couples divide when experiencing disillusionment. People who live alone do not live as long of lives, do not have the benefit of pooling resources, do not benefit from someone striving for their happiness, experience higher stress, and do not have anyone to help monitor harmful ways. People who stay married are happier than people who live alone.

When someone makes an accusation, usual responses include apologies, making excuses or communicating "your side," or even attack or withdraw. The issue is never the issue. The best way to interpret what sounds like an accusation in our ears is to perceive it as an opportunity to establish greater understanding. It takes a long time for married couples to learn that they don't really know their spouse. I suspect that members of the Body take just as long to learn the same lesson.

Trust-Worthiness, a False Image

We all share in an never-ending quest to honor Christ in how we live, taking every thought captive as they say, or being careful to keep ourselves from traditions of men. Col. 2:6-10 says,

As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving. Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ. For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power.

In the spirit of this scripture I make a proposal for examination, whether it would be in fact a tradition of men. Could it be that "trust-worthiness" has become our idol? I am compelled to ask, does our mind's edifice of what constitutes "trust" behave like an idol? Does it interfere with seeking oneness? John 17:20-21,

“I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me.”

But Isn't Trust-worthiness Necessary?

What are your scriptural ideals of a person's trust-worthiness? I have a hunch it's solid stuff, great stuff. How do you use it? People use God-given materials to fashion false images, and good information can be used to keep people out. Trust-worthiness doesn't come from conforming someone to your own language, doctrine, or works. To this we go straight back to the gospel. A profession of faith in Jesus Christ is our Body. The only grounds for separation are the yeast(s) of legalism or licentiousness. We are all, just like marriage, members of one another. If one member hurts, all members feel it. We are a joint-venture regardless of whether we ignore or punish others, and it only returns these things back on ourselves. What's more, fruit-bearing abiders are those who've entrusted themselves to God and God to them (John 2:23-25, 14:21, 23). I think we all intuitively have grown up in the church dependent upon this being reality: If there ever was a man to whom I would entrust myself on sheer faith, it would be to one who genuinely knew and served God.

Setting our presuppositions aside, then, trust comes through knowing someone ongoingly. How can someone intervene gently for a sin or overlook a weakness, except by the intimate knowledge of how they were built? We learn of our friends' humanity only by growing closer. We don't learn from acts of escalation to keep out those who would share life. We don't learn from aloofness which runs down the clock to conceal true terms for peace and closeness. And we don't learn (as much) by sharing wonderful intimacy for awhile but pointedly revoking it if it doesn't suit our idealism.

Trust especially comes to those who are on-goingly known by God. No one becomes worthy of trust through conforming to another's idealism no matter how biblical. Such expectations are the building of earthly kingdoms.

Pick Your Grid

Find your grid in scripture, but I've never seen a happy ending in God's doctrine where His people are "fine" while alienated by others or with God. His story comes to completion by restoring one another to a place of mutual ministry and rejoicing together. Let me point out three example grids off the top of my head:

Job. Sure, Job accepted the truth of his insignificance repenting in dust and ashes. But the story did not come to a close till he was interceding for his pain-inflicting counselors.

Romans 4-8. We're imputed righteousness and forgiven for sins in 4. But God isn't done explaining the gift till He explains that it works in Romans 8 like following His Spirit to put to death the deeds of the flesh and partnering actively with God as sons.

John 4. The woman at the well could have been satisfied keeping the fountain for herself. Instead, unlike the unobservant apostles she naturally runs into the city to tell others - so that He who sows and she who reaps may rejoice together.

A negative example would be Jonah. God has the last word of the book, still pursuing Jonah with that bad attitude. We can assume that God and Jonah lived the rest of their lives that way - God inviting Jonah to abandon his thoughts of being separate from other believers (think Luke 18 (above) again). So: how can we trust someone who wants to join in, when they've wounded us and caused us disillusionment?

The Wounded One

There is a fine and highly disputed boundary between the wounded one and the disobedient (those who want to fail at becoming one with believers). It's okay to hurt. It's okay to hurt for a long time. But according to God's character a portion of healing is being sent by Him into the inward man. Similarly an outward portion of healing comes from the party who caused trust to collapse. If they are not taking outward approaches, we can be sure they are not taking them inwardly. How can I say such a thing? This gets to the very heart of God: while we were enemies, Christ died for us, that we through intimacy might be transformed. Bank on God for this. Then observe whether they feign confusion.

There are exceptions to this generalization. Some dear believers suffer from depression or a host of various chemical or mental disorders - I have a number of such friends myself. I know that there is honest effort when it comes to these issues, and it is a challenge to be "Christian" toward others. Until there is some vulnerability, those on the receiving end won't see how grace is helpful in situations. In any case, we ought to be prepared for weaknesses and handicaps in others. The weak are even more welcome into His presence, and I will testify that at least as far as I have seen God treat the weak, it has by no means marginalized their perfectly designed role in the Body.

The Challenge to Persevere toward Oneness

Where do we go when disillusioned with God's people? If we break off to be with those who are like ourselves, what reward will we get? We are no different from the greedy. Matt. 5:47,

And if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the tax collectors do so?

Sects are common, but cults are worse. It is important to take a few basic notes on what cults do. They isolate members from family and friends - true relationships where they receive care outside of the protocol of the group. They foster disconnection from outsiders as a mainstay of their theological tenets. And in the case that someone leaves the group, relationships are radically cut off with rumors that aren't allowed a decent hearing to see if there's any truth to them.

Decide for yourself who you will serve this day. Love isn't given or taken because of performance. Love isn't held hostage and it isn't debating in private recesses whether or not you are qualified to share in the venture of life together. Love, is. It is its own purpose. It never fails.

His Kingdom is Desirous for Outsiders

The kingdom and its work isn't possessed by a few believers at the top who have learned how to use protocols like barbed wire and booby traps (thanks Charity). It belongs to whosoever loves Him. If there is a biblical fellowship, it isn't formed and gathered firstly on the pinnacles of hierarchy. The fellowship of God and God's people is down here, where people are gaining Christ. This is where God is alive, and this is where we share the same mind and heart together in the mutual venture we have in making disciples for Him (study the use of the word koinonia in the book of Philippians).

En-Trust to Build Trust

Accepting fellowship for what it is supposed to be and not for our false images, we will glorify Jesus Christ. Ushering and acknowledging others in the presence of Christ is the safest place we should herald them to be. In His presence there is hope that weaknesses and sins will be overcome. Do you hunger and thrist for this kind of reconciliation and commission, for any kind of person, with God? Then, upon this we have obtained "koinonia." Let us set off in the boat together with our Master.

No one is immune to the fellowship-choking path to sects and the building of earthly kingdoms. This includes me. I need someone to knock me in the head every once in awhile. Doesn't have to be any more elaborate than this, "I sense pride in you, so maybe you should think about it." Christian or unbeliever, it does not matter; I need massive help to avoid serving my own purposes (in the name of God, no less!). Even unbelievers hate pride--get some--they're very astute on shortsightedness in the church. As much as I operate in the flesh, I am going to let God down. If I really want to build God's kingdom, someone has to notice the difference between God in His grace and truth, and how I love to build my own kingdom. As much as I want it to be about me because I am in flesh, it's not. When I operate in the Spirit, I see God's generosity to truly be with you because of your abiding faith in Him. That's the happy ending, to marvel at God as One. Each believer has gifts absolutely essential to feed those who have come to His table so we may be edified to grow as one in the full stature of Christ (Eph. 2:19-22).

Genuine hunger for God's kingdom is demonstrated when believers entrust themselves to those who may seem like "outsiders" in seeking the same. That has been my foremost aspiration for the Body of Christ both online and offline. I am by no means the only one who feels this way for believers - I am in the company of greatness and a great many.

There is no flourishing with fragmentation. When Jesus was incarnated, it may have appeared as though He was alone. However, He did not come by Himself. This is the subject of the next blog post.

How Much We Need Need (-final-)

2011-07-02T18:51:00.000-07:00

'Need' is a Significant Component to the Gospel Message
[Previous Post: How Much We Need Need (part 6)]

The Essence of the Content in Saving Faith

Why did the woman at the well believe Jesus was the Christ? John 4:28-29,

The woman then left her waterpot, went her way into the city, and said to the men, “Come, see a Man who told me all things that I ever did. Could this be the Christ?” Then they went out of the city and came to Him.

She believed that Jesus was the Christ because He told her all things that she ever did, because she first saw the demonstration of His gift. In His gospel, Jesus had provided the "Way" for her to see the "essence" of the message - the Holy Spirit, which was a gift being freely offered to her.

Notice that she see Him demonstrate power in predicting her husbands, first, and then she believes in Jesus as the Christ. Which part of her testimony was the selling point to the townsmen? The noteworthy part, John 4:39,

And many of the Samaritans of that city believed in Him because of the word of the woman who testified, “He told me all that I ever did.”

God-with-us is something to be excited about. All of the signs in John work in a similar fashion. When the Holy Spirit demonstrates Himself, people believe in Jesus. This is simple, child-like faith.

The scriptural content of the message for the unsaved becomes saving when it highlights one central truth: Man needs God. 1 Cor. 2:1-5,

And I, brethren, when I came to you, did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.

How was it accounted to Abraham our father as righteousness? Romans 4:17, 20-22

...Him whom [Abraham] believed — God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did.... He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform. And therefore “it was accounted to him for righteousness.”

God is able to perform. "Do you believe this" (John 11:27-29)? Abraham's content to be believed was the power of God. He was fully convinced. Is it because he was open-minded to the facts and was passively persuaded? Is it because he blindly hoped it to be true? No; Abraham had seen for himself what God could do through him by conquering Canaanite kings so triumphantly. At the time of war in chapter 14 of Genesis, Abraham had become the administrative head of blessing in the land that God had promised in chapter 12, and Melchizedek, the priest of God, had come out to testify of God's presence with Abraham. Then after this, in chapter 15 he hears God's promise and is justified by believing it. Likewise in the Gospel of John, after hearing the most famous verse (John 3:16) we hear that those who already "do the truth" believe upon the Son receiving forgiveness "because" their deeds have been done in God (John 3:21). Those who seek God's essence (the gift of the Holy Spirit) have already recognized God's power in their pre-faith journey (Romans 1:20).

Defending the Babes, the Carnal

Free grace people admire Abraham who was "fully persuaded." Where does assurance of salvation really come from? Does it come from a promise alone gospel, a crystal clear, concise location in scripture to be used like a fool-proof formula? In limitation, a verse brings assurance of salvation. How about a systematic proof that Jesus is the Christ and was raised from the dead from the Old Testament all through the gospel accounts, like Paul preached in Acts 13 to Galatia? In limitation, a biblical synthesis gospel brings assurance of salvation. As much as Free Grace people are protecting saints and those coming to faith from a lifetime of doubt over their own justification with God, it is quite commendable.

Assurance of salvation comes from intimacy with the Holy Spirit, not just from a promise verse (John 11:25-27) or a persuasive case of things of first importance according to the scriptures (1 Cor. 15:1-4). Consider Job. He was called blameless by God Himself in the beginning. Job spent the majority of the book arguing with his counselors that indeed he once had been blameless, even though now he was spiritually miserable. God was patient with Job's arguing over what happened in the past - and Job, in his grief, doubted it was worthwhile to be "blameless" as he once was. Only when Job realigned himself into fellowship with God once more was Job assured, and onlookers persuaded. The only way to prove our salvation is to identify who we are in light of who God is, every day.

I wonder if our thoughts on the gospel resembles Job's argument with his first three counselors.

JOB: "No, really; I was blameless."
ELIPHAZ: "Job, there's no way you and God were fine with one another; I mean look at you."
JOB: "But I was! I just can't show you. What's wrong with this picture? I am beginning to doubt there was profit in knowing God."
ELIPHAZ: "I say you never did. Here, let me tell you a more theologically correct understanding of God's acceptance."

Might it be God's manner to withhold assurance in someone's soul in particular times and seasons? After a saint's justification he will subsequently be tested and may disregard spiritual things. Free Grace people say either a concise verse or a biblical synthesis is the only "correct" means by which a person can re-establish assurance of salvation. By thinking this way, I wonder if we are no longer in step with God's discipline upon His child. A FG person hears this and mis-diagnoses it; that if they did not receive the exact content of the message that saved them, they must not have been saved in the first place. This is no more a solution than the Calvinists who wrestle with the plight of carnal Christianity, calling for upfront obedience in the proclamation of God's gift of salvation, distorting and distracting again from the true area of concern, which is? Non-persevering sanctification.

"Do not quench the Spirit," it says in 1 Thess. 5:19. This means to suppress or extinguish the presence of God in our hearts. Is it possible that a saint once would hear the Spirit cry from within him, "Abba, Father," at one point in his life as he sought reigning as a son with Christ, but would lose this comforting testimony that he is a child of God through carnality? Galatians 4:6-7,

And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, “Abba, Father!” Therefore you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.

Are these carnal guys the guys we've been defending with FG soteriology? When did this happen that the inward testimony of the Spirit within our hearts wasn't convincing enough that we had to go find a formula removed of His powerful, chastening Presence, to gain assurance? Though it might become quenched, Romans 8:15 tells us that when we were justified each of us received this inward testimony loud and clear,

For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.”

Searching the Scriptures

How did Paul defend justification with God for the carnal Christian? He reminded them quickly of how they had known the power of God as opposed to the persuasion of men in a divisive manner, all the way through 1 Corinthians chapters one through four. Jesus had the same battle of "persuasive words vs. the power and demonstration of the Spirit of God," with the Pharisees. They knew so much about God that they were lawyers. John 5:39-40,

You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me. But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life.

Searching the scriptures is spiritually fruitless till a person is willing to come to Jesus and receive life ("In Him was life, and the life was the light of men" John 1:4). This is what the revelation (the "Word") is teaching us to appropriate. It is amazing the Pharisees really thought they could make a case of knowing how to work God when they worked over passages. Jesus dealt with them in a disapproving manner. It only condemned themselves before God and men. This kind of free grace discussion is, as it was with Job as well, a carbon copy of that argument the Pharisees had with Jesus in the letter of the law over what needed to be believed regarding the work and person, at that time, of YHWH.

There are already many people who are looking for more from Free Grace. They want to be offered a life-giving gospel to every kind of man who suffers in darkness, not only the variety of darkness of needing a correct chapter-verse address to assuage doubt over a former event of justification with God.

The biblical synthesis gospel (beginning with 1 Cor 15:1-4 and utilizing several other passages) can be an obstacle to assurance, but it was never meant to work that way. This content of saving faith is a gospel where assurance will never be achieved as it requires the unsaved to produce concrete knowledge of abstracts with its long list of "needs to be believed." As with the Pharisees, the use of the Word somehow is twisted; scriptures of any kind of content should not not rob assurance. If used properly scripture always enhances assurance of salvation. 1 Thess. 1:5,

For our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Spirit and in much assurance, as you know what kind of men we were among you for your sake.

The Word should harmoniously build on our sense that we can become/have in fact been saved by the amazing grace and truth of our Lord. If scripture does not bring a believer into harmony with God, it is because an evangelist and his listener is imbalanced, having some excellence in doctrine but an immaturity in the experiential knowledge of the breadth and depth of the love of God. It would have been better if they had heard the Samaritan woman's content of saving faith in place of a scripture-intense one; "Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did!"

"He Never Fails to Give Life"

"Suffice it to say, however, that Jesus never fails anyone who trusts Him for eternal salvation" [1].

The brilliance of the "Desert Island Scenario"[1] is that after the Holy Spirit demonstrates the power of God, the unsaved person will be fully convinced that God is trustworthy in His testimony no matter how short the scripture is concerning the gift of the Holy Spirit.

However, there are two mis-uses that arise with thinking like this. The first mis-use is why should anyone trust Him for everlasting salvation if they aren't inclined to desire it or understand it or even have eyes to see, unlike Abraham coming fresh off the battlefield? No one doubts the veracity of Jesus to give life. We doubt the people who have confused looks on their faces as they nod their head in politeness. No one is going to believe it unless they have been told they ought to seek it and probably already know it.

The second mis-use is that false religious people will agree with you. "Yes, I understand that Jesus gives eternal life to those who believe," or they say, "Yes, I believe that Jesus died for my sins on the cross and was resurrected," but who knows what they truly filter that to mean. For the false religions, they have not understood what it means to place their faith in an orthodox demonstration of the Spirit and of power (1 Cor 2:4). There is no protection against polytheism and other versions of "I believe" that are something less than the attention-grabbing thrust of a robust conservative evangelical gospel. Teaching the biblical doctrine of the antichrists and testing the spirits is helpful to distinguish things for the evangelist, but not for those being evangelized (see part III of "The Spirit of Antichrist: Decoupling Jesus from the Christ" by Zane C. Hodges).

Every content of saving faith seizes its relevance by making a case for our son-ship opportunity and the need for the Holy Spirit to achieve it. Without it, the biblical synthesis evangelists will never know for sure if a lost person has personally grasped the significance in a fifteen-minute download of biblical data. Even a promise-only presentation cannot explain the relevance of eternal life without also preaching son-ship [2].

People are not coming to Christ to increase license to sin! And they never will! I have been caught in this confusion regarding the gospel; perhaps you too? Can you imagine a humble, lost sinner who dislikes his own sin being told that Christ's salvation is a ticket to moral freedom (i.e. unconditional forgiveness)? This is the weak point in both a promise-only or a synthesis gospel. No wonder we are afraid to tell those who are much worse - those who pursue a life of debauchery - the gospel. They laugh at it and say, "that sounds good to me! You're telling me I can do whatever I want?!? Seriously, go away, why should Christ even die for sins then." They must believe God is good and that He would not tempt anyone. This is a gospel of light, not darkness. Son-ship makes "the promise of eternal life" and "Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures" two gospels of light! Presenting "the gift of God" as the Holy Spirit is what is missing.

What an interesting assumption that lost people care more about eternal life than their present one. Unless I am suddenly trapped under a car or hanging off a cliff, the afterlife is not what I think about all day long, as an unbeliever or even as a believer for several years starting off in the faith. I'm thinking about my next appointment, next vacation, next meal. It is usually those who have known Christ and the doctrine of eternal rewards that become interested in the afterlife - when they have a "beatitude promise" that it will be good and satisfying in spite of the lack of realized redemption in this one.

Eternal life is not just about salvation after we're dead! The unsaved desire the Holy Spirit for all sorts of things. The Holy Spirit is needed for obedience. He is needed for freedom from condemnation. He is needed for sonship and inheritance with God. He is needed for comfort and counsel. He is needed for the satisfaction of the daily spiritual needs of the soul. He is needed for intimacy with God. This is the reason why "eternal life" is described as qualitative such as John 17:3 or as for the rich young ruler why it was a possession to be gained through obedience.

Gospel essentials attain their usefulness when a person comes to Jesus ("the scriptures testify of Me" John 5:39) for the Holy Spirit. And what are they believing in when they hear the words of whichever Free Grace gospel is used? Take a look once more: what is the "bullseye" COSF according to this passage? 1 Cor 2:4-5,

And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.

Indeed I believe it is saying it is critical we NOT be persuasive when sharing the gospel so that people will notice the Holy Spirit in the message, the presence and power of God, the essence they have been longing to believe was true, and receive Him Himself. The Word of God is a Spiritual avenue (the "Way") to see straight through to the Spirit of God who has always been not far from each one of us (Acts 17:27).

This is what the woman at the well placed her faith in. She already knew where the well was, and where to draw water - not an issue. She wanted her own fountain of water so that she would not thirst nor keep traveling to draw it out. She heard of this source of power all for herself, all for the taking - exactly what Abraham heard in Genesis 12. They are not believing upon only the words of a promise... but the Presence within them.

The Duluthian Biblical synthesis proponents point out Paul's preaching in Acts 13 to the Galatians in their series of articles on the content of the gospel. In Acts 17, Paul preached to the Thessalonians "as was his custom" after so many evangelistic efforts recorded in Acts (Acts 17:3). Paul had a custom for the gospel presentation -- in the synagogues. He tailored the good news of Jesus to the tradition of those who already had the scriptures: "This Jesus whom I preach to you is the Christ.” But that's not all his gospel shared. According to this one "custom" of Paul, both the Galatian and the Thessalonian churches knew the power of God when they heard the message as recorded for us in 1 Thess. 1:5,

For our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Spirit and in much assurance, as you know what kind of men we were among you for your sake.

The Book of Galatians confirms that same gospel demonstration of the Holy Spirit, they having "received" the Spirit and having "begun" in the Spirit, with miracles (Gal. 3:2-3, 5). It is the essence of God both Jews and Gentiles lived without, being held captive to the futility and bondage to the elements of this world, all alike under sin. When they see the demonstration of the Spirit with power, they will "know" God [is] -with-us. They will believe Jesus is the Son of God because His testimony is accompanied by the spiritual essence of God affecting their soul and their life. How can we lack assurance of salvation if God Himself, shows up? Isn't it a "no-brainer" - and human persuasion is not needed here?

Have people shared their testimony with you, saying, "The reason why I follow the Bible is because everything it says came true for me personally." This is an Abrahamic sort of justification, more dynamic than the common description of a "passive persuasion." This is the kind of believer who knows God has come near and has all sorts of assurance as a byproduct. This is what Jacob's well really meant to a Samaritan woman, who knew the impossibility of Jacob finding Rachel or Abraham's servant finding Rebekah, or a strange Man who knew her intimate life, apart from the miraculous power of God for the purpose of glory, honor and immortality (Rom 2:7). And the power of God was the Samaritan woman's gospel to the city "Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did" - and certainly this COSF was enough for the city. She was fully convinced in the power of God, and the gospel went forth for His glory.

Biblical Synthesis Mis-Uses

Perhaps there are answers that I have not read, but I do not know of an explanation from a synthesis gospel proponent why the content of Paul's message changes in Acts 17 and in Acts 14:14-17 with a primarily Gentile audience. Paul went to the Jews, foremostly, until Acts 17/18. Of course he would engender faith in Jesus according to the Old Testament when he was in the synagogues, where a majority of Jews and a minority of God-fearing Gentiles were steeped in the tradition of the scriptures. This is the gospel presented to the Galatian church, but it is by no means the only way of demonstrating the presence of the Holy Spirit in a way that helps the lost believe upon Jesus. Presentation of scripture either waxes or wanes depending on the falling of the Spirit on the unsaved. Acts 10:34-35,

Then Peter opened his mouth and said: “In truth I perceive that God shows no partiality. But in every nation whoever fears Him and works righteousness is accepted by Him." While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who heard the word.

Exactly how does an evangelist get the notion that until his formed checklist of the gospel is completely spelled out and quizzed upon his listeners, he can keep at bay the Holy Spirit falling on those whom God is justifying? We should not call as common that which has been made clean. When the Holy Spirit falls, we take our most ultimate cues from that - or else ("...who was I that I could withstand God?" Peter asked concerning Cornelius in Acts 11:17). Pharisees were more concerned about code than hearts being right before God. As a result they were failures at ecclesiology. They had no idea how their religiosity caused them to separate themselves from believers who they had become one with in the people of God. Their theologies choked the life out of "love from a pure heart, from a good conscience, and from sincere faith," which is the end-goal of the commandments.

The promise-only gospel not only identified theological legalism outside its borders, it instituted such. This theological legalism postulates that one truth in scripture is saving and others are not. It fairly has noticed that people become justified by faith in Jesus before understanding many basics of theology, however this awareness has become a misplaced mission to pare down truth into a single passage, one precise formula for salvation. Those who select 1 Cor. 15 as "the gospel" have followed in that thinking and are just as rigid, but it makes even less sense. The synthesis camp offers truth. The promise-only camp offers life. Unless God shows up while preaching either gospel, preaching the Holy Spirit as the heart of these gospels, it's only a fight over decaying leftovers.

Promise-Only Mis-Uses

Perhaps there is a reason I do not yet understand, but I do not know why three times at the last GES conference I listened to presenters say that the offer of "eternal life" is nowhere to be found in the Book of Acts. They are trying to fathom the reason why. It does not yet make sense to me, because the promise-only content of saving faith is right there in Acts chapter one, but with an alternate term, the "Holy Spirit." Acts 1:4-8,

And being assembled together with them, He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the Promise of the Father, “which,” He said, “you have heard from Me; for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” Therefore, when they had come together, they asked Him, saying, “Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” And He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority. But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

Why is this passage only referring to unique phenomena in the origination of the Church? Abraham was promised "In you all the families of the earth shall be blessed" (Gen 12:3), and he was promised to inherit the land, as sons of God, which is exactly the difference from Judaism the Galatian church was failing to appropriate. Galatians 3:5-9,

Therefore He who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you, does He do it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? — just as Abraham “believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” Therefore know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying, “In you all the nations shall be blessed.” So then those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham.

Nothing too "Pentecostal" about that; it's sturdy old-fashioned blessing from God. We can believe in this one and the same promise for ourselves and the world. Miracles are our future. If God is restoring everything in the world and everything concerning our lives, we have endless fodder for expecting a miracle according to the hope set forth in the gospel - even if it is deferred hope for the age of resurrection. One day, God will wipe every tear from our eye; why can't we encourage the unsaved to believe "God is able" in any aspect of their life, whatever they are focused on today? Abraham received a mix of fulfilled and deferred promises and such faith blesses God. Do we believe anymore in the power of God?

Give Them Spiritual Life

As you preach the gospel, your underlying orientation as evangelist is to have them receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Trust the Spirit to point Himself out for the sake of making the lost person jealous and thirsty when you preach scripture. What is the demonstration of the Holy Spirit? Each one of us were given spiritual gifts according to the measure of Christ. These gifts are involuntary super-blessings in "the gift" of eternal life.

Let me share a story. There was this person I wanted to share the gospel with, so before I began I said to her genuinely, "I am completely certain [and I was] that God wants to do something for you, to show you that He is real and that He loves you. Do you believe in God?" Then I proceeded to review the gospel essentials and said, "But maybe no one has ever asked you if you personally believe the promise of God, that Jesus died for your sins and was raised with power and wants to give you a gift of Spiritual life." Then I reviewed with her current need she had just confided. Her spouse had not been living at home for several months because of legal trouble. She wanted it to stop, and we prayed for God to help. The next day, the charges against him were dropped! He was able to return to his family.

The Abide-With-God Gospel

"Assurance is the essence of saving faith." Do you ever wonder why when people first get saved they are excited about God even though they know nothing... and then a few months afterward they hear something challenging and begin to think they had not really been saved at all, and begin a quest to obtain it from formulas? Because they had believed, and then lost, the avenue (the Way) to obtain assurance. Help them retrace their steps desiring that son-ship like Job's final counselor.

When a promise-only person preaches the promise of eternal life by faith, they are really telling the unsaved "abide with God through faith." When a biblical-synthesis gospel person preaches Jesus died for sins and was raised again, portraying Christ crucified on the cross, they portray a God who has done everything necessary so that we may approach God; they also are telling the unsaved "abide with God through faith." When someone is first saved, they are ALWAYS in a state of abiding with Jesus by faith - not just justified. Obviously, there is no fellowship barrier between God and man when the Holy Spirit regenerates and comes in to dwell with a cleansed sinner; therefore they are also abiding!

We fight over the scraps of assurance through scriptural formulas; meanwhile the abiding believer is feasting on it.

God is so gracious to us in Jesus Christ! If we have the privilege of evangelizing pre-sons of God, acknowledge them as such! With the proper disposition of an unsaved man, the "desert island scenario" would be sufficient. Luke 11:11-13

"If a son asks for bread from any father among you, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent instead of a fish? Or if he asks for an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!”

When lacking a proper disposition in the unsaved, or with the religious, preach the full testimony of Jesus Christ's person and work, that they might understand their need for God, the opportunity for son-ship, and seek His gift.

You heard of the Life of Jesus.
You heard of the Truth of Jesus.
Their essence is in the Way of Jesus!

[1] Zane C. Hodges, How to Lead People to Christ, Part 1: Our Invitation to Respond. JOTGES, 2001.

[2] Zane C. Hodges, How to Lead People to Christ, Part 2: Our Invitation to Respond. JOTGES, 2001. (Excerpted from section "VI: Inviting People to Believe"):
"Hopefully, Ralph says that he does. If he says he doesn’t, I will ask him, "What seems to still puzzle you, Ralph?"

At this point, experience suggests that I will often get a question like this: "Do you mean that if I believe in Jesus for eternal life, that I can go out and do anything I want and still go to heaven?"

I am always pleased to hear this question, because it signals to me that the person is getting the idea that this is a gift and that it is not withdrawn if we behave badly.

My usual way of responding to the question is that being born again is like being born into a family. After that, we are always members of that family, even if we are scoundrels. But if we have good parents, they are not going to let us run wild. They will discipline and correct us and do their best to get us on the right path. Then I point out that, after we get eternal life, God is our heavenly Father and He is the best Parent we could imagine. He will not let us run wild. He will spank us, if need be, and may even take our physical lives away. But Jesus will never cast us out of God’s family."

How Much We Need Need (part 5)
How Much We Need Need (part 4)
How Much We Need Need (part 3)
How Much We Need Need (part 2)
How Much We Need Need (part 1)
How Much We Need Need (introduction)

How Much We Need Need (part 6)

2011-05-06T11:43:00.000-07:00

'Need' is a Significant Component to the Gospel Message
[Previous Post: How Much We Need Need (part 5)]

The Revealing of the Sons of God

From John 4 they say, "whosoever wants Living Water." They mean, "whosoever wants the Holy Spirit." What sort of person wants the Holy Spirit? How about a Son? John 3:19-21,

And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God.

Monergists use this passage to prove Calvinist logic. Instead of proving the depravity of man, it actually proves the doctrine of Romans 1:20 - all men are without excuse even before hearing of Christ. Paul preached in Acts 14:17,

Nevertheless He did not leave Himself without witness, in that He did good, gave us rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness.

Acts 17:26-30 is slightly longer on this gospel essential.

And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also His offspring.’ Therefore, since we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, something shaped by art and man’s devising. Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent...

Imagine Reformed evangelists affirming the Athenians for the scant portion of light they had received. Would they call them "God's offspring," or expect them to know it's about time to repent, or tell them to reach out to God with ease? For every soul of man there is opportunity for immortality, glory, honor and peace, and it is given to those who work what is good, to the Jew first and also to the Greek (Rom. 2:10) - potentially including the Athenians.

The Depravity in a Man of the World

Depravity comes from without: "The whole world is under the sway of the wicked one" (1 John 5:19). Depravity comes from within: the 'mere human (1 Cor. 3:3)' nature is full of sin (Rom. 3:10-18). Whether one is a Jew or a pagan, all are under sin (Romans 3:9) apart from the leading of the Spirit. Who escapes depravity, and when? Galatians 4:1-7,

Now I say that the heir, as long as he is a child, does not differ at all from a slave, though he is master of all, but is under guardians and stewards until the time appointed by the father. Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world. But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.
And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, “Abba, Father!” Therefore you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.

Sons are heirs and heirs are sons. "He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be my son" (Rev. 21:7). Who are the inheriting sons of God? Galatians 3:26-29 says,

For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.

Seeds first, heirs also; if you are dissolved according to the promise. "According" is defined as "a preposition denoting motion or diffusion from the higher to the lower." Not all believers in Christ are heirs of the Kingdom of God, however all believers will enter the Kingdom of God. Only sons inherit, those conformed after the promised Spirit.

Romans teaches son-ship as conditional as well. 8:14 deliniates,

For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God.

All believers who receive Jesus by faith are immediately positioned as sons of God to inherit, but the ones who put it into practice are sons indeed and one day will be publicly revealed as such by God (Rom. 8:17-19). Sons who need God's discipline are called "children" in the NT epistles. Children are believers (seed) who are in Israel or in the Church. It is not a designation of salvation, but performance. They are not mature enough yet to put into practice the Way of the Spirit which achieves the work of God in their life. Only "sons" amongst the children know how to successfully manage God's house like Christ did (Heb. 1-3). In an audience of only Christ-followers (abiding disciples), Jesus gave His wisdom away. John 15:15,

No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you.

He Led Them By The Hand out of Egypt

Children need a babysitter. There was something missing with the old covenant, for which reason the second was sought (Heb. 8:7-12). They did not truly understand righteousness with the ten commandments. The law's ministry was to illustrate their bondage. Jesus said, "And a slave does not abide in the house forever, but a son abides forever. Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed." Sons of the Kingdom are grown to maturity in God. They have the capacity to set others free because they have the mind of Christ within. With the Spirit they, along with the angels (Heb. 1:14), minister to both slaves (unsaved) and children (saved but foolish) that they might also become sons. I've heard it said that Kingdom preparations are absent in the gospel written for evangelism (John), but freedom from Satan is the reason Jesus was manifested (1 John 3:8). Luke 4:18,

The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me,
Because He has anointed Me
To preach the gospel to the poor;
He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,
To proclaim liberty to the captives
And recovery of sight to the blind,
To set at liberty those who are oppressed

Sons from Seeds

"A child does not differ at all from a slave." Unlike the slave, a child has the possibility to escape the guardians and stewards of the law, and escape the elements of bondage and futility in this world. But being called a child is not flattery; he delays and dallies. He chooses to follow after the flesh. How does a believer look who follows after the flesh? Does he not look like the unbelievers of this world? And that is what Paul means. Surprisingly, then, Paul tells his doubts of a second birth in the life of the Galatian people. Gal. 4:11,

I am afraid for you, lest I have labored for you in vain.

The six chapters he writes to the bewitched Galatian people is summed up in a single designation.... Not just children, but little children:

My little children, for whom I labor in birth again until Christ is formed in you, I would like to be present with you now and to change my tone; for I have doubts about you.

Is Paul doubting their salvation? No! He spent the book reminding them of their salvation! What is he doubting by saying they had been born again, and now needed to be born yet again? That the reason for which they came to Christ - the uncircumcised heart that needed to be made alive so that one might fulfill God's will - their desire to be Spirit-led - had been squashed. It is the Spirit they had originally sought after in receiving the gospel. "Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh?" (Gal. 3:3). Yes, believers have a choice as to which nature they will follow, and their desire to obey determines their status as child, or son. Gal. 4:21-26,

Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not hear the law? For it is written that Abraham had two sons: the one by a bondwoman, the other by a freewoman. But he who was of the bondwoman was born according to the flesh, and he of the freewoman through promise, which things are symbolic. For these are the two covenants: the one from Mount Sinai which gives birth to bondage, which is Hagar — for this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and corresponds to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children — but the Jerusalem above is free, which is the mother of us all.

The not-inheriting bondwoman and her son are "symbolic" for more than just the people of Islam. It breaks into any un-Spiritual category: those in bondage to sin, those in the covenant of the Mosaic Law, those of Jerusalem which now is and her children as well (OT believers). But there is one more group of people who must be grouped there with them, implied here from Paul toward the Galatians -- it includes the Galatians who had rejected Spiritual life. Therefore, it's for people perhaps like me and you. For we who are believers in Christ who then abandon the Spirit's kind of works and power, we should not expect to inherit and possess the kingdom as a son of God, though we shall all enter it regardless of our performance.

Position versus Practice

I believe as you look at various examples of spiritual warfare it falls into two categories: those who are Spirit-led compared with everything else. A child of God, of course, differs from a slave, in one extremely important way! The child has been reconciled to God positionally through belief in Jesus. There is no room for a Calvinist or an Arminian doctrine of deciding who is saved and who is not saved because of the word "child." Without regard to performance we are saved by grace through faith in Christ. As for the concern of self-achievement in synergism as an alternative to monergism, faith is the condition for salvation. Faith is not self-accomplishment because faith is not a work. Scripture always says faith is apart from works.

"Tell me, you who desire to be under law," Paul says, consider your lifestyle a crossroads. Gal. 4:28-31,

Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are children of promise. But, as he who was born according to the flesh then persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, even so it is now. Nevertheless what does the Scripture say? “Cast out the bondwoman and her son, for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman.” So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman but of the free.

Take an indication from the spiritual warfare. Who is persecuting who? Those who reproduce after the fleshly nature persecute those who are reproducing after the Spiritual nature. Jesus was the epitome. Jesus talks to Christians who don't seek Him in John 8:31-45,

Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”
They answered Him, “We are Abraham’s descendants, and have never been in bondage to anyone. How can You say, ‘You will be made free’?”
Jesus answered them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin. And a slave does not abide in the house forever, but a son abides forever. Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.

“I know that you are Abraham’s descendants, but you seek to kill Me, because My word has no place in you. I speak what I have seen with My Father, and you do what you have seen with your father.”
They answered and said to Him, “Abraham is our father.”
Jesus said to them, “If you were Abraham’s children, you would do the works of Abraham. But now you seek to kill Me, a Man who has told you the truth which I heard from God. Abraham did not do this. You do the deeds of your father.”
Then they said to Him, “We were not born of fornication; we have one Father—God.”

Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and came from God; nor have I come of Myself, but He sent Me. Why do you not understand My speech? Because you are not able to listen to My word. You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it. But because I tell the truth, you do not believe Me.

Tell me, why does Jesus diagnose their works to prove their parentage? Because it requires only one parent in/from the promise of God in order to be justified and enter the Kingdom. It takes two parents of promise to be a son, to possess an inheritance within the Kingdom. To explain this in other terms, a person who accepts God's covenant by faith is born into His Bride through Abraham/Christ. Once inside that covenant betrothal, whoever's essence you pursue proves your other parent (Satan or the Father). If I'm wrong, tell me why Paul teaches about offspring in a marriage that one believing parent is enough to produce "Christian children" in 1 Cor. 7:14,

For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband; otherwise your children would be unclean, but now they are holy.

Children by position (justification) may become sons indeed. In the upper room discourse (John 15-17) these 11 believers are they who seek both "parents" (they who seek both justification and sanctification); they who are abiding disciples. To them he entrusts Himself and His Spirit. But in John 8 Jesus only acknowledged that they are Abraham's children... He doesn't say who their mother was!

Friendship With the World is Enmity With God

There are sons who inherit and children who are illegitimate; all in the proving. "Children of God" and "children of the devil" refer to what kind of life-works one reproduces after being integrated into His covenant. 1 John 3:7-8,

Little children, let no one deceive you. He who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous. He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil.

Jacob & Esau

Let's read Romans 9:6-13 with this help.

But it is not that the word of God has taken no effect. For they are not all Israel who are of Israel, nor are they all children because they are the seed of Abraham; but, “In Isaac your seed shall be called.” That is, those who are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God; but the children of the promise are counted as the seed. For this is the word of promise: “At this time I will come and Sarah shall have a son.” And not only this, but when Rebecca also had conceived by one man, even by our father Isaac (for the children not yet being born, nor having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works but of Him who calls), it was said to her, “The older shall serve the younger.” As it is written, “Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated.”

To be "called" is a post-justification invitation to participate with Christ. Children of God (those who are Spirit-led) are not children of the devil (those who reproduce fleshly lifestyle) but regardless of whose children they are, the seed are undeniably saved regardless of performance.

Calvinists don't have excellent answers to Arminian passages, and visa versa. They have both misunderstood Jacob and Esau. Watch them spin in confusion, here. It is not about which was justified and regenerated - this is a picture of Mt. Sinai versus the heavenly Jerusalem. When Abraham turned to Hagar in self-effort as a way to achieve the promise, he sowed that covenant into the lives of his offspring. "You bring persecution into my house?" God asks Abraham.... "I'll bring persecution into your house." He did so with Isaac, in Rebecca's womb. That's why there is heavy-duty language of God's purpose in the wrestling before they were born. Esau was all about self-sufficiency. It would soon show what that would gain. Jacob wanted to be born first with all its privileges but didn't have the strength, holding onto Esau's heel. This is the more humble person, the sort to which God chose to reveal Himself. "You did not choose Me but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit" John 15:6. We know doctrinally that God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble - and even more - His choice for Jacob does not congratulate him - it is still from grace.

Isaac was one man. His seed was one seed. He was one father yet there were two children. Esau represents some kind of believer who knew all the promises in the family but did not appreciate it. His lifestyle "mother" or "father" (however you view it) was Satan/the harlot. He was free to prove his performance within the covenant from neo-natal to death. Esau wasn't hated before he was born, only later when God looked back on his life's accomplishment in Malachi. Esau is mentioned in Hebrews, too, as seeking the inheritance with tears after losing it (12:16). He's not damned to hell there either. Perhaps chapter ten's quote of God's attitude toward the life-works of the backslider, saying "My soul has no pleasure in him" (Heb 10:38) had Esau as an example in mind. No pleasure, looking back. Is "no pleasure" the same as "hate"? It is a litotes.

Though the Hagar deviation occured, it could neither annul nor add to the promise, which was 430 years before the law. Praise God for it!

two spirits
two fathers
two covenants
two cities
two mothers
two nations

All Inside His Body

God is finished with the problem of persecution inside His house. He conquered it in the most ultimate way by raising Jesus Christ from the dead and dispensing the gift of the Spirit. Abraham provoked God by bringing His people into a temporary downgrade of self-effort in the law of Moses, but, God had his vengeance. Before the Gentiles had finished hearing the gospel in the book of Acts, before they had a chance to say "Yes!" the Spirit had already fallen. "I will provoke you to jealousy by those who are not a nation," ... "I was found by those who did not seek Me; I was made manifest to those who did no ask for Me" (Rom. 10:19-20).

So in the book of Galatians Paul wonders about believers who signed up for Christ's Living Water. "You wanna rely on your own strength? Go ahead. You don't think you on-goingly need Me?" Deceived they'd become from what they bought in-to. Hebrews 12:5-11,

And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons:

“My son, do not despise the chastening of the LORD,
Nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him;
For whom the LORD loves He chastens,
And scourges every son whom He receives.”

If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten? But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons. Furthermore, we have had human fathers who corrected us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live? For they indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed best to them, but He for our profit, that we may be partakers of His holiness. Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

One can lose their sensitivity in the leading of the Holy Spirit, even as it permanently indwells unconditionally (seed). It's all over the NT, but one example is James 5:19-20,

Brethren, if anyone among you wanders from the truth, and someone turns him back, let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save a soul from death and cover a multitude of sins.

Spiritual Warfare in Us, In the Church

To stay in the dark when there is a portion of light to be grasped, is to not believe God and God's work, and human need to imitate Him (John 9:41). Sons are a threat to those in bondage. They destroy Satan's works, manifesting tangible freedom and victory, and an unseen God who is True and Compassionate without partiality. Do not be surprised if they tell you there's something odd about you. They thought Jesus was propelled by a demon. The power of God ministers far beyond the scope of the ten commandments and 'churchendom' at large. Are you taking responsibility to see God's will done on earth? No matter the cost? Then you are a son of God.

What to say if you're having doubts... or want to become a son.... I have wrestled with this a lot while creating this post. When I look at my life, I don't feel or look like someone who is spiritually responsible, who finds a way to see His will done. I see a good deal of immaturity. In fact, the more I look at me, the more immaturity I experience. There was only one escape I discovered: "Look to Abraham your father, And to Sarah who bore you; For I called him alone, And blessed him and increased him" (Is. 51:2). The Israelites came from a promise, but the law did not save. We need both parents to raise us right! As soon as we take up the Spirit, we immediately begin an adventure and are responsible in the works of a son. Our own nature will never be pure, but God's, is. You can take it up right now, and see for yourself the power of God in the likes of someone like you.

The Gospel Message

Works are an appropriate backdrop for the hope in the gospel. Those who are ungodly begin by receiving the grace of God through a promise, that He may receive all glory and praise. Need is essential to the gospel presentation of Christ who died, was buried and who was resurrected from the dead: it is hope of sonship. The lost at least intuitively seek to escape the corruption, or the futility, of this world.

Free Grace people neither front load nor back load the gospel with a message of works. They tell the truth: the LORD cares about bondage both inside and outside His house. He offers salvation freely through Christ in Whom He would discipline and motivate accordingly. Like He, we respect choice even amongst believers as Paul does when he says, tell me what you desire; carnality, or purity? All of the same capacities for failure exist for Christians as they do for the unsaved person. But a Son finds the Way to rise above it all.

Spiritual works reveal those who have been justified. As He reveals Himself through you, He consequently puts you in association with Him. It is what John 3:19-21 (the opening scripture) says. This is the abiding advantage that lost people crave. The woman at the well sought living water. She sought son-ship.

Go to the final part in this series, How Much We Need Need (-final-)

How Much We Need Need (part 4)
How Much We Need Need (part 3)
How Much We Need Need (part 2)
How Much We Need Need (part 1)
How Much We Need Need (introduction)

How Much We Need Need (part 5)

2011-02-22T12:56:00.001-08:00

'Need' is a Significant Component to the Gospel Message

[Previous Post: How Much We Need Need (part 4)

Salvation of any kind is not for any one who does not personally interact inwardly with scripture. Every other gospel is bent to either a universalist or theologically front-loaded gospel. The woman at the well knew who Jesus was and eagerly desired the power to live His kind of life. But the disciples were sluggish to understand which is why He commanded upon their return, "Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look" (John 4:35). His coming signals a complex mixture of both salvation and judgment.

The Vessels: Pouring out Wrath

Is the wrath of God only for unbelievers? Or is it for believers as well? Most free grace people agree that even believers experience the wrath of God. But they claim there will not be an experience of wrath in judgment at the Bema seat. Instead wrath is only temporal, for a short period in life. I don't understand, then, six passages I read that suggest a severe experience for some believers at judgment. One - 1 Cor 3:15

If it is burned up, the builder will suffer loss but yet will be saved — even though only as one escaping through the flames.

Two - Hebrews 10:26-29

If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God. Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace?

Three - Matt 12:31-32

Therefore I say to you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven men. Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come.

Four - John 15:6

If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned.

Five: Psalm 95/Hebrews 3&4

So I swore in my wrath, they shall not enter my rest.

Six: Hebrews 10:37-38

Now the just shall live by faith; But if anyone draws back, My soul has no pleasure in him.

I have a lot to learn on temporal and treasured wrath, so on to Romans.

Pouring out Spirit: The Gift of God in Romans

In the last post we read that "the gift of God" is eternal life, and it is also the gift of the Spirit, and it is also the regenerating work of our baptism with Christ, which is also the circumcision, described in Ezek. 36 and performed by Christ in Col. 2. Both Jews and Gentiles recognize as they work out their beliefs that their consciences are violated and that they do not have the power to live up to them. This is the "God-shaped hole" that only circumcision can allay.

Jesus said, "If you knew the gift of God..." (john 4:10). The Book of Romans mentions "the gift" (eternal life; the Holy Spirit) more often than any other. Paul is separated to the gospel of God, and says, "Through Him we have received grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith among all nations." How is this grace received? There is no other way to receive this grace and achieve this obedience than through the name of Jesus. As we saw in a previous post, God-fearing Jews already believed in Him before they identified Him. God-fearing Gentiles already received whatever light they had been given before the gospel. Jesus' ministry ratified and paid the deposit of their longing. Ready to preach, Paul says in 1:16-17

For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ; for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, 'The just shall live by faith.'

The power of God? The "power" is essential in Paul's description of the gospel because everything else, even Judiasm by and large, is religion apart from knowing God. Righteousness is being revealed by this power. Revealed means: "to lay open what has been covered up; make bare; to make known, to make manifest."

Righteousness is not the only thing being "revealed". The next verse says

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness....

Two things are revealed (manifest, known by intimate relation): Wrath, and Spirit (God with Us). In fact the word "wrath" has a connotation beyond emotion. It also means a vessel. Thayer's lexicon says,

To teem, denoting an internal motion, esp. that of plants and fruits swelling with juice.

Babylon is the spirit of independence and rebellion against God. In the great day of His wrath, she will have no choice but to drink the cup of the wine of the fierceness of God's wrath. She drinks, Satan will also drink this wine, and so will "all nations" who follow her because she deceives them to take part in her punishment.

This is very important to the study of Romans. The wrath of God is being poured out. But the Spirit is also being poured out. The Spirit is our only refuge and hope from the wrath of God.

All men receive God's wrath - all who exchange the truth of God for a lie, those who choose to worship and serve a false image. When they make this choice for themselves, Paul claims that God makes their foolish hearts darkened. He makes them given up to uncleanness of conduct. They commit what is shameful. They receive a debased mind. Romans 1:28-29

And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting; being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality [etc.]...

So the order is established: Those who do not worship and serve God are darkened in their understanding. God gives them the sort of mind that does those things which are not right. This is God, revealing His wrath - and the objects of it.

Christian or not - when you see someone who practices unfitting things, this is a revealing of their inner suppression of God. Christian or not - when someone chooses to suppress God, and they practice unfitting things, they also lose the knowledge of having known God. Isn't this good of God? Imagine a person filled with unrighteous behavior who also holds every enlightenment from the scriptures... May the world never know witnesses of God like that!

Wrath On Every Soul Of Man That Does Evil

Paul exposes the utter failure of man's every fantasy of justification opposed to God's grace. Chapter two was written to begin to disspell every variety of self-righteousness. Romans 2:1

Therefore you are inexcusable, O man, whoever you are who judge, for in whatever you judge another you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things.

Wow! If man was already guilty because "although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful" (Romans 1:21), how much more will he be guilty for the subsequent acts of a debased mind! This is not just a judgment but a filling up, of His judgment. God says hogwash to any righteousness of man, and He's about to manifest it to the world. There are those who glorify Him, and those who do any-thing else. That is why those who judge pass judgment on themselves, for they also have not glorified God nor given thanks to Him in the most basic form.

In accordance with their impenitent (no change of mind, unrepentant) hearts, those refusing are "treasuring up for themselves wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who will render to each one according to his deeds" (Rom 2:5). Eternal life (the gift) is for those who obey the portion of truth they already have been given, whatever that is. This is why Jesus could have a complex teaching about condemnation as He does after revealing humanity's need to be born again in John 3:18-21

He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God.

God is not partial. Did we Christians expect He'd be partial to us just because we have the indwelling of His Spirit? Every soul of man will experience "tribulation and anguish" (2:9) for willful rejection. They will be rendered according to their deeds, Jew and Greek alike. Whether people have the law or do not have the law, reciting what is right does not amount to an experience of being approved. "You who say, 'Do not commit adultery,' do you commit adultery" (2:22)? There is no such thing as good unbelieving people, no such thing as a Jew who really observes the law, without being transformed first by the power and Spirit of God.

"I don't deserve His wrath!" says the Jew; "I am a child of Abraham." "I don't deserve His wrath!" says the Christian; "I am a child of God." When God's covenant makes no impact on our conduct, God proves Himself justified in judging. The Jews received promises in Isaiah that God would glorify Himself through Israel even as they refused Him. Christians say the same today - "...whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also has glorified" (Rom. 8:30). They think that their destiny is without angst regardless how they live with the gift. It's so easy to be a Jew. Just be born as a physical descendant, and you're in. And, it's so easy to be a Christian. Just believe in Jesus, and you're in. God has laid a gracious and merciful foundation for our entrance into His Kingdom. Satan's deception is to think we can live as if we do not on-goingly need the Spirit.

People who already have a covenant-deal with God oftentimes grow ungrateful, which is the same sort of man in Romans chapter 1 who had known God as revealed in creation and had to choose to give thanks and glorify God, or else suppress the truth. Those who recognize that they are ungodly know they need the gift of the Spirit and its power, and their faith is accounted for righteousness. The kind of faith that saves is the kind that hopes in God to perform that which cannot otherwise be done. The entire book has the hope of Christ's circumcision as its focal point.

Hope Does Not Disappoint

We rejoice as Christians in the hope of the glory of God. Romans 2:6-7 says that God will "render to each according to their deeds: eternal life to those who by patient continuance in doing good seek for glory, honor and immortality...". Now that we have been justified by faith, we have the access to the Spirit to powerfully and accurately obey the heart of God. When we do so, we receive glory. Lest we forget and lose our way into a state of bondage again to sin, Paul begins the doctrine of eternal life by saying in 5:6,

For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.

Get familiar with it, baby; the way we started is the way we conform all aspects of life. Romans 5:9,

Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.

"Through" Him means to be "in" Him. If someone is not abiding in Him, they cannot be saved from wrath, cannot be saved by His kind of life. The free gift is not like the offense. Even with death done away by our Lord, man's attempts can only reproduce the life of Adam, apart from the Spirit. We hope that grace might reign for Christians, but sin still reigns in us if we allow it to; Romans 5:20-21,

Moreover the law entered that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more, so that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

You know how the sinful nature works - it does not submit to grace nor does it understand grace. People want to be accepted by God without obeying Him. The sinful nature is looking for a loophole to do as it pleases, constantly. This nature asks in Romans 6:1-2,

What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?

Grace does not abound for willful disobedience. The solution? Our sufficient baptism! Baptism is the fulfillment of the Old Covenant point of circumcision. We ought to walk in newness of life, because of baptism! 6:6 "...our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin." Hebrews chapter three commands believers that they do not harden their hearts in turning away from the living God. This proves that even circumcised Christians have free will, and a responsibility to steward their freshly-cut hearts on life-support.

Grace Reigns Through Circumcision

The recipients of Romans do not completely understand. "Live how you want" - is this why Jesus died on the cross, is that the kind of salvation He provided for us? "Shall we sin, that grace might abound?" (6:1) Just ask God to forgive it all, in Christ, and poof! All one's rebellion simply doesn't matter? After all, He died for every sin didn't He?

Grace doesn't reign by cleansing us on the surface; antinomians are still thinking out-in instead of in-out. The gift is an inner act of creation (Ezek. 36:24-27) which can save us (and bring us honor) if we obey it.

Still the sinful nature asks, "What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace?" Paul knows the thoughts of men when they hear that they are no longer under law. Man makes false doctrine as a tool to deny need for God. This is a great verse showing there is no honor for Christians who follow the sinful nature; Romans 6:16,

Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness?

Consider Romans 6:23 in the context of a call on the church to live in the Spirit. Romans 6:21-23,

What fruit did you have then in the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. But now having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Eternal life is not just a regenerative-substance but here it is the byproduct of Spiritual choices. The wages of sin for those who are already believers, is death. Why not? Hebrews 10:28-30 says,

Anyone who has rejected Moses’ law dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace? For we know Him who said, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord. And again, “The LORD will judge His people.”

Christians have officially died to the law. Is that enough to escape from God's wrath? No! Believers who do not need to drink from the fountain of living water everyday - even these - are doomed to struggle and destruction ("perdition" Heb. 10:39). There is only one Way. And we have not known it. We will never know it intuitively. Only God can reveal the path of righteousness. Listen to Paul's teaching on how he discovers the Way. Romans 7:15-25,

For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do. If, then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good. But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.
I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good. For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!

Alternately when we follow His Way, we find the Body of life! Only the Spirit illuminates the path of righteousness for our feet. Did you notice that Paul finishes with a reversal of the original sin problem in chapter 1? "...nor were they thankful..." (vs. 21) -- but he sees Jesus as deliverance for an unsanctified believer, and is thankful! The doctrine of the Spirit continues.... Romans 8:1-2,

There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.

The rest of chapter 8 of Romans is glorious.... And in the margin I found myself writing, "don't we need this kind of living?" He has given us so much power and capacity and victory in utilizing the gift of circumcision.

True Israelites

There were physical descendants of Abraham who never believed at all. These unbelievers are counted among the vessels of His wrath. They chose first - they did not submit to the righteousness of God - they stumbled at that stumbling stone. God can harden and blind who He pleases, but He hardens and gives a spirit of stupor to those who reject Him repeatedly. Is that unfair? No; they heard the truth (Rom. 10:18), but the message was not mixed with faith.

Then there are those decendants who were desensitized by sin and forsook God's power and presence. For this saved remnant of Israel, God is depending on us to reveal His grace through obedient Christian living. We are vessels of His mercy where He pours out the Spirit, in order to make them jealous and graft them back in to the Root. God is not partial! What He did to Israel He will do to Christians who repeatedly refuse to abide in Christ. He will not spare unfruitful Christian branches. Romans 11:20-24,

Because of unbelief they were broken off, and you stand by faith. Do not be haughty, but fear. For if God did not spare the natural branches, He may not spare you either. Therefore consider the goodness and severity of God: on those who fell, severity; but toward you, goodness, if you continue in His goodness. Otherwise you also will be cut off. And they also, if they do not continue in unbelief, will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again. For if you were cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and were grafted contrary to nature into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these, who are natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree?

This is not Arminianism, because children of Abraham are those who have had faith even if they've fallen away (easy to do when they are awaiting the fulfillment of true circumcision). I believe all scriptures on "branches" show that on an individual level or a national level, God can also choose to "cast away" (Romans 11:1,2,15) or push or reject (essentially: ignore) those who ad nauseam "judge themselves unworthy of everlasting life" as Paul preaches in Acts 13:46 in his original turn from the Jews to a ministry toward begging Gentiles!

Few Accept the Invitation

Jews had little heart for glorifying God, just as the nations. "The gift" is the hope that all that can change. It is the cure for the bleak reality that so few people are responding to the invitation of God. Christ provided salvation from every name that is named so we would be appropriately attired at our salvation-judgment in His coming Kingdom. Will we be so dressed?

It is okay to associate the gospel of eternal life with a call to godly living. This does not associate works-righteousness with the message -- it means Spirit-powered righteousness is associated with the message! God expects a Jew to be able to tell the difference between a works-associated gospel and a Spiritually-associated gospel, so why can't we expect the difference? Making godliness associated with the heart of the gospel does not mean we can look at works and determine the saved from the unsaved as Calvinism claims - we still can't! But we ought for sure to be able to differentiate those who are inheriting the Kingdom from those who are not, and aren't those the second-most important lines to draw? Calvinism has frustrated the believer's privilege to make godliness our secure and sure pursuit.

How Much We Need Need (part 3)
How Much We Need Need (part 2)
How Much We Need Need (part 1)
How Much We Need Need (introduction)

How Much We Need Need (part 4)

2011-02-09T14:32:00.001-08:00

"Need" is a Significant Component to the Gospel Message
[Previous post:How Much We Need Need (part 3)]

This post continues to look at the gospel the woman at the well heard in John 4.

Consider how Jesus wants to make spiritual babies with His Bride. John 4:27-28,

And at this point His disciples came, and they marveled that He talked with a woman; yet no one said, “What do You seek?” or, “Why are You talking with her?” The woman then left her waterpot, went her way into the city...

The woman at the well and Jesus had an unspeakable connectedness and joy in making believers in God with one another. John 4:36-39

And he who reaps receives wages, and gathers fruit for eternal life, that both he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together. For in this the saying is true: ‘One sows and another reaps.’ I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored; others have labored, and you have entered into their labors.” And many of the Samaritans of that city believed in Him because of the word of the woman who testified, “He told me all that I ever did.”

A Bride for the Descendant of Abraham

Jesus needed a bride from the inception of the covenant. Imagine you are Abraham, and you're at the end of your life. You've been considered the friend of God, and you and your offspring have received the promises and you're dwelling in the land. Sounds pretty good. Is there anything else that needs to be done before you die? Well - yes there is. Isaac needs a bride. If God intended Abraham to have descendants, first of all, Sarah must miraculously have a baby, and second, that child must in turn make babies. How can Isaac do this without an outsider's willing participant in the covenant family?

'Rebekah at the Well'
by Michael Deas

Abraham's "servant" (the name of Christ in the prophecies of Isaiah) swears to bring back from Haran a remnant of his own kin - Rebekah. Isaiah's Servant likewise also takes up the cause of Israel by bringing the remnant back from exile, or in another prophetical category, believers in Jesus into the Kingdom. "Do not take Isaac back there," Abraham warns his servant. The promises are connected with the land. It's not just a who, but a where. This is the place where heaven meets earth. There is no redemption if Jesus in antitype seeks a legacy on earth separated from the promise. The servant asks Abraham, "Perhaps the woman will not be willing to follow me to this land." What should he do in this case? Abraham gives this answer in Genesis 24:8,

"And if the woman is not willing to follow you, then you will be released from this oath; only do not take my son back there."

By comparison we can afford to send again for the Bride of Isaac. It's quite another thing to lose Isaac, the son of promise.

Now how in the world will Abraham's servant find this one special Bride? Like a needle in a haystack! The Way to the Bride is so impossible that only the Father can arrange these circumstances. Jesus was obedient in all His Way to obtain the Bride. When Rebekah's family meets the servant, one can hear the Father God; "Come in, O Blessed of the LORD, ... For I have prepared the house, and a place..." (for you!). The servant recounts the story. It is a story of his personal prayer for impossibly amazing details in the woman who would quench the thirst of him and his camels. He also admits Who was directing the whole Way, Genesis 24:48,

the LORD God of my master Abraham, who had led me in the way of truth to take the daughter of my master’s brother for his son.

What?? The "Way" of "Truth"! Jesus is the Way and the Truth! The Godhead was talking about His own Spirit, who led the way for the Servant that all His will might be accomplished. Incredible. The Way led to the side of the well. Abraham had prophesied this success by God's hand saying in 24:40,

‘The LORD, before whom I walk, will send His angel with you and prosper your way; and you shall take a wife for my son from my family and from my father’s house.

"Way" has to do with recognizing God from everything else. Jews and Greeks are all under sin. We have not known His ways. We have not sought Him. We have not had blessing pour forth from our mouths and lives like Abraham was promised to become, Rom. 3:10-18

There is none righteous, no, not one;
There is none who understands;
There is none who seeks after God.
They have all turned aside;
They have together become unprofitable;
There is none who does good, no, not one.
Their throat is an open tomb;
With their tongues they have practiced deceit;
The poison of asps is under their lips;
Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.
Their feet are swift to shed blood;
Destruction and misery are in their ways;
And the way of peace they have not known.
There is no fear of God before their eyes.

We have not personally known the Way. Why not use human need as the stuff of exchange for receiving the Way every day? And when someone is first saved, it is the first time they hear the Word say, "At this place is the Way. This is a sign of God's Presence as revealed to you; you are in Him and He is in you. Now you know He will do this with you." It is like a guidepost, a sign; it is sticking up from the soil of which you are familiar wherever it is you happen to be. "Los Angeles," it says you're in. "Chicago - this way," it points. In all the earth there are outcroppings of guideposts. They show us we are headed in the direction we are seeking to go. We never are sure between signs that we're still on track, but just when we need it most, we seek and look and God assures us we won't miss anything we're supposed to see.

Rebekah is told that there is a Way on this special day. He says, "This is the Way. Access is yours." God shows her Himself and He wants her to show herself. By the servant asking, "Please let down your pitcher that I may drink," he is asking to sample the content of her vessel to see if he would find faith. How did Rebekah respond to the testimony of the servant? This guy's God was crazy, or else everything she needed. He bowed down to the earth and worshiped his God that he had found her. He had obvious ability to bless because of the gold bracelets and nose ring with which she was immediately dressed. He was sent from the same family to the same family, just as he prayed. Guideposts! It's like God was saying to Rebekah, "Do you see these signs and wonders coupled with obvious blessing? Do you believe He has miraculously demonstrated His Word is True, to you?" If God wasn't showing Himself totally crazy for her, she wouldn't have believed in Him. The signs causing Rebekah to believe were only a few facets. There are many to behold.

Jacob's Well

'Jacob and Rachel at the Well'
by Schubert Franz August

Jesus has the pizazz to offer the water that satisfies thirst forever here at the side of Jacob's well. The resemblance between His account and Jacob's is hard to miss. Both Jacob and Jesus are seeking a Bride (a body of believers) while they "meet the woman at the well." It is beyond coincidence that the Samaritan woman was waiting (by faith) for one greater than Jacob. She knew there was more to be had of God, and only one greater than Jacob would roll away the heavy stone and water all the flocks. Rachel was a shepherdess, and the woman at the well also led many to drink. But how did Jacob find his way to the Bride? How come Jesus "must needs go through Samaria"? In Jacob's case, he had a dream; a guidepost, and met God. "Surely the LORD is in this place!" he exclaimed. He called the place "the house of the LORD." And then he made a vow to keep the Way, Genesis 28:20-21

Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God will be with me, and keep me in this way that I am going, and give me bread to eat and clothing to put on, so that I come back to my father’s house in peace, then the LORD shall be my God. And this stone which I have set as a pillar shall be God’s house, and of all that You give me I will surely give a tenth to You.

It was the Way which led Jacob back to his own kinsmen. Only the LORD can show us the way to the lost. He dedicates his successful Way of coming and going as the beginning of the temple - the dwelling of Emmanuel; God with us. "The LORD is there" is the name of New Jerusalem with all its citizens (Ezek. 48:35). How appropriate it is that the woman at the well in the Gospel of John asked about the place of worship, seeing her LORD was here, and He was greater than Jacob.

The Way and Abraham's Faith-Righteousness

Abraham saw the Way when he heard the Word of the LORD, Genesis 12:1-6,

Now the LORD said to Abram:
"Get out of your country,
From your family
And from your father's house,
To a land that I will show you.
I will make you a great nation;
I will bless you
And make your name great;
And you shall be a blessing.
I will bless those who bless you,
And I will curse him who curses you;
And in you all the families of the earth
shall be blessed."

In his meditations, what sort of information could Abram pull from this promise? If I pretend to be in his shoes, here's what I get:

God will be giving a blessing, which is some sort of power or influence for good things
It will be noticeably more powerful than what a human can do on their own. Is God going to come down?
The power is definitely going to be housed inside flesh and blood; so, typical flesh and blood children but they will be more powerful than other people
It will be possessed by Abraham's family, so something like an administration with Abraham probably as the head
It is for blessing people outside the family; it apparently is intuitively comprehendible and it is intended to be passed out
The power will not be given to all people, because there will be a control on it, based on God's parameters
The promises are linked and limited to a geographical space

The imagery of a fountain of living waters welling up from within works nicely with these understandings of the promise. But there is a more widespread biblical theology with which we can relate the promise. It is called circumcision. Rom 4:10-11,

How then was it accounted? While he was circumcised, or uncircumcised? Not while circumcised, but while uncircumcised. And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had while still uncircumcised, that he might be the father of all those who believe...

The Sign of The Promise

I usually read Romans 4 in a particular manner. According to this take, Paul is making the point that he had only the sign of circumcision in chapter 15 and that he had the (physical) circumcision "later" chronologically in Genesis chapter 17. But I recall other times in my life when I have read this passage much more interestingly. According to a deeper take, Paul is not referring to the physical circumcision in chapter 17, at all. Abraham received the sign of circumcision in chapter 15, and only when Christ came did he receive the circumcision. How? Colossians 2:11-13 says,

In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, buried with him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead. And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him...

Abraham was Circumcised not Before but "After"

Abraham was physically circumcised some time after he received the seal of righteousness that he had by faith. But he died in hope for real circumcision. Christ's circumcision is the only one that matters, amen? Galatians 5:2 says,

Indeed, I Paul, say to you that if you become circumcised, Christ profits you nothing.

Is circumcision of the flesh significant compared to the circumcision of the heart? Gal 6:15,

For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but a new creation.

What then is the point of Abraham's physical circumcision? This "mark" (Romans 4:11) on the Jewish male body was a private reminder that his passions should distinguish him from the world around him. It is the same Greek word used more frequently in the Gospel of John than anywhere else in the NT; and we think of the eight "signs" or "marks" in John. Circumcision "sign"-ifies faith in the promise God made to empower Abraham to bless the world. Sound familiar to John 20:31? Does it have any other significance in the theology of our salvation, except to foreshadow? Romans 2:25-29,

For circumcision is indeed profitable if you keep the law, but if you are a breaker of the law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision. Therefore, if an uncircumcised man keeps the righteous requirements of the law, will not his uncircumcision be counted as circumcision? And will not the physically uncircumcised, if he fulfills the law, judge you who, even with your written code and circumcision, are a transgressor of the law? For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh; but he is a Jew who is one inwardly and circumcision is that of the heart, in the Spirit, not in the letter; whose praise is not from men but from God.

What a rich passage. The "marked" are those who seek His Ways! The outward jobbie is a nice sign to the world that someone believes God, but only if it's really going on in one's life. Otherwise there is this beautiful equivalency and negation going on here proving that men need surgery and to be born from above. When the apostles revealed the mystery, as we read in Colossians, this surgery (circumcision) is nothing short of the death, burial and resurrection (baptism) of Christ, and our identification with Him in it. Ezekiel 36:24-27

For I will take you from among the nations, gather you out of all countries, and bring you into your own land. Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them.

With circumcision, we comprehend the Spirit of the law and we have the hope and the strength to follow it. This is the gift. Is God's "Way" a gospel of Lordship Salvation? No! Free will is biblical, and children of God can abandon even their own circumcision, losing reward, yet still be saved. What is this then? This is fulfillment of the difference God wanted all along. It is a gospel of hope. It is a gospel of capacity. Here we see the good news of "believe Jesus for eternal life" and the doctrine of eternal rewards coming into one house, without any of the corruption of works-salvation. It is a gospel with two significant acts of God in our receiving salvation. One, the cleansing and cutting work of regeneration. And two, the fitting and housing of the Holy Spirit for eternity, seemingly separated by a permeable membrane from our freshly-cut conscience.

That means that no Jew had experienced a new creation until Christ came to earth. No wonder Israel profaned God among the nations. They needed the Savior, to rip away the crusty outer layer of hard heartedness and receive a sensitive layer toward God (Deut. 30:1-6). They had the promises. They had access to the Holy Spirit! They didn't want to choose to turn to Him (Romans 3:10-18)! They really did not yet have the heart or understanding to properly interpret God in all His Ways, as the Spirit now reveals to us.

Jews and Gentiles Need Circumcision

What about Gentiles? The Jews may have had the promises, but has anyone noticed God's choice to adopt Gentiles? Galatians says "that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith" (Gal 3:14). Are Gentiles required to meditate on the law of Moses to understand they need a Savior? No! They also have law. Romans 2:13-15,

(for not the hearers of the law are just in the sight of God, but the doers of the law will be justified; for when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do the things in the law, these, although not having the law, are a law to themselves, who show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and between themselves their thoughts accusing or else excusing them)

Remember that all men were made in the image of God. Even if the image is distorted in a variety of ways from land to land, most societal law reflects knowledge of good versus evil. Every man knows that he breaks his own conscience, whatever his local land has taught him to think is best to live. They not only have law, but they have revelation of God. Romans 1:20-21

For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened.

A Gentile "knows" God (the Greek word used 49 times in the Gospel of John) even if he's never had a drop of scripture wash up on the seashore. If he is seeking to receive the Truth, he will admit what is revealed in creation and what he's already noted through this violated conscience: that his own life doesn't seem to have the power necessary to live the commanded kind of life. Wise Gentiles are searching for circumcision.

This makes Jews and Gentiles identically alike in nature, when Christ shows up. Galatians 4 says that all were slave-servant-children; we were in bondage to the elemental forces of this world. But when the fulness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons (vs. 3-5). Why was Moses given the Ten Commandments? It was given as a mediator, like between two spouses who can't decide on the rules of engagement. Just so you can't say you didn't get the memo.

God knew that mankind would want to believe till the bitter end that they could find the power within themselves to be the blessing God commanded. Works-salvation, in a nutshell. So just to get it out of their system (to make sin utterly sinful), He spent some time on the clock doing it unregenerate man's way. He told Abraham and all the descendants of his house from then on, "Go -- try." You; go circumcise your own hearts and your own flesh. Try and see if you have the ability to change yourself. When you're exhausted hearing me command you to circumcise your hearts and live, then I will show you my plan that I would circumcise you all along. And the Gentiles are largely the ones who are fresh in gratitude for God's attention, to be thankful and receive it.

Gentiles eagerly seek the essence of the gospel of Jesus -- the Spirit Himself -- and receive it. John the Baptist's preaching was taken from Isaiah 40-41. In it God asks the question, "Have you not known from the foundations of the earth?" He proves that all the nations of the earth know enough that the coming of Emmanuel reveals and ratifies the children of God from the children of the devil. He is the stumbling stone to gather His wheat in the barn and gather up those already set for destruction. This is why the harvest is white in John 4!

What is the Gift?

Do we know what the gift of God, is?

Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.”

What is the living water? John 7:37-39

Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

So is the gift of God, the Spirit? Acts 8:20 calls it "the gift of God." Romans 5:16 says "the free gift ... resulting in justification." Romans 5:17 calls it "the gift of righteousness." Romans 5:18 calls it "justification of life." It is called "salvation" in Ephesians 2:8. There is only one verse in the New Testament that calls the gift "eternal life" - - Romans 6:23. Most frequently, the gift is referring to the Holy Spirit.

Does the gift come by its differentiations? Or, when someone seeks eternal life must they then also be seeking the Spirit of God in a sense? Could it be that the essence humanity seeks is the essence of God Himself? God justifies. God gives righteousness. God gives grace. God gives eternal life. God gives... God.

How many countless people are out there in the world, seeking the circumcision - the difference - the presence and power of God? Sometimes a person hears the Word and believes, without experiencing much of God's presence and power and nearness - and their faith is considered blessed. For the rest, if they see God's presence and power, they will believe God is true. They will understand that the blessing is real. As the Living Waters booklet says, believe to life! There are unregenerate-Gentile children of God who live as slaves, longing for the adoption of sons. How can a gracious gospel use scripture as a bat to dismiss a testimony of someone believing in Jesus? They reason that because God-seeking Gentile converts today would not understand some passage of scripture, that such a soul was therefore never saved by believing in Jesus.

If the tribes in lands far away from the gospel of Christ can believe in God's ready revelation in creation, why can't they die in a hope for true circumcision, like Abraham did?

How Much We Need Need (part 2)
How Much We Need Need (part 1)
How Much We Need Need (introduction)

How Much We Need Need (part 3)

2011-01-31T22:38:00.000-08:00

'Need' is a Significant Component to the Gospel Message
[Previous post:How Much We Need Need (part 2)]

The way of this world is crooked, yet finds hope in Christ to put on the incorruptible and immortal. Jesus' offer of eternal life to all those who trust in Him for it, is not divorced from His earthly ministry. Nor is it divorced from the Father's ministry. Even the Gospel written for the purpose of evangelism (the Gospel of John; 20:31) does not neglect to testify of the power and presence of God, come, through signs. The kingdom come is a historical event just as is the cross. No matter the Gospel, the reality is that the promise of God manifesting and working in our midst - God's glory - has come face to face with us through Jesus Christ (2 Cor 4:6). The gift is available; for all to "receive" (Gal 3:14). It is clear; "revealed" (Gal 3:23, Gal 3:1, John 3:16). It is now; when "the fullness of the time had come" (Gal 4:4). Anyone who comes to the Father may drink Jesus, which is the indwelling of the Spirit (John 7:37-39). He wants us correspondingly to choose to remain in Christ and so also in the Father.

Lift up Your Face: The Woman at the Well's Assurance to Us

God-fearing Jews and Gentiles sought to be in Him, and when He came, they received Him with joy. In our case example, the woman at the well goes off to share the source of living water with the men of her city. While she is gone, Jesus teaches His disciples what they are missing since they were absent. He says in John 4:35,

Do you not say, 'There are still four months and then comes the harvest? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest!

This is an insider's track, the strategy driving the exchange with the woman at the well. The disciples had been laboring to purchase food which perishes. Meanwhile she can see the Way. The harvest is white when the revelation of Jesus is proclaimed. When in the town she does not communicate with the language of living water, though she points to the same source. She is testifying to the town, the Way. Not so centrally the Truth (1 Cor. 15:1-4), not so centrally the Life (John 11:25-26). The whole town would be very familiar with Jacob's well. She was confident this familiar object would illuminate the relational understanding of their need of God, and show how to receive the Spirit. She reaps. She receives wages. She was excited to share in the everlasting work of the Kingdom with Jesus her Savior. Now she is part of the Jerusalem that is born above, the Jerusalem of prophesy. Gal. 4:24-25, 28

For these are the two covenants: the one from Mount Sinai which gives birth to bondage, which is Hagar--for this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and corresponds to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children--but the Jerusalem above is free, which is the mother of us all. ... Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are children of the promise.

Housing the source of living water, New Jerusalem is clad in precious gems which stand the fiery test of judgment (1 Cor 3:12). These materials are the sort which the Jerusalem of the bondwoman never got around to acquiring for themselves though given ample opportunity. They distanced themselves from God, they convinced few that their God was true, and were exiled. God hid his face from them for a time, because they believed they did not need God. Then in Isaiah chapters 40-66, God tells them He has not written a certificate of divorce. He will bring the remnant back by His Servant, the Kinsman-Redeemer, who will acquire everything Himself out of faithfulness to Jacob, out of His mercy and grace and strength. He will convince the watching world. The precious gems (reward/wages) are explained in Isaiah to be children, or the nations. Jerusalem will not be barren of disciples any longer. He will see to it personally. Isaiah 49:18,

Lift up your eyes, look around and see; all these gather together and come to you. "As I live," says the LORD, "You shall surely clothe yourselves with them all as an ornament, and bind them on you as a bride does."

This strength to convince people of our God confirms the Spirit having come, and certainly stood in contrast to the accomplishment of the Pharisees, who "travel land and sea to win one proselyte, and when he is won, [they] make him twice as much a son of hell as [them]selves" (Matt 23:15).

Massive conversion to the faith is not the only "sign" that assures God's promise to Abraham has been made clear, available, and right now. I used the word "sign." It is a sign, and I use the word in a way a little less narrowly than a typical free grace person might.

Signs: Tangible Proof of The Power and The Presence of God

Elijah is a lesson that though God does amazing signs for one, God was still quietly at work in the lives of 7,000. Though He had spoken His presence through impressive fire on the altar, He also was not in the wind, earthquake or fire, but a still small voice. When doubting Thomas greeted the resurrected Jesus, Jesus said "blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed" (John 20:29). Jesus also said it was a wicked and adulterous generation that seeks after signs when they are plenty already to be believed (Matt 16:4), but, having mercy on us He acknowledged, “Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will by no means believe” (John 4:48). And so He uses signs; eight in John - eight miracles upon major prophecies of Christ's identity and accomplishment.

It is interesting that in God's opinion eight signs in the Gospel of John prove enough about Jesus that people may believe to everlasting life. But there are a multitude of other "signs" in John's Gospel. An example is John 6:2 which is not counted as one of the eight signs,

Then a great multitude followed Him, because they saw His signs which He performed on those who were diseased.

All eight are not requisites for faith. When only one of John's eight signs in his Gospel had been performed in chapter 2, Nicodemus comes to Jesus in chapter 3 to learn how to become a citizen of redeemed Jerusalem because of a number of unidentified signs (plural, 3:2). What about all the other amazing happenings (signs) encompassing Christ? For instance John the Baptist was Jesus' cousin, yet John said he did not know who the Savior was till the alighting of the Spirit. What is he trying to do to us? John can't mean he doesn't know the cousin he recognized in utero! He means, he was looking for the signs, and they came from Isaiah (42:1). Scripture enmeshed with circumstances was his assurance. We can easily expound the work and identity of Christ when we look for the many signs of what His coming and Kingdom will be like. Are custom-fitted applications of God's Kingdom in our lives, an interference to the doctrine of 'faith-alone'? The woman at the well asked what some have considered 'deflecting questions' out of her pursuit of God's true place of worship. Both she and John the Baptist's belief in Jesus came in circumstantial need for God.

How Many Signs Do We Need?

Jesus said "If I bear witness of Myself, My witness is not true" (John 5:31). He reaps what the Father sowed. Some people might want to argue that "God is with Him" so that the world would believe in Him for everlasting life. But Jesus' oft repeated contention is for all to know the Father. His ministry was to glorify the Father, not Himself. This is why John is concerned that "the words of the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled" throughout the length of the book. If Jesus' "Emmanuel" ministry was to convince the whole world to become followers of the Father, that therefore proves Jesus is the Father's (suffering!) Servant. If Jesus' ministry is failing to convince the lost person to believe the Most High God, has He saved anyone?

John employs eight signs for one goal: to "know Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God" (20:31). But the passages in John of each sign employs itself for the manifesting of His glory, and, for believing. Believing what? Remember, believing in Jesus and believing in the promise to Abraham are, paradoxically, distinct and yet One. What is an acceptable handle on the nuance between the two covenants (I can barely describe it in a post, truly!)

In the same way that the truth is distinct and yet also One, let me ask if believing in Jesus for eternal life, and believing in Jesus, are at odds with one another? No! Jesus has life in Himself like the Father. Might we skip over the Father and receive the gift from Jesus separately? Not likely! Jesus' shared His heart for the Father. To believe in the Son is to believe in the Father, and to believe in the Father is to believe in the Son as well.

The Way You Know, You Know: Variegated Signs

In the free grace INDepth note on the signs of Jesus in the Gospel of John of my Bible, it says, "... each miracle was a concrete demonstration of Jesus' divinity and messiahship" [1]. This is true, and John 20:31 tells us the signs are meant so that we might believe Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God and that by believing we might have eternal life. And that is excellent. But God's Word can be believed point-blank, in passive persuasion. Man is less willing to believe Him at His Word, and so God gave more; demonstration and power and the nearness of God. "Signs," "semeion" means a distinguishing mark or an indication. It means a portent, a miracle... bringing attention to the Trinity.

Signs prove the gospel of Jesus Christ is variegated in our approach to Christ and Christ's approach to us. Jesus' disciples believed in Him with a single sign that He turned water into wine. These Jews were aware of their own performance in the covenant having degraded since the exemplary faith-lives of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. "We have become like those of old, over whom You never ruled, those who were never called by Your name" (Is. 63:19). That Jesus had created the best wine at the end of the covenant, spoke scriptural, relational truth. Without Jesus there, it was just another wedding, just another day. But significance came to the wedding when Jesus made their need for God obvious according to the scriptures. They were not inhibited from believing Jesus because there was not yet a cross and resurrection or no audible promise of everlasting life. And they could also believe that the Servant would die according to other scriptures, because that is where the recollection of revelation leads them to conviction. This explains how Mary anointed Jesus before His death, when none of the apostles got that Jesus was going to the cross. She had spent a lot of time watching "the signs of the sky," sitting at His feet.

Nicodemus knows by sheer volume and kind of signs. He knew Jesus was a teacher come from God, for no one can do the signs that He did unless God is with Him. And if God is with Him, then the Kingdom has indeed come. Jesus did so many signs that the people wondered if their doctrinal Christ would be any more prolific than this man Jesus? John 7:31,

And many of the people believed in Him, and said, 'When the Christ comes, will He do more signs than these which this Man has done?'

Other "signs" in the Gospel of John are:

physical healings (Jn 6:2, Is 38:16)
the blind see (Jn 9, Is 35:5-6)
infants and children will not die young (Jn 4:50, Is 65:20)
the Father anoints Jesus (Jn 6:27, Is 61:1)
liberty to the captives (the Son makes you free Jn 8:36, Is 61:1)
the acceptable year of the Lord (the woman in adultery Jn 8:10, Is 61:2)
opening the prison of those who are bound ("loose" the bound Lazaraus Jn 11:44, Is 61:1)
comfort for the mourning (the Comforter comes when Jesus goes away, Jn 16:6, Is 61:2)
joy replaces mourning (Jn 15:11, Is 61:3)
the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness (Jn 14:27, Is 61:3)
the planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified (Jn 15:7-8, Is 61:3)

This is just scratching the surface, mostly from just one passage in Isaiah as one may see. These do not include the many passages in Isaiah on light, or love and mercy of God has come, most importantly the suffering Servant, and there's more.

Entrance Sign: Those Who Are Making Straight the Way Are Grabbed by Those Seeking the Way

The Father and Son talk to each other about their motive in the gospel. The Father states His plan to gather true Israel, which includes God-fearers among the Gentiles. Where are God's "7,000 quiet God-fearing" unbelievers in our day? When we witness the gospel converting Gentiles we gain assurance that we know God and God knows us. Is. 49:5-6

And now the LORD says, who formed Me from the womb to be His Servant, to bring Jacob back to Him, so that Israel is gathered back to Him (for I shall be glorious in the eyes of the LORD, and My God shall be My strength), indeed He says, 'It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved ones of Israel; I will also give You as a light to the Gentiles, that You should be My salvation to the ends of the earth.'

The Gospel of John calls God-seeking Gentiles "children of God" in Caiaphas' prophecy, 11:51

Now this he did not say on his own authority, but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation, and not for that nation only, but also that He would gather together in one the children of God who were scattered abroad.

By this scriptural "sign" from John we know that Jesus is the Servant, and the Father is faithful to His promises.

Those coming into His Kingdom find the Way to anticipate redemption from human depravity and a fallen world. God's glory-with-us, is part of the New Covenant Way in which He plans to win the world through the church. We read salvation into our circumstances right off the pages of scripture, and we realize we "know" Jesus now. This is the mystery where we begin a relationship by faith with Him.

That Which Matters to Us Matters to Him -
Will We Respond the Same

From the scriptures, straight to the needs of our lives - only God-fearers see the Way to believe in Him. Both the gift and the supply of the Spirit is for anyone who asks the Father (Luke 11:13) and believes in His Son, Savior of the world. And, through Him we also have a firm hope for godly living.... the subject of the next post. Matt 22:1-14

And Jesus answered and spoke to them again by parables and said: “The kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who arranged a marriage for his son, and sent out his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding; and they were not willing to come. Again, he sent out other servants, saying, ‘Tell those who are invited, “See, I have prepared my dinner; my oxen and fatted cattle are killed, and all things are ready. Come to the wedding.”’ But they made light of it and went their ways, one to his own farm, another to his business. And the rest seized his servants, treated them spitefully, and killed them. But when the king heard about it, he was furious. And he sent out his armies, destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city. Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy. Therefore go into the highways, and as many as you find, invite to the wedding.’ So those servants went out into the highways and gathered together all whom they found, both bad and good. And the wedding hall was filled with guests.
“But when the king came in to see the guests, he saw a man there who did not have on a wedding garment. So he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you come in here without a wedding garment?’ And he was speechless. Then the king said to the servants, ‘Bind him hand and foot, take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
“For many are called, but few are chosen.”

How Much We Need Need (part 1)
How Much We Need Need (introduction)

[1] Thomas Nelson Inc., 1997. NKJV Study Bible, pg. 1781.

How Much We Need Need (part 2)

2011-01-14T12:41:00.000-08:00

[Previous post: How Much We Need Need (part 1)]
'Need' is a Significant Component to the Gospel Message

The Woman of Samaria
by Harold Copping

In the last post I took a fresh look at John 4 and the gospel presented to the woman at the well. In this post I would like to ask some critical thinking questions.

Imagine a salvation where there was no redemptive works to be done, no thing for saints to accomplish by Christ's power, in this life or the resurrected one. What would the offer of eternal life in John chapter four look like if humanity only needed forgiveness of sins and a wage-less, rewardless, workless, and undistinguished experience of eternity in heaven? I might have to pull out a pen and (God forgive the concept) mark out portions, perhaps something like this:

Jesus answered and said to her, “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him ~~a fountain of~~ water ~~springing up in~~to everlasting life.”

The Woman at the Well: Evaluate the "Homework"

This is a good point for discussion. What do you think of the stuff in the last post? I know I don't know a lot yet and I probably have some major holes in my understanding of what is happening in John 4.

Around town I head FG people say about our own gospel that it "makes no difference, it's only the convincing thing to do." Did Jesus share a "no difference" gospel in John or in the other Gospels?

What is the gospel according to the passage? Is the gospel precisely only one verse: "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, 'Give Me a drink,' you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water"?

If that's all the gospel is, what's all the context for? Did the woman at the well need the context on husbands (Jesus' conversation piece) and places of worship (her conversation piece) in order to receive the gift of eternal life? Seriously, we just don't need all that do we? Even the study note in my bible says that she was deflecting the gospel issue by bringing up a theological hobby horse. Is the discussion on the proper place of worship in this gospel presentation just theological legalism? Is Jesus doing biblical synthesis? Of course the biblical backdrop is necessary. I believe Jesus needed those scriptures because it satisfies what this woman knows she needs of God. She need not repent here in this encounter; Jesus does not ask her to repent in this passage. She isn't pressing to perform good works for her salvation. What she needs is a New-Covenant grand integration with God; the kind that advances her abiding with God, and God abiding with her.

Jesus asked her, "If you knew..." To "know" God is to be intimately knowledgeable of Him through living with Him (John 14:7-9; 17:3). Sounds like a question of fellowship. We read gospel passages in the New Testament scriptures as always being a "yes/no" answer of whether or not people in His day were saved (justified/possessing eternal life). Why can't it be a "yeah-but wait"?

There are two typical ways a Free Grace person assesses Spiritual exchange with God. They do it by asking the question, "Is this person being saved/justified/receiving eternal life?" Or they assess by asking, "Is this person already a believer, but now is coming to a conviction regarding sanctification or fellowship with God?" Right? Both those questions are excellent for this passage. The woman at the well: is she being invited to return to fellowship with God, and therefore was already justified (saved)? If she was not saved before He presented this gospel, is He inviting her to just believe and therefore also receive the fulfillment of the promised gift of the Holy Spirit, previously unavailable to believing Jew or anyone else for that matter, in Living Water now available to the world? But there is a third way to assess the Spiritual exchange, which is the essence of this post.

First be sure, this is a gospel for a Jew, a physical descendant of Abraham (she calls Jacob her father in verse 12). This may be a most inappropriate gospel to share with a Gentile to help them receive justification with God; that is, unless it's suitable for all people, which I believe it is, but I will explain that in another post. Before I explore some of the issues of salvation/fellowship for a Jew, let me share what a burden it has been to study this carefully. It is so difficult to understand her relationship to God, especially considering she is a half-breed Samaritan, with all the pondering I've been able to make of this passage.

There's a more paradoxical way of approaching a passage such as this, than just asking two diagnostic questions "Is she getting saved?" and "Is she returning into fellowship with God?" This third approach finds the most consistent support through scripture, and once I got it, it was simple to understand why Jesus was preaching the way He did, and why the Apostles preached the way they did in Acts and taught the gospel the way they did in Romans and Hebrews. Let me show you how I found what I have.

Abraham had Eternal Life and the Holy Spirit

First I asked myself, what about Abraham? Was he saved? And his sons, Isaac and Jacob? How about all his other offspring... were they saved? We know that "only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham" (Gal. 3:7). "That is, those who are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as the seed" (Rom. 9:8). Therefore we know that whoever is a descendant of Abraham and who also had at any moment the faith of Abraham (faith in the promise first given in Genesis 12) are those who will inherit the promise. If the promise was most illustrated as guaranteed to anyone at all, it was illustrated as guaranteed to Abraham. Can anyone nullify the promises to these believers? No!

If Abraham were standing there with the woman at the well, would he need to hear the gospel Jesus told this Samaritan woman? Can you imagine Jesus telling Abraham, "Believe in Me and receive everlasting life!" The answer is yes, and no. First: the reason why the answer is no....

The promises made to Abraham already contained the saving work of Jesus Christ in His death, burial and resurrection: The Holy Spirit for, and the Resurrection of, believers. It is quite something that the gospel of Jesus Christ in 1 Cor 15:1-4 is caught up in Genesis 12... but thanks be to God that it was kept secret till the administration of grace began in Paul's preaching and teaching.

Proof text: Matthew 22:29-33

Jesus answered and said to them, “You are mistaken, not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God. For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels of God in heaven. But concerning the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was spoken to you by God, saying, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.” And when the multitudes heard this, they were astonished at His teaching.

If Abraham is living thousands of years after his physical death, then hasn't he already received the gift of eternal life? Do Abraham's spiritual offspring (those who "believe in the LORD") also already possess eternal life? I think so. After all, Jacob and Isaac already have it too. If this woman already believed in the LORD before meeting the person of Jesus, she had already received the gift of eternal life before Jesus offered it at the well. Therefore she did not need the gospel of everlasting life preached to her to offer her justification. In fact the terminology Jesus uses may simply be formality and confirmation for the long-awaited promise. He says essentially, "Got some good news here!" John 4:13-15

Jesus answered and said to her, “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.”
The woman said to Him, “Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw.”

Payment of goods promised, is the gospel ("good news") here? Yes indeed! But even this is not the most important issue going on here, because in a sense she still needed to believe this gospel to be saved. In this perspective, the answer is yes -- Abraham did need to believe the gospel Jesus was preaching here. Let's investigate the issue of the Holy Spirit and see if we find the same pattern (and we do).... When I read Genesis 12, or Genesis 15:6 where his faith was accounted for righteousness, I just don't see the promise of the Holy Spirit embedded in these promises. Nevertheless, that is what Paul tells us was latently there all along in the book of Galatians, all of chapter three. (Paul is the authority on this doctrine.)

Proof text: Galatians 3:2-9

This only I want to learn from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh? Have you suffered so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain?
Therefore He who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you, does He do it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?—just as Abraham “believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” Therefore know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying, “In you all the nations shall be blessed.” So then those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham.

We also know the promise of blessing spoken to Abraham was a dim revelation of the Holy Spirit from another verse in Galatians, 3:14

that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.

Abraham did not possess the Holy Spirit. Not in the way we Gentiles do (in this 'time of the Gentiles' after Emmanuel has come). The Holy Spirit was not come to dwell in men till Pentecost happened. Before that, it was some kind of closeness with His Spirit yet without Him making His eternal dwelling in those who believe in Him. Abraham was most definitely looking forward to the day of Pentecost. He knew it was the means by which God would bless all the families of the earth. Here is the doctrine which contrasts the difference between Abraham's covenant and Jesus' covenant, John 4:13-15

Jesus answered and said to her, “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life." The woman said to Him, “Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw.”

She wants two things. She wants to not have to travel to draw water - implying distance. There would be no distance now between her and God anymore, since the fountain of water (the Holy Spirit) would make her connection to God a personal possession. Second, she wants to not thirst. She needs God's Spirit, in fact we could just say she needs God (Father, Son or Holy Spirit), period. She wants Him. She IS thirsty. She wants Him all the time. Thirst happens when you leave the side of the well, does it not? But we cannot escape the presence of God in the New Covenant. This is an upgrade in water-dispensing technology. It is in a grand sense, integrating God and man closer than they had been through the promises of Abraham. With Jacob's well, this much is sure: they had already received the gift of the Holy Spirit. They had received the promise of God. They had free access to God's presence, God's Spirit. Jacob's well proves that the usual Free Grace questioning of salvation and fellowship issues is stopping short of the most important question. It is not a "yes/no" but a "yeah, but wait" kind of answer.

Jesus says "You won't have to 'come here' (to Jacob) to draw God anymore. I'm changing (fulfilling and replacing) the covenant."

The Free Grace Gospel: What it has Been and What it can Become

John 4 is a gospel proving how the LORD uses human need for God to bring people into persuasion of the Truth and Work of Christ, to receive Him (the gift). It seems to me indisputable He did just that in this passage. And since it is so simple (as the GES say, one drink, one persuasion is all it takes), and must be doctrinally sound (as the FGA say, the Jesus of scripture is what must be identified), this gospel focusing on human need for receiving Jesus is the framework for both sides of this debate to be right when they preach.

John 4 is a great example of the weakness in both the GES's and the FGA's distinct philosophies on evangelism. The FGA wants to safeguard against universalism and false doctrine of the work and person of Christ; therefore they probably wouldn't use this passage to help someone come to Christ. The context is eschatological, and otherwise incredibly narrow and personal, and does not articulate 1 Cor 15:1-4. It is sad they wouldn't use a passage from scripture of our own Savior offering living water to "anyone" ("And let him who thirsts, come" Rev. 22:17) who wants it. The GES wants to safeguard against false doctrines of works so believers can gain assurance of salvation and rest and grow in Christ. This passage does a great job at leading a lost person to assurance of salvation. Unfortunately the context is eschatological and incredibly narrow and personal, and in this woman's case her presence by Jacob's well suggests she already possessed eternal life.

Dave Anderson remarked at the Free Grace Alliance conference last spring, "I don't want to go on with this business of finding the minimalist gospel. I want to preach the maximum gospel." Minimums are wrong. But so are maximums. What we want is a way to navigate through gospel passages according to the way that most helps the lost person get saved. This passage can and should be used in evangelism in spite of its flaws in satisfying the noble goals of the FGA and GES. I want to explore the heart of the scriptures on salvation, perhaps by which we can assess the Spiritual exchange happening in New Testament gospel accounts.

[Please click the links below to other posts in this series:]
How Much We Need Need (introduction)

How Much We Need Need (part 1)

2011-01-14T12:31:00.000-08:00

[Previous post: How Much We Need Need (introduction)]
'Need' is a Significant Component to the Gospel Message

In this post I would like to take a look at the gospel given to the woman at the well in the Gospel of John, Chapter 4. In the next post I plan to ask some critical questions.

The key to understanding the gospel content that saves the lost person coming to Christ, comes through the understanding that apart from God's presence with us our world is broken, and humanity, depraved. The gospel given to the woman at the well in John 4 was tailored to her personal restoration and went beyond, fulfilling her in the promise given to Abraham and his offspring. Take a new look at the gospel the Samaritan woman at the well heard, received, and for which she abandoned her jar to tell her countrymen.

The Woman at the Well: My Homework

John 7:4-15

A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give Me a drink.” For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.
Then the woman of Samaria said to Him, “How is it that You, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.
Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.”
The woman said to Him, “Sir, You have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where then do You get that living water? Are You greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank from it himself, as well as his sons and his livestock?”
Jesus answered and said to her, “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.”
The woman said to Him, “Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw.”

The conversation has concerned water, both natural and Living. But there is more going on here, involving intimacy, husbands, and places of worship. And only when she's been restored in these things does she spring up and testify. John 4:16-18

Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.”
The woman answered and said, “I have no husband.”
Jesus said to her, “You have well said, ‘I have no husband,’ for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; in that you spoke truly.”

Who are her five husbands? Being Samaritan, I can guess who they are. 2 Kings 17:24

Then the king of Assyria brought people from Babylon, Cuthah, Ava, Hamath, and from Sepharvaim, and placed them in the cities of Samaria instead of the children of Israel; and they took possession of Samaria and dwelt in its cities.

All five "possessed" Samaria, they all "dwelt," or entered, her. We don't know for sure which people-group and their false god represents the current man she currently is residing with as an unmarried woman. But I rejoice that at least she had not been married to the last one like she had the first five, exalting and officiating in high places for various sorts of false worship as it says in 2 Kings 17:32,

So they feared the LORD, and from every class they appointed for themselves priests of the high places, who sacrificed for them in the shrines of the high places. They feared the LORD, yet served their own gods—according to the rituals of the nations from among whom they were carried away.

The woman at the well doesn't seem (at this point) to be the sinful woman she is usually characterized as being. Instead, theologically astute. It might be possible that the man she "now has" is the LORD Himself. She has Him in the sense that the Samaritans somehow went on fearing God in spite of their adulterous service to false gods. But the Samaritans no longer know Him since He no longer knows her. John 4:19-20

The woman said to Him, “Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship.”

She perceives how He is aware of the sin of Samaria. Seizing the very heart of the issue, as any woman would who has waited a long time for salvation, she admits: I still fear you. But I don't know you like I did once upon a time. He shows her how to know Him. John 4:21-22

Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews.

As the Apostle John uses the word in his epistle, "know" means fellowship. She divorced all her former false gods and was a 'single woman' so to speak, an unconvinced God-seeker. This is repentance over what Samaria did at first, and Jesus knew it. Her repentance must have already taken place before Jesus met her at the edge of the well. They agreed about the past of Samaria. The study-note in my bible says,

The Jews insisted that the exclusive place of worship was Jerusalem. But the Samaritans had set up a rival worship site on Mount Gerizim.... When the blessings and curses were read to the wilderness generation of Israel, the blessings were read from Mount Gerizim. Deuteronomy 27:4 instructed that an altar be erected on Mount Ebal, opposite Mount Gerizim. But the Samaritan scripture changed the verse to read "Mount Gerizim." The Samaritans altered history and tampered with the text of Scripture to glorify Mount Gerizim. [1]

Samaria of old sounds like the false woman in Proverbs 9, who claims "stolen water is sweet" and causes men to worship false gods, because she "knows nothing" (Prov. 9:13). The woman at the well, however, knows a very few things about the God she and her territory abandoned and the Savior, more importantly, who is coming.

Worshiping now in Spirit, Later in "Truth"

How is Samaria to go on with Christ? Jesus explains the where and how worship will take place, and she is all ears. John 4:23,

But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”

Old Testament prophecies about end-time events tell us what Jesus means. They will worship God, "In Truth" - the name given to a location on earth known as New Jerusalem. Zechariah 8:3,

“Thus says the LORD:

‘I will return to Zion,
And dwell in the midst of Jerusalem.
Jerusalem shall be called the City of Truth,
The Mountain of the LORD of hosts,
The Holy Mountain.’

Salvation has come through the Jews; Jesus Christ and the remnant of Israel. The Kingdom of God is at hand in Jesus Christ, and during His first coming it was present on earth. As Jesus sits there on the edge of the well in the heat of the day, His Kingdom is before any people of any nation. What does His kingdom look like today? Today, there is no Temple in Jerusalem and so wherever the church is, there is the only dwelling. But when Christ comes again, His Spirit will annex geographical location, possessing not only the souls of His people but also territory on earth. During the millennial reign of Christ, the nations will seek Him by traveling to this geographical residence of His church. Zech. 8:20-23,

“Thus says the LORD of hosts:
‘Peoples shall yet come,
Inhabitants of many cities;
The inhabitants of one city shall go to another, saying,

“Let us continue to go and pray before the LORD,
And seek the LORD of hosts.
I myself will go also.”
Yes, many peoples and strong nations
Shall come to seek the LORD of hosts in Jerusalem,
And to pray before the LORD.’

“Thus says the LORD of hosts: ‘In those days ten men from every language of the nations shall grasp the sleeve of a Jewish man, saying, “Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.”’”

Revelation 21 contextually puts into proximity both the fountain of Living Waters from which everyone is invited to drink, and the coming of the New Jerusalem, Christ's holy people. The resurrected church is the dwelling of God in Jerusalem. Rev 21:2-7

Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.”
Then He who sat on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.” And He said to me, “Write, for these words are true and faithful.”
And He said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts. He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be My son.

Isaiah has exactly the same thing; the New Jerusalem (characterized as being clad with precious materials) is contextually in proximity to the offer of drinking from the fountain of Living Water (see Isaiah 54:10-55:9). Indeed, the pure "water of life" has its ultimate source in New Jerusalem as depicted in Revelation 21 and into 22. Rev. 22:1,

And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb.

The OT prophesies being fulfilled in both Jesus' first advent and in Revelation seem to be endless. Earlier in Isaiah 54 God speaks to His covenant people as to a wife. Isaiah 54:5

For your Maker is your husband,
The LORD of hosts is His name;
And your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel.

It seems very likely that the woman understood the significance of their location as they sat and conversed. Living water would flow from the location of the New Jerusalem, a woman intended for the Holy One.

All Things

The woman at the well is curious: is this man greater than Jacob? John 4:11-12,

The woman said to Him, “Sir, You have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where then do You get that living water? Are You greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank from it himself, as well as his sons and his livestock?”

What is she referring to when she confesses, "He will teach us all things?" John 4:25-29

The woman said to Him, “I know that Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ). “When He comes, He will tell us all things.”
Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am He.”
And at this point His disciples came, and they marveled that He talked with a woman; yet no one said, “What do You seek?” or, “Why are You talking with her?”
The woman then left her waterpot, went her way into the city, and said to the men, “Come, see a Man who told me all things that I ever did. Could this be the Christ?”

A Prophet after Moses was to be known by noting the thing they say will come to pass (deut 18:15-22). If they speak correctly... then they ought to be feared. Jesus had told her what would come to pass saying, "But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him (John 4:23)." All of a sudden location did not impede worship. The presence of Jesus was affective! In the gospel accounts many people were prepared to worship Jesus while being in His presence even before the Spirit had covenantally been poured out on the church. She "knew" Him now. Imagine her surprise to be experiencing the presence of God by being in the presence of Jesus. She need not travel to Jerusalem because she was able to worship God right here at the well! His words about the future were coming true during their conversation. It was this very experience, this very foretold truth, that caused her to leave her jar behind and run off to tell them, 'This is the Prophet!"

Jesus' Messiah-status would mean He would teach all things on behalf of God "I will put My Words in His mouth" (Deut. 18:18). According to the revealed mystery we know now in the gospel, this would be fulfilled through the promise of the ministry of the Holy Spirit God.

Formerly I focused my theology on the Holy Spirit's Living Water deposited as a one-moment event. John 7:37-39

On the last day, the climax of the festival, Jesus stood and shouted to the crowds, “Anyone who is thirsty may come to me! Anyone who believes in me may come and drink! For the Scriptures declare, ‘Rivers of living water will flow from his heart.’” (When he said “living water,” he was speaking of the Spirit, who would be given to everyone believing in him. But the Spirit had not yet been given, because Jesus had not yet entered into his glory.)

His Spirit leads men into all Truth. John 16:13,

However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come.

He will tell the church the "things to come"? This leading of the Spirit into all truth is not only for now, not only an experience for this age. It is also for the Millennial reign, a thousand years of God's ministry to the world from His throne in the New Jerusalem! Unlike this age, in the next age knowledge of the LORD will be simple to access, but understanding Him will take an eternity. Quickly she gained intimacy with Christ by a first drink of living water. But: He was not a one-moment husband, was He? That had been their original error. Indeed; He was and is a husband into eternity. Projecting forward, God's truth and righteousness will not be manifest in the millennium in every corner of the planet. This will be the work to be accomplished by Jesus under His thousand year rule. Isaiah 2:2-3

Now it shall come to pass in the latter days
That the mountain of the LORD’s house
Shall be established on the top of the mountains,
And shall be exalted above the hills;
And all nations shall flow to it.
Many people shall come and say,

“Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD,
To the house of the God of Jacob;
He will teach us His ways,
And we shall walk in His paths.”
For out of Zion shall go forth the law,
And the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.

The Samaritan woman and her people were looking forward to this Spiritual quality of the Christ's coming, not only for this age with Jesus before her, but also the age to come. The men in the city also knew after hearing Him that they were invited to be incorporated into the Holy City in true worship of God, the treasured Wife of the Lamb (and also see the end of enmity between Israel and Judah).

Then they said to the woman, “Now we believe, not because of what you said, for we ourselves have heard Him and we know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world.”

"Come, hear Him for yourself," is the message for the Samaritan and for the faithful Old Testament believer. It is the message for all the nations.

Summary

The earthly Temple was destroyed in Jerusalem in A.D. 70. This is why Jesus teaches the woman, "the time is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father." We are sojourners and pilgrims on earth (1 Pet. 2:11), yet "our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself" (phil. 3:20-21).

Until His second coming, we only have the opportunity to worship the Father in the Temple that dwells inside us. It does not matter yet what location we worship from, because wherever we are, we are with Christ and in His Kingdom. Jesus used the truth about the program of the church age to show Himself to be a prophet to the woman. But the Father still "desires" all "true" worshipers to worship Him in spirit and in truth; the City of Truth (Zech. 8:3). In the resurrection, we all must do so. By acknowledging her very important question about the future location of worship, He satisfies Samaria's desperate thirst for God's presence. His kingdom is "now, but not yet." John 4:21-24,

Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”

The fountain of Living Waters is given to serve Christ and manifest righteousness into eternity, and we already know we need every drop, every day.

[Continue to the next post:]
How Much We Need Need (part 2)

[1] Thomas Nelson Inc., 1997. NKJV Study Bible, pg. 1766.

How Much We Need Need (introduction)

2011-01-14T09:15:00.000-08:00

Salvation of any kind is not for any one who does not personally interact inwardly with scripture. Every other gospel is an insufficient or front-loaded gospel.

The key to the free grace gospel debate, and the key to salvation and reigning in joy with Christ is caught up in one truth: Man needs God.

The only consistent and genuine thing about man is that he has needs. With these God makes transactions of His life in us.

I humbly introduce a multi-part series of the best I can do to share scriptures which point to a comprehensive and fair Content of Saving Faith interpretation of the gospel message.

[Please click the links below to begin this series:]
How Much We Need Need (part 1)
How Much We Need Need (part 2)

Lybrand's Parenting Course

2011-01-13T11:13:00.000-08:00

Dr. Lybrand's Parenting Course is titled, The Absolute Quickest Way to Help Your Child's Behavior Change. It is available as an audio download and as paperback.

This is the parenting course I would want my friends to own. I would particularly give it to those friends who are worried that they cannot be a success. I know I struggle with it also from time to time. I get surprised when I feel frustration. My children come up with new ways to break principles I want them to possess! Recently my most obedient, oldest child (a nine-year-old) began a habit of whining when I tell her to go do something. I was shocked since she stopped whining when she was two (why is this behavior coming back from the grave?).

I really feel great after listening to the audio version of Lybrand's book. Perhaps I knew inwardly some of these ideas, and then after hearing them and meditating on them over these months I feel more free than ever to be a success as a parent! The 4 questions Fred taught have been there to help me move fluidly through the difficult moments without getting bogged down with the frustration phase. This material restores moms and dads with the capacity to parent and the ability to influence their children. I am convinced it is the right message, one that delivers solutions.

My biggest failing as a parent is that I am not as close to our three kids as I want to be. I have loved the training aspect of being a mom. They are very good children and so it's easy to just let them do their own thing. It is a rut I fall back into. Once upon a time it was a hard heart on my part. I struggled to want to be around them. Now I do, but I find that life creeps in and steals my intention to get them to open up and share more of themselves. If I can get what I want from them (obedience) then everything else is extra credit, I guess I operate as if. Does that sound awful? I think it does! I use Lybrand's course to motivate myself as parent to follow-through with my children. I have started taking my older girls out for "Mommy-Daughter Dates." We have great and memorable times that reinforce our relationship in the rest of our normal routine. It is relieving some of the pressure of what I know I am missing.

If you are interested in this course for you or a friend, visit Lybrand's website (Joy 2 Parent) linked above. Right now he is running a promotional price of $47.00 if the enrollee will commit to tell 5 friends about the course... "ONLY AFTER you are convinced the material has helped your parenting talent," it says. This is a great deal (if you have five parent-friends!) and is available until January 31, 2011.

Mourning Revilers

2011-01-10T02:28:00.000-08:00

Paul told the Corinthians that he was a few steps ahead of them, and he intended to patiently wait for them to catch up. 1 Corinthians 5:1-2

It is actually reported that there is immorality among you, and immorality of such a kind as does not exist even among the Gentiles, that someone has his father's wife.
You have become arrogant and have not mourned instead, so that the one who had done this deed would be removed from your midst.

What does Paul mean when he says that they were arrogant?

"Your glorying is not good," it says in 5:6. This church fellowshipped with sexual immorality. They had already been warned by Paul not to keep company with sexually immoral people (1 Cor 5:9). Later, when tested with a man who debuted an unnamed perversion, they held fellowship still, and boasted in their hearts by extending tolerance amidst epic battles over men's souls. The Corinthians used the church as the grounds to entertain one faction as pitted against another and it was widespread. They had also pitted God's workers against one another in 4:6. Arrogantly, they were cheering for Apollos and Paul as a sport; one against another. Also while eating they did not listen to their stomach for discernment on when to stop, pitting their own appetites against nourishment's benefit (6:13). And they fellowshipped with brethren engaged in lawsuits against one another (6:6).

It was an innocent disobedience, in a general sense. 1 Cor 3:1-2

And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual people, but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ. I fed you with milk and not with solid food; for until now you were not able to receive it, and even now you are still not able...

Paul saw these believers' inexperience with godliness. He could have followed the same example they were showing the world - tolerance - returning likewise, with the excuse that they were still not able to receive spiritual instruction. God's mercy and patience is laced throughout the book. With longsuffering compasssion He expands their understanding to see sin from His perspective in 6:18-20,

Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.

Established in grace, God commands them to mourn this stronghold, to not tolerate it. Mourning over this one sin - how much a difference can regret over one sin make for the congregation? He continues on with verses 3-5 of chapter five explaining that though he hopes for the church to be convinced, he isn't waiting on any of them. He cannot delay spiritual warfare even if that means he is alone. Before the ink of his pen dries and the letter is packed for the Aegean Peninsula, Paul has long since exposed the man's sin to the light.

For I indeed, as absent in body but present in spirit, have already judged (as though I were present) him who has so done this deed. In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when you are gathered together, along with my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.

For some odd reason, Paul's instruction for restoration of the man calls baptism to mind. "Destruction of the flesh" reminds the Greek word "baptizo" for baptism, a "wash of destruction" but of washing of what? Of the outward body? No: "There is also an antitype which now saves us—baptism (not the removal of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God)" (1 Pet. 3:21). Baptism is part "1,a" of the Covenant Christ makes with us in the New, and, with circumcision in the Old Covenant we recall that God commanded Abraham and his descendants to "circumcise their hearts" so that they would be sensitive to love the LORD and experience His life for them. With both baptism and circumcision, they are covenants where God says to those He has just declared His own, "I willingly chose you, and yes unconditionally; now - make a covenant in this covenant by willingly choosing me in return." What a perfect solution for the man who has a fleshly heart full of sin: circumcise your heart, and come alive to God so that you may be spared harsh judgment at the coming of Jesus our Lord.

As if the verdict has already taken place when it has not yet taken place, as if he were present when he might not be, Paul has already delivered this man to Satan in the heavenly realms. To delay would be wrong, denying the deliverance of God by first being purged of leaven. In the book of Exodus, seven days were commanded to be observed before God's saving of Israel from Egypt. They were told to sweep all leaven out of their homes and eat no leavened bread. We are still feasting on unleavened bread - Christ - and God commands the Corinthians to keep on partaking of fellowship without the old leaven (1 Cor 5:7-8).

The Corinthian church now receives the command not to keep company with anyone named a brother who practices one of six categories of sin, 1 Cor. 5:11

But now I have written to you not to keep company with anyone named a brother, who is sexually immoral, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner—not even to eat with such a person.

Fornication A person who practices sex outside of marriage
Covetousness A person eager to have more esp. what belongs to others
Idolater To serve some thing in the place of God
Railer To criticize harshly or abusively, berate
Drunkard A person who practices drunkenness
Extortioner A person who charges exorbitantly

Both outside and inside the Protestant church, we hear a lot about God's standard to not commit fornication. Idolatry we hear very often at church to be sin. And depending on how official we make it to worship a god of another identity, and whether others can really know unless we tell them, it may be more difficult to detect. Covetousness is also somewhat well known - but how serious does God expect the church to respond when it says to separate from those who want what others have. How about revilers? I haven't heard too much about that. Turn on the radio however and most deejays make a living on railing others.

Proverbs 22:24-25 tells us railing others is leaven in the Body,

Make no friendship with an angry man,
And with a furious man do not go,
Lest you learn his ways
And set a snare for your soul.

And isn't a short fuse spread just like that? As soon as someone has lost their cool, doesn't it immediately make you feel totally dropped down to nothing in hotness and anger too? Yes it does. The verbally abusive draw on that power to make you fight dirty so you look just as guilty. They use it to shift blame around equally so they may continue doing as they've done. Paul's letter was an appeal to wisdom in fellowship.

The unsaved people of this world are hopelessly caught in these six strongholds. And so are believers sometimes when they first come into the faith. But as God patiently teaches the Corinthians about godliness, He simultaneously commands that those people who perpetually seek to one-up on life through these habits be betrayed and delivered to Satan. You need not lead them in desperate hope for change. They must individually engage the will, to be set free to serve Christ. This goes for not just those six strongholds, but every kind of intentional disobedience. 1 Cor 5:8,

Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

Sincere people are proper fellowship. However, the Greek word "malice" is defined as "malignity, ill-will, and desire to injure" and "wickedness that is not ashamed to break laws;" that which this man with unnamed perversion demonstrated.

God's promise is: do not say the flesh is all we've known, and what we are is just fine, and take pride. Rather, mourn. And if we mourn these sins, the dwelling place for them will be removed from the fellowship. Sin will not spread throughout the whole batch if it is swept from the house all seven days of the week.

Paul immediately delivered that man who named himself a brother, who also chose the stronghold of sin over freedom in Christ. As the letter was on its way, do you think Paul hoped and prayed that the church would gather together in Jesus Christ and deliver that man to Satan too? Did they?

May the members of the Body encourage one another to do as God commands.

The Dispatching and Disbanding of Deborah

2010-12-09T14:40:00.000-08:00

The Unusual Champion of God's Order

Deborah and Jael in Judges chapters 4-5 are two women in scripture who represent one unique case of women at the helm. At first glance they appear to flip God's heirarchy for gender. A second look casts doubt an inversion ever took place. Deborah is the story of regenerated Eve helping Adam to find regeneration.

The more I study Deborah and Jael, the more I marvel how they take up what should belong to a man. There aren't many other biblical accounts of women leading. How did Deborah pull this off, if Paul in all the churches everywhere does not permit a woman to rule over a man, and if God gave Judah errant women-leaders as a chastening? Women-leaders have been described elsewhere as insulting and a punishment by God upon His people. Isaiah 3:12,

As for My people, children are their oppressors,
And women rule over them.
O My people! Those who lead you cause you to err,
And destroy the way of your paths.

There looks to be a language difference in God's Word concerning the other judges that ministered to Israel in the historical account in the Book of Judges. With men leaders God "raised up for them a deliverer," but for Deborah's introduction it says "Now Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lapidoth, was judging Israel at that time."

Was Deborah a twisted fraud from the truly ordained? Or could it be that God gave her this role in Israel? In her day the people rarely saw honorable and courageous commanders. Though there were a portion of the tribes of Israel and also Barak who showed themselves both convicted and capable of accomplishing God's plan against Sisera, the fact is that they had not seized by faith what God had told them, and twenty years of oppression racked up. It was a woman who had vision of performing God's will. When Barak comes to see Deborah at her request, she prods by asking him a question about God's command, just like Satan asked Eve a question about God's command ("Has God indeed said...?" (Gen. 3:1)). She says in Judges 4:6,

"Has not the LORD God of Israel commanded, 'Go and deploy troops at Mount Tabor; take with you ten thousand men of the sons of Naphtali and of the sons of Zebulun; and against you I will deploy Sisera, the commander of Jabin's army, with his chariots and his multitude at the River Kishon; and I will deliver him into your hand'?"

Satan asked the question to subvert God's purposes. Deborah quoted God in the form of a question out of respect for the authority of men. She left interpretation with the man where it belonged, imploring this man essentially - "Declare God over me!" No need, however; Barak already is convicted and conditionally commits to God his obedience. His condition is that Deborah accompany him to battle. This is faith, but it is not mature. It is faith by which God responds to win the battle, sure. But it is not the full faith required for Barak to gain any personal glory for helping God's will be done. Barak did what he was told. He made no individual contribution to the pool of faith Deborah had seeded. He took none of Deborah's work-load for redemption away from her but made her carry it further. Barak could have graduated from her house of provision if he would understand this one thing: he did not need anyone but God alone to succeed. Unfortunately, the only characters in this account who seem to know God with abandon are the two women.

The unspoken expectation God had for Barak was that he make the battle his own. By doing so he would assume leadership over Deborah. The superficial inversion continued; not by Deborah's choice, but by Barak's. Deborah doesn't rebuke him. In fact she honors his choice and obeys it. It was sufficient for the plan to be actualized, but God gave a consequence. Deborah foretells it before it transpires, Judges 4:9

So she said, “I will surely go with you; nevertheless there will be no glory for you in the journey you are taking, for the LORD will sell Sisera into the hand of a woman.”

Barak then called his ten thousand men, and Deborah "went up with him" (judges 4:10); she is still following the lead of the man. Yet by emotion or by reputation she appears to be a rallying point for the people. Judges 5:15 says,

And the princes of Issachar were with Deborah;
As Issachar, so was Barak...

Deborah's job wasn't finished. It wouldn't be complete until Barak personalized it, fighting for his own life. Deborah surveys the movement of Sisera by faith and knows the time has come. Again she prods Barak to take the initiative. Judges 4:13-14

So Sisera gathered together all his chariots, nine hundred chariots of iron, and all the people who were with him, from Harosheth Hagoyim to the River Kishon. Then Deborah said to Barak, “Up! For this is the day in which the LORD has delivered Sisera into your hand. Has not the LORD gone out before you?”

Later Barak and Deborah sing a song together as one in part against their countrymen who did not fight for Deborah, Barak, and most importantly for God. Meroz is an unknown place which the Angel of the LORD curses for not heeding the call. Judges 5:15-17, 23

Among the divisions of Reuben
There were great resolves of heart.

Why did you sit among the sheepfolds,
To hear the pipings for the flocks?
The divisions of Reuben have great searchings of heart.

Gilead stayed beyond the Jordan,
And why did Dan remain on ships?
Asher continued at the seashore,
And stayed by his inlets....
‘Curse Meroz,’ said the angel of the LORD,
‘Curse its inhabitants bitterly,
Because they did not come to the help of the LORD,
To the help of the LORD against the mighty.’

"Resolves" "in the heart" in the Hebrew can also be translated as "Thoughts" "in the inward man." These men had the double-minded faith described in James 2, the kind that does not profit anyone, the kind that does not save. They stayed by the inlets and bleating sheep where things were pleasant and safe; meanwhile Barak's recruiters, his close comrades in Zebulun and Naphtali went forth inciting God's people for the taste of blood.

Deborah was the one who had forecasted the problem and its solution. She was a visionary. She had known the milestones from start to finish. She had seen her countrymen as they were in Judges 5:8

Then there was war at the gates;
Not a shield or spear was seen among forty thousand in Israel.

...And she sees how God is quickly restoring faith for the entire nation in 5:11,

Far from the noise of the archers, among the watering places,
There they shall recount the righteous acts of the LORD,
The righteous acts for His villagers in Israel;
Then the people of the LORD shall go down to the gates.

By no means was Deborah in control. Instead, she was a full-faithed follower of God's powerful Holy Spirit. She was well-versed in making way in her heart for God's authority. She used her ministry to raise men back into their rightful and righteous role. She was a champion for God's authority being taken up by righteous men. The prophetess was not without a covering and a reverence for men and their position even if men had temporarily lost interest. Deborah was married, and so was Jael. In thier hearts, these two women did not let the complacency of men corrupt and exalt them improperly.

Deborah Raises Barak up; Jael Takes Sisera Down

Deborah and Jael are a fascinating picture of the Father-Son relationship in the Godhead. Deborah is Strategist. Jael, the Executioner. In what circumstance might God dispatch women to take initiative amongst His covenant people? Jael would tell you, the days were desperate. Judg. 5:6

In the days of Shamgar, son of Anath,
In the days of Jael,
The highways were deserted,
And the travelers walked along the byways.
Village life ceased, it ceased in Israel...

Common villagers could not walk on the roads. Apparently there was no way to enforce the law. Rulership was impotent. It was every man for himself. Anything of value was at risk of being seized, and perhaps people were afraid for their lives. This - was Israel. Jael learned a whole lot in those years of sneaking along unseen by intimidating enemies. God gave her wits every day, with her very life dependent on Him. These are the circumstances Deborah calls "the days of Jael" (Judges 5:6).

Jael would have been content to stay out of the fight, but the fight came to her long before Sisera fled to her place. Brokenness had already touched her house. Though the people could not carry on their business, the rulership did. Deborah refused to stay quiet about it. She says in Judg. 5:10

Speak, you who ride on white donkeys,
Who sit in judges’ attire,
And who walk along the road.

Apparently wearing only the outward attire of a judge of Israel wasn't satisfying for her, or God for that matter. Somehow they have easy usage of the roads while the rest of the people suffer. It would do Jael little good to imagine a remedy for her own dead lifestyle without broadening the scope to the sin-problem of the community. Therefore she turned to God and found forgiveness, hope and purpose in His promises. And the vitality of her life was now intertwined forever in the vitality of her kinsmen. She was a woman intimately intertwined in body-life.

Her story begins in Judges 4:11 with the cataclysmic news that her husband had left her. Indeed, he had left his whole community known as the Kenites; children of the father-in-law of Moses. These people recently inherited the story of God's deliverance in Egypt and were proud to believe alongside the Israelites. But not her husband Heber. He stepped out to embrace Israel's enemies. He had established peace with the King of the Canaanites. Heber's sin covered her home and she may have been ostracized as a consequence. Severing his ties, he took his tent and pitched it far away from Jael... just in her moment of need as the enemy approached her.

Jael knew Sisera. He had been a guest in her home. Sisera knew the way to Heber his ally and was heading her direction. She knew the odds for success against the Canaanites had always been impossible. It was quite the boast; his opposing army had 900 iron chariots. And their general was no less intimidating on a personal level. But God had made her brave. Jael was cunning and not fully honest, shall we say. She promises him comfort, and lies. Judges 4:18

And Jael went out to meet Sisera, and said to him, “Turn aside, my lord, turn aside to me; do not fear.”

She sedated him with milk. She covered him with a blanket like a mother would. She uses her feminine strength to dominate him. How can God allow her to manipulate like this? Remember, she cannot fight as an equal. If she were out on the battlefield, a sobering "level playing field," she's toast. If all the army of Israel could not win in twenty years, how could she overcome, she being the least of His followers? In God's sight, her composition was all the LORD needed. God does not need a level playing field. The LORD prefers impossible odds.

When Jael takes up her weapon, it is the knowledge of the mightiness of God. She takes a hammer and a foundational stake of the tent - its peg - and drives it into his skull. Zechariah 10:3-5

My anger burns against the shepherds,
and I will punish the leaders;
for the LORD Almighty will care
for his flock, the people of Judah,
and make them like a proud horse in battle.
From Judah will come the cornerstone,
from him the tent peg,
from him the battle bow,
from him every ruler.
Together they will be like warriors in battle
trampling their enemy into the mud of the streets.
They will fight because the LORD is with them,
and they will put the enemy horsemen to shame.

Though Sisera was technically laying down when she conquered him in Judges 4, the song in Judges 5 has him looming when she struck him down (5:27). What a long way he fell. Sung symbolically it captures the absurdity of it apart from God's strength - that a woman by Him might overtake a mighty man.

A Full Glory

Deborah's Song is incredibly ancient; it is thought to perhaps be the oldest song recorded in scripture. The battle took place in the valley of Megiddo, of which George Adam Smith wrote,

What a plain it is! Upon which not only the greatest empires, races, and faiths, east and west, have contended with each other, but each has come to judgment--on which from the first, with all its splendor of human battle, men have felt that there was fighting from heaven, the stars in their courses were fighting--on which panic has descended so mysteriously upon the best equipped and most successful armies, but the humble have been exalted to victory in the hour of their weakness--on which false faiths, equally with false defenders of the true faith, have been exposed and scattered--on which, from the time of Saul, willfulness and superstition, though aided by every human excellence, have come to naught, and since Josiah's time the purest piety has not atoned for rash and mistaken zeal [1].

Who fought alongside these two women as Deborah said, "Has not the LORD gone out before you?" Judges 5:20 acknowledges the stars....

They fought from the heavens; The stars from their courses fought against Sisera.

Who are the stars? Genesis 15:5 calls them Abraham's descendants....

Then He brought him outside and said, “Look now toward heaven, and count the stars if you are able to number them.” And He said to him, “So shall your descendants be.”

The One descendant of Abraham was the Seed, Jesus Christ. And the saints are His Body. When He returns soon to fight in the Valley of Mediggo (Armageddon), His saints will be coming with Him sword in hand.

And the armies in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, followed Him on white horses.

Their glory differs from one another as do stars, it says in scripture. 1 Cor. 15:41-42

There is one glory of the sun, another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for one star differs from another star in glory. So also is the resurrection of the dead.

God gives glory to men based on their pursuits, Rom. 1:10

but glory, honor, and peace to everyone who works what is good, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

The location and scale of the battle could not have been larger. It was an intentional choreography by God, Col. 3:4

When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.

Has anyone noted how self-centerd Deborah's song really is? "I, even I," says Deborah. Is she arrogant? Is she glorying in herself? It feels uncomfortable. But James 1:9 says, "Let the lowly brother glory in his exaltation," therefore the song was Spirit-inspired - and not from the flesh. Her success over Sisera was full of glory, Judges 5:31

Thus let all Your enemies perish, O LORD!
But let those who love Him be like the sun
When it comes out in full strength.

This last verse is a real treat. With the same exceptional vision of God, Deborah commends Jesus Christ's conquering over Israel's enemies thousands of years into the future.

Just Once Upon a Time

Jael Smote Sisera and Slew Him by James Tissot
(notice the masculine shape of Jael's right arm)

The Virgin Mary sang a song when she had conceived Christ. Did you know Mary was singing about Jael? They are antitypes for one another. Deborah is called the mother of Israel which is Mary also, Judges 5:7

I, Deborah, arose, arose a mother in Israel

Jael is the most blessed among women in Judges 5:24

Most blessed among women is Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite; Blessed is she among women in tents.

But... Mary is called the most blessed woman by Elizabeth her cousin; Luke 1:42

Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!

Glorious power over Satan seems to be given once-a-covenant, to women, in the dawning days of the faith. See now how Mary has Deborah's and Jael's battle in mind as a theology of her own life experiences.

Luke 1:46-55

My soul magnifies the Lord,
And my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior.
For He has regarded the lowly state of His maidservant;
For behold, henceforth all generations will call me blessed.
For He who is mighty has done great things for me,
And holy is His name.
And His mercy is on those who fear Him
From generation to generation.
He has shown strength with His arm;
He has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.
He has put down the mighty from their thrones,
And exalted the lowly.
He has filled the hungry with good things,
And the rich He has sent away empty.
He has helped His servant Israel,
In remembrance of His mercy,
As He spoke to our fathers,
To Abraham and to his seed forever.

Mary must have been thinking of Sisera's mother too when she says "the rich He has sent away empty." She gives glory to God's mighty arm, the Arm who was in Jael's arm as she lifted the hammer. God's arm has been awakened! Rahab (below) represents a Canaanite mythological serpent who opposed God's acts of creation. Isaiah 51:9

Awake, awake, put on strength,
O arm of the LORD! Awake as in the ancient days,
In the generations of old.
Are You not the arm that cut Rahab apart,
And wounded the serpent?

Judges 5:12,

Awake, awake, Deborah: awake, awake, utter a song: arise, Barak, and lead thy captivity captive, thou son of Abinoam.

The serpent has been wounded in the head through the bravery of Jael. This is to fulfill the prophecy given to Satan in Genesis 3:15

And I will put enmity
Between you and the woman,
And between your seed and her Seed;
He shall bruise your head,
And you shall bruise His heel.

When was the last time you looked at a Nativity scene and considered the meek and mild Mother of God as a victor, blood-splattered and joyful in God, looming over her kill to the magnificence of the LORD?

Epilogue: The Glory Passes

There is in fact no epilogue to the story of Deborah and Jael. However the Word of God can paint the picture. In truth she was from a humble state. He gave her access to His task - which was very short lived and very glorious. But there is no life in the glory of mankind - that was the harlot Babylon's passion. "God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble." After the victory, there was temptation in renown. It is funny how just a small step to the left or to the right can make such fantastic battles in the LORD turn into Satan's triumphs. She must relearn how she was still destitute - and it would come at the price of career suicide. Mary's exaltation in directing the young Savior was hers, yet she surrendered it fully when He was fully grown. She let it pass altogether to her Son. Abruptly we hardly ever hear of Jael, Deborah or Mary again. Mothering is a job that is only needed for a period of time. Righteous men had arose to do the work of the ministry, now. They were capable to lead in compliment and fulfillment of God's order.

Like Babylon, women leaders who usurp authority are still an insult to His people. When a righteous woman serves God in a influential way, there is no such thing as a time when she is not under the authority of men and she best know it.

People often ask how they can subdue a strong woman. What influence makes her "do typical woman things" so to speak? It happens as men graduate from her reminders and treat her like a woman; a worthy treasure; a special possession to be protected. You see, the days of Jael were nothing of the kind. The children of Israel were not treasured by those ruling. Women want men to just go crack some skulls and get the job done. She doesn't want to be involved in it. She wants to be the object of the administration. In this way a woman is both silent and adoring - traditional.

"You made me this way," Adam essentially blamed Eve ("the woman you gave me"). In truth, responsibility lies with him unconditionally. But when a woman is regenerated and cleansed from Eve's sin, then she may turn his words back on him as she's wearing the pants - "You're making me this way." Jael is remembered by God when righteousness is not to be found among men. Sisera and the men in judges' attire made Deborah and Jael for what they are known. But it is not too late; it is never too late, as Deborah showed Barak, to get up and take up what belongs to the man.

If a man treats a woman as if she were a fellow man, he is untuned and insensitive to her weak form. In his ignorance he expects that she carry the work. Do not be surprised if God not only treats her like a woman - with all His possessive love and behind-the-scenes wonders... but He also passes to her the favor that should have been, could have been, the man's glory.

[1] Historical Geography of the Holy Land, pg. 409

Understanding the Relationship

2010-10-18T16:14:00.000-07:00

Brother Gary helped me notice a really wrong passage I used in the comments under the last post; Romans 13. If I had backed it up just one verse, I think I would have found one that better fits. Romans 12:21

Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

This points to the Way without detailing what is "good." The way I used Romans 13 implied I'd blindly respect (obey, in fact!) those I've been trying to follow for awhile now, which for others reading has already proven to cause pain and disappointment. Instead, this verse (and the preceding verses in Romans 12) makes room for God to act on the behalf of the saints. It allows the agents in the situation to both give God's free grace to one another and also continue to declare the truth about doctrine and relationships that still has not been rectified.

Have regard for good things in the sight of all men.

We should regard as good what is widely regarded as good in the sight of others, as much as it is possible, so that we may live at peace with all men [1].

Hopefully this is a more appropriate devotion in the sight of my brothers (and sisters).

Fred Lybrand is availing himself to answer questions regarding the relationship and doctrine between GES and FGA. Please leave a comment or question in the comment field below.

[1] Grace New Testament Commentary, Vol. 2, pg. 690.

FGA National Conference 2010

2010-10-05T09:51:00.000-07:00

This year's conference is going very well. I had not attended last year's conference, but the one two years back, and I am very excited to see some familiar faces from that former time. My former pastor is here, Don Reiher is here, John Doan is here.... It is comforting to have Jody Dillow deliver a message at GES and then also here. I have loved all the sessions thus far.

Dr. Chay's session on where the FGA has come from and where it is going was an overview of the purpose of the FGA to connect and equip. He discussed the interrelationships between conference attendees, ministry relationships, teaching institutions and so forth. There was no reference of any kind at any point concerning the historical disagreement concerning the content of saving faith matter.

Dr. Moyer's session on sharing the gospel with unbelievers was very good. I was challenged and inspired.

I took a breakout session from Bret Nazworth on how to mobilize your local church to get the gospel out. He made a great point about sharing the gospel as a historical event.

Dr. Lybrand is here and he probably gave a very good break out session on how to invite apostates back to faith. I am sorry to have missed that one!

Dr. Dillow had two sessions in this morning to discuss the narrow way in the Sermon on the Mount. He ended these sessions by sharing his personal life application and a worship song to give us the opportunity to reflect on how each one of us are seeking after His righteousness, which he says seems to be synonymous with the Kingdom of God.

My favorite session was yesterday evening by Dr. Eaton. He did a historical and doctrinal approach of how assurance and the joy of our salvation has always been at the heart of every revival. He challenged free grace people to consider that assurance not only comes from doctrine but also from the Spirit (by which we cry Abba Father).

This is a very basic overview and my memory is certainly selective for my own personal interests and lack of education, but I thought I might share for those who might be interested before the DVDs are available.

Which is easier?

2010-09-30T20:18:00.000-07:00

What did Jesus mean when He asked this question? And what is the answer? Matt. 9:2-8

Then behold, they brought to Him a paralytic lying on a bed. When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, “Son, be of good cheer; your sins are forgiven you.”
And at once some of the scribes said within themselves, “This Man blasphemes!”
But Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, “Why do you think evil in your hearts?

For which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Arise and walk’?

But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins”—then He said to the paralytic, “Arise, take up your bed, and go to your house.” And he arose and departed to his house.
Now when the multitudes saw it, they marveled and glorified God, who had given such power to men.

Doubting my Salvation

2010-09-20T13:12:00.000-07:00

The LORD did not intend for me to suffer with doubt after I received the gospel. Doubt is a weapon of the enemy to keep believers inactive. I'm thinking of the woman at the well when I think about God's heart for me. She heard the word and she left amazed. Leaving her water pitcher behind, she went to tell everyone she could find. That's God's best. That's the way He would want it to be like, for all His people, I think. Unfortunately there have been many, many teachers who have squeezed their words in-between Christ and my heart. They promote distortion over what it takes to be saved and by doing so steal the headship of the Spirit. Thank God for Zane Hodges. Hodges cleared that up to let the scripture say exactly what it says. So that I can be like that woman at the well again - confident, and on fire for His truth; personally in awe of it. No longer do I rely on a mediator, a teacher, not even the sincerely beloved Hodges! I have Christ's Word, and my own soul to reply. And that is all I ever needed.

Are the Apostles the Only Predestined?

2010-09-18T22:06:00.000-07:00

Ephesians 1:3-13

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.
In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth—in Him. In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will, that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory.
In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory.

Here is a thought I haven't tested anywhere yet, and it may be a complete dud, because I don't know how to read original languages of the bible. Here goes....

Can we read the "US & WE" in Ephesians 1:3-12 as meaning only Paul and the Apostles? Verse 13 says "YOU also" and the pronoun changes, to perhaps mean the church at large...? So there are two groups being discussed in Paul's letter. There are the "Us's" and "We's," the Apostles; and from authority they write. And then there are the "You's," which is everyone else. Paul says that he learned "the mystery" from God and has been in charge of sharing it (as one of the holy Apostles and Prophets) in the beginning of chapter 3. He uses the pronouns in this way, "it has been given to ME for YOU" eph 3:2. Here is Ephesians 3:1-13

For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for you Gentiles—if indeed you have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which was given to me for you, how that by revelation He made known to me the mystery (as I have briefly written already, by which, when you read, you may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ), which in other ages was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to His holy apostles and prophets: that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs, of the same body, and partakers of His promise in Christ through the gospel, of which I became a minister according to the gift of the grace of God given to me by the effective working of His power.
To me, who am less than the least of all the saints, this grace was given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to make all see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the ages has been hidden in God who created all things through Jesus Christ; to the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places, according to the eternal purpose which He accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through faith in Him. Therefore I ask that you do not lose heart at my tribulations for you, which is your glory.

My turning point in being challenged by this was trying to reread Eph. 1:9. I'm pretty sure it says that God only "made known to [the holy Apostles] the mystery...". If I re-read verse 1:4 with such an idea, it would imply "He chose [the holy Apostles] in Him before the foundation of the world." The topic appears to be much different doesn't it?

As one can see, this letter seems to spend a good deal of time talking about the credentials of Paul. Not everyone learns the mystery of the gospel of salvation in Christ from the same source. Paul had it revealed to him by the Spirit of God at the turn of the age. Notice that Apostles come to know the gospel from the new administration (dispensation); however "You" meaning the Ephesian church, comes to know the gospel when it was preached to them from other men. Notice also that the "Us," meaning Apostles, were the "first to trust in Christ," and of course they did precede the Ephesian believers. Would not God predestine that those who would first be given the gospel message personally as Paul had, as specially selected from the beginning of time to successfully bear and share the gospel truth? It would be important that they would receive such a supportive measure of God's power and grace to be sufficient ministers at the opening gate.

Doesn't it make much more sense with the whole "predestination by God to salvation" business if it is for a very limited group? What does the passage really say is "predestined" by God?

In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will, that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory.

"Should be" to the praise of His glory. "Should be" is defined as, "to happen." Predestination means... concerning Paul and the other Apostles, He would meet His desire; He would be glorified.

Has anyone anywhere said this before? Is this totally impossible by the knowledge of bible scholars, and that is why I have not heard it as of yet?