1 Jan 2024
The Radical Choice: Matthew 7:21
The time is 1.00 am 1st January 2024: I am penning the sharing that the Lord graciously communicated to my wife and me in our reading and prayer before bedtime.
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven,but only he who does he will of my Father, who is in heaven” (Matt. 7:21)
Jesus sets before us, in the conclusion of the Sermon on the Mount, the radical choice between obedience and disobedience. Of course we cannot be saved by our obedience, but if we have truly been saved, we will show it by our obedience to Him.
First and foremost, Jesus warns us of the danger of just a mere verbal profession of faith in Him (Matt. 7:21-23). “Jesus is Lord” is the earliest, shortest, simplest of all Christian creeds. But if this is not accompanied by the personal submission to the lordship of Jesus, it is useless. We may even hear on the last day the terrible words of Jesus: “I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers (v.23).
Secondly, Jesus warns us of the danger of a merely intellectual knowledge. In verses 21-23, the contrast was between saying and doing; the contrast here is between hearing and doing (vv. 24-27). Jesus then illustrates it by the well-known parable of the two builders. It features a wise man who constructed his house on rock and a fool who could not be bothered with foundations and built his house on sand. As both got on with their building, a casual observer would not have not noticed any difference between them, for the difference was in the foundations, and foundations are not seen.
Only when a storm broke and battered both houses with great ferocity was the fatal difference revealed. In the same way professing Christians (both the genuine and the spurious) look alike. Both appear to be building Christian lives. Both hear Christ’s words. They go to church, read the Bible, and listen to sermons. But the deep foundation of their lives are hidden from view. Only the storm of adversity in this life and the storm of judgment on the last day will reveal who they are.
This well known passage focuses on the importance of the reality of our faith and the reality in our hearts. It also points to the need of building our spiritual lives on firm and strong foundations if we are to be stable and to be found standing in the midst of a ferocious storm.
The death of God’s Son on Calvary shows how completely God, in love to mankind, was willing to hide his glory and become vulnerable to shame and dishonour. Now God in love calls men to embrace and boast of this foolish seeming, weak-looking disputable event of the Cross as the means of their salvation. It is a challenge to sinful pride of both mind and heart.
Similarly, God in love, calls us to humble ourselves by bowing to Holy Scripture, which also has an appearance of foolishness and weakness when judged by some human standards, yet is truly His Word and the means of our knowing him as Saviour. God first humbled himself for our salvation in the Incarnation and on the cross and now He humbles himself for our knowledge of salvation by addressing us in and through the often humanly unimpressive words of the Bible. Nevertheless, it is ‘soaking’ ourselves in His Word (the Bible) that we truly build strong and firm foundations in Christ Jesus that would stand us in good stead in the face of adversity, perplexity and persecution.
The Sermon on the Mount ends on the solemn note of radical choice. There are only two ways (narrow and broad) and only two foundations (rock and sand). On which road are we traveling? On which foundation are we building? We cannot afford to make the wrong choice. We cannot be indifferent and not be bothered to work hard and be diligent (in dependence on God and His Spirit) in taking time and effort to build strong and deep foundations in our Christian lives, for we are living in the last days (when there will be terrible times- 2Tim. 3:1).
2 Jan 2024
We who died to sin shall no longer live in it (Romans6:1-14)
The legalist and moralist insists that teaching people they are saved by grace would lead to a slack attitude to morality; the liberated (antinomian) church person may say that since we are saved by grace apart from work, it does not matter what we do; the Christian under pressure from temptation may reason that it is not so bad if we sin – after all God will forgive me anyway – so it is okay to sin and give way to temptation. So, shall we continue to sin so that grace may increase? Apostle Paul’s answer: “Absolutely not! We who died to sin, how shall we still live in it (6:2)? We have noted that there is no perfection here on earth and a Christian is still not beyond temptation, but that does not mean we cannot live a life apart from sin with God’s enabling and with the right understanding of what Christ has done for us.
Paul goes on in Rom. 6 to tell believers why we are to be holy.
We are to be holy and no longer live in sin by continuing to sin as a way of life because we died with Christ (Gal.2:20). Christ’s death was a proxy death for us. We were with Him on the cross, with Him in the tomb, and with Him in the resurrection (vv3-4). When Christ died for sin, we died to sin. Baptism, Paul says, is a constant reminder of our participation in Christ’s death and resurrection. Union with Jesus is the key to our justification and holiness.
When we died with Christ, we died to sin. Sin did not die; rather our physical body which sin used as its instrument was taken out of gear (v6). Conversely, we have been raised with Christ to a new life (vv4,5,8). This new life is never ending (v9).
As God sees us as believers, we are to see ourselves now. Previously, before we died with Christ, our master was Satan and sin; after we died with Christ and were raised with Him, we have a new Master – Christ and righteousness. We no longer need to listen to the old master; although we may be unduly influenced by the devil and sin, we are no longer obligated to do what they desire – we are free to serve God and righteousness because we are born again (united with Christ) and adopted as children of God. As God’s children, we are to be like Him in His character (holy, just and righteous) but because we still have dying bodies and we are still living in the fallen world (where Satan is the prince), there is now the constant battle and fight to be holy and pleasing to God. In one sense, we are free to fight – to say “no” to sin, the old self, and the devil – and to say “yes” to righteousness, the new self, and the new Master and Lord of our new lives. Hence sanctification is a life-long process and ‘struggle’ in this sense.
As we learn in the conclusion of the Sermon on the Mount that we shall not only say we believe and yet we do not do, and we are not just to listen to the preaching and teaching of God’s Word, and not do the application – in other words, we need to obey and apply the truth in our outworking, and to build a strong and stable foundation in God and His Word, by the dwelling and enabling of the Holy Spirit.
Although the sinful nature of the ‘old man’ remains a powerful force within the believer, God has given the believer a powerful gift, the indwelling Spirit who enables us to do God’s will; the Spirit leads us to put to death the misdeeds of the body (Rom. 8:14-15) and He also empowers us for godly living.
Nonetheless, our present experience is one of suffering and groaning; although we have received the down payment of our salvation in the person of the Holy Spirit (Rom.8:23), we groan as we wait for the rest of the payment when our bodies will be transformed (1 Cor. 15:35).
There should be none of the unreal positivism that dominates the churches which claim the experience of life is one of triumph after another. Nevertheless, the first fruits, the down payment (the Holy Spirit) guarantees the rest of full salvation is yet to come. The war is over but the “battles” still carry on but victory has already been secured by our Lord and Master!
3 Jan 2024
Christ is the end (telos; goal) of law for righteousness to all who believe
he above statement is taken from Romans 10:4.
This statement by Apostle Paul is significant: we need to understand this clearly in appreciating the gospel and what God has done for mankind in order to save humans from hell, destruction, and death; and to give them Life, and for them to be saved.
Salvation is relationship with God and a place in the new world where God will live in fellowship with His people. After the Fall, our rebellion and wickedness has both been exposed and condemned by the law – and this has disqualified us from Salvation.
There are those who pursued righteousness and God’s acceptance by seeking to obey the law (among them are those from Israel and many religious groups).
But Paul reminded people that if they choose the way of the law for salvation, they need to keep the law fully (Rom.10:5) i.e. the person who has done the law fully will live by it – the breaking of one law of God is tantamount to breaking all the rest. We are not talking about naughtiness, but the breaking of God’s law; to do something which the Sovereign of the Universe has forbidden is to put ourselves enormously out of line.
The historical Anselm of Canterbury once asked his friend what he should do if God were to command him under no circumstances to do a particular thing, but he had reason to believe that unless he did it the whole world would be destroyed. His friend answered correctly that since it was the Creator of the world who commanded, he should obey HIs command, even if it meant the destruction of the world. Anselm concluded from this that the smallest breaking of God’s commandments is more serious than the destruction of the world. We are complacent about sin’s seriousness because we have such small regard for God – this fact alone should convince us that our position is perilous. What we regard as minor sins are symptomatic of total disorder in our relationship with the Maker.
We must realise that none of God’s commandments is trivial; if we break God’s law we put ourselves out of relationship with Him. All of us have done that. But now God has opened a new way for us to stand before HIm, the way of righteousness by faith. The principle that emerges from this is that God gives His blessing to people apart from their deserving it and, therefore, obviously on some other basis than their righteousness in obeying the law. And that brings us to the GOSPEL and CHRIST. The gospel is heaven’s declaration of Christ’s victory over sin and death and His enthronement as the final power and authority in heaven and earth; it is also God’s gracious invitation to a place in His kingdom – entry into a right standing with God is gained by trusting in a simple message which is open and public.
Paul answers the question, ‘who will be saved’ by affirming that no one who believes in Jesus will be put to shame. The one who believes in Jesus will be saved; Christ’s followers will never be abandoned. In this age they may be rejected and mocked, but in the fullness of time their lot will be the joy of seeing their faith vindicated and their wildest dreams fulfilled.
Christ is the goal of the law:
First in the sense that the OT Scripture looks forward to a fulfilment in the latter days. Its prophetic revelation is incomplete and predicts the coming of a great prophet (Deuteronomy 18:15). Its pattern of kingship and kingdom foreshadows a greater King and a great Kingdom still to come (2 Samuel 7). Its rituals of sacrifice and redemption look forward to a final sacrifice and an ultimate redemption (Isaiah 53; Daniel 9:24). All these came with Jesus Christ. Hence when we preach and teach the OT, we must be fully conscious that the application points in many instances to Christ and His mission which will be fulfilled in the NT.
The second manner in which Christ is the goal of the law is that he is the first and only human being ever to fully comply with the law. The only charges of law-breaking ever brought against Jesus were that he healed on the Sabbath and that he was a blasphemer. He argued that to heal as he did on the Sabbath was not to desecrate it, but to fulfil that for which the Sabbath stood; the ushering of human beings into fulfilment and wholeness. His alleged blasphemy was an admission that he was the Son of Man who would return in the clouds of heaven. Only the perfect man can die for others and pay for their sin; Only the God-man can absorb all the ‘wrath’ of God against sin, die, and be resurrected and ascended to the right hand of God the Father. We believe in a living Saviour and Lord, not in a dead religious leader.
The third way in which Christ is both the goal and the end of the law is that as their priest-king he perfectly represented his people in obedience to the law, paid out their debts, and brought to an end the law’s claim on them. This he did by representing each one in death, and paying for them the law’s ultimate penalty (Rom.7:1-6).
The law still stands as a revelation of the will and plan of God and as a guide to the good life, though as law it has come to an end for those who are in Christ.
4 Jan 2024
The return of Christ and the fulfilment of God’s eternal purpose
What God has achieved in the past through the life, death, and resurrection of His Son is the foundation for what He will certainly do in the future, at the end of the age, at the consummation.This is our hope as Christians – it is not a wishful ‘good feeling’ but a confident expectation of a definite certain tomorrow, rooted in what had taken place in the past.
The ‘blessed hope’ of the Christian, and thus the controlling theme of biblical eschatology, is “the appearing of the glory of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:13), at which time He will consummate the kingdom of God.
The focus of Christ’s ministry on earth was the announcement of the coming of the kingdom of God (both by John the Baptist and Jesus). We must appreciate that for the religious leaders of Jesus’ day as well as for the common people, the coming kingdom of God would be a matter of national liberation and the military defeat of the pagan oppressors.
Jesus was claiming that the fulfilment of the Old Testament hope with its attendant blessings was in fact present in his person and ministry when the declaration “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand, repent and believe the gospel” (Mark 1:15; Matt. 3:2; Luke 4:43) was made. The fulfilment, however, was not taking place along anticipated lines and according to the expectations of the religious leaders and people. The unexpected element was that fulfilment was occuring in Jesus, but without the eschatological consummation.
The message of the Lord Jesus then was that before the kingdom would come in its eschatological consummation, it has come in his own person and work in spirit and power. The kingdom, therefore, is both the present spiritual reign of God and the future realm over which he will rule in power and glory.
Thus the kingdom of God is the redemptive reign of God, or his sovereign lordship, dynamically active to establish his rule among men. There are two dramatic moments in the manifestation of this kingdom – first, as it is fulfilled within history in the first coming of the Son Jesus, whereby Satan was defeated and men and women came into the experience of the blessings of God’ reign; and second, it will be consummated at the close of history in the second coming of the Son, when he will finally and forever destroy his enemies, deliver his people and all of creation from evil, and establish his eternal rule in the new heavens and new earth.
The kingdom which is to come in the future in power and glory has, in point of fact, already entered into the world in advance in a hidden form to work secretly within and among men (see Mark 4:26-32). Thus we must think in terms of both “the present realm of righteousness or salvation when men may accept or reject the kingdom, and the future realm when the powers of the kingdom shall be manifested in visible glory. The former was inaugurated without outward display, and those who accept it are to live intermingled with those who reject it (the wheat among the weed) until the consummation. Then the kingdom will be disclosed in a mighty manifestation of power and glory. God’s kingdom will come; and the ultimate state will witness the perfect realisation of the will of God everywhere and forever”.
In the meantime, before the latter, God’s people must be prepared to live in the midst of suffering, hardship, illness, and spiritual warfare – the devil knows that his time is running out, and he would do his utmost to destroy, and to try to undo God’s purpose, and to harm God’s people (see Matt, 24:22-31).
The redemption we will experience at Christ’s return is the complete and final eradication of all sin, of every trace of the corruption in spirit and flesh, that was ours prior to that moment. The natural creation awaits that day because, then, it will in like fashion be fully redeemed and delivered (Rom. 8:22-23). Thus the redemption and glory of creation are co-extensive and in tandem with ours. The fullness of God’s presence among His people necessarily demands the banishment of any and all forms of suffering associated with the old creation.
Christian endurance means living lovingly, joyfully, peacefully, and patiently under conditions that we wish were different. Suffering is specified in Scripture as part of every Christian’s calling. Suffering must be expected, and even valued, by all believers without exception; it is to be expected and we must prepare for it as we await the consummation of God’s eternal purpose.
For believers, suffering sanctifies our suffering to good ends. Our suffering produces character (Rom.5:3); our suffering glorifies God (2Cor.12:9-10); and our suffering fulfils the law of the harvest. Before there is blessing anywhere, there will first be suffering somewhere. Jesus first announced this law when he declared, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit”(John 12:24).
Finally, after all has taken place according to the Scripture, God will be all in all and His people will experience the fascination and wonders of His presence, and we will reign with Him forever and ever (Rev.22:5) in the new heavens and new earth. The call remains: Persevere to the end, for the end would be glorious! This is God’s promise to all His people who continue to be faithful.
5 Jan 2024
True wholesome evangelism and the Bible
In a previous sharing, it was shared that the death of God’s Son on Calvary shows how completely God, in love to mankind, was willing to hide his glory and become vulnerable to shame and dishonour.
Also God not only humbled himself for our salvation in the Incarnation and on the cross but he also humbles himself for our knowledge of salvation by speaking to us in and through the humanly unimpressive words of the Bible.
From this we can realise first of all the meaning and communication in true evangelism. Evangelising means declaring a specific message:
Evangelism means to present Christ Jesus, the divine Son who became man at a particular point in world history in order to save ruined mankind. It is not merely to present the teaching and example of the historical Jesus, or even the truth about his saving work; it means to present Christ Jesus himself, living Saviour and reigning Lord.
And again, it is not merely to set forth the living Jesus as Helper and Friend, without reference to his saving work on the cross. It means to present Jesus as Christ, God’s anointed Servant, fulfilling the tasks of his appointed office as Priest and King. “The man Christ Jesus” is to be presented as the “one mediator between God and man” (1Tim. 2:5), who “suffered once for sins…that he might bring us to God” (1 Peter 3:18), the one through whom alone, men may come to put their trust in God, according to John 14:6.
He is the Saviour who “came into the world to save sinners” (1 Tim. 1:15) – “Jesus who delivered us from the wrath to come (1 Thess.1:10). And he is to be set forth as King: “For to this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living” (Rom. 14:9). There is no true wholesome evangelism where this specific message is not declared.
Evangelism has been presented in so many ways, with so many ‘methods’ of training in communication – and sadly the central truths have been ignored in order to secure “more converts” – and this has contributed to spurious conversions and conversions without repentance and faith, and devoid of commitment to God and Christ as Lord.
Next, we look at the teaching of the written Scripture as the Word which God spoke and speaks to his church, and is finally authoritative for faith and life. To learn the mind of God, one must consult his written Word. What Scripture says, God says.
The Bible contains all that the church needs to know in this world for its guidance in the way of salvation and service, and it contains the principles for its own interpretation within itself.
Furthermore, the Holy Spirit, who caused it to be written, has been given to the church to cause believers to recognise it as the divine Word that it is, and to enable them to interpret it rightly and understand its meaning. The Holy Spirit, who is the author, is also its Witness and Expositor. Christians must therefore seek to be helped and taught by the Spirit when they study Scripture and must regard all their understanding of it, no less than the book itself, as the gift of God. The Spirit must be acknowledged as the infallible Interpreter pf God’s infallible Word.
The Bible does not need to be supplemented and interpreted by tradition, or revised and corrected by reason; instead it demands to sit in judgement on the dictates of both, for the words of men must be tried by the Word of God. The church collectively, and the Christian individually, can and does err, and the inerrant Scripture must ever be allowed to speak and correct them. That does not mean that we abandon traditions of the church which uphold the teachings of Scripture, or that we ignore the reason of the sanctified mind in seeking God’s help to understand His revelation in Scripture; but we need to realise that both traditions and reasoning (including study from Bible colleges) must allow Scripture to speak and correct them when what they advocate are not in line with God’s revelation.
Hence, one cannot understand why believers and churches seek to fulfil God’s desire in evangelism, and in building God’s kingdom and purpose, without studying and investing in proper understanding of Scripture wholesomely; in the ministry of preaching, teaching, and edifying – instead we turn to other avenues which need to be corrected and at times abandoned in the task to be faithful to the Triune God.
6 Jan 2024
Godly Wisdom: Our dire need of it in these last days
We are living in difficult and turbulent times. Besides all the disasters, calamities, and pandemics, we have to deal with fake news, scams, dishonest politicians, corrupt governance, not just in governments, but also in various institutions, even those apparently supposed to be ‘clean’ and ‘honest’.
In such times, more than ever, we need wisdom. But human wisdom is often not sufficient and not always positive, particularly when we have to deal with intelligent ‘criminals’ and ‘tricksters’ who are very equipped with IT and experience (of the negative kind). For believers, it is not just wisdom to ‘survive’ in this uncertain world, we need wisdom that would hold us ‘steady’ and ‘stable’ in this world and for the ‘world beyond’ – we need Godly wisdom.
Wisdom is about understanding; wisdom in the book of Proverbs and elsewhere, is constantly contrasted with folly (foolishness).
“Blessed is the one who finds wisdom, and the one who gets understanding” (Proverbs 3:13).
Understanding means specifically knowing how to live as a response to God’s revelation. Wisdom includes understanding, but wisdom is larger, for it includes prudent doing of what we understand that we should do – wisdom is practical.
Wisdom for living is gained through the labour and diligence of learning to understand; understanding is learned from the book of God (Scripture) and books about the book of God (ensure the writers are godly), as well as from live teachers who help us in this (take note that not all teachers seek God’s glory – not too few are self-centred and seek selfish ambitions).
It seems queer but wisdom in the heart starts in the mind and is thus about thinking and about learning and also about unlearning. One mark of a wise person, according to Proverbs, is that one is willing to accept instruction and correction and to learn to know things better than onel does at the moment. The life of wisdom is in fact a life of constant learning: constant evaluating. constant discerning, and constant extension of one’s understanding.
And here we encounter the problems: Many of us are not willing to be corrected; we do not wish to unlearn those areas that are not in line with God’s teachings and desires, especially if we are in positions of leadership, or if we think highly of ourselves (armed with our theological degrees, years of experience). We do not wish to be embarrassed and to admit that we have been wrong.
Underlying this is Pride: the devil, in his pride, rebelled against God and sought to establish himself as god – so we see that pride is a vicious vice that reaches even to those who are supposed to be doing God’s work and building God’s kingdom.
What is worse is that individuals in this category are often beyond reach for correction and guidance, as they consider others not qualified or not wise enough to correct them, and so they continue to ‘degenerate’ spiritually and only awake when they come before the judgment seat of Christ.
We cannot hope to be wise if we ignore the book of God (the Bible) and if we are ignorant of what God has revealed (because of indolence, indifference, and false security – “I already know the Bible” attitude).
It is unexpected – often time when we seek to know God and His revelation in the Bible, we also end up knowing ourselves (our real selves with all their ‘ugliness’, ‘warts and all’) – and that is truly the first step towards understanding ourselves and how God looks at us from His perspective – and thankfully, it is also the initial step towards Godly wisdom.
Indeed, God dwells in the high and mighty heaven but also with the contrite and humble in spirit. The humble will be exalted and will learn the wisdom of God for living this life here on earth and beyond.
8 Jan 2024
HOLINESS: What holiness is and why it matters (especially in the last days)
We have pondered over “Godly Wisdom” in the last sharing and how it is especially needed for believers in these last days, for we live in perilous times.
The church today faces many dangers and perils – this is especially so because Christian teaching on holiness has been largely forgotten – yet holiness is so central to the glory of God and the good of souls.
There was a time when holiness was clearly taught: what God’s holiness requires of us believers; what our holiness involves for us; by what means and through what disciplines the Holy Spirit sanctifies us, and the ways in which holiness increases our assurance and joy and usefulness to God.
Our enemy, the devil, knows that sometimes when direct confrontation and attacks do not work, then giving believers distorted truths, improper applications of Scripture, false assurances and emotional feelings (of ‘highs’ without actions), deceptions and compromise would be most effective in ‘neutralising’ the believers in the most subtle ways; oftentimes without even them realising what is happening.
More than ever before, in these last days, we hear of more false and distorted teachings and preachings of the Bible, more false assurances and false ‘spirituality’ that make churches seem so vibrant; but in reality, they have a name that they are alive spiritually but they are actually ‘dead spiritually’. Do not be mistaken – the outward appearance shows the churches full of activities and programmes – but God pronounces them ‘neither hot or cold, but lukewarm’, communities which have lost their “first love” and those which have strayed from the ways of God (See Revelation 2, 3). And the first love has very much to do with HOLINESS and WORSHIP. Do not imagine that as long as we are busy in ‘serving’ God in the church, everything is in order.
Holiness in both Hebrew and Greek means “separated and set apart for God, consecrated, and made over to Him”. In its application to God’s people, the word implies both devotion and assimilation; devotion in the sense of living a life of service to God; assimilation, in the sense of imitating, conforming to, and becoming like the God one serves.
Note: a holy person’s motivating aim, passion, desire, longing, delight, aspiration, goal and drive is to PLEASE GOD both by what one does and by what one avoids doing (all the days of our life on earth and beyond).
In other words, one practices good works and cuts off evil ones.Good works begin with praise, worship, and honoring and exalting God as the mainstay of one’s whole life. Evil works start with neglect of these things, and coolness with regard to them (it can begin gradually and then it penetrates the whole of one’s life). Notice that ‘sin of omission’ is as bad as the ‘sin of commission’ – do not be falsely assured that our neglect of time with God, the reading and studying of Scripture, prayer, and godly fellowship (which includes edification and correction from brethren) is not too bad, and it can be corrected when we have the time to do so. We were reminded in the worship service that we are not in control of time and our life – God is in control. Our time here on earth is temporary, but do not forget that our eternal destiny depends on how we prioritise and use our time here in developing and nurturing our holiness and transformation in Christ.
Only before the judgment seat of God will the reality be revealed, and the consequence will follow accordingly.
“Make every effort….to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord” (Heb.12:14 NIV).
What this means is that we must labour to keep our hearts actively responsive to God.
What holiness is not: Asceticism essentially is not holiness; voluntary abstinence, routines of self-deprivation and grueling austerity – is not the same as holiness, though some form of asceticism may well find a place in a holy person’s life.
Formalism also is not holiness – formalism in the sense of outward conformity in word and deed to the standards God has set, anything like holiness, though assuredly there is no holiness without such conformity. Inward reality must be the source that springs forth in outward conformity – otherwise it is only appearance without reality.
Nor is legalism holiness – legalism in the sense of doing things to earn God’s favour or to earn more of it than one has already, to be regarded as holiness. Holiness is alway the saved sinner’s response of gratitude for grace received. In one sense, we are all ‘righteous sinners’.
The Pharisees of Jesus’ day made all three mistakes, yet were thought to be very holy people until Jesus told them the truth about themselves and the inadequacies of their supposed piety. We must never forget that holiness begins in the heart.
What do Christians mainly preach and teach today in TV programs, video etc.? The answer seems to be not holiness, but success and positive feelings: getting health, wealth, freedom from care, good sex, and happy families. In this respect, there are many “how to” books written and reviewed but very few books on holiness – just look at the various bookshops.
What do Christians and churches look for in leaders and leadership? The answer seems to be not holiness, but their gifts and skills and resources and theological degrees.
In recent years, many Christian leaders have been found guilty of sexual and financial shenanigans, and who when challenged have declined to see themselves as accountable to any part of the body of Christ – surely it is very startling! In fact, some even continue their ‘ministry’ and resume them as if nothing had happened – commanding as much support as before (now this is not just happening in secular political arena in certain societies but among Christian leadership and ministry!!). No wonder the devil is having “a field’s day’ with him and his minions chuckling that they have indeed damaged God’s work and kingdom. Are we concerned; are we burdened with God’s concerns and desires for “His kingdom come” – or we just going along happily carrying out our activities and agenda, and patting ourselves on the back that we are doing alright??
9 Jan 2024
HOLINESS: What it means and why it matters (B)
We have looked at what holiness is, and is not, in the previous sharing. We now consider why holiness matters.
Holiness is the goal of our redemption. Christ died in order that we may be justified; we are justified in order that we may be sanctified and made holy. In other words, holiness is the object or goal of our new creation in Christ; we are born again so that we may grow up into Christlikeness.
We need to take a step back: whether we are conscious of it or not, holiness (in terms of ‘repentance’) should be part and parcel in the message and communication of the gospel. While we may lay great emphasis on coming to Christ as we are, believing in Him and His promises in the presentation of the gospel, we touch very lightly on repentance ( which includes binding one’s conscience to God’s moral law, confessing and forsaking our sins, making restitution of past wrongs, grieving before God at the dishonor one’s sins have done Him, and forming a determination to turn around and pursue holy living). When we explain the gospel to others, do we emphasise repentance, and the holiness by which repentance is expressed as a spiritual necessity?
If we desire to be fruitful in evangelism, we need not only to communicate repentance and holiness in the message of the gospel, we ourselves must cultivate holiness of life. As the late John Stott wrote in “The Radical Disciple”, the messenger must look like the message he proclaims. Holiness gives credibility to witness. I recall in my medical practice in the hospital as a young doctor, one fellow colleague was truly put off by the sharing of the gospel and his reason was that if becoming a Christian resulted in him becoming like another doctor who claims to be a Christian whose character was so negative and ‘atrocious’, he would rather remain an atheist.
Our worldly ways will undermine our witness – those listening to us hardly notice any semblance to ‘You are the light of the world..let your light shine before men that they may see your good deeds’ – what they notice is that our lives are worse off than those who claim to be non-believers.
Holiness is in fact commanded; God wills it, Christ requires it, and all the Scriptures – the Law, the Gospels, the prophets, the wisdom writings, the Epistles, the history books that tell of judgment past, and the Book of Revelation that tells of judgment to come – call for it.
“Just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.” (1 Peter 1:15,16 NIV)
We may not realise it but holiness is actually the true health of the person. Anything else is ugliness and deformity at character level, a malfunctioning of the individual, a crippled state of soul. The various forms of bodily sickness and impairment that Jesus healed are so many illustrations of this deeper inward deformity. Why do believers concentrate so much on bodily healing (as if they are going to live forever on earth) but ignore the more important ‘health’ of the character and state of the soul of the individual (which will be eternal and forever before God). Why do we believers fret so much about our ill-health, our bodily weakness, and not realise that when Christ comes again, He would make all things new and whole.?
Righteousness, meaning holy integrity and uprightness, is the breastplate of the armour of God that Christians are called to wear to counter the devil’s attacks in spiritual warfare (Eph. 6:14). Holiness effectively thwarts Satan in his design on our lives. By contrast, unconcern about holiness and failure to practice the purity and righteousness to which we are called play into his hands all the time.
Finally and truly, holiness is the substance of which happiness is the spin-off. Those who chase happiness miss it, while to those who pursue holiness through the grace of Christ, happiness of spirit comes unasked.
Ever wonder why the psalmist declared the following:
“You made known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand” ({Psalm 16:11). The psalmist knew that true joy, pleasures and happiness, true meaningful life – all these are in the presence and person of God – and only the holy in heart shall see God and dwell with Him, and in Him!!
12 Jan 2024
The CROSS is at the heart of the Christian Faith
In our modern world today, many do not understand so clearly what the heart of the Christian Faith is – they do not perceive the CROSS as the central and heart of the faith of Christianity.
Today, it is not uncommon to be told that the essence of Christianity is to be found in the Sermon on the Mount, in Jesus’ ethical teaching generally, in the ideal of liberation, in the thought that God came near to his creation in the incarnation, in ‘peace on earth’, in brotherly love, in newness of life, or the likes. Christianity is a profound religion and its teaching has many aspects; but if we are to be true to the New Testament we must see the cross as at the very heart of it all. The other suggestions above may have truth in them, but that truth arises from the fact that the cross brings about many changes; New Testament Christianity centers on the cross.
The cross is central in the structure of the four gospels; in each one, the death and resurrection of Jesus take up such a disproportionate account of space that it is quite clear that everything is arranged to lead up to the climax – the cross. The sermons in Acts major on the death and resurrection of Jesus; Paul can sum up the Christian message in the words “We preach Christ crucified” (1 Cor. 1:23).The writer in Hebrews sees Jesus coming to earth “in order that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone” (Heb.2:9). In Revelation it is by “the blood of the Lamb” that the mighty multitude are saved (Rev. 7:14). There is no doubt that in the New Testament, the emphasis is that the cross is at the heart of the faith.
But why it is so important for us to see and realise that the cross is at the heart of the Christian faith?
THE FACT OF SIN
This is the basic human problem because it is sin that separates us from God (Isa. 59:2). Many today may view the human predicament as due to lack of education or wealth or resources or the like. The Bible says it is due to sin. The Bible sometimes says that we are all sinners (Rom.3:23), and even when such a statement is not made explicitly it is always assumed that sin is universal. Today it may be not uncommon to find people who hold that deep down all people are good. How do they hold it in the face of the wars, crimes, cruelty, selfishness, child abuse, violence, and the policies that allow mass starvation in many lands, the drug culture, the immorality – it is not easy to understand? The situation today in the world is almost a classical demonstration of the truth of the the fact of sin as prevalent and universal.
Sin has more serious consequences than earthly disorder. The Bible speaks often of “the wrath of God” (Rom. 1:18) and we should not forget that Jesus spoke often of hell (oMark 9:43, 45, 47; Luke 12:5). Judgment is both a present reality (John 3:19) and a future certainty (Rom.2:12). We are responsible people and in due course must give account of ourselves to God (Rom.14:12). We cannot dismiss the evil we do as simply the result of the way we are made, as our fate rather than our fault. That is not what the Bible says, and in our more honest moments it is not what we say either.
THE LOVE OF GOD
But the Bible reveals the astounding fact that in the face of our sin God keeps loving us. He keeps loving because he is love (1 John 4:8, 16); it is his nature to love. In love he brings about the salvation of sinner (John3:16; Rom.5:8). Modern sentimental people often think of God as a kindly person who does not sin seriously; this is to overlook the strong moral demand that runs right through Scripture. The God who demands righteousness from his people is himself righteous, and he does not forgive sin in a way that might be understood to mean that sin does not matter much. God forgives sin by the way of the cross. The New Testament writers constantly hold out the cross as the way of forgiveness, they know no other way.
This, of course, involves the incarnation. Salvation depend on what God has done in Christ. The writer of Hebrews insists that Jesus was mad lower than the angels in order that he might taste death for every one of us (Heb.2:9), and he goes on to emphasise that the importance of Christ’s being one with those for whom he died (Heb.2:11-15). He took on human nature, not that of an angel. The Godhead of Christ was involved too; we see the way Paul intertwines the thoughts of the Godhead and the manhood (Phil.2:5;Col.1:19-20) – i.e. Jesus Christ is fully God and fully man (the God-man). This means that the Son of God genuinely became man. Only by holding both truths can we understand the biblical view of salvation.
God’s forgiveness is based on what Christ’s death has accomplished, not on any merits of repentance or on some necessity of God’s nature. To say that no atoning act is needed is to give us a non-Christian view of salvation. God pays the price that gives us liberty. Our salvation was at a great cost and than now we are free, free with the glorious liberty of the children of God.
What happened at the cross: here we need to look into REDEMPTION, PROPITIATION, RECONCILIATION, JUSTIFICATION, SUBSTITUTION, COVENANT – we have shared previously in more detail on all these topics in relation to the gospel and salvation.
But enough is said here to see how the cross is at the heart of the Christian Faith – Christ has brought about salvation in accordance with what is right. Christ stood inn our place and endured what we should have endured. We must never overlook the fact that sinners have broken the law of God and that is very serious. If sinners are to be saved, the fact of that broken law must be taken into consideration. It is the witness of the New Testament that Christ saves us in a way that does take that law into consideration. And there is never the slightest indication that anything else than Christ’s atoning work can deal with the problem of the evil that is so much part of the human situation.
16 Jan 2024
Who we are and what we are in relation to God Almighty
As I grow in my Christian life, and by His grace, learn to know more about God and His being, I begin to understand better who we are and what we are in relation to Him.
Increasingly, the following truths become clearer:
We have nothing and have never had anything that we have not received, nor have we done anything good apart from God who did it through us. In ourselves we are destitute, bankrupt, and impotent, totally dependent on God in every aspect. Even our very breath is from God; as a doctor, I have seen various ones, even those who are highly regarded in society and those who may be seen as successful and holding prestigious positions, struggling to get their next breath when they were very ill and dying.
If we think of ourselves as achievers, innovators, movers and shakers, healers, educators, benefactors of society in any way at all, we are at the deepest level kidding ourselves.
The Bible records for us what happened to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, ruler of a great nation during the time of Daniel. He reportedly said, “Is not this the great Babylon I have built as the royal residence, by my mighty power and for the glory of my majesty?” (Daniel 4:30)
Immediately after that, the king was driven away from people and ate grass like the ox. His body was drenched with the dew of heaven until his hair grew like the feathers of an eagle and his nails like the claws of a bird. When he subsequently recovered, by God’s mercy, he wrote: “I, Nebuchadnezzar, raised my eyes towards heaven, and my sanity was restored. Then I praised the most High: “I honoured and glorified him who lives for ever,…” (4:34).
But we may feel that we are different from this king. We may think ourselves to be reasonable Christians; we are not aware of major negative areas in our lives and we even may consider ourselves as rather faithful believers. And then our lives took a drastic turn – calamity after calamity took place – sickness after sickness, in increasing degree of intensity, inflicted us; even our closest relationship and friendship crumbled. And we become depressed, even angry at God and we demand an explanation from God why He has targeted us in this way when we do not deserve it at all. This was the case with Job – a man who was described as ‘righteous’ and pleasing to God.
We know from our reading of Job that when God appeared to Job, He did not answer his queries. Instead God asked him many questions and the answers were obviously pointing to the fact that Job could not even do the simplest act which God does in upholding the universe and taking care of even the minutest detail like providing food for the least of creatures. Job saw that he had no power to control the daily simple and regular happenings in this world after God caused him to see who he was in relation to the Creator.
And Job replied, “My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you. Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes” (Job 42:5-6).
God is the Sovereign Lord, the Creator, the Almighty and when man and nations are compared to Him, what is the comparison like?
“Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, or with the breadth of his hand marked off the heaven? Who has held the dust of the earth in a basket, or weighed the mountains on the scales and the hills in a balance?….Surely the nations are like a drop in a bucket; they are regarded as dust on the scales; he weighed the islands as though they were fine dust” (Isaiah 40:12,13,15).
Sufficient writing is revealed to show the great contrast between God and ourselves. If we not only acknowledge this mentally, but truly ‘assimilate’ this truth in our lives, then like Job, we will learn not to question God and complain that He is unfair and unfaithful. LIke Nebuchadnezzar, we would humble ourselves and prostrate ourselves before Him and give Him the honor and praise even after much suffering and pain on our part. We would not question His wisdom, His goodness, His power and His love.
Most of all, we would learn to worship and to humbly show our gratitude and gratefulness to Him who loves us even though we are unlovable and wretched in our ways before being ‘born again’.