In Light of Grace

The history of the nation of Israel is a record of God’s constant grace toward His people. After He graciously delivered them from slavery in Egypt, they grumbled and rebelled numerous times. While it is true that He exercised His righteous wrath and punished them for their disobedience at times, He brought a remnant to the Promised Land nonetheless. After God empowered Joshua to conquer the land, the people repeatedly fell into disobedience. They were chastised by attacks from their enemies, but God raised up judges to deliver them every time. During the time of the kings, God delivered judgment when they strayed from Him, even removing Israel and sending Judah into captivity for seventy years, but He promised that David’s descendants would remain of the throne of Judah. That is grace.

In his Gospel, John records the coming of the Son of David: “And the Word became flesh and took up residence among us, and we saw his glory, glory as of the one and only from the Father, full of grace and truth…. For from his fullness we have all received, and grace after grace.” John also said, “In him was life, and the life was the light of humanity. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.” From the beginning of time when God said, “Light be!” the opposing concepts of light and darkness have been woven into the fabric of Scripture. The light, which God called “day” is the symbol of created order, a symbol of grace; the opposite is darkness or night which represents chaos and ignorance.

When John paired grace and light in his introduction of the Messiah, he laid out a pattern that appears throughout the New Testament. In his first epistle, John said that to have fellowship with God, we must walk in the light. If we walk in the light, John says, “We have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.” In the light, we experience the gracious forgiveness of our sin. Grace and truth – light and fellowship. Paul says God has “Rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have the redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” He also warned that we will be entering a battle “against the world rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.”

Jesus came to bring the light, but the John’s sad declaration is that some did not receive it because they loved the darkness. You don’t have to be an evil person to be caught loving the darkness. Just let the rulers of this darkness place something closer to your heart than God Himself. I have recently discovered that my dance with the darkness involves wanting God to bless my dreams instead of waiting for Him to bless me with His dream. If I pray, “Thy will be done” I must not mean “Let Thy will affirm that my will be done.” If I fall into asking God to give me what I want instead of what He knows I need, I have succumbed to the influence of the kingdom of darkness. Why is misunderstanding God’s grace an evil, dark thing? It makes me satisfied (happy) with less than the best God has for me – namely, a deeper relationship with Him.

A dreadful disease has infected the church in America; it is darkness masquerading as light. It is the lie that says because God is a gracious Father, He wants to give us everything we want. It says God wants us to be happy here on earth. That is not biblical; it is a lie. Search the Scriptures from Genesis three to Revelation nineteen. You will find only a few moments when God deliberately allowed His people to be happy. In the Garden, yes; after Christ’s second coming, yes. But in the in-between where we live, not so much. We are promised joy as a fruit of the Holy Spirit in us, but that is not the same thing as happiness. Happiness is an emotion that comes as a result of good happenings. Joy, on the other hand, is a spiritual condition granted to us in spite of circumstances. We are admonished to crucify our fleshly desires (for happiness) and receive joy. (For more on happiness versus joy, see Related Posts.)

Psalm 37:4 is one of the verses popularly quoted to say that God will grant all our desires. The KJV says, “Delight thyself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart.” That is a fair translation of the Hebrew, but it can be interpreted more than one way. It is interesting to see how the Jewish translators of the Septuagint (LXX) phrased it in Greek. It betrays a different understanding than is popular today. The word they used for “delight” (κατατρύφησον) means to run down or chase after. The word the LXX uses for “give” (δώσει) can be translated cause, command, produce, or put. The Greek for “desires” (αἰτήματα) is described this way: “this noun highlights the content that is laid before a superior…. [It] sheds distinctive light on the dynamic between petitioner and authority.”

It would be perfectly legitimate to translate the LXX version of Psalm 37:4 as “If you chase after God, He will produce longings in your heart that are in line with your relationship to Him.” That is a long way from saying He will give you whatever you want. To expect God to grant all our desires without context is the epitome of self-serving arrogance. He is all about giving us what we need, and what we need more than anything else is to know Him better and to become more like Jesus.

God is too gracious to give us whatever we want. If He did that, we would end up as spoiled brats. Rather, He lovingly causes us to desire what is best for us in His opinion. He graciously prompts us to become more like His Son. His methods are not always pleasant. Read Hebrews: “For the Lord disciplines the one whom he loves and punishes every son whom he accepts.” The writer explains why this is grace: “Now all discipline seems for the moment not to be joyful but painful, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness for those who are trained by it.” Not all happy times! But in light of the rest of Scripture, in light of true grace, that makes perfect sense.

Related Posts: Happiness and Joy Part One; Part Two; More about bad things that are good: Working All Things for Good; also see The Goodness of God in the Bad Times

Solomon’s Temple; David’s Promises

We always call the temple that existed throughout the kingdom years of Israel Solomon’s Temple. I came across an interesting tidbit in 1 Chronicles 28: it says that David was given the plans for the temple directly by Yahweh Himself, and they were passed on to Solomon by David. Curious! God allowed David to see the grand design of the temple, but He died before it was completed as far as we know. That was not David’s first disappointment. Remember that Samuel anointed him as king when Saul was still reigning. David endured sixteen years of running and hiding before he finally ascended to the throne.

Solomon’s prayer at the dedication of the temple shows that he had a clear understanding of Israel’s relationship with Yahweh God, something he doubtless learned from his father. Solomon believed that Yahweh would continue to give provision and protection for His people. It was also clear from his prayer that Solomon understood the conditions under which those promises were made. He knew that Israel had to remain faithful to Yahweh and His commands or the promises would be nullified. He also realized that the nation would undoubtedly fail to fully follow God because his prayer is full of “when” clauses: when your people fail, he said, hear their repentant prayers from this temple. Not if, when.

Obviously, the omniscient God to whom Solomon prayed also knew the people would be disobedient. Regardless of this, He answered Solomon’s prayer by consuming his offering with fire from heaven and filling the temple with His shekinah glory such that even the priests drew back. This is nothing but a demonstration of God’s abundant grace in spite of His people’s repeated rebellion. Christians sometimes mistakenly think that the Old Testament God was a God of law, but the New Testament God is a God of grace. That is not true. Grace was first displayed when Yahweh did not instantly take Adam’s life when he rebelled in the Garden. It is only by God’s grace that the people of Israel ever came into being.

Because all people are prone to failure, God’s plan of redemption had to be founded on grace. The redeeming Seed promised in Genesis three could not have come to earth apart from God’s gracious provision. In the end, God did not just overlook the murderous disobedience of the Jewish leadership in Jesus’ time; He used it to accomplish His gracious purpose. This was Peter’s message on the Day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit made everything clear to him. According to Peter, Joel’s prophecy of the last days came to pass through the “determined plan and foreknowledge of God” who used “lawless men” to execute their Messiah.

The blessing under which Solomon ruled is called the Davidic covenant. Yahweh promised David that one of his descendants would sit on the throne of Israel “forever.” When they became disobedient not only to God but to their Babylonian overseers, the judgment promised through the prophets came to pass and the last Davidic king was taken captive. When Israel returned to the land after seventy years in captivity, Zerubbabel, a descendant of David, was the political leader, but he was never called a king. He was an appointee of the Persian government that released him.

The kings we read about in the New Testament are also appointees, the Romans having taken Judea into their empire. There were a few Jewish kings during the Maccabean period, who took the throne in rebellion against Roman rule, but they were not descendants of David. By the time of the Messiah’s coming, the Herodian dynasty had been granted the right to call themselves kings, but they were puppets of Rome. They were not even fully Jewish, let alone David’s heirs. This may help us understand how significant it was to have the people hail Jesus as “Son of David” when he entered Jerusalem for the final showdown. They were anxious for a rightful heir to take back the throne.

I think it is interesting that the Roman governor, Pilate, called Jesus King of the Jews on the sign he placed upon the cross. He unknowingly announced what the prophets had foretold centuries earlier: David’s true Descendant would be king. We often say that Jesus is at once prophet, priest, and king, and so He is. He came as the Living Word; He ministers in a heavenly temple which no doubt is the pattern that was shown to David; and He reigns forever as King of kings. Although Jesus told Pilate that His kingdom was not of this world, the day is coming when the kingdom of this world will become the kingdom of Our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign for ever and ever.

The old covenant promised a land flowing with milk and honey – flocks, herds, abundant harvests. That covenant also required continual bloody sacrifices to atone for the inevitable sins of the people. The new covenant is built upon better promises according to the Hebrew writer. The atonement for our sins was accomplished once for all when Jesus took His own blood into the true temple in Heaven and offered it to the Father on our behalf. Jesus’ resurrection from the grave is the testimony that the offering was accepted. The torn temple veil testifies to the ending of God’s presence in the temple. That was no real loss, though. The Herodian dynasty had built a magnificent temple, but Jesus called what it truly was: a den of thieves.

The threefold nature of Jesus ministry – prophet, priest, and king – is mirrored spiritually by His body, the Church. His words, which are spirit and life to us, are prophetically passed on to us so we may share His message as ambassadors of the kingdom of Heaven. We become a kingdom of priests under His high-priestly role sharing the good news of redemption through Jesus. We enter the kingdom through His blood and rule at His side as vice-regents of that kingdom. We even share in David’s lineage because we become brothers and sisters of the true Son of David. None of this requires that we wait for the Jews to build another temple for Jesus to come. He has come, and we are His temple. We may still have disappointments as David did, but we need to learn what it means to be living in the light of David’s promises. We rule!

Related Posts: I highly recommend Where is King Jesus? And also Merry Priestly Christmas; For more on the kingdom see Thy Kingdom Come; on trials see Confidence or Craziness

Forget Not His Benefits

Forgive me Father for I have sinned. It has been too long since I last confessed my sin. This is inexcusable because I use the ACTS prayer prompter daily in which the “C” is for confession. (See “Pray Like You Mean It”) My “A” prayers are Adoration, Acclamation, and Affirmation, so I do express my love for Jesus because He gave His life for me; I proclaim Him as Lord; I affirm His worthiness to be my all-in-all. Still, I seldom come right out and admit that I fall short of His perfection on a daily basis. I don’t really confess.

That is unforgiveable. I enjoy the unspeakable benefit of having all my sins washed away by Jesus’ blood, but I don’t often confess the ones I am aware of, let alone all the trespasses committed in ignorance. There is one I have been made aware of recently by reading a book by Larry Crabb, Shattered Dreams. Crabb points out how easy it is to imagine we are trusting God with our lives when what we are really doing is trusting God to make our lives pleasant – to make us happy by granting our desires. I have said for years that God is more concerned with our character than our comfort, but when building character makes me uncomfortable, I question God’s intentions. I forget to thank Him for His benefits.

I have yet to achieve Paul’s attitude as expressed in his statement that he had learned to be content in whatever state he was in. Remember that Paul went through some very uncomfortable situations, yet he could say was content with the way God dealt with him. He was stoned but not to death; he was beaten but was able to heal; he was hungry but not to starvation; he was shipwrecked but not drowned. That was the state in which Paul found contentment. I have been discontented because I live in Arizona but wish I was in Michigan.

I have always struggled with contentment. I have a nice car, but I want a different one, or maybe I just need to do a little of this or that to improve the one I have. I have a nice little home with pleasant amenities, but I want to change the door and put up an awning and…. I have a wonderful wife, but if she would just stop bugging me about…. I have a retirement income that keeps me fed and housed, but with a little more…. You get the idea. God has given me physical benefits galore. There is another line from Paul that I don’t follow: “Give thanks in everything.”

Occasionally, I do get a glimpse of a benefit God has been preparing behind my back. I remember Mordechi’s word to Queen Esther when she was about to save the entire Jewish population. “Perhaps you have been brought here for such a time as this.” My wife and I felt strongly that God brought us to our current place in Arizona for a purpose known only to Him at the time. That was five years ago, and we are not sure we know why we are here. This winter I began to substitute at a Christian school. I loved it. They surprised me by asking if I would consider teaching full-time. At first, I declined; then, I relented.

Immediately, I learned that one of their teachers is training to become an educational therapist; she is working with the National Institute for Learning Disabilities (NILD). My wife is a certified therapist through NILD. That alignment is too precise to be a coincidence. For such a time as this? I am not too proud to say that my connection to the school may have been arranged so that Karen could provide her special experience. In any case, I am thanking God this benefit; it’s a two-way blessing: we find out why we are in Arizona, and the school gets the benefit of a highly trained special education veteran.

Before you say, “Pshaw!” I will say I recognize that our discontent was nothing compared to what some Christians are going through. We haven’t been threatened with instant death because of our beliefs as many believers are today. Our physical maladies are paltry compared to what many people are suffering with. We are not on a steak and caviar diet, but we have enough to eat so that overindulgence is the problem. I don’t have a new truck, but God provided a 25-year-old with low mileage that does exactly what we need. I could go on, but my point is one of confession: I don’t thank God daily for all His benefits.

In today’s McArthur devotional, he counsels us to thank God for the good and the bad that happens to us because we must believe it is all from His hand. (See “The Meaning of Sovereignty”) It is as Paul said, “In everything give thanks.” Everything! Job, a true suffering servant, said, “Should we receive the good from God, but not receive the evil?” Whatever you go through, God is using it to advance His plan, to build His kingdom, to make you more like Christ. These are benefits we must not forget.

Related Posts: Can You Praise God?

The Meaning of Sovereignty

To be sovereign means to have ultimate authority over something. The term is typically applied to a monarch who rules over a population in a distinct geographical area. This is easy to understand when applied to our physical world. Most modern examples have evolved into constitutional monarchies with a governing body such as a parliament taking on much of the actual rulership, and the monarch is merely a figurehead. Many modern Christians have adopted that picture of their Monarch, King Jesus. He has become a symbol of rulership with no real authority over their daily lives.

I can think of at least two reasons why modern Christians balk at the idea of a totally sovereign God: Old Testament history and the spirit of independence. To our modern sensibility, the Sovereign of the OT is distasteful. Yahweh slaughtered thousands of His own people as punishment for their disobedience. He ordered the annihilation of entire populations during Israel’s conquest of the Promised Land. It is not enough to say that this was a common practice in ancient times. We know that God ordered it whereas He told His people to abstain from many other things that were common at the time, child sacrifice, for example.

For the last 250 years in America, we have come to think of government authority as granted by the consent of the governed. We become citizens by our own free will. Prior to America’s founding, authority usually rested with a king who declared people to be his subjects. This is precisely what the Founders set out to change. The Declaration of Independence is such an integral part of our consciousness that we allow it to bleed into our understanding of God’s authority. It is true that we “consent” to become His children through our voluntary union with Christ, but we may forget that we are giving our allegiance to a Father/King and not an elected representative. Scripture is clear: we must subject ourselves to King Jesus.

The fact that some people squirm under the sovereign authority of our Creator should not surprise us. Adam and Eve forced us into our rebellious situation when they were cast out of the Garden of Eden. Biblical history reveals that doing “what was right in their own eyes” became the repeated mantra of the children of Adam. We sometimes refer to pride as the original sin, but it has its roots in a desire for independence. That root has rhizomes that creep into every generation of humankind. The only escape from its stranglehold is to die to Adam and be born again in Christ Jesus.

There are people, myself included if I am being honest, who understand the intellectual concept of a Sovereign God, but fail to live fully with its implications. Like all Christian disciplines, it is not enough to understand sovereignty; you must apply it rigorously. Submission to God’s authority is the most obvious application of His absolute sovereignty. Repenting of our innate tendency toward independence and submitting to God’s ultimate authority is essential to genuine Christian faith. Sincere believers will always align themselves with the will of God as found in the Scripture.

I think one of the most common failures of Christians is believing that God is sovereign but not trusting His work on our behalf. I know that is my biggest problem. I have a sincere intellectual commitment to the sovereignty of God, but I am emotionally detached from that truth. I believe that is the source of my occasional worry. It also reveals a streak of independence trying to surface. If things aren’t going according to my plan, I prove that I don’t trust God completely by worrying. If I was fully committed to His total sovereignty, I would trust that His plan will be better for me than my plan. No worries.

In his book, Shattered Dreams, Larry Crabb makes the case that our innate drive for independence often leads us to sinful positions in the most insidious ways. He suggests that even when we think we are succumbing to God’s will, we imagine that His response will be to bring our plans to fruition. Crabb says this displeases God greatly, and He often adds to the discipline He has begun because of our stubbornness. We must be fully broken of our tendency toward independence; God wants us to be exclusively dependent on Him. Until we hit bottom, as it were, we will never fully trust God’s sovereignty.

I know some people struggle like I do because of a misinterpretation of Romans 8:28. There was even a popular song a while ago that encouraged the misunderstanding by saying “God works all things together for my good.” While the ultimate outcome of “all things” will be for our good, we may have to go through some serious “not good” things to get there. There was much good that came from Paul’s God-ordained ministry to the Gentiles. To arrive at the good outcome, he had to endure stoning, beating, near drowning, imprisonment, and more. His understanding of what he told the Romans was that he was privileged to suffer for Christ’s sake. There is not a hint of worry in Paul’s writings that he doubted God’s good plan for his life.

Study the lives of Noah, Job, Moses, Joseph, David, and more. I could mention that our Lord Himself had to endure terrible not-good in His totally human self in order to accomplish the best good imaginable. Yet, like Job, He said, “Nevertheless, not my will but thine be done.” Jesus’ prayer in the garden of Gethsemane proves His humanness. He showed His willingness to fulfill the plan He and His Father had initiated before the world was made, even though it meant suffering the most brutal torture and death man has ever devised. Worse that that, He had to be separated from His Father during the hours he bore the sin of all mankind. That is truly a fate worse than death if you understand what it really entailed.

James implied that if you truly believe, your behavior will show it. I the case of our belief in God’s sovereignty, our unbelief might be hiding behind our protestations of belief. As Crabb says, it is not easy to trust God when a friend dies of cancer, a wife departs a marriage, a job is taken from you, people treat you in horrible ways, or any one of dozens of not-good things that must be a part of God’s plan. They must be; that is what it means to say He is Sovereign.

Related Posts: Necessary Obedience; What Happened in the Fall