The Inner Life – by C.I. Scofield

Here’s a sermon – the first in a series - that C.I. Scofield gave to his congregations in Dallas, Texas and in Northfield, Massachusetts.  I think they were first delivered sometime around 1910-1914.  This can be found in numerous places on the web, including the following:

http://www.twmodules.com/systheo/salvation/new-believer/scofield-c-i-the-new-life-in-christ-jesus/

We hope it is meaningful to you.

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The Inner Life
By C.I. Scofield

Text: “I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but  now mine eye seeth thee: wherefore I abhor myself.” – Job 42:5-6.

SOMEONE has called the Book of Job “The Epic of the Inner Life.” It is most felicitous. We all know that there is an inner life; that within the barriers of our being, behind all activities and externalities, we ourselves live. We all know that there is transacted the real life. We all know that there we are solitary, that there every man is a hermit.
And while this, past all controversy, is true, in another sense this strange inner life is immensely populous. Passions, desires, temptations, lurid and demoniacal thoughts, angelic thoughts, prayers, adorations, mean selfish- nesses, wrestle and plead, and it is into this chaos that faith brings the nature of God, and the life of the risen Christ, and the immense peace and power and joy of the Holy Spirit’s indwelling. And we all know that when we have received eternal life we have written but the first chapter in the new history of the inner life. New conflicts, new victories, alas! new defeats, too.

The most commonplace Christian whom you know is transacting in the recesses of his being an epic.

And we know that this inner life is, finally, the source and spring of the outer life. It is, of course, possible to keep these dissimilar for years, but soon or late the inner life becomes determinative of the external life. It is with this life, therefore, that God most concerns Himself. It is the distinctive characteristic of the gospel dispensation. “Now is the ax laid to the root of the tree,” says the forerunner, John. “Make the tree good, and his fruit good,” is almost the opening word of Christ. It was always so, indeed. “Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts.” “The Lord pondereth the heart.”

I can not, I think, do better than to take the last chapter of the Book of Job for my point of departure, verses 5 and 6: “I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth thee; wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.” It is

THE CRISIS OF THE TROUBLED PATRIARCH

 The thing itself is very simple. “I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear.” There was a testimony concerning God which had come to Job, and upon which he had based a true faith and a good life. Ordinarily, Christian experience has just that history. There is a record concerning Christ, His person and work. It is God’s testimony, and we receive it and set to our seal that God is true. We are saved. It is a very real faith, though a faith based wholly upon testimony, the hearing of the ear. That was the faith of Job down to the very last chapter.

Here was a godly man whose outward life was so blameless that God could challenge the malice of Satan himself to find a flaw in it. Nor was he but negatively good. He was a good man in the positive sense. His life counted on the right and helpful side of things.

Then began that strange dealing of God, that permitted chastening, which has been the mystery in so many other lives. How strange a thing that the best man of his time should be the most troubled; should be the man upon whom, as it seemed, the hand of God lay most heavily. And the fact, as you know, called out various interpretations. The opinion of Satan concerning this man’s goodness and usefulness was that he was a mere hireling. “Hast not thou made an hedge about him?” You have given him unusual prosperity, and in a certain sense you have bribed him. That was Satan’s opinion. That was a lie. And God permitted Satan to demonstrate the falsity of his theory of this man’s life. God said, in effect, “Take away the hedge”; and then you know what happened: his property went, his children went, and yet the integrity of the man remained. He did not curse God. And then Satan fell back upon another theory which was just as false as the other. He said: “Skin for skin; yea, all that a man hath will he give for his life.” You have left the man his health. “Put forth now thine hand, and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse thee to thy face.” .And so that was permitted. His health went, grievous pains fell upon him. Bereft of property, bereft of family, bereft of health, and yet this man, with a faith which was founded upon a hearing about God, maintained his integrity.

And then came the theories of his friends. They agreed in the belief that there must be in his life some secret sin, although he had succeeded in covering it from human vision. They were very sure that the only explanation of the sorrows which were falling so heavily upon him was, that he was a hypocrite; was not as good as he seemed to be, and upon that belief they argued the question with him. But Job knew that also to be false, and he made good his contention that he was not a hypocrite.

A VISION OF GOD

And now we come to the real epic of his inner life. God Himself took up the matter. And if you follow the closing chapters of this wonderful Book of Job, you will find the whole mechanics, so to speak, of the deeper dealing of God with the inner life of a saint whom He is about to make saintly.

There was, first of all, the unveiling of His power, His majesty, His greatness.

“Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind. * * * Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? * * * Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? or who laid the cornerstone thereof, when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy? * * * Hast thou commanded the morning since the days, and caused the dayspring to know his place? Knowest thou the ordinances of heaven? Canst thou set the dominion thereof in the earth? * * * Wilt thou also disannul my judgment?”

Ah, poor Job ! Thou wert able to maintain thy cause against Satan and against man, but what wilt thou answer to God ? What, indeed, can Job say before this personal manifestation of God Himself but that which he did say :
“I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear; but now mine eye seeth thee. Wherefore I abhor myself.”

THE UTTER COLLAPSE OF SELF

Yes, fellow-man, thyself. Now the secret is out.

It was not at all something Job had done, it was what Job was. Job himself was wrong. He had never judged self before God. He had not the sentence of death in himself. The interpretative chapter of Job is the twenty- ninth. The personal pronoun occurs forty-eight times in twenty-five verses. He was a good man, but he was too much aware of it, and he was in deep darkness as to the real state of his soul, of his inner life before God. And nothing, not the depth of his affliction, nor the reproaches of his friends, nor his own self-communings ever brought him to see himself. But when he passed from a knowledge about God to a personal acquaintance with God there was nothing to be said but the despairing:

“I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth thee. Wherefore I abhor myself.”

The revelation of God, bringing a real sense of personal unworthiness and demerit, is what I think essentially we have in this experience of Job. It is not in exercises of self about self; not in any efforts of Job to discover the mystery of his inner life, that he comes to real self-consciousness ; but it was the vision of God Himself which, flooding his inner being, brought the humbling, hateful vision of self.
A NEW AND HIGHER SERVICE

And then the most astonishing thing of all happened. God took up the vindication and restoration of the man who abhorred himself!

“The Lord said to Eliphaz the Temanite, My wrath is kindled against thee and against thy two friends: for ye have not spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant Job hath.”

And then, as you know, God made of Job a priest through whom alone the three reproachful moralizers could approach His offended holiness. “My servant Job shall pray for you, and him will I accept.”

You see, we have essentially four things here: First, the vision of God; secondly, the utter collapse of self; thirdly, a new and higher service; and lastly, a doubled fruitfulness.

“Also the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before.”

Now I believe we have here an order which is invariable, and I am very sure that we have here an experience which is not exceptional.

Oh, beloved, we too have heard of Him by the hearing of the ear, but we need to come to deeper things, closer things, with God. We need to come to that personal and underived acquaintanceship with Him, so that we may say with the men of Samaria, “Now we believe not because of thy saying; for we have heard him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ,” although the first effect of it will be this awful humbling, this utter collapse of self. But oh, how blessed a place is that valley of humbling. No one falls there who does not rise to newness of life and service. But re- member, it costs the sentence of death in self; the thorough reconstruction of the inner life.

NOT AN ISOLATED EXPERIENCE

It will help us in interpreting this experience to see that it came, not to Job alone, but to every man greatly used of God. The circumstances differ but the essence is the same — God is realized, self-strength is turned into helplessness, new power and blessing are given. Joshua fell at the feet of the Man with the drawn sword (Jos 5:13-15) ; Isaiah must cry, “Woe is me” (Isa 6:5-8), only to be cleansed and recommissioned ; Jeremiah must learn that he “cannot speak” before the Lord will touch his mouth (Jer 1:6-10); Ezekiel, prostrated by the glory, must fall on his face in the collapse of self before the Spirit can fill him, and Jehovah can say, “I send thee” (Eze 1:28; Eze 2:1-10) ; Daniel must say, “I saw . . . and my comeliness was turned in me into corruption” (Dan 10:5-12). Even John the Beloved, before the vision of the glorified Christ, must fall “at his feet as one dead” before the “right hand” can be laid upon him, and he can hear the “fear not.”

I wish now to gather up briefly what all this means. And first of all,

TWO THINGS WHICH IT IS NOT

It is neither the entire eradication of the flesh, the death, the extinction of self, nor is it sinless perfection. Self is abhorred, distrusted, detested, set at naught. But so uniform are the characteristics of this experience, whatever the age or dispensation, that it is not difficult to state both the result accomplished and the steps by which it is wrought.

1. We have, then, in this supreme experience, the revelation of God Himself to the soul. It is not something about God ; some new testimony concerning God, or some lesson of sorrow or trial. It is God’s own act, His self- revelation of something which testimony had never communicated to heart or conscience, so that there is a new and intense apprehension of himself.

2. The instances quoted from the Scriptures agree, too, in the effect of this unveiling of God. Before that vision of God self is abhorred. So absolute is this effect that, as we have seen, it is constantly spoken of as the utter deprivation of strength. The self-life is not slain, but it is so seen in that glory as never again to be trusted, or in any way counted on in the things of God. As Paul said : “We had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God, which raiseth the dead,” in the God of the resurrection, in the God of the new, undying life.

3. In agreement, too, are the biblical instances that this destruction of self-confidence is followed by the infilling with the strength of Him who was dead and is alive again. Not once is the man on his face before the awful, beautiful vision left prostrate. “I received
strength,” is the unvarying testimony.

4. And then comes the new and higher service. This is the blessed consummation; this and the new fruitfulness.

Could I covet anything better for you than that you should see God face to face? Than that there should come to you this highest word in the epic of the inner life? May He grant it, for His name’s sake.

Law and Grace

I have come across a beautiful explanation of the biblical distinctions between the Law and Grace that I would like to share.  C.I. Scofield does a wonderful job of simplifying this theological conundrum, but by no means should it be considered simple.  Most every Bible student grapples with the transition from the Mosaic Law to that which Christ presents at His first advent (which continues on with the Church dispensation), and unfortunately the result in many doctrinal circles is that either the Law is dismissed entirely as irrelevant, or it is misused in the Church as some means or way of salvation.  Clearly the Mosaic Law no longer governs God’s people (cf. Rom. 6:14), but it is a grave error to think that the God who created, administered and upheld the Law as given to His chosen people is of some vastly different character than the God who made Himself manifest in the flesh, in the person of Jesus the Christ, God the Son.  They are One and the Same—forever unchanging.

Too often even the most scholarly of theologians seeks to dismiss the Old Testament presentation of God’s justice and demand for holiness relative to His people, but just as often the same would seek to do away with the freedom and liberty that comes when one becomes a new creation in Christ.  Simply said, a Christian cannot ignore Scripture’s shouts of God always rendering a just recompense, but on the other hand a Christian cannot ignore Scripture’s shouts of man’s inability to do anything of his own accord that would satisfy God’s just demands of holiness.  And thus the conundrum of Law vs. Grace.

Though the following snippet does not explain, per se, the intricacies of initial salvation versus the salvation of the soul, or righteous acts versus unrighteous ones and the resulting rewards and punishments recompensed, it does delineate the distinctions too often missed as one approaches understanding the Law, which governed God’s people, Israel – and Grace, which governs God’s people, the Church. 

I hope you enjoy it.

(This is taken from the book, “The Word of Truth Rightly Divided,” by C.I. Scofield, original printing date unknown, pp. 41-46.)

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LAW AND GRACE

By C.I. Scofield

The most obvious and striking division of the word of truth is that between Law and Grace.  Indeed, these contrasting principles characterize the two most important dispensations—the Jewish and Christian.

“For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ” (John 1:17).

It is not, of course, meant that there was no law before Moses, any more than that there was no grace and truth before Jesus Christ.  The forbidding to Adam of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Gen. 2:17) was law, and surely grace was most sweetly manifested in the seeking, by the Lord God, of His sinning creatures, and in His clothing them with coats of skin (Gen. 3:21) – a beautiful type of Christ “made unto us… righteousness” (I Cor. 1:30).  Law, in the sense of some revelation of God’s will and grace, in the sense of some revelation of God’s goodness, has always existed, and to this Scripture abundantly testifies.  But “the law” everywhere mentioned in Scripture was given by Moses and from Sinai to Calvary dominates—characterizes, the time; just as grace dominates, or gives its peculiar character to, the dispensation which begins at Calvary, and has its predicted termination in the rapture of the Church.

It is, however, of the most vital moment to observe that Scripture never in any dispensation mingles these two principles.  Law always has a place and work distinct and wholly diverse from that of grace.  Law is God prohibiting and requiring; grace is God beseeching and bestowing.  Law is a ministry of condemnation; grace, of forgiveness.  Law curses; grace redeems from that curse.  Law kills; grace makes alive.  Law shuts every mouth before God; grace opens every mouth to praise Him.  Law puts a great and guilty distance between man and God; grace makes guilty man nigh to God.  Law says, “An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth”; grace says, “Resist not evil; but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.”  Law says, “Hate thine enemy”; grace, “Love your enemies, bless them that despitefully use you.”  Law says, “Do and live”; grace, “Believe and live.”  Law never had a missionary; grace is to be preached to every creature.  Law utterly condemns the best man; grace freely justifies the worst (Luke 23:43; Rom. 5:5; I Tim. 1:15; I Cor. 6:9-11).  Law is a system of probation; grace, of favor.  Law stones an adulteress; grace says “Neither do I condemn thee.”  Under law the sheep dies for the shepherd; under grace the Shephard dies for the sheep.

Everywhere the Scriptures present law and grace in sharply contrasted spheres.

The mingling of them in much of the current teaching of the day spoils both, for the law is robbed of its terror and grace of its freeness.

The student should observe that “law,” in the New Testament Scriptures, usually means the law given by Moses (Rom. 7:23 is an exception); but sometimes the whole law, moral so-called (or the ten commandments) and ceremonial, is meant; sometimes the commandments only; sometimes the ceremonial law only.

It should be remembered, also, that in the ceremonial law are enshrined those marvelous types—the beautiful foreshadowings of the person and work of the Lord Jesus as Priest and Sacrifice, which must ever be the wonder and delight of the spiritually minded.  Expressions in the Psalms which would be inexplicable if understood only of the “ministration of death written and engraven in stones” (II Cor. 3:7) are made clear when seen to refer also to the types—those lovely pictures of grace:  “But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he meditate day and night” (Ps. 1:2).

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It is evident, then, that God’s purpose in giving the law, after the race had existed twenty-five hundred years without it (John 1:17; Gal. 3:17), was to bring to guilty man the knowledge of his sin, first, and then of his utter helplessness in view of God’s just requirements.  It is purely and only a ministration of condemnation and death.

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Words From a Rebel

I am notoriously rebellious and have been for as long as I can remember.  I was rebellious before I became a Christian; I am rebellious yet still.  I do not like being told what to do by anyone and worse yet, I sometimes resist authority simply because it is authority.  The root cause of this is pride, because ultimately I believe that I know best about all matters that pertain to me and can – and will – make my own decisions and choose my own pathway, thank you very much.  If I mess up, I will rectify it.  If I succeed, I will take the glory. 

What is “rebellion”?  The dictionary defines it as “opposing or defying authority, accepted moral codes, or social conventions,” and based on this definition one could certainly see my rebelliousness in both a negative and positive sense.

On the one hand I rebelled against both parents almost the minute I hit the teen years, and continued in self-righteous disobedience for almost a decade afterwards, carrying my rebellious attitude from the family unit into the academic arena and out into the workplace.  Though the secular world usually calls the common teenage rebellion “normal,” the extent to which I carried it would earn a decisively negative response (and did) from even the most unconventional of characters.  I was kicked out of my parents’ house, fired from numerous jobs, and was (questionably) a failure as a student in the higher educational systems.

On the other hand I rebelled against the majority contemporary opinion on “religion” and “faith,” against the moral codes and social conventions of this world – truly rebelled against the authority of this world – and answered God’s call on my life:  I accepted Jesus as my Savior, my Substitutionary Sacrifice, and the Way to true life.  

Interestingly enough, as my rebellious attitude coalesced with my maturation process, I became very much a leader in most avenues I sought.  Since I tended to defy authority, I found it much easier to just become the authority.  Then as my pride was nurtured and fed, and I had no real reason or mechanism to abate its growth, I found life pretty comfortable and enjoyable because it was completely on my own terms. 

Becoming a “Christian” did nothing to stop this behavior, since God was simply One more Authority in my life that I chose not to listen to when it came to rules and regulations.  Certainly being a Christian meant that I was capable of being changed, but I would not allow the practical experience to penetrate my self-governed world to move me to yield to God in order to allow His Spirit to bring about this change. 

Practical experience is needed in order to bring about the “metamorphosis,” because it is through our experiences (united with our knowledge of God’s Word) that we first come to recognize and identify our own sin.  And then it is through our experiences that we are able to put into practice our yielding to God – through our actions of obedience to His Word – that allows Him to form in us the very nature and character of Christ.

The Bible is laden with examples that run counterintuitive to our natural inclinations.  Actively love your enemies even though every fiber of your self-centered being would love to revile them instead.  Actively consider it joy when you encounter various trials, knowing that the difficult and grievous times are necessary to grow your faith, even though every fiber of your self-centered being would love to run from the difficulties and grief whenever possible.   Actively forgive everyone who sins against you, even though every fiber of your self-centered being would love to revel in the hostility and anger you can muster against all who hurt you.  Actively bear one another’s burdens, even though every fiber in your self-centered being would love to judge everyone else for their faults.

How will God give me the opportunity to practice showing love for my enemies?  He will bring my enemy in close proximity and allow me to be reviled.  How will God give me the opportunity to be joyous in affliction and sorrow?  He will allow me to undergo affliction and sorrow.  How will God give me the opportunity to forgive someone who sins against me?  He will allow someone to sin against me.  How will God give me the opportunity to bear another’s burdens?  He will allow that person’s burdens to be dropped on my doorstep. 

And then I get to choose what I do with each and every opportunity.  Do I respond with my self-centered being?  Or do I do what God has already told me to do in His Word?  Will it run counter-intuitive to my self-centered being?  Of course.  Will it be difficult?  Of course.  Is it possible, however?  Of course.

So as I was saying, I am notoriously rebellious.  I don’t like anyone telling me what to do.  I like to make my own decisions – right or wrong, who cares, I want to make them – and choose my own pathway.  That way I don’t have to deal with anyone else’s mistakes, and I don’t have anyone to blame but myself.

Knowing that God does not like rebelliousness, primarily because it feeds our pride and encourages further insubordination, how will He give me the opportunity to practice submission, rather than rebellion?  To acquiesce to another person’s decision rather than my own?  Knowing that God will not force me to obey Him, though He desires utmost that I do, how will God get me to come face to face with my rebellious attitude so that I will see it as He sees it?  How does God deal with the problem of our pride, other than snuffing it out with His little finger, which He could if He wanted to but He doesn’t because He wants us to allow Him to conquer it through us????

Here’s a whopper of an answer, especially for someone like me who resists authority simply because it is authority. First, God allows me to become a wife, in a relationship with my husband, whom He calls my “head” and my “leader.”  Without a doubt, that runs counter-intuitive to my life experiences, my personality, my whole being.  So God puts me in the position of having to come up against opposing wills – mine and my husband’s – and He says that I must be the one to back down when it occurs, and that I must trust in God for the solution, not myself.  Huh?  But what if I’m right and my husband is wrong?  Does it matter, really, since when placed next to God’s idea of right, in all actuality we are probably both wrong?  So is it a question of being right, or is it a question of who will lead and who will follow?  There is no place in this situation for rebellion; there is no place in this situation for my comfortable world that I control. 

Second, God allows me to be a mother, in a relationship with children whom I am to lead and be an authority to.  I had thought that this would be a comfortable world for me, one that I would control.  However, God allows my children to rebel against me, to show me what rebellion feels like, to show me what my rebellion looks like.

Third, God allows me to teach and guide others in the study of His Word.  And then He allows many of them to tell me that I am wrong.  These same individuals He has said I am to submit to, as they are to me…which of necessity removes rebellion from both aspects.  God gives me the opportunity to submit, or not.

Fourth, but by no means last, God allows me to rebel against Him, and He allows me to have my own little world that I control, while He sits back and waits for me to acknowledge that indeed I must submit to authority, for He is my Authority.  He allows me to experience the loneliness that comes when I decide to lead, for God will not follow me, and if I choose this pathway where I get to make all the decisions and I am in control, I will find myself alone, far away from God.  Much like I had been for most of my life – a life that I chose to spend in rebellion.

A Few Lessons from Abraham

“Father Abraham” can often seem like a far-removed biblical persona that rests in the pages of religious history; he can sometimes seem more like an ancestral figurehead of a race of people (and a faith of people) than a real human being.  He is the man whom God gave the precious promises to regarding the restoration of man to his created purpose, and he is the man who fathered two separate, opposing sons, from whom came the Middle Eastern people who are still at war all these centuries later.  When I think about the Bible’s “plot,” so to speak, and the main points that all subsequent points connect back to, Abraham’s name and story are one of the essential keys.

But for a moment I’d like to put all of that aside and focus on the man and his personal journey of faith as it speaks to me, and the subsequent personal application of his struggles and his victories as they pertain to each one of us.

It could be most beneficial to begin at the end of Abraham’s story, summed up by James’ proclamation of his faithfulness -

James 2:20

But are you willing to recognize, you foolish fellow, that faith without works is useless? 21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up Isaac his son on the altar? 22 You see that faith was working with his works, and as a result of the works, faith was perfected; 23 and the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “AND ABRAHAM BELIEVED GOD, AND IT WAS RECKONED TO HIM AS RIGHTEOUSNESS,” and he was called the friend of God. 24 You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone.

This gives me hope: that a mere man (person) can finish this journey of “life” well – a man can attain to the status of “God’s friend” and can have their faith perfected, without that man being “perfect” in all he does.  This encouragement should stir all Christians, those of us who are looking for and hungering for the perfection (completion) of our own faith as well –

1Peter 1:6

In this [being born again in order to receive an inheritance that is reserved in heaven for you] you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, 7 so that the proof [literally, “testing”] of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ; 8 and though you have not seen Him, you love Him, and though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, 9 obtaining as the outcome [literally, “goal”] of your faith the salvation of your souls.

All Christians have a goal, and all Christians can (and are expected to) reach that goal, which is the perfecting of their faith, and by the perfecting of their faith, the receiving of the salvation of their soul.  The receiving of the salvation of the soul is equated to the receiving of life in the age to come [the Kingdom Age], which is realization of, and the culmination of, man’s created purpose – to rule with God. 

So back to Abraham.  Notice that his faith is perfected (brought to its goal) through his sacrificial act of offering his son – the son whom he loved – to God.  This was the very son that all of God’s promises were to come through. God had told Abraham that Isaac would be the one through whom his descendants would be named (and through whom the promises would be fulfilled) and God then subsequently tells Abraham to kill him (“offer him there as a burnt offering” – Gen. 22:2)!  Do you think that Abraham would have been able to respond with such faith in the beginning of his journey with the Lord?  Do you think that Abraham (who was around 130 years old at the time he offered Isaac up) would have responded in this way to this type of command (a “test”) when he was just 75, when he is first mentioned to have left his home in response to God’s call to him?  Hardly.  And that is an encouragement to me.

Now I don’t believe that Abraham (then known as Abram) was initially “saved” at this point in Scripture at age 75 (Gen. 12:1) when he answered God’s call to depart Haran and go to the land that God would show him, nor was the previous instance of him leaving Ur of the Chaldees (commented on later in Gen. 15:7; Neh. 9:7) the moment of his “new birth,” since in order to respond in a faithfully obedient way to God’s words one must already have been “born again” into a spiritually “alive” state.  So Abram’s point of initial salvation just isn’t mentioned in Scripture, so we really have no idea how long he knew God before he was “called.”  A simple detail, but important if we are to relate to Abraham in a personal way.

I’ve been “saved” for quite a while – almost 28 years now – and I first heard God’s voice calling me to leave everything behind and follow His leading about 16 years ago.  God mercifully and lovingly showed me at that point that I was lacking in something, and only He could fill that void, but I had to leave something in order to get it.  I’m not saying that God was silent for the 12 years prior to that, but I had my own agenda going and I wanted to do things my way and I was pretty happy with the thought that I was “saved,” I was “going to heaven,” etc.  and that was that.  But for God, that wasn’t good enough.

With Abram, God spoke to Him with a simple directive and a simple promise.  If you’ll notice in Scripture, God doesn’t give a whole lot of details at first as He is speaking with Abram… He simply speaks and Abram is to simply follow.  Very cool, and not too complicated.

And what’s even more encouraging is that Abram doesn’t even fully obey God in his first act of obedience to Him!  God had specifically said to Abram –

Genesis 12:1

Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go forth from your country, And from your relatives And from your father’s house, To the land which I will show you;

Translation: Leave your relatives behind and leave your father’s house and follow Me to a new land which I will show you.  And what does Abram do?  First his dad and nephew go with him out of Ur, then after the above proclamation (which is spoken after his father dies in Haran), he still takes his nephew with him.  And what does God do?  He doesn’t condemn and chastise Abram, but He reiterates His promise as He allows Abram to find the way. 

I see a picture of a man who, with eyes fixed on God’s words, attempts to obey God in the best way that he knows how to at the time, as he keeps his sights on the one thing he knows for sure – follow God to the land that He will show you.  Sure, Abram doesn’t obey God fully, but he does believe God about His promise and he seeks after God, even as he fails along the way.  A striking example of Abram’s lack of faithfulness as he figures out his journey is in Gen. 12:9-13:4, where we are told of an instance where Abram has an encounter with the Egyptian Pharaoh and because of Abram’s lack of full disclosure in telling the Egyptians that Sarah was not only his sister but also his wife, Pharaoh is struck by the Lord for his actions toward Sarah, and Abram puts himself in real danger.  Now according to Scripture we don’t really get any of God’s commentary on whether this was technically wrong or not, but in Gen. 13:3-4 we see that Abram “went on his journeys from the Negev [where he’d been], to the place where his tent had been at the beginning… to the place of the altar, which he had made there formerly; and there Abram called on the name of the Lord.”  So Abram was journeying, but his actions brought him back to the beginning… and although no physical progress was made, I truly believe that much spiritual progress was.  Because the next thing that Scripture records is Abram fully separating from his relatives (Lot), in full compliance with what God had originally spoken.  Lesson learned perhaps?

My main point here is that God doesn’t abandon him.  Far from it.  God patiently waits for Abram to grow in his understanding of who God is.  And this is the God that I know, that I experience daily, that I cling to and seek after… a Father who nurses me along my journey (even when, and especially when, I fail at any real visible progress), who reveals Himself to me as I seek after Him, who is faithful to deliver on His promises to me if only I will continue along the path He set out for me.  I don’t have to be perfect – Abraham sure wasn’t – but I do have to have the mindset that he had –

Hebrews 11:8

By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed by going out to a place which he was to receive for an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing where he was going. 9 By faith he lived as an alien in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, fellow heirs of the same promise; 10 for he was looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God.

Also simply put by Jesus –

Matthew 6:33

“But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”

Continuing with my personal story… about 8 years ago God interjected Himself into my life once again, with another clear directive concerning the inheritance that was reserved in heaven for me… this time giving me a bit more detail about it.  He waited for me, as He did for Abraham, and He didn’t jump into my life with a litany of judgments and condemnations (although convictions are a different matter altogether)… He just spoke to me about His promise – about His inheritance for me – and He asked me to follow Him….again.  Just like with Abraham, God will lead us on our journey if we choose to follow Him and He will be the One who “perfects” our faith… if we choose to believe His words, and if we choose to act on those beliefs.

Seriously take a look at Abraham’s life.  It  may look like he bumbled his way to the promised land, that he half-truthed (or lied, or omitted truth – however you want to look at it) his way through enemy territory (twice), he slept with his wife’s servant and fathered a son that he thought would fulfill God’s promises rather than waiting on the Lord to do it, he kept his nephew Lot around for far too long (in my opinion), and he finally gets to the point where God feels that he is ready for the biggest test of his life – to give his promised son to God, even before Abraham had received any of the promises that God had promised to give him through that son.  And Abraham fully obeys… FULLY.  Was Abraham perfect at that point?  Did he not have a sin nature anymore?  Not at all.  He was still the same man from earlier stories – but with a deeper, experiential understanding and knowledge of God, and at this point God knew that Abraham fully believed… FULLY, and Abraham’s faith had already been tested over and over and over, and God had worked in Abraham’s life over and over and over.  And so it is said about this sacrifice –

Hebrews 11:17

By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was offering up his only begotten son; 18 it was he to whom it was said, “IN ISAAC YOUR DESCENDANTS SHALL BE CALLED.” 19 He considered that God is able to raise people even from the dead, from which he also received him back as a type.

We can know that Abraham obeyed God because he fully believed that God would deliver on His promises, and if need be God would raise Isaac from the dead in order to accomplish it.  This is total belief and complete trust in God’s faithfulness. 

But this faith wasn’t brought to its goal overnight.  And nor will ours.  It’s a journey, and it’s going to be messy and fraught with mistakes, and it’ll sometimes look like we’re right back at the beginning again… but progress is made when we listen to the Lord speak, and believe in what the Lord says, and we act according to what He has said, even though our natural, physical eyes may tell us differently.   This, I believe, is why we can confidently say, as Paul did –

Philippians 1:6

For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.

The Warnings Begin

2 I know your deeds and your toil and perseverance, and that you cannot tolerate evil men, and you put to the test those who call themselves apostles, and they are not, and you found them to be false; 3 and you have perseverance and have endured for My name’s sake, and have not grown weary. 4 ‘But I have this against you, that you have left your first love. 5 ‘Therefore remember from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first; or else I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place–unless you repent.  (Revelation 2:2-5)

For this reason we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away from it. (Hebrews 2:1)

As I transition from teaching on the books of I and II Peter to teaching on the Book of Hebrews, I can’t help but have God’s warnings at the forefront on my mind.  Peter’s first letter to the Church contains such encouragement to them to hold fast to their faithfulness amidst horrific persecution, keeping always in mind their inheritance which is reserved for them in heaven, reminding them that the goal of their faith – of which the testing they are going through is necessary in order to reach this goal – is the salvation of their soul, which is yet future.  Peter’s first letter is replete with practical behaviors that each Christian can implement as they undergo this suffering, but Peter doesn’t hesitate to explain and warn concerning what will befall those who stumble and are disobedient.

Peter transitions to another letter, still with the inheritance and the kingdom out ahead firmly in view, only in this letter he warns about the persecution and trouble about to come on them from within themselves, meaning the false teachers arising from among them to lead them astray from the purity of the gospel they first knew.  These false teachers would malign the truth, secretly introducing heresies that many would follow, ultimately condemning to destruction not only them, called “stains and blemishes,” but those who would follow them as well.  Peter ends with an encouragement for the recipients of his letter to continue to conduct themselves in all holiness and godliness, knowing that God’s promise of Christ’s return – and all that accompanies it – is sure.

God warns His people, time after time after time.  And He does it to protect us, because He knows that ALL OF US have in us this tendency to lose our steadfastness if we’re not diligent and watchful and careful.  Note the first passage quoted here, which (along with many levels of exegesis) presents us with a look at the problems within the beginning of the Church that ultimately ends with the Church being “lukewarm,” “wretched, miserable, poor, blind and naked,” and they “do not know it” (Rev. 3:17).  The Church has “left its first love.”

And then in Hebrews, which contains 5 specific warnings to Christians about losing their inheritance in the age to come (not for eternity, but for the Kingdom Age), we see the first warning consist of a caution to pay much closer attention to what we’ve heard (context dictates that this is referring to the Messianic implications of the Old Testament, cf. Heb. 1, and the “world to come,” cf. Heb. 2:5) so that we do not drift away from it.  To me, these two passages from Revelation and Hebrews are saying the same thing: that we Christians absolutely need to hold fast to the Word of God and our love for it (and the imminent return of our Lord and King, Jesus) so that we don’t find ourselves lukewarm and completely apathetic to the truth of God’s Word. 

Let me ask, Does God’s Word still excite you?  Do you long to spend time with your Lord through the study of His Word?  Do you yearn for it as you yearned for it at the beginning of your walk with Him?  Has the Word gotten boring?  Do you realize that you are betrothed to Christ, and the wedding is coming, but He isn’t going to marry someone that He doesn’t intimately know?  That there is a danger of being unprepared for that Day, and for many Christians they have no idea that they are unprepared in regard to it (naked, blind, wretched…)?  Why does God need to constantly warn us about drifting away, or about false teachers that WILL arise (and have already risen) within the Church, or about our own ignorance?  It’s because we need to be warned!  We will drift away – and there is something quite real to lose if we do – if we don’t realize that we can fall in the very same way as Israel did (cf. I Cor. 9:24-10:12).  Israel didn’t enter into their land and receive their inheritance (save two who were faithful) because of their hard hearts and unbelief, and WE can fail to enter into our land and receive our inheritance if we allow ourselves to become hardened and unbelieving as they did (cf. Heb. 3:7-4:10). 

And how does it start?  By leaving our first love, by drifting away from what we’ve heard.  King Solomon gives us a good example of what this slow process looks like. King Solomon began his reign as one of the world’s greatest and richest and wisest of men, being showered with the blessings of wisdom, knowledge, discernment, strength, riches, fame, vision and skill from the Lord Himself. And under Solomon’s reign Israel was transformed into the greatest kingdom the world had known, with people arriving from all over the world to behold the glory of it all.  However, at the end of his reign Solomon was most pitiable, for he had fallen hard and fallen far as he gave himself over to all that is in the world and of the world, and not in and of the Lord – the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life (cf. I John 2;16).  But it took a while for it to happen; the erosion of Solomon’s spiritual life and character was slow, but it was lethal.

What happened to Solomon?  One could say that it began with this –

               Bless the LORD, O my soul, And forget none of His benefits (Psalm 103:2)

Solomon forgot the source of His blessings, and he consequently began to forget the necessity to follow His commands fully.  Did Solomon ever stop believing that God existed?  Nope.  Did he forget that he was eternally saved and one of God’s chosen people?  Nope.  What did he forget?  He forgot who God is; he forgot God’s promises; he forgot the necessity to remain intimately obedient to the Lord in heart and mind and strength.

Ecclesiastes gives us peak into the deterioration of Solomon’s glory.  He began to get bored and disillusioned by the very things that he was at one time asking for and longing for (cf. Ecc. 2).  Solomon begins to look elsewhere for entertainment and satisfaction; he turns to women and other nations, and ultimately to other gods.  Did it happen overnight?  No.  Solomon slowly drifted away from what should have been, and once was, his true love.  He saw and desired the world and its enticements, and slowly integrated himself into it, forgetting the commands of the Lord concerning his expected separation from (and the subsequent dangers of) the other nations.  He viewed his marriage relationship wrongly; rather than seeing the beauty and power of the husband and wife relationship, he instead saw the numerous unions with numerous women as self-serving tools of power and manipulation and pleasure.  Unfortunately for Solomon, it was those very relationships which eased him along his slow transition into idolatry.  

Solomon drifted away, and at the end of his life he realized his foolishness; he realized what he had wasted; he realized what he could have been and what he could have done. 

God doesn’t want us to wait until the end of our lives to see how far we’ve fallen or how lukewarm we really are.  He warns us, again and again and again in order to wake us up now so that we won’t miss out on His blessings then.  How merciful is our God that He would do this?  Please pay much closer attention to what you’ve heard, and remember from where you’ve fallen.  Remember your first love; take heed you who thinks he stands, lest you fall. 

Do not tolerate evil men; put to the test those who call themselves “apostles” (or “teachers”); endure for the Lord’s sake and do not grow weary.  Repent and do the deeds you did at first.  Find and return to your first love.

 

 

 

 

A Different Gospel

Galatians 1:6-9

I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ, for a different gospel; 7 which is really not another; only there are some who are disturbing you, and want to distort the gospel of Christ. 9 But even though we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to that which we have preached to you, let him be accursed. 9 As we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to that which you received, let him be accursed.

This passage has recently piqued my interest, if for no other reason than it speaks of something that should cause a breach in what we term “Christian fellowship.” It seems clear that Paul is stating that, should anyone (even angels, even himself) try to teach something different than what the apostles first brought to these Christians at Galatia, they are to be “accursed” (literally, “excommunicated,” “banned,” or “cursed”).  In other words, if a brother or a sister in Christ – even a dearly loved and respected one – starts to teach something contrary to the pure gospel of Christ, avoid them and have nothing to do with them.  What does that really mean?

I think it means that it isn’t enough to simply hold fast to another Christian just because you’re both thankful that Christ died for you.  If that were the case, then Paul would not have gone on in his letter to the Christians at Galatia about what exactly this “different gospel” was that was being taught (as this “different” gospel was being taught by fellow Christians), contradict it, and then go so far as to make the charge that those who teach it wrongly be “accursed.”  If all it took to band arms together was a common belief in the fact that Jesus died to free us from our bondage to sin and give us everlasting life, then Paul wouldn’t have had to write to the Galatians; he would have let the matter go and instead encourage everyone to focus on Jesus’ death as their Passover Lamb.  But of course he didn’t; in fact, this “different” teaching was finding such acceptance that Paul goes so far as to call it “leaven,” and “not from Him who calls you” (Gal. 5:6-9), and that those who teach it will “bear his [own] judgment.”  Mind you, this had nothing to do with the good news that Jesus died to save them from eternal separation from God, but was something more concerning the mandates and commands about Christian living and the receiving of the promises of Abraham as an heir.

What was this “different gospel” (“which is really not another” Gal. 1:7) in Paul’s day that had him concerned?  It was the false teaching that circumcision and adherence to the Mosaic Law was the means for justification/sanctification amongst the saved, and was necessary in order for them to receive their heavenly inheritance.  Now, nowhere does Paul condemn the Law outright – he in fact calls it “spiritual” (Rom. 7:14) – but he does make the clear case that it is faith, apart from the Law, that justifies the saved – “the righteous man shall live by faith” (Gal. 3:11).  Furthermore, he sees it necessary to emphasize that the idea of being “Jewish” or “Gentile” is erased once a person is “in Christ”; the focus is not on one’s religion or genealogy or even biology, but instead it is on one’s belief in Christ and the Word of God as He presented it.  Any type of man’s works of religion  – referencing the outside form only – is not now, nor has it ever been, necessary for any type of justification.  The Law was a tutor that led to Christ, and now that Christ has come it is no longer in effect.

Paul’s argument against the Mosaic Law and in favor of grace oftentimes gets misunderstood.  Many Christians read this book and think that Paul is speaking against all works in general and then juxtaposing that with grace.  Many Christians of the “free grace theology” derive their teaching from this book.  But that’s not what Paul is teaching.  He’s teaching that the outward form of “keeping the Law” does not sanctify anyone, just as Jesus told the Pharisees that their holding of man’s tradition at the expense of real inward Spirit-driven change made them hypocrites.  From the Old Testament one can see that it is this very thing taught from the outset – which David understood – which is “For Thou dost not delight in sacrifice, otherwise I would give it; Thou art not pleased with burnt offering. 17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; A broken and a contrite heart, O God, Thou wilt not despise” (Psalm 51:16-17).  It is and always has been a heart issue with God, and His desire is for all of His children (those already saved) to believe in Him according to His Word with all our heart, our soul, our mind and our strength.

But like I said, the condemnation of fleshly works does not negate the necessity of works of faith.  Clearly God demands acts of faith from His people, and He does nothing short of shout it out that we are to BELIEVE and then ACT ON THAT BELIEF… why else would He tell us how to live as Christians?… how and why it is necessary to lose our soul now in order to pick it up in the age to come?  Why would He beg us to “abstain from all fleshly lusts that wage war against the soul”?  Why would He warn us to “do good” or else suffer loss?  Works matter, of course, but they must be born out of faith.  The problem comes when people think that “works” are lists of do-good items; works are not specific items to check off of a list (that would be religion), but are Spirit-driven and Spirit-inspired responses to God’s will and calling on our life.

But back to my point.  Paul’s main contention is that Christians were teaching other Christians a “different gospel,” and because of this many were “hindered from obeying the truth” (Gal. 5:7).  This slight deviation from the original gospel that they heard from the apostles was causing much harm, so much so that Paul finds it necessary to warn those who still knew the truth to treat those “disturbers” as accursed.  How does this apply to us today, now that we know that leaven has indeed permeated through almost all of what Christians call “the gospel”?  The real challenge is for each of us to go back to the Scriptures – all of them, Old Testament and New Testament alike – and find the “true gospel” that Paul preached.  Easier said than done, but possible nonetheless.  Hold fast and true to it.  Don’t deviate from it, no matter what and no matter who tries to teach you otherwise.  Don’t band arms with someone just because you both believe Christ died for you; Paul didn’t and he gives us an example which to follow.  But at the same time, don’t discount every other Christian who holds a different view than you.  Who is to say your view isn’t leavened? 

This passage piqued my interest mainly because I believe it negates the all-too-common statement of rallying Christians together solely based on their common salvation, without realizing the dangers and pitfalls that can be had when one encounters and is influenced by a “different gospel.”  Be aware, be diligent, and “contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 1:3).

I Corinthians 10:1

For I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; 2 and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea; 3 and all ate the same spiritual food; 4 and all drank the same spiritual drink, for they were drinking from a spiritual rock which followed them; and the rock was Christ. 5 Nevertheless, with most of them God was not well-pleased; for they were laid low in the wilderness.

6 Now these things happened as examples for us, that we should not crave evil things, as they also craved. 7 And do not be idolaters, as some of them were; as it is written, “THE PEOPLE SAT DOWN TO EAT AND DRINK, AND STOOD UP TO PLAY.” 8 Nor let us act immorally, as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in one day. 9 Nor let us try the Lord, as some of them did, and were destroyed by the serpents. 10 Nor grumble, as some of them did, and were destroyed by the destroyer. 11 Now these things happened to them as an example, and they were written for our instruction, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.

12 Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.

Box in such a way…

1Corinthians 9:26-27

Therefore I run in such a way, as not without aim; I box in such a way, as not beating the air; 27 but I discipline my body and make it my slave, so that, after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified.

This verse seems to allude to something that I have been thinking about recently.  Paul makes mention of his desire to “box in such a way, as not beating the air,” which makes me think about the sport of boxing and a rather rudimentary analogy that it brings to mind concerning the sport of “being a Christian.”  Allow me to take some liberties with this verse in order to paint a picture.

The idea presented here is one of “disqualification” from receiving “the prize” (cf. I Cor. 9:24), the prize being that which Scripture calls the “reward of the inheritance” (Col. 3:23), ruling with Christ in the age to come (cf. Rev. 3:21; Luke 19:17).  I’ve discussed this at length elsewhere, so the point of this is not to explain the prize itself, but a bit about the process which results in the attaining of that prize.

Paul speaks about “buffeting” his body and “making it [his] slave,” two phrases which speak of exercising control over fleshly impulsiveness, because it is our “flesh” or “old nature” that will disqualify us from receiving the prize if we do not continually subdue it.  Please remember as I continue with this analogy that it is a truth of Scripture that no man can, in and of himself, make himself holy or perfect.  He can only allow or not allow, by the implementing of choices, the Spirit to work inside of him, transforming him into the perfect image of God’s Son.  God does the work, but we have the choice to either allow Him to, or not.

In the sport of boxing, the real decisions about winning and losing are determined in the ring itself, wherein the boxer himself gets to put into practice that which he has spent months or years learning.  That is exactly what we Christians are to do.

A boxer needs to spend years in training, and that training is comprised of not only exercising his body every day, but also learning about the sport of boxing and the strategic elements required to outwit your opponent in order to win the fight.  One of the most important elements needed is the psychological preparedness for the beating that he will most likely receive so that he can recover quickly and press on to win the match.  Boxing is all about the fight, and being found victorious afterwards.  A boxer expects to get beat up – it is, after all, the whole essence of the sport – but he should sustain the least amount of bodily harm and should exercise the most amount of mental acuity in order to overcome the challenge of the fight.  In case you are unfamiliar with the sport of boxing, the winner is determined most often by the number of points he’s acquired throughout the fight (number of blows thrown and received, his engagement with his foe, his boxing technique, etc.), and very rarely by simple knock-outs (though those do happen, which assures instantly that the winner is the one still standing).  And boxing champions are made over years of fighting rather than in one determining match.

In parallel, we Christians are supposed to be training ourselves in many different ways – by reading and learning and studying the Word of God, by praying and becoming intimate with our Lord and Savior, and by fellowshipping with brothers and sisters in Christ.  We are supposed to be learning what God says about how to fight this fight of the faith – how to behave and how to endure as the battles of this life continue.  We are to be life-long students of the sport of “living for God,” which means that we will be engaged in real battles from time to time.  And the trick isn’t to pray that we never get into a fight, but to rather pray that we have the endurance to last to the end, possessing the spiritual and mental and physical fortitude to outwit our opponent(s) (the world, the flesh, and the devil).  Again, this is not derived from our own abilities, but from God’s Holy Spirit whom we allow to work this in our lives.

A boxer will fail at his sport if he only focuses on learning the ins and outs of his sport from books, t.v., and small talk with other boxing fans.  If he considers himself a boxer and never sets foot inside a ring – enduring the beatings and learning from each subsequent beating – then he’s not really a boxer.  He’s a boxing fan.  A boxer fights, and he trains himself for the fight… and his worth is determined in the fight.

A Christian will fail (relative to the receiving of the prize) if he only focuses on learning the ins and outs of his sport – living for God – from books, t.v. and small talk with other Christians.  If he/she considers himself a Christian and never sets foot inside the battle, or runs from every battle that comes his way, then he never really learns endurance and perseverance… his faith isn’t tested and strengthened and never perfected.  He’s not really a successful Christian.  He may be a fan of God, and truly love how awesome God is, but if he doesn’t get in the ring, or stay in the ring, then his worth is never determined. 

Being a Christian is hard work, and you get beat up again and again and again… but each time you stick it out and stay in that ring until the fight ends, your faith is matured.  And the maturing of our faith must occur in the real life battles; it doesn’t occur just in intellectual or “side-line” learning.  Just as a boxer boxes, we too must fight this fight of the faith.  And yeah, it’s tiring and painful and we may want the suffering to end… but once you really understand what the prize is, isn’t it worth it?

Time to Grow Up

Matthew 18:1

At that time the disciples came to Jesus and said, “Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” 2 And He called a child to Himself and set him before them, 3 and said, “Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. 4 Whoever then humbles himself as this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. 5 And whoever receives one such child in My name receives Me; 6 but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him to have a heavy millstone hung around his neck, and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.”

I have recently been thinking about this Scripture passage because it presents us with a seemingly incongruous message that can only be understood if we lay aside all worldly wisdom and receive it with meekness through our spiritual ears.  It’s a lesson that the Lord is personally teaching me, and I’d like to briefly share my thoughts on it.

Jesus states that we are to become like “children” if we are to enter the kingdom of heaven.  Many people teach that this pertains to one’s initial salvation, but that is not the case.  Entering the kingdom of heaven is what awaits the faithful Christian yet future, a reward giving to those who find and travel the narrow pathway, who overcome the flesh, the world and the devil, and who prepare their wedding garment by their acts of righteousness.  In other words, those Christians who truly submit themselves to the Lord’s work in their life will find themselves at the receiving end of the Lord’s commendation, “Well done, My good and faithful servant.”

And so, “becoming like a child” would encapsulate that process and give us an idea of what it looks like to be that faithful, overcoming Christian.

 Bear with me for a minute as I contrast the picture that is presented here. 

The world’s wisdom teaches us that in order to be successful in this life, our journey looks something like this: We start out as infants, completely dependent on our parents for our very survival – food, shelter, clothing.  As we grow up we are to grow independent, still needing instruction and care-giving by our parents, but our parent’s influence should lessen as we grow up, inevitably leading to our complete independence from them.  The goal of growing up is to be fully responsible adults, relying on ourselves for food, shelter and clothing, with possibly the addition of our own family unit to care for, thus starting the cycle of dependence to independence all over again. 

I’m not saying this is bad in and of itself; I’m saying that this is how we are taught to live in this world.

Spiritual wisdom teaches us that in order to be successful in this life, our journey looks something like this:  We start out with the barest knowledge of who God is, with our beginning steps being a recognition of our need for a Savior, usually precipitated by an awareness of our own sin and guilt and unworthiness in the eyes of Him who created us.  This brings us to Christ, Whom we acknowledge died on the cross for us, for our innumerable sins, bearing the punishment for us simply as a free gift on God’s behalf.  This marks our “birth” into the family of God.

At this point we are usually worldly wise, having much knowledge of the ways of this world.  For those of us who came to the Lord as adults, this is where the spiritual growth runs counterintuitive to our current way of thinking.  We may already have become independent and responsible American “citizens,” feeding and sheltering and clothing ourselves as we were taught to do.  We are all “grown up.”

And then God calls us to grow up into Him by becoming a child.  This means that we are to stop trying to exert control over the numerous aspects of our life that we have been taught to control, and we are to turn all of our cares upon our Father.  Our Father requires us to learn His ways and receive His instruction and discipline, all while we learn to obey His rules.  Doing this requires us to rely completely on Him and believe all that He says, even though our physical eyes will most likely tell us something different.  Regardless of what situation or circumstance occurs, we are to completely rely on Him… just as if we were mere infants, being cradled and cared for by a Parent who desires nothing more than to raise us up into His firstborn son – a son who will be equipped and ready to step into the administration of His household when He hands it all over to His only begotten Son. 

This can be a very scary thing to do.  It requires a shift in our thinking and a humility that can only be gotten from God.  It requires us to ask our Father for the wisdom and knowledge to become like a “child”… but isn’t it worth it?

1Corinthians 1:20

Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?

 

1Corinthians 2:14

But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.

Understanding Initial Salvation

Because we should never never ever take for granted the things that we Christians believe, it is absolutely imperative that we search the Scriptures daily, and ask questions daily.  And if we ever get to a place that we stop asking questions, then the Spirit has absolutely nowhere to go with us to lead us into all truth.  And if we need to revisit some old issues that we thought were once settled, then so be it.  I think that is how we all come to the kingdom beliefs, anyway, isn’t it?  We kept asking questions?!

Let’s go back to the idea of initial salvation, what so many call “the salvation of the spirit.”  The explicit mention of the salvation of the spirit is nowhere in Scripture.  That phrase cannot be found in Scripture, yet most of us use it to reference our “new birth,” that which Scripture does call “salvation by grace through faith.”  So if that phrase is not found in Scripture, then how do we arrive at the idea/belief that upon one’s initial salvation, it is the impact of life (removal of the death sentence) relative to the one part of man’s 3 parts – his SPIRIT?  (And subsequent to that, he/she must realize the salvation of the other 2 parts in order to be found “perfect/complete” at the JSOC, thereby receiving full rewards, i.e. entrance into & positions of rulership in the heavenly kingdom with the Bridegroom, Jesus Christ.)

My attempt here is to show that the idea of the salvation of the spirit, though not explicitly mentioned, is implicitly shown throughout Scripture.  But first allow me to correct something that most people get wrong – Abraham’s faith that was accounted to him as righteousness in Gen. 15 had nothing at all to do with his initial salvation, but was his subsequent behavior (belief or not, and ultimately acting on that belief) regarding God’s revelations to him.  Abraham’s initial salvation in not recorded in Scripture, for it must have occurred prior to him being called out of Ur.  It is assumed, as is every other biblical character’s (save a few) initial salvation.

The deaths of the lambs in Egypt, that which was required for the nation to be released from bondage to slavery, was indeed death & shed blood of an innocent… but if you’ll think that one through, too, you’ll catch that it couldn’t have possibly been the initial salvation (regarding the spirit) for every one of Abraham’s descendants, for many of them had previously been offering sacrifices to the Lord, an act in and of itself which implies initial salvation was already in possession.  Yes, it was a point of initial belief in God’s provision for some, but more importantly that day/event emphasized the creation of many individuals into one nation… a new nation being called out for God’s purposes.  Some individuals needed initial life in order to partake in God’s plan.  Remember this as we get to the idea of the new nation, the Church.

Since I said that salvation of the spirit is implied, it is important to create a big picture of what occurs in man in order to deduce the accuracy of this term aforementioned.  So allow me to do that.  Let’s look at the creation of Adam vs. the creation of the animals.  When the animals were created to be living beings, they were called  “chay nephesh,” that is, literally, “life soul.”  The animals were considered ALIVE with simply an organic body with blood coursing through it.  At this point it is imperative that one see Lev. 17:11 in this sense, that the “life (nephesh, literally “soul”) of the body/flesh is in the blood.  So the animals, consisting of soul and physical body, were actually living beings with just those two “parts.”  Now with Adam, he too was “chay nephesh,” (body soul), but was not called a “living being” until God breathed life into him.  And once God breathed life into him (Gen. 2:7), literally “the breath of life” Adam then became a living being.  The word “breath” is also the word “spirit.”  Do you see that?  Man needs all 3 parts – spirit, soul, and body – to be considered a living being.  (I talk about this in more detail on another post on this site.)

So of course we know that Adam “died” in the day that he ate of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  And immediately after he ate, you will notice in Scripture a picture of separation between him and God.  (Not that God didn’t know where he was, but a picture of separation is painted.)  So what is death?  Complete separation from God.  And because life must again be given to man, and Scripture is replete with mention of soul/life needed for the coming age, and a future resurrection/life given to this mortal body, what part is missing that needs to be dealt with in relation to life?  The spirit… the breath… the animating force man needs in order to be considered ALIVE to God.

And once we see that the term “salvation” simply means to be “freed or delivered,” the idea of a man’s spirit needing to be freed from this death (separation) sentence is clear.  Take into account I Cor. 2 where Paul talks about the spirit of a man knowing the thoughts of a man, and the Spirit of God knowing the thoughts of God, and man needing spiritual discernment to even operate or understand the spiritual, it becomes clear that man’s spirit must be the first thing dealt with.  Thus, the phrase, “the salvation of the spirit.”  I prefer to use “salvation by grace through faith,” or “initial salvation,” precisely because the other term can be misleading.

Now back to Christ’s first coming, and His initial purpose.  His purpose was to preach to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, i.e. those already initially justified/saved.  He was speaking spiritual things to those with spiritual ears.  But they (most of them) rejected Him.  So Christ said that He would create a new nation… one who would receive the kingdom of the heavens if they produced the fruit of it – Matt. 21:43 (which Israel did not – they were without fruit).  So Christ then takes the role of Passover Lamb in order to take all of those individuals who were in bondage to slavery (primarily “unsaved” Gentiles, but some Jews too – yes, “saved” Jews) and be the doorway through which this new nation would come into being.  In the same exact way we see it happen the first time in Egypt.  A new nation – the Church – being formed in order to partake in God’s purposes and plans for placing man back into the position for which he was created – to rule.  So many of those first individuals who became the “Church” through the Passover were indeed already in possession of a redeemed spirit (i.e. having received initial life), but many were not.  If any Gentiles at that point (or unredeemed Jew) looked upon and received God’s provision, they received spiritual eyes and ears, i.e. a saved spirit (LIFE).

Now take a look at Ephesians where Paul tells the Gentiles that they were once dead in their transgressions and sins, and were without a God in the world.  Of course that was the case, for their whole being was separated from God and His promises.  Every individual needs to first believe that God has paid the price of death on their behalf.  Let me explain this concept further.

Everyone is born dead, separated from God in the likeness of Adam.  Everyone needs life breathed into them to fellowship with God.  Since the wages of sin is DEATH, this makes perfect sense that since we are born into sin, we are essentially dead.  But take this a bit further… our first birth is rejected because of this sin, and we all owe the price for this, which is death.  So essentially, we owe God a death relative to our first birth into this world.  That is why death & shed blood is the means for the provision for initial life.  God pays the death that we owe (it is in this sense that we see the initial passover lambs relative to the judgment of the death of the firstborn… the firstborn [birth] must die), and if we accept His provision – a substitutionary sacrifice – for the death… if we realize that we owe a death and allow God to pay it on our behalf, then we are born anew.  We become new creatures through a second birth, which He does accept.  But there must be a death relative to sin.  That is why Jesus is our Passover for initial salvation, for He paid the debt for us – once, forever.  But He also freed us from bondage to slavery in order that we can be brought to the land which is reserved for us.

So in closing, all salvation/redemption is for the purpose of man being brought back into the position for which he was created – to rule.  But life (which is what salvation is… it is being saved from death and given life) can only come through the Spirit and life must affect every aspect of man… from his spirit which connects him to spiritual things, to his soul and body which are inextricably linked to this birth, this life.  We must have new life relative to the age to come if we are to partake in LIFE/FELLOWSHIP with God in that age – the 1,000-year Kingdom Age.  (And since it is only the soul/body that is seen as a reward and necessary to partake in the Seventh Day, we can furthermore assume that the spirit continues on from initial salvation unto forever and ever… which is why we see the salvation of the spirit impacting life unto eternity.)

That is why the picture of sacrifice is so important to us.  Our physical body is connected to this world in a way that cannot be undone until the resurrection and the next age… so we must “lose our soul,” i.e. POUR OUT OUR LIFE, WHICH IS OUR BLOOD, now… a gruesome picture but poignant nonetheless.  Pour out all things associated with this life, this age, this body.  That is our sacrifice and it is ongoing… and it will be ongoing until the day we appear at the JSOC.  And if we do this, we are essentially staying dead with Christ and walking anew in the power of the resurrection life at the same time.  We are essentially allowing our spirit to be the guiding force (that which is connected with the Spirit) of our life here and now and NOT THE SOUL, that which is justified at a time yet future.  And in the end, we will be those overcomers we so desire to be. 

So Church, please continue to ask questions.  And teachers, we need to always be ready to teach, and always be ready to be taught as well.

Thoughts about “Communion”

I was studying “communion” recently, and there are a couple of things that really stood out to me that I’d like to share.

Almost all Christians, us included, use the word “communion” to denote the act of partaking of bread and wine, a symbolic act we do every month out of remembrance of the Lord’s sacrifice on our behalf.  Every time we take “communion” we know we should be remembering the night before Jesus’ death, when He sat down with His disciples to teach them about what was to befall Him, and the significance of that coming event. The bread, He claimed, is His body; the wine, His blood –

Mark 14:14-26

… and wherever he enters, say to the owner of the house, ‘The Teacher says, “Where is My guest room in which I may eat the Passover with My disciples?”‘ 15 “And he himself will show you a large upper room furnished and ready; and prepare for us there.” 16 And the disciples went out, and came to the city, and found it just as He had told them; and they prepared the Passover.

 17 And when it was evening He *came with the twelve. 18 And as they were reclining at the table and eating, Jesus said, “Truly I say to you that one of you will betray Me–one who is eating with Me.” 19 They began to be grieved and to say to Him one by one, “Surely not I?” 20 And He said to them, “It is one of the twelve, one who dips with Me in the bowl. 21 “For the Son of Man is to go, just as it is written of Him; but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed!  It would have been good for that man if he had not been born.”

 22 And while they were eating, He took some bread, and after a blessing He broke [it]; and gave [it] to them, and said, “Take it; this is My body.” 23 And when He had taken a cup, and given thanks, He gave it to them; and they all drank from it. 24 And He said to them, “This is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many. 25 “Truly I say to you, I shall never again drink of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.” 26 And after singing a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.

For His disciples, you can imagine that it would have appeared a gruesome thought, actually eating a person’s body and drinking their blood… particularly since blood was considered an unclean thing, not to be ingested (especially WITH the meat of the sacrificed animal).  This was a new concept for them, but apparently one that they embraced.

But for us, now, post Cross and resurrection, it is not only about looking back on the Lord’s death (and partaking in the Passover meal), it is about proclaiming His death UNTIL HE RETURNS –

I Corinthians 11:23

For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which He was betrayed took bread; 24 and when He had given thanks, He broke it, and said, “This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” 25 In the same way He took the cup also, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.” 26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes

We are looking forward to something…we are only looking back because of the ramifications it has for us concerning that which is yet future.

This is all very familiar to us, and particularly important to us (to have something tangible to do in which to connect to the Lord on a spiritual level), which is why we choose to partake in this ritual every month.  And nowhere in the Scriptures does it say we have to partake in this ritual, and of course nowhere in the Scriptures does it say we have to do it every month. This is just our choice.

However, nowhere in Scripture does the word “communion” stand alone as the word for the ritual or practice of eating bread and drinking wine.  What we physically do with the food and drink is NOT communion – it’s eating and drinking.  

The word translated as “communion” in Scripture is “koinonia.”  Sound familiar?  It should.  It means a “fellowship of like-mindedness,” a “togetherness with a shared purpose.”  Koinonia.  We’ve all heard that word before, right?  That’s what we’re doing when we share in the food and drink… we’re supposed to be spiritually sharing in the Lord’s Final Supper, and spiritually together and fellowshipping with Him (and dare I say each other) with a like-mindedness WITH HIM.  With the food and drink, which is symbolic of the Lord’s body itself, we are to enter into and share His sufferings… we are to enter into and share His joy of what lay before Him as He gave His life for us…we are to enter into and share His willfulness to do the Father’s will and not His own.  Koinonia.

And another thing that popped out at me as I looked at what we call “communion” was the expressed command by Paul to “judge yourself” as you partake of the “Lord’s Supper” –

I Corinthians 11:27-31

27 Therefore whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner, shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. 28 But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup. 29 For he who eats and drinks, eats and drinks judgment to himself, if he does not judge the body rightly. 30 For this reason many among you are weak and sick, and a number sleep. 31 But if we judged ourselves rightly, we should not be judged.

And I thought about this “examining and judging ourselves,” in connection with the Lord’s Supper, and I began to see why Paul would point this out in this context.  Remember the Lord’s Last Supper with His disciples?  And do you remember one the most significant parts of that gathering with all 12 of them?  The Lord judged one of His disciples, didn’t He?

Matthew 26:20-25

20  Now when evening had come, He was reclining at the table with the twelve disciples. 21 And as they were eating, He said, “Truly I say to you that one of you will betray Me.” 22 And being deeply grieved, they each one began to say to Him, “Surely not I, Lord?” 23 And He answered and said, “He who dipped his hand with Me in the bowl is the one who will betray Me. 24 “The Son of Man is to go, just as it is written of Him; but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been good for that man if he had not been born.” 25 And Judas, who was betraying Him, answered and said, “Surely it is not I, Rabbi?” He *said to him, “You have said it yourself.”

The Lord Himself pointed out the unworthiness of one of the 12 to “koinonia” with Him, for that man did not share in His or the others’ like-mindedness.  Judas sat himself down, he lied and he deceived the Lord and his brothers in Christ… and he did not change his mind concerning his direction, though the Lord clearly examined and judged him right then and there.

So Paul, in all his wisdom, exhorts those who “koinonia” together over the partaking of the Lord’s Supper together to check yourselves in this way… are you fellowshipping properly with the Lord?  Or are you secretly determining that you want to subvert the sufferings to come, and instead profit from the world rather than share and enter into that communion that the Lord is offering?  It is now that we need to do this, for if we would do this ourselves, NOW, the Lord won’t have to do it when we meet Him face to face.

And I think that would be why, going back to the use of the specific translation of “communion” for koinonia, 1 of the 3 places we see that word used is in this passage –

II Corinthians 6:14-18

Do not be bound together with unbelievers; for what partnership  have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship [communion] has light with darkness? 15 Or what harmony has Christ with Belial, or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever? 16 Or what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; just as God said, “I WILL DWELL IN THEM AND WALK AMONG THEM; AND I WILL BE THEIR GOD, AND THEY SHALL BE MY PEOPLE.  17 “Therefore, COME OUT FROM THEIR MIDST AND BE SEPARATE,” says the Lord. “AND DO NOT TOUCH WHAT IS UNCLEAN; And I will welcome you.  18 “And I will be a father to you, And you shall be sons and daughters to Me,” Says the Lord Almighty.

We need to have a proper understanding of the word “communion,” each and every time we use it, and we need to “koinonia” properly, with a proper perspective.