The Mountain Path has moved! As I am beginning to get more serious about blogging, I am finding that I also need to be more efficient. I have been unhappy for some time now with blogger because of formatting errors that occur whenever I bring something I've written in Microsoft Word into Blogger. So I have moved my blog over to wordpress.com. They offer me a better quality blog for free. So The Mountain Path can now be located at:
http://joshuawinters.wordpress.com
Don't forget to bookmark the new address. This old site will close down as soon as I get all my previous posts moved over.
Thursday, July 09, 2009
Monday, July 06, 2009
Beware of Idolatry! God hates and punishes!
Reading through the prophet Hosea it amazes me just how much God hates idolatry. A. W. Tozer says this about idolatry:
“let us beware lest we in our pride accept the erroneous notion that idolatry consists only in kneeling before visible objects of adoration, and that civilized peoples are therefore free from it. The essence of idolatry is the entertainment of thoughts about God that are unworthy of Him. It begins in the mind and may be present where no over act of worship has taken place…Wrong ideas about God are not only the fountain from which the polluted waters of idolatry flow; they are themselves idolatrous. The idolater simply imagines things about God and acts as if they were true. Perverted notions about God soon rot the religion in which they appear…” (The Knowledge of the Holy, 5-6).
In this post I’d like to address one of the perverted and idolatrous notions that seems to be just as prevalent today as it was in Tozer’s day. Many today have been worshipping a god that is “so loving” that he could never punish or hate anyone – not even the wickedest of wicked. This concept of God is gross and perverse idolatry. It is grossly unbiblical, which we’ll look at in a minute. It demeans God’s holiness. It makes rebellion against God a light and trivial thing to him; and it makes the true God of the Bible to look like an evil and murderous tyrant who butchers people who don’t deserve it.
First of all, I’d like to silence the idea that God doesn’t hate people. The true God of the Bible hates wicked people:
Hosea 9:15 says, “because of all their wickedness in Gilgal, I hated them there. Because of all their sinful deeds, I will drive them out of my house. I will no longer love them…” Also, take a look at Psalm 11:5-7 which says, “The LORD examines the righteous, but the wicked and those who love violence his soul hates. On the wicked he will rain fiery coals and burning sulfur…For the LORD is righteous, he loves justice…” God hates wicked people and promises to pour out his fierce wrath upon them because he loves justice.
Next, take a look at the fierceness of God’s wrath-filled heart towards the wicked in these two passages:
Hosea 5:14 says, “For I will be like a lion to Ephraim, like a great lion to Judah. I will tear them to pieces and go away; I will carry them off with no one to rescue them.”
Hosea 7:12, 16 say, “Even if they rear children, I will bereave them of every one…Even if they bear children, I will slay their cherished offspring.”
These descriptions are shocking! Like a lion rips an animal to shreds, so God promises to rip the people of the tribe of Ephraim to shreds. Even more shocking is God’s promise to slay the children born to the men and women in the tribe of Ephraim. How could a loving God ever do this to anyone? The answer is simple. God loves what is good; therefore, he must hate what is evil. If I love children, I am obligated to hate abortion. If I love men and women, I am obligated to hate murder. Here’s the problem: people are evil, and God, because he loves what is good, must hate them because they are evil.Romans 3:11-12 says, “there is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.”
Turning away from God is a sin that everyone is guilty of since he has commanded us to love him and seek him and treasure him above all else. So God already has just cause for punishing us. But God is also a jealous God. God, being the most glorious, valuable, precious, and worthy being in the universe has the right to be loved, adored, cherished, and worshipped above all. He created us to be his people and love and adore and cherish him much like a wife loves and adores and cherishes her husband. Just like a husband would be indignant and angry with his wife for committing adultery, God has every right to be angry and indignant when his people turn away from his glorious beauty, breaking covenant with him, and give themselves to another in gross perversion. This is what the book of Hosea is all about: how God’s people have committed adultery and idolatry against God, and how God is very upset because what they have done is intensely offensive to him.
So when we see the intensity of God’s fierce anger and the graphic descriptions of his wrath against people, we shouldn’t dare conclude that God is an evil tyrant! We should assume that God, as the just judge of all he has made, has chosen a punishment that fits the crime. Whenever God punishes anyone, they get exactly what they deserve. Check out these verses in Hosea:
Hosea 7:13 – “Woe to them, because they have strayed from me! Destruction to them, because they have rebelled against me!”
Hosea 9:9 – “God will remember their wickedness and punish them for their sins.”
Hosea 9:17 – “My God will reject them because they have not obeyed him…”
Rejection and destruction?! These are harsh, absolutely! But these punishments are just, absolutely! The harshness of these punishments should never make us question the kindness of God, rather they should make us wonder at the offensiveness of our own sin against a holy God!
Beware of idolatry! Worship, love, and live for God as he has said he is.
“let us beware lest we in our pride accept the erroneous notion that idolatry consists only in kneeling before visible objects of adoration, and that civilized peoples are therefore free from it. The essence of idolatry is the entertainment of thoughts about God that are unworthy of Him. It begins in the mind and may be present where no over act of worship has taken place…Wrong ideas about God are not only the fountain from which the polluted waters of idolatry flow; they are themselves idolatrous. The idolater simply imagines things about God and acts as if they were true. Perverted notions about God soon rot the religion in which they appear…” (The Knowledge of the Holy, 5-6).
In this post I’d like to address one of the perverted and idolatrous notions that seems to be just as prevalent today as it was in Tozer’s day. Many today have been worshipping a god that is “so loving” that he could never punish or hate anyone – not even the wickedest of wicked. This concept of God is gross and perverse idolatry. It is grossly unbiblical, which we’ll look at in a minute. It demeans God’s holiness. It makes rebellion against God a light and trivial thing to him; and it makes the true God of the Bible to look like an evil and murderous tyrant who butchers people who don’t deserve it.
First of all, I’d like to silence the idea that God doesn’t hate people. The true God of the Bible hates wicked people:
Hosea 9:15 says, “because of all their wickedness in Gilgal, I hated them there. Because of all their sinful deeds, I will drive them out of my house. I will no longer love them…” Also, take a look at Psalm 11:5-7 which says, “The LORD examines the righteous, but the wicked and those who love violence his soul hates. On the wicked he will rain fiery coals and burning sulfur…For the LORD is righteous, he loves justice…” God hates wicked people and promises to pour out his fierce wrath upon them because he loves justice.
Next, take a look at the fierceness of God’s wrath-filled heart towards the wicked in these two passages:
Hosea 5:14 says, “For I will be like a lion to Ephraim, like a great lion to Judah. I will tear them to pieces and go away; I will carry them off with no one to rescue them.”
Hosea 7:12, 16 say, “Even if they rear children, I will bereave them of every one…Even if they bear children, I will slay their cherished offspring.”
These descriptions are shocking! Like a lion rips an animal to shreds, so God promises to rip the people of the tribe of Ephraim to shreds. Even more shocking is God’s promise to slay the children born to the men and women in the tribe of Ephraim. How could a loving God ever do this to anyone? The answer is simple. God loves what is good; therefore, he must hate what is evil. If I love children, I am obligated to hate abortion. If I love men and women, I am obligated to hate murder. Here’s the problem: people are evil, and God, because he loves what is good, must hate them because they are evil.Romans 3:11-12 says, “there is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.”
Turning away from God is a sin that everyone is guilty of since he has commanded us to love him and seek him and treasure him above all else. So God already has just cause for punishing us. But God is also a jealous God. God, being the most glorious, valuable, precious, and worthy being in the universe has the right to be loved, adored, cherished, and worshipped above all. He created us to be his people and love and adore and cherish him much like a wife loves and adores and cherishes her husband. Just like a husband would be indignant and angry with his wife for committing adultery, God has every right to be angry and indignant when his people turn away from his glorious beauty, breaking covenant with him, and give themselves to another in gross perversion. This is what the book of Hosea is all about: how God’s people have committed adultery and idolatry against God, and how God is very upset because what they have done is intensely offensive to him.
So when we see the intensity of God’s fierce anger and the graphic descriptions of his wrath against people, we shouldn’t dare conclude that God is an evil tyrant! We should assume that God, as the just judge of all he has made, has chosen a punishment that fits the crime. Whenever God punishes anyone, they get exactly what they deserve. Check out these verses in Hosea:
Hosea 7:13 – “Woe to them, because they have strayed from me! Destruction to them, because they have rebelled against me!”
Hosea 9:9 – “God will remember their wickedness and punish them for their sins.”
Hosea 9:17 – “My God will reject them because they have not obeyed him…”
Rejection and destruction?! These are harsh, absolutely! But these punishments are just, absolutely! The harshness of these punishments should never make us question the kindness of God, rather they should make us wonder at the offensiveness of our own sin against a holy God!
Beware of idolatry! Worship, love, and live for God as he has said he is.
Friday, June 26, 2009
How Can a Loving God...
Probably the main argument given by “Christian Universalists” for why everyone will be saved goes like this: How can a truly loving God send people to hell?! As of late I have been reading through the Old Testament. So here are 10 responses to those who make the argument: How can a loving God send people to hell?!
HoHow could a loving God anoint Jehu as king over Israel and command him to “destroy the house of Ahab?!” Immediately after commanding Jehu to kill Ahab, God says, “I will avenge the blood of my servants the prophets and the blood of all the Lord’s servants shed by Jezebel. The whole house of Ahab will perish. I will cut off from Ahab every last male in Israel – slave or free” (1 Kings 9:6-10). How could a loving God want vengeance?!
HoHow could a loving God respond to Elisha’s cursing 42 teenagers?! Elisha was just walking down the road when a group of 42 youths started calling him a baldy. Elisha curses them and God answers the curse by sending two bears out of the forest to maul these kids. How could a loving God maul 42 teenagers for calling someone a baldy?! (2 Kings 2:23-25).
HoHow could a loving God throw fire down from heaven to destroy a captain and his men when all they were doing was obeying the orders of their king?! (2 Kings 1:9-10).
4. How could a loving God send a lion to maul a man for refusing to wound a prophet?! (1 Kings 20:36).
5. How could a loving God give his own prophet over to a lion to be killed because he listened to another prophet who insisted that he was speaking from God?! (1 Kings 13:26). He just made an “honest mistake,” didn’t he?!
HoHow could a loving God command his people to kill a man for picking up sticks on the Sabbath day?! (Num. 15:32-36).
HoHow could a loving God destroy those who disobey him?! (Deut. 30:17-18; Deut. 8:19-20)
HoHow could a loving God kill every firstborn in Egypt?! (Ex. 13:15).
HoHow could a loving God harden someone’s heart towards himself?! (Ex. 9:12).
HoHow could a loving God let Satan incite him against his own dearly loved, Job, without any reason?! (Job 2:3).
A loving God can send people to hell because he is also a just God, and disobedience is an offensive crime against him. If you struggle with the question of how a loving God send people to hell, you’re asking the wrong question. The questions you should be asking are:
HoHow could a just God not destroy king Ahab for his wickedness?! How could a just God not avenge the atrocities committed against his beloved prophets?!
HoHow could a just God let a bunch of rebellious and disrespectful teenagers get away scot-free with harassing his chosen servant?!
HoHow could a just God not oppose those who oppose his chosen prophet?!
HoHow could a just God not kill someone who directly disobeyed his command?!
HoHow could a just God not destroy his prophet when he directly disobeyed the Lord and listening to a mere man instead?
HoHow could a just God allow someone who directly violates his Sabbath to prove to everyone else that breaking God’s commands is ok?!
HoHow could a just God let anyone get away with breaking his perfect law?!
HoHow could a just God allow any nation to blatantly defy his commands and brutally oppress and mistreat his people with no consequence?!
HoHow could a just God not harden the heart of a man who mocked the Almighty saying, “Who is the Lord, that I should obey him and let Israel go?!”
HoHow could a just God give a second chance to the wicked Ninevites?! (Jonah).
And here is the question that should leave you in awe and wonder every day:
Why didn’t God kill you in your sleep last night? You deserved it.
“There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one” (Rom. 3:10-12).
You should wonder that you’re still alive after how you have defied, spurned, and treated the Lord Almighty with contempt!
Behold the mercy of God: that a man can be pardoned for reviling the glorious Creator and Sustainer of the universe by faith in Jesus Christ!
“…all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement…he did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished – [God presented Jesus Christ as a sacrifice of atonement] to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus” (Rom. 3:23-26).
Did you catch that? God presented Jesus Christ as a sacrifice…so as to be just. In other words, God had to punish Christ in order to vindicate his own just character for all of the sins that he didn’t punish in the Old Testament.
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Will Everyone Be Saved?
"Then Jesus went through the towns and villages, teaching as he made his way to Jerusalem. Someone asked him, "Lord, are only a few people going to be saved?" He said to them, "Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to. Once the owner of the house gets up and closes the door, you will stand outside knocking and pleading, ‘Sir, open the door for us.’ "But he will answer, ‘I don’t know you or where you come from.’ "Then you will say, ‘We ate and drank with you, and you taught in our streets.’ "But he will reply, ‘I don’t know you or where you come from. Away from me, all you evildoers!’ "There will be weeping there, and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but you yourselves thrown out" (Lk. 13:22-28).
Christian Universalism is not a new idea. Very generally, Christian Universalism is the belief that everyone will be saved. There are many different shades of Christian Universalism which makes it difficult to explain exactly how they think this works. Some believe that everyone will come to saving faith in Jesus in this lifetime before they die. Others believe that you could die shaking a hateful fist at God and yet come to faith and repentance in eternity. The whole issue of whether some or all will be saved has been around since Jesus’ day.
While deep down in our hearts we long for it to be true that all will be saved, Jesus has made it crystal clear that this will not be the case. Again and again my attention comes back to Jesus’ call to “make every effort to enter through the narrow door.” I think the NASB and ESV translate the Greek better. They say: “Strive to enter through the narrow door” (emphasis mine). Really what Jesus has in mind is that we fight, struggle, strive, and make every effort to enter through the narrow door. I get a picture in my head of a small opening in a wall that is surrounded by a whole mob of people trying to jostle and squeeze and pull themselves through the opening.
This life is not a game. It’s not something to be taken lightly. Before all of us is a narrow opening that we must continually fight and struggle to get through, not giving up until we know for sure that we are safe inside and the opening has been closed. Do you live your days with this kind of seriousness? When confronted with the plethora of options as to how you spend your time, does this reality steer your course through the day?
Here’s the solemn warning of Jesus. Not everyone will be saved. There will be those who tried to enter the door and were not able to or strong enough to. They didn’t fight, struggle, and strive to enter and now it’s too late. There will be people who are left standing outside the door knocking and pleading with Jesus to open up the door and let them in. And Jesus will tell them straight up: “I do not know you or where you are from. Away from me, all you evildoers.” Accordingly, a true disciple of Jesus Christ is one who is right now fighting and struggling and striving to enter through the narrow door.
Have you been fighting to have real, deep, and vibrant faith in Jesus? Or are you just taking it easy? Have you been working out your salvation with fear and trembling? (Phil. 2:12). Or are you feeling pretty comfortable and ok that everything will be fine in the end if you just sit back, relax, and enjoy life?
Here’s the scary part to me. The people who are left outside knocking and pleading are the people who expect to be inside. ‘We ate and drank with you, and you taught in our streets.’ Come on Jesus! You know us! We know you! We heard your teaching in church every Sunday morning! To which Jesus replies again saying, I do not know you. “Away from me, all you evildoers!”
Notice Jesus’ evaluation of all the people that were left out who expected to be included. He calls them evildoers. Hypocrisy is deadly. The door of salvation is narrow and only few will enter it. Many many people think they are good people who believe in Jesus, but the way they live falsifies their claim. They are deceived. They are the people that Jesus calls evildoers and they don’t even realize it.
If you haven’t been fighting, struggling, and striving with all your might to enter through the narrow door, you could be one of those people! The final fate of the people who Jesus refuses to open up to is terrible. They are thrown out of the kingdom of God and experience weeping and gnashing of teeth (28). All over the place in the Gospels, Jesus uses this same language to refer to hell, the place of eternal punishment reserved for those who refuse to acknowledge, submit to, receive, believe, and obey Jesus Christ.
So my question for you is how’s the battle going? How goes the fight? Can you tell me about your striving and your struggling and how you are making every effort to be found secure in the glorious salvation of Jesus Christ?
Christian Universalism is not a new idea. Very generally, Christian Universalism is the belief that everyone will be saved. There are many different shades of Christian Universalism which makes it difficult to explain exactly how they think this works. Some believe that everyone will come to saving faith in Jesus in this lifetime before they die. Others believe that you could die shaking a hateful fist at God and yet come to faith and repentance in eternity. The whole issue of whether some or all will be saved has been around since Jesus’ day.
While deep down in our hearts we long for it to be true that all will be saved, Jesus has made it crystal clear that this will not be the case. Again and again my attention comes back to Jesus’ call to “make every effort to enter through the narrow door.” I think the NASB and ESV translate the Greek better. They say: “Strive to enter through the narrow door” (emphasis mine). Really what Jesus has in mind is that we fight, struggle, strive, and make every effort to enter through the narrow door. I get a picture in my head of a small opening in a wall that is surrounded by a whole mob of people trying to jostle and squeeze and pull themselves through the opening.
This life is not a game. It’s not something to be taken lightly. Before all of us is a narrow opening that we must continually fight and struggle to get through, not giving up until we know for sure that we are safe inside and the opening has been closed. Do you live your days with this kind of seriousness? When confronted with the plethora of options as to how you spend your time, does this reality steer your course through the day?
Here’s the solemn warning of Jesus. Not everyone will be saved. There will be those who tried to enter the door and were not able to or strong enough to. They didn’t fight, struggle, and strive to enter and now it’s too late. There will be people who are left standing outside the door knocking and pleading with Jesus to open up the door and let them in. And Jesus will tell them straight up: “I do not know you or where you are from. Away from me, all you evildoers.” Accordingly, a true disciple of Jesus Christ is one who is right now fighting and struggling and striving to enter through the narrow door.
Have you been fighting to have real, deep, and vibrant faith in Jesus? Or are you just taking it easy? Have you been working out your salvation with fear and trembling? (Phil. 2:12). Or are you feeling pretty comfortable and ok that everything will be fine in the end if you just sit back, relax, and enjoy life?
Here’s the scary part to me. The people who are left outside knocking and pleading are the people who expect to be inside. ‘We ate and drank with you, and you taught in our streets.’ Come on Jesus! You know us! We know you! We heard your teaching in church every Sunday morning! To which Jesus replies again saying, I do not know you. “Away from me, all you evildoers!”
Notice Jesus’ evaluation of all the people that were left out who expected to be included. He calls them evildoers. Hypocrisy is deadly. The door of salvation is narrow and only few will enter it. Many many people think they are good people who believe in Jesus, but the way they live falsifies their claim. They are deceived. They are the people that Jesus calls evildoers and they don’t even realize it.
If you haven’t been fighting, struggling, and striving with all your might to enter through the narrow door, you could be one of those people! The final fate of the people who Jesus refuses to open up to is terrible. They are thrown out of the kingdom of God and experience weeping and gnashing of teeth (28). All over the place in the Gospels, Jesus uses this same language to refer to hell, the place of eternal punishment reserved for those who refuse to acknowledge, submit to, receive, believe, and obey Jesus Christ.
So my question for you is how’s the battle going? How goes the fight? Can you tell me about your striving and your struggling and how you are making every effort to be found secure in the glorious salvation of Jesus Christ?
Friday, June 05, 2009
Journal, Journal, Journal
“The wisdom of the prudent is to give thought to their ways, but the folly of fools is deception”
(Pr. 14:8).
If you’re like most people, you don’t have time for journaling. You might also say that it’s not your love language or style or thing or whatever. But I would like to ask you to reconsider. We all know that we live in a fast -paced culture characterized by getting what you want immediately and doing what you want as soon as possible. And we do it! We reap all the benefits of instant access to everything and we get a lot done. But if we are not careful with how we live in this cultural climate, we can greatly stunt our spiritual growth.
Along with immediate access comes incessant busyness. We learn to go from one thing to the next so fast because we want to accomplish more, more, more, and suddenly we get spiritually sick. So what do we do? We dive into entertainment, leisure, relationships, even sin and then we go to sleep and do it all over again. But even good things like entertainment, leisure, and relationships can become band-aids, escapes, drugs which we choose to get our minds off of things and ease our feelings.
The main problem with a high-octane-go-go-go lifestyle is that it leaves little to no room for a person “to give thought to their ways” (Pr. 14:8). The busyness of our days because of our readily available panorama of options for entertainment after a long day at work chokes out any time to ponder and wonder about how we are even living from one activity to the next. Are we keeping God-glorifying priorities or are we just letting our pleasure-gauges drive us from one activity to the next? Or do we even know?
Often the only place left for reflection on your day is the moments when you lie awake in bed at night before you fall asleep. Maybe we are able to give thought to our ways during this time, and make a few resolutions to do better tomorrow or next week, but then we wind up in our bed again having been carried by the brisk current of the day’s activities and surprise surprise – we’re in the same place we were the day before and nothing’s changed. Or it’s worse! Then we begin to struggle to keep even the time before bed from becoming an anxious or lust-filled swirl of thinking that carries us off to sleep.
“The wisdom of the prudent is to give thought to their ways, but the folly of fools is deception” (Pr. 14:8). What is the wisdom of the wise? They give thought to their ways. Now try keeping even a half an hour per day just to be sitting and thinking about your life – without worry, without lust, without distraction. It’s pretty hard. I can’t even count the number of times I’ve tried to do that or just sit and pray and either fallen asleep or just failed at it. Then I say to everyone who mentions the word “journal” that I just couldn’t do that because I have a hard enough time just stopping to pray for 30 minutes.
But journaling is one of the most important disciplines I have ever cultivated. In fact, there is no equal, and nothing so practical as journaling to help you give thought to your ways when you’re immersed in a fast paced culture like ours. Try it! Sit down and write out a prayer and you’ll be amazed at how much easier it is to concentrate and focus your thoughts because you have a pen in your hand. Journaling makes contemplation, thinking, and reflecting 100 times easier, not harder! Not only that, but journaling trains your mind to think better. It also teaches you how to communicate more clearly and coherently.
Now, some of you may be thinking that journaling is boring because you have nothing exciting in your day to write about. Don’t use your journal to keep an orderly history of the happenings of the day. That’ll drive you nuts and be a waste of time if as much happens in the minutes of your day as it does in mine. Only journal about what you want to think, pray, or reflect about. You want to talk to God? Grab a pen and paper. You want to think about how you conducted yourself today? Grab a pen and paper. Once you get going on something that you care to contemplate, just let the thoughts of your head flow onto the page whatever they may be. As a rule of thumb, be completely honest with your journal. No secrets allowed! Journaling is a great way for you to be honest with yourself and with God.
Remember “the folly of fools is deceit” (Pr. 14:8 NASB). It’s really easy to deceive yourself when you don’t give careful thought to your ways. We need that time to be honest with ourselves about how we are really doing spiritually.
The most important benefit of journaling is that it facilitates personal spiritual growth. Why are the wise wise? Because they think very carefully about their ways. Thinking carefully about your ways not only means that you are wise, it makes you wise. You grow and learn when you think about your life. Generally we come away from things with some kind of impression, but we don’t make sense of that impression and learn the lessons and grow and cultivate wisdom until we give thought to it. That’s what journaling is all about. It’s about mentally and emotionally processing life so that you continue to grow in wisdom and understanding of God and of yourself and of how you ought to be living your life. Writing your thoughts down helps you sustain and direct your thinking keeping it free from distractions and worry.
So if after all I’ve said, you still aren’t sold on journaling…I have one more question for you: How else will you ensure that you give regular and proper “thought to your ways” in the midst of your busy life?
“Get wisdom, get understanding…Do not forsake wisdom, and she will protect you; love her, and she will watch over you. Wisdom is supreme; therefore get wisdom. Though it cost you all you have, get understanding. Esteem her, and she will exalt you; embrace her, and she will honor you. She will set a garland of grace on your head and present you with a crown of splendor” (Pr. 4:5-9).
Friday, May 15, 2009
God Never Just Forgives Sinners
About how often do you think about or remember the gospel? How often do think of the significance of those moments where Jesus hung on the cross? Once a month during the Lord’s Supper at church? Once a week? Only after you talk with non-Christian co-workers? How about after you sin?
I’ve been noticing that the gospel message often sits in the passenger seat of my life, when it should be in the driver’s seat. Don’t get me wrong; I enjoy spending time with God everyday, getting to know Him better. God’s grace is very precious to me and His holiness awesome to me. But the other day I realized that I am a Christ-follower who often forgets and takes for granted the means by which I am even able to follow Christ.
This last week I came face to face with my own sin again. I blew it. What is more, I realized that there were still depths and recesses of sin in my own life that had not yet come to the surface. So what did I do? I started confessing my sin and asking God for forgiveness, grace, and mercy. I tried to call some passages to mind that speak of God’s grace towards sinners. Despite confessing and refreshing my mind with God’s grace, I still didn’t feel right. My heart just wasn’t getting it. So I started contemplating God’s holiness and just how badly I fall short of his standard, with the hopes that this would awaken my heart to joy of God’s grace.
Even after all this I still didn’t feel right. I was praying and filling my mind with the truth, but something was missing. So as I was calling out to God to impact my heart and make me feel the weight of his holiness and his grace, it finally hit me. All of this time I had been looking for the grace of God and the assurance of his forgiveness, but I was missing the most important piece – Christ!
It dawned on me that in my mindset for the last little while, I had been treating Jesus as merely the door through which I came to salvation, and not the continuing foundation for my daily battle against sin. I was looking to experience the grace of God and longing to take my sin seriously as God does but forgetting that both of those things cannot be had except through the Jesus Christ, specifically.
Jesus on the cross is the only place where the holiness, justice, anger, and fierce wrath of God meet together with the sweet mercy and grace of God for sinners. As Christians we often do one of two things to try and kill the gross feeling of our sin. One, we interpret God’s grace to mean that he overlooks our sin completely and says it’s ok. But this doesn’t make God’s grace greater or stronger. It makes it cheaper, and it minimizes his holiness. Two, we accept that God is absolutely holy and disgusted by our sin and then flounder around trying to confess and repent properly so that we can experience his grace again. But this doesn’t make God’s grace greater or stronger either. It too makes it cheaper because it’s no longer free and must be earned through a polished and detailed confession, and a legalistically performed repentance.
How do we uphold in our hearts the fierceness of God’s hatred of sin and sinful people and the infinite and endless power of his grace to save sinners? By focusing on Jesus Christ crucified. You see, grace though freely offered to us cost God infinitely. He poured out the fierce anger and righteous indignation he had stored up for us, as sinners, upon Christ, his holy and beloved Son. He crushed him with his wrath for our sin! God never overlooks sin; someone must receive the punishment. God never just forgives sin; someone must be hit with his holy fury because he is just and righteous. That someone was Christ, in our place!
Two questions should help us see the incredible impact this truth has on our daily lives. One, how often do you sin? Two, how often do you remember the gospel? The two should be inextricably linked together. Every time you sin, your longing for grace from a holy God should drive you back to Christ crucified. We should be plunged heart, soul, and mind back into the gospel no less than every time we sin and hopefully more! Hopefully every time we do what’s right, or enjoy fellowship with God and others, or eat food or have water to drink, or even breathe clean air – all of these are things we do not deserve because of our sin yet enjoy because of God’s grace through Christ crucified.
So join with me in this! The next time we find ourselves in that place of realizing our sin or having disobeyed God again, pick up your Bible and open it to 1 John 2:1-2. In those moments we will read it, and meditate on it and chew on it in our hearts.
“But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense – Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.”
Preach it to your soul everyday! Rejoice and give thanks! And spread the good news!
I’ve been noticing that the gospel message often sits in the passenger seat of my life, when it should be in the driver’s seat. Don’t get me wrong; I enjoy spending time with God everyday, getting to know Him better. God’s grace is very precious to me and His holiness awesome to me. But the other day I realized that I am a Christ-follower who often forgets and takes for granted the means by which I am even able to follow Christ.
This last week I came face to face with my own sin again. I blew it. What is more, I realized that there were still depths and recesses of sin in my own life that had not yet come to the surface. So what did I do? I started confessing my sin and asking God for forgiveness, grace, and mercy. I tried to call some passages to mind that speak of God’s grace towards sinners. Despite confessing and refreshing my mind with God’s grace, I still didn’t feel right. My heart just wasn’t getting it. So I started contemplating God’s holiness and just how badly I fall short of his standard, with the hopes that this would awaken my heart to joy of God’s grace.
Even after all this I still didn’t feel right. I was praying and filling my mind with the truth, but something was missing. So as I was calling out to God to impact my heart and make me feel the weight of his holiness and his grace, it finally hit me. All of this time I had been looking for the grace of God and the assurance of his forgiveness, but I was missing the most important piece – Christ!
It dawned on me that in my mindset for the last little while, I had been treating Jesus as merely the door through which I came to salvation, and not the continuing foundation for my daily battle against sin. I was looking to experience the grace of God and longing to take my sin seriously as God does but forgetting that both of those things cannot be had except through the Jesus Christ, specifically.
Jesus on the cross is the only place where the holiness, justice, anger, and fierce wrath of God meet together with the sweet mercy and grace of God for sinners. As Christians we often do one of two things to try and kill the gross feeling of our sin. One, we interpret God’s grace to mean that he overlooks our sin completely and says it’s ok. But this doesn’t make God’s grace greater or stronger. It makes it cheaper, and it minimizes his holiness. Two, we accept that God is absolutely holy and disgusted by our sin and then flounder around trying to confess and repent properly so that we can experience his grace again. But this doesn’t make God’s grace greater or stronger either. It too makes it cheaper because it’s no longer free and must be earned through a polished and detailed confession, and a legalistically performed repentance.
How do we uphold in our hearts the fierceness of God’s hatred of sin and sinful people and the infinite and endless power of his grace to save sinners? By focusing on Jesus Christ crucified. You see, grace though freely offered to us cost God infinitely. He poured out the fierce anger and righteous indignation he had stored up for us, as sinners, upon Christ, his holy and beloved Son. He crushed him with his wrath for our sin! God never overlooks sin; someone must receive the punishment. God never just forgives sin; someone must be hit with his holy fury because he is just and righteous. That someone was Christ, in our place!
Two questions should help us see the incredible impact this truth has on our daily lives. One, how often do you sin? Two, how often do you remember the gospel? The two should be inextricably linked together. Every time you sin, your longing for grace from a holy God should drive you back to Christ crucified. We should be plunged heart, soul, and mind back into the gospel no less than every time we sin and hopefully more! Hopefully every time we do what’s right, or enjoy fellowship with God and others, or eat food or have water to drink, or even breathe clean air – all of these are things we do not deserve because of our sin yet enjoy because of God’s grace through Christ crucified.
So join with me in this! The next time we find ourselves in that place of realizing our sin or having disobeyed God again, pick up your Bible and open it to 1 John 2:1-2. In those moments we will read it, and meditate on it and chew on it in our hearts.
“But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense – Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.”
Preach it to your soul everyday! Rejoice and give thanks! And spread the good news!
Saturday, April 25, 2009
Has Culture Handicapped Our Enjoyment of God?
DISCLAIMER: If you don't have a good 30-45 minutes to dig into this post, then save it for a rainy day. This blog entry is not for those who are looking for a quick read. If you just want to get the gist of this post, don't bother reading...However, if you have time to carefully read this post, it is my prayer that the contents will awaken within you a deep relentless longing for intimacy with God. Not only so, but also to help you see outside yourself, just how steeped you are in our fast-paced, high-speed-information, constantly-distracted culture.
The following is an excerpt from Lain H. Murray's biography of Jonathan Edwards, a pastor from the 1700's. It is mostly quotation from Jonathan Edwards himself about his experience in coming to know God.
""The first instance that I remember of that sort of inward, sweet delight in God and divine things that I have lived much in since, was on reading those words in [1 Tim. 1.17] 'Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honour and glory for ever and ever, Amen.' As I read the words, there came into my soul, and was as it were diffused through it, a sense of the glory of the Divine Being; a new sense, quite different from any thing I ever experienced before. Never any words of scripture seemed to me as these words did. I thought with myself, how excellent a Being that was, and how happy I should be, if I might enjoy that God, and be rapt up in him in heaven, and be as it were swallowed up in him forever! I kept saying, and as it were singing over these words of scripture to myself; and went to pray to God that I might enjoy him, and prayed in a manner quite different from what I used to do; with a new sort of affection. But it never came into my thought, that there was any thing spiritual, or of saving nature in this.
From about that time, I began to have a new kind of apprehensions and ideas of Christ, and the work of redemption, and the glorious way of salvation by him. An inward, sweet sense of these things, at times, came into my heart; and my soul was led away in the pleasant views and contemplations of them. And my mind was greatly engaged to spend my time reading and meditating on Christ, on the beauty and excellency of his person, and the lovely way of salvation by free grace in him. I found no books so delightful to me as those that treated of these subjects. Those words Cant 2.1, used to be abundantly with me, 'I am the Rose of Sharon, and the Lily of the valleys'. The words seemed to me sweetly to represent the loveliness and beauty of Jesus Christ. The whole book of Canticles used to be pleasant to me, and I used to be much in reading it, about that time; and found, from time to time, an inward sweetness that would carry me away, in my contemplations...The sense I had of divine things would often of a sudden kindle up, as it were, a sweet burning in my heart; an ardor of soul, that I know not how to express."
Of his [Edwards'] joyful homecoming that summer he speaks as follows:
"Not long after I first began to experience these things, I gave an account to my father of some things that had passed in my mind. I was pretty much affected by the discourse we had together; and when the discourse was ended, I walked abroad alone, in a solitary place in my father's pasture, for contemplation. And as I was walking there, and looking up on the sky and clouds, there came into my mind so sweet a sense of the glorious majesty and grace of God, that I know not how to express - I seemed to see them both in a sweet conjuction; majesty and meekness joined together: it was a sweet, and gentle, and holy majesty; and also a majestic meekness; an awful sweetness; a high, and great, and holy gentleness."
We conclude this chapter with the remainder of Edwards' words about the beginning of his new life as a Christian:
"After this my sense of divine things gradually increased, and became more and more lively, and had more of that inward sweetness. The appearance of everything was altered; there seemed to be , as it were, a calm, sweet cast, or appearance of divine glory, in almost every thing. God's excellency, his wisdom, his purity and love, seemed to appear in every thing; in the sun, moon, and stars; in the clouds, and blue sky; in the grass, flowers, trees; in the water, and all nature; which used greatly to fix my mind.
I often used to sit and view the moon for continuance; and in the day, spent much time in viewing the clouds and sky, to behold the sweet glory of God in these things; in the mean time, singing forth, with a low voice my contemplations of the Creator and Redeemer. And scarce any thing, among all the works of nature was so sweet to me as thunder and lightning; formerly, nothing had bee so terrible to me. Before, I used to be uncommonly terrified with thunder, and to be struck with terror when I saw a thunder storm rising; but now, on the contrary, it rejoiced me. I felt God, so to speak, at the first appearance of a thunder storm; and used to take the opportunity, at such times, to fix myself in order to view the clouds, and see the lightnings play, and hear the majestic and awful voice of God's thunder, which oftentimes was exceedingly entertaining, leading me to sweet contemplations of my great and glorious God. While thus engaged, it always seemed natural to me to sing, or chant for my meditations; or, to speak my thoughts in soliloquies with a singing voice.
I felt then great satisfaction, as to my good state; but that did not content me. I had vehement longings of soul after God and Christ, and after more holiness, wherewith my heart seemed to be full, and ready to break; which often brought to my mind the words of the Psalmist [Psa. 119.20] 'My soul breaketh for the longing it hath'. I often felt a mourning and lamenting in my heart, that I had not turned to God sooner, that I might have had more time to grow in grace. My mind was greatly fixed on divine things; almost perpetually in the contemplation of them. I spent most of my time in thinking of divine things, year after year; often walking alone in the woods, and solitary places, for meditation, soliloquy, and prayer, and converse with God; and it was always my manner, at such times to sing forth my contemplations. I was almost constantly in [spontaneous] prayer, wherever I was. Prayer seemed natural to me, as the breath by which the inward burnings of my heart had vent. The delights which i now felt in those things of religion, were of an exceeding different kind from those before mentioned, that I had when I was a boy; and what I then had no more notion of than one born blind has of pleasant and beautiful colors. They were of a more inward, pure, soul-animating and refreshing nature. Those former delights never reached the heart; and did not arise from any sight of the divine excellency of the things of God; or any taste of the soul-satisfying and life-giving good there is in them (I.xiii).""(35-37).
Such a testimony seems quite foreign to our everyday Christian experience. But it doesn't have to be, nor should it be. The kind of delightful and wonderful relationship that Jonathan Edwards felt with God is completely possible in our day and age as well. However, consider for a moment another article which explains one reason why we have so little capacity for contemplation, prayer, and emotional expression everyday:
Is Google Making Us Stupid?
"Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed...The end of all things is near. Therefore, be clear minded and self-controlled so that you can pray...Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour" (1 Pet. 1:13; 4:7; 5:8).
"Be transformed by the renewing of your mind" (Rom. 12:2).
"He who has ears, let him hear" (Matt. 13:9).
Murray, Lain H. Jonathan Edwards: A New Biography. Carlisle, PA: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1987.
The following is an excerpt from Lain H. Murray's biography of Jonathan Edwards, a pastor from the 1700's. It is mostly quotation from Jonathan Edwards himself about his experience in coming to know God.
""The first instance that I remember of that sort of inward, sweet delight in God and divine things that I have lived much in since, was on reading those words in [1 Tim. 1.17] 'Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honour and glory for ever and ever, Amen.' As I read the words, there came into my soul, and was as it were diffused through it, a sense of the glory of the Divine Being; a new sense, quite different from any thing I ever experienced before. Never any words of scripture seemed to me as these words did. I thought with myself, how excellent a Being that was, and how happy I should be, if I might enjoy that God, and be rapt up in him in heaven, and be as it were swallowed up in him forever! I kept saying, and as it were singing over these words of scripture to myself; and went to pray to God that I might enjoy him, and prayed in a manner quite different from what I used to do; with a new sort of affection. But it never came into my thought, that there was any thing spiritual, or of saving nature in this.
From about that time, I began to have a new kind of apprehensions and ideas of Christ, and the work of redemption, and the glorious way of salvation by him. An inward, sweet sense of these things, at times, came into my heart; and my soul was led away in the pleasant views and contemplations of them. And my mind was greatly engaged to spend my time reading and meditating on Christ, on the beauty and excellency of his person, and the lovely way of salvation by free grace in him. I found no books so delightful to me as those that treated of these subjects. Those words Cant 2.1, used to be abundantly with me, 'I am the Rose of Sharon, and the Lily of the valleys'. The words seemed to me sweetly to represent the loveliness and beauty of Jesus Christ. The whole book of Canticles used to be pleasant to me, and I used to be much in reading it, about that time; and found, from time to time, an inward sweetness that would carry me away, in my contemplations...The sense I had of divine things would often of a sudden kindle up, as it were, a sweet burning in my heart; an ardor of soul, that I know not how to express."
Of his [Edwards'] joyful homecoming that summer he speaks as follows:
"Not long after I first began to experience these things, I gave an account to my father of some things that had passed in my mind. I was pretty much affected by the discourse we had together; and when the discourse was ended, I walked abroad alone, in a solitary place in my father's pasture, for contemplation. And as I was walking there, and looking up on the sky and clouds, there came into my mind so sweet a sense of the glorious majesty and grace of God, that I know not how to express - I seemed to see them both in a sweet conjuction; majesty and meekness joined together: it was a sweet, and gentle, and holy majesty; and also a majestic meekness; an awful sweetness; a high, and great, and holy gentleness."
We conclude this chapter with the remainder of Edwards' words about the beginning of his new life as a Christian:
"After this my sense of divine things gradually increased, and became more and more lively, and had more of that inward sweetness. The appearance of everything was altered; there seemed to be , as it were, a calm, sweet cast, or appearance of divine glory, in almost every thing. God's excellency, his wisdom, his purity and love, seemed to appear in every thing; in the sun, moon, and stars; in the clouds, and blue sky; in the grass, flowers, trees; in the water, and all nature; which used greatly to fix my mind.
I often used to sit and view the moon for continuance; and in the day, spent much time in viewing the clouds and sky, to behold the sweet glory of God in these things; in the mean time, singing forth, with a low voice my contemplations of the Creator and Redeemer. And scarce any thing, among all the works of nature was so sweet to me as thunder and lightning; formerly, nothing had bee so terrible to me. Before, I used to be uncommonly terrified with thunder, and to be struck with terror when I saw a thunder storm rising; but now, on the contrary, it rejoiced me. I felt God, so to speak, at the first appearance of a thunder storm; and used to take the opportunity, at such times, to fix myself in order to view the clouds, and see the lightnings play, and hear the majestic and awful voice of God's thunder, which oftentimes was exceedingly entertaining, leading me to sweet contemplations of my great and glorious God. While thus engaged, it always seemed natural to me to sing, or chant for my meditations; or, to speak my thoughts in soliloquies with a singing voice.I felt then great satisfaction, as to my good state; but that did not content me. I had vehement longings of soul after God and Christ, and after more holiness, wherewith my heart seemed to be full, and ready to break; which often brought to my mind the words of the Psalmist [Psa. 119.20] 'My soul breaketh for the longing it hath'. I often felt a mourning and lamenting in my heart, that I had not turned to God sooner, that I might have had more time to grow in grace. My mind was greatly fixed on divine things; almost perpetually in the contemplation of them. I spent most of my time in thinking of divine things, year after year; often walking alone in the woods, and solitary places, for meditation, soliloquy, and prayer, and converse with God; and it was always my manner, at such times to sing forth my contemplations. I was almost constantly in [spontaneous] prayer, wherever I was. Prayer seemed natural to me, as the breath by which the inward burnings of my heart had vent. The delights which i now felt in those things of religion, were of an exceeding different kind from those before mentioned, that I had when I was a boy; and what I then had no more notion of than one born blind has of pleasant and beautiful colors. They were of a more inward, pure, soul-animating and refreshing nature. Those former delights never reached the heart; and did not arise from any sight of the divine excellency of the things of God; or any taste of the soul-satisfying and life-giving good there is in them (I.xiii).""(35-37).
Such a testimony seems quite foreign to our everyday Christian experience. But it doesn't have to be, nor should it be. The kind of delightful and wonderful relationship that Jonathan Edwards felt with God is completely possible in our day and age as well. However, consider for a moment another article which explains one reason why we have so little capacity for contemplation, prayer, and emotional expression everyday:
Is Google Making Us Stupid?
"Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed...The end of all things is near. Therefore, be clear minded and self-controlled so that you can pray...Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour" (1 Pet. 1:13; 4:7; 5:8).
"Be transformed by the renewing of your mind" (Rom. 12:2).
"He who has ears, let him hear" (Matt. 13:9).
Murray, Lain H. Jonathan Edwards: A New Biography. Carlisle, PA: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1987.
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