Romans 1:1 – 7, A Meditation (8)

 

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.

 

“…through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles in behalf of His name…”

 

Paul and his fellow workers were given “grace and apostleship.” Apostleship, indeed, any calling within the Body of Christ, must have God’s grace in order to fulfill that call of God in Christ Jesus. Jesus Christ is the Vine and we are the branches (John 15:1ff) and we simply cannot do anything in and of ourselves – we are called to be totally dependent upon our Lord Jesus Christ, we are to live abiding lives in Him – for as Jesus says, “Without Me you can do nothing.”

 

Calling is a process, growing in calling is a pilgrimage. It was some years after Paul encountered Jesus on his way to Damascus that the Holy Spirit spoke in Antioch, “Separate unto me Barnabas and Saul to the work I have called them to do” (Acts 13:1 – 3). Calling within the Body of Christ ought to be calling confirmed by the Body of Christ. In the Kingdom of God, individuals do not send themselves, nor are they to appoint themselves to positions of authority or responsibility. To have a calling is one thing, to grow in grace for that calling is another. Paul writes that “we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us,” (Rom. 12:6).

 

Why were Paul and his companions given grace and apostleship? “…to bring about the obedience of faith…” This speaks to us of the Great Commission that Jesus Christ has given to His Church, “…teaching them [all nations, all peoples] to observe [obey] all that I commanded you…” (Matthew 28:16 – 20). Note the comprehensiveness of “all that I commanded you.”

 

Biblical faith is obedient faith, there can be no other. By God’s grace in Christ, our obedient faith is first expressed by confession of sin and repentance, and it continues in a life of koinonia in the Trinity and with one another that is holy and obedient. Do we have notions of faith that have no foundation in the Bible? Perhaps we do. Do we have notions of vocational ministry that lack Biblical foundation? Perhaps we do.

 

Let’s ask, “Is our preaching and teaching and church-life focused on the “obedience of faith” within our congregations? In terms of outreach, is it focused on teaching others to obey all that Jesus Christ has commanded us? As we ponder these questions, do we see how focused Jesus is in the Great Commission? Do we see how explicit Paul is when speaking of the reason he was given grace and apostleship?

 

Our outreach must consist of a call to confession of sin and repentance – and the call to repentance must explicitly include a clear call to forsake ourselves and follow Jesus Christ (Mark 8:34ff; Acts 2:37ff).

 

And let’s be clear, the Cross is an offense to us, and if we are going to preach the Cross then we must be prepared for misunderstanding, rejection, and any other number of things (hence we are called to “go outside the camp, bearing His reproach” (Heb. 13:13).

 

Yet, Paul is not ashamed of the Gospel, “for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes” (Rom. 1:16). Paul is also clear that “the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are saved it is the power of God” (1 Cor. 1:18. See this verse in its context in order to see the great chasm between God’s ways and man’s ways).

 

Only in Christ Jesus can we find the Way to proclaim the Gospel. On the one hand our speech “ought to always be with grace, seasoned with salt, so that you will know how you should respond to each person” (Col. 4:6); and on the other hand we must clearly proclaim the Cross and its call to confession of sin and repentance and following Jesus Christ in godly living, according to the Spirit of holiness (see Ephesians 4:17 – 5:21).

 

We must learn what it is to live by grace and not by the Law or the traditions of men, lest we be like the Galatians who were bewitched into thinking that having begun life in the Spirit, they then needed to find fulfillment in the flesh, in their own natural way of doing things (Gal. 3:3).

 

Is our preaching and teaching focused on obedient faith in Jesus Christ? Or have we been seduced into another gospel, a gospel that is focused on ourselves and our wants and our needs and our desires and our temporal happiness? Do we think so little of the power of God in the Gospel that we don’t think God’s power and grace sufficient to transform our lives into the image of Jesus Christ? Isn’t this unbelief why we have become factories producing self-help material? Isn’t it why we seem to be operating “Jesus clubs” instead of living as the Temple of God in our communities? Isn’t this why we have trained a cadre of “healers” in the social sciences – rather than look to the Word of God and the Body of Christ to provide holistic health and healing?

 

God gives us grace and apostleship “to bring about the obedience of faith among all peoples for His name’s sake.” O dear friends, this is not about you or me, this is about Jesus Christ and His sake, that others might truly know Jesus Christ and live in communion with Him and with His People. How cruel we are when we fail to teach and preach and model obedience. How cruel it is when we avoid the Christ of the Cross and the Cross of Christ – for we give others a false sense of the Gospel, we close off the gate of repentance, we place barriers between others and a life-changing encounter with the Son of God on Golgotha.

 

The Bible does not give us excuses to be disobedient. The Christ who saves us initially, continues that salvation within us throughout this life; He gives us the power of His risen Life to overcome the world, the flesh, and the devil. Faithful obedience is our calling, it is to be the way we live, it is to be what we teach and model, it is the only faith the Bible recognizes as being saving faith.

 

Am I living a life of obedient faith? What about our congregations?

 

What about you?

 

Joseph's Tears

 

Do we know that Jesus weeps for us? Do we know that our Lord Jesus desires to reveal Himself to us, just as Joseph desired to reveal himself to his brothers, the very brothers who sold him into slavery? Can we see our story in the story of Joseph…both as Joseph and as his brothers?

 

What a shame it would have been for Joseph’s brothers to have found food in Egypt without finding Joseph! Suppose Joseph had simply watched his brothers but never revealed himself to them? My dear friends, is it really enough that we give our congregations, and this world, food from our granaries to keep them satiated, but never unveil Jesus Christ to them? What is the point of having hungry people coming back and back on Sundays, and yet they have never seen the Glorious One who bids us eat His flesh and drink His blood, the One who calls us to live by His very Life? How many trips will the woman make to the well before she finds someone who calls her to leave her bucket and allow a fountain of Living Water to spout up within her…and then flow out from her to a thirsty church and world?

 

Can we see the progression of Jacob’s sons in our own lives? Are we moving from knowing Ruben, which means “See, a son,” to Benjamin, meaning “Son of the right hand”? Which son are we living as today?

 

When Joseph’s brothers come to Egypt a second time, this time with Benjamin, and Joseph has a meal with them, we read, “Joseph hurried out for he was deeply stirred over his brother, and he sought a place to weep, and he entered his chamber and wept there. Then he washed his face and came out; and he controlled himself and said, ‘Serve the meal.’” (Genesis 43:30 – 31).

 

Jesus intercedes for us, Jesus, weeps for us, that He might reveal Himself and the Father to us. “Therefore He is able also to save completely those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them” (Heb. 7:25).

 

Just as Pharaoh gave Joseph all authority, can we hear Jesus saying, “All things have been handed over to Me by My Father, and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, and who the Father is except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal Him” (Luke 10:22)?

 

“He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him” (John 14:21).

 

“O righteous Father, although the world has not known You; yet I have known You; and these have known that You sent Me; and 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 17:25 – 26).

 

O dear friends, it is not enough for us to be given food to simply help us along in this life, we need the Living Bread from heaven, from the Father: “Jesus said to them, ‘I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst…I am the bread that came down out of heaven…I am the bread of life…This is the bread which comes down out of heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down out of heaven; if anyone eats this bread, he will live forever; and the bread also which I will give for the life of the world is My flesh’” (see John Chapter 6).

 

Joseph shed tears for his brother Benjamin, indeed for all his brothers; he yearned to reveal himself to them – but had they changed? Had they repented of their betrayal? Had a greater hunger than temporal food grown in their souls? A hunger for forgiveness? A hunger for redemption? A hunger to be the men God had created them to be?

 

What about us with our religious playthings? Is our heart’s desire to know Jesus Christ, to see Him unveiled? To make Him known to others? Or are we still seeking the transient, the temporal, the quick fix? Do we only come on Sunday mornings, do we only participate in small groups – to buy the grain of this earth, so that our problems will be smaller, so that our possessions will be larger, so that others will think better of us, so that our agendas will be fulfilled?

 

Are we propagating a Christless Christianity? A Christ without the Cross and a Cross that looks more like cotton candy than an instrument of death – not only the death of Jesus Christ but our own death to sin and self?

 

There were thousands of people buying grain in Egypt, but it was not given to the multitudes to actually “see” Joseph. Joseph’s brothers came to Egypt looking for one thing, but they found another. Even with us, we may engage with popular and cultural Christianity, looking for pragmatic fixes for our lives, but by God’s grace perhaps we will find Another, weeping for us, loving us, revealing Himself to us.

 

Can we hear Joseph say, “Serve the meal?”

 

Can we hear Jesus say, “Take, eat; this is My body…Drink from it, all of you; for this is My blood of the covenant…”

 

Joseph wept for his brothers, Jesus weeps for us.

 

Are we weeping for others?

Romans 1:1 – 7, A Meditation (7)

 

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.

I have used bold print above to emphasize the centrality and supremacy of Jesus Christ in the Gospel; indeed, Jesus Christ is the Gospel and the Gospel is Jesus Christ – from Genesis through Revelation. If Jesus Christ is the motif of the Gospel, of the Bible, then ought He not to be the motif of our lives and the lives of our congregations? Ought we not to be permeated with Jesus Christ, immersed in Jesus Christ, sharing Jesus Christ with one another?

 

Note that in verse 4 we read, “Jesus Christ our Lord,” and that in verse 7 we see, “the Lord Jesus Christ.” If Jesus Christ is our Lord then we belong to Him, we no longer belong to ourselves. If Jesus Christ is our Lord then we are called to obey Him and not our own desires and agendas – yes indeed, we ought to be praying “Not my will but Your will be done,” and “Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” May our Father meld our wills into His will, making us one in the Trinity.

 

How is it then that we can live life without regard to His will? How can we fail to live in subjection to His lordship? When we make sin a matter of therapy we excuse ourselves and others. When we speak of poor judgment, of brokenness, of poor choices, we fail to recognize sin and disobedience and our excuses and lack of repentance set the stage for more of the same. Without confession of sin, a turning away from sin and a turning to Christ and the Cross, there is no avenue of deliverance from sin, no avenue of freedom from sin and death. God is not interested in improving us, He is interested in bringing us to the end of ourselves as we participate in the death of Jesus Christ, so that we might be raised – here and now – into New Life in Him (see Romans 6; 2Cor. 5:14 - 21). Indeed, we are to consider ourselves “dead to sin but alive unto God in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 6:11).

 

But the absence of sin, does not a Christian make; nor should the goal of our lives be to live without sin – rather we should desire to be “conformed to the image of His Son so that He might be the firstborn among many brethren” (Romans 8:29). Naturally this statement can be misunderstood, just as saying, “Love God and do as you please,” can be misunderstood; but it can only be misunderstood by those who do not love our Lord Jesus Christ, it can only be misunderstood by those who do not name Him “Lord.” The “law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set us free from the law of sin and death” (Rom. 8:2) – is this the truth in Christ or is it a lie?

 

Jesus says, “He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him…If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make our abode with him. He who does not love Me does not keep my words…” (John 14:21, 23, 24a).

 

The Apostle John writes (1 John 5:2 – 3), “By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and do His commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome.”

 

In Jesus Christ, our Nature is His Nature because His Nature is our Nature, and His Nature is to delight to do the will of God. “Then I said, Behold, I come, in the scroll of the book it is written of me, I delight to do Your will O my God, Your Law is within My heart” (Psalm 40:7 – 8). Before the ages, in the eternal counsels of God, we were set apart unto Him, to belong to Him, and to fulfill a destiny on this earth and into eternity (Ephesians 1:1 – 2:10).  Hence Jesus Christ comes to redeem us, to rescue us, and to call us to His Father and our Father, His God and our God – proclaiming the Name/Nature of our Father to us (Hebrews Chapter 2).

 

We have an Exodus so that the promises of God given before Egyptian slavery might be fulfilled in Israel. We have Golgotha so that the promises of God given both before the Fall, and as a result of the Fall, might be fulfilled in us, in Jesus Christ. O how Jesus desires to unveil the Father to us! O how He desires for us to be His friends (John 15:12 – 17). The mature son or daughter will stand in Christ, revealing the Father to his or her brothers and sisters; for the unveiling of the Trinity is our glorious calling, and hence, among other things, we call Jesus Christ “Lord,” while reckoning ourselves to be “dead to sin and alive to God in Jesus Christ.”

 

Isn’t it time we left behind our guardians and mangers and tutors, and cry out, “Abba Father!” (Galatians 4:1 – 7)?

 

When Jesus Christ is our Lord there is a glorious liberty and freedom that is beyond comprehension, a liberty that is found in obedience and a secure safety and joy and peace in the depths of the splendorous love of the Trinity. (John 17:23 – 24).

O the delight in calling Jesus Christ "Lord"!

Romans 1:1 – 7, A Meditation (6)

 

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.

 

“…according to the Spirit of holiness…”

 

“But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you” (John 14:26).

 

Note that in Romans 1:2 that we have “the holy Scriptures.” The Scriptures we receive are holy, the Spirit of God which we receive is holy, Jesus was resurrected by the Spirit of holiness, He who lives within the People of God is the Holy Spirit. Jesus died for us so that we can, through Him, live in the Holy of Holies (Hebrews 10:19 – 25) – not just as individuals but as the people of God.

 

“…to bring about the obedience of faith…” I would like us to see the link between holiness and obedience, for we are called in Christ to holy obedience; outward obedience without the Nature of inward holiness is Pharisaical – we become performers; outward disobedience with a claim to inward holiness is drinking from the demonic cup of lawlessness. (Matthew Chapter 23; 1 Cor. 10:14 – 22; 2 Cor. 6:14 – 7:1; 1 Peter 1:13 - 2:12).

 

In 2Cor. 7:1 Paul writes, “…let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.”  Peter writes (1 Peter 1:14 – 16), “As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in ignorance, but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior, because it is written, ‘You shall be holy for I am holy.’” (See Leviticus 11:44; 19:2; 20:7).

 

Also compare Romans 12:1 – 2 with the above, for we are called to present ourselves to God as living and holy sacrifices and we are not to be conformed to the world but rather transformed by the renewing of our minds.

 

In the Pentateuch, Leviticus follows Exodus; once the Tabernacle is established we read, “Then Yahweh called to Moses and spoke to him from the tent of meeting, saying…” (Lev. 1:1). Yahweh then speaks to Moses and Israel of His holiness, for God has established a holy place for worship and communion, but there is more that God desires, for He desires that what the People outwardly see becomes an inward reality, a Way of Life, hence Yahweh says, “You are to be holy for I am holy.” God wants His People to know His Nature and to partake of His Nature. He desires that His Nature live in us and conform us to His image (hence we have Romans 8:29 in context).

 

This same pattern is repeated in the New Testament, for after God’s Eternal Temple is manifested on the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2) a stark lesson is seen in Acts 5, when Ananias and Sapphira lie to the Holy Spirit and are struck dead. We also see the Apostles teaching obedient holiness throughout the New Testament (see above) and Jesus Christ, the Holy Son of God, calling the churches of Revelation to holiness.

 

The trajectory of Romans 6, in which we are crucified with Christ, buried with Christ, and raised with Christ, leads us to the sanctification/holiness of 6:19 – 23; then we have a new marriage from the Law to Christ (Romans 7), and then the glorious liberty of the children of God (Romans 8). From Romans chapters 12 – 16 we see what a community living in holiness ought to look like, for “the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” (Rom. 14:17).

 

Sin is contagious, we see this in Leviticus and we see it in the New Testament, a little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough. We cannot eat whatever we want to eat, this is taught in Leviticus, it is explained by Jesus and the apostles – this isn’t about physical food, it is about what we bring into our hearts and minds and souls and yes, it is also about how we use our bodies – for they are the Temple of God, individually and collectively. We are each called to “know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor” (1Thess. 4:4) for we have been “bought with a price” (1Cor. 6:20).

 

So much of this is about nature, God’s Nature and our nature, and whether we are living in the nature of Adam or the Nature of Christ, as with so much in life, if we fail to understand the fundamentals, the foundations, of life, and especially of holy Scripture, we will wander and die in the Wilderness. Simply to escape from Egypt is not enough, that is like saying that simply being born is enough – but never making it out of the hospital to live a full life is not important. If we don’t live our lives on the banks of the Red Sea, we tend to live them wandering around the Wilderness, never entering into, and possessing, our inheritance in Jesus Christ. (Consider 1 Cor. 10:1 – 13).

 

Well, this is probably enough for one posting.

 

What does the Spirit of holiness look like in my life? In the lives of our congregations? What does it look like in your life?

Romans 1:1 – 7, A Meditation (5)

 

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.

 

“…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…”

 

When we consider that Paul is writing to people in Rome, the idea of Jesus Christ being the Son of God takes on more immediate significance that it might were Paul to be writing to people elsewhere, for “son of God” was one of many titles the Roman emperor used for himself and of course Rome was the capital city of the empire. We have much the same thing in Mark, who likely wrote his Gospel while in Italy:

 

“The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” (Mark 1:1).

 

While the Roman emperor might be declared the “son of God” by the Roman senate, by the people, or by force of arms; Jesus Christ is proclaimed the Son of God “with power by the resurrection of the dead, according to the Spirit of holiness.” No matter the particular emperor, he cannot defeat death, but Jesus Christ has defeated death and been raised from the dead. As the emperors will discover, no matter how hard they attempt to defeat Jesus Christ and His People, no matter how many legions they may mobilize, no matter the economic warfare they might employ, Jesus Christ and His People, His Church, cannot be overcome – for even if the People of Jesus have their physical lives taken from them, they will continue victorious in Jesus Christ.

 

This is also a reminder to the Christians in Rome that Jesus, and not Caesar, is the Son of God; while the Christians in Rome are to pay Caesar the respect due to him, they are to recognize that his authority is limited, his power is limited, and that only Jesus Christ is to be worshipped and that only Jesus Christ has ultimate power and authority. Perhaps this is a good thing for us to remember, when so many of us have compromised our witness and our faith in the interest of political power and political leaders. Let us remember that in many instances Christians were not only persecuted because they believed in Jesus Christ, but they were persecuted because they would not worship Caesar. Most Romans saw no inconsistency in worshiping more than one god, just as today many professing Christians in our own nation see no inconsistency in melding God and country into one worship, into an indistinguishable allegiance and movement – in the United States today we are less like the early Christians and more like the pagan Romans…on a number of fronts, elements of the professing church being one of them.

 

The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is critical to our lives as Biblical Christians, for just as the Cross, the Resurrection has many dimensions to it and these elements call us to much meditation and contemplation and beholding of Jesus Christ. In Romans 5:12 – 21 we see that through the obedience of Jesus Christ, an obedience that encompasses His death and resurrection, our souls are moved out of Adam and into Christ. Note Romans 6:2, “How shall we who died to sin still live in it?”

 

Then in Romans 6 we see that in Christ we died, were buried, and were raised with Him, and that “he who has died is freed from sin” (6:7) and that we are to “consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus” (6:11). This is the Way we are called to think, to view ourselves in Jesus Christ, this is the Way we are to live – we can hardly know Romans 12:1 – 2 if we are going to reject the Way we ought to think, if we are not going to cultivate Biblical thinking and supernatural Biblical perspectives, if we are not going to contemplate the glorious work of Jesus Christ.

 

In Romans 7 we see that we have died to the Law in Christ and that have been joined to Him who has been raised from that dead. We can only be joined to Him as we are raised with Him. Then in Romans 8 we see continuing results of our being raised with Jesus Christ, a life lived in the Holy Spirit in which we grow into the image of Jesus Christ and learn to dwell in His everlasting love and grace as His brethren and the sons and daughters of the Living God.

 

All of the foregoing hinges on Jesus Christ and our being incorporated, grafted, into Him in his life, Cross, burial, and Resurrection; all of this in anticipated in the introduction of Romans.

 

Let’s ponder Paul’s desire for the Ephesians:

 

“For this reason I too, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus which exists among you and your love for all the saints, do not cease giving thanks for you, while making mention of you in my prayers; that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the boundless greatness of His power toward us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and made Him head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.” Ephesians 1:15 – 23.

 

Then we see in Ephesians 2:1 – 10 that we were dead in sins, we were made alive in Christ, and we have been raised up with Christ and seated with Christ in the heavenly places in Christ.

 

Can we see how critical the Resurrection of the Son of God is in our lives, can we see that the Resurrection of Jesus Christ opens to us a New Way of living in Him?

 

Are we living in the power and reality of the Resurrection?

 

 

 

 

 

The Deeps

 

The Deeps

 

The Valley of Vision, pages 134 – 135, published by Banner of Truth Trust, edited by Arthur Bennet

 

Lord Jesus,

 

Give me a deeper repentance,

a horror of sin,

a dread of its approach;

Help me chastely to flee it,

            and jealously to resolve that my heart

            shall be thine alone.

Give me a deeper trust,

            that I may lose myself to find myself in thee,

            the ground of my rest,

            the spring of my being.

Give me a deeper knowledge of thyself

            as Saviour, Master, Lord, and King.

Give me deeper power in private prayer,

            more sweetness in thy Word,

            more steadfast grip on its truth.

Give me deeper holiness in speech, thought, action,

            and let me not seek moral virtue apart from thee.

Plough deep in me, great Lord,

            heavenly Husbandman,

            that my being may be a tilled field,

            the roots of grace spreading far and wide,

            until thou alone art seen in me,

            thy beauty golden like summer harvest, 

            thy fruitfulness as autumn plenty.

I have no Master but thee,

            no law but thy will,

            no delight but thyself,

            no wealth but that thou givest,

            no good but that thou blessest,

            no peace but that thou bestowest.

I am nothing but that thou makest me,

I have nothing but that I receive from thee,

I can be nothing but that grace adorns me.

Quarry me deep, dear Lord,

            and then fill me to overflowing

            with living water.

Romans 1:1 – 7, A Meditation (4)

  

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.

 

“…concerning His Son…” We are to be about Jesus Christ, our message is Jesus Christ, our lives are to be lived in Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ lives in those He has redeemed. We are to beware of “Christless Christianity.” We are to beware of the many actual and potential “Nehushtans” in our lives (John 3:14; Numbers 21:9; 2 Kings 18:4). So many of our messages, our teachings, our writings, are about bronze serpents which God once gave us for our good but which we have turned into idols – for now we place them front and center instead of the Person of Jesus Christ; we can control bronze serpents and merchandise them, but we must bow and surrender to Jesus Christ.

 

“…who was born of a descendant of David according to the flesh…”

 

How important is the knowledge that Jesus was a descendant of King David of the tribe of Judah? Consider how Matthew begins his Gospel, “The book of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah [Christ], the son of David, the son of Abraham…” (Matthew 1:1). If we don’t know the Old Testament we can’t see the import of this, we can’t appreciate the continuity and faithfulness of God’s working in and through His People from generation to generation. Nor can we appreciate that Jesus Christ is heir to the promises and covenant that God gave to David – in fact, as God was making His covenant with David, He was, in effect, speaking of Himself coming to fulfill that covenant (for example, see Psalm 110:1 and Matthew 22:44).

 

The word order in Matthew, “the son of David, the son of Abraham,” is important – Matthew wants us to “see” David first, then Abraham; Matthew wants us to also see that David is descended from Abraham. Again, if we don’t know the Old Testament, if the record of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob – Israel is not embedded within us, we can’t “see” that David is a measure of the fulfillment of God’s covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob – Israel; nor can we “see” that in Jesus Christ and His Body God’s covenants with Abraham and David are fulfilled (Acts 2:22 – 32; Galatians 3:6 – 29). Also note that in Romans Chapter 4, one of the great justification by faith chapters in the Bible, Paul links the faith and lives of Abraham and David together.

 

Of course Jesus Christ was not only “born a descendant [of the seed] of David according to the flesh,” He was also born “as a man,” He was “made like His brethren,” and this means not only His natural brethren from the tribe of Judah, but He was made like all of us who He has called from humanity (Philippians 2:5 – 11; Hebrews 2:5 – 18). The message of the Gospel is that He became as we were so that we might become as He is – this is an element of the Great Mystery of the Incarnation. How we sell short the glory and mystery of the Incarnation (John 1:14 – 18) when we confine it to the 33 years of the life of Jesus Christ on earth, for when Jesus says, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?...I am Jesus whom you are persecuting” (Acts 9:4 – 5); Jesus Christ is not only declaring His continuing Incarnation in His Body, His People – but He is also giving Saul a revelation of Saul’s calling – to articulate the Body of Christ, the Bride, the Temple; as a wise master builder Paul will proclaim the Oneness of Christ and His Body!

 

In the Incarnation we have the union of God and Man in Jesus Christ. This union is perpetuated in those who come to know Jesus Christ. “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit” (John 12:24). Jesus Christ died that we might live, and we learn to die in Christ so that others might live (2 Cor. 4:7 – 5:8; John 17:18; 20:21; 1 John 3:16).

 

A new humanity comes out of the grave in Jesus Christ, we are taken out of Adam and placed in Jesus Christ (Romans 5:12 – 21; 1 Cor. 15:20 – 22; 45 – 49). Jesus is the “last Adam” in 1 Cor. 15:45 because in Him, on the Cross, Adam’s race is judged and put to death, we come to an end. Jesus is also the “second Man” (1 Cor. 15:47), because in Him a new race is born, a living seed comes out of the ground – hence we become, and enter, a new creation (2 Cor. 5:14 – 21).

 

A failure to preach and teach the above is to preach at best one-half a Gospel, and to preach one-half a Gospel is to preach a truncated and deficient Gospel. Little wonder that we turn to therapeutic deism in order to attempt to bring wholeness to people, little wonder that we look to programs and systems outside the Bible to bring some sense, some measure, of peace – for I suppose at best, when we fail to teach the fulness of the Gospel, we are a schizophrenic people – on the one hand we teach forgiveness and justification, but on the other hand we deny our inheritance and the core of our life in Jesus Christ.

 

The Biblical Christian life is a miracle, an ongoing miracle, a miracle of Divine Life living and pulsating in the People of God – it is the Trinity living in the Temple (Ephesians 2:19 – 22). I cannot live this life, and neither can you – but Jesus Christ can, and does, live this life in us and through us – hence we have Galatians 2:20 and John 15:1ff.

 

If we don’t find our core identity in Jesus Christ, we will find it somewhere else, hence the false identities that many of us assume, including economic, social, and political identities.

 

The Incarnation is in the world, but it is not of the world (John 17:14 – 19; 1 John 4:1 – 6).

 

Well now, are we living in Adam today, or are we living in Jesus Christ?

What Is Incumbent?

 

A month or two ago I shared some thoughts under the title, Not Incumbent. In response, a long-time acquaintance, Dr. Louis Williams, a faithful minister in the Richmond, VA area, responded with some insights. I suppose I first met Louis about thirty years ago, and while we’ve never spent much time together, I have admired his testimony and his walk with Christ. One thing I will never forget, that once when I needed someone to help and encourage a church I was serving, Louis responded when others didn’t (another dear brother, Steve Allsbrook also responded). Louis may not even recall his visit to our church years ago, but I will never forget it.

 

During WWII allied planes dropped strips of tinfoil out of planes to confuse enemy radar, it was called “chaff.” There is a lot of chaff that can confuse us and divert our hearts, including “Christian chaff.” It has fooled me before in its well-meaning guise.

 

I think it’s time to share what Louis Williams has to say. Below are Louis’s thoughts, after which I’ve included my original piece in case you want to read it.

 

Thank you brother Louis Williams.

 

Much love,

 

Bob

 

What Is Incumbent?

Dr. Louis Williams

 

Beautifully spoken. Much wisdom in what you write. So my next thought after reading your email was, “What is incumbent upon the thoughts or opinions of Jesus followers?”  My thoughts went immediately to Jesus’ response to the Pharisees and Scribes in Luke 15. Because this is the only record in the gospels where Jesus responds to the religious leaders with 3 parables making the same point 3 times (so there is no misunderstanding) that the Father sent the Son to seek and save the lost. Again, in Luke 5, Jesus told the religious leaders that He came to call the sinners to repentance, not the righteous. So, I think that what is incumbent on me as a Jesus follower is for my heart to break for the things that breaks the heart of the Father - the lost, the sinner and the poor. 

 

Your words are aptly spoken like apples of gold in settings of silver. Thanks. 

 

PS Your words rang so clear to me this morning that I felt the need to reply and thank you with encouragement.  The increasing polarization of our culture over the last few decades has diverted the focus of too many followers of Jesus away from loving and worshiping God, loving our neighbor and making disciples. Reminds me of one of the demon's strategies in the Screwtape Letters. Instead, too many Jesus followers are focused toward the false notion that believers are called to judge all things and transform all things - as you said. Jesus never did this.  He was not interested in throwing out the Roman oppressors and "Make Israel Great Again". (Wouldn't that look wonderful on a Yarmulke?)

 

Louis Williams

 

My original post:

 

Not Incumbent

 

 

It strikes me that it is not incumbent upon the follower of Jesus Christ to have an opinion about everything, nor are we called to judge all things – we have better and higher things to do. While Martha runs here and there, with her attention like a shotgun blast with pellets everywhere, Mary sits at the feet of Jesus with her heart, eyes, and ears fixed on Him. Martha moves to a cacophony, Mary responds to the sweet voice of Jesus Christ (Luke 10:38).

 

 

This is not to say that we, as a people, cannot judge all things if needed (1 Cor.2:15), but it is to say that we have better and higher things to do, living lives fixed on Jesus Christ and in service to others.

 

 

The notion that we can transform the world and culture, when the world system and its culture is under judgment, is a notion that distracts us and dissipates our strength (John 12:31; Gal. 6:14; 1 John 2:15). Yes, we are called to be salt and light, mitigating the evil and darkness of the world and leading others to Jesus Christ, but this is not the same as thinking that somehow we are going to make what is inherently evil and opposed to God into something righteous – see Psalm 2 and Daniel 2.

 

 

One benefit of realizing that it is not incumbent on us to have an opinion about everything is that we can model hearts and lives which are devoted to Jesus Christ, we can model what it is to sit at the feet of Jesus. This is the Light that others need, this is the City which does not need lesser lights, for it has the Light of the Father and the Son (Rev. 21:23; 22:5). How foolish to carry a flashlight when the sun is brightly shining, how nonsensical to eat food dead by the roadside when the Master has a seat for us at His Eucharistic Table.

 

 

However, it is not just that it is not incumbent upon us to have an opinion about everything in the world, it is also not incumbent upon us to have an opinion about everything in the Kingdom – indeed, it can be dangerous. Paul asks, “Who are you to judge another man’s servant? To his own master he stands or falls; and he will stand for the Lord is able to make him stand.” (Rom. 14:4) Then, “Judge nothing until the time comes…and then shall everyone have praise from God (see 1 Cor. 4:5). (Writing this is not without irony!)

 

 

When Peter wanted to know about the trajectory of John, Jesus says, “What is that to you? You follow me.” (John 21:21ff).

 

 

When we should be relieved that we are not called to know everything, to judge everything, to meddle in everything, we insist on being mental and emotional busy bodies…and we call this wisdom and understanding? What’s worse, we model this scattered way of life for others and make it normative.

 

 

The ways of the world are not to be our ways, it is not incumbent on us to know everything, to understand everything, to have an opinion on everything, to judge everything. It is, however, commanded that we love God with all that we have and all that we are, and that we love our neighbors as ourselves and our brethren as Jesus loves them. It is incumbent on us to lay our lives down for others, with our eyes looking unto Jesus (Heb. 12:2).

 

 

If we desire to demonstrate the relevancy of the Gospel, it is not by responding to every headline in the news that we will accomplish this; but rather by living in Christ, as Christ, declaring the Good News that there is an everlasting Kingdom and an eternal Way – the Way of Light and Life, the Way of Jesus Christ.

Romans 1:1 – 7, A Meditation (3)

  

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.

 

Now let’s look at the idea that Paul was “set apart for the gospel of God.” Here again, just as with the idea of “apostle” in the previous post, while Paul was set apart for the Gospel in an Apostolic calling (with an upper-case “A”), we are all set apart for the Gospel in our lower-case apostolic callings; that is our lives no longer belong to ourselves but to Jesus Christ who has redeemed us and we have been dedicated, set apart, to Jesus Christ.

 

Consider a passage familiar to many of us:

 

“Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual [or logical/rational] service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world [the present age], but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.” (Romans 12:1-2).

 

This encompasses our lives with family, friends, neighbors, school, work, recreation, entertainment – it encompasses all of life; there is no area of life in which we are not to live as those who belong to Jesus Christ, who are offering ourselves to Jesus Christ, who are living as those sent by Jesus Christ. We are to be living sacrifices on the altar of God, on the Cross of Jesus Christ. We are to live as those who consider themselves “dead to sin, but alive to God in Jesus Christ” (Romans 6:11).

 

We, as Paul, have been “set apart for the Gospel of God, which He promised beforehand through His prophets in the holy Scriptures.” If we are all set apart for the Gospel, then we ought to all know the Gospel so that we may live the Gospel and share the Gospel. This, my friends, takes a lifetime for the depths of the Gospel are unfathomable, and the heights of the Gospel defy human words.

 

Note that God promised the Gospel “through His prophets in the holy Scriptures.” These Scriptures are what we call the Old Testament, but which are more properly termed the Law, the Prophets, and the Writings – for strictly speaking the Old Covenant isn’t found throughout all of these 39 books, but the Gospel is, Jesus Christ is – whether we can see this or not. It is through these 39 books that the Resurrected Christ revealed Himself in Luke Chapter 24; first on the road to Emmaus and then in the Upper Room. When we dismiss Leviticus, we dismiss Jesus Christ. When we fail to ponder Hosea, we fail to ponder Jesus Christ. When we do not meditate on the Psalms, we do not meditate on Jesus Christ.

 

Run far away from anyone who teaches that the Old Testament is not for God’s People. Run, run, run from anyone who suggests that you don’t need to live in the entire Bible. As for the Old Covenant itself, while the Law does indeed bring death and condemnation (see 2 Cor. 4 – 18; Rom. 3:19 – 20), there is another dimension of the Law in which we behold our Lord Jesus Christ (see 1 Cor. 5:7; 10:11; Col. 2:17; Heb. Chapters 8 – 10). So when we teach Leviticus we do not teach Leviticus as the Law, but we teach Leviticus as Christ, when we teach Deuteronomy we do not teach Deuteronomy as the Law but as Christ. Learning, under the tutelage of the Holy Spirit, to see Christ in the Law, the Prophets, and the Writings is part of our pilgrimage, our adventure, in our fellowship with the Trinity.

 

The Gospel is very much the whole Bible, the whole counsel of God, and we make a grave error when we think the Gospel is about an initial salvation experience, when we think it is only about entering into a relationship with Jesus Christ, or when we think it is about saying some words or praying a prayer – when we stop at Romans 3, or even at Romans 5:11 – we present a truncated Gospel and we end up, more likely than not, living in that abbreviated Gospel, which is really a gospel and not the Gospel. No wonder we live in defeat when we fail to proclaim and live in the fulness of the Gospel, of God’s Word in Jesus Christ.

 

Note that we are commissioned by Jesus Christ to “make disciples” and teach others to “observe [obey] all that I commanded you.” Following Jesus Christ is certainly more than an isolated experience, no matter how wonderful that experience may be; it is certainly more than saying a prayer, it is more than the Romans Road, it is entering into a New Way of Life in Christ and the Cross and living in that Life (Mark 8:34ff; John 15:1ff Galatians 2:20).

 

Well now, am I living as a man set apart for the Gospel? Are we and our congregations living as those set apart for the Gospel of God?

 

What about you?