March 24, 2010
I was just thinking…
Out of some reading related to the Easter season, I was struck again with the measure of what Christ’s suffering “in my place,” or “for my sins” really means.
F.B. Meyer, a British preacher and teacher of the 19th and early 20th century wrote the following which powerfully describes what Jesus’ suffering on the cross means for fallen sinners (that’s all of us): “This was not a normal human experience. Only once in the history of the race has all iniquity been laid on one head; only once has the curse of sin of the world been borne by one heart; only once has it been possible, in drinking the cup of death, to taste death for every man. ‘He who knew no sin was made sin for us. He was wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities.’ (2 Corinthians 5:21; Isaiah 53:5) On no other hypothesis than that Jesus was the Lamb of God, bearing away the sin of the world can you account for the darkness of that midday midnight which obscured his soul. I cannot tell what transpired; I have no philosophy of the Atonement to offer; I only believe that the whole nature of God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself; and that, in virtue of what was done there, we may apply for forgiveness to the faithfulness and justice of God.” (A Commentary on the Gospel of John, Grand Rapids: Zondervan. 1952, p. 351).
What Jesus did at the cross created a “bridge” and made it possible for sinful man to be reconciled with the Holy God. That event enabled an “Atonement,” a theological term that means quite simply that there is now “At-one-ment” between a repentant sinner and a welcoming God. Thank God for what happened on that ugly hill outside the walls of Jerusalem! He did that for you and me—almost beyond our comprehension!!
The truth of what Jesus did would exhaust the vocabularies of all the languages that have ever existed. It is one of those “Could we with ink the ocean fill, And were the skies of parchment made, were every stalk on earth a quill, And every man a scribe by trade, to write the love of God above Would drain the ocean dry. Nor could the scroll contain the whole, though stretched from sky to sky” kind of things.
Without Christmas, there would have been no Easter; but without Easter, there would be no salvation nor hope in this world for a heaven that is “out of this world!”
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Saturday, March 6, 2010
What to do with sin.
I was just thinking…
Sin? What does Jesus’ incarnation have to do with sin? Everything! That’s why He came. Though He was a convincing teacher, a compassionate healer, a concerned humanitarian, and more, that was not His primary mission. There had been those, and more would follow Him. Some would even become founders of well-known religions. None but He could offer a legitimate solution to the problem of human sin. He came to deal with sin. Not His-for He had none, but ours.
His mission? He “came to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10). That’s all of us. All of humanity has lived in alienation and lostness since the fall into sin by the first of humankind-Adam and Eve. Paul’s summary of Jesus’ purpose in coming to earth is stated in 1 Corinthians 15:3-4 “I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures,.. .”
That’s the gospel. It is life-changing when we accept the Gift, Jesus. We receive full forgiveness, a clean slate, a new beginning; it’s just as if we had never sinned. But,
what does a believer do, following conversion, when he knows that he has again sinned (He will sense conviction and know it, if he is truly a child of God).
A believer may sometimes engage in actions that are not consistent with the Father’s ideals. Nonetheless, such believers do not cease being His children, any more than our less-than-obedient child ceases to be ours. The life process of being born and experiencing growth opens the possibility for sinning. Likewise, being “born again” does not make us immune from sin. (Consider Simon Peter, devoted disciple who made the “rock-solid” confession-“You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God”-upon which the church would be built” and who, just before our Lord’s crucifixion, cursed and denied that he even knew who Jesus is).
Obviously, we need to come to the Lord asking forgiveness as we are overcome by sin at points in our Christian growth journey. (Consider Paul’s struggle with the sinful nature, as described in Romans 7).
The New Testament makes it clear that Jesus cleanses the repentant believer when he confesses his sins. For many years we took the church youth to the beach for a retreat during the summer. The first night at the beach, we would go to the water’s edge after receiving instructions to spread out and provide some privacy. Each person was requested to write in the sand while the tide was out any sin in their life. Then, we were to claim the promise of 1 John 1:9-10 “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Of course, once the tide came back in and covered the area where our confessed sins were previously written, the writing was removed and the area was smooth and the writing removed.
The broader context, in 1 John 1:7-10, reminds us that the Agent of our cleansing is the sacrifice of Christ at the cross. “But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. 8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
What do believers do when they sin? They confess their sins to the Lord. His sacrifice for our sin, proves again and again to be fully adequate to cleanse us. That ancient truth is still “Good News” for all of us!
Sin? What does Jesus’ incarnation have to do with sin? Everything! That’s why He came. Though He was a convincing teacher, a compassionate healer, a concerned humanitarian, and more, that was not His primary mission. There had been those, and more would follow Him. Some would even become founders of well-known religions. None but He could offer a legitimate solution to the problem of human sin. He came to deal with sin. Not His-for He had none, but ours.
His mission? He “came to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10). That’s all of us. All of humanity has lived in alienation and lostness since the fall into sin by the first of humankind-Adam and Eve. Paul’s summary of Jesus’ purpose in coming to earth is stated in 1 Corinthians 15:3-4 “I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures,.. .”
That’s the gospel. It is life-changing when we accept the Gift, Jesus. We receive full forgiveness, a clean slate, a new beginning; it’s just as if we had never sinned. But,
what does a believer do, following conversion, when he knows that he has again sinned (He will sense conviction and know it, if he is truly a child of God).
A believer may sometimes engage in actions that are not consistent with the Father’s ideals. Nonetheless, such believers do not cease being His children, any more than our less-than-obedient child ceases to be ours. The life process of being born and experiencing growth opens the possibility for sinning. Likewise, being “born again” does not make us immune from sin. (Consider Simon Peter, devoted disciple who made the “rock-solid” confession-“You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God”-upon which the church would be built” and who, just before our Lord’s crucifixion, cursed and denied that he even knew who Jesus is).
Obviously, we need to come to the Lord asking forgiveness as we are overcome by sin at points in our Christian growth journey. (Consider Paul’s struggle with the sinful nature, as described in Romans 7).
The New Testament makes it clear that Jesus cleanses the repentant believer when he confesses his sins. For many years we took the church youth to the beach for a retreat during the summer. The first night at the beach, we would go to the water’s edge after receiving instructions to spread out and provide some privacy. Each person was requested to write in the sand while the tide was out any sin in their life. Then, we were to claim the promise of 1 John 1:9-10 “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Of course, once the tide came back in and covered the area where our confessed sins were previously written, the writing was removed and the area was smooth and the writing removed.
The broader context, in 1 John 1:7-10, reminds us that the Agent of our cleansing is the sacrifice of Christ at the cross. “But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. 8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
What do believers do when they sin? They confess their sins to the Lord. His sacrifice for our sin, proves again and again to be fully adequate to cleanse us. That ancient truth is still “Good News” for all of us!
Dogs and Sows
I was just thinking…
A member of the church family raised the question last Sunday, “What about that passage that speaks about a ‘dog returns to its own vomit’ and a ‘sow, having washed, to her wallowing in the mire’?” These two commonly known proverbs were used by Peter in his teaching.
The context of the broader passage in 2 Peter 2:18-22 addresses the deceptive practices of false teachers. Some see in the passage the possibility for a person to be a follower of Jesus and, then at some point in his or her life, renounce the faith and revert to living as many unconverted folks live.
The clearest path, I believe, to the likely meaning of the passage is offered in the Expositor’s Bible Commentary, edited by Frank E. Gaebelein. Volume 12 of that series includes the commentary on 1 and 2 Peter, by Edwin A. Blum. Dr. Blum (page 282) sums up the discussion in convincing fashion:
Verse 20 mentions the possibility of reverting to the old paganism after having ‘escaped the corruptions of the world’ through knowing Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Is it possible, then, for Christians to lose their salvation? Many would answer affirmatively on the basis of this and similar texts (e.g. Heb. 6:4-6; 10:26). But this verse asserts only that false teachers who have for a time escaped from worldly corruption through knowing Christ and then turn away from the light of the Christian faith are worse off than they were before knowing Christ. It uses no terminology affirming that they were Christians in reality (e.g. “sons of God,” “children,” “born again,” “regenerate,” “redeemed”). The New Testament makes a distinction between those who are in the churches and those who are regenerate (cf. 2 Cor. 13:5; 2 Tim 2:18-19; 1 John 3:7-8). “They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us….but their going showed that none of them belonged to us” -1 John 2:19. So when Peter says, “They are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning,” the reference is to a lost apostate.
These apostates (“fallen away”) apparently had experienced some superficial attachment to the message of Christ, but had never committed their lives to Him. They were unsaved church members whose spiritual natures were unchanged and who eventually reverted to the ways of the world.
This parallels the truth of Proverbs 26:11-“As a dog returns to his own vomit, so a fool repeats his folly.” A second proverb that circulated and was well-known related to a pig, that having been washed, returned to wallowing in the mire. That is what Peter is describing in 2 Peter 2:18-22, where he employs the proverb of a washed and cleaned up dog and pig, to underscore his point. These two animals, by reason of their dog and pig natures (even if washed, powdered, and perfumed), will do what dogs and pigs do—return to the place where they previously vomited, or make their way back to wallow in the mud. They are still unchanged in their nature. So are the natures of those who revert to Godless living—their natures are unchanged. Although they may experience a time of moral improvement, people whose natures are not changed by Jesus, will eventually give evidence of their true, unregenerate nature and continue to live as unsaved individuals.
To the contrary, Simon Peter, in the messages in our New Testaments that bear his name, supports the principle that believers are kept securely in their relationship with Jesus. He speaks in chapter 1, verses 3 through 5 of God who “has begotten us to a living hope, through the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”
It would be inconsistent for Peter to make the case that we are “kept by the power of God” in one place in Scripture, and then surface the notion in another that we are not kept by His power, and that we can be separated from His salvation. Either God keeps us, or He doesn’t.
Jesus gives those who trust Him a new nature. (2 Corinthians 5:17-“If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new”). When they sin, these “new creations” (Christian believers) are unsettled and quickly come under conviction until they return to their Creator and Savior and find forgiveness.
In their new natures, God’s children will demonstrate a “family resemblance.” We will have our Father’s eyes-seeing people with the needs as He sees them; have our Father’s arms-embracing, consoling, and assisting hurting people; have our Father’s hands-compassionately reaching out to meet the needs of others; have our Father’s feet-going to minister to people at places both near and far away.
The early believers were called “Christians-little Christs-imitators of Christ.” They consistently behaved like Him; not like dogs and pigs! His nature was inside them.
A member of the church family raised the question last Sunday, “What about that passage that speaks about a ‘dog returns to its own vomit’ and a ‘sow, having washed, to her wallowing in the mire’?” These two commonly known proverbs were used by Peter in his teaching.
The context of the broader passage in 2 Peter 2:18-22 addresses the deceptive practices of false teachers. Some see in the passage the possibility for a person to be a follower of Jesus and, then at some point in his or her life, renounce the faith and revert to living as many unconverted folks live.
The clearest path, I believe, to the likely meaning of the passage is offered in the Expositor’s Bible Commentary, edited by Frank E. Gaebelein. Volume 12 of that series includes the commentary on 1 and 2 Peter, by Edwin A. Blum. Dr. Blum (page 282) sums up the discussion in convincing fashion:
Verse 20 mentions the possibility of reverting to the old paganism after having ‘escaped the corruptions of the world’ through knowing Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Is it possible, then, for Christians to lose their salvation? Many would answer affirmatively on the basis of this and similar texts (e.g. Heb. 6:4-6; 10:26). But this verse asserts only that false teachers who have for a time escaped from worldly corruption through knowing Christ and then turn away from the light of the Christian faith are worse off than they were before knowing Christ. It uses no terminology affirming that they were Christians in reality (e.g. “sons of God,” “children,” “born again,” “regenerate,” “redeemed”). The New Testament makes a distinction between those who are in the churches and those who are regenerate (cf. 2 Cor. 13:5; 2 Tim 2:18-19; 1 John 3:7-8). “They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us….but their going showed that none of them belonged to us” -1 John 2:19. So when Peter says, “They are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning,” the reference is to a lost apostate.
These apostates (“fallen away”) apparently had experienced some superficial attachment to the message of Christ, but had never committed their lives to Him. They were unsaved church members whose spiritual natures were unchanged and who eventually reverted to the ways of the world.
This parallels the truth of Proverbs 26:11-“As a dog returns to his own vomit, so a fool repeats his folly.” A second proverb that circulated and was well-known related to a pig, that having been washed, returned to wallowing in the mire. That is what Peter is describing in 2 Peter 2:18-22, where he employs the proverb of a washed and cleaned up dog and pig, to underscore his point. These two animals, by reason of their dog and pig natures (even if washed, powdered, and perfumed), will do what dogs and pigs do—return to the place where they previously vomited, or make their way back to wallow in the mud. They are still unchanged in their nature. So are the natures of those who revert to Godless living—their natures are unchanged. Although they may experience a time of moral improvement, people whose natures are not changed by Jesus, will eventually give evidence of their true, unregenerate nature and continue to live as unsaved individuals.
To the contrary, Simon Peter, in the messages in our New Testaments that bear his name, supports the principle that believers are kept securely in their relationship with Jesus. He speaks in chapter 1, verses 3 through 5 of God who “has begotten us to a living hope, through the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”
It would be inconsistent for Peter to make the case that we are “kept by the power of God” in one place in Scripture, and then surface the notion in another that we are not kept by His power, and that we can be separated from His salvation. Either God keeps us, or He doesn’t.
Jesus gives those who trust Him a new nature. (2 Corinthians 5:17-“If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new”). When they sin, these “new creations” (Christian believers) are unsettled and quickly come under conviction until they return to their Creator and Savior and find forgiveness.
In their new natures, God’s children will demonstrate a “family resemblance.” We will have our Father’s eyes-seeing people with the needs as He sees them; have our Father’s arms-embracing, consoling, and assisting hurting people; have our Father’s hands-compassionately reaching out to meet the needs of others; have our Father’s feet-going to minister to people at places both near and far away.
The early believers were called “Christians-little Christs-imitators of Christ.” They consistently behaved like Him; not like dogs and pigs! His nature was inside them.
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