"Now the just shall live by faith..." Hebrews 10:38a
Let me start by making one thing very clear: WE are the just, both in regards to being ones who are just (Micah 6:8) and ones who are justified (Romans 5:9). This verse is our reality, NOT a command: "shall live," i.e., we have no choice in the matter; if we want to truly live, than living must be done by faith. Anything else other than faith will (as Oswald Chambers puts it) "work the death sentence" in you. There is no other way to go about it.
So then the real question is, "HOW do you live by faith?" Please. As good Christians of the late 20th, early 21st centuries, fed on sound doctrine whilst we sit upon plush pews, we should know what "living by faith" means. This theme is always shouted from pulpits: "But I tell you, BRUDDERS (stress the 'br' part), you must live by FAITHUH! (and put some power in the 'uh')" Dear me, "Living by Faith" is a hymn for goodness sake! We should know this subject backwards and forwards.
Ask yourself, though: WHAT does "living by faith" mean? Better yet, ask yourself a more fundamental question: what IS faith? Is it believing, though you don't see or know what is going to happen? Is it a kind of "spiritual grit," an endurance of sorts? Is it the attitude of, "Things look grim and you don't know what's going to happen, but just buckle down and go for broke"? No, not even close. That is hope disguised as faith, and faith and hope are two VERY different things (more on that later) Truly, if we want to know what faith IS (and subsequently, know how to live by it), we must look to the expert and His best selling book:
"Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." (Hebrews 11:1) Here is the answer, in all its anticlimactic beauty. It is yet another over done passage in the Bible that gets memorized and preached until it becomes another horse beaten to death and then beaten some more for good measure. We THINK we know what that verse means. Look at it again...what in the world is that saying?
"The substance of things hoped for..." Here is the difference between faith and hope: faith gives hope substance, i.e., the things we only hoped for are realized with faith.
Let me give an example: suppose we are in a country at war with a vast enemy. They are stronger than us and are winning. If I were to say, "I hope we win," I speaking as a man who cannot know or see, i.e., I don't know if we will win because I can see neither victory nor the mechanisms by which victory will come about. Hope, in a sense, is empty: it has NO SUBSTANCE. Faith is what "substances" it, makes it REAL. Faith is the realization of the hoped for. A man in our supposed war who has hope would say, "I hope we will win." The man who has faith says, "I KNOW we will win," because the hoped for (i.e., victory) is now made REAL. If I may use an example from The Matrix: hope says, "I hope you're right," while faith says, "I do not believe it is a matter of hope. I believe it is a matter of time." Hope is not knowing because we cannot see; Faith is knowing inspite of our being unable to see.
"The evidence of things not seen..." Evidence is what convinces, what brings about conviction. Again, we have a separation between hope and faith. Hope does not convince or convict; a jury would be useless if their verdicts in the end said, "We hope this is correct." Jurys cannot hope in order to make a decision; they must know. But how can they know what to decide? Jurys do not see the crimes; crimes are unseen things to them. They need evidence to convince them.
Faith is the evidence that convinces us of "things not seen," i.e., God, Who He is (the source of love, joy, peace, beauty, wisdom, courage, justice, and just about every virtue known or unknown), the Trinity, the creation of the world, Jesus Christ and his death, burial, and resurrection, the objective reality of redemption, etc. These are all unseen things; they are only made real to us and we are only convinced of them by faith, i.e., the realization and conviction of the unseen.
If that is what faith is, then where does it come from? "So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." (Romans 10:17) This is the power of Hebrews 4:12, and the mystery of coming in contact with God. The Word is the conduit in our lives of the living reality of God; by it we have the way to contact with Truth, Reality, Source, Primacy, i.e., GOD. The mystery comes in that you cannot believe God unless you have faith, but you cannot have faith unless God touches you. This is the mystery, this is the paradox.
I'll let Oswald Chambers weigh in: "Common sense is not faith, and faith is not common sense; they stand in the relation of the natural and the spiritual; of impulse and inspiration. Nothing Jesus Christ ever said is common sense, it is revelation sense, and it reaches the shores where common sense fails."
This is the conundrum of being unable to "prove" unseen things to another human being. We cannot; faith proves it to us, not others. Faith is an experience, an inspiration, a revelation, "a touch of madness," contact with Reality, communion with God. Perhaps faith is the greatest proof in the reality of God because only by God could faith exist.
How shall the just live? By faith. What is faith? The realization and conviction of the unseen, i.e., KNOWING that these things ARE and that they MATTER (see Hebrews 11:6). And where does faith come from, i.e., how do we KNOW? By communion with God.
So how then shall we live? The just shall live by communion with God and nothing else.
Wow.
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Purely Purged
"The silver is become dross, thy wine mixed with water..." Isaiah 1:22
"Purity" is a fine Christianish term that usually gets delegated by the prudes of the faith solely to the sexual realm and beaten until it is a dead horse and then beaten some more.
Purity is much more than moral conscience in the sexual realm. Purity means a complete absence of contamination; every part is solely ONE way. There is no mixture.
As Christians, every part of us (body, soul, spirit; morally, psychologically, socially, emotionally, relationally; reason, will, appetites; etc.) is to be completely ONE way, set on one track: a Spirit born, Christ filled, child of God. Every aspect of our lives must conform to this one way:
"Purity" is a fine Christianish term that usually gets delegated by the prudes of the faith solely to the sexual realm and beaten until it is a dead horse and then beaten some more.
Purity is much more than moral conscience in the sexual realm. Purity means a complete absence of contamination; every part is solely ONE way. There is no mixture.
As Christians, every part of us (body, soul, spirit; morally, psychologically, socially, emotionally, relationally; reason, will, appetites; etc.) is to be completely ONE way, set on one track: a Spirit born, Christ filled, child of God. Every aspect of our lives must conform to this one way:
- "Spirit born," i.e., no longer a member of the races of this world, we are born into a new race, a spiritual race, a living race, and this dead world with its dead ways no longer hold any meaning for us.
- "Christ filled," i.e., we have a new disposition in us, a new nature, one that conforms to things higher and greater than ourselves or this world, to a Will higher and greater than ourselves or this world, and our will can now be aligned with that great and higher Will.
- "Child of God," i.e., we have a new heritage, a new legacy. Our old one has past away, and we are set free from the things that kept us bogged down in hopelessness and shame, because we are now the children of freedom (see Galatians 4:31-5:1), and we are kept free while our will is aligned with our Father's Will.
Monday, February 19, 2007
Another word on Redemption as Objective Reality
"Zion shall be redeemed with judgment, and her converts with righteousness." Isaiah 1:27
Justice is joined to redemption's hip just as much as love is. Do not be fooled: our culture's over-focus on God's love has made His justice and righteousness our enemy. Speak of God's justice and/or righteousness, and most people get a very dark image: the merciless executioner, chomping at the bit, waiting with glee to be avenged of us, only to have its sadism disappointed by love, which we treat as the lone hero who flings himself into the fray and "satisfies" justice and righteousness, as though those two were hungry beasts ready to devour us and love had to throw them something else, viz., our Lord Jesus. So justice and righteousness are monsters, love a lone ranger, and Jesus a hunk of meat. How dare we assume so.
"Zion shall be redeemed with [justice]..." The true redemption of Zion (beyond the Babylonian captivity) comes through Christ's redemption of all (see esp. Romans 11:25-32). Christ came, not as an opponent against justice, but as the fulfillment of BOTH love and justice (Matthew 5:17; John 3:16; Romans 13:8, 10; see also blog entry "Objective Reality of Redemption" for further exposition). It was not that God's love got justice "out of the way" through Christ, but that through Christ, God's love and justice worked hand in hand to bring redemption to man.
Get out of your head any idea that leads you to believe that some part of God's nature was done away with by Christ's sacrifice. If any part of God was done away with, then God is no longer Perfection (i.e., no longer the Complete Being, or the Source of Completion). Every part of God's nature was "satisfied" in Christ.
Justice is joined to redemption's hip just as much as love is. Do not be fooled: our culture's over-focus on God's love has made His justice and righteousness our enemy. Speak of God's justice and/or righteousness, and most people get a very dark image: the merciless executioner, chomping at the bit, waiting with glee to be avenged of us, only to have its sadism disappointed by love, which we treat as the lone hero who flings himself into the fray and "satisfies" justice and righteousness, as though those two were hungry beasts ready to devour us and love had to throw them something else, viz., our Lord Jesus. So justice and righteousness are monsters, love a lone ranger, and Jesus a hunk of meat. How dare we assume so.
"Zion shall be redeemed with [justice]..." The true redemption of Zion (beyond the Babylonian captivity) comes through Christ's redemption of all (see esp. Romans 11:25-32). Christ came, not as an opponent against justice, but as the fulfillment of BOTH love and justice (Matthew 5:17; John 3:16; Romans 13:8, 10; see also blog entry "Objective Reality of Redemption" for further exposition). It was not that God's love got justice "out of the way" through Christ, but that through Christ, God's love and justice worked hand in hand to bring redemption to man.
Get out of your head any idea that leads you to believe that some part of God's nature was done away with by Christ's sacrifice. If any part of God was done away with, then God is no longer Perfection (i.e., no longer the Complete Being, or the Source of Completion). Every part of God's nature was "satisfied" in Christ.
Friday, February 16, 2007
Sitcom Sophistry
I, like everybody, love Raymond. The T.V. show has been (in reruns) a constant bastion of sanity for me in a world of increasingly bad humor. However, I can't help but voice a little something here. In a later episode, Ray's brother, Robert, is finally going to get married to his sweetheart, Amy McDoogle. It is made clear by the show, however (in true Raymond humor), that before and after Robert proposes that he and Amy had sex.
I should have expected as much. This is the kind of day we live in, and though it was upsetting, it was not surprising. I let it slide on by.
I could not, however, let what Amy's mother (the adorable Mrs. McDoogle) said slide by. On Amy's wedding day, Mrs. McDoogle mentions Amy's premarital romps with Robert. When Amy gets offended at this, Mrs. McDoogle responds, "Oh, I know. Times have changed. Now with you kids it's all fun all the time."
Oh really? So that's what pre-marital, non-committal sex is: "fun". Interesting...
What annoyed me more is the context in which Mrs. McDoogle brought up the incidents with Amy and Robert. She was pointing out that Amy was going to wear a white wedding gown, a gown worn by only virgin brides, as its color traditionally represented purity. I say "traditionally," but times have changed; now its all fun all the time.
There are two primary assumptions that Mrs. McDoogle's statement is making:
I can remember back in another "times" (specifically, the 90s), there was another show I loved called Family Matters. In one episode, Carl Winslow's son, Eddie, was inquiring on how he should proceed in the sexual realm (a good ol' father-son talk). Carl's advice (as opposed to Mrs. McDoogle's)? "There is only one safe way to go son, and that's abstinence." When Eddie inquires on why, Carl explains, "Sex is not a game [i.e., not mere "fun"]; it's an important step, a milestone in any one's life...My prayer for you is the same my father had for me: that you would find that special someone, fall in love ["fall" in love? I thought "love" was just sex?], get married, and then when you reach the point where you want to express that love physically [WHAT?! I thought love was ALL physical!], well then it will mean something." Wow, I had no idea that sex (let only love) could MEAN something, i.e., be something beyond just "all fun all the time."
Of course, times have changed (as the hell hounds of hypermodernism are quick to remind us). No one had fun in Family Matters. No one had ANY fun back then. Remember, children of Mill, love is a noun, sex is mere "fun," fun is the only true value, values are shackled to times, and white is just another color.
I should have expected as much. This is the kind of day we live in, and though it was upsetting, it was not surprising. I let it slide on by.
I could not, however, let what Amy's mother (the adorable Mrs. McDoogle) said slide by. On Amy's wedding day, Mrs. McDoogle mentions Amy's premarital romps with Robert. When Amy gets offended at this, Mrs. McDoogle responds, "Oh, I know. Times have changed. Now with you kids it's all fun all the time."
Oh really? So that's what pre-marital, non-committal sex is: "fun". Interesting...
What annoyed me more is the context in which Mrs. McDoogle brought up the incidents with Amy and Robert. She was pointing out that Amy was going to wear a white wedding gown, a gown worn by only virgin brides, as its color traditionally represented purity. I say "traditionally," but times have changed; now its all fun all the time.
There are two primary assumptions that Mrs. McDoogle's statement is making:
- All values are relative to the "times."
- All values not in keeping with the "times" are the opposite of "fun" (whatever "fun " means).
I can remember back in another "times" (specifically, the 90s), there was another show I loved called Family Matters. In one episode, Carl Winslow's son, Eddie, was inquiring on how he should proceed in the sexual realm (a good ol' father-son talk). Carl's advice (as opposed to Mrs. McDoogle's)? "There is only one safe way to go son, and that's abstinence." When Eddie inquires on why, Carl explains, "Sex is not a game [i.e., not mere "fun"]; it's an important step, a milestone in any one's life...My prayer for you is the same my father had for me: that you would find that special someone, fall in love ["fall" in love? I thought "love" was just sex?], get married, and then when you reach the point where you want to express that love physically [WHAT?! I thought love was ALL physical!], well then it will mean something." Wow, I had no idea that sex (let only love) could MEAN something, i.e., be something beyond just "all fun all the time."
Of course, times have changed (as the hell hounds of hypermodernism are quick to remind us). No one had fun in Family Matters. No one had ANY fun back then. Remember, children of Mill, love is a noun, sex is mere "fun," fun is the only true value, values are shackled to times, and white is just another color.
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
A Simple Matter of Life and Death
"Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord..."
"...for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it." Isaiah 18a, 20b
In chapter one of Isaiah, God specifically says two things in verses 16-20: (1) if you repent (vs. 16, 17), and come back to Him, "though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool," (vs. 18); and (2) if you walk according to AND stay in His will, "ye shall eat the good of the land: but if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword..." (vs. 19, 20). In short (why didn't I just do the short from the beginning? Because I DIDN'T), God says two things: choose Me, and get life; refuse and go against Me, and get death. Life and Death: these are the two fundamental issues behind our decisions. It has been like that for a long time (i.e., Eden and the two trees; also, see Deuteronomy 30:19).
I believe it was Todd Agnew who said, "You have two choices in life: to worship, or to sin." It was Bob Jones Sr., I believe (someone correct me if I am wrong), who said, "Only two choices on the shelf: pleasing God or pleasing self." Dorothy Sayers would say that it is a choice between God and "not-God," for there is nothing else to choose from. C.S. Lewis said that God is the only thing we can run on; all else makes us "conk" and slide into ruin. And God Himself put it this way: "Whoso findeth me findeth life...all they that hate me love death." (Proverbs 8:35a, 36b).
Allow me to ask: do we live like THAT? In other words (don't miss it), do we live seriously in the light of the fundamental issues of our choices, i.e., Life and Death? Do we believe that our choices are indeed matters of life and death? ANY choice, whether it be choice of college, or career, or mate, or even breakfast (I believe Chesterton expanded it to even mealtimes)? Honestly, now: we do not take our choices and decisions seriously.
As I have mentioned in other notes, over quoted verses lose their power in the telling; we desensitize ourselves to the Spirit's punch. Ask yourself: do you REALLY take Proverbs 3:5, 6 seriously? Do you REALLY believe (in day to day, monotonous living, not just Sunday "mounts of transfiguration") that you should, "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding," and that you should, "in all thy ways acknowledge Him," because, "He shall direct thy paths"?
If we are honest with ourselves (and by "we" I include myself), we do NOT take our choices/decisions seriously. In church we say, "AMEN!" On the frontlines of everyday, rarely exciting, mostly hum-drum life, however, we act as though our choices/decisions (i.e., what and how we say, think, and/or act in a giving situation or moment) are mere issues of our own will with consequences extending only into the natural realm. We perceive the consequences of our choices/decisions to be at "arm's length." We do not believe that Life and Death is at stake, with consequence extending to the natural, supernatural, and Uncreated realms. Our choices/decisions affect our relationships to people, angels and demons, and God.
Look at proverbs 3:5,6, and I mean LOOK at it. It starts off with two commands; not suggestions, but COMMANDS, both in the Imperative: "Trust in the Lord," and "lean not." These are things God says you MUST do. Now, notice the use of the word "all". How much of your heart (i.e., your soul, your person) is supposed to trust God? ALL. There is no exclusion, no room for even a hint of trust placed elsewhere. God is the way, truth, and life, and any trust not placed in Him (no matter how logical, or noble) will end in confusion, lies, and (ta da!) death. Check out the other use of "all". Here is why Chesterton would extend Life and Death to breakfast: in how many ways are we to acknowledge Him? In ALL. Again, there is no exclusion, no way left unto ourselves.
And what exactly will God do in return for all of this trusting and acknowledging? "He shall direct thy paths." The word "shall" is important. In Elizabethan English (which the KJV was written in) the words "shall" and "will" implied two very different ideas. If someone said, "I will do this," they were saying that they had a choice in the matter and have chosen to go "this" way. However, if someone said, "I shall do this," they were saying that they have NO choice; their very nature AND the way things are in the world (and universe) makes it impossible for them to choose otherwise than "this" way.
God said that He "shall" direct your paths, i.e., if you refuse to trust in your own wits, but FULLY trust Him with your whole person, and acknowledge Him in ALL of your choices/decisions, then He (because of who He is and the way He has made things) has NO CHOICE but to direct you. He SHALL do it; there is no other way it could be.
Oh the depths of the patience of God! A mere mortal would have been frustrated out of their wits long ago. God does not say that trusting Him means we will suddenly know WHERE we are going: Abraham, the "father of the faithful," followed God, "not knowing whither he went" (Hebrews 11:8b). What God does say is that trusting Him will leave you with the irrepressible confidence that he IS leading you. But, alas, we would much rather whine and groan about how "hard" life is, and all the while God is standing there telling us to simply take this issue of trusting Him SERIOUSLY and not treat it as a mere Sunday maxim.
But that, of course, is my point. We are not perfect (duh); we WILL be, but not now. By the sacrifice of Christ, our spirit has been perfected by being put back in communion with God, our soul is being perfected day by day, and our bodies will be perfected at the resurrection. As Switchfoot put it, we are "an already, but not yet, resurrected, fallen" people. It takes the strength of Christ in us to yield to the Spirit of God so that we can even begin to acknowledge Him in ANY way. God is not asking (and certainly neither am I) for us to perfect or paranoid. However, I do believe, wholeheartedly, that God wants us to take this Christian business seriously, which means taking our choices/decisions seriously, and taking seriously what He says in Proverbs, and Deuteronomy, and Isaiah, and elsewhere.
Start believing (and by "believing," I mean to take seriously in your life) that if you (by Christ's strength alone) yield to God and acknowledge His will in your ways, that He shall direct you, and you will "eat the good of the land;" and if you "refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword."
As Oswald Chambers put it, "The great need...is to believe things." God wants us to take seriously the beliefs that we take for granted.
"...for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it." Isaiah 18a, 20b
In chapter one of Isaiah, God specifically says two things in verses 16-20: (1) if you repent (vs. 16, 17), and come back to Him, "though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool," (vs. 18); and (2) if you walk according to AND stay in His will, "ye shall eat the good of the land: but if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword..." (vs. 19, 20). In short (why didn't I just do the short from the beginning? Because I DIDN'T), God says two things: choose Me, and get life; refuse and go against Me, and get death. Life and Death: these are the two fundamental issues behind our decisions. It has been like that for a long time (i.e., Eden and the two trees; also, see Deuteronomy 30:19).
I believe it was Todd Agnew who said, "You have two choices in life: to worship, or to sin." It was Bob Jones Sr., I believe (someone correct me if I am wrong), who said, "Only two choices on the shelf: pleasing God or pleasing self." Dorothy Sayers would say that it is a choice between God and "not-God," for there is nothing else to choose from. C.S. Lewis said that God is the only thing we can run on; all else makes us "conk" and slide into ruin. And God Himself put it this way: "Whoso findeth me findeth life...all they that hate me love death." (Proverbs 8:35a, 36b).
Allow me to ask: do we live like THAT? In other words (don't miss it), do we live seriously in the light of the fundamental issues of our choices, i.e., Life and Death? Do we believe that our choices are indeed matters of life and death? ANY choice, whether it be choice of college, or career, or mate, or even breakfast (I believe Chesterton expanded it to even mealtimes)? Honestly, now: we do not take our choices and decisions seriously.
As I have mentioned in other notes, over quoted verses lose their power in the telling; we desensitize ourselves to the Spirit's punch. Ask yourself: do you REALLY take Proverbs 3:5, 6 seriously? Do you REALLY believe (in day to day, monotonous living, not just Sunday "mounts of transfiguration") that you should, "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding," and that you should, "in all thy ways acknowledge Him," because, "He shall direct thy paths"?
If we are honest with ourselves (and by "we" I include myself), we do NOT take our choices/decisions seriously. In church we say, "AMEN!" On the frontlines of everyday, rarely exciting, mostly hum-drum life, however, we act as though our choices/decisions (i.e., what and how we say, think, and/or act in a giving situation or moment) are mere issues of our own will with consequences extending only into the natural realm. We perceive the consequences of our choices/decisions to be at "arm's length." We do not believe that Life and Death is at stake, with consequence extending to the natural, supernatural, and Uncreated realms. Our choices/decisions affect our relationships to people, angels and demons, and God.
Look at proverbs 3:5,6, and I mean LOOK at it. It starts off with two commands; not suggestions, but COMMANDS, both in the Imperative: "Trust in the Lord," and "lean not." These are things God says you MUST do. Now, notice the use of the word "all". How much of your heart (i.e., your soul, your person) is supposed to trust God? ALL. There is no exclusion, no room for even a hint of trust placed elsewhere. God is the way, truth, and life, and any trust not placed in Him (no matter how logical, or noble) will end in confusion, lies, and (ta da!) death. Check out the other use of "all". Here is why Chesterton would extend Life and Death to breakfast: in how many ways are we to acknowledge Him? In ALL. Again, there is no exclusion, no way left unto ourselves.
And what exactly will God do in return for all of this trusting and acknowledging? "He shall direct thy paths." The word "shall" is important. In Elizabethan English (which the KJV was written in) the words "shall" and "will" implied two very different ideas. If someone said, "I will do this," they were saying that they had a choice in the matter and have chosen to go "this" way. However, if someone said, "I shall do this," they were saying that they have NO choice; their very nature AND the way things are in the world (and universe) makes it impossible for them to choose otherwise than "this" way.
God said that He "shall" direct your paths, i.e., if you refuse to trust in your own wits, but FULLY trust Him with your whole person, and acknowledge Him in ALL of your choices/decisions, then He (because of who He is and the way He has made things) has NO CHOICE but to direct you. He SHALL do it; there is no other way it could be.
Oh the depths of the patience of God! A mere mortal would have been frustrated out of their wits long ago. God does not say that trusting Him means we will suddenly know WHERE we are going: Abraham, the "father of the faithful," followed God, "not knowing whither he went" (Hebrews 11:8b). What God does say is that trusting Him will leave you with the irrepressible confidence that he IS leading you. But, alas, we would much rather whine and groan about how "hard" life is, and all the while God is standing there telling us to simply take this issue of trusting Him SERIOUSLY and not treat it as a mere Sunday maxim.
But that, of course, is my point. We are not perfect (duh); we WILL be, but not now. By the sacrifice of Christ, our spirit has been perfected by being put back in communion with God, our soul is being perfected day by day, and our bodies will be perfected at the resurrection. As Switchfoot put it, we are "an already, but not yet, resurrected, fallen" people. It takes the strength of Christ in us to yield to the Spirit of God so that we can even begin to acknowledge Him in ANY way. God is not asking (and certainly neither am I) for us to perfect or paranoid. However, I do believe, wholeheartedly, that God wants us to take this Christian business seriously, which means taking our choices/decisions seriously, and taking seriously what He says in Proverbs, and Deuteronomy, and Isaiah, and elsewhere.
Start believing (and by "believing," I mean to take seriously in your life) that if you (by Christ's strength alone) yield to God and acknowledge His will in your ways, that He shall direct you, and you will "eat the good of the land;" and if you "refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword."
As Oswald Chambers put it, "The great need...is to believe things." God wants us to take seriously the beliefs that we take for granted.
God-in-a-Box
"Turn thou us into thee, O Lord, and we shall be turned; renew our days as of old." Lamentations 5:21
The source of Jerusalem's destruction (Lam. 1:5) is now (or perhaps has always been) its source of restoration. God is both in one: destroyer and restorer:
"See now that I, even I, am He, and there is no god with me: I kill, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal: neither is there any that can deliver out of my hand." (Deuteronomy 32:39)
"I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the Lord do all these things." (Isaiah 45:7) Such is the paradox and poetry of God (as Michael Card would put it).
Honestly, though, if we would just stop looking at God as merely a super-powerful, moral being, and see Him as the Sovereign, Moral Creator and Savior of the Universe, the whole of life would become more understandable (though not necessarily easier).
Like any good poet or storyteller, God's epic that is the story of this world is FULL of peace and prosperity, crescendos and climaxes, and yes, even despair and desolation. "I the Lord do all these things." You mean the moral being? NO; for a moral being to tolerate and even use sin and evil is a contradiction. It is not the powerful "goodman" of the universe, but the Righteous and Loving, Sovereign Creator/Savior of the universe Who can use evil, punish evil, and save those who are evil and still remain true to His nature.
Our human minds seem hell-bent (pun intended) on putting God in a box, of setting our own preconceived limitations to His character that are completely divorced from all that Scripture tells us about Him. Maybe it's not a small box; it may be quite large comparatively. But it is STILL a box, i.e., our own created limits and boundaries. It is this "God-in-a-box" thinking that makes God ways seem contradictory (I seriously believe that the "problem of evil" wouldn't be a problem if we wouldn't look at ONLY God's power and goodness; in "The Problem of Pain," C.S. Lewis defeats the problem of evil by demonstrating how small our conception of God really is). If we would let our image of God out of the box and let Him be true to His nature (Let God be GOD), we will find His ways not contradictory, but higher (Isaiah 55:8-9), which is where they are supposed to be.
We MUST win back the image of God from the world and from nominal (i.e., in name only) Christianity. It all MUST GO: the booming voice, far in the clouds, with no personage or form; it must go! The indistinguishable figure, set in unapproachable light (which is true), and remains unapproachable (which is false); it must go! The flat talking deity, who is all brain and cold calculating precision with no personality; it must go! The wussy grandfather who just wants our happiness (and not our good); it must go! The harsh taskmaster (Lord, save us from this one!), whose Son died for our sins, so we had better spend every waking moment being spent to physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual exhaustion so that we can keep in God's favor because of His sacrifice; it must go! The selfish praise-hoarder, who wants only our shallow affections (but not our true hearts); it must go! EVERY image of God that does not stand true to what the Bible confirms about Him must be cast into outer darkness where it belongs, for they are visions from Hell, devilish attempts to confuse us about and draw us away from the true character of God, and the true reality of life (like an answer to the problem of evil) that His character reveals.
"...I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me." (Isaiah 1:2b) Where is the Father (see also Galatians 4:6-7)? "How is the faithful city become an harlot!" (Isaiah 1:21a) Where is the Lover? WHY do we pick and choose who God is? Why is He ONLY a judge, or sovereign, or loving, or good, or awesome, or higher, or father, or worthy of praise, and on and on? It is all "God-in-a-box" nonsense. If we would stop trying to categorize Him and let Him be God in our lives, we will be amazed at how small our world had been.
The source of Jerusalem's destruction (Lam. 1:5) is now (or perhaps has always been) its source of restoration. God is both in one: destroyer and restorer:
"See now that I, even I, am He, and there is no god with me: I kill, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal: neither is there any that can deliver out of my hand." (Deuteronomy 32:39)
"I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the Lord do all these things." (Isaiah 45:7) Such is the paradox and poetry of God (as Michael Card would put it).
Honestly, though, if we would just stop looking at God as merely a super-powerful, moral being, and see Him as the Sovereign, Moral Creator and Savior of the Universe, the whole of life would become more understandable (though not necessarily easier).
Like any good poet or storyteller, God's epic that is the story of this world is FULL of peace and prosperity, crescendos and climaxes, and yes, even despair and desolation. "I the Lord do all these things." You mean the moral being? NO; for a moral being to tolerate and even use sin and evil is a contradiction. It is not the powerful "goodman" of the universe, but the Righteous and Loving, Sovereign Creator/Savior of the universe Who can use evil, punish evil, and save those who are evil and still remain true to His nature.
Our human minds seem hell-bent (pun intended) on putting God in a box, of setting our own preconceived limitations to His character that are completely divorced from all that Scripture tells us about Him. Maybe it's not a small box; it may be quite large comparatively. But it is STILL a box, i.e., our own created limits and boundaries. It is this "God-in-a-box" thinking that makes God ways seem contradictory (I seriously believe that the "problem of evil" wouldn't be a problem if we wouldn't look at ONLY God's power and goodness; in "The Problem of Pain," C.S. Lewis defeats the problem of evil by demonstrating how small our conception of God really is). If we would let our image of God out of the box and let Him be true to His nature (Let God be GOD), we will find His ways not contradictory, but higher (Isaiah 55:8-9), which is where they are supposed to be.
We MUST win back the image of God from the world and from nominal (i.e., in name only) Christianity. It all MUST GO: the booming voice, far in the clouds, with no personage or form; it must go! The indistinguishable figure, set in unapproachable light (which is true), and remains unapproachable (which is false); it must go! The flat talking deity, who is all brain and cold calculating precision with no personality; it must go! The wussy grandfather who just wants our happiness (and not our good); it must go! The harsh taskmaster (Lord, save us from this one!), whose Son died for our sins, so we had better spend every waking moment being spent to physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual exhaustion so that we can keep in God's favor because of His sacrifice; it must go! The selfish praise-hoarder, who wants only our shallow affections (but not our true hearts); it must go! EVERY image of God that does not stand true to what the Bible confirms about Him must be cast into outer darkness where it belongs, for they are visions from Hell, devilish attempts to confuse us about and draw us away from the true character of God, and the true reality of life (like an answer to the problem of evil) that His character reveals.
"...I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me." (Isaiah 1:2b) Where is the Father (see also Galatians 4:6-7)? "How is the faithful city become an harlot!" (Isaiah 1:21a) Where is the Lover? WHY do we pick and choose who God is? Why is He ONLY a judge, or sovereign, or loving, or good, or awesome, or higher, or father, or worthy of praise, and on and on? It is all "God-in-a-box" nonsense. If we would stop trying to categorize Him and let Him be God in our lives, we will be amazed at how small our world had been.
The Objective Reality of Redemption
"The Lord is righteous..." (Lamentations 1:18a)
In the six verses prior to verse eighteen, we see a grueling exposition of the suffering of Jerusalem under the Babylonian siege, and all of these verses have sprinkled throughout them the phrase, "The Lord hath (or "has," depending on your translation)..."
"The Lord hath afflicted me in the day of His fierce anger..." (vs. 12)
"[The Lord] hath...sent fire into my bones,...spread a net for my feet,...turned me back,...made me desolate..." (vs. 13)
"[The Lord] hath made my strength to fall, the Lord hath delivered me into [enemy] hands..." (vs. 14)
"The Lord hath trodden under foot,...He hath called an assembly against me,...[He] hath trodden...the daughter of Judah..." (vs. 15)
"The Lord hath commanded concerning Jacob, that his adversaries should be round about him..." (Vs. 17)
I suppose that when one considers that this "someone" that the Lord hath afflicted is the apple of His eye, any reasonable person would pause and wonder, "WHAT is God DOING?! He is the one destroying His own people? How dare He! Who does He think He is?"
Destroy His own people? Please. What about the Canaanites, the Egyptians, the Philistines, the Hittites, and all the other pagan nations that Israel came in contact with? They were plagued, slaughtered, and wiped out in practically genocidal fashion. And here we stand looking back, and wonder, "By what right or reason has God done these things?"
The prophet Jeremiah responds as he laments, "The Lord is righteous: for I have rebelled against His commandments..." After six verses (and in the end, a whole five chapter book) of God sounding like a cruel, vindictive sadist, the prophet sounds a truth known but forgotten, and we are struck by the reality of God's righteousness.
Please allow a slight rant: Political correctness (the aptly called "cancer of the West") and a postmodern produced wishy-washy attitude has turned the people of the West into sentimental saps. "Why must you be so judgmental?" "Can't you see the shades of gray?" "Why can't we just all get along?" BECAUSE: "The Lord is righteous..." Okay, rant over. Let's cut to the quick.
Yes, toleration is good. Yes, God is love (a LOT more on that in a moment). But remember what C.S. Lewis taught in The Four Loves: whenever you take a singular virtue of the Tao (the law, the moral code, "written on our hearts," etc.) and rip it out and make it THE singular virtue to follow, it becomes demonic. God's holiness and righteousness is sacrificed more often by the world on an altar of tolerance, and (more seriously) by Christians on an altar of His love.
In case Sunday School is a distant memory, let's recap: God's is Holy; His holiness keeps Him separated from sin. God is Righteous; His righteousness punishes sin. These are facts lost today in bigger ways then we would like to believe. It is one thing to shout it from pulpits, or in debates, or in the classroom, or from home; and quite another thing to look sheer desolation (of any scale) in the face and hear the answer to your desperate inquiries whispered in your ear: "The Lord is righteous."
Who flooded the world? The Lord hath. Who incinerated Sodom and Gomorrah? The Lord hath. Who sent plagues, slaughter, and genocide to the pagan nations? The Lord hath. Who stores up evil and releases it for judgment? The Lord hath (Daniel 9:14). Who creates evil? The Lord hath (Isaiah 45:7). Who kills and wounds? The Lord hath (Deuteronomy 32:39). And Who, in the last days, will unleash such desolation on the earth, that all heaven will be struck silent? The Lord (Revelation 8:1). Why? Because: "The Lord is righteous."
It is in righteousness that God MUST punish sin. It is from God's right hand, His dexter, that His holy law came (Deuteronomy 33:2), and its purpose was and is to punish and kill sin (Romans 3:19-20; 4:15a; 7:9-12). God's righteousness is an absolute fact, not a mere habit. God IS righteous, i.e., His very being is made up of and exudes righteousness. Before we can continue, be reconciled to this fact: "The Lord is righteous."
"...God is love." (I John 4:8b)
The same language found in Lamentations is found here: God IS love, i.e., His very being is made up of and exudes love. Just as God cannot help but be righteous and bring all it entails, He also cannot help but love and bring all it entails. Now, if righteousness entails judgment (Psalm 9:8; Revelation 19:6), then what does love entail? Love entails SALVATION (Romans 5:8; John 3:16; I John 3:1, 4:10). In righteousness, God cannot help but punish sin; in love, He cannot help but save those that he loves. That God loves us is true (whether or not it is exalted above all His attributes and made a demon).
There is a problem, however, and the problem (as usual) IS US. God loves us, and as lost sinners, He MUST save us. He cannot help but do it. However, God is righteous, and as poor lost sinners, He MUST punish sin, and hence punish us. He cannot help that either. This creates a problem, a problem that deserves to be called something fancy and full of superficial meaning. I think I shall call it "The Dilemma of Being," and here it is in simplest terms:
Righteousness MUST punish sin. God IS righteous. We ARE sinners. Therefore, God MUST punish us.
HOWEVER, love MUST save that which it loves. God IS love. We ARE loved of God. Therefore, God MUST save us.
You see the problem. God's very being demands that he punishes AND saves us AT THE SAME TIME. Gracious, what is God to do?
"Can't He just save us?" If He merely saves us, he would have to overlook our sin, and if He overlooks instead of punishing it, he would no longer be righteous. He would do away with a part of His very being, which is an impossibility: no one can completely do away with a part of their being (i.e., if part of your being is that of masculinity, you can starve it, ignore it, or deny it on the surface, but you cannot do away with it). "Well, why doesn't He just punish us? He has every right to do so!" You are absolutely right on God's rights. However, if He merely punishes us, unleashing His fully justified wrath and consumes us eternally, again He would have done away with a part of His very being, i.e., love. And again, this is an impossibility.
(NOTE: It is true that during salvation God does away with a part of our being, i.e., the disposition of sin, but this is an act of the Creator on the created. There is no grounds to believe or even assume that God can amputate Himself of parts of His Self. Besides, our disposition of sin is an abnormality, NOT an original part of creation).
In the end we find God in a pickle. Somehow, some way, God has to do BOTH: He has to both punish and save. Only by doing both can He remain God; to do exclusively one or the other would make Him something less than God. The question is, where can the two be reconciled?
"...love is the fulfilling of the law." (Romans 13:10b)
Here there appears to be reconciliation. here the holy law, wrought by righteousness to punish sin, is satisfied by love that can only save. How exactly can this be? CAN it be? It cannot be any love of ours: our fallen hearts make the sacrifice necessary for love (for love is sacrifice) an impossibility. We can only gush up (at best) selfish sentiment, or (at worst) selfish lust. The only love pure, true, and high enough to satisfy the law is divine love, Love Himself, and that love was manifested in the God-man, our Lord Jesus Christ.
Christ said He came to fulfil the law (Matthew 5:17). According to Romans 13:10, He could only fulfil it through love. Christ was given out of God's love (John 3:16, duh), and He is the proof of God's love (Romans 5:8). Christ said that the purest, highest, and truest love is the one that dies for those that it loves (John 15:13), which is exactly what Jesus did. Sacrifice, or better yet REDEMPTION, is what satisfies God's law (and His righteousness to use it) AND God's love. The solution to The Dilemma of Being (and just when I started liking that name), the reconciliation of law and love, is Christ Jesus.
The implications of this solution are PROFOUND. Recap quickly: God's righteousness and love are NOT mere characteristics or habits: things that were absent from His being but came upon Him over time. No, they are ABSOLUTES, i.e., Reality, "a priori" truths. God IS those things. That you remember.
However, that would mean that the dilemma of being is an absolute as well, an "a priori" truth. Then that would also mean that the solution to the dilemma of being is an absolute as well (for a God of order would never allow a contradiction in His being). Therefore, the sacrifice of Christ was no mere martyrdom, political execution, or even just a payment for sin. Christ passion is an absolute: it HAD to be, it had ALWAYS been. Redemption is an absolute objective reality, the "Lamb slain from the foundation of the world." (Revelations 13:8b) It always has been, it HAD to have been, and nothing can e'er change that.
In the six verses prior to verse eighteen, we see a grueling exposition of the suffering of Jerusalem under the Babylonian siege, and all of these verses have sprinkled throughout them the phrase, "The Lord hath (or "has," depending on your translation)..."
"The Lord hath afflicted me in the day of His fierce anger..." (vs. 12)
"[The Lord] hath...sent fire into my bones,...spread a net for my feet,...turned me back,...made me desolate..." (vs. 13)
"[The Lord] hath made my strength to fall, the Lord hath delivered me into [enemy] hands..." (vs. 14)
"The Lord hath trodden under foot,...He hath called an assembly against me,...[He] hath trodden...the daughter of Judah..." (vs. 15)
"The Lord hath commanded concerning Jacob, that his adversaries should be round about him..." (Vs. 17)
I suppose that when one considers that this "someone" that the Lord hath afflicted is the apple of His eye, any reasonable person would pause and wonder, "WHAT is God DOING?! He is the one destroying His own people? How dare He! Who does He think He is?"
Destroy His own people? Please. What about the Canaanites, the Egyptians, the Philistines, the Hittites, and all the other pagan nations that Israel came in contact with? They were plagued, slaughtered, and wiped out in practically genocidal fashion. And here we stand looking back, and wonder, "By what right or reason has God done these things?"
The prophet Jeremiah responds as he laments, "The Lord is righteous: for I have rebelled against His commandments..." After six verses (and in the end, a whole five chapter book) of God sounding like a cruel, vindictive sadist, the prophet sounds a truth known but forgotten, and we are struck by the reality of God's righteousness.
Please allow a slight rant: Political correctness (the aptly called "cancer of the West") and a postmodern produced wishy-washy attitude has turned the people of the West into sentimental saps. "Why must you be so judgmental?" "Can't you see the shades of gray?" "Why can't we just all get along?" BECAUSE: "The Lord is righteous..." Okay, rant over. Let's cut to the quick.
Yes, toleration is good. Yes, God is love (a LOT more on that in a moment). But remember what C.S. Lewis taught in The Four Loves: whenever you take a singular virtue of the Tao (the law, the moral code, "written on our hearts," etc.) and rip it out and make it THE singular virtue to follow, it becomes demonic. God's holiness and righteousness is sacrificed more often by the world on an altar of tolerance, and (more seriously) by Christians on an altar of His love.
In case Sunday School is a distant memory, let's recap: God's is Holy; His holiness keeps Him separated from sin. God is Righteous; His righteousness punishes sin. These are facts lost today in bigger ways then we would like to believe. It is one thing to shout it from pulpits, or in debates, or in the classroom, or from home; and quite another thing to look sheer desolation (of any scale) in the face and hear the answer to your desperate inquiries whispered in your ear: "The Lord is righteous."
Who flooded the world? The Lord hath. Who incinerated Sodom and Gomorrah? The Lord hath. Who sent plagues, slaughter, and genocide to the pagan nations? The Lord hath. Who stores up evil and releases it for judgment? The Lord hath (Daniel 9:14). Who creates evil? The Lord hath (Isaiah 45:7). Who kills and wounds? The Lord hath (Deuteronomy 32:39). And Who, in the last days, will unleash such desolation on the earth, that all heaven will be struck silent? The Lord (Revelation 8:1). Why? Because: "The Lord is righteous."
It is in righteousness that God MUST punish sin. It is from God's right hand, His dexter, that His holy law came (Deuteronomy 33:2), and its purpose was and is to punish and kill sin (Romans 3:19-20; 4:15a; 7:9-12). God's righteousness is an absolute fact, not a mere habit. God IS righteous, i.e., His very being is made up of and exudes righteousness. Before we can continue, be reconciled to this fact: "The Lord is righteous."
"...God is love." (I John 4:8b)
The same language found in Lamentations is found here: God IS love, i.e., His very being is made up of and exudes love. Just as God cannot help but be righteous and bring all it entails, He also cannot help but love and bring all it entails. Now, if righteousness entails judgment (Psalm 9:8; Revelation 19:6), then what does love entail? Love entails SALVATION (Romans 5:8; John 3:16; I John 3:1, 4:10). In righteousness, God cannot help but punish sin; in love, He cannot help but save those that he loves. That God loves us is true (whether or not it is exalted above all His attributes and made a demon).
There is a problem, however, and the problem (as usual) IS US. God loves us, and as lost sinners, He MUST save us. He cannot help but do it. However, God is righteous, and as poor lost sinners, He MUST punish sin, and hence punish us. He cannot help that either. This creates a problem, a problem that deserves to be called something fancy and full of superficial meaning. I think I shall call it "The Dilemma of Being," and here it is in simplest terms:
Righteousness MUST punish sin. God IS righteous. We ARE sinners. Therefore, God MUST punish us.
HOWEVER, love MUST save that which it loves. God IS love. We ARE loved of God. Therefore, God MUST save us.
You see the problem. God's very being demands that he punishes AND saves us AT THE SAME TIME. Gracious, what is God to do?
"Can't He just save us?" If He merely saves us, he would have to overlook our sin, and if He overlooks instead of punishing it, he would no longer be righteous. He would do away with a part of His very being, which is an impossibility: no one can completely do away with a part of their being (i.e., if part of your being is that of masculinity, you can starve it, ignore it, or deny it on the surface, but you cannot do away with it). "Well, why doesn't He just punish us? He has every right to do so!" You are absolutely right on God's rights. However, if He merely punishes us, unleashing His fully justified wrath and consumes us eternally, again He would have done away with a part of His very being, i.e., love. And again, this is an impossibility.
(NOTE: It is true that during salvation God does away with a part of our being, i.e., the disposition of sin, but this is an act of the Creator on the created. There is no grounds to believe or even assume that God can amputate Himself of parts of His Self. Besides, our disposition of sin is an abnormality, NOT an original part of creation).
In the end we find God in a pickle. Somehow, some way, God has to do BOTH: He has to both punish and save. Only by doing both can He remain God; to do exclusively one or the other would make Him something less than God. The question is, where can the two be reconciled?
"...love is the fulfilling of the law." (Romans 13:10b)
Here there appears to be reconciliation. here the holy law, wrought by righteousness to punish sin, is satisfied by love that can only save. How exactly can this be? CAN it be? It cannot be any love of ours: our fallen hearts make the sacrifice necessary for love (for love is sacrifice) an impossibility. We can only gush up (at best) selfish sentiment, or (at worst) selfish lust. The only love pure, true, and high enough to satisfy the law is divine love, Love Himself, and that love was manifested in the God-man, our Lord Jesus Christ.
Christ said He came to fulfil the law (Matthew 5:17). According to Romans 13:10, He could only fulfil it through love. Christ was given out of God's love (John 3:16, duh), and He is the proof of God's love (Romans 5:8). Christ said that the purest, highest, and truest love is the one that dies for those that it loves (John 15:13), which is exactly what Jesus did. Sacrifice, or better yet REDEMPTION, is what satisfies God's law (and His righteousness to use it) AND God's love. The solution to The Dilemma of Being (and just when I started liking that name), the reconciliation of law and love, is Christ Jesus.
The implications of this solution are PROFOUND. Recap quickly: God's righteousness and love are NOT mere characteristics or habits: things that were absent from His being but came upon Him over time. No, they are ABSOLUTES, i.e., Reality, "a priori" truths. God IS those things. That you remember.
However, that would mean that the dilemma of being is an absolute as well, an "a priori" truth. Then that would also mean that the solution to the dilemma of being is an absolute as well (for a God of order would never allow a contradiction in His being). Therefore, the sacrifice of Christ was no mere martyrdom, political execution, or even just a payment for sin. Christ passion is an absolute: it HAD to be, it had ALWAYS been. Redemption is an absolute objective reality, the "Lamb slain from the foundation of the world." (Revelations 13:8b) It always has been, it HAD to have been, and nothing can e'er change that.
Affliction
"[Jerusalem's] adversaries are the chief, her enemies prosper; for the Lord hath afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions..." Lamentations 1:5a
As Christians, we must never lose the sense of what is "behind the scenes." We practice the sense pretty well sometimes in spiritual warfare: it is not our friends, family, co-workers, or bosses; not strangers, circumstances, or our imagination. Something else really is "in the way," as Lewis put it. In our way is an enemy that hates us and longs for our destruction (of course, see I Peter 5:8).
It is easy for us, however, to assume that ALL affliction comes from the enemy. This is not a cliche slap at prosperity gospel: you can believe that Satan is responsible for all your problems and also believe that God is behind it somewhere. In a case like that (Satan/demonic affliction with God behind it) you are in the position of Job: your affliction comes in order to test your faith, i.e., to see where your reality lies (whether with yourself and circumstances or God and His will).
The problem is that as Christians we can slip into the dangerous position of believing Hell is responsible for ALL of our problems, and hence ALL affliction is a testing of our faith. This is not true. There are two positions of affliction: one is of Job, affliction to test faith and correctly focus your reality; the other is the position of Jerusalem, where affliction comes because of your "transgressions."
In the first position, God is the Ultimate but not Immediate source of your affliction; the Immediate source is the demonic powers. In the second position, however, God is all in all, the Ultimate and Immediate source: "The Lord hath afflicted...for the multitude of transgressions."
When Christians slip into the deceptive stance of always being in the first position, the truth that God must punish sin is lost to them in regards to themselves. They surely see that truth in the lives of other's, but in their own life all affliction is a test of faith and not rebuttals from God, the Immediate affliction of the Lord.
"For the wages of sin is death..." (Rom. 6:32a) As with all overstated verses, the punch and the power gets lost in the telling. We must never forget that sin ALWAYS brings death (see also Rom. 5:12), and that does not change when you are redeemed into God's family through Christ's death and resurrection. When you are redeemed, you are no longer sold under sin, and therefore no longer held to its ultimate end, i.e., eternal death. But the NATURE of sin does not change: it always brings death. This is not a cruel joke God played on humanity; it is simply a fact, an absolute, the way things ARE. Sin cannot help but bring death, because sin is (as Dorothy Sayers put it) choosing the "not-God," and anything that is not God (that is not the way, truth, and life) is confusion, lies, and death. James tells us that wisdom comes from God, and in Proverbs wisdom says, "All they that hate me love death." In the end of Deuteronomy, God tells his children that there are only two paths that He has set before them: life and death. Those are our choices: life or death, God or everything else. And as a Christian, if you sin, if you willful choose the not-God, then as Oswald Chambers put it, you "work the death sentence on yourself," and God will not let it stand.
He is not cruel in this. He is being two things that He cannot help but be (because they are a part of His nature): He is being Holy (because holiness cannot tolerate sin: the Holy God sent His Holy Law to kill sin), and He is being Love (Proverbs 3:11-12). The beauty of being a redeemed child of God is that God deals with you in holiness AND love, an impossibility made possible through Christ (more on THAT subject in another note). If you were not His child, he would only deal with you in holiness, and the end dealing of holiness with sin is to cast it into outer darkness.
As His child, however, God will send affliction on your for one of two reasons: (1) to test your faith; or (2) to punish sin, because His holiness will not tolerate it, and His love will not let you stay fallen in the mire (Heb. 12:6-8). God sends affliction for our good (Rom. 8:38): if we are strong, He will make us stronger; if we fall, He will pick us up and whip all the filth off of us in the process.
As Christians, we must never lose the sense of what is "behind the scenes." We practice the sense pretty well sometimes in spiritual warfare: it is not our friends, family, co-workers, or bosses; not strangers, circumstances, or our imagination. Something else really is "in the way," as Lewis put it. In our way is an enemy that hates us and longs for our destruction (of course, see I Peter 5:8).
It is easy for us, however, to assume that ALL affliction comes from the enemy. This is not a cliche slap at prosperity gospel: you can believe that Satan is responsible for all your problems and also believe that God is behind it somewhere. In a case like that (Satan/demonic affliction with God behind it) you are in the position of Job: your affliction comes in order to test your faith, i.e., to see where your reality lies (whether with yourself and circumstances or God and His will).
The problem is that as Christians we can slip into the dangerous position of believing Hell is responsible for ALL of our problems, and hence ALL affliction is a testing of our faith. This is not true. There are two positions of affliction: one is of Job, affliction to test faith and correctly focus your reality; the other is the position of Jerusalem, where affliction comes because of your "transgressions."
In the first position, God is the Ultimate but not Immediate source of your affliction; the Immediate source is the demonic powers. In the second position, however, God is all in all, the Ultimate and Immediate source: "The Lord hath afflicted...for the multitude of transgressions."
When Christians slip into the deceptive stance of always being in the first position, the truth that God must punish sin is lost to them in regards to themselves. They surely see that truth in the lives of other's, but in their own life all affliction is a test of faith and not rebuttals from God, the Immediate affliction of the Lord.
"For the wages of sin is death..." (Rom. 6:32a) As with all overstated verses, the punch and the power gets lost in the telling. We must never forget that sin ALWAYS brings death (see also Rom. 5:12), and that does not change when you are redeemed into God's family through Christ's death and resurrection. When you are redeemed, you are no longer sold under sin, and therefore no longer held to its ultimate end, i.e., eternal death. But the NATURE of sin does not change: it always brings death. This is not a cruel joke God played on humanity; it is simply a fact, an absolute, the way things ARE. Sin cannot help but bring death, because sin is (as Dorothy Sayers put it) choosing the "not-God," and anything that is not God (that is not the way, truth, and life) is confusion, lies, and death. James tells us that wisdom comes from God, and in Proverbs wisdom says, "All they that hate me love death." In the end of Deuteronomy, God tells his children that there are only two paths that He has set before them: life and death. Those are our choices: life or death, God or everything else. And as a Christian, if you sin, if you willful choose the not-God, then as Oswald Chambers put it, you "work the death sentence on yourself," and God will not let it stand.
He is not cruel in this. He is being two things that He cannot help but be (because they are a part of His nature): He is being Holy (because holiness cannot tolerate sin: the Holy God sent His Holy Law to kill sin), and He is being Love (Proverbs 3:11-12). The beauty of being a redeemed child of God is that God deals with you in holiness AND love, an impossibility made possible through Christ (more on THAT subject in another note). If you were not His child, he would only deal with you in holiness, and the end dealing of holiness with sin is to cast it into outer darkness.
As His child, however, God will send affliction on your for one of two reasons: (1) to test your faith; or (2) to punish sin, because His holiness will not tolerate it, and His love will not let you stay fallen in the mire (Heb. 12:6-8). God sends affliction for our good (Rom. 8:38): if we are strong, He will make us stronger; if we fall, He will pick us up and whip all the filth off of us in the process.
The Thing
"Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep His commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil." Ecclesiastes 12: 13, 14
This seems anti-climactic. "Fear God and keep his commandments" is found all throughout the Old Testament before Ecclesiastes. The power of the verse here is that it is at the end of the book, at the end of Solomon's journey to reach that conclusion. It is not mere rehash, merely a well known command reiterated by so-and-so preacher. It is said by one who has lived it as truth. In the context of the whole book, Solomon is saying, "All the things of this world are vanity. They are not IT; they are not THE THING, the thing that matters, the thing that counts. Money isn't it, power isn't it, success isn't it, merriment isn't it, youth and progress aren't it, age and experience aren't it, foolishness isn't it, and even wisdom isn't it. THIS is what is IT: living in the REALITY OF GOD."
"Fear God." Live in submission as the lesser to the greater, submission to God always. "Keep his commandments." You will die and your own nature cannot prepare you for death (Eccl. 9:3). God has shown you the way to go: submit and walk therein. "God shall bring every work into judgment." Let everything you do be based on what comes after, not what comes now. God gave those of the Old Testament time a way (i.e., His law) to meet this judgment. Now, in New Testament times, He has also given us a way: Jesus Christ, Whom the law was pointing us to, Who connects us back to God so that He can fill us with His Spirit so we can be holy as He is holy. This is THE THING: living in the reality of the Living God, Whose hands we will all fall into (Heb. 10:31).
This seems anti-climactic. "Fear God and keep his commandments" is found all throughout the Old Testament before Ecclesiastes. The power of the verse here is that it is at the end of the book, at the end of Solomon's journey to reach that conclusion. It is not mere rehash, merely a well known command reiterated by so-and-so preacher. It is said by one who has lived it as truth. In the context of the whole book, Solomon is saying, "All the things of this world are vanity. They are not IT; they are not THE THING, the thing that matters, the thing that counts. Money isn't it, power isn't it, success isn't it, merriment isn't it, youth and progress aren't it, age and experience aren't it, foolishness isn't it, and even wisdom isn't it. THIS is what is IT: living in the REALITY OF GOD."
"Fear God." Live in submission as the lesser to the greater, submission to God always. "Keep his commandments." You will die and your own nature cannot prepare you for death (Eccl. 9:3). God has shown you the way to go: submit and walk therein. "God shall bring every work into judgment." Let everything you do be based on what comes after, not what comes now. God gave those of the Old Testament time a way (i.e., His law) to meet this judgment. Now, in New Testament times, He has also given us a way: Jesus Christ, Whom the law was pointing us to, Who connects us back to God so that He can fill us with His Spirit so we can be holy as He is holy. This is THE THING: living in the reality of the Living God, Whose hands we will all fall into (Heb. 10:31).
Don't be a Weatherman
"He that observeth the wind shall not sow; and he that regardeth the clouds shall not reap. As thou knowest not what is the way of the spirit, nor how the bones do grow in the womb of her that is with child: even so thou knowest not the works of God who maketh all." Ecclesiastes 11:4, 5
My dad told me once, "The Christian life is like driving a car: God wants to steer you to where you need to go, but all of His steering is pointless if you're not moving SOMEWHERE."
Many Christians have a confusing idea about the Christian life, the life of faith. A problem arises, troubles come, and many figure the best thing to do (what living by faith means) is to sit still and see if God will do something. NEVER! Faith is DOING SOMETHING and EXPECTING God to work.
"What about 'Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord'?" That only occurred AFTER Israel left Egypt and AFTER Moses took God seriously when he was told to stretch forth his staff over the red sea. Only when we move can we stand still, only when we step out on faith can we be still and know that He is God. Only by a choice of will can the Redemption of Christ work in us. This is not saving ourselves or "helping ourselves;" this is faith.
Try this on for size: "By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out...he went out, not knowing whither he went." (Heb. 11:7) That is faith. Faith is in the going, NOT the knowing. Faith is in the doing, NOT the stewing. God is standing on the threshold, waiting for us to come so He can show us great and mighty things, but we're too busy observing the wind and regarding the clouds.
"Observing" and "regarding" are common sense trying to dominate faith, which Oswald Chambers says is rationalism. We must learn that we will never "know" until AFTER the act of faith. Unseen things can never be rationalized before faith. It is faith that gives them substance, faith that proves them as reality (Heb. 11:1). But we will never realize the reality of God in the moment unless we go through that moment, sight unseen.
My dad told me once, "The Christian life is like driving a car: God wants to steer you to where you need to go, but all of His steering is pointless if you're not moving SOMEWHERE."
Many Christians have a confusing idea about the Christian life, the life of faith. A problem arises, troubles come, and many figure the best thing to do (what living by faith means) is to sit still and see if God will do something. NEVER! Faith is DOING SOMETHING and EXPECTING God to work.
"What about 'Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord'?" That only occurred AFTER Israel left Egypt and AFTER Moses took God seriously when he was told to stretch forth his staff over the red sea. Only when we move can we stand still, only when we step out on faith can we be still and know that He is God. Only by a choice of will can the Redemption of Christ work in us. This is not saving ourselves or "helping ourselves;" this is faith.
Try this on for size: "By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out...he went out, not knowing whither he went." (Heb. 11:7) That is faith. Faith is in the going, NOT the knowing. Faith is in the doing, NOT the stewing. God is standing on the threshold, waiting for us to come so He can show us great and mighty things, but we're too busy observing the wind and regarding the clouds.
"Observing" and "regarding" are common sense trying to dominate faith, which Oswald Chambers says is rationalism. We must learn that we will never "know" until AFTER the act of faith. Unseen things can never be rationalized before faith. It is faith that gives them substance, faith that proves them as reality (Heb. 11:1). But we will never realize the reality of God in the moment unless we go through that moment, sight unseen.
The End of Wisdom
"And further, by these, my son, be admonished: of making many books there is no end; and much study is a weariness of the flesh." Ecclesiastes 12:12
This verse is very ironic. The "these" that the son is to be admonished by are the "good heed" and "proverbs" (vs. 9), the "acceptable words" and "words of truth" (vs. 10), the wise words that are like "goads" to prick the people with truth and "nails" to fasten them in place (vs. 11), all of which are given by the "one shepherd" who Solomon would know as God (Ps. 80:1), and we would later know more specifically as Christ (John 10:14). The "these" are every word of God-given wisdom that Solomon wrote down.
And what do the "these" admonish the son (and us) to do? All of the "these" are vanity as well. Wisdom is good, but (as I've said about other things) it is not THE THING, the thing that matters. What good does all that wisdom do a man if he does not know what will come after him (Eccl. 10:14), or whether anything he does will succeed (Eccl. 11:6)? The uncertainty of life makes wisdom a vanity, and to understand that IS true wisdom: it is the end result of being admonished by all those acceptable, godly words of truth.
That is the irony: wisdom's end reveals its own inadequacy. It can never give man what he wants are take him where he wants to go.
C.S. Lewis, in his book The Pilgrims Regress, there is a gorge that separates man from God. Mr. Wisdom's house is placed farther over the edge of the gorge than anyone else, so far that one would swear if they got a running start that they could jump the gorge. But those who look closely see that if they ran and jumped, they would still miss it. Here is Wisdom (with a capital "W"): wisdom is vanity. May God make us wise enough to see that we will never be wise enough.
This verse is very ironic. The "these" that the son is to be admonished by are the "good heed" and "proverbs" (vs. 9), the "acceptable words" and "words of truth" (vs. 10), the wise words that are like "goads" to prick the people with truth and "nails" to fasten them in place (vs. 11), all of which are given by the "one shepherd" who Solomon would know as God (Ps. 80:1), and we would later know more specifically as Christ (John 10:14). The "these" are every word of God-given wisdom that Solomon wrote down.
And what do the "these" admonish the son (and us) to do? All of the "these" are vanity as well. Wisdom is good, but (as I've said about other things) it is not THE THING, the thing that matters. What good does all that wisdom do a man if he does not know what will come after him (Eccl. 10:14), or whether anything he does will succeed (Eccl. 11:6)? The uncertainty of life makes wisdom a vanity, and to understand that IS true wisdom: it is the end result of being admonished by all those acceptable, godly words of truth.
That is the irony: wisdom's end reveals its own inadequacy. It can never give man what he wants are take him where he wants to go.
C.S. Lewis, in his book The Pilgrims Regress, there is a gorge that separates man from God. Mr. Wisdom's house is placed farther over the edge of the gorge than anyone else, so far that one would swear if they got a running start that they could jump the gorge. But those who look closely see that if they ran and jumped, they would still miss it. Here is Wisdom (with a capital "W"): wisdom is vanity. May God make us wise enough to see that we will never be wise enough.
God loves the Right-handed!
"A wise man's heart is at his right hand; but a fool's heart at his left."
Ecclesiastes 10:2
The Bible has always made an important division between right and left: It was from God's right hand that His law came (Deut. 33:2). It is at His right hand that His children will stand, but those who are condemned will stand at His left (Matt. 25:31-46). It is the right hand that does good, but the left must not know about the good, lest the left make a show of it for pride's sake (Matt. 6:1-4). God spared Nineveh, amongst other reasons, for the sake of the 120,000 children, who could not "discern between their right hand and their left hand," i.e., were morally innocent (Jonah 4:11). It is at the right hand of God that our Lord sits (Mark 16:19).
Whatever is in the right hand is esteemed, moral, and commendable; what ever is in the left is condemned, immoral, and despicable. Apparently, it is the wise man that treats his heart as something that should be treasured, but the fool is one who cares not for his heart.
It is the heart of man that is defiled (Jer. 17:9) and defiles the man (Matt.19, 20). However, it is the heart that God came to change (Jer. 24:7; Ezek. 11:19). It is with your heart that you love God (Matt. 22:37), and it is with the heart that you believe unto salvation (Rom. 10:8-10).
The heart of man is of great interest to God, which is probable why His says to guard it: "Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life." (Pro. 4:23). Do not play the fool with your heart; wisely guard it in your right hand as something valuable, something irreplaceable.
Ecclesiastes 10:2
The Bible has always made an important division between right and left: It was from God's right hand that His law came (Deut. 33:2). It is at His right hand that His children will stand, but those who are condemned will stand at His left (Matt. 25:31-46). It is the right hand that does good, but the left must not know about the good, lest the left make a show of it for pride's sake (Matt. 6:1-4). God spared Nineveh, amongst other reasons, for the sake of the 120,000 children, who could not "discern between their right hand and their left hand," i.e., were morally innocent (Jonah 4:11). It is at the right hand of God that our Lord sits (Mark 16:19).
Whatever is in the right hand is esteemed, moral, and commendable; what ever is in the left is condemned, immoral, and despicable. Apparently, it is the wise man that treats his heart as something that should be treasured, but the fool is one who cares not for his heart.
It is the heart of man that is defiled (Jer. 17:9) and defiles the man (Matt.19, 20). However, it is the heart that God came to change (Jer. 24:7; Ezek. 11:19). It is with your heart that you love God (Matt. 22:37), and it is with the heart that you believe unto salvation (Rom. 10:8-10).
The heart of man is of great interest to God, which is probable why His says to guard it: "Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life." (Pro. 4:23). Do not play the fool with your heart; wisely guard it in your right hand as something valuable, something irreplaceable.
Are you a snob, or a lethargic?
"...childhood and youth are vanity. Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth [before old age comes and]...the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit return unto God Who gave it. Vanity of vanities, saith the preacher, all is vanity." Ecclesiastes 11:10b; 12:1a,7,8
There are many people who live for an age.
There are (as Lewis called them) chronological snobs: those who believe what is good is the new and young and fresh, full of life and youth and progress. The old is merely boundaries that limit potential and pleasure, and therefore need to be cast off in the name of "progress" and eating, drinking, and being merry. Such a life is vanity: because of "all these things God will bring thee into judgment," and everything you've done for pleasure, and on youthful impulses, and what was right and progressive in your own eyes will come back to haunt you in the end when you find that your youth merely helped to heap up damnation on yourself. "Therefore, remove sorrow from thy heart, and put away evil from thy flesh..." (Eccl. 11:10a)
Then there are chronological lethargics: those who believe what is good is what has been before and is ripe with age and experience. It has been there and done that, full of wisdom and understanding. Tradition is everything; progress is the enemy, a destructive disease causing decay upon the foundations of civilization. All change is bad; things should stay as they where and are. Such a life is vanity, for old age only means that you are closer to death (Eccl. 12:2-7), when "the dust" and "the spirit" return from whence they came. Your great age serves only to bring you to the end.
As with all of Ecclesiastes, Solomon is not so much calling these "vanities" evil as much as he is saying that they are not THE THING. "Remember now thy Creator..." (Eccl. 12:1a) God is the Lord of the past and future, yes; but in His dealings and relationship with us, He is the Lord of the moment, God of the now. "This is the day the Lord hath made..." THIS DAY: not yesterday, or tomorrow, but today. "His mercies are new every morning..." We are to live in those mercies, not the mercies that have past or the mercies we hope to come. God deals with us on a day to day basis, and He can't very well get through our thick skulls while we're busy being distracted with what could be or was. Young or old, God is to be Reality, not the gone past or the uncertain future. When you are young, remember your Creator NOW (if you suddenly remember Him when you are old, there is not much God can do in your life except take you home). Remember Him in THIS MOMENT, and do that which draws you closer to Him, so when you are old and your spirit returns to God, you will find not a stranger but the One who has walked with you day by day all your life.
There are many people who live for an age.
There are (as Lewis called them) chronological snobs: those who believe what is good is the new and young and fresh, full of life and youth and progress. The old is merely boundaries that limit potential and pleasure, and therefore need to be cast off in the name of "progress" and eating, drinking, and being merry. Such a life is vanity: because of "all these things God will bring thee into judgment," and everything you've done for pleasure, and on youthful impulses, and what was right and progressive in your own eyes will come back to haunt you in the end when you find that your youth merely helped to heap up damnation on yourself. "Therefore, remove sorrow from thy heart, and put away evil from thy flesh..." (Eccl. 11:10a)
Then there are chronological lethargics: those who believe what is good is what has been before and is ripe with age and experience. It has been there and done that, full of wisdom and understanding. Tradition is everything; progress is the enemy, a destructive disease causing decay upon the foundations of civilization. All change is bad; things should stay as they where and are. Such a life is vanity, for old age only means that you are closer to death (Eccl. 12:2-7), when "the dust" and "the spirit" return from whence they came. Your great age serves only to bring you to the end.
As with all of Ecclesiastes, Solomon is not so much calling these "vanities" evil as much as he is saying that they are not THE THING. "Remember now thy Creator..." (Eccl. 12:1a) God is the Lord of the past and future, yes; but in His dealings and relationship with us, He is the Lord of the moment, God of the now. "This is the day the Lord hath made..." THIS DAY: not yesterday, or tomorrow, but today. "His mercies are new every morning..." We are to live in those mercies, not the mercies that have past or the mercies we hope to come. God deals with us on a day to day basis, and He can't very well get through our thick skulls while we're busy being distracted with what could be or was. Young or old, God is to be Reality, not the gone past or the uncertain future. When you are young, remember your Creator NOW (if you suddenly remember Him when you are old, there is not much God can do in your life except take you home). Remember Him in THIS MOMENT, and do that which draws you closer to Him, so when you are old and your spirit returns to God, you will find not a stranger but the One who has walked with you day by day all your life.
Days of Darkness
"Truly the light is sweet, and a pleasant thing it is for the eyes to behold the sun: but if a man live many years, and rejoice in them all; yet let him remember the days of darkness; for they shall be many. All that cometh is vanity." Ecclesiastes 11:7,8
It is Plato who is famous for giving us the theory of the sun as Truth that gives us light, and therefore clarity to see reality. Although Solomon lived a long time before Plato was born, it is not at all improbable that he was aware of the same logic.
There will be days when we are walking in the sunlight, everything is clear and bright. We have a good idea about where we are going: we see the road before our feet, we can see immediate obstacles, and the world is alive and colorful, beautiful and harmless.
Then come the days of darkness, when the sun is hid, and we feel lost in a land of shadows, constantly being fooled. All obstacles seem large and sinister, our surroundings look ready to eat us alive, everyone we meet is a stranger and a shadowy figure, and the road has disappeared before our eyes.
"Let him remember the days of darkness." We all look at the dark times and say, "I'd like to forget that." We must not! If we are God's children, and therefore all things work together for our good (Rom. 8:28, remember?), then that means that the days of darkness are just as valuable as the days of the sun. God never sends us through things willy-nilly, though we may go through them helter-skelter. As Oswald Chambers said, "We never realize at the time what God is putting us through; we go through it more or less misunderstandingly..." Then we step back into the sun and see more clearly the road we went through in the dark; and what God teaches us in that moment of clarity, we must not forget, and be thankful that there are many days of darkness, for with them will come many days of clarity.
It is Plato who is famous for giving us the theory of the sun as Truth that gives us light, and therefore clarity to see reality. Although Solomon lived a long time before Plato was born, it is not at all improbable that he was aware of the same logic.
There will be days when we are walking in the sunlight, everything is clear and bright. We have a good idea about where we are going: we see the road before our feet, we can see immediate obstacles, and the world is alive and colorful, beautiful and harmless.
Then come the days of darkness, when the sun is hid, and we feel lost in a land of shadows, constantly being fooled. All obstacles seem large and sinister, our surroundings look ready to eat us alive, everyone we meet is a stranger and a shadowy figure, and the road has disappeared before our eyes.
"Let him remember the days of darkness." We all look at the dark times and say, "I'd like to forget that." We must not! If we are God's children, and therefore all things work together for our good (Rom. 8:28, remember?), then that means that the days of darkness are just as valuable as the days of the sun. God never sends us through things willy-nilly, though we may go through them helter-skelter. As Oswald Chambers said, "We never realize at the time what God is putting us through; we go through it more or less misunderstandingly..." Then we step back into the sun and see more clearly the road we went through in the dark; and what God teaches us in that moment of clarity, we must not forget, and be thankful that there are many days of darkness, for with them will come many days of clarity.
Have you hugged your unknown today?
"A fool also is full of words: a man cannot tell what shall be; and what shall be after him, who can tell him?" Ecclesiastes 10:14
It is not the one who knows it all who is wise; he is just a know-it-all. A wise man is one who knows that he does not know. Wisdom is not the mere gathering and assimilation of facts; wisdom is a firm grasping of reality, an understanding of how things are, the apprehension of Truth.
Mere facts will not help you in the end anyway. Life is far to random (or at least beyond our sense of order) for knowledge of set facts to assist you. After all, knowledge is constantly changing and being updated. Even scientist (who make a living gathering the facts) will tell you that no test goes exactly as planned: every experiment must make room for the unexpected.
This is wisdom: you cannot tell what is to come, and beware of those who say they do. Not mere fortune tellers, but those who, through their extensive (or otherwise) accumulation of facts, truly believe that they have mastered life, that the deck is not stacked against them, and that all the cards are in their favor. This never turns out to be the case; life always has an ace up its sleeve.
It is the wise man who knows that he cannot know, it is wisdom to understand the reality of the unknown, the limitations of man's vision (apart from God), and that all the knowledge of man cannot usurp the sovereignty of God, Who turns the world on a dime according to His good will. It is the way of the Christian to acknowledge the unknown and walk therein; it is the just who live by faith. Beware of becoming "full of words."
It is not the one who knows it all who is wise; he is just a know-it-all. A wise man is one who knows that he does not know. Wisdom is not the mere gathering and assimilation of facts; wisdom is a firm grasping of reality, an understanding of how things are, the apprehension of Truth.
Mere facts will not help you in the end anyway. Life is far to random (or at least beyond our sense of order) for knowledge of set facts to assist you. After all, knowledge is constantly changing and being updated. Even scientist (who make a living gathering the facts) will tell you that no test goes exactly as planned: every experiment must make room for the unexpected.
This is wisdom: you cannot tell what is to come, and beware of those who say they do. Not mere fortune tellers, but those who, through their extensive (or otherwise) accumulation of facts, truly believe that they have mastered life, that the deck is not stacked against them, and that all the cards are in their favor. This never turns out to be the case; life always has an ace up its sleeve.
It is the wise man who knows that he cannot know, it is wisdom to understand the reality of the unknown, the limitations of man's vision (apart from God), and that all the knowledge of man cannot usurp the sovereignty of God, Who turns the world on a dime according to His good will. It is the way of the Christian to acknowledge the unknown and walk therein; it is the just who live by faith. Beware of becoming "full of words."
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