Love Your Enemies & Repent of Your Heart (Luke 6)

“But I say to you who hear, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. To one who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also, and from one who takes away your cloak do not withhold your tunic either. Give to everyone who begs from you, and from one who takes away your goods do not demand them back.

“If you love those who love you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. And if you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to get back the same amount. But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil. Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.” (Luke 6:27-36)

Some of the most famous words in history! How many lives have been transformed by these passages? How many were drawn to Christ because of them?

The theme of this sermon is the difference between a godly life and a sinful one. Notice He talks little of obvious godly rules, like, Tithe and Don’t steal, but instead He focuses on the heart and actions that directly come out of it like hate, envy, and bitterness.

“Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you” (6:27-28) – this is a hard command to simply follow if your heart’s in the wrong place. Thankfully, we can find our example in God Himself, who is constantly and daily blessing those who hate Him: “For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust” (Matt. 5:45, similar context)

If we distill the passage from Luke, here are the marks of a godly, Holy Spirit filled life:

1. You will love your enemies, returning good for evil
2. You will be humble: “To one who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also, and from one who takes away your cloak do not withhold your tunic either” (6:29)
3. You will be generous, even to a fault (6:30)
4. You will do good (6:35)
5. You will not judge others or condemn
6. “You will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil” (6:35)
7. You will have hope despite present circumstances and even in persecution (from slightly earlier, in 6:20-23)
8. You will be like Jesus

Contrast this with Paul’s list of “works of the flesh” in Galatians 5: “sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these” (19-21). Many of these arise from a sinful heart devoid of any real love.

These "heart" sins are sometimes easier to ignore because they're not as measurable by the people around us. If we had a different sin problem, like watching pornography, we have the possibility of being caught and led to repentance. But sins like jealousy, anger, and enmity can be hidden so well that even we don't realize how much we suffer from them.

Jesus taught that it is what comes out of the heart that defiles a person (Matthew 15:10-20). Proverbs says, "Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flows the springs of life" (Prov. 4:23). If we claim to be Christians and love God we should be passionately committed to reviewing our heart and repenting any sins like these we find. We should be passionately committed to a different way of life, a godly way of life, full of "love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control" (Gal. 5:22-23), the "fruit of the Spirit".

I wish my life looked more like Jesus’ sermon. Thankfully, I have the hope and peace in Christ that the more I submit to Him the more it will.

False Prophets (Ezekiel 13)

There is a lot wrong with Israel in Ezekiel’s time, enough for God to allow Israel to be invaded and conquered by the Assyrians. In the preceding chapters of Ezekiel God says:

“An end has come; the end has come; it has awakened against you…Now I will soon pour out my wrath upon you, and spend my anger against you, and judge you according to your ways, and I will punish you for all your abominations” (Eze. 7:6, 8)

“The guilt of the house of Israel and Judah is exceedingly great. The land is full of blood, and the city full of injustice” (Eze. 9:9).

“…I have been broken over their whoring heart that has departed from me and over their eyes that go whoring after their idols” (Eze. 6:9)

The first time God appears to Ezekiel he says this:

“Son of man, I send you to the people of Israel, to nations of rebels, who have rebelled against me. They and their fathers have transgressed against me to this very day. The descendents also are impudent and stubborn…” (Eze. 2:3-4)

From these few quotes we see that Israel is full of injustice, abominations, idols, rebellion, impudence, and stubbornness. These are not positive qualities.

In chapter thirteen God condemns false prophets, mocking those who say, “ ‘Declares the LORD,’ when the LORD has not sent them, and yet they expect him to fulfill their word” (Eze. 13:6). These self-proclaimed prophets “follow their own spirit, and have seen nothing!” (13:3). They “have been like jackals among ruins, O Israel” (Eze. 13:4), when they should have been like sentinels, waiting for the word of the Lord.

When it comes to false prophets, Israel’s real problem is that they listen to them. That's always the problem with any lie: somebody believes it. God says, “You have profaned me among my people…by your lying to my people, who listen to lies” (Eze. 13:19). Only a fool believes a lie, and false prophecies turn us into fools.

Here are some things that I learned about false prophets from reading this chapter:

1) False prophecy hurts faith. It appears that such stunted logic (men creating prophecy and then being surprised when it is not fulfilled) is what leads to a popular proverb at this time, mentioned in the previous chapter: “The days grow long, and every vision comes to nothing” (Eze. 12:22). What an arrogant saying! What a faithless saying! But it is something we often fall into, we often think, “Where is God?” “Where are His promises?”

2) False prophecy misleads God’s people. One of God’s biggest accusations in this chapter is that “they have misled my people, saying, ‘Peace,’ when there is no peace, and because, when the people build a wall, these prophets smear it with whitewash…There will be a deluge of rain, and you, O great hailstones, will fall, and a stormy wind break out. And when the wall falls, will it not be said to you, ‘Where is the coating with which you smeared it?’” (Eze. 13:10, 11-12).

At the end of the chapter God talks specifically about how it misleads people: “Because you have disheartened the righteous falsely, although I have not grieved him, and you have encouraged the wicked, that he should not turn from his evil way to save his life” (Eze. 13:22). False prophecy can make a righteous man feel guilty and a sinner feel righteous.

3) False prophets are popular. And they get there by sugar-coating (or white-washing) things. False prophets don’t get popular because they are declaring the word of the Lord – in fact, looking at all the prophets it would seem that successfully delivering the word of the Lord didn’t make you a popular guy. False prophets are popular because they are saying what people want to hear. As Paul says in the New Testament, “For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths” (2 Tim. 4:3-4). This was written at a different time in history, but the concept rings true then, in Ezekiel, and now. The reason some churches are so big today is because the preaching is only about wealth and prosperity and how God wants to bless you – and, admittedly, it is an enticing message. It’s much easier to listen to that “invitation” than Christ’s sobering words: “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me” (Luke 9:23).

4) False prophets are disobedient to God. Maybe this one’s obvious, but in making their prophecies they are dishonoring the living God by putting words in His mouth. Let me (fittingly), let God speak on this one: “Because you have uttered falsehood and seen lying visions, therefore behold, I am against you, declares the Lord GOD. My hand will be against the prophets who see false visions and who give lying divinations” (Eze. 13:8-9).

This one especially terrifies me. It’s never good to put words into someone else’s mouth, it will inevitably come back to reach you, and when it does, it will be painful. It’s a person’s honor that you are attacking when you put words into their mouth. Now, no matter how angry or vengeful your friend or whoever might be, imagine doing this to God. As the writer of Hebrews says, “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (Heb. 10:31).

5) False prophets are snares, dragging people to hell with them. Apparently there was a specific kind of woman prophet that God is addressing in the second half of this chapter, to whom he says: “Woe to the women who sew magic bans upon all wrists, and make veils for the heads of persons of every stature, in the hunt for souls! Will you hunt down souls belonging to my people and keep your own souls alive?” (Eze. 13:18). I don’t know specifically what these women were doing, but apparently it was manipulative and misleading. God also says that these women “have profaned me among my people for handfuls of barley and for pieces of bread, putting to death souls who should not die and keep alive souls who should not live” (Eze. 13:19).

Thankfully, God is ever-watching and guarding of His people – even then, in a time of punishment. And of course, even now. There are other spots in the Bible where God condemns false prophets, but in this chapter He declares:

“Because you have uttered falsehood and seen lying visions, therefore behold, I am against you, declares the Lord GOD. My hand will be against the prophets who see false visions and who give lying divinations. They shall not be in the council of my people, nor be enrolled in the register of the house of Israel, nor shall they enter the land of Israel. And you shall know that I am the Lord GOD.” (Eze. 13:8-9)

And at the end of this chapter God says something that, if I’m reading it correctly, is kind of funny to me (God always gets the last laugh):

“…therefore you shall no more see false visions nor practice divination. I will deliver my people out of your hand. And you shall know that I am the LORD.” (Eze. 13:23)

I’m not sure if these false prophets were seeing visions – and if they were, it would have been from demons and not God – but if they were the type that like to act super-spiritual, the type that likes to act like they have a deep connection to the supernatural – in other words, they faked things a little for their reputation – then this is especially funny. God is going to put an end even to their fake visions. And that’s funny, because God ultimately has power over the lies we are told, and He promises to deliver His children out of such things.

I’ll close these thoughts with two things Jesus said that are especially refreshing after this semi-depressing and frustrating topic. It is in Him that we can find an ever-faithful prophet, an ever-faithful witness, who won’t lie or make up things and tack on a “Declares the Lord”. He is Truth incarnate:

“I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.” (John 14:6-7)

“If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:32)

Jesus is Powerful (Mark 5)

Read it here.

I've had a lot of trouble connecting with God lately, especially when reading the Bible. I haven't picked it up very often and when I have it's been hard to get something out of what I'm reading. So I recently started Mark, a book that - in the past - I haven't been that interested in. That's sound logic, right? I'm having a hard time getting interested in what I'm reading so I go to a book that I don't find interesting...

Thankfully, God has been showing me that Mark is anything but boring. When I sat down to read chapter 5, I decided that once I was done I was going to write down one quality of Jesus the chapter revealed. That way I could chew on something and put a little thought into what I just read.

I didn't think the answer would be as clear as it was, but this chapter clearly demonstrates that Jesus is powerful.

The chapter starts with Jesus and a crazy guy. This guy is like Frankenstein's monster, the whole village is afraid of him - they try to chain him up but he just breaks free. This man is crazy, demon-possessed and all day and all night he lives "among the tombs" and where he cuts "himself with stones" (5:5).

As soon as the man sees Jesus he runs up and falls down before Him. "What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I adjure you by God, do not torment me." (5:7). The guy everybody is afraid of is afraid of Jesus.

Jesus talks to the demon, and it turns out there is more than one: "My name is Legion, for we are many" (5:9). Then, in one of the bizarrest images in the New Testament, Jesus sends the demons into a herd of pigs, which all run "down the steep bank into the sea" (5:13).

Next we see Jesus on the other side of the lake, and he is going to a man's house to heal his sick daughter. A great crowd is with him, and one woman believes that if she can touch Jesus' garment, she will be healed. She touches it, and "immediately the flow of blood dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease" (5:29).

Then it turns out the man's daughter is not sick, but dead. Jesus continues to the house, where He says, "Why are you making a commotion and weeping? The child is not dead but sleeping" (5:39). People laugh at Him (5:40). What a bizarre reaction: not just because it's Jesus and they know His rep for healing people but because their child is dead. What kind of mourning are they in that they have time to laugh at Jesus? Anyways, Jesus forgives them and goes in and with two words He raises the child from the dead. The girl gets up "immediately".

In every story people are afraid (5:15), in fear (5:33), and overcome with amazement (5: 42).

Stories like this are important, because sometimes we over-familiarize Jesus and think of Him as just "one of the guys" and everybody's buddy. Jesus does love us, and because of His death and resurrection we can know Him intimately, but that doesn't mean we should forget who He is:

"For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities - all things were created through him and for him" (Colossians 1:16)

Community (Acts 2:42-47)

Read it here.

Jesus’ death brings life. Because of His death, which gives us second birth, there are communities, friendships, and relationships started that never would’ve existed otherwise.

What is described in this little paragraph of scripture are the fruits of the gospel: fear, awe, prayer, equality, sharing, charity, thankfulness, love, praise, and even favor with non-believers. The new Christians are delighting in their new life, they have been born again as Jesus promised (John 3:3) and non-believers notice. They don’t see people acting very pious and religious, they see people burning with love and compassion, sharing all that they own, going to the Temple to worship joyfully, not out of tradition, duty, or cultural obligation. Who wouldn’t want to worship the God these people worship? Who wouldn’t want a taste of their joy? If this God they worship is anything like them, He must be good.

This text doesn’t describe everyone going home to pick fights or picket or complain or tell people they’re wrong. The opposite happens, because these people have been changed at the center of their being to see their sin, in all its dirtiness, and Jesus, in all His worthiness. Their changed lives speak and profess the gospel in a way that matches whatever spoken words they could offer to non-believers.

In a country and time when Christians are on every street corner telling everyone they’re going to hell, we should take note of this text. We need to be loving, giving, and radiant with joy. If people hate us, they should hate us because of Jesus, not because of ourselves. In other words, they should hate us for loving them and forgiving them (because of Christ) not because we are shoving tracts down their throat.

This text is also a message about the importance of community. I'm in college right now, and I have several Christian friends who don't want to get involved in a church because they have one back home. I can't see how this is a benefit to anyone - they are missing out on the richness of a church community and the church community is missing out on the richness of knowing them.

God made us to live together (Genesis 2:18) and share life together. We're not supposed to be "Lone Ranger" Christians, we're supposed to be Christians together. I know because I've had to learn this for myself. My greatest times of growth and joy are when I'm spending time with other Christians, and I know it will be so my whole life.

If you look at Paul, who seems like the most independent guy in the New Testament - traveling from place to place, leaving behind his home - you find he wasn't alone! He was always with people and talking about people, his ministry was a community effort. Imagine if he hadn't seen the need for community, for spiritual support - how far would he have been able to carry the gospel before collapsing in exhaustion? Would we know the gospel today?

God has richly blessed us with community, and friendships, and other people.

"Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up!" (Ecclesiastes 4:9-10)

Peter's Speech: Jesus (Acts 2:14-41)

Read it here.

This is the first time the completed gospel (except for Christ’s return) is preached. Peter draws from Scripture to explain Jesus as Christ. The effect of the gospel was the same then as it is now: “they were cut to the heart” (verse 37).

The men listening to Peter’s speech had heard of Jesus, His deeds were pretty well known. He was a rock star of the Mediterranean world. Possibly many of the people at this event had looked forward to Pentecost and the possibility of hearing Jesus preach, but then they found out that He had been crucified. (The way Peter describes Jesus’ murder is interesting, saying He was “killed by lawless men” (verse 23). These “lawless men” were the Pharisees, who were supposed to be the teachers of the Law).

Peter puts the guilt on everyone listening:

Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified. (Acts 2:36)

Jesus’ blood is on the hands of all sinners, and if you study His life, if you see how He lived and loved and never refused to help somebody, it leads to guilt. Can you honestly say you’ve lived and acted like Jesus? That you’ve lived as selflessly and as righteously? No, we have all “fallen short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). But Jesus died for those sins and shortcomings.

What a dramatic, overwhelming action to react to. When we make a mistake and find out it causes someone pain we feel horrible. I can remember times where I was late to pick up my brother or sister from something and they were left waiting and waiting – in fact, there was one time where I was supposed to be home and my sister ended up waiting outside of a locked house for an hour.

Because of our sinfulness and our wickedness, Jesus died! Painfully! His death was terrible and agonizing, and on top of that, shameful. Crucifixion was not only painful but demoralizing, especially to the Jews. In fact, it was looked down upon so much that Roman citizens were not allowed to be crucified – they were “above” such things. So the King of Kings – whose “nationality” is greater than that of the Roman Empire – was hung on a tree on the side of a busy road like a common criminal.

The very nature of Christ’s death demands a response. Do you feel bad, but walk away? Do you spit on Him and say, “Serves him right”? The crowd needs to respond, and they do, asking: “Brothers, what shall we do?” (verse 37). If you like Jesus at all His death leaves you asking such a question. If you love Him you feel horrible, and you can’t walk away. Guilt weighs down on you as you realize a perfect man stuck Himself between heaven and earth (literally and figuratively, and, on top of that, literally in the figurative sense too – think about that one…) suspended by wood between God and man.

God, perfect and good, demands good. He demands justice, and as He looks down at us, as He looks beyond what any human eye can see and into our hearts we are judged rightly. “For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). Psalms 119:126 says:

It is time for the LORD to act, for your law has been broken.

And again:

Your righteousness is righteous forever, and your law is true. (Psalm 119:142)

Jesus was righteous and able to see our full brokenness and sin. And instead of walking away from our eventual death and destruction, He embraced it for us, interceding between God and man, taking the sins of all on Himself, a just man being condemned by a just God for an unjust, unholy, undeserving, and thoroughly wicked people (you and me and everyone we know).

But he was wounded for our transgressions;

he was crushed for our iniquites;

upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,

and with his stripes we are healed. (Isaiah 53:5)

Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush

him;

he has put him to grief;

when his soul makes an offering for guilt,

he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days;

the will of the LORD shall prosper in his hand. (Isaiah 53:10)

Jesus stuck himself in front of God’s wrath, embracing our death – and in order to truly live our response must be to embrace His.

Peter calls us to throw off sin and that which is an affront to God.

“Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ…”

Embrace His death! Do not walk away.

“…for the forgiveness of your sins…”

He has removed them “as far as the east is from the west” (Psalm 103:12).

“…and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our god calls to himself.” (Acts 2:38-39)

This is the gospel: that Christ died, rose again, and promises eternal life and eternal fellowship with Himself, with God. It is called the “gospel” because it is good news, in fact, the best news we ever can (or ever will) hear.

And Now...The Holy Spirit (Acts 2:1-13)

Read it here.

Jesus told the Apostles to wait, and they obeyed His commands.

How awesome that the Apostles, by faith, waited on the Lord. Jesus could have made them wait for a long time, like He did with Abraham and Sarah, or He could’ve been a short time. The point is sometimes we're made to wait, and whether it’s a long or short wait for us, God is never late – His timing is always perfect.

Pentecost! What a perfect day for the baptism of the Holy Spirit, the third member of the trinity. Jews from everywhere (Acts 2:5-11) had come to Jerusalem for the holiday/festival/thing. They all spoke different languages and had different cultures – this is something we’re used to.

It’s hard to imagine the whole world speaking the same language, but at one point that was true. In the book of Genesis (chapter 11) Moses records a time when everyone on earth spoke the same language. Only man used this unity to defy God and build monuments to themselves. God saw this and decided to stop us in our foolishness by creating many different languages so nobody could understand each other. The great monument they were working on (the Tower of Babel) never got finished.

I bring this up because this event – the day of Pentecost – is a mirror event to the one in Genesis. At the Tower of Babel men attempted to glorify themselves so God confused their languages, but at Pentecost God brought together people in understanding so that Jesus might be glorified.

The Holy Spirit’s entrance is certainly glorious. Unlike and yet like the birth of Jesus the Spirit comes to humble people, not the proud. He does not come to Caesar, or Pilate, or Herod, or any other person in authority, He comes to the Apostles. Nowadays we have pictures of the Apostles every where, they have their own statues and stained glass windows, but remember – these guys were nobodies. They were fishermen, tax collectors, etc. They were blue-collar workers, they didn’t have a Ph.D. in Biblical Hermeneutics or New Testament Greek, they were lower class, poor, nobodies.

In the same way, Jesus came to earth among shepherds and the humble – Mary and Joseph. Jesus’ birth is humble, yet it is also glorious and a cause for celebration (Luke 2:13-14). The Spirit enters with a similar bang:

And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each of them. (Acts 2:2-3)

This is supernatural, it is amazing, it is beautiful. God is glorious and powerful and capable of anything. Here He enters the Apostles with glory, majesty, and beauty – what a beautiful sight this must’ve been. It is almost hard for Luke to describe because we don’t have anything similar to it in the natural world. This kind of thing doesn’t just happen

And so we meet the wonderful, glorious, all-satisfying third member of the Trinity, God the Holy Spirit. He comes down to reveal wisdom, to help, and He does it in a majestic and powerful way. Praise be to Him, the Counselor, the Helper! He is still moving and active today, calling us, beckoning us closer to Christ, inviting us to drink of His Word, filling us with the joy of God, and giving us the strength and ability to face the world in faith. Without the Spirit we would be empty – for it is He who calls us to Christ in the first place.

I think this is the member of the Trinity surrounded by the most confusion. Either we don’t really understand who He is or we have been given a distorted and crazy view of Him. But He is God. He is not less than God, a part of God, or anything else – the Holy Spirit is God. If you continue reading Acts, pay attention to His works. Ask Him to teach you more about Himself.

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

Our God is Sovereign (Deuteronomy 2)

There is a very dangerous idea creeping into the Christian church today known as “open theism”, basically the idea that history is partly open-ended. Or, to put it a different way, that God is making things up as He goes. Perhaps this allows that He foreknew events that were and are to happen, but at any rate He did not plan them. The God who created atoms and chemical combinations and osmosis and stars and the planets and light can not control history, but He’s doing His best to shape it how He wants it.

This is a blatant lie and it completely obliterates God’s sovereignty. Does it really sound like the God who created time doesn’t control the events that happen within it? And on top of that He's not a machine who can simply predict all possible outcomes. God is not a computer that can simply calculate all the different possible events of history from which He chooses the best one, no, God is God and in complete control.

I think this theology is coming about as an easy response to the question of “Why does God allow bad things to happen?” At first this response is comforting: “Okay, God didn’t plan for that to happen, it’s not His fault, He’s trying to deal with it like me.” This comfort grows thing when we realize that in order to accept this we lose the person of God! How can you have a perfect Being with perfect power who can’t control the future? And if God can’t stop bad things from happening, who can?

When suffering and pain happens to us it is much more comforting to know that God is sovereign, God is in control, and He will see me through this. It may be harder to swallow at first (“Why would God allow this to happen to me?”) but in the end we have more hope and a firm foundation if we acknowledge our God is in complete control.

But somehow for us, just like Israel in Deuteronomy 2, its hard to know what God’s up to and its hard to know why He would allow us to face such trials. Here in Deuteronomy 2 the nation of Israel has been turned away from the Promised Land and forced to wander around for many years in the wilderness. This is a trial, and a hard one.

But once again, this is a trial that God is in complete control of – not as a bully who’s simply trying to see who can last or survive, or who can “pass the test”, but as a loving God who wants people with obedient and loving hearts.

When you think about it, if you look to your life or other’s lives you find that we often grow the most in trials, in the most difficult moments of life. We find strength or character we didn’t know we had; if you believe in God you come out the other side of trial with a fuller faith and a stronger conviction in God’s saving hand.

In the New Testament, after Jesus had rose again and the good news was spreading and people were becoming Christians daily, the Apostle Peter wrote a letter to believers who were being hunted and murdered for their faith. The Roman Empire was a little different than the United States and to say you believed in Jesus often meant death. This was largely because Caesar was God and to say Jesus was God was treason. But as Christians, we’re not really allowed to say anything else. So many Christians faced severe trials where they had the choice of leaving the faith or dying, often painfully These Christians were so changed and so convinced that Jesus had died for them and Jesus was God that they chose death over life.

Peter wrote to address such suffering. Imagine Peter, a church leader, a pastor, overseeing churches and seeing people’s lives change, and as his church grows people start getting murdered. Imagine being a pastor and not knowing who would make it to church next Sunday because your people were being hunted and killed – imagine officiating as many funerals as weddings.

Yet Peter does not write about the persecution of the church as a horrible misfortune that is out of God’s hands, but rather, he place their situation right in it. In fact, read how Peter begins his letter:

Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ,

To those who are elect exiles of the dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood:

May grace and peace be multiplied to you. (1 Peter 1:1-2)

Look at his language! He doesn’t just call them “exiles”, he calls them “elect exiles”, as in, they had been chosen to be exiles, and Peter emphasizes “according to the foreknowledge of God the Father.” God appoints where we live and when we live there, and He is in complete control over the location of every one of these exiles. And with the benefit of hindsight we can now see that the gospel would not have spread nearly as quickly as it did if it hadn’t been persecuted and dispersed. So what was a horrible time where it seemed like God had no control, God had complete control.

The letter continues:

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!

Look at what joy and faith Peter had in God even in the midst of persecution!

According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith – more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire – may be found to result in praise, and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. (1 Peter 1:3-8)

For a letter written to a dying people this is unexpectedly joy-filled. This is not a depressing war-time speech to “Give it all you got” and “Hold on to the end”, no, the persecuted believers are heading towards Christ and His victory, through which they have gained everything! The future is unimaginably glorious and bright for those who believe in God. In comparison to such joy present sufferings are endurable and they will pass. As the writer of Hebrews puts it:

…let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfector of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. (Hebrews 12:1-3)

Christianity is one of the only religions that can offer an answer to suffering because it will pass. As it says in Revelation:

He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away. (Rev. 21:4)

Ever since Jesus rose from the dead and promised to return we have been in a situation much like Israel wandering around in the wilderness. They were longing to settle in the Promised Land, we long to be with Jesus. They faced daily trials in the wilderness and so did the Christians Peter wrote to and so do we.

But this period of waiting is not in vain: Jesus is perfecting our faith and growing us to be in His kingdom, just like He was growing and perfecting Israel’s faith before entering the Promised Land. During this trying time Moses is told by God to tell Israel:

For the LORD your God has blessed you in all the work of your hands. He knows your going through this great wilderness. These forty years the LORD your God has been with you. You have lacked nothing. (Deut. 2:7)

God knows every struggle we go through and He will see us through it. Through struggle and trial we learn things we never could without struggle and trial, such as the beautiful truth that God is always with us, and He is all we need. Come what may tomorrow, should I lose my family, a place to live, food to eat, friends, everything I live by, I still have Jesus; and that can never be taken away from me:

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written,

“For your sake we are being killed all

the day long;

we are regarded as sheep to be

slaughtered.”

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, no r height nor depth, no anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:35-39)

Jesus is true comfort when pain and suffering strike, not only because He loves us but because He knows exactly what we are feeling, and He gave up His own life in obedience to God:

In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence. Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered. (Hebrews 5:7-8)

And:

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. (Hebrews 4:14-16)

God cares deeply about Israel’s suffering in the wilderness and about our trials today, and He will see us through everything because He Himself has suffered everything for us. In order to stay obedient to God the Father God the Son became flesh and took on all of our weaknesses and allowed Himself to suffer and be murdered in place of us for our sins. It is because of Jesus we have hope and confidence in what is to come, now that we have been made clean and pure by His death. Now we can press into God and long for the Promised Land – that is, to be in God’s presence, with Jesus – and know that any amount of suffering and waiting will be worth it. But even now we are not alone, and I’ll close with Jesus last words in Matthew:

“And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:20)

Sin (from my Bible Study notes)

These are my notes from when I prepare for my weekly Bible study. The theme is “Desiring God”, John Piper’s book, which argues that if we are serious happiness-seekers we will pursue God more than anything, because everything else cannot compare. Every week we look at a different topic (e.g. love, sin, truth…) and try to see differences between the way our culture sees it, we see it, and the way God sees it. It’s important to get God’s opinion on everything and realize if we are viewing something like “love” in a less than godly way.

In the beginning, God made us and it was good (Genesis 1:31).

Look at Genesis 3: THE GARDEN

The serpent tempts Eve by twisting God’s word. Compare God’s words to the serpent’s words:

GOD:

“You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” (Genesis 3:16-17)

SERPENT:

“Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” (Gen. 3:1)

Eve’s response is not entirely accurate:

“We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’” (Gen. 3:2-3)

MISCONCEPTION: When I was growing up I thought in Genesis 3 God was pulling the wool over our eyes and that He was holding back “knowledge” and “wisdom” from us, lest we be like Him.

Is what the serpent says in 3:4-5 true?

The tree’s qualities: “good for food”, “a delight to the eyes”, “to be desired to make one wise” – this tree isn’t freaky looking and scary.

Is what Eve wanted a bad thing?

What makes eating the fruit wrong?

“Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked” (Gen. 3:7)

What does this mean? Nowadays we think its good to have clothes on (I for one am not a fan of nude beaches!). But here their nakedness is associated with shame. They’re a married couple with no one else around – they don’t need to wear clothes! But apparently they need to cover themselves from each other.

GENESIS 3:8: Sin makes us hide from the Lord.

What does sin do to Adam and Eve’s relationship with God?

With each other?

Both Adam and Eve avoid responsibility. Compare this to Christ, who takes responsibility for that which He didn’t do (taking on our sins).

How would the incarnate Jesus have acted in Adam and Eve’s place?

GENESIS 3:15: The “protoevangelium” (means “first gospel”). God promises to fix the problem. Sin is still the fundamental human problem and will be through all history and God promises to take care of it. We can’t.

GENESIS 3:16-19: Sin brings a curse. In order to demonstrate to us our rebellion against God, God has made creation rebel against us.

Think about technology: do we really have things under control? Stuff always breaks and needs fixing. Computers crash.

We often say “Crap happens”. Does God want it to be this way or does He want to bless us?

GENESIS 3:21: Think about this: God makes the first sacrifice in order to cover up the shame of sin – Noah imitates God when he does the same thing.

What’s the deal with sacrifice?

Why such a bloody system?

What is your reaction when you see blood?

Do you think God is just as repulsed by our sin?

Later in Genesis, God tells Cain: “And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it.” (Genesis 4:7)

Look at Cain and Abel: What does sin do to our relationships with the people we love?

HUMAN REACTIONS TO THE SIN PROBLEM

1) Personal atonement (I will read my Bible if…)

2) Physical mutilation

a. "At first, flagellation became a form of penance in the Christian church, especially in ascetic monastic orders. For example, the 11th century zealot Dominicus Loricatus once repeated the entire Psalter twenty times in one week, accompanying each psalm with a hundred lash-strokes to his back"

3) By being religious (Pharisees)

4) Spiritual quest or journey (to the top of the mountain)

5) Emptying your mind of everything

6) Fundraisers/events/political movements

7) Killing people who disagree with you

8) Ignoring it (sin doesn’t really exist)

9) Building up humanity (we can conquer sin, tower of Babel)

“For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23)

“For the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23)

“For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Cor. 5:21)

“For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” (2 Cor. 4:6)

Jesus’ Crucifixion: Matthew 27:27-56, Mark 15:21-41, Luke 23:26-49, John 19

Love (from my Bible Study notes)

These are my notes from when I prepare for my weekly Bible study. The theme is “Desiring God”, John Piper’s book, which argues that if we are serious happiness-seekers we will pursue God more than anything, because everything else cannot compare. Every week we look at a different topic (e.g. love, sin, truth…) and try to see differences between the way our culture sees it, we see it, and the way God sees it. It’s important to get God’s opinion on everything and realize if we are viewing something like “love” in a less than godly way.

WHAT DOES THE BIBLE SAY ABOUT LOVE?

Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all offenses. (Proverbs 10:12)

Look at 1 Corinthians 13. Love is patient, kind, it does not envy or boast, it is not arrogant or rude, it does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful, does not rejoice in evil, rejoice in truth, love bears all things, it never ends.

How do we use the word on a daily basis?

“I love crepes” (I say that quite often). “I love that show,” is different from “I love you, mom.”

Love is a good thing, we love to love.

Who do I love the most?

How do I love them? How could I love them better?

Love is built on time. One reason I am closer to my parents than casual acquaintances is the amount of time we’ve spent together. If you love someone you crave to spend more time with them.

Do you only love people who are similar to you or who you easily connect with?

There is more to love than connection or emotion. Love is also an action – I can take in a man off the street, feed him, clothe him; and maybe I have nothing in common with him, but I still love him by feeding him and clothing him.

According to “Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible” love in the Old Testament is “the basic character of the relationship between persons, a relationship with the qualities of devotion, loyalty, intimate knowledge, and responsibility. It is not simply an emotion but is the total quality of relationship.”

One aspect of love is that you delight in the person. It is also about respect and responsibility.

Read 1 John 4:

1) Love is from God. (verse 7)

2) To be born of God and to know God is revealed in love, that is, it manifests itself in love is a sign of being born of God (verse 7).

3) God is love. People who don’t love don’t know God. (verse 8)

4) God’s love culminates and climaxes, reaches its greatest point in the sending of Jesus to earth and His death, burial and resurrection for us that we might be saved (verse 9).

5) God loved us first (verses 10, 19) through Jesus.

6) If God loves us, we should love each other (verse 11). Love should fill us and spill over to all peoples.

7) Although God can’t be seen, He is in us if we love. (verse 12)

8) Perfect love casts out fear. (verse 18)

9) You cannot love God if you hate your brother (verse 20). Also look at 1 John 3:15: “Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that c no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.”

10) If you love God you keep His commandments – especially those to love your neighbor as yourself.

CULTURAL LIES AND MYTHS ABOUT LOVE

1) Love is about me and serving my needs.

2) Love can arrive and go very quickly (the Romeo effect).

3) Love is about physical appearance and attraction. This is confusing love with lust. Once again, Romeo “loves” many women. He loves Juliet at first sight. We love the idea of “love at first sight” but consider what it really is: it means you love their appearance, not their person (you don’t know their person yet). For someone who lives by this kind of love it only moves from person to person, one can never satisfy, and each time it is “love”.

4) Love always feels good (and gives me what I want). As a kid I asked my parents for certain things and sometimes the answer was “No.” Do they love me? Yes. Maybe they can see that what I think is good for me is actually bad (or unnecessary).

5) Love works by rules. A lot of things people usually gripe about in romantic relationships is that certain “rules” of love aren’t followed. That is, “I say ‘I love you’, three times and you only say it once!” There’s no rules for love. Love lives outside of rules and not in them.

6) The best kind of love is romantic love. This is what romantic poetry is all about. The greatest pleasures the earth has to offer is in romantic relationships. God’s love is bigger.

7) Physical acts of love equal real love. Not true! Paul says, “If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing” (1 Corinthians 13:3). Even if you perform the act of giving your life for someone else without actually loving them, then you haven’t loved! Love is more than action (but also not less than it).

Is love only emotional? Only practical? Is it always both?

DIFFERENT TYPES OF LOVE (IN THE BIBLE):

1) Human love (sexual, familial, friendship, and society)

2) Divine love

a) In Himself (between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit)

b) For us

c) Us for Him

Human love does not compare with the love of God. Our love between each other is mangled by sin, hate, jealousy, etc. We are never wholly faithful to someone. Looking to God we are never wholly faithful to Him but He is always faithful. He ahs never sinned against anyone.

WAYS IN WHICH GOD LOVES US

1) He created us (“For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb” Psalm 139:13).

2) He sustains us, providing food for us every day. Every blessing is a gift from Him. “Every good and perfect gift is from above” (James 1:17). He blesses us day in and day out, continuing to bring the sun and life and the seasons. You could look at creation and spend forever listing the things God does daily for us. Right now I’m breathing – I don’t know how I can, but I know God has given me the breath of life.

3) Friends, family, spouses. These too are gifts from God and ways in which He loves us. I can see God’s love in my mother’s care when I’m sick. We are built to be in relationship and our relationships are supposed to be defined by love.

4) Jesus Christ. “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Corinthians 5:21)

“For God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)

“In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him.” (1 John 4:9)

5) The Holy Spirit. The Spirit gives life (2 Corinthians 3:6). We realize who God is and His love for us by the Spirit: “God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” (Romans 5:5). The Spirit “helps us in our weakness.” (Romans 8:26)

6) “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” (Romans 8:28)

ASPECTS OF GOD’S LOVE

1) It "endures forever”. (Psalm 136)

2) Nothing can separate us from it. “No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:37-39)

3) He loves whom He chooses (Romans 9), that is, we are not more special than anybody else, God just decided to love us.

4) Complete joy! Knowing God is to love God, to love God is to be full of joy.

5) This list is too short, there are many more qualities of God’s love. Read 1 Corinthians 13 and realize that God does all the things listed in there.

We will love better if we first love God, and God defines love.

God's Promises (Deuteronomy 1)

I wrote this in the middle of the day, and this afternoon I had the fortune of seeing a rainbow, the first full one I've seen in years. I thought it was fitting after reading Deuteronomy 1, which got me thinking about God's promises.

In the fortieth year, on the first day of the eleventh month, Moses spoke to the people of Israel according to all that the LORD had given him in commandment to them… (Deuteronomy 1:3)

Picture Moses standing in front of thousands of people, all of Israel, which is “as numerous as the stars of heaven” (1:10). I don’t know how public speeches worked back then without microphones or sound amplification but I can see Moses standing in front of his people, crying out with all his might for people to follow the God of all glory and saving power:

You shall be careful therefore to do as the LORD your God has commanded you. You shall not turn aside to the right hand or to the left. (Deut. 5:32)

By now Moses is very old, and led a very long and fascinating life: growing up as Egyptian royalty, then living for decades as a quiet Shepard, then meeting the God who created him and leading his people out of slavery and out of bondage in Egypt, and then for the forty years before this speech wandering around in the wilderness with a bunch of ungrateful people that are too stubborn to enter the Promised Land. And now, finally, they can enter, but he can’t.

Moses was very intelligent, probably formally trained by the Egyptians, the best of the best; one can easily imagine that he was quite eloquent too. Somehow he managed to lead a group of people who were wandering in circles for decades who probably wanted to kill him.

Moses’ speech begins by reminding Israel that they have been on the doorstep of the Promised Land once before, and God withheld it from them because of their cowardice and lack of faith. Moses starts with this event, as if to say, “Remember that? Let’s not do that again.” He’s asking Israel not to rebel against God, and for the next few chapters he’s going to give us several examples from Israel’s history in which they rebelled against God, and we’ll see through all of Israel’s stubbornness and unfaithfulness God is merciful and compassionate and forgiving.

So Moses begins:

“The LORD our God said to us in Horeb, ‘You have stayed long enough at this mountain. Turn and take your journey, and go to the hill of the Amorites and to all their neighbors in the Arabah, in the hill country and in the lowland and in the Negeb and by the seacoast, the land of the Canaanites, and Lebanon, as far as the great river, the river Euphrates.” (Deut. 1:6-7)

It’s easy to see who’s in charge here. God is the on – not Moses – who rescued Israel form Egypt and God is the true Leader. He says what Israel should and shouldn’t do and Israel – and, by extension, Christians – should listen to Him! God is not an impersonal, uncompassionate force imposing His will on us and pushing us to our extremes for His sadistic enjoyment. He’s a loving Father, and even earthly, lazy dads know how to provide for their kids – “how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!” (Matthew 7:11).

God still speaks to us today and we are foolish to ignore His advice. Often His will doesn’t makes sense to us and we ask, “Are You sure, God?” We like – no, we love to feel like we’re in control and when God asks something crazy of us its hard for us to humble ourselves and admit our lack of control. But honestly, who are we to question God? Really ponder that. He made everything. He made up Chemistry. I got a “C” in Chemistry.

For my thoughts are not your thoughts,

neither are your ways my ways,

declares the LORD.

For as the heavens are higher than the earth,

so are my ways higher than your ways

and my thoughts than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55:8-9)

The next verses in Isaiah really shows what God’s word and instruction – like His instructions to Israel at Horeb, thousands of years ago, or His instructions to us, today – accomplishes, and it is exceedingly good:

“For as the rain and the snow come

down from heaven

and do not return there but water the

earth,

making it bring forth and sprout,

giving seed to the sower and bread to

the eater,

so shall my word be that goes out from

my mouth;

it shall not return to me empty,

but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,

and shall succeed in the thing for

which I sent it. (Isaiah 55:10-11)

So basically, it is good to do what God tells you to do. Here in Deuteronomy God’s commands are based on His promises. He has promised Israel land and He has promised them children and generations, among other things. Both of these larger promises are emphasized by Moses.

See, I have set the land before you. (Deut. 1:8)

It’s important to see the way God puts this: He has set the land before Israel, Israel has not earned it or worked hard for it – in fact, they didn’t have intentions of going there until God told them He would lead them there!

Since the story of the great exodus of Israel is prototypical for God’s salvation throughout history, it’s easy to see how our situation is the same as Israel’s with our exodus from our slavery and bondage to sin, and how it is God who sets us free, not us! He does it all, we do nothing. We are too spiritually dead to even realize we need saving (or to dream of it!). God puts the greatest dreams of freedom and salvation into our hearts and then achieves it on the cross. God is not one to shrink back from His promises. His words and His intentions are the same – unlike ours are, very often – and if we look back to Isaiah 55 we see just what that accomplishes.

So, standing on the doorstep of its dreams, Israel gets cold feet. God commands:

“Go in and take possession of the land that the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give to them and to their offspring after them.” (Deut. 1:8)

Go in and take possession – that means there will be some fighting involved. Israel sends spies into the country before them, and upon hearing their reports many of the people become afraid: the enemy sounds too strong and terrifying.

This is an interesting situation, and I’m not sure whether the decision to send spies was necessarily sinful or an act of doubt, but it certainly leads to both sin and doubt. Before Israel knew the great enemies it was to face God’s promise had been made to Israel – He didn’t promise under the condition that the enemy would be weak, or non-present, God promised it, and Isaiah 55 says that’s going to do something. But even having this promise does not help Israel when they get an idea of the circumstances: they quickly see too many enemies, how could victory ever be possible?

Sometimes in order to be faithful to God we have to focus on His promises and reflect on them even when all circumstances point to failure. God intentionally creates situations that seem impossible for a few reasons: 1) to increase our faith, and 2) to reveal His power and glory.

In Judges 7 (Judges comes only two books after Deuteronomy) is an awesome story of such a situation. God has called a less than manly man, Gideon (“O mighty man of valor”) to lead his people in battle. Before battle God says to Gideon:

“The people with you are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hand, lest Israel boast over me, saying, ‘My own hand saved me.’" (Judges 7:2)

So God orders Gideon to send home whoever is afraid and doesn’t want to be there. 22,000 men leave and go home, still leaving a reasonable army of 10,000.

And the LORD said to Gideon, “The people are still too many. Take them down to the water, and I will test them for you there…” (Judges 7:4)

God’s test for Gideon is to see which of his men drink their water like a dog, lapping up the water. I wonder if Gideon was praying to see a lot of hands lapping up water, but things turn out a little differently. Only 300 men lap up the water, the rest kneel down to drink. God says:

“With the 300 men who lapped I will save you and give the Midianites into your hand, and let all the others go every man to his home.” (Judges 7:7)

These 300 men win the battle against the Midianites because of God’s power and strength, which has no limits.

Now this event hasn’t happened yet in Israel’s history as Moses gives his speech, but the people have plenty to boast in God about, and plenty to be confident in, but they still rebel. The people, after all they’ve seen God do, say:

“Because the LORD hated us he has brought us out of the land of Egypt, to give us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us.” (Deut. 1:27)

Does God hate His children? No. There are certainly situations where we may wonder that but it is no different than the confusion felt by a child who is taken to get a vaccination. A vaccination is painful, and the child has little idea why they are going through that pain – they may even blame the parent or wonder why they would allow them to suffer in such a way, but as we get older we realize that we needed that vaccination in order to stay healthy. It is the same with our heavenly Father, and our present sufferings, which will pass. God does not delight in our suffering, just like a human parent, and He will certainly see us through it.

As the people rebel Moses attempts to stir up faith among them:

“Do not be in dread or afraid of them [the enemy]. The LORD your God who goes before you will himself fight for you, just as he did for you in Egypt before your eyes, and in the wilderness, where you have seen how the LORD your God carried you, as a man carries his son, all the way that you went until you came to this place.” (Deut. 1:29-31)

But Israel chickens out, so God is righteously angry. How can the people who saw Him split the Red Sea not believe in His power? As punishment God commands Israel to go back into the wilderness, where they will be forced to wander until the current generation has passed.

This chapter ends on a really interesting note because it’s a situation we can easily fall into and repeat. With God’s punishment facing them the people of Israel declare they will now do the Lord’s will, even if it’s a little late.

“We have sinned against the LORD. We ourselves will go up and fight, just as the LORD our God command us.” (Deut. 1:41)

Instead of being obedient to God’s will – which in this case would be accepting punishment as well as blessing – Israel tries to work its way out of its punishment by doing what it was supposed to have done in the first place, only now God is not with them.

We do the exact same thing with God’s punishment facing us – punishment for sin that we rightfully deserve. We say, “Sorry, God, I’ve screwed up. Let me make it up for you, I will feed the homeless, I will give to charities, I will read my Bible every day, I won’t fight with or insult my siblings…” We make up lists of good things to do to make up for what we should’ve been doing all along, and are “good” lists are full of things we should already be doing but don’t because our hearts are cold and dead. No, we can’t make up anything to God, which is why He came down as a man to accept our punishment for us.

For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:21)

If we try to achieve God’s promises on our own – like Israel attempting to achieve the Promised Land without God, or us trying to achieve heaven and salvation on our own – we will fail. Israel, just like us, goes to battle against God’s will and is sorely defeated:

Then the Amorites who lived in that hill country came out against you [Israel] and chased you as bees do and beat you down in Seir as far as Hormah. (Deut. 1:44)

Sin brings shame and shameful defeat. Sometimes even our attempts to do what is right can be sinful if we go against God’s will.

But for us there is hope in Christ, who bridges the gap between us and God and intercedes for us, and in Him all the promises of God are fulfilled. And Jesus sends the Holy Spirit who by we se God’s saving power not only intellectually, as a fact, but with a changed heart that longs to serve and love Him.

The Importance of the Gospel (Galatians 1)

Paul’s letter to the churches of Galatia begins with a staunch defense of the gospel and its truth. The gospel should not, and must not, be changed or compromised.

But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. (Galatians 1:8)

This is something a lot of people today find frustrating with Paul. We value everybody’s opinions and this sounds like arrogance of the highest degree. Who’s to say that Paul’s idea of God is correct? “Why isn’t mine more valid?” “Or mine?” “Or mine?”

Today it is popular to think that when it comes to religion we must figure out everything for ourselves and form our own opinions, thoughts, ideas, just like we do for everything else in the world. We analyze politics and form our opinions and believe we are right, we do the same with art, movies, books…

I would argue that most people carry more arrogance about their own opinions of, for example, the Republicans or the Democrats, Jackson Pollack or Leonardo da Vinci, than Paul does about the gospel and Christ. If you’ve ever been in a political debate with friends or family before you never see someone admit they’re wrong, or change their opinion (unless they didn’t have much of one before). No, our political opinion is, in a way, a testament to our intelligence and our ability to see and discern the controversial issues of our times. To admit defeat would be to admit we are wrong, that we were not smart enough to figure things out.

We see none of this spirit in Paul. If anything, we see humility. Paul says even if I return to you and modify what I’ve said before do not listen to me! There is no way I can progress or grow intellectually that would present a different gospel! Paul doesn’t care about his opinions, he cares about the truth and giving God the glory.

So back to what we think about God today. In many conversations I’ve had about God a lot of people are interested in God and want more of Him but often say something like “The thing that really sucks about religion is the people who insist that they are right.” I felt this way for a long time too! It looked to me like people who claimed their religion as correct were claiming to have answers to what I saw as unanswerable questions. If God is only something we can conjecture about, something we can only meditate on and then debate about – just like politics or art – then it is extremely arrogant to say “I’m right” on the foundation that you are a superior human being with a greater intellect than most. ‘Everyone but me is wrong’.

Listen to what Paul has to say about the spirit in which he writes:

For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? IF I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ. (Gal. 1:10)

Now we say in response, “Okay, okay” and become more sympathetic to Paul. He believes he’s doing what he’s doing for God, and we admire people who stand up for what they believe in. But we still don’t like the exclusivity of what he has to say. Again, we say, “What makes you more right than me?”

If you look at history you see that ideas change. What was believed about the sun and the earth in the 1300’s is different than what we believe today. Ideas of science, culture, ethics, etc., are often fashionable and changeable as time continues. It’s also common for the latest age to believe it is correct in its beliefs – that is, in comparison to ages before it. We have an incredible generational arrogance today because we believe our science is more correct than before – now I’m not knocking science, I love science – but who knows if in two-, three-, four-hundred years we will still believe the same things that we do today? We simply don’t know.

Growing up I saw human history as one of constant progress – every age and generation discovering new things and bringing new light to all areas of knowledge. Now in some ways this progress is true – our scientific knowledge is considerably greater than that of even one hundred years ago – but look at ideas and philosophies and life itself. Those things have not changed in substance – maybe in form, for example, the way a man built a house in the 1700’s is different than today, but the fact that man needs shelter has not changed. It’s the same with our ideas, as “new” as we think they are. King Solomon wrote more than 2,000 years ago that “there is nothing new under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 1:9). The “radical” views of the 1960’s were maybe new in form but not in substance or content. Or look at other movements that have seemed fresh and different, like transcendentalism: what is it but a mixture of deism and pantheism and nature worship? We give these ideas new names and call it progress but they are just the last generation’s recycled garbage:

Is there a thing of which it is said,


"See, this is new"?

It has been already


in the ages before us. (Ecc. 1:10)

My point is that we are very tempted to do the same thing with Christianity: to apply our modern ways of thinking and discerning; expecting to find fault with “old” ideas because they are “old” and believed by a more “ignorant” generation.

Paul saw this happening in his churches and fought against temptations to change. He opens his letter with the gospel:

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen. (Gal. 1:3-5)

Then Paul warns that people will try to change it:

I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed. (Gal. 1:6-9)

1) What is the gospel? How can Paul make the claims he does?

2) How do people try to change the gospel today?

3) How should we as Christians respond?