Is The Word Becoming Flesh? (3)

 

“Those who forsake the law praise the wicked, but those who keep the law strive with them.” Proverbs 28:4.

 

Resistance to evil must begin within our own souls by obeying the Word of God. We must say “no” to the temptation to pick and choose what we will obey in Christ, and what sin and rebellion we will endorse and adopt. We ought not to be so foolish as to think that we can live autonomous lives, we will either serve God or the idols of this age.

“He who keeps the law is a discerning son, but he who is a companion of gluttons humiliates his father.” Proverbs 28:7. If we are the sons and daughters of our heavenly Father, then we will keep His Word – His Word will live within us, He will be incarnate in us – both individually and collectively. We will be faithful stewards and guardians of His Word and our Father will rejoice in our obedience – faithful sons and daughters will not humiliate their Father, we will not bring disgrace on Him and our Lord Jesus.

 

“The one who says, ‘I have come to know Him,’ and does not keep His commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him; but whoever keeps His word, in him the love of God  has truly been perfected. By this we know that we are in Him: the one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked” (1 John 2:4 – 5). Let’s remember that an element of the Great Commission is “teaching them to observe all that I commanded you” (Mt. 28:20a). Let us also remember that “His commandments are not burdensome” (1 John 5:3b).

 

We live in a gluttonous society. We are gluttons for food and drink, gluttons for possessions, gluttons for money, gluttons for sex, gluttons for power, gluttons for fame, gluttons for pride and ego – we consume all around us, including people, including creation, including our own souls. Where have our souls gone? We have consumed them.

 

Jesus asked, “What shall it profit a man [or a woman or a young person] if he gains the entire world but loses his soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?”

 

What is my answer to that? What is our answer? What is your answer? How do our lives reflect our answer? How do they validate our answer…or give the lie to our words?

 

“He who turns away his ear from listening to the law, even his prayer is an abomination” (Proverbs 28:9). Do we gloss over passages like this one? Do we believe that if we live in disobedience that God will hear us? Can we even conceive that God would consider a prayer an “abomination”? When we judge ourselves by our intentions and others by their actions, when we think ourselves righteous according to our own measurement, while we attempt to force the Word of God into our own image and likeness – when our mindset is that God is a super – therapist, can we take such a passage seriously?

 

Dear, dear friends; the headwater of lawlessness is Satan. The trajectory of lawlessness is the personification of Satan in the antichrist, the “man of lawlessness” (2 Thess. 2:3), and in the peoples of this age – including in the United Sates. Do we seriously think that we can justify lawlessness? Do we honestly think that the ends justify the means? Have we made idols of pragmatism, self – preservation, and social and political power? Is religious success more important that fidelity to Jesus Christ? Do we measure our congregations by obedience to Jesus Christ or by numbers in the pews and offering amounts?

 

If you choose obedience to Jesus Christ, you will probably not have much company. You will not have it in liberal circles, nor will you have it in moderate circles, nor will you have it in conservative circles – whether these circles be political, social, academic, or religious. When Jesus said “the gate is small and the way is narrow” He meant what He said. For the disciple of Jesus Christ, there is no home in this age, there is no identity other than Jesus Christ that we can trust, rest in, or advocate. Jesus was clear, “My kingdom is not of this world.” Why can we not understand that?

 

Are we keeping the Word of God (Proverbs 28:4) and thereby striving with the wicked?

 

Are we keeping the Law of God (Proverbs 28:7), living as discerning sons and daughters; or are our lives disgracing Jesus Christ and the Gospel? (Matthew 5:43 – 48).

 

Are we listening to the Law of God, are we obeying the Word of God, or are our prayers abominations; do we expect God to endorse our rejection of His Word, of His Law, and bless us? (Proverbs 28:9).

 

How do our lives answer these questions? What is the reality? If we were on trial, what would the evidence be? For me? For you? For our congregations? For the professing church in our country?

Is The Word Becoming Flesh? (2)

 

On December 4 I posted Is the Word Becoming Flesh? In it, among other things, I wrote of my desire to see the People of God submit to the Word of God, thus being transformed into the image of God, thus living in the continuing Incarnation of Jesus Christ; there is a sense in which as “the Word became flesh” in Jesus Christ, that in us the “flesh becomes the Word” as we partake of our Lord Jesus Christ and submit to His Word.

 

After that post, I wanted to demonstrate what it looks like when we attempt to force the Bible to submit to us, and so I turned our attention to Judas Iscariot and then the fear of the LORD, giving examples of what submitting to the Biblical text can look like, as opposed to attempting to force Scripture to submit to our ideas and images (I might also have given examples of us justifying sinful actions and thoughts).

 

Let me quote the conclusion to the December 4 post:

 

“Along with a deep desire for us to know and obey the Bible as the Living Word of God, is a desire to see us put distance between ourselves and the lawlessness of this present age. For if we are not obeying holy Scripture, if we are not drinking from the cup of obedience to the Bible, then we are drinking from the cup of the serpent, and this is the “man of lawlessness” (2 Thess. 2:3; 1 Cor. 10:21; 2 Cor. 6:14). It is especially disturbing to me to see professing Christians engaged in disrespect of legitimate authority, to hear vicious vitriol, to see us engaged in toxic “culture wars” when we are not called in Christ to any such thing – but rather to be witnesses to Him, as individuals and especially as an identifiable People, as His Bride, His Church, His Temple. How sad to see professing Christians enabling and affirming lawlessness both in the professing church and in society. (Please consider 2 Timothy 2:24 – 26; and James 3:13 – 18. Are we displaying James 3:17 and 18?)

 

“We do not have the capacity to live autonomously; we will either serve God or we will serve the devil – we will either surrender our will to Jesus Christ or to the destroyer of the souls of men. The only lasting antidote to lawlessness is a life of obedience to Jesus Christ.

 

Let me ask you to please consider Proverbs 28:4, 7, 9; and 29:18. What do you see? We’ll come back to these verses in a future post.”

 

How do we live in a lawless society? How do we live within a professing church that is lawless? We are morally, ethically, and spiritually lawless. We are often legally lawless. Lawlessness has become a way of life. “Christian” leaders have become lawless in their own lives and they justify lawlessness in others – in political leaders, in mobs, in insurrectionists.

 

Organizations which were once dedicated to the Gospel have abdicated that dedication and prostitute themselves in lawless men and movements of this evil age. This especially confuses our witness to the world when one minute we are supporting politicians and political agendas and the next minute we are supposedly proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ. One minute we are making the kingdoms of this world our focus, and the next minute we are supposedly talking about the Kingdom of God. Even worse, we attempt to place the Kingdom of God in the service of the kingdoms of this world – is this not prostitution? Isn’t this whoredom? Isn’t this lawlessness? Aren’t we going the way of Balaam? Aren’t we enthroning Jezebel?

 

If we are to counter lawlessness in society and in the professing church, we must first beseech God to help us counter lawlessness in our own souls, hearts, and minds. If my soul is lawless, then I can hardly hope to help my neighbor or my congregation or my earthly nation.

 

“Those who forsake the law praise the wicked, but those who keep the law strive with them.” Proverbs 28:4. The Bible is the Word of God, it is the Law of God. This is not to be confused with the Law of Moses, or what we call the Levitical Law, or the Old Covenant – as we might normally understand it. And yet it indeed does include the Law of Moses if we understand that the Law of Moses, as it is transposed upwards, reveals Jesus Christ (Luke 24:27, 44, 45). I will use the Word of God and the Law of God interchangeably, keeping in mind that Jesus Christ, Himself, is the Word of God, the Law of God, the Logos of God – the perfect Image and Way of God, for He is God.

 

And let us keep in mind that the word “law” need not refer to written, or codified laws, but that it can also refer to laws such as gravity and other laws discerned in creation. There is also “common law,” a concept ingrained in English (and hence American) law, this acknowledges that there are unwritten laws and practices that have their roots in the deep past and which have the power and effect of governing law.

 

Paul provides us with an overview of what we call natural law in Romans 1:18 – 2:29; something which the West is doing its best to obliterate in our time, with elements of the professing church sadly either overtly enabling or incrementally succumbing to this dismantling, the latter usually the result of pragmatic concerns and a false sense of self-preservation.

 

When we forsake the Law of God in any of its forms, whether written on paper or written in our hearts, minds, and consciences – we praise the wicked. When we hypocritically condemn others for their thinking and behavior, and practice lawlessness in our own souls, we not only destroy any testimony we might have had, but we enable the wicked to continue their assault on humanity.

 

On the other hand, if we live lives of keeping the Law, loving the Word of God, obeying the Word of God, submitting to the Word of God, living by and in the Word of God; allowing the Word of God to live in us and be the arbiter of our lives…then we strive against the wicked, we stand against the lawlessness of our age. For as long as there is a faithful remnant, as long as there is one woman or man or young person who is keeping the Word of God, guarding the Word of God…then, my friends, there is hope, then there remains a light within the Light of the world.

 

Let me be clear about the stakes involved, if we drink from the cup of lawlessness we drink of the cup of Satan and the antichrist. Our Lord Jesus is a holy Lion and a holy blameless Lamb, who submits to the will of the Father on the Cross and lays down His life for the world. Rebellion is from the abyss, and those who imbibe its poisonous gasses will die in the rebellion. (1 Cor. 10:14 – 22; 2 Cor. 6:14 – 7:1; 2 Thess. 2:3 – 12; James 3:13 – 18; Jude 1:8 – 16).

 

Well, this is likely enough for one post. I’ll try to follow this up quickly. Please consider the above passages.

The Fear of the LORD - An Example of Submitting to the Text (2)

  

In the previous post I asked us to consider ten passages that speak of fear, including the fear of the LORD. How do these passages relate to each other? How does “the fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom” relate to “the one who fears is not perfected in love”? Is this a contradiction?

 

What about Paul writing “Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade men, but we are made manifest to God,” in 2 Corinthians; but then in Romans he writes, “For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, “Abba! Father!”? Do these two passages contradict each other?

 

I have been in many small groups that, when the subject of fearing the LORD comes up, no one wants to really talk about it. I have often heard, “God is my Father and I am not going to fear Him.” Or “God is not going to judge me since I am a Christian and I’m not going to fear Him.” Or “I used to have a bad image of God because I had a bad relationship with my earthly father, but now I see God as love and I’m not going to fear him.”

 

When we adopt any of the foregoing attitudes toward passages such as, “the fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom,” are we submitting to the Bible or are we forcing the Bible to submit to us and our thinking and our feelings? What do we do when we have passages that seemingly contradict each other?

 

As we think about this, let me say that I have also known Christians who seem to know little of the God of love, of the fact that God has indeed sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, whereby we cry out “Abba! Father!” So you see, in the same room we can have folks who cannot conceive of intimacy with God the Father, who live in insecurity and a fear which is certainly not of the Bible; and yet we can also have folks who believe in a nebulous love without form, definition, or purpose and don’t think that the Father will hold them accountable for their lives.

 

The answer to the foregoing is not some kind of compromise, it is not both sides meeting in a theological middle, that is one of man’s ways of resolving an issue, but we should not be seeking to resolve an “issue,” we should be seeking to know the Living God and to live with one another in the Holy Spirit. And this, my dear friends, means that we seek to know God’s Word, as we submit to the Holy Spirit, live under the lordship of Jesus Christ, and seek the Face of our Father – acknowledging that we are pilgrims, that this world is not our home and that its ways are not our Way.

 

This means that we live lives being transformed by the Word of God and the Holy Spirit and that, by God’s grace, we are always learning, always seeking new vistas of the Kingdom, always growing in Jesus Christ and with one another. And it means that we learn the discipline of submitting to the Bible rather than foolishly attempting to have the Bible submit to us and our ways and our images and our thinking.

 

There are some things, perhaps many things (probably all things?), in the Bible and in our relationship with the Trinity that we will never fully understand while on this earth, but this is not to say that we cannot have some measure of understanding, and it is not to say that we cannot have full assurance of them – for the closer we get to the Heaven of heavens the more our words fail us, but the greater our assurance is, the clearer our vision becomes, the more grace and glory fill our hearts, and the more loving service we can give to our neighbor…all in Jesus Christ. A professing Christian, a pastor, a teacher, a congregation, not living life with a good measure of mystery is probably not living much of a life – for how can we possibly be in a relationship with the Trinity and not be humbled by mystery?

 

And so I think we live in holy tension as we meditate on the verses I’ve asked us to ponder, for they all ought to have a place in our hearts, for they all are the Word of God, speaking to us of our Father and Lord Jesus and as we submit to them the Holy Spirit will transform us into the image of Jesus Christ. If I can’t relate to a Biblical teaching, such as fear of the LORD, rather than say, “I don’t fear God and I’m not gong to fear God because I was in a fearful relationship with my earthly father,” might it be better to say, “Dear Father in heaven, help me to understand these passages, at least in some measure,  about the fear of the LORD, about fearing You, and help me to obey them, because right now I don’t understand them”?

 

If I can’t relate to passages about intimacy with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; rather than dismiss them because I can’t relate to them, might not it be better to say, “O Lord Jesus, help me to accept Your Word, to live in Your Word, I don’t understand these images of intimacy with You, I certainly don’t experience them, but I want to, help me to trust You in this, draw me to Yourself, help me to know You deeply”?

 

Can we be clear that we are most certainly accountable to God for our lives, for the way we live them?

 

“For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad. Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade men, but we are made manifest to God; and I hope that we are made manifest also in your consciences.” 2 Corinthians 5:10 – 11. (See also 1 Corinthians 3:10 – 17). Note that Paul writes to Christians in the Corinthian letters.

 

Consider also Revelation chapters 2 and 3, where we see the Risen Christ speaking to the Seven Churches, within the entire letter of Revelation in which He speaks to all the Church; those churches in chapters two and three that do not repent will be judged, even in this life.

 

Also consider that discipline and correction and reproof are foundational elements of our life in Christ and of our relationship with our Father. We see this throughout the Bible, including:

 

“and you have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons, ‘My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the LORD, nor faint when you are reproved by Him; for those whom the LORD loves He disciplines, and He scourges every son whom He receives. It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons…but He disciplines us for our good, so that we may share His holiness.” (from Hebrews 12:6 – 10).

 

“Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline; therefore be zealous and repent.” (Revelation 3:19).

 

Insecure people cannot receive discipline or corrective instruction because they perceive it as rejection – we see this in many areas of life, including the Christian life. Also, Christians who have the idea that God is not holding them accountable for their lives seldom receive His discipline and instruction because they are not looking for it, are not sensitive to it, and in fact reject the notion that God would do such a thing when they insist they are not going to fear God. What a shame to live as infants – when God has given us our lives to know Him and grow in Him and be a blessing to those around us as mature sons and daughters in Jesus Christ.

 

Let me assure you that there is a thing more to be feared than the discipline of our Lord, and that is when He is not discipling us.

 

And so we are to live as those who will appear before the Judgment Seat of Christ, and as those who cry out “Abba! Father!” in an intimate relationship with our heavenly Father, and as those who live in the fear of the LORD, which is the beginning of wisdom. Just as God is One, so is God’s Word One. May we allow this tension to lead us deeper and deeper into the Trinity.

 

“So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in by absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.” (Philippians 2:12 – 13).

 

 

 

 

The Fear of the LORD - An Example of Submitting to the Text

 

 

In the previous post in this series, I asked, “What does it look like to submit to the Biblical text, as opposed to allowing our presuppositions to drive our understanding of the Bible, the Word of God?”

 

I mentioned that there are some subjects that I know, when thinking about them with others, will likely require much time and in which I can only hope for so much understanding. Why? Because of the habit of our hearts and minds to impose our understanding on the Bible as opposed to allowing the Bible to impose its truth on us. In other words, our habit is to force the Bible to submit to us, rather than submitting ourselves to the Word of God (see 1 Cor. 1:17 – 2:16).

 

I wrote that, “Among these areas are the Trinity, free will and election, eschatology (Biblical prophecy), evangelism and witness, prayer, and Judas Iscariot.”

 

Now I’ll add to this list, the fear of the LORD. The difficulty we have in thinking about the fear of the LORD is not only due to our propensity to force the Bible into our image and mold, but also that we are exalting the social “sciences” above the Biblical text, making therapy and our desire to feel good about ourselves our goal, thus adopting images of God that accommodate our therapeutic orientation. A sad irony of this is that, if we remind ourselves that “therapy” and “therapeutic” are words from New Testament Greek than speak of healing, our adoption of man’s system of inner healing closes us off from God’s holistic healing as mediated in the Bible and found only in the Person of Jesus Christ. God’s healing is found in the Cross of Christ being our Way of Life; the social “sciences” sanitize the Cross and its self-denial, indeed its death to self, and give us a Jesus Christ who specializes in making us feel good in the embrace of a group hug and a “Don’t worry, be happy” hymnody.

 

In this post I want to demonstrate what the Bible says about the fear of the LORD and how we can think about this important subject. Let’s begin with some Bible verses, as you read them what do you see? How do they relate to each other? What are they teaching? How do the first six verses relate to those that follow them?

 

“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.” Proverbs 1:7.

 

“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.” Proverbs 9:10.

 

“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; a good understanding have all those who do His commandments; His praise endures forever.” Psalm 111:10.

 

“The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever…” Psalm 19a.

 

“Let all the earth fear the LORD; let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him.” Psalm 33:8.

 

“Behold, the eye of the LORD is on those who fear Him, on those who hope for His lovingkindness.” Psalm 33:18.

 

“For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, “Abba! Father!” Romans 8:15.

 

“For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and love and a sound mind.” 2 Timothy 1:7.

 

“There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out all fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love.” 1 John 4:18.

 

“For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad. Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade men, but we are made manifest to God; and I hope that we are made manifest also in your consciences.” 2 Corinthians 5:10 – 11.

 

Let’s please take some time to ponder these passages, asking the Holy Spirit to help us see and understand what God is saying and how they relate to each other. We’ll return to the fear of the LORD in the next post.

Iscariot - An Example of Submitting to the Text

 

What does it look like to submit to the Biblical text, as opposed to allowing our presuppositions to drive our understanding of the Bible, the Word of God? There are some subjects that I know, when thinking about them with others, will likely require much time and in which I can only hope for so much understanding. Why? Because of the habit of our hearts and minds to impose our understanding on the Bible as opposed to allowing the Bible to impose its truth on us. In other words, our habit is to force the Bible to submit to us, rather than submitting ourselves to the Word of God (see 1 Cor. 1:17 – 2:16).

 

Among these areas are the Trinity, free will and election, eschatology (Biblical prophecy), evangelism and witness, prayer, and Judas Iscariot. Actually, virtually any Bible study or Sunday message presents this challenge, to one degree or another, but there are particular passages and subjects that are more difficult than others.

 

In the last post I asked us to ponder some verses in Proverbs regarding the Law of God, but before we engage them, I want to offer an example or two of what I mean when I write of submitting to the Biblical text. We’ll begin with Judas Iscariot, for I have never worked through a Bible study with others that included Iscariot that did not have myriad presuppositions imposed on the text, along with conclusions that were without Biblical warrant.

 

Below is a handout I prepared for my congregation in 2009 when I was preaching a Sunday series on the Upper Room (John chapters 13 – 17). Knowing that I could not spend the time required in this sermon series to consider Judas Iscariot, I prepared this handout to hopefully help my folks through this important topic – for as important as the subject of Iscariot is in itself, it is also important in terms of how we think about it, whether or not we submit to the Biblical text, to the Word of God.

 

Because this is rather lengthy, should you want this in a PDF file please let me know and I’ll send you one.

 

 

 

Judas Iscariot

Staying Within the Biblical Text

By: Bob Withers

September 25, 2009

 

                Our time in the Upper Room with Jesus in September and October can only scratch the surface of John Chapters 13 – 17. Due to time limitations there are some threads of these chapters that we’ll be unable to touch on at all; one of which is Judas Iscariot.

            As we’ll see below, the Bible does not tell us a lot about Judas Iscariot (not to be confused with another Apostle named Judas), but that is the case with most of the Apostles, and in one sense this shouldn’t be a surprise because the Gospels are about Jesus Christ and not about us or anyone else. Of the twelve original Apostles we know more about Peter from the Gospels and the Book of Acts than anyone else, and next to Peter we know more about John than anyone else – but beyond those two Apostles our information is pretty scanty and in some instances nonexistent.

            Concerning Judas Iscariot, of the four Gospel writers John tells us more than Matthew, Mark and Luke; the Book of Acts (also written by Luke) also refers to Judas (in the first chapter) – but John is where we get more of a glimpse of Judas than anywhere else…and yet it is only a glimpse.

            The temptation with just getting a glimpse of something is to read more into it than we ought to and to build an image or teaching which may not be there at all; it is a temptation that most of us, including me, find hard to resist!

            The temptation with getting a glimpse of Judas is that we want to find some way to understand why he betrayed Jesus. Why did he do it? What was he thinking? What was he feeling? Perhaps he wanted the best for Jesus and just went about it the wrong way? Maybe he repented after he saw the consequences of his actions and asked for forgiveness? Isn’t there some way we can turn Judas into a sympathetic figure?

            The challenge in asking these questions is to stay within the Biblical text – a difficult challenge with almost any Biblical text; but perhaps a particular challenge with a tough subject like Judas Iscariot.

            Below are the key New Testament passages referring to Judas Iscariot, I have not included passages from Mark or Luke because they parallel those in Matthew and John – what do these passages teach us?

 

            JN 6:70 Then Jesus replied, "Have I not chosen you, the Twelve? Yet one of you is a devil!" 71 (He meant Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, who, though one of the Twelve, was later to betray him.)

 

            The word “devil” means “slanderer” and whether or not Jesus means that Judas is a slanderer as opposed to being possessed or influenced by the devil at that particular time, the fact that Jesus uses this particular word forms an association with Judas and the evil one, known as the devil or Satan.

 

   JN 12:4 But one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, who was later to betray him, objected, 5 "Why wasn't this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It was worth a year's wages." 6 He did not say this because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief; as keeper of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it.

 

          Here is another glimpse. We are told that Judas was a thief and we are shown that Judas was also a liar and a deceiver. In John 10:10 Jesus teaches that the thief (referring to the devil) comes to steal, to kill and to destroy. In John 6:44 Jesus also teaches that the devil is a murderer, a liar, and in fact “the father of lies”. So once again we have association occurring with Judas and Satan.

 

            The following passage in John Chapter 13 occurs in the Upper Room:

 

  JN 13:2 The evening meal was being served, and the devil had already prompted Judas Iscariot, son of Simon, to betray Jesus.

 

   JN 13:26 Jesus answered, "It is the one to whom I will give this piece of bread when I have dipped it in the dish." Then, dipping the piece of bread, he gave it to Judas Iscariot, son of Simon. 27 As soon as Judas took the bread, Satan entered into him.

 

            In 13:2 we see that Judas had already moved to betray Jesus; see also Matthew 26:14; Mark 14:10; Luke 22:3.

            In 13:26 – 27 we see something akin to a consummation of relationship between Judas and Satan – though the exact nature of what we’re reading is hard to grasp. Without a doubt a line of demarcation is crossed with the words, “As soon as Judas took the bread, Satan entered into him”.

 

 

  MT 27:3 When Judas, who had betrayed him, saw that Jesus was condemned, he was seized with remorse and returned the thirty silver coins to the chief priests and the elders. 4 "I have sinned," he said, "for I have betrayed innocent blood." "What is that to us?" they replied. "That's your responsibility." 5 So Judas threw the money into the temple and left. Then he went away and hanged himself.

 

            Here is another glimpse of Judas, which without a full Biblical context could be open to different interpretations. Could this mean that Judas came to God in repentance, asked forgiveness, and was forgiven? This is a fair and reasonable question. Of course we all know that remorse can take many forms, from true repentance and confession and seeking forgiveness; to being sorry for being caught. Remorse coming from a recognition of sin, a recognition of wrongdoing, does not in and of itself mean that it is remorse leading to repentance. Are there other Biblical passages that might throw light on this question: Did Judas turn to God in repentance?

 

JN 17:12 While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave me. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled.

 

2TH 2:1 Concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to him, we ask you, brothers, 2 not to become easily unsettled or alarmed by some prophecy, report or letter supposed to have come from us, saying that the day of the Lord has already come. 3 Don't let anyone deceive you in any way, for that day will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction. 4 He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God's temple, proclaiming himself to be God.

 

            In John 17:12 Jesus refers to Judas with a specific term, in the NIV it is the one doomed to destruction. Other English versions translate this phrase the son of perdition or son of destruction – and indeed the word son is exactly what the Greek text says. So Jesus is referring to Judas as the son or child of perdition or destruction. What does this mean? A look at Paul’s passage in 2 Thessalonians may help us to understand this phrase.

 

            In 2 Thessalonians Chapter Two Paul is dealing with, in part, the personification of Satan and Satan’s opposition to the Church of Jesus Christ. In describing the man of lawlessness, or who the Apostle John refers to as the antichrist, Paul uses the very same term that Jesus uses with respect to Judas; the man doomed to destruction (NIV), the son of destruction, the son of perdition (other English versions).

 

            Once again we are confronted with the association of Judas Iscariot with the devil or Satan, and now also with the spirit and persona of the antichrist – to the point where Paul and Jesus use the same term to describe both Judas and the antichrist. Considering this clear association it is unlikely that the “remorse” we read about in the Gospel of Matthew is a remorse of true repentance, for the Biblical picture of Satan and the antichrist presents no such picture – see Revelation 19:20-21; 20:10. While we may not understand any of what really went on within Judas Iscariot, anymore than we can say that we understand what went on with Satan that led to his rebellion against God; we can say in both instances that the Biblical picture ends in perdition, in an abyss that defies our understanding and which is beyond our comprehension.

 

            Beyond the above there are at least three Old Testament prophecies of Judas Iscariot, Psalm 41:9, which Jesus quotes in John 13:18; Psalm 69:25 and 109:8 which are both quoted by the Apostles in Acts 1:20. And then we have the words of Jesus about Judas in Matthew 26:24, “…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.” Perhaps all we need do in reading about the remorse of Judas in Matthew 27:3 is to look back to what Jesus said about Judas in Matthew 26:24 – perhaps Matthew did not intend to leave us with any question about the irrevocability of Judas’s betrayal?

 

            There are many mysteries in the Scriptures, things that we can dimly see but which we cannot fully understand; as much as we would like to engage in speculation, speculation is generally unprofitable and diverts our attention from the Biblical text with its focus on Jesus Christ, God’s love for humanity, and the offer of redemption that is extended to us through the Cross and Resurrection.

 

            What can we learn from Judas? The first thing is in the words of Jesus, “Therefore when he [Judas] had gone out, Jesus said, ‘Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in Him,’” John 13:31. God uses persecution and betrayal in our lives to transform us into His image and to be glorified in us. If we are going to know Christ in the fellowship of His sufferings (Phil. 3:10) it will likely mean that we experience betrayal. We are called to allow the most painful experiences in life to be the means by which we are transformed into the image of Christ and the means by which God is glorified within us.

 

            The second thing we can learn is the heinousness of sin and the consequences of alignment with Satan. We are not engaged in a religious game; the Gospel is a matter of eternal life versus eternal death. What we believe matters, how we live matters, and our faithfulness to Christ matters. There is a lot we may not know about Judas Iscariot; but we should give heed to what we do know.

 

            

           

Is The Word Becoming Flesh?

 

It is Advent and a new year, the Lord willing, will soon be upon us. I have two burdens this morning, the first is that the People of God embody the Word of God, that they live as the Temple of God, acknowledging that the Incarnation continues in them – for the Trinity lives within them. The second is that we see the Bible as God’s Word, God’s Law, and submit ourselves to it in obedient love. Of course, these two burdens cannot be separated, for God’s will is many faceted and is one in Jesus Christ.

 

Limiting the Incarnation to Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem to His Ascension is to truncate the Bible’s teaching on the Incarnation; for if the essence of the Incarnation is captured in the phrase, “And the Word became flesh…” (John 14), and if Jesus Christ lives in His People, if He is indeed the Head of the Body, if we are “growing into a holy temple in the Lord…a dwelling of God in the Spirit” (Eph. 2:21 – 22); then to be sure the Incarnation continues in us.

 

As the Word lives in us we are able to say, “I delight to do Your will, O my God; Your law is within my heart” (Psalm 40:8).

 

“The one who says, ‘I have come to know Him,’ and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in Him; but whoever keeps His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know that we are in Him; the one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked” (1 John 2:4 – 6).

 

“For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome” (1 John 5:3).

 

Perhaps we live in the church of the turtle? What I mean is that when we start to believe the above, sticking our necks out in faith, we are intimidated to quickly draw back within our shells, hearing that such passages cannot possibly be for "poor sinners" like us – we dare not move toward living in our inheritance and in the fulness of life that we have in Jesus Christ. We dare not believe that Jesus Christ is actually the organic Head of His Body, we dare not presume to live in the realization that the Trinity lives within us.

 

There is a sense in which the Word becomes flesh in us, and we become (are transformed into) the Word; that is, we eat the flesh of Christ and drink the blood of Christ and so live by Christ (John 6:41 – 58). There is a lot to be said for the adage that we are what we eat; we don’t know how true that is!

 

I want to attempt to reflect on the Bible as the Word of God, the Law of God, the revelation of the Son of God. When I was working through Romans 1:1 – 7 recently I was struck by the term “holy Scriptures” in verse 2 (see also 2 Timothy 3:15), and I wondered, “Do we view the Bible as “holy Scripture”? Do we view the Bible as “holy” and “sacred”?

 

Let me say at the outset that there is much about the Bible that I don’t understand, most of all the great mystery of its nature, for its nature is God’s Nature, and its words are God’s Word. I cannot explain this, but I know it is true and its truth resonates within me, and I have seen it affirmed again and again within the People of God, both in my lifetime and in ages past. This is what the Bible testifies about itself and it is what God testifies about the Bible (we will ponder this in a future post, the Lord willing).

 

Yet, one of the things that has puzzled and concerned me the most over recent years has been the erosion of the authority of the Bible within the professing church. Again and again I have been in small groups, Sunday school groups, and congregational gatherings in which professing Christians have sat in judgment on the Bible, rather than submit themselves to the judgment of the Bible. I have seen Bible curricula produced from once pretty reliable denominational publishing houses (and others) that call into question the reliability of holy Scripture and our obedience to God’s Word. It is as if our audience is the world and not God; we seem to be more concerned with being acceptable to the world rather than living lives pleasing to God. We echo the serpent’s, “Has God said?” rather than our Lord’s, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.”

 

Would we do this if we were before the Throne of God? Would we question the Word of the Creator of all that there is? Would we look the King of kings and Lord of lords in the Face, in the Eye, and say, “You can’t really mean that”?

 

I am not compelled to answer all the questions I have about the Bible. I am not obligated to understand all that I read. I might as well try to take in the Grand Canyon with one glance, or even with ten thousand views from ten thousand vantage points; that great wonder of the world will always be deeper and larger than I am, it will always overwhelm me. By God’s grace I will allow the clear portions of the Bible to clarify, to whatever degree possible, the portions that are obscure. By God’s grace I will seek communion with God and my brothers and sisters in the Bible. By God’s mercy and grace in Christ I will obey His Word. By His help I will approach the Bible as holy, and I will submit myself to the Bible and not participate in the serpent’s rebellion which continuously attacks what God says and the way He says it.

 

While I may not always understand Paul, I will affirm that it is ultimately not Paul speaking but Christ in Paul, and I will not stand in judgment of Christ and His Word; rather I will bow my knee and my understanding and submit myself to my Lord.

 

Along with a deep desire for us to know and obey the Bible as the Living Word of God, is a desire to see us put distance between ourselves and the lawlessness of this present age. For if we are not obeying holy Scripture, if we are not drinking from the cup of obedience to the Bible, then we are drinking from the cup of the serpent, and this is the “man of lawlessness” (2 Thess. 2:3; 1 Cor. 10:21; 2 Cor. 6:14). It is especially disturbing to me to see professing Christians engaged in disrespect of legitimate authority, to hear vicious vitriol, to see us engaged in toxic “culture wars” when we are not called in Christ to any such thing – but rather to be witnesses to Him, as individuals and especially as an identifiable People, as His Bride, His Church, His Temple. How sad to see professing Christians enabling and affirming lawlessness both in the professing church and in society. (Please consider 2 Timothy 2:24 – 26; and James 3:13 – 18. Are we displaying James 3:17 and 18?)

 

We do not have the capacity to live autonomously; we will either serve God or we will serve the devil – we will either surrender our will to Jesus Christ or to the destroyer of the souls of men. The only lasting antidote to lawlessness is a life of obedience to Jesus Christ.

 

Let me ask you to please consider Proverbs 28:4, 7, 9; and 29:18. What do you see? We’ll come back to these verses in a future post.

 

Is the Word becoming flesh in our lives?

 

 

 

Romans 1:1 – 7, A Meditation (13)

 

 

Paul, a bond-servant of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which He promised beforehand through His prophets in the holy Scriptures, concerning His Son, who was born of a descendant of David according to the flesh, who was declared the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles in behalf of His name, among whom you also are the called of Jesus Christ; to all who are beloved of God in Rome, called as saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

 

“Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” What wonderful words, “grace and peace,” knowing they come from “God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” Can I really desire anything more today? Can I really desire anything more when I draw my last breath? What about you?

 

The letter to the Romans, as indeed the entire Bible, is the story of how God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ bestow grace and peace on us and infuse grace and peace within us – but at what cost! O the fathomless love of God for us! “For God so loved the world that He gave His Only Begotten Son!”  “…who loved me and gave Himself up for me” (Gal. 2:20).

 

We have been “justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 3:24).” “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God” (Rom. 5:1 -2).

 

O how we should ever protect our standing in grace, how we should flee from anything that would seduce us into our own works, our own righteousness, our own self-justification. "You have been severed from Christ, you who are seeking to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace” (Gal. 5:4).

 

There are many facets to grace and peace, but there is only one Source of true grace and peace, and that is God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. Our Father bestows grace and peace on His daughters and sons, our Lord Jesus Christ showers grace and peace on His brothers and sisters, “Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful” (John 14:27).

 

It takes a lifetime, and more, to understand and experience grace and peace; actually, as Paul tells us, the peace of God exceeds our understanding (Phil. 4:7), and the same can be said for His grace. We can view a thousand photos of the Grand Canyon, but nothing can take the place of a personal encounter with this great wonder. We can read definitions of God’s grace and peace, we can hear the testimonies of others concerning God’s grace and peace, but nothing can substitute for our own experience of God’s grace and peace; nothing can quite so humble us, nothing can take our breath away, nothing can introduce us to such an awe and reverence for the Divine, as our own encounter with God’s grace and peace through our Lord Jesus Christ.

 

But I write of a way of life, not an isolated experience without a root system. For in God’s grace and peace the seemingly inconsequential in a seemingly mundane day is clothed with the grandeur of God. Grace and peace in Christ become the air we breathe, our biosphere, that which conveys the ever-present life of God in Christ to our entire being.

 

Now then, if God bestows His grace and peace on us, we are called to bestow that same grace and peace on others (Matthew 5:38 – 48; Ephesians 4:32 – 5:2; 2 Cor. 1:3 – 7). In fact, we are called to make peace, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God” (Matt. 5:9).

 

“Grace and peace to you, from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.” Can we make this our prayer for others? When standing in line in a store, can we pray this for those around us? When pumping gas, can we pray this for those we see? When stopped at a traffic light, will we pray this for those in other vehicles? When thinking of family, friends, neighbors, coworkers…might we pray for them to receive the grace and peace of God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ?

 

We cannot purchase grace and peace, we cannot earn it, we cannot merit it, we cannot deserve it; but we can receive it – from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ; and having received it, we can pass it on to others.

 

There is no sweeter air we can breathe, no surer source of life, than the grace and peace of Jesus Christ and God our Father.

 

Amen.

Romans 1:1 – 7, A Meditation (12)

 

 

Paul, a bond-servant of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which He promised beforehand through His prophets in the holy Scriptures, concerning His Son, who was born of a descendant of David according to the flesh, who was declared the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles in behalf of His name, among whom you also are the called of Jesus Christ; to all who are beloved of God in Rome, called as saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

 

“…called as saints…” Is it not to our Father’s glory that in Jesus Christ He has called us and brought us out of darkness into His marvelous light, taking sinners and making them saints?

 

I recall one of my preaching professors, Haddon Robinson, saying that “The difference between an amateur speaker and a professional speaker, is that an amateur will ask, ‘What do you want me to speak about?’ While a professional will ask, ‘Tell me about my audience.’” Paul wrote to saints, he did not write to sinners; Paul wrote to the Church of the Living God, the Pillar and Ground of Truth. Is it safe to assume that Paul knew his audience? Is it safe to think that Paul knew the Gospel and that he knew what he was doing when he consistently called his audience “saints”? Perhaps Paul was mistaken?

 

One of the beauties of Paul’s letter to the Roman Christians is that he lays out both the forensic and organic path we have in Christ, from being sinners alienated from God, indeed enemies of God, to becoming His beloved sons and daughters, to becoming saints in Jesus Christ. So many professing Christians have been taught that they remain sinners after coming to know Jesus Christ, and thereby functionally reject their glorious inheritance in Christ during their time on earth, living beneath their calling, and often providing an excuse for disobedience; after all, they have been taught that they remain sinners. This identity crisis has us abandoning our heavenly citizenship for earthly identities and affinities – well, what we can expect if we think we remain sinners?

 

Regarding Romans, after the glorious message of Romans 1:1 – 5:11, Paul goes on to establish our new creation and identity in Jesus Christ; first that we no longer are in Adam but in Christ (5:12 – 21), then (Romans Chapter 6) that we have been crucified with Christ, buried with Christ, raised with Christ, and therefore that we are to consider, to reckon, ourselves “to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 6:11). This is to be our way of thinking, both about ourselves and other believers in Jesus Christ.

 

Then in Romans Chapter 7 we are taught that having died with Christ, our marriage to the Law has ended and we are married to Another, to Jesus Christ. In Romans Chapter 8 we have our glorious sonship in Jesus Christ, culminating in one of the great crescendos of the Bible.

 

One of my points is that having addressed the Roman Christians as “saints,” Paul will demonstrate just how this is so. I am not suggesting that this was in Paul’s mind as he wrote “called saints” in Romans 1:7, after all, this was his typical and normal way of addressing and thinking about the Christians to whom he wrote, he knew his audience; however, I point this out should any of us wonder just how Paul could write such a thing – he could write it because of the amazing love and redemption that we have in Jesus Christ, a love and redemption that transforms sinners into saints – both forensically and organically.

 

How comprehensive is this redemption? What is its goal and purpose? Consider Romans 8:28 – 30. It is the Father’s desire that we be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ, that Jesus Christ might be the “firstborn among many brethren” (see also Hebrews 2:10 – 13). Therefore, God has predestined us, called us, justified us, and glorified us – in Jesus Christ. And in 8:31 when Paul asks, “What shall we say to these things?” His answer is, “If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spear His own Son, but delivered Him over for us, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?” This is for us, in Christ, today.

 

If we are to insist that the Word of God shape our theology and thinking, as opposed to experience, then we must not confuse temptation with actual sin, and we ought not permit our experience of sin to define who we are in Christ, that is, should I sin, I must look to the reality of the Word of God for my identity and not my experience of having sinned. God’s Word, holy Scripture, is a reality greater than my experience, and thus Scripture is to define my experience and my identity – for if I don’t know who I am, how can I read His Word and hear His Voice through His Word? I am called to read His Word as His son, I am called to understand His Word as His child, as one in whom is the life of God, as one who is fully and completely justified by faith in Jesus Christ, and as one who is called, made holy, and is being glorified in Jesus Christ.

 

This is a miracle, and once I accept the glory of justification by faith and the glories of being in Christ and no longer in Adam, reckoning myself to be dead to sin but alive to God in Christ, being dead to the condemnation of the Law, and being made a son of the Living God, crying out, “Abba! Father!” – once I begin to look to God’s Word and not to myself, once I begin to see the Face of Jesus Christ – then what Peter styles a “joy unspeakable and full of glory” begins to be mine in Jesus Christ.

 

Can we trust 2 Corinthians 5:14 – 21? Or, are we continuing to know one another “according to the flesh” (2 Cor. 5:16) as opposed to living by faith, not by sight (2 Cor. 5:5)? Have we really been made the righteousness of God in Christ (5:21), or is this some kind of fiction? Are we truly new creatures (5:17), or again, is this a fiction, and a cruel one at that?

 

How shall we view one another in Christ? How shall we view ourselves?

 

“Greet every saint in Christ Jesus. The brethren who are with me greet you. All the saints greet you, especially those of Caesar’s household. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.” Philippians 4:21 – 23.

 

Romans 1:1 – 7, A Meditation (11)

 

 

Paul, a bond-servant of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which He promised beforehand through His prophets in the holy Scriptures, concerning His Son, who was born of a descendant of David according to the flesh, who was declared the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles in behalf of His name, among whom you also are the called of Jesus Christ; to all who are beloved of God in Rome, called as saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

 

“to all who are beloved of God in Rome.”

 

Do we know that we are beloved of God? I realize that we may use the word “love” to speak of God, as in “God loves you. God loves us.” But what about the word “beloved”? Do you think the two words have the same exact ring to them? Are they the same, or are they similar?

 

If a husband says, “I love my wife,” is that the same as saying, “My wife is my beloved”?

A survey of the New Testament demonstrates that “beloved” is often used by the apostles when writing to those they served. I think this is more, much more, than us saying, “Dearly beloved,” when speaking to an assembly; for when we say “dearly beloved” I think we say it as a form of address, as contrasted with an expression of deep and affectionate love. Can we see ourselves saying to an assembly, “You are my beloved”? Can we see the difference? Do we say to God’s People, “You are God’s beloved?”

 

Can we hear the Father saying at Jesus’s baptism, “This is My Beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased”? Can we hear the Father saying on the Mount of Transfiguration, “This is My Beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased, listen to Him!”? Can we hear the Father speaking as we read the prophecy form Isaiah in Matthew 12:18, “Behold, My servant whom I have chosen; My Beloved in whom My soul is well-pleased”?

 

Jesus Christ is beloved by God, and mystery though it is, we are beloved by God. Jesus prays, “I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected into one, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me…I have made Your name known to them, and will make it known, so that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them.” (John 17:23 & 26).

 

Notice in our passage that being called of Jesus Christ and being beloved of God are linked together, we are called because we are beloved. Keeping this in mind consider:

 

“So, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience…” (Col. 3:12).

 

“…knowing, brethren beloved by God, His choice of you…” (1 Thess. 1:4).

 

We also see this in John 17 where we have been given to Jesus by the Father and drawn into the koinonia love of the Trinity.

 

Paul will return to our calling and God’s love for us in Romans 8:28 – 39, can you see this when reading this passage? Note Romans 8:29 – 30 and 38 – 39. Note 8:33, “Who will bring a charge against God’s elect?” and 8:35, “Who will separate us from the love of Christ?”

 

We can live in confidence in God’s calling, His choosing, His election, and His incredible love for us in Christ Jesus; we can live knowing that we are beloved by God and that nothing can separate us from His love. Our lives are to be “rooted and grounded in love” and we are called “to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God” (Ephesians 3:14 – 19).

 

We are called to be a secure and confident People in God’s love and calling, with Jesus Christ as the Author and Perfector of our faith (Heb. 12:2), laying down our lives for one another and for this broken and sorrowful world (1 John 3:16).

 

When we see our brothers and sisters in Christ, do we see them as beloved by God? When we speak to them, pray with them, serve with them, are we doing so recognizing that they are the beloved of God?

 

How do we see ourselves? Do we see ourselves in Christ? Do we see ourselves at work, at home, in the community, as men and women and young people who are the beloved of God? Do we see our spouses as God’s beloved?

 

O dear friends, are we living as the beloved of God? Secure in His love, are we loving one another? (John 13:34 – 35; 15:12 – 13).