Month: October 2020

There is a good chance we’ll get there with DIRTY FEET

On By AaronIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

Recently, I was dispatched to assist our local police department in a death notification.  A woman had committed suicide and we had the duty to notify her mother.  It is among the most difficult things that a police officer must do.  I have done them as a police officer and now I have done a handful as a chaplain.  I am always amazed at how different the experience is as a chaplain.  It is not better, it is not worse, it is just different.

Today, the officer’s heart was on his sleeve as he interacted with the family.  He gently answered their questions, I could tell that in his heart, he wanted to be able to undo what had been done; to remove the grief from this family; to take away their pain.  He had all the rapport with the family, and I was of little help except to ask a few questions about arrangements and then to conclude the encounter in prayer.  They appeared to be a church going family that had not been able to attend recently due to Covid and the elderly status of the mother.  They were comfortable with and even appreciative of my prayer.

“Suicide is not an unforgivable sin and there is the same hope for one who dies as the result of suicide as there is at the death of any of our loved ones.”

There are very few pains that rise to the level of that experienced by those left behind by suicide.  So many regrets and so many questions.  Among them is the question of hope.  Can we hope to see our loved one who has committed suicide again?  I am going to be right up front and then explain; suicide is not an unforgivable sin and there is the same hope for one who dies as the result of suicide as there is at the death of any of our loved ones.  Jesus is that hope!

“Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. During supper, when the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray him, Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going back to God, rose from supper. He laid aside his outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around his waist.  Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him (Joh 13:1-5).”

“Jesus knew that His hour had come.”

Jesus knew that His hour had come.  Jesus knew that He was to be the sacrifice that would cleanse the world of sin.  And in this moment, he gets up and prepares to wash His disciple’s feet.

“He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, do you wash my feet?”  Jesus answered him, “What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand.”  Peter said to him, “You shall never wash my feet.” Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no share with me (Joh 13:6-8).”

This was classic Peter.  It makes sense.  Should you allow the creator of all creation to wash your feet?  Probably not… It could be a test.  But, Jesus rebukes Peter and there is little surprise here.  Peter is probably getting used to this.  However, in His rebuke, Jesus connects what is happening now, the washing of feet, to an understanding of what Jesus is going to do soon, wash us all of our sins, and He reassures them that when it is done, they will understand.  Furthermore, Jesus leaves out Peter’s feet in the rebuke; “If I do not wash you…”  That’s significant.

Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!” Jesus said to him, “The one who has bathed does not need to wash, except for his feet, but is completely clean. And you are clean, but not every one of you.” For he knew who was to betray him; that was why he said, “Not all of you are clean (Joh 13:9-11).”

“The cleansing that Jesus was about to accomplish, on the cross, was going to be complete.”

Again, classic Peter.  Do not just wash my feet then, wash my hands and my head.  But Jesus comment next is what intrigues me; He brings Peter back to the washing of his feet but in the context of a complete wash. “The one who has bathed does not need to wash, except for his feet, but is completely clean (Joh 13:10).”  The cleansing that Jesus was about to accomplish, on the cross, was going to be complete.  Jesus was going to wash us of all our sins leaving nothing behind.  Not one blemish.  The moment we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior that cleansing is ours and we are clean!

The problem is that we do not immediately go to be with the Lord.  It begs the question, “If the purpose of all creation is our salvation through redemption then why are we to remain here once we are saved?”  The answer is that at the moment of our salvation our lives are no longer our own and are no longer about us.  They are about those Jesus who Jesus also loves; those who are still dead in their sins.  We are left to walk this world in service to those who need Jesus that they might accept His offer of eternal life.  What that means is that our feet are going to get dirty.

“There is so much dirt that can get on our feet.”

That dirt could be the discouragement of a loved one who does not accept Jesus.  That dirt could be the discouragement of not receiving a well-earned promotion or recognition of our work.  The dirt could be the discouragement that comes with the loss of a loved one or the loss of a loved relationship.  And in those moments of discouragement when we fall back into whatever sin is most comfortable that dirt sticks to our feet.  There is so much dirt that can get on our feet.

To persevere, in order to remain close to God as we ambassador for Him we need to wash our feet and wash the feet of our brothers and sisters in Christ.  We confess our sins because He is faithful to forgive them (1Jo 1:9).  It is in these moments that we begin to believe the lie that we are not forgiven; that we are somehow not good enough!  Adam Clarke comments that,  “he who is washed—who is justified through the blood of the Lamb, needeth only to wash his feet—to regulate all his affections and desires; and to get, by faith, his conscience cleansed from any fresh guilt, which he may have contracted since his justification.”  The blood of Christ has already cleansed us of yesterday’s sins, today’s sins, and tomorrow’s sins but our own guilty conscience will keep us from a close walk with God; it will keep us from being effective for God.  Unless we confess, we keep ourselves from God and when we confess, He is faithful in reminding us that we have been cleansed.  Where we go wrong is thinking that our new sin disqualifies us from salvation.

“There is a good chance we could enter heaven with dirty feet.”

If we make that false assumption, then it becomes absolutely necessary that before our death we must confess our very last sin lest we die in transgression.  I do not know about you, but I have been close to death and in what could have been the last moment of my life I dropped some foul language that could have bordered on blasphemy.  Had that been my last moment would I have died apart from salvation!  Absolutely not!  Does this give us license to sin with impunity?  Absolutely not!

What this means then is that there is a good chance we could enter heaven with dirty feet.  Do not get me wrong, none of that dirt will get into heaven but there is a good chance that we could show up at the door to heaven with dirt on our feet.  Would God turn us away?  Not if at some point we had already repented of all our sins and accepted His free gift.

“What a comfort it will be for them to know that I have gone to be with the Lord no matter the circumstances of my death.”

What does this mean for the hope of those who have lost a loved one to suicide?  Bottom line, suicide is not an automatic disqualifier.  I did not know the person who died today.  I do not know if she had accepted Jesus as her Lord and Savior.  If she had then her salvation is assured.  Her disobedience was punished on the cross and her last act of disobedience is no more disqualifying than the rest of the dirt that will fall from her feet as she steps across the threshold of heaven.  That is my hope for her and that is my hope for all the deceased I encounter in the course of my duties.  Delivering the news that a loved one has died is no easy task.  It is made easier with the hope that the deceased person is with the Lord.  An act of suicide is a disobedient act just like any other disobedient act.  And because Jesus’ work on the cross is sufficient for every disobedient act suicide can not remove the hope of eternal salvation any more than any other act of disobedience.

What I want my law enforcement brethren to know is that when we deliver the message to a family that their loved one has committed suicide, we are not giving them a message of hopelessness.  What I want everyone to know who makes it all the way through this message is that apart from Christ there is no hope.  Turn to him now.  Don’t wait! One day my wife and/or my mother will receive the news that I have passed from this life to the next. What a comfort it will be for them to know that I have gone to be with the Lord no matter the circumstances of my death.

Thanks for reading and do not forget to subscribe to my e-mail below.  I am working on some great things and I would hate for you to miss out.

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Baptism… That Which Unites Us

On By AaronIn Uncategorized2 Comments

When the writer of Hebrews tells us to, “leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation… of instruction about washings (Heb 6:1-2)” we have to ask the question what are the elementary Christian instructions about washings?  Many English translations translate Greek baptismôn into baptism and render the passage, “teaching about baptisms (LAB)” or “the doctrine of baptisms (NKJV)” but this can be a little misleading.  David Stern commenting on this scripture notes that the, “Greek baptismôn is the normal New Testament word not for the immersion which accompanies coming to faith (Act 2:37, 8:38, 16:32; see Mat 3:9) but for washings or purifications, of which the initial immersion is but one.” 

In the Old Testament there were laws relating to unclean people, food, and other objects as well as the requirements for cleaning them (Scott 1995, 254).  “There were indeed numerous prescribed ceremonial washings for all practicing Jews, both natural-born and proselytes; these washings were a major part of the requirements to become clean after contracting defilement (Scott 1995, 344).”  In the Gospel of Mark we read, “…the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands properly, holding to the tradition of the elders… (Mar 7:3-4).”  The Jews at the time of Jesus were so zealous that at the Wedding of Canna, recorded in the Gospel of John, were found six stone jars that could each hold twenty or thirty gallons of water (Joh 2:6).  That is from 120 to 180 gallons!

“…these ceremonies were never intended to make a person clean or undefiled.”

The Old Testament makes a clear distinction between clean and unclean; defiled and undefiled.  To be defiled or to be unclean was to be ceremonial disqualified from worship during special times and seasons.  But here is the rub, these ceremonies were never intended to make a person clean or undefiled.  They were used to teach the concept of clean and unclean and then to illustrate that we are all unclean.  Isaiah, prophesying to Israel, declared, “We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment (Isa 64:6).”  Isaiah was speaking to those who were practicing the ceremonies!  Jesus later explained, “Hear me, all of you, and understand: There is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile him (Mar 7:14-15).”  It is our hearts that defile us and none of us are capable of changing our hearts.

If then, we are unclean and defiled, how are we to get clean?  That is the central question of all Scripture.  That is the central question of God’s plan of redemption.  How is God going to make us clean?  The blood of Jesus has cleansed us from our sin (1Jo 1:7).  That was the mission of His first coming and He was sufficient for the task and the task is complete.  “He [Jesus] is the propitiation for our sins, and not for our only but also for the sins of the whole world (1Jo 2:2).”  He has washed us with His blood.  Grotesque when you take it word for word but when you understand that “His blood” is a reference to the only sacrifice sufficient to pay the debt owed to justice for your sins and that the debt has been, in fact, paid then it leaves the realm of the grotesque and enters the realm of the revolutionary.

“Confess your sins to God and He is faithful to forgive them.”

First John 1:9

Just the other day I was reading in Isaiah and found this gem.  “Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes… (Isa 1:16)”  Do you know at the time that this was written there was not yet a propitiation for sin?  Jesus had not yet paid the penalty for their sins.  The command to wash yourself or make yourself clean from your evil deeds was impossible and God’s perfect justice could never forget the debt.  Almost 2,000 years ago God took care of that impossibility and today you can wash yourself and make yourself clean.  Confess your sins to God and He is faithful to forgive them (1Jo 1:9).  Revolutionary then and still revolutionary today!

“For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, because they formerly did not obey, when God’s patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water. Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him (1Pe 3:18-22).”

“Your Baptism into Christ was an event in which you identified with His act of sacrifice on your behalf and became identified with Him as one of His own.”

Baptism then, is not a washing that can remove your uncleanliness.  It is an identification with “the” washing that has removed your uncleanliness.  Your Baptism into Christ was an event in which you identified with His act of sacrifice on your behalf and became identified with Him as one of His own.  Soldiers speak of their baptism by fire.  That moment, after which they are forever identified with those who have also experienced combat.  It is something that they each share that binds them into an identity that apart from that baptism cannot be shared.  The Israelites were baptized into Moses through the sea and the cloud not because those things served as a ritual of initiation but because everyone who was not an Israelite could point to those things and say there goes someone who passed through the Red Sea and followed the pillar of fire (1Co 10:1-4).  I too can point to my own Christian baptism as the moment I was united with every believer in Christ as a believer in Christ not because the water made me clean but because going through the water pointed to the one who did make me clean.

People have asked me, “do you need to be baptized to be saved?”  The answer is yes!  You must be identified with Christ to be saved.  And although that baptism may not look like the baptism found in our contemporary church it must be there.  The thief on the cross was not sprinkled or immersed and yet he was baptized into the Cross of Christ!  The real question is not whether you need to be baptized to be saved the real question is have you been baptized?  Have you accepted the cleansing that can only come from the sacrifice of Jesus and have you identified yourself with Him in a way in which He will identify Himself with you?

This was a continuation of a previous post. You might want to check it out here. Thanks for reading and do not forget to subscribe to my e-mail below.  I am working on some great things and I would hate for you to miss out.

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Of Mathematicians, Engineers and Faith

On By AaronIn Uncategorized1 Comment

Looking at the basic Christian doctrine of Faith in God as found in Hebrews 6 I have broken what might be one doctrine into two because I think the second half needs its own effort in terms of our understanding.  Faith in God is connected to our understanding of Dead works however, because you can not separate the bad news, that all of our works are dead, from the good news, that Jesus Christ has performed a good work on your behalf.  Christ’s good work is central to Christianity and what you believe about Christ is central to your Christianity.  Christian Faith, by definition, is what you believe about Christ.

“To have faith… is to be convinced of something.”

The Greek word from which we get our definition of faith is pistis, which means… “persuasion, i.e. credence; moral conviction (of religious truth, or the truthfulness of God or a religious teacher), espec. reliance upon Christ for salvation; abstr. constancy in such profession; by extension. the system of religious (Gospel) truth itself:—assurance, belief, believe, faith, fidelity.”  It comes from the Greek word pĕithō, which means… “to convince (by argument, true or false); by anal. to pacify or conciliate (by other fair means); reflex. or pass. to assent (to evidence or authority), to rely (by inward certainty):—agree, assure, believe, have confidence, be (wax) confient, make friend, obey, persuade, trust, yield.

To have faith then is to be convinced of something.  But it is more than being convinced, it is being convinced by a convincing argument.  Your pistis is built upon your pĕithō.  To be convinced of Christ is to believe a convincing argument about Christ.

“That lie is that empiricism is better suited to answer the questions of ultimate reality.”

The first problem with this line of thought is that you and I are post enlightenment thinkers.  The enlightenment reduced reason to a kind of strict empiricism.  What was reasonable could only be determined if it could be tested and measured.  It was this same spirit of empiricism that reduced the validity of the miraculous because miracles, by definition, cannot be empirically verified.  Once the miraculous and that which could not be tested and verified was removed from the realm of reason not only was faith and reason divorced from one another, but the divorce has never been seen as amicable.  Reason and faith are placed against one another in the family court of philosophy.  And if the enlightenment was the judge then reason got almost full custody.

However, as the children of the enlightenment have matured, they are starting to discover that the underlying causes of the divorce were built on a lie.  That lie is that empiricism is better suited to answer the questions of ultimate reality.  David Hume, a philosophical proponent of empiricism, argued that if knowledge were based on experience then anything that could not be experienced could not be established as real beyond a probability.  But is something is known with a high enough probability then to experience it becomes redundant.

“It turns out that the ultimate meanings of this reality must be discerned by a shared custody of empiricism and what I call the “soft sciences” of philosophy.”

I am reminded of the joke that starts by asking how you tell the difference between a mathematician and an engineer.  You have to put them both together on one side of a room and on the other you place a very attracted woman.  You tell them both that they can get to her only by going halfway.  Once they have gone halfway, they can then go half way again.  The mathematician will throw up his arms in frustration because you will only ever get halfway.  The engineer will set off immediately because he understands that you only have to get within working distance.  This is the lie of empiricism.  You may have so much evidence about something you have never experienced that the probability is high enough to be a “working” certainty.

“Bottom line, if you want to have real faith you must have a convincing argument about that which you have faith in.”

It turns out that the ultimate meanings of this reality must be discerned by a shared custody of empiricism and what I call the “soft sciences” of philosophy.  When we ascribe faith to something, we ascribe that faith on not just the empirical evidence, but empirical evidence gets a vote.  Additionally, when we find ourselves unable to empirically evaluate something, we haven’t found ourselves outside of reason.  Astonishingly the laws of reason apply to that which cannot be measured.  For example, it is not unreasonable for the creator of the laws of physics to violate the laws of physics.  The fact that the creator of the laws of physics would be the only one who could break the laws of physics makes it impossible for anyone else to test the theory.  It is only unreasonable for a creator of the laws of physics to violate the laws of physics if you assume away the creator of the laws of physics.

Bottom line, if you want to have real faith you must have a convincing argument about that which you have faith in.  Empirical evidence is convincing.  It would be a challenge to convince Moses that the bush he saw burning in the desert was not what he saw.  But we are not limited by empirical data.  It is possible to be so certain of something that you have not experienced that it the evidence that makes you certain counts.  Faith, to avoid becoming wishful thinking can not be divorced from the evidence for that faith.  Do you know the evidence?

“Mature faith then must answer a more robust question; why do I believe in Christ and do I believe in the real Christ?”

That brings us to the second problem.  If the definition of Christian Faith is tied to that which you believe about Christ, then it would be important to believe the right things about Christ.  It would be misleading to say that you are great person of Christian Faith if your understanding of Christ was equal to that of the Easter Bunny or Santa Clause.  No, to put your faith in Christ is to put your faith in Christ.  I call this the second problem because often the Christ who is is not the Christ that we desire.  The Christ who was, and is, and is to come is a Christ who we must submit to.  The Christ we desire is usually a much more comfortable Christ.

Mature faith then must answer a more robust question; why do I believe in Christ and do I believe in the real Christ?  The first part is about really believing, and the second part is about believing something that is real.  But it is still not enough because, as I said in the beginning, this doctrine is connected to the first.  What you believe about Christ must be relevant to the reality that both your good works and your evil works are dead.  For a faith in Christ to produce any kind of real hope the Christ we have faith in must be able to solve the problem of our dead works.  That would be good news indeed!

“For the skeptic there will always be room for doubt.”

Paul had to remind the Corinthians of the good news that he had preached to them (1Co 15:1).  “For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve (1Co 15:3-5).”  That he appeared to Cephas is almost empirical.  It was for Cephas!  But for you and I our evidence for the Christ who appeared to Cephas rests on the reliability of the testimony of Paul and its transmitting to our time.  Is the truth of that testimony probable enough for Cephas’ experience to count as “working”?  I think that it is, and the evidence backs up my conviction!  Do the Scriptures say that Christ died for my dead works, my sin?  They do!  What about the testimony of the resurrection?  It’s validity rests on the validity of the Scriptures as well and the probability of their truth.

For the skeptic there will always be room for doubt.  Just as the mathematician who can never get to where he wants to be the skeptic will always find space for doubt.  But Christian faith is based on evidence and if you want to have a stronger faith pursue the evidence.  One day, when you are hoping on God to be true to His promises you evidence will be the source of your faith and the substance of your hope.

Thanks for reading and do not forget to subscribe to my e-mail below.  I am working on some great things and I would hate for you to miss out.

This post is part of a collection of posts about the basic doctrines of the Christian Faith as found in Hebrews 6. If you would like to read the others you can find them here.

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Duck, duck, goose… the Loneliness of this Life and the Life to Come.

On By AaronIn Uncategorized1 Comment

“To belong to the Lord is to never have to say good-by forever.”

I have been working through the five foundational doctrines of the Christian faith and the next one that I should be commenting on is that of Faith in God.  However, I’m going to postpone those thoughts in favor of some thoughts on the resurrection of the dead.

I am a volunteer chaplain at our local police and fire department.  This morning I was dispatched to a death in which the mother of four who had been taking care of her elderly father awoke to find her father had died sometime in the night.  I arrived to find a grief-stricken woman who described a new level of loneliness at the loss of her father.  I wanted to tell her that her father was in a better place.  I wanted to tell her that she would see him again.  But I did not know either her or her father and so the truth is I did not know if those things were true.  I asked her if there was any spiritually significant person that I could call, a pastor, a counselor, or a priest, and she told me that she had not been to church in a long time.  I asked her where the body of her father was and where and how her children were responding.

Then I asked her if I could pray and she answered, “yes, I would very much like that.”  We bowed our heads, and the desire of my heart was to pray that God had received her father and remind this woman that she would see him again, but I did not.  Instead, I prayed for comfort, wisdom, and grace for this woman as she navigated this new reality with her husband and children.  As I concluded the prayer with an “amen” I saw a framed picture hanging on the wall that read, “To belong to the Lord is to never have to say good-by forever.”  That was encouraging.  Maybe she and her family knew Jesus.

“Apart from a future resurrection what hope do I, as a representative of Christ, have to offer?

Paul, writing to the Corinthians, says, “…if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised.  And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain (1Cor 15:13-15).”  Apart from a future resurrection what hope do I, as a representative of Christ, have to offer this woman?  If it is true that all there is to this life is that which we see now, then her father is gone to her forever and she will one day be gone to her children as well.  “If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied (1 Co 15:19).”

This is not an insignificant point.  It is connected to the doctrine of dead works.  If each of us is morally responsible for our actions and because all our good works can never cover for our bad works then all our works are dead.  But if our faith is in the work of Christ and its ability or sufficiency to atone for our bad works and that atonement is only sufficient for this life then what do we have?  At best we have a motivational poster.  A motivational poster that will motivate only until we die.

“What a hope!”

“But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.  For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead.  For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive (1Co 15:20-22).”  What a hope!  Not only to be raised alive but to be raised alive and found righteous in the judgment to come!  But there is a rub; you have to be in Christ.  “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life (Joh 3:16).”  And that is why I could not pray a prayer of hope without the knowledge of this woman and her father’s standing in Christ.  To do so would have been to offer a false hope.  A false hope is a pitiful hope.  But I was encouraged by the words on her wall and my hope is that she, and her family, are in Christ.

As I spent the rest of the morning with this family there came a time when we were all in the back yard.  The body of her father was being moved and mom did not want her or her children’s last memory of her father to be of that move.  So, we moved the family to the back yard until her father could be removed from the house.  I watched as the four children played a game of duck, duck, goose in the small patch of grass that was their yard.  Dad shot hoops with kid sized basket balls and mom stood to the side on the phone with her sister and I could not help but note the tone of loneliness in her voice.  It was in that moment that I understood that in the center of her family this woman felt alone at the loss of her father.

The Christian hope is in an eternal resurrection founded on the resurrection of Christ.  One day, I will step into that eternity and Jesus will take my hand and welcome me home.  But who will we find in that home?  Hopefully, our loved ones and those closest to us are saved and what a blessing when we know that they are.  But as I stood in this family’s backyard it occurred to me that if they are saved, along with her family, I will recognize them and they will recognize me in eternity.  This is true because God, in His infinite wisdom, saw fit to cross our paths at this moment in time.  A moment of loneliness that when the Christian hope is realized will become a moment of eternal familiarity.

Jesus said, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day (Joh 6:35-40).”  Don’t wait… look to Jesus and live!  Share him with your friends and family that they might live too.  Live your life in such a way that you don’t hinder their acceptance of Him.  One day our loneliness will turn to an eternity of familiar communion with one another.

Before I sign off I do want to take this time to thank the first responders involved in todays encounter. It never ceases to amaze me at the kindness and caring that can come from some of the toughest people I know. They can hold the line toe to toe with anyone but it is their tenderness that is most impressive. Thanks for all that you do.

Thanks for reading and do not forget to subscribe to my e-mail below.  I am working on some great things and I would hate for you to miss out.

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Not Good Works or Bad Works… Dead Works

On By AaronIn Uncategorized1 Comment

Recently I have been thinking about the five basic Christian doctrines identified in Hebrews 6.  According to the writer of Hebrews, they are those doctrines that Christians need to know before moving on to maturity.  You can find that post here.  The first one, that of repentance from dead works, struck me.  What has struck me is that it does not say that we are to repent of bad works or even evil works but of dead works. Could it bee that both our bad works and our good works are dead?

“The world today will try and convince you that these things are not obviously death producing but rather that some of them are only different alternatives in a more pluralistic culture.”

The first category of dead works I want to call the obvious dead works.  Paul, writing to the Galatians identifies these obvious works, “…the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God (Gal 5:19-21).”  The world today will try and convince you that these things are not obviously death producing but instead they would convince you that some of them are only different alternatives in a more pluralistic, tolerant, and accommodating culture.  However, those of us who have been the victims of these works can attest to the injustice that these works produce; broken marriages, the trauma of a sexual encounter in the absence of or inability to consent, the family neglect of alcoholism and drug abuse, the physical and psychological abuse of an angry spouse or parent just to name a few.  If you love a person who has been the victim of any of these dead works and the injustices that they are, then you know what it is to demand justice and the very visceral rightness of the justice demanded.  These works produce death in that the justice warranted for them is the death they deserve!  But we also know that we too are guilty, if only in our hearts, of at least one of these listed works.

James writes how, “…each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire.  Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death (Jas 1:14-15).”  It starts with our own evil desires.  It is our own lust that leads to sexual immorality, it is our own selfish desires for control that lead to idolatry, sorcery, enmity, and strife, and it is our own covetousness that leads to jealousy etc. and etc.  And when we act on those desires, we commit sin.

All sins are feelings or transgressions against something forbidden or required.  It is an offense against that for which something was created, and you were not created to be immoral, impure, nor any of the things listed above.  You were created for righteousness. And so, in not living out that which the creator has intended not only have we committed injustices against others, but we have committed injustices against ourselves and He who created us.  Our works were all birthed by our own desires and will bring forth death.

“The idea that any of our good works is sufficient to make amends for our bad works is not theologically or philosophically sound.”

But there is another kind of dead work.  And these dead works do not look as though they would produce death.  The quintessential example is that model prisoner, sentenced to a life of imprisonment, who builds a library that educates fellow inmates in order that they can build a good life when they are released.  Hundreds and then thousands of fellow inmates are impacted by their education for the better until one day someone makes the argument that the model inmates’ sentence should be commuted because of all the good that he has done since he was imprisoned.  But what if the person he had killed were your son or the woman he had raped were your daughter?  How many people would have to be helped before justice was served?  Ten, one hundred, one thousand?  How many lives would have to be saved before your son were returned?

The idea that any of our good works is sufficient to make amends for our bad works is not theologically or philosophically sound.  Even less so when we take into consideration that we were expected to be good and righteous by the one who created us and the very fact that we are not is a sin against that creator.  Can being what you were supposed to be amend for the fact that you once were not?  Could you make an argument that your works are good enough that you should not be judged for the works that were not good enough?  This was the error of the Pharisees in the time of Jesus.

“The Law was teaching them that righteousness cannot be found as an earned payment for legalistic works.”

David Stern writing about the Israelites of Jesus time argues that although they were pursuing the righteousness of The Law they missed that The Law was teaching them that righteousness cannot be found as an earned payment for legalistic works (Stern 1992, Rom 9:31).  J. Scott states plainly that, “both Intertestamental and Rabbinic Judaism were legalistic in nature, that they sought to earn or merit salvation by meticulous observance of the law (Scott 1995, 273-274).”  Are you trying to earn your righteousness, or do you mistakenly believe that you have already earned it?

We all know someone or some family of “good” people. They work hard, they don’t steal, and they are kind to one another. They may even go to church. But can any of this recover for them that which was lost in the fall? Do all of these good works when combined overcome the requirement for justice demanded by one evil deed or even one evil thought? The Bible teaches that the answer is a resounding no.

What is left then is to wonder, “are there any works that produce life?”  And the miracle of all miracles is that the answer is yes!!!  The work that Jesus completed on the cross is the only work that could and does produce life.  All our works produced and produce death and those deaths were paid for by the perfect sacrifice of Jesus on the cross.  The justice demanded for each of our dead works was paid, in full, by the very one who that justice is owed!  When you accept this work, you are brought out of your dead works and in freedom you are then able to serve one another through love (Gal 5:13).  That service will either encourage believers to persevere in their faith or cause unbelievers to accept Jesus’ work in faith.  Both of which are works of service that, through the work of Jesus, continue to produce life.

“We are to accept that our evil deeds, those that most obviously produce death, require justice.”

Finally, what does it mean then to repent from our dead works?  It means that we are to change our mind about righteousness.  We are to accept that our evil deeds, those that most obviously produce death, require justice; justice that is owed to our creator.  In our pride we decided that we new better what we were created for than He, and so we made ourselves into that which we were not intended to be.  We were intended to be righteous before God.  And in that lost righteousness we must also accept that we cannot generate our own righteousness or cover our own unrighteousness by our own “good” works.  Our “good” works are also dead.  Because we have offended against God.

Repent!  Accept Jesus work on your behalf by faith and start working to produce life in obedience to Him.  That is what it means to move on to maturity in Christ.

Thanks for reading and do not forget to subscribe to my e-mail below.  I am working on some great things and I would hate for you to miss out.

Photo by Wendy Scofield on Unsplash

Scott, J. Julius. Jewish Backgrounds Of The New Testament. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 1995.

Stern, David H. Jewish New Testament Commentary. Clarksville: Jewish New Testament Publications, Inc., 1992.

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