Tag: Hope

Becoming and Being a Disciple (John 1:29-42)

On By AaronIn DiscipleLeave a comment

            To be a disciple of Christ starts with a belief about Christ.  To be His disciple you must believe that He is who He says He is and that He has done what He says He has done.

A Disciple Must Believe

            The foundation of discipleship has always been belief.  This is even true in Old Testament theology.  Writing to the Kingdom of Judah Isiah warned, “…the LORD of hosts, him you shall honor as holy.  Let him be your fear, and let him be your dread.  And he will become a sanctuary and a stone of offense and a rock of stumbling to both houses of Israel, a trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.  And many shall stumble on it.  They shall fall and be broken; they shall be shared and taken (Isa 8:13-15).”  The Bible Knowledge Commentary summarizes it this way, “The Lord will be a sanctuary, a place of safety, for those who believe in Him, but for those who do not believe Him, He will be the means of destruction (a stone… a rock… a trap, and a snare) (Walvoord and Zuck 2004, 1501).”  Peter quotes this very passage as he speaks of unbelief.  

“So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe,
“The Stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone,”
and
“A stone of stumbling,
and a rock of offense (1Pe 2:7-8).”

            You can not be a disciple of Christ if you are not a believer in Christ and we don’t disciple the unbelieving world.

A Disciple Must Learn

            Discipleship must be more than simple belief.  Again, looking to the Old Testament, Isaiah’s next words are intriguing, “Bind up the testimony; seal the teaching among my disciples (Isa 8:16).”  The Hebrew word here for disciples is לִמֻּד limmûd, (pronounced lim-mood´) and it means accustomed, disciple, learned, taught, and used (Strong 1890, 3928).  It comes from the Hebrew לָמַד lâmad, (pronounced law-mad´) which means properly to goad and by implication to teach, instruct, or learn (Strong 1890, 3925).  The implication may come from the Oriental idea of the rod as an incentive (i.e., goad) for learning (Strong 1890, 3925).  Isaiah then is telling Judah to “bind up the testimony and seal the teaching” by learning the testimony and the teaching.

            Because the Hebrew word for ‘testimony’ can also mean ‘a precept’ or ‘precepts’ and that the Hebrew word translated into the English Standard Version’s ‘teaching’ is תּוֹרָה tôwrâh, (pronounced to-raw´) the meaning of Isaiah’s exhortation to God’s disciples is that they are to seal the precepts of The Law.  To be a disciple of Jesus then is to first believe that He is who He says He is, the Messiah, and then to seal up His teachings that the precepts of the Law teach about Him.  To be a disciple then is to continue to learn the precepts, i.e., the principles and teachings of Jesus.

Andrew, Peter and You.

            In the Gospel of John two of John the Baptist’s disciples heard John the Baptist proclaim Jesus to be, “the Lamb of God” and because of the proclamation decided to follow Jesus (Joh 1:35-37).  They transferred their discipleship from John the Baptist to Jesus based on what they believed about Jesus; that He was the Lamb of God.

            What John the Baptist understood “the Lamb of God” to be is difficult to discern.  Looking back on the proclamation today we associate it with the sacrificial system and the Pascal Lamb of the Passover.  However, we do know that the Jews of the First Century were looking for a Messiah.  “The evaluation of a messianic claim was both an individual and an official matter. Those who committed themselves to Jesus did so on the basis of their own assessment of him (John 1:38–45; 4:42) (Scott 1995, 320).”  Not unlike how each of us came to Jesus.

            What is cool is Jesus’ reaction to them.  From the first moment He begins to teach them.  “Jesus turned and saw them following and said to them, “What are you seeking (Joh 1:38)?”  As you read through the Gospel of John you are going to find that He had much to teach them.  Their understanding of who “the Lamb of God” is in the beginning will be transformed and rocked by what they learn from and about Jesus.  At this point in their growth, they can’t even answer Jesus’ first question.  They immediately redirect His interrogation by asking Him where He is staying (Joh 1:38).

            Andrew, went to his brother, Simon, and shared, “’We have found the Messiah’ and then brought him to Jesus (Joh 1:41-42).”  Jesus started Simon’s journey by changing his name to Peter.  Is this Peter the same as the Peter we find in Acts?  No!  Because Jesus revealed Himself to Peter and Peter learned.

Is Jesus teaching you?

Is Jesus teaching you?  Are you spending enough time in His Word that His Spirit can transform you by the Truth of who Jesus is?  It requires a daily commitment to a lifetime of discipleship.  Even Jesus’ Disciples continued to learn and be taught after Jesus’ death.  Have you found the Messiah?  That is only the beginning.  Are you His Disciple?

One last thought on Isaiah.  He wrote that God’s disciples are to ‘seal’ His testimony and teaching.  The idea is that of a royal seal.  A sign of authority and identity.  When we ask the question of ourselves, “am I His Disciple?” the proof is in the seal.  That seal is found in your understanding and your commitment to the precepts of God.  If you are, people will look at you and see God’s authority and identity on your life.  They will know that you are His.  If not, they will see a seal that will identify you with the authority of this world.  There are only two seals and two identities.

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

Image by Sang Valte from Pixabay 

By clicking submit, you agree to share your email address with the site owner and Mailchimp to receive marketing, updates, and other emails from the site owner. Use the unsubscribe link in those emails to opt out at any time.

Processing…
Success! You're on the list.

“Abaft of the Binnacle?”

On By AaronIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

Have you ever wondered why there are so many English translations of the Bible?  Have you ever wondered which Bible translation of all the translations is the closest to the original language?  If so, you are not alone.

The reason we have so many Bible translations comes down to three things.  First, what philosophy was used in the process of the translation. Second, what new historical and archaeological discoveries have been made that can enhance our understanding of the language and the context in which it was used.  Finally, and sadly, there are some who attempt to shoehorn cultural concepts and understandings of our own day and age into the meaning of the text as they translate it from the original language to the English language.

If you are new to Bible study, you might not be aware that the original manuscripts of the Old and New Testaments were not written in English.  The Old Testament was originally penned in Hebrew and much of the New testament was originally penned in Greek with some of it originally written in Aramaic.  Most Bible commentaries have an introduction to each book and in that introduction, they will address the original language.

“Translating from one language to another is not usually a one-to-one affair.”

Unfortunately, translating from one language to another is not usually a one-to-one affair.  Syntax is different and the way grammatical concepts are communicated vary between languages.  When a translator begins the process, they have to decide on their translation philosophy.  They have to decide if they are going to focus on creating a word for word translation or an idea for idea translation.  Linguists have to decide if they are going to go for a functional equivalence, often also called a dynamic equivalence, or formal equivalence.  “Formal equivalence preserves the form of the original language as much as the new “receptor” language into which one is translating permits, while functional equivalence translates using words or expressions that duplicate the original function even if less exactly equivalent word by word (Blomberg and Markley 2010, 39).”  Let me explain why this is important.

Several summers ago, while I was working in the Reserve Officer Training Corps (R.O.T.C.) I was the executive officer of a cadet regiment at Ft. Knox.  Every year 10,000 cadets go to Ft Knox to be evaluated and that year I was responsible for 600 of them.  I was averaging 4-5 hours of sleep and was even having difficulty finding time to call home.  I was also still working through my master’s in divinity and had to find time to get my studies done.  To find time to myself I would go off base to the Barnes and Nobles and work in the café.  However, on this evening it was packed with High School kids.  Turns out this was a popular dating spot.

“What would I be telling you if I was to say that I was abaft of the binnacle?”

I found a table occupied by another “old guy” who was reading a book that looked as large as the one I was going to be working from and we came to a quick agreement.  I could share his table if I didn’t bother him, and he didn’t bother me.  Everything was going well until he asked me what I was working on.  After I told him that I needed to write a small paper on why context matters when we are trying to understand the Bible, I knew that I had to then ask him what he was working on.  He was studying the history of the English language.  After this short and polite exchange, we both got back to work and I was making good progress until he asked me a simple question, “what would I be telling you if I was to say that I was abaft of the binnacle?”

“Well,” I responded as I let whatever thought I was working on evaporate into the din of yacking high schoolers, “I know ‘abaft’ is a nautical term that means behind but I’m not sure what a binnacle is.”

“A binnacle is the wooden case that holds the ships compass and allows it to float freely in a storm.”

“Then I would say that you were standing behind the ships compass.”

He said, “Nope, I’d be telling you that I wasn’t feeling well.”  Now I was intrigued.  He continued, “In the days of the sailing ship if you were sick or injured you would go down below the water line and see the ships doctor.  If you weren’t ill enough, he’d send you back to your duties but if you were in fact sick, he would add your name to a list.  The doctor would then hand that list to the First Mate who would take it up top and pin it to the back of the binnacle.  When the Captain would come on duty he would come out of his quarters and retrieve the list so that he would know his crew’s status for the day.  When I tell you that I am ‘abaft of the binnacle’ I am telling you that my name is on that list because I am not feeling well.  The only way for you to have understood my meaning was to know the context.”  Yep, that was much better than the thought I let drift into the din.

“Bottom line, there isn’t a perfect answer.”

Now, imagine that this guy had told me ‘I am abaft of the binnacle’ in Greek and you and I, who know Greek and English, have to translate it from Greek to English.  We could go for a word for word translation and simply translate it ‘I am abaft of the binnacle.’  That would be a formal equivalent.  But we know that anyone who doesn’t know the context would miss the meaning so we could translate it, ‘I am not feeling well.’  This would be a functional equivalent.  The downside of this translation though is that it doesn’t communicate the naval context or background of the speaker.  But this is still an oversimplification because other translators might even say that we should replace one idiom ‘I am abaft of the binnacle’ for another idiom of the English culture, ‘I am under the weather.’  Bottom line, there isn’t a perfect answer.  The good news though is that you can trust any translation that is translating using either philosophy because in doing so they are at least committed to conveying the original meaning of the original transcript.  The bad news is that it is almost impossible to tell a joke through an interpreter because of this language translation problem.  Just don’t do it.

You can find online many charts that will show you where your translation is on the chart.  Is it a functional equivalent, formal equivalent, or some mix of the two.  I lean towards the ESV because it is closer to the formal equivalent and I like to diagram to get at an even clearer understanding of the original meaning.  Someday I will probably diagram in Greek or Hebrew but that might just be in the hear after.  I also like the NIV for ease of reading but often I will consult multiple translations so I can see what the formal and the equivalent translations produce and get a clearer understanding of the original.  I know, I know… but this is not the nerd you are looking for.

Now I also mentioned historical and archaeological discoveries.  The finding of the Rosetta Stone and the Nag Hammadi texts have also had an impact on our current English translations.  You might want to consider a more recent version of some of our translations.  The sad part though is that getting the most recent version isn’t a guarantee either.  Some translations now are changing wording from the original so that it is easier to justify current societal trends.  I would stay away from these.  You can decide to support what ever societal trend you decide to support but at least do it with an understanding of what the original texts actually said as opposed to what somebody would have preferred them to say.

Anyway, I hope that helps you to find an English version of the Bible that you can trust and is easy for you to understand.  Apart from those two things, ease and trust, you won’t spend much time studying.  It’s like trying to run when your back hurts and your sinuses are stuffed up.  Sounds like a good idea but its not fun enough that you will keep doing it until you lose any weight. Keep working and, “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth (2Ti 2:15).”

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. Also, let me know in the comments below which translation you prefer and why. I look forward to hearing your thoughts.

Image by Free-Photos from Pixabay

Blomberg, Craig L, and Jennifer Foutz Markley. A Handboook of New Testament Exegesis. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2010.

By clicking submit, you agree to share your email address with the site owner and Mailchimp to receive marketing, updates, and other emails from the site owner. Use the unsubscribe link in those emails to opt out at any time.

Processing…
Success! You're on the list.

The Prologue… John Sets the Stage (John 1:1-18)

On By AaronIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

Often, I have suggested the Gospel of John as the beginning point in any study of the Bible.  It is a common misconception that the Bible is a book with chapters that details a story in chronological order.  It is closer to the truth to describe the Bible as a collection of writing about the revelation of God.  But what is God trying to reveal?  His primary revelation is His plan of redemption.  The necessity, the requirement, the accomplishment, and ultimately the completion of His plan to redeem mankind and creation is the central thread that ties the entire Bible together.  This is why I suggest starting with the Gospel of John.

“John is setting the stage for his intended purpose.”

The writer of the Gospel of John identifies his purpose in Chapter 20, “…but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name (Joh 20:31, ESV).”  This is the linchpin of God’s plan of redemption and everything that John writes is intended to support that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you will have life.  But even John, not unlike the Bible as a whole, has to build to that idea.

In the prologue John is going to introduce some foundational concepts; ‘the Word’, ‘the life’, and ‘the light.’  He is setting the stage for his intended purpose.

The Word

The idea of ‘the Word’ is probably one of the most misunderstood because it is perhaps the most abused.  As a result, there are a lot of ideas about ‘the Word’ that can mislead.  There are those who hold that John borrowed the term from Greek philosophy.  “In Stoic thought, logos was reason, the impersonal rational principle governing the universe. Stoics thought this principle pervaded the entire universe; indeed, they recognized no other god (logos was for them roughly equivalent to theos, “God”) (Köstenberger 2013, 40).”  Some hold that the idea is the personification of wisdom as found in the Wisdom literature.  “Wisdom, like John’s logos, claims preexistence and participation in God’s creative activity. Wisdom, like the logos, is depicted as a vehicle of God’s self-revelation, in creation as well as the Law (Köstenberger 2013, 41).”  I do not hold to either of these positions.

“It is the glory of God to conceal things, but the glory of kings is to search things out.”

Proverbs 25:1

When we look at the other foundational concepts that John is introducing, we find that his understanding of each of these concept is built on a Hebraic understanding.  Additionally, John’s purpose is to identify Jesus as ‘the Christ,’ a decidedly Hebraic title and concept.  Why should we understand ‘the Word’ from a Greek understanding?  Now, you can not argue that the wisdom literature is not Hebraic.  The problem I have with associating ‘the Word’ with the personification of wisdom is that the Wisdom Literature is clear, wisdom is not enough for salvation.  There is no thought, there is no idea, there is no secret understanding that can save you.  Your salvation comes from Christ’s atoning work on the cross.  No ‘the Word’ must be more than wisdom personified.  “For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe (1Co 1:21).”

The Word is God’s plan for your redemption and the redemption of all creation.  It is what was alluded to but kept hidden in the Old Testament and that which is revealed in the New Testament.  Proverbs reads, “it is the glory of God to conceal things, but the glory of kings is to search things out (Pro 25:1).”  When we go to the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament, we find that the Greek word logos is translated into English things in this proverb.  Put another way, “it is the glory of God to conceal ‘the Word’, but the glory of kings is to search ‘the Word’ out.”

John is saying that this thing that we need, that all creation needs, is ‘the Word’.  And by describing ‘the Word’ as present in the beginning, with God, as being God, he is assigning Hebraic attributes to ‘the Word’ that could only belong to God.  It is John’s first allusion that ‘the Christ’ was God.  Proverbs might have well been saying, “it is the glory of God to conceal ‘the Christ’, but the glory of kings is to search ‘the Christ’ out” and because John’s purpose is to identify Jesus as ‘the Christ’ the Proverb becomes, “it is the glory of God to conceal Jesus, but the glory of kings is to search Jesus out.”

The Life

It is hard to understand life without death.  We are surrounded by death and each of us has an appointment with death.  I know, we like to isolate ourselves and pretend it is not there, but you cannot escape it.  However, it is in our connection to the death of Jesus that He becomes life for us.  A.W. Tozer says it best, “…in Jesus Christ Himself, we became part of Him and He became part of us and took us up into Himself so that in one sense, when He died, as Paul said, we all died. Instead of the law putting one man to death for all, He put all men to death and raised from the dead all who believe in Jesus Christ, so that every man dies for his sins. The sinner dies alone and the Christian dies in Christ. But every man dies for his sins. He either dies by joining his heart to Jesus Christ, and is tucked up under the wings of Jesus and dies in the body of Christ, or else he dies alone in his sins (Tozer 2009, 181).”  By introducing the idea of ‘the Life’ John is beginning to connect ‘the Christ’ to the Hebraic understanding of a resurrection.  “By the time of the New Testament, belief in immortality and some form of resurrection seems to have been accepted by most Jewish groups (except the Sadducees) and the average Jews (Scott 1995, 281).”  They were looking forward to a resurrection and John is alluding to that expectation.

Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life.  Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die (Joh 11:25-26).”  I’ll let A.W. Tozer conclude this section, “if we had died alone and in ourselves there would have been no resurrection into eternal life. But because we died in Him and with Him, there is a resurrection unto eternal life and the new birth and glory to come (Tozer 2009, 182).”

The Light

Going back to proverbs and those things that God has hidden that it is our glory to search out.  Wouldn’t it be nice to have a search light as we search those things out?  Sometimes I imagine the Old Testament as a cave and often it feels as if I am feeling around in the dark as I read from the Old Testament.  But God has provided a light!  How are we to understand the Old Testament and God’s plan of redemption?  Through the lens and the light of Jesus.  Adam Clarke, quoting Mr. Wakefield explains, “Even in the midst of that darkness of ignorance and idolatry which overspread the world, this light of Divine wisdom was not totally eclipsed (Clarke 1810-1826, 512).”  If you desire to see how you have been redeemed, you need to look to Jesus; you need to understand by the light of Jesus’ teachings.  “Again, Jesus spoke to them, saying, ‘I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life (Joh 8:12).’”

“I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.”

John 11:25-26

I have no doubt that John is preaching primarily to a Jewish reader.  He assumes some things about his reader that only a Jew would understand apart from an explanation.  But do not worry, those understandings have not been lost to time and culture and you can understand them to.  The Gospel of John has been handed down to us so that we can understand what it is that God has done for us.  When we understand we become able to explain and give our own reasons for the hope that we have in Christ (1Pe 3:15).  We then become lights for Him (Eph 5:8).

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.  Watch for an upcoming blog in which I introduce John the Baptist, the Christ, Elijah, and the Prophet.

Image by Sang Valte from Pixabay 

Clarke, Adam. Adam Clarke’s Commentary On The Bible. Public Domain, 1810-1826.

Köstenberger, Andreas J. Encountering John: The Gospel in Historical, Leterary, and Theological Perspective. Edited by Walter A. Elwell. Grand rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2013.

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

Tozer, A. W. And He Dwelt among Us: Teachings from the Gospel of John. Edited by James L. Snyder. Ventura, CA: Regal, 2009.

All of these resources can be found in the Faith, Hope, Love (Life) Store.

By clicking submit, you agree to share your email address with the site owner and Mailchimp to receive marketing, updates, and other emails from the site owner. Use the unsubscribe link in those emails to opt out at any time.

Processing…
Success! You're on the list.

Behold, the days are coming… Monday after Easter.

On By AaronIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more (Jer 31:31-34).”

            When the Army gives you a piece of equipment it is not a gift.  It is a loan.  One of my favorite pieces of equipment was the old cold weather sleeping bag.  Do not get me wrong, the new one is by far better.  Most importantly because the new one is waterproof.  But the old one, if you could keep it dry, could not be beaten for warmth.  When I was issued that sleeping bag, I had to sign what is called a hand receipt.  It was a piece of paper that would be held by the supply sergeant that recorded that I had been given one cold weather sleeping bag and that one day I would return it to the Army.

            I received that sleeping bag as a young, enlisted soldier who later would join ROTC on his way to becoming a commissioned officer.  Working through college I held many jobs but one of them was at a local Subway.  Yes, I was once a sandwich artist.  One day I discovered a fellow sandwich artist had been sleeping in the cardboard recycling bin.  He had been kicked out of his friend’s place, probably for not paying his share of the rent, and had no where else to go.  I could not offer long term residence at my place as I had several room mates and we too were struggling to pay our rent.  I could not bring in a non-contributor.  But what I did do was offer him a dry place in my garage and the use of my Army issue sleeping bag while he tried to figure out his next move.  He did not stay long and unfortunately when he left, he had absconded with my Army issued sleeping bag.  Because of that hand receipt with my name on it the Army would not forget my debt.

“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.”

Romans 1:18

            What you may not realize is that God holds a hand receipt on your life.  He has issued you a life and you are required to return it in original condition.  Paul, writing to the Ephesians explains, “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind (Eph 2:1-3).”  Because of our sins, because of our disobedience a debt is owed.  God’s righteousness demands a payment for unrighteousness.  “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth (Rom 1:18).”

            Back to my sleeping bag.  In the Army you have two options; you can replace the item in kind, or you can sign a statement of charges that will authorize the army to withhold the value of the item from your pay.  The first option is why you see a lot of “Army Surplus” stores just outside most army posts.  Soldiers will go and find a like item that they can then take back to the supply sergeant in place of the item they lost.  When the item is returned, a like item is returned, or when the money is taken from your pay the hand receipt is “cleared.”  This means that your name and the items you owe are taken off the hand receipt.  In practice though the supply sergeant usually just hands you the hand receipt and you can destroy it in any fashion you choose.  In this way, the Army is forgetting the debt you owe.  Now, no one would expect the sergeant to forget that he loaned you a sleeping bag.  Rather the debt owed is forgotten on account that it has been paid.

“Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions.”

Psalm 51:1

            In essence, this is what we celebrate every Easter but in a much bigger way.  You were created for God and that purpose requires righteousness.  In your disobedience you have soiled and ruined your righteousness and can no longer clear your own hand receipt.  What is the answer?  The writer of Acts spells it out, “repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus, whom heaven must receive until the time for restoring all the things about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets long ago (Acts 3:19-21).”  Did you catch that, “…that your sins may be blotted out?”  That is the first century equivalent of a cleared hand receipt.  The Psalmist wrote, “have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions (Psa 51:1).”

            But no one can just walk into a supply sergeant’s office and declare the hand receipt cleared.  Someone must make the payment.  This is even more true for God.  To just declare your unrighteousness righteous would be to bring God’s righteousness from His level of perfection to your level of imperfection.  It would be to compromise God’s own righteousness.

“For God has not destines us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us…”

First Thessalonians 5:9-10

            What we celebrate at Easter is God’s clearing of your hand receipt.  The crucifixion is what is owed for your sins.  The payment has been made.  “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.  For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him (Joh 3:16-17).”  The resurrection is proof that there were sufficient funds in the account.  “For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with him (1Th 5:9-10).”  The “awake or asleep” in that passage is a reference to those who are in Christ whether alive or those who have already died.

            A debt was owed, and a debt was paid!  Paid in full by Christ.  Remembered no more, not because God has forgotten, but because the legal requirement has been met.  Did you celebrate Easter this weekend?  Is your hand receipt in fact clear?  If not, repent today and turn to Jesus that you might live, and live eternally.  A time is coming when it will be too late.  For those of us who are already His, does it show every day?  Are you grateful enough that celebrating only on Easter is not enough?  Imagine my excitement at the return of that Army issued sleeping bag.  How should God’s clearing of your ultimate hand receipt make you feel?

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.

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

By clicking submit, you agree to share your email address with the site owner and Mailchimp to receive marketing, updates, and other emails from the site owner. Use the unsubscribe link in those emails to opt out at any time.

Processing…
Success! You're on the list.

Salt and Saltiness

On By AaronIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

“Salt is good, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored?  It is of no use either for the soil or for the manure pile.  It is thrown away.  He who has ears to hear, let him hear (Luk 14:34-35, ESV).”

What does it mean to be the ‘salt of the earth?’  What are we saying when we are saying, ‘that person is the salt of the earth?’  Are we saying that the person is a good person?  That is how I understand the common usage.  Are we saying that for such a person Jesus died on the cross?  If so, I suspect that we are using the phrase incorrectly.  Or at least we are using it un-biblically.

Imagine the spheres of your life for one second.  Imagine drawing a circle on a piece of paper and in the center of it writing ‘family.’  Imagine drawing more circles, each with a label; maybe ‘profession,’ or ‘work,’ or ‘recreation.’  We could be more specific, one might be labeled ‘family,’ ‘immediate family,’ ‘Mission Command Training Support,’ ‘National Guard,’ ‘seminary,’ ‘mountain biking,’ and ‘video games.’  Would there be one that is all encompassing?  Would one circle be larger than another?

“To paraphrase Jesus is saying that if you do not love your family less than you love Him then you can not be His disciple.”

Before remarking about the taste of salt Jesus started this conversation by stating, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, even his own life, he cannot be my disciple (Luk 14:26).”  Hate is a strong word.  The Greek word here is μισέω or miseō (pronounced mis-eh’-o) and according to Strong’s (G3404) it means hatred, to detest, and by extension to love less and I think it is in this final meaning that our Lord is referring to.  To paraphrase Jesus is saying that if you do not love your family less than you love Him then you can not be His disciple.  He is even saying that you can not be His disciple if you love your own life more than you love Him.  What He is saying is that every sphere of your life, to include life itself, must be contained within the sphere that is acceptance of who He is and the discipleship that must follow.  Being a Christian is to place everything within the sphere of Christ.

Now I know Easter is upon us and you might think that I am beginning to build a condemnation of what we pejoratively call Christmas and Easter Christians but I would argue it is as easy to leave Christ behind in the pew on a weekly basis as it is to leave Christ behind in the pew on a semi-annual basis.  I am writing as much to regular church goers as I am to irregular church goers.

“To Accept Jesus is to accept His authority to call you to turn your back on every aspect of your life.”

A. W. Tozer, in his work And He Dwelt among Us: Teachings from the Gospel of John, identifies five reasons the unbeliever does not accept Jesus.  First, to accept Jesus is to accept His authority to call you to turn your back on every aspect of your life; every other sphere.  He may not call you to that but He has the authority to do so and that is scary.  We value our other spheres.  Second, to accept Jesus is to accept His authority to change your habits.  “Some people are not going to change their way of living, no matter what (Tozer).”  We are stubbornly locked into our spheres even where to label some of them with our addictions.  Third, to accept Jesus is to be cleansed.  “Some people would rather have the dirt than the Son of God (Tozer).”  Far be it from me to argue with Tozer but I don’t know if I would have put this one second.  That we love our dirt is confirmed in our refusal to adjust those habits that bring us back into contact with our opportunities to get dirty.  Fourth, to accept Jesus is to face a complete redirection of your life.  This again follows from the previous reasons but let’s be honest, even for those of us who are not that bad, before Jesus we were so thoroughly soaked in our sin that to give it up was to change directions completely.  All of this brings us to the fifth and final reason.  “The reason they rejected Christ was that it would have meant faith in the unseen. They would have had to throw themselves on God. They would have to give up their tangible comforts and trust completely in Jesus Christ (Tozer).”

As I reflect on Tozer’s reasons I am struck by Jesus words in Luke 14.  To be His disciple is to place every sphere within the sphere of Him.  Sadly, how many of us label one of our spheres ‘church’ and want to leave it among the others.  Oh, it might be bigger than the others but it still does not contain the others.  Heaven forbid we might even label that ‘church’ sphere ‘Jesus.’  All so that we can claim Christianity without actually allowing Christ to claim us.  Might this be the condition of the heart that goes before Jesus on the day of judgment who on that day will say, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’  To which He will reply, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness (Mat 7:22-23).’

“All so that we can claim Christianity without actually allowing Christ to claim us.”

To lose your saltiness as a Christian is to place Christ in the wrong sphere.  To retain your saltiness as a Christian is to place every other sphere of your life, to include that very life, within the sphere and the lordship of Jesus Christ.  Only then can we bear the cross that we have been given.  Paul is communicating this same idea when he writes to the Philippians, “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.  And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross (Php 2:5-9).”  Jesus placed every sphere of His life under the authority of His father becoming our redeemer and the example of how we should live our lives in this world.

Jesus finishes this thought by telling those around him to count the cost of discipleship.  And at first glance you might think that He is warning you that to be His disciple is to risk loosing everything.  But when you do the calculus what you find is that He is not pointing to the cost He is pointing to the gain.  We are coming up on Easter weekend.  We will be celebrating the resurrection of our Lord.  A resurrection that guarantees our own resurrection (Rom 6:5).  That is the gain that should be considered in sight of the cost.  What would you give up to gain that resurrection?

“For whoever, would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.  For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul?  Or what shall a man give in return for his soul? (Mat 16:25-26)”  Do not be deceived!  You must be a disciple of Jesus to be saved.  He who has ears to hear, let him hear!

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.

Image by andreas160578 from Pixabay

Tozer, A. W. And He Dwelt among Us: Teachings from the Gospel of John. Edited by James L. Snyder. Ventura, CA: Regal, 2009.

This resource can be found in the Faith, Hope, Love (Life) Store

By clicking submit, you agree to share your email address with the site owner and Mailchimp to receive marketing, updates, and other emails from the site owner. Use the unsubscribe link in those emails to opt out at any time.

Processing…
Success! You're on the list.

That you might believe…

On By AaronIn Uncategorized1 Comment

“Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name (Joh 20:30-31).”

I am getting ready to begin a course in my seminary on the Gospel of John.  The Gospel of John is my favorite of the gospels and so I am excited about this class.  Eight weeks in the Gospel of John.  Bring it on!

“This Gospel was written by John so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ.”

Anyway, in chapter twenty we find the purpose statement for this particular gospel.  This Gospel was written by John so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, that Jesus is the Messiah.  The word translated ‘belief’ here is the Greek word pistĕuō (pronounced pist-yoo) which means to have faith and by implication to entrust one’s spiritual well-being to Christ (Strong 1890, 4100).  Pistĕuō comes from another Greek word pistis which is often translated into our English world ‘faith’ (Strong 1890, 4102).  The belief that John is hoping to inspire here comes from faith.

Now, to have faith, at least according to the Greek understanding of the word pistis, is to be persuaded that something is true or to have a conviction that something is true.  Pistis is not blind as our English understanding of faith can often be.  John does not want you to believe for the sake of believing.  He wants you to believe based on your conviction that it is true.  Pistis comes from another Greek word pĕithō.  Pĕithō is a verb which means to convince by argument that something is true or false (Strong 1890, 3982).  According to the Greek understanding of faith it would be wholly appropriate to question someone about their faith.  Why are you convinced that something is true?  Your faith should be a reasonable faith.  You should be able to articulate why you believe what you believe.  John’s Gospel is the articulation of why he believes that Jesus is the Messiah.

“It is as if Jesus is anticipating their unbelief in His power to raise the dead.”

About halfway through the Gospel of John we even find the shortest verse in the Bible, “Jesus wept (Joh 11:35).”  Many people write that Jesus wept because he loved Lazarus; which is no doubt true.  However, I suspect that His love for Lazarus is not the reason He weeps.  In verse four Jesus says that Lazarus will not die and when he heard that Lazarus was ill, he waits two whole days.  To make sure that everyone knew that He was going to raise Lazarus from the dead he has a conversation just to emphasize that Lazarus is not just sleeping.  In verse fourteen He tells the disciples that He is glad that He was not there when Lazarus died.  It is as if Jesus is anticipating their unbelief in His power to raise the dead.

Finally, when He tells Martha that her brother will rise her response is to assure Jesus that Lazarus will rise at the resurrection.  Of course, to the Jewish mind everyone will rise at the resurrection, unless you are a Sadducee who does not believe in that sort of thing.  Martha did not believe that Jesus could or would raise her brother and I suspect the disciples may have shared her reservations and beliefs.

“Would Jesus weep today?”

All of this occurred so that Jesus could tell them, and us, that he is the resurrection and the life and mean it in the most literal of ways.  He who believes in him will never die.  I think Jesus wept because no one was believing Him.  Would Jesus weep today?  The Gospel of John is about believing that Jesus is the Messiah.  The Gospel of John is about a Messiah who dies for your sins. Apart from that belief you remain dead in your transgressions.  That would be worthy of a weeping Messiah.

What is fascinating about the Gospel of John is that you will not find the word ‘faith’ even once.  But you will find ‘believe’ ninety-eight times, twice just in the description of the Gospel of John’s purpose.  John is adamant about this belief because it is in this conviction that we gain eternal life.  Later John would even encourage early Christians by telling them plainly, “I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life (1Jn 5:13).”  Adam Clarke, commenting on this passage paraphrases John, “I write to show your privileges—to lead you into this holy of holies—to show what believing on the Son of God is, by the glorious effects it produces: it is not a blind reliance for, but an actual enjoyment of, salvation; Christ living, working, and reigning in the heart (Clarke 1810-1826, 925).”

If you are confident that the scriptures you hold in your hand are true and unchanged since they were penned in their original language I would encourage you to open them again and spend some time in the Gospel of John.  Ask a lot of questions, seek a lot of answers, and when you are done, I am confident that your faith will be made stronger so that you can live a belief in a Messiah who lives, works, and reigns in your heart and will produce fruit for His kingdom.

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.

Image by Sang Valte from Pixabay 

Clarke, Adam. Adam Clarke’s Commentary On The Bible. Public Domain, 1810-1826.

Strong, James. Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance. Abingdon Press, 1890.

These resources can be found in the Faith, Hope, Love (Life) Store

By clicking submit, you agree to share your email address with the site owner and Mailchimp to receive marketing, updates, and other emails from the site owner. Use the unsubscribe link in those emails to opt out at any time.

Processing…
Success! You're on the list.

Foolishness!

On By AaronIn Uncategorized3 Comments

“For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness.  All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person (Mar 7:21-23).”

As a police officer and soldier, you see the worst in people.  I am not saying that good doesn’t exist I’m just saying that I have seen the worst.  When Jesus tells us that their exists in the heart of man sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, and pride it is almost self-evident.  That every legal system has prohibitions against these things seems to witness to the fact of this universal understanding of the evil inherent in these things.  That every religious system wrestle with these things seems to witness to the same fact.  That those of us who strive to be good people rate our goodness in terms of how well we are avoiding these things also seems to witness to the same fact.  If that is true, what sets the Law apart, what sets Christianity apart, and what sets the Christian apart?  I submit that it is in foolishness.

“The Rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are justice.  A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is he.”

Deuteronomy 32:4

Just before the Israelites move out of the wilderness and into the promised land Moses writes a song.  The song was given to him by God to confront the Israelites when they would eventually find themselves in disobedience.  In that song Moses describes the God of Israel.  “The Rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are justice.  A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is he (Deu 32:4).”  Later, in that same song, Moses will contrast that Rock with the rocks of the other nations.

Deuteronomy 32:31–33 (ESV)
31    For their rock is not as our Rock;
our enemies are by themselves.
32    For their vine comes from the vine of Sodom
and from the fields of Gomorrah;
       their grapes are grapes of poison;
their clusters are bitter;
33    their wine is the poison of serpents
and the cruel venom of asps.

First, to trust in another rock is to be alone.  The Rock of Israel is the LORD.  The rock of the nations is at best an idea devoid of power at worst is an idea; a lie sold by demons.  It comes from Sodom and Gomorrah.  It is poisonous and destroys.  Foolishness is to trust in anything other than the God of Israel!

Deuteronomy 32:37–39 (ESV)
37    Then he will say, ‘Where are their gods,
the rock in which they took refuge,
38    who ate the fat of their sacrifices
and drank the wine of their drink offering?
       Let them rise up and help you;
let them be your protection!
39    “ ‘See now that I, even I, am he,
and there is no god beside me;
       I kill and I make alive;
I wound and I heal;
and there is none that can deliver out of my hand.

There are no other rocks!

There are no other rocks!  Foolishness is to trust in anything other than the God of Israel!  So let me ask you in what Rock do you take refuge?

Jesus will make this same point in the Gospel of Luke.  He starts by asking who will leave ninety-nine sheep to search for the one that is lost (Luk 15:3-7)?  He builds by asking who does not sweep their entire house to find a lost coin (Luk 15:8-10)?  This is the build up to the parable of the lost (prodigal) son in which Jesus ultimately describes a father who rejoices at the repentance of his lost son (Luk 15:11-32).  While the unrighteousness of the prodigal son is apparent and his need for repentance is clear if you are not careful you can miss that Jesus is also describing the unrighteousness of the brother and his need for repentance.  In doing so Jesus is describing the unrighteousness of the Pharisees which provoked the telling of the parable (Luk 15:1-2).

There is a hint of sarcasm here.

Where Jesus points to their foolishness is at the conclusion of the parable of the shrewd manager (Luk 16:1-9) and encourages the Pharisees to, “make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it fails, they may receive you into the eternal dwellings (Luk 16:8-9).” There is a hint of sarcasm here. The Pharisees were trusting in their own righteousness and were using that pretend righteousness to enrich themselves within the sacrificial system. That righteousness would fail and when it did who could they trust for eternal life? No one! The sarcasm is found in the foolishness of trusting in anything other than the God of Israel!

There is only one way to eternal life.  This way has accounted for the evil that is in your heart because He became that evil (2Co 5:21).  Jesus is the way (Joh 14:6)!  He is the Rock upon which the Christian church has been built (Mat 16:18).  Are you depending on your own righteousness?  This is foolishness.  Are you depending on another truth?  This is foolishness.  Are you depending on any other gospel?  This is foolishness.  Are you perpetuating the idea that any of these things can lead to eternal life?  This is foolishness.

“Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. Therefore, do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is (Eph 5:15-17).”  Anything other than that which is true is foolishness.

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 Marius Venter from Pexels

By clicking submit, you agree to share your email address with the site owner and Mailchimp to receive marketing, updates, and other emails from the site owner. Use the unsubscribe link in those emails to opt out at any time.

Processing…
Success! You're on the list.

There could be more here…

On By AaronIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

“Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.  That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.  Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’  The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit (Joh 3:5-8).”

In the passage above, Jesus is responding to Nicodemus’ question, “How can a man be born when he is old?  Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born (Joh 3:4)?”  But even Nicodemus’ question must be understood rhetorically.  He understood that there was something deeper to what Jesus was saying.  He just did not yet know what it was.

“…unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

John 3:3

Jesus had just told him, “unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God (Joh 3:3).”  Adam Clarke, commenting on that passage, notes that the Jews of Jesus time, believed that Gentile converts to Judaism underwent a new birth.  The Jews, “held that the Gentile, who became a proselyte, was like a child new born.”  In this sense Jesus was telling Nicodemus that not only did the Gentile need to be born again but so did Nicodemus, a practicing Jewish teacher The Law.

The other day I was in the Old Testament and as is often the case I found a passage that just did not make sense.  Back in Numbers we find a section titled in the English Standard Version “Laws of Purification.”  In this section we can read about the offering of a red heifer as a sin offering (Num 19:1-10). It is offered outside the camp and in the offering its carcass is to be burned.  In the burning the priest adds cedar wood, hyssop, and scarlet yarn to the fire.  The ashes are then gathered up and mixed with water to be, “kept for the water of impurity (Num 19:9).”  Strange.

“…how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.”

Hebrews 9:14

That this offering is symbolic of the sacrifice Jesus made on the cross is found in the New Testament book of Hebrews, “For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God (Heb 9:13-14).”  I have come to understand that the entire legal system of the Old Testament is the mechanism God devised for communicating the need for atonement, the requirement of the atonement to be offered, and for the purpose of pointing to Jesus as that atonement.  That Jesus is my sin offering is clear but what does this bit about mixing the ashes with water have to do with any of that?

Numbers explains further.  Whoever, in Israel, who had become unclean, by touching a dead body in this case, was to, “cleanse himself with the water on the third day and on the seventh day, and so be clean. But if he does not cleanse himself on the third day and on the seventh day, he will not become clean.  Whoever touches a dead person, the body of anyone who has died, and does not cleanse himself, defiles the tabernacle of the Lord, and that person shall be cut off from Israel; because the water for impurity was not thrown on him, he shall be unclean. His uncleanness is still on him (Num 19:12-13).”  The water for impurity was for the cleansing of the unclean.  Sound familiar?

“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

1 John 1:9

“If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.  But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin… If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1Jo 1:6-7, 9).”  The blood of Jesus also cleanses us from our unrighteousness, our uncleanness.

Also, in Revelation, “Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, “Who are these, clothed in white robes, and from where have they come?”  I said to him, “Sir, you know.” And he said to me, “These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb (Rev 7:13-14).”  Again, we see the efficacy of Jesus’ blood in the purification of these robes.  But are these similarities enough to prove my point; that the blood of Jesus is the water of impurity to be used for our purification?

“But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water.”

John 19:34

We read in the Gospel of John that at the crucifixion the soldiers were breaking the legs of the condemned to speed up death.  “But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs.  But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water (Joh 19:33-34).”  Could it be that in the piercing of his side the connection between the cleansing properties of His blood is being firmly tied to the water of impurity to be used for our purification?  The blood of Jesus sacrifice was mingled with water.

But again, I think the proof might be found back in the Old Testament.  God, writing through Ezekiel, declares, “I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.  And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules (Eze 36:25-27).”  Both elements of the new birth as described by Jesus to Nicodemus are there, the water and the spirit.  The Israelites hearing this declaration would have, in the context of the Old Covenant, understood this to mean the sacrifice of the red heifer, the water for purification, and a writing of that covenant on their hearts.  But in the context of the New Covenant, we know that the red heifer was pointing to Jesus and the water for purification was pointing specifically to His blood.

That we need to be born of flesh, in the sense that we must be born into this word, and born of the Spirit, in that we must be born into the Kingdom of God, to attain eternal life is undoubtedly true.  However, it seems to me extraneous to have to say that you must be born into this world to attain eternal life.  I doubt that there will be anyone suffering in the fires of judgement because he or she was not born into this world.  I suspect that Nicodemus’ rhetorical question was born out of the misunderstanding that because he was a son of Abraham he was already justified, by the Old Covenant, before the Lord.

If we understand Jesus’ response in light of the waters of impurity and the association of the blood of His sacrifice with those waters then what Jesus is telling Nicodemus isn’t that he needs to be born into this world and then into the Spirit but rather that our eternal life depends on the sprinkling of Jesus blood on our hearts that we may be purified by His sacrifice which allows the Spirit to then indwell us that our life may be lived for Him.

I could be wrong, the Old Testament is hard. But I think our understanding of the New Testament is refined by our understanding of the Old. Bottom line, have you been purified by the blood of the lamb?  Repent, confess your sins… He is faithful to forgive!!!

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.

Image by ArtPyle from Pixabay 

Clarke, Adam. Adam Clarke’s Commentary On The Bible. Public Domain, 1810-1826.

This resource can be found in the Faith, Hope, Love (Store)

By clicking submit, you agree to share your email address with the site owner and Mailchimp to receive marketing, updates, and other emails from the site owner. Use the unsubscribe link in those emails to opt out at any time.

Processing…
Success! You're on the list.

Know, Do, Be…

On By AaronIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

“Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high (Luk 24:45-49).”

What does it mean to repent and more specifically what does it mean to repent for the forgiveness of sins?  The Greek word here, μετάνοια (metanoia), is always translated repent, repentance, or repenting.  It means a change of mind which results in a change of lifestyle.  R.C. Sproul explains the Greek meaning more fully, “The prefix meta can mean ‘with,’ ‘beside,’ or ‘after…’  The root noia is the verb form of the noun that we find frequently in the Bible as nous.  This is simply the Greek word for “mind.”  In its simplest form, the term metanoia has to do with “the mind afterward,” or, as we might say, “an afterthought.” In the Greek language, it came to mean “a significant changing of one’s mind…”  So, in the most rudimentary sense, the concept of repentance in the Bible means “to change one’s mind (Sproul 2014).”

Where is the line between knowing and doing?

As an Assistant Professor of Military Studies in the Army’s Reserve Officer Training Program (ROTC) we used to teach our cadets “know, do, be.”  We would teach them the principles behind that which we would coach them to do so that we could mentor them into what we wanted them to be.  The idea is that if they knew the principles, they could apply them to any situation to accomplish that which they had to do.  But where is the line between knowing and doing?

A synonym for knowing is to believe.  Often translated in the New Testament from πιστεύω (pisteuō), a verb or the action of believing as when Jesus asked His disciples, “Do you now believe (Joh 16:31)?”  What would the action of believing look like?

It was in that action that his belief was confirmed.

I was once caught in a triangle in which my boss was asking me to accomplish a challenging task. I needed to schedule a physical for thirty-one soldiers in an environment in which seven or eight hundred soldiers needed the same physical in a very short amount of time. My boss kept telling me that the person responsible for the allocation of the appointments was a friend of his and that she had already made the appointments we needed in order to get our soldiers home on time. However, every time I spoke with his friend, she told me that the appointments she had promised had already been scheduled for other soldiers. Repeatedly I explained to my boss that we were not going to get the task accomplished before we left the training site and that his friend was the person giving me that information. I don’t know why she was lying to him but she was. He would not believe what I was telling him. It culminated when he raised his voice in frustration, “Aaron, I am not calling you a liar” to which I replied, “but you are aware that there is a lie on the table?” It was at that moment that he finally believed me over his friend. How did I know? When he picked up the phone to confront his friend. It was in that action that his belief was confirmed.

To repent is both to believe and to act on that belief.  To fail to act on a belief is to demonstrate unbelief.  Jesus told the Pharisees to, “Bear fruit in keeping with repentance (Mat 3:8).”  They had misunderstood God’s plan of salvation for all people by assuming that His salvation would only come to the Israelites.  They had put their faith in the fact that they were Abraham’s children and the promises that God had given Abraham.  While God’s promises were faithful and sure there was more to God’s plan of salvation than simply being a child of Abraham.  Their righteousness depended on the righteousness of the sacrifice that God would offer on their behalf.  They needed to change their minds about God’s plan of redemption, or they were going to miss out on His offered redemption. The proof of their repentance would then be demonstrated in the fruits of their lives.

In the Old Testament repent is translated from the Hebrew שׁוב, (šûḇ), which means to turn back or to return specifically to the Lord.  It is an action.  An action that is also based on something known.

“Zion shall be redeemed by justice, and those in her who repent, by righteousness. But rebels and sinners shall be broken together, and those who forsake the Lord shall be consumed (Isa 1:27-28).“

If you live any other way and yet profess to be a believer then your life will one day testify against that very belief.

The justice that was to redeem Zion was the justice that was to be poured out on Jesus for the sins of the world.  That is what we know and believe. It was God’s plan from the beginning and so when we repent today, we are also returning to the Lord in our acceptance of His plan of redemption.  The difference between us and the believers of the Old Testament is that we know the mechanism of God’s justice that redeemed us and provides for our righteousness.  That mechanism was an act of love performed by God’s own son in which He took the punishment for our disobedience.  What would your life look like if you really believed that?  What fruit would be produced? I suspect that it would look radically different than before you believed and would probably require a one hundred and eighty degrees turn from where you were. Have you made that turn?

Repent of wrong thinking regarding righteousness, salvation, and eternal life, believe that Jesus has provided for your redemption, and live your life in that belief.  That is what it means to repent for the forgiveness of sins.  That is what it means to be a follower of Christ!  If you live any other way and yet profess to be a believer then your life will one day testify against that very belief.

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.

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

Sproul, R. C. What is Repentance? First Edition. Orlando, FL: Reformation Trust Publishing, 2014.

This resource can be found in the Faith, Hope, Love (Life) Store

By clicking submit, you agree to share your email address with the site owner and Mailchimp to receive marketing, updates, and other emails from the site owner. Use the unsubscribe link in those emails to opt out at any time.

Processing…
Success! You're on the list.

Unclean!

On By AaronIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

Every firstborn of a donkey you shall redeem with a lamb, or if you will not redeem it you shall break its neck. Every firstborn of man among your sons you shall redeem (Exo 13:13).

Recently I have been reading through Exodus and often I struggle because it is so foreign to our contemporary culture and worldview.  Granted, the Western/Christian world view is a Judeo/Christian worldview but the sacrificial system which was the central and defining element of the Jewish worldview as found in the Old Testament has not been my experienced worldview.  It is often difficult for me to understand. 

“Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”

John 1:29

The redemption of the firstborn among the sons of Israel by a lamb is familiar to me.  In the Gospel of John, John the Baptist announces “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world (Joh 1:29)!”  Jesus is presented as the Lamb of God and an exploration of that concept leads to The Law as established in the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Bible).  The lamb that is the redemption price is of those animals designated as clean and as such it represents a righteous sacrifice.  A righteousness that an unclean animal could never represent.  The Donkey, an unclean i.e., unrighteous animal, could not redeem itself, it needed to be redeemed through the death of a clean or righteous animal.  What caught me by surprise though is that to declare a Donkey needs to be redeemed because it is unclean is followed by a declaration that the firstborn of Israel needed to be redeemed.  By implication that declaration declares the firstborn of Israel as equivalently unclean.

What follows then is that the declaration of every firstborn of Israel as unclean is symbolic of the fact that everyone in Israel is unclean.  And because Israel is the firstborn of nations (Jer 31:9) that everyone in Israel is unclean is symbolic of the fact that everyone in every nation is unclean.  Moreover, they are unclean in and of themselves not because they have been made unclean by contact with uncleanness.

However, by nature, apart from redemption, mankind is unclean before God.

Hold on a minute A~A~Ron (That’s a reference to a Saturday Night Live skit just in case the translation was lost in the typing.)!  The Law does declare that to touch an unclean animal is to become unclean (Lev 11:24-26) and this implies that the person who touched the unclean animal was clean before the touching.  I would agree that could be implied but I think it would be the wrong implication.  The declaration that touching an unclean animal makes a person unclean follows that portion of Leviticus that designates the sacrifices required to make a person clean.  They were made clean from their uncleanness prior to touching the unclean animal.  However, by nature, apart from redemption, mankind is unclean before God.

Fast forward to the New Testament and Jesus makes the same statement when He says, “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).”  When His disciples were confused, he had to elaborate, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him.  For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness.  All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person (Mar 7:20-23).”  This, I think, also sheds some light on that from which we are being redeemed.  We are being redeemed from the judgment required for our evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, and foolishness.  They are all unclean acts that come from an unclean heart.

However, the truth is that this system was only intended to point to Christ.

I think the Israelites had made the wrong assumption; that they by nature were clean and were not made unclean until they encountered uncleanness when in fact, they were unclean because of what was coming out of their own hearts.  Perhaps they thought that the lamb offered at their birth was sufficient for their redemption.  Perhaps they thought that the sacrifices offered after those encounters in which they became unclean would be sufficient.  However, the truth is that this system was only intended to point to Christ.  It could never make a person truly clean (Heb 10:1) because it could not change the heart of man.  If this is true, then the Jew like the Gentile remains unclean, or unrighteous before God.

The good news for us is that the Gentile too has been declared clean.  When Peter was offered in a dream all kinds of animals to eat, he responded, “By no means, Lord; for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean (Act 10:14).”  Peter was still operating under the assumption that he could be made unclean by eating an unclean animal.  But God rebuked Peter by reminding him that he had declared those animals clean (Act 10:14).  This occurred just before Peter was to meet Cornelius, a Gentile.  God was using this dream to show Peter that Jesus had cleansed not only the Jewish believers but also the Gentile believers.

The need to be cleansed is there and it is universal.  Only the blood of Jesus can cleanse.

To wrap up, all of us by default are unclean.  Not because we were born into uncleanness or because we came into contact with uncleanness.  Our uncleanness is attested to by our own evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, and foolishness.  The need to be cleansed is there and it is universal.  Only the blood of Jesus can cleanse.

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.

By clicking submit, you agree to share your email address with the site owner and Mailchimp to receive marketing, updates, and other emails from the site owner. Use the unsubscribe link in those emails to opt out at any time.

Processing…
Success! You're on the list.