5 May
TESTING IN THE WILDERNESS
We would recall how the testing of Jesus in the wilderness after 40 days of fasting mirrors or recapitulates Israel’s wanderings and testing in the wilderness for 40 years.
In every testing situation both Satan and God are involved. God tests us to bring forth excellence in discipleship, as Moses explained to the Israelites at the close of the wilderness wanderings:
“Remember the whole way that the Lord your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble youl, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not…Who fed you in the wilderness with manna….that he might humble you and test you (to drill you in grateful, confident, disciplined, submissive reliance on himself), to do you good in the end (Deuteronomy 8:2,16, emphasis added).
Satan, by contrast, tests us with a view to our ruin and destruction, as appears from Paul’s reason for sending Timothy to encourage the harassed Thessalonian Christians. ” I sent to learn about your faith, for fear that somehow the tempter had tempted you and our labour would be in vain” (1 Thess. 3:5, emphasis added) – recall also the devil’s temptation of Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden resulting in the Fall that affects the whole of mankind under Adam. Satan might have persuaded the Thessalonian Christians to give up their faith and so ruined their souls. The Thessalonian believers were relatively young Christians as a church, yet their work of faith, labour of love, and endurance of hope in the Lord Jesus were so outstanding that their faith in God had become known everywhere (a model church in Macedonia and Achaia – 1 Thess. 1:3,7,8) – they became an obvious target for the evil one.
Satan was with the Israelites in the desert (wilderness), labouring to ensnare them in unbelief and lawlessness, and often succeeding, in the short term at least; and God was with the Thessalonians in the furnace, disciplining them for their good, that they might share his holiness (Heb. 12:10).
We must not forget that temptation (or testing) is always two-sided – whenever we are conscious of the enemy seeking to pull us down, we should remind ourselves that God is present too to keep us steady and to build us up through the harrowing time.
Jesus was led by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness (desert) to be tested. As the perfect human and the representative of the new humanity and new creation, he triumphed over the evil one as the last Adam (contrast with the first Adam who failed), and as the Second Man – he overcame by constant dependence on the Holy Spirit and by using the ‘sword of the Spirit, the Word of God’.
In contrast with Israel in the wilderness, led by Moses in the exodus, Jesus is leading believers in the real exodus – an exodus from spiritual death to resurrection life in the renewed creation, not long life in the land of Canaan; liberation from death, sin, and hell, not just from Egypt; good news for the world, not just for Israel; and justification of the ungodly, both Jews and Gentiles in Him.
Just like our Lord and Master, we too must be prepared to be tested in the wilderness (mirroring the temptations in the desert) and although we are not living in this world as perfect, we are living as forgiven children of God and pilgrims on the way to the ‘promised land’. Like the Israelites of old, we have many ‘adversaries’ to overcome before we reach the promised land, but let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith – although the enemy is formidable and devious, God is also working in the midst of the testing and we need to look to him, depend on him, trust in him explicitly and indeed, “the
new heavens and new earth” beckons just ahead of us.
“Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed.” (1 Peter 4:12-13).
Paul and Barnabas exhorted the disciples in the book of Acts by strengthening the disciples and encouraging them to remain true to the faith. “We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God,” they said (Acts 14:22).
Like the Lord Jesus, as his disciples, in union with him, we must look to him and his example not to succumb in the tests in the ‘desert’ of life – God would enable us even as the devil seeks to destroy us.
9 May
OUR CAUSE FOR CERTAINTY IN THE SCRIPTURE
The church has from the beginning received the Bible’s testimony with regard to its divine origin; it was the Spirit who taught it to do so – it is the Spirit’s witness to Scripture – hence Christians can have confidence and certainty as to the divine truth and trustworthiness of the Bible.
This certainty of the trustworthiness and authority of Scripture rests on exactly the same basis as the church’s certainty of the Trinity, or the Incarnation, or any other major doctrine of the church.
Why so? God has declared it; Scripture embodies it; the Spirit exhibits to believers, and they humbly receive it, as they are bound to do. It is not optional for Christians to ‘sit loose’ to what God has said, and treat questions He has closed as if they were still open. (The secret things belong to the Lord God and the things revealed are for us believers).
Then why is it that Christian deviate from the BIble’s view of itself? Why is it that even well respected Christian leaders deviate from the essential truths that surround salvation and the gospel, gleaned from the Bible through the Spirit, and teach unscriptural views of major doctrines? Among many reasons, Christians, even those looked upon as matured, fall into mental error, partly through mistaking or overlooking what the Scripture teaches, partly through having their minds prepossessed with unbiblical notions so that they cannot take Scriptural statements seriously. All heresy begins so. Unscriptural ideas in our theology are like germs in our systems. They tend only to weaken and destroy life, and their effect is always damaging.
And when ‘charismatic’ ‘attractive’ individuals, who command adulation and respect, teach and uphold distorted theology, many adoring followers would take ‘their every word as the gospel truth’ even if it is obviously unscriptural. Pride in one’s intellect and understanding often prevents such individuals from being open to the truth, and the consequences can be damaging and far-reaching. Behind all these, you can be sure, is the devil, the enemy who does not sleep but always works around the clock – he continues to whisper “Did God really say this?”; “Are you sure that this is in line with the Bible (and he can quote the Bible too, very accurately as well, but with the wrong context and application).
The problem is not just with these charismatic individuals who lead others astray; the problem also lies with the recipients of the distorted theology and truth – take note that Christians would get the leaders they desire and deserve, particularly if they do not exercise efforts (in dependence on God) to know and apply the Scripture accurately in their lives.
The sharings on “Justification by faith in Christ alone” seek to bring this home clearly – even respected Christian leaders in church history can lead the church astray and cause much harm and damage with their distorted theology; but equally guilty are believers who are not like the Berean Christians (who even checked whether the Apostle Paul was teaching the biblical truth); those who are led astray because of ‘ignorance’ arising from indolence and the lack of being good stewards of what God has revealed through the Bible are guilty as well when they come before the Lord’s judgement seat!
15 May
THE CENTRAL THEOLOGICAL THEME: GOD IS TRINITY
In our DG, when we studied the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist, a sister remarked that the TRINITY was present – Father who declared Jesus as his beloved son, Jesus who identified with the people he came to save by being baptised by John, and the Holy Spirit descending in bodily form like a dove on Jesus. This truth of the TRINITY is seen clearly here; however, this is always the case and the reality in the persons of the Godhead. If we miss this truth in our understanding and in our experience, we are the poorer for it spiritually.
God is Trinity: Father. Son, and Holy Spirit. This is a great mystery – because we are not God and we cannot fully understand the sheer, wonderful, glorious mystery of His being. But we can begin to slowly grasp it, and learn to love and adore Him.
If you are a Christian, it is because of the loving thought and action of each person of the Trinity. The Father, along with the Son and Holy Spirit, planned it before the foundation of the world; the Son came to pay the price of your redemption and, supported by the Holy Spirit, became obedient to His Father in your place, both in His life and death, to bring you justification before God; and now, by the powerful work of the Holy Spirit sent by both the Father and the Son, you have been brought to faith.
The greatest privilege any of us can have is to know God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – we can have communion (enjoy fellowship) with God! Knowing the Triune God and having fellowship with Him is an entire world of endless knowledge, trust, love, joy, fellowship, pleasure, and satisfaction. Indeed, “in thy presence is fullness of joy, and at the right hand are pleasures forevermore” (Psalm 16:11).
To be a Christian is, first and foremost, to belong to theTriune God and to be named for Him. This is the heart and core of the privileges of the gospel. Once we were strangers and aliens from the family of God, without desire or power to please Him. But now, through the Son whom the Father sent into the world to save us, and the Spirit who brings all the resources of Christ to us, we have come to know “the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God the Father and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit” (familiarly pronounced in the BENEDICTION).
Jesus’ baptism by John the Baptist was in effect an anointing by God to begin the Son’s mission proper in fulfilling the Salvation plan of theTriune God. Notice, as stated earlier, the presence of the three persons of the Godhead in this commission. When Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, the Father, who declared Jesus as His beloved Son, was invariably present with Him.
The Father is the Creator, and yet He makes all things through His Son, the
Word, without whom “was not anything made that was made.” But already in Genesis 1:2, we read of the Spirit of God hovering over the waters as the divine executive who superintended the original formless, empty, dark creation in order to bring both form and fullness in the light of God.
Later, the Father sent His Son.The Son willingly came to take our flesh and bear our sins. He was conceived in the womb of the Virgin Mary. LIkewise, in the resurrection, the Father raised the Son. The Son stepped forth from the tomb, but He did so in the power of the Spirit.
The three Persons of the Godhead know each other, love each other, delight in each other. There is mystery here, but it is the mystery of infinite glory and leads to humble adoration and devotion.
The more we reflect on the way Scripture details the activities of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, the correspondingly fuller and richer our communion with God will become. It will no longer be communion with an undifferentiated being, but fellowship with a deeply personal, indeed three-personal, Being in all that He is in His three persons, each one in the undivided Three making Himself known to us in special and distinct ways.
Often when we think of the ‘Cross’, we straightaway think of the love of Jesus the Son who gave His life for us; but we must know that it costs the Father dearly to love us as sinners, for it required His willingness to send His beloved Son and give Him up to the death of the cross in order to fulfill His purposes of love for us. Whenever we think of the Father and the Son together, we must also know that the Spirit is also there in their midst.
So when Jesus encountered the devil in the wilderness, although he did not use His divine power, His consciousness of the Father caused Him to declare that man must not live by bread alone but by every Word from the mouth of God. His consciousness of the Father’s presence helped Him declare that we shall worship God alone, and nothing and nobody else, and similarly, He did not take His Father’s grace for granted and test Him. When Jesus quoted the Scripture, it was not just the written words in Scripture, but it is the living Word, the sword of the Spirit of God that “penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart” (Heb. 4:12).
The Triune God was present as Jesus encountered the devil, not just in the wilderness, but throughout His journey to the Cross and beyond. He was filled with the Spirit at birth, He was filled at His anointing for His mission; the Spirit was with Him throughout His stay on earth; He was raised and resurrected by the power of the Spirit; and by the Spirit, God the Father and God the Son came to live with the believers and made their home in them (John 14:23). As we look at the life of Jesus on earth, note how He was constantly aware of His Father’s presence as He looked to Him constantly and did all that the Father told HIm. Even at the Garden of Gethsemane, He was agonising and communing with the Father, and the Spirit was present to strengthen Him.
In everything God the Trinity is and does, each of the three persons relates to and engages with each of the other persons. The “choreography” of the Divine Being is beautifully one in its diversity and diverse in its unity. Both internally and externally, the persons of the Trinity always function in the harmony of a single Deity. We therefore never worship any person as though His personhood could be in any way abstracted or separated from His participation in the single essence of His deity.
Ponder over the following:
God in heaven, this world’s maker and judge, is our Father, who sent his son to redeem us, who adopted us into his family, who loves us, watches over us, listens to us, cares for us, shower gifts upon us; who preserves us for the inheritance of glory that he keeps in store for us; and to whom we have access through Christ, by the Spirit.
Jesus Christ, who is now personally in heaven, nonetheless makes himself present to us by the Spirit to stand by us, to love, lead, assure, quicken, uphold, and encourage usl, and to use us in his work as in weakness we trust him.
The Holy Spirit indwells us to sustain in us a personal understanding of the gospel truth; to maintain in consciousness our fellowship with the Father and the Son; to reshape us in ethical correspondence to Christ; to equip us with abilities for loves personal worship of God in praise and prayer and loving personal ministry to others; to engender realisation of our present moral weakness and inadequacy of achievement, and to make us long for the future life of bodily resurrection and renewal, the life of which the Spirit’s present ministry to us is the firstfruits and the initial installment, guaranteeing the rest.
18 May
WE NEED TO WAKE UP TO THE HOLY SPIRIT
In the previous sharing, with the real possibility of causing misunderstanding to the preachers and teachers in the churches, we highlighted the need to return to sound BIblical preaching and teaching that minister to the mind, affect the ‘heart’ – the seat of affections and decisions, and ‘activate’ the will to do God’s will. We also noted that the church has been negatively affected when this is lacking.
Another major area that has also affected the church negatively is the lack of understanding the Holy Spirit in the ministry of the church; where the Spirit’s ministry is studied, it will also be sought after, and where it is sought after, spiritual vitality will result.
Conversely, where the Spirit’s ministry arouses no interest and other preoccupations rule our minds, the quest for life in the Spirit is likely to be neglected too – then the church will lapse, as in many quarters it has lapsed already, into either the formal routines of ‘Christian Pharisaism’ or the spiritual counterpart of ‘sleeping sickness’, or maybe a mixture of both.
We are not calling for the ‘pneumatic preoccupation’ that can slow down maturity and cause negative consequences among God’s people. Those who proccupy themselves with ‘charismatic experience’ rather than the truth, insisting on their unwillingness to reason out guidance for life from the Scriptures, make themselves open to endless possibilities of self-deception and satanic manipulations the moment they lay aside the Word to follow supposedly direct instruction from the Spirit in vision, dream, prophecy, or inward impression.
Such ones appear anti-intellectual in basic attitude, impatient with biblical and theological study, insistent that their movement is about experience rather than truth, content with a tiny handful of biblical teachings to support their views.
Fanaticism is always a danger when formation of the mind by the Word is in any way neglected. What is needed across the board is constant instruction in biblical truth with constant prayer that the Spirit will make it take fire in human hearts, regenerating, and transforming into Christ’s likeness at character level. The first concern should be the fulfillment of Christ’s prayer that His people would be sanctified by the Spirit through God’s Word of truth.
Through the gift of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of the living God, God himself has now become present in the new creation as an abiding, empowering presence. Through the Spirit, God not only brings us into an intimate and abiding relationship with himself as the God of all grace, but also causes us to participate in all the benefits of that grace and salvation, indwelling us in the present by his own presence, guaranteeing our final eschatological glory.
By the Spirit, we are brought face to face with the living God and by the Spirit transformed into his likeness (2Cor. 3:3-18).
The Spirit is the way God has come to us in the present age, to be with us, to indwell us – both corporately and individually – to fellowship with us, and to empower us for life in the present as we await the consummation. By the Spirit our lives are invaded by the living God himself. God himself is present in and among us.
The lack of divine energy and exuberance in most congregations is rather painful to see. We seek to replace it with ‘loud, noisy music and singing with bands and singers displaying their presence and ‘prowess’ for all to see, seeking to glorify themselves (not that they truly can), instead of honoring and glorifying the presence and reality of the Triune God in their midst (if it is at all present). On the other hand, we have congregations, nodding their heads, not in agreement or in receiving the truth preached, but preoccupied with their ‘dreamland’ and with what they are going to do after the sermon has been ‘done’.
Have we, as Christians, and as a church, grasped the supernatural reality of Holy Spirit life? Are our eyes and focus trained on one another as we gossip about our current interests that we have not noticed what the Holy Spirit is doing? We are quick to pay lip-service to the Holy Spirit (everyone does these days), but we do not yet take him seriously – we need to wake up and arouse ourselves lest we grieve Him all too often.
25 May
THE MISSION OF JESUS
When we study the Gospels, we need to be mindful that they record for us the coming of the Messiah, the Son of God, and his mission.
Jesus did not come simply to heal, or to reign, or to raise people from the dead. He came to forgive sin, and to transform sinners. His sin-forgiving, sinner-transforming ministry was central to everything else that he did. The movement in all four Gospels is toward the cross and the empty tomb.
Jesus’ central ministry, the forgiveness of sin, meant that he had to entangle himself with sinners. He came to call the despised and disgusting elements of society. He once said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.”
In the Old Testament, we note that the people of God had forgotten the God whom they claimed to serve – He was the compassionate God who had delivered them from Egypt, graciously given them the covenant at Sinai, disclosed himself to them in countless ways, provided a sacrificial system by which their sin might be atoned for, cared for therm and disciplined them as they learned lessons of obedience and gradually took possession of the Promised Land, and promised them a deliverer, a Messiah, who would bring to pass all of his rich promises to them. God in mercy had sought them, called them, and constituted them a nation. Now, Jesus says, he too has come with the same heart. “I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners (Matt. 9:13).
Jesus’ messianic mission was characterised by grace, by a pursuit of the lost.
It turns out that the people who think they are worthy of Messiah’s attention are no more worthy than the socially repulsive people whom they dismiss. And both kinds of people are in need of his mercy, even if they are not worthy of his attention.
So what was Jesus’ mission as recorded in the Gospels? Why did he come? He came to save his people from their sin, he came to transform sinners. He did not come to call the righteous, but sinners. And this mission requires the establishment of new forms of righteous expression, changes to the existing covenantal structure between God and his people, to accommodate the new reality being introduced. No longer would priests offer daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly sacrifices that covered sin over; now one sacrifice would deal finally and effectively with sin. No longer would the meeting place between God and man be localised in a temple in Jerusalem; now it would be ‘localised’ in the person of God’s Son. No longer would the Spirit be poured out only on the leaders of the covenant community; now all the heirs of the new covenant would know the Spirit’s work for themselves. And if the final fruition of Jesus’ mission must await his return, then at least we may rejoice that the principal dealing with sin has already taken place in Jesus’ initial mission – even the consummation of his work awaits his return. He will one day introduce a new heaven and a new earth, where there will be no more disease, no more war, or injustice.
He will do so because he has already dealt foundationally with the root problem, the problem of sin.
The new ‘wine’ Jesus is introducing simply cannot be stored in the old wineskin of the structure of Judaism (Matt. 9:17). The old structures could not stand the pressure. New structures would have to be used in conjunction with the new wine.
Jesus was proposing to overturn the prevailing structure of Jewish religion, on the ground that they are inadequate to contain the new revelation and the new structure he himself is introducing. Jesus and the kingdom he is introducing are the fulfillment of Old Testament expectations, promises, and structures. If Jeremiah promises a new covenant (Jer. 31:31), then the old Mosaic covenant is obsolete (Heb. 8;13). If the Psalms promise a new priest who does not spring from the tribe of Levi, but who is a messianic figure serving in the order of Melchizedek Ps.110:4), then necessarily there is envisaged the overthrow of the Mosaic legislation as it then stood; for the Levitical priesthood is so interwoven with that legislation, its tabernacle (later temple) rites, its sacrificial system and feasts, that a new priesthood unavoidably means a new covenant (Heb. 7).
Paul insists that the gospel he preaches is in direct line with and fulfillment of the covenant with Abraham, a covenant that was not overturned when the Mosaic law was introduced centuries later. The Mosaic covenant was in certain respects a training period until the promised Redeemer arrived (Rom. 4; Gal.3). With the coming of the Spirit at Pentecost, this marks the end of the tribal, representative nature of the old covenant, and the beginning of the new age and arrangement between God and his people. Jesus, in this sense, inaugurates the new age, with his coming, his mission, and the sending of the Spirit from the Father and him.
As we study the Gospels, we must not lose sight of these perspectives.