“But I say, …

“But I say,  walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify  the desires of the flesh.” Galatians 5:16

What is walking by the Spirit? If it’s simply avoiding evil, then Paul’s statement is repetitive: “don’t do evil, and you won’t do evil.”

If it’s obeying the moral commands of scripture, then again it’s repetitve: “do what’s right, and you won’t do what’s wrong.”

And in a way, I think this is what Paul is saying. However, I think  there’s more to it. Here’s at least what we can take from this passage:

1.) The Holy Spirit is active in our lives. The Holy Spirit isn’t a tank of spiritual gas – He’s a living person who has intentions.

2.) Every step we take must be submitted to the Holy Spirit. No matter what your theology of the Holy Spirit, we can all take this from the passage: every single decision in life must be submitted to God’s Spirit. Whether you’re a cessationist or not, at least this must be true in order to obey Paul’s command.

3.) There is a direct correllation between following the Holy Spirit’s leading and overcoming temptation. When we ignore the activity of the Holy Spirit in each and every moment of our day, we tend to slip easily into spiritual lethargy, and fall prey to temptation. Every conversation, every activity, every decision needs to be submitted to the Spirit of God through prayer, then action.

What does it look like to live in step with God’s Spirit for you?

The Danger of Calvinism.

Sometimes we talk too much about Calvinism.

The doctrines of grace are important – God has saved each of us, absolutely, undeservedly – our faith is not of ourselves, but of God. We get it.

But how often do we reformed folk talk about God’s deep, genuine desire to see all repent and come to the knowledge of the truth? Consider these words:

“Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked, declares the Lord GOD, and not rather that he should turn from his way and live?” – Ezekiel 18:23

“The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.” – 2 Peter 3:9:

“This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” – 1 Timothy 2:4:

Intellectually, we distinguish between God’s “Moral Will” or “Revealed Will” and his “Sovereign Will” or “Mysterious Will.” But think about those terms for a moment.

If God’s moral, revealed will is that no one should perish, but all should come to a saving knowledge of the truth – shouldn’t this be the aspect of God’s will we spend our time reflecting on? While it’s true that God sovereignly chooses who will experience this grace, is this really worth as much time and meditation as we’ve put into it?

Let me illustrate. God says in Malachi 2:16: “I hate divorce”.

Now, it’s true that God allows divorce in accordance with His sovereign Will. Every divorce that occurs does not thwart God’s Divine plan, and He will use it all for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purposes. Although the divorcees mean it for evil, God means it for good.

But are these really the truths about divorce God wants us to dwell on the most? Yes, they’re important. But the most important thing that we humans are to know about divorce is this:

God hates it.

I would argue that’s more important a truth to base our lives on than the fact that God allows it.

So yes, God has ordained that I be saved, and that humbles me and makes me in awe of God. But I also have to recognize that this is a theological truth, not a moral imperative. The truth that “God desires that none should perish and all should come to a saving knowledge of the truth” is not just theological – it’s moral.

In other words, God has revealed to us that He is allowed to sovereignly  will that some perish, and some be saved. But are we allowed to will that?

Absolutely not. as St. Augustine has said: “There’s a world of difference between what God is allowed to will and what we are allowed to will.”

So if we’re apathetic about the salvation of anyone, then we’re not just theologically incorrect. We’re in sin. If my brother is divorcing his wife and I shrug my shoulders and say, “Well, it’s all in God’s sovereign plan”, I’m in sin, because the most important truth in that moment is this: “God hates divorce,” not “God allows divorce”.

Now if I’m vexed over my brother’s divorce, I need the truth that God allows divorce to comfort me – but the doctrines of grace have to come as a healing balm to a heart already anxious for God’s glory, not as an anesthetic. God’s moral will, in other words, is always primary, and His Secret will his always secondary to our meditation.

The doctrines of grace are beautiful, life changing, and important. But if we lose sight of the God who wept over his people Israel, and excuse ourselves from doing the same, we’re talking and thinking too much about Calvinism.

 

 

When Do I Give Up on That Relationship?

A co-worker gave your boss an unfair report on you. Your spouse left the bath-towel on the kitchen floor for the upteenth time. Your parents are nagging you again because you don’t bring up your children the same way they did.

Where’s the line? Or, we might ask: “How many times should I forgive my brother when he sins against me? 7 times?”

No, Jesus says. “Not 7 times, but 70 times 7.” Notice no response is recorded. That’s because, as Dr. Sinclair Ferguson has said – “Jesus is picking Peter’s jaw up off the ground.”

But what was wrong with Peter’s guess? If someone sins against me 7 times, doesn’t that warrant me to take matters into my own hands? Don’t I deserve to cut off that relationship? Don’t I at least deserve to give the cold shoulder for a while, or ream them out?

The problem with Peter’s answer is this: His forgiveness doesn’t count, because his forgiveness counts. Get it?

If I say “I forgive you for the 7 times over the last year your slandered me,” I’m revealing something about myself: I’m counting. I’m still holding on.

In other words, I’m doing precisely what love doesn’t do in 1 Corinthians 13: “Love does not keep a record of wrongs.”

It’s not that love is more patient toward wrongdoing. It’s that true love forgets, because God forgot for us.

So how many times should we forgive?

The answer is: “Who’s counting?”

 

Did Jesus Really Claim to be God?

“Jesus never claimed to be God.”

Ever heard that one? Thanks to my friend Tim Fall, here are some scriptures that clearly speak directly to Jesus’ divinity (and to Mr. Grudem). They’re good to have on hand:

1. Verses using the word “Theos” (God) to refer to Jesus (a term reserved only for God in the O.T.) – John 1:1, 1:18, 20:28, Romans 9:5, Titus 2:13, Hebrews 1:8 (quotes Psalm 45:6) and 2 Peter 1:1, Isaiah 9:6.

2. Verses using Kyrios (“Lord”) to refer to Christ: Luke 2:11, 1:43, 2:18, Matt. 3:3 (From Isaiah 40:3), Jesus quoting Psalm 110:1; 1 Cor. 8:6, 12:3 and many other Pauline Epistles. Hebrews 1:10-12 quoting Psalm 102, Revelation 19:16.

3. Other verses claiming deity:

A. Jesus tells the religious leaders that Abraham had seen Jesus’ day, they reply: “You are not yet fifty years old, and you have seen Abraham?” (John 8:57) Jesus then says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM.” So they took up stones to throw at him (John 8:59)

B. Jesus says in Revelation: “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.”

C. John 1:1 calls Jesus “God” and refers to him as “The Word” become flesh (Psalm 33:6 – the Word that created the heavens and the earth). “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth; we have beheld his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father).

3. Jesus as the “Son of Man”. Jesus calls himself “the Son of Man” (Matt. 16:13, Luke 9:18), quoting Daniel 7 where Daniel saw one like a “Son of Man” who “came to the Ancient of Days” and was given “dominion and glory and kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and language should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away.” This “Son of Man” “came on the clouds of heaven”. Jesus affirms this definition of his favorite title, “Son of Man” when he says, “Hereafter you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power, and coming on the clouds of heaven.” Matthew 26:64. For this reason the Pharisees said, “He has uttered blasphemy…He deserves death.” (26:65-66)

E. Jesus as the “Son of God.” This can be seen in Matthew 11:25-30; 17:5; 1 Corinthians 15:28; Hebrews 1:1-3, 5, 8). Especially seen in John’s gospel: 1:14, 18, 24, 49, 8:19, 14:9. John affirms that we can trust Jesus for eternal life (this is never claimed for a human prophet) – John 3:16, 36, 20:31. He has been given authority as Son of God to give life, pronounce eternal judgment, and rule over all: John 3:36, 5:20-22, 25; 10:17, 16:15). As Son he also existed before he came into the world – John 3:17, 5:23, 10:36. The first three verses of Hebrews say it clearly: Jesus is the “appointed heir of all things, through whom also he created the world”, who “reflects the glory of God and bears the very stamp (exact duplicate – charakter) of his nature, upholding the universe by the word of his power.”

Tomorrow we’ll look at what Jesus DID to prove He was God in the Flesh.

 

If Jesus was God, Did He Really Experience Temptation?

First, we have to affirm 2 things: Jesus really was tempted. If we say he wasn’t really tempted, we’ve swung too far to one side of the pendulum: “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are–yet was without sin.” Hebrews 4:15

Secondly, we must affirm that God cannot be tempted with evil: “When tempted, no one should say, ‘God is tempting me.’ For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone.” James 1:13

The obvious question: If God can’t be tempted, and Jesus was tempted, then how can Jesus be God?

The answer, in part, is described in the definition of Jesus’ incarnation: “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.” What does it mean that Jesus ‘became flesh?’

Here’s what it doesn’t mean:

1. That Jesus’ divine nature and his human nature morphed into a single nature.

2. That Jesus took on the appearance of flesh, but didn’t actually take on human flesh.

3. That Jesus took on a human body, but not a human will or consciousness.

4. That Jesus was part God and part man.

The incarnation means that Jesus “added” a nature to himself, without subtracting anything from his Divine nature. In other words, Jesus was fully God – no part of his Godhead was taken away when he added his human nature. Also, Jesus was fully man – there was no part of Jesus that did not experience what it was like to be a man.

So what of temptation? We know that Jesus’ divine nature could NOT experience temptation, as James 1:13 makes clear. At the same time, we know that Jesus did experience real temptation. The answer then must be that Jesus experienced real temptation in his human nature, but not in His Divine nature. In other words, as a second Adam, Jesus’ human nature faced a real choice over whether to sin or not. However, his Divine nature did not.

This, of course, is not temptation the way we experience it before salvation. Before the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, we are dead to God and slaves to sin – we MUST sin (Ephesians 2:5, Romans 6:20). Jesus didn’t have a sinful flesh. Jesus temptation, rather, is more like the temptation of Adam in the garden of Eden, where Adam had a choice to choose good or choose evil. The difference was that Jesus never “fell” into temptation, and so he can truly be called “The second Adam”. (1 Corinthians 15:45)

How does the fact that Jesus faced real temptation but without sin impact your relationship with Him?