ENCOUNTERING THE TRIUNE GOD IN THE BIBLE

ENCOUNTERING THE TRIUNE GOD IN THE BIBLE

The Bible, still the world’s best-seller, is found in more editions, translations than any other text that has ever been published. However, in spite of its availability, the Bible still remains a closed book, largely unknown to many people today; and sadly enough, the Bible is still ‘unknown’ to many of those who claim to be Christians.

The Bible speaks to the basic needs and aspirations of the human heart and mind with an immediate relevance and power; and this can only be explained by its divine origin.”Men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit” (2 Peter 1:21).
This is the same Peter, one of the 12 apostles, who denied the Lord Jesus 3 times; later re-commissioned by the Lord to be one of the prominent leaders of the church. He was one of the three on the mount of Transfiguration when he saw the heavenly glory of the Son, and years later, he penned, “For we did not follow cleverly devised stories when we told you about the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ in power, but we were eye-witnesses of his majesty. He received honour and glory from God the Father when the voice came to him from the Majestic Glory, saying, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.” We ourselves heard this voice that came from heaven when we were with him on the sacred mountain….Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation of things”(2 Peter 1:16–18,20). Peter testified that the Bible is God’s book, articulating in human language the mind of the God who made us for relationship with himself.

It is through the pages of the Bible that we come to know God’s character and his ways; it is here that we encounter God in person as we meet Jesus Christ, the central focus of the whole revelation, and are called to repent of our rebellious autonomy by acknowledging God as God; it is God speaking to us, in a directly engaging way, teaching, rebuking, correcting, training, and equipping us to live rightly in this world now; in preparation for the life of the world to come.

Of course, the BIble, like all good gifts, can be abused, and has often been misused by those whose own agenda is to distort its message and destroy its credibility. So many answers to the dilemmas of our world today are contained within its pages, and yet lie there unknown and ignored. We need therefore to understand the central story of the Bible; we also need to handle the Scripture well, as a good workman, rightly dividing the Word of truth, practising the principles of good understanding and interpretation, so that its message becomes clear and compelling. We may not always like what we discover, because the Bible has a way of getting under the skin, challenging our comfort zones and questioning our dearly held opinions. But that could be what we need most if our lives are going to be changed and renewed.

What we do with what we discover can have eternal implications because we never walk away from an encounter with God in the Bible unchanged. Either our hearts are softened as we accept what he says to us, through faith and practical action in obedience, or they are hardened, as we refuse his revelation and reject his demands. The Bible will not allow anyone who reads it seriously to remain neutral.

OBLIVIOUS OF OUR ACTUAL SPIRITUAL CONDITION

“You unbelieving (faithless) and perverse generation,” Jesus replied, “how long shall I stay with you and put up with you?…” (Luke 9:41a TNIV).

“I will hide my face from them,” he said, “and see what their end will be; for they are a perverse generation, children who are unfaithful” (Deut. 32:26).

In our study of Luke 9, after the transfiguration, Jesus encountered a crowd below and a father who begged deliverance for his son who was suffering under demonic bondage since young. The disciples, who were given authority previously to cast out demons, could not cast out this demon and there were some ‘murmurings’ and questionings as to why this was so.
Then Luke recorded that Jesus uttered the saying in Luke 9:41. There is a parallel passage in Deuteronomy 32 when God also declared that his people were a perverse generation, and unfaithful. This was in response to the people’s turning away from God to idols; not grateful for God’s deliverance from bondage, and their constant murmurings and grumblings about the lack of water, meat in the wilderness, and their desire for the onions and ‘good food’ they could consume in Egypt (forgetting that they were slaves in Egypt).

In Luke, Jesus had demonstrated that he was the Messiah; even the angels and evil spirits acknowledged his deity; and Jesus’ miracles and his forgiveness of sin and the raising of the dead also astonished the crowd and even caused the scribes and pharisees to attribute his miracles to the work of evil rather than the work of God (they could not dismiss the miracles he did). But the crowd was coming after him because of his miracles, his provision of bread (in the feeding of the five thousand), his healings, and they wanted to make him king to seek deliverance from the Roman empire.
At this juncture, Jesus was heading towards Jerusalem and his impending death; he sought to explain to his disciples his mission. He did not come in this first instance as a conquering king; rather, he came as the God-Man to effect the great reversal – to deliver the fallen humanity in the first Adam and to establish a new humanity (and people of God) under him, the last Adam, in the ‘new exodus’ that would lead those who believe to the consummation in the new heaven and new earth (the final and ultimate promised land).

In the utterance that described the people as an unbelieving and perverse generation and his dismay that the people did not see his real person and mission but were so consumed with their earthly desires and comfort, he queried how long he had to put up with these people. A somewhat similar utterance was made when Jesus sadly described the people (‘Jerusalem’ ) as those he wanted to protect and deliver, like a mother hen which protects her chicks under her wings, but they were not willing.

Let us now look more closely at the factors and points which lead to the utterance of Jesus in Luke 9 and how they relate to us today. Someone in the study group wondered why this statement by Jesus was so harsh.

The first point was the plight of fallen humanity: it was not merely guilt for sins, but also the pollution in sin and bondage to sin – it was the state of being wholly dominated by an inbred attitude of enmity to God – and the inability to improve oneself and to get rid of the self-despair and bondage.
Fallen humanity in the first Adam is under the judgement of God – it is condemned and God is hostile to its sin. There is no way out, no remedy; fallen man’s wrong relationship with God is intolerable here and now, and the future holds nothing but condemnation, spiritual death, and destruction. But the Triune God did not give up on fallen humanity; even before the creation of the world, God has planned the salvation of fallen mankind – God seeks to rescue fallen humanity from the guilt and power of sin, from the present and future wrath of God, from all the evil that marks and mars this present world order, from the dominion of the Devil, and from the condition of being without hope, without help, and without any positive relation to God. The salvation involves God the Father sending the Son to redeem fallen man; God the Father, in the Son, is reconciling the world to himself – hence the coming of the Messiah (the Son and God-Man) who alone qualifies to redeem man by being a substitute, and receiving the wrath of God on behalf of man, and effecting forgiveness of sin, reconciliation with God, adoption as God’s child and sharing with God the inheritance and glory in the new heaven and new earth.
When Jesus shared with his disciples about his impending death and the cross, he was referring to this mission as the Redeemer and Saviour – and even though he was prepared to undergo all the agony and suffering awaiting him at the cross, he was dismayed to see how the so-called people of God did not appreciate his mission and impending sacrifice – they were so enamoured with their physical desires, pleasures, health and security that they did not see the deep love and grace of God that would be displayed at the cross and subsequently. Even the apostles were so concerned about their positions in the kingdom of God and they were bickering as to who is the greatest, even though the Master, God himself, has condescended to become man and a servant, to die the death of a criminal and to take the penalty and God’s wrath for the sins of the whole world throughout all generations from Adam onwards.
The pharisees, scribes, spiritual leaders of God’s people, were so concerned about their positions in their spiritual world that they failed to acknowledge God who came as God-incarnate and they even were involved in the murdering of the Son of God.

When we ourselves are so concerned about our physical needs, our physical comfort, health, wealth, positions and status without due regard for what God has done for us in Christ, and we constantly seek solace in all that the world, the devil and the flesh have to offer, and conveniently forget the grace, mercy and love of God in His salvation and redemption plans for us, we are also in “the same boat’ as those people during Jesus’ time on earth – we rightly deserve to be branded as part of the unbelieving, faithless and perverse generation.
No doubt the goal of grace is the glory and praise of God and our salvation is a means to this end; God has chosen to redeem us because God so loves this world, but ultimately, it is not for our sakes , but for his own name’s sake – that is, to have a people of His own, who would reflect His glory. But our journey to become a people of God must surely involve being a people who are ever grateful and thankful for God’s love and grace; we cannot be a people who are ungrateful and ‘shortsighted’, caring only for our life here on earth without deep appreciation that God has provided a place for us in his heavenly city at such a great price to himself.
Are we also among those who are faithless and perverse? Will we incur God’s wrath and judgement for being those who have taken his grace and mercy for granted? In the OT, God sent prophet after prophet to bring his people back to him and they still wondered away. Today, he has sent his Son – do we turn away from him and test his patience and long-suffering? How can we escape if we deny so great a salvation ?

INFALLIBILITY, INERRANCY, INTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE

In my last two sharings, the first was on ‘The diminishing authority of Scriptures’, and the second on ‘Oblivious of our spiritual state’ based on the utterance of the Lord Jesus in Luke 9:41: “You unbelieving (faithless) and perverse (twisted) generation,” “How long shall I stay with you and put up with you?…” Jesus’ utterance of ‘dismay’ was the poor response of the people of God which was tantamount to unbelief and faithlessness, as well as being perverse and incredulously ‘foolish’ and ‘shortsighted’ in their understanding and appreciation of His Person and His Mission.

In some ways, the two sharings are connected and interrelated. The people’s poor and sad response to the Lord Jesus (the long awaited Messiah and Son of God) had to do with their lack of understanding and appreciation of the OT Scriptures which recorded so much on the coming Messiah and the signs which would accompany His arrival as well as His ministry and mission to save fallen humanity, The people, like those in the OT following the exodus, were responding poorly and ‘badly’ to God in the wilderness; they were more concerned with their physical comfort and needs, and they were prepared to turn to ‘idols’ and other means (including rebelling against the leaders and God) in order to prioritise their desires. Similarly, in Luke, the people were more interested in miracles, healing, deliverance from foreign powers, provision of ‘bread’, status and greatness (even in spiritual ministry); and other amenities rather than in acknowledging the Person and Mission of Jesus Christ (who was also endorsed and testified to by the Heavenly Father at his baptism and on the Mount of Transfiguration).
The ‘failures’ of God’s people in both contexts (OT and NT) have to do with their lack of convictions on the Authority, Infallibility, inerrancy of Scriptures and subsequently in their interpretation and application of Scriptures in their lives. This also holds true for us believers today in general.

Scriptures reveal Jesus Christ, the Son of God who is the Word made flesh, our Prophet, Priest, and King, the ultimate Mediator of God’s communication to mab, as He is of all God’s gifts of grace. He revealed the Father by his presence and his deeds as well. Yet his words were crucially important; for he was God. He spoke from the Father, and His words will judge all men at the Last Day.
As the prophesied Messiah, Jesus Christ is the central theme of Scripture. The OT looked ahead to Him; the NT looks back to his first coming and on to his second. Notice that God’s people ‘missed’ all these revelation in different degrees, and this has to do with their lack of understanding and conviction on the Authority of Christ and the Bible.

Holy Scripture, as the inspired Word of God winissing authoritatively to Jesus Christ, may properly be called infallible and inerrant.
Infallible signifies the quality of neither misleading nor being misled and so safeguards in categorical terms the truth that HolyScripure is a sure, safe, and reliable rule and guide in all matters.
Similarly, inerrant signifies the quality of being free from all falsehood or mistake and so safeguards the truth that Holy Scripture is entirely true and trustworthy in all its assertions.

Note that since the Renaissance, and more particularly since the Enlightenment, worldviews have been developed which involve skepticism about basic Christian tenets. Agnosticism denies that God is knowable, rationalism denies that God is incomprehensible, idealism denies that He is transcendent, and existentialism denies rationality in God’s relationships with us. When these unbiblical and antibiblical principles seep into me ‘s theologies at a presuppositional level, as today they frequently do, faithful interpretation of Holy Scripture becomes impossible, and this in turn affects the growth of the church as well as the ministry, mission and outreach of the church. We can trace many of the wrong teachings, preachings, and practices in the church to these; and hence we must affirm the authority of Scripture as involving its total truth. In doing this we are consciously standing with Christ and His apostle, indeed with the whole BIble and with the main stream of church history from the first days until very recently.
We must be conscious that great and grave confusion results from ceasing to maintain the total truth of the Bible whose authority one professes to acknowledge.
We affirm that what Scripture says, God says. May He be glorified. Amen.

OUR GLORY OR GOD’S?

As we come to chapter 9 in the Gospel of Luke, we notice that the earlier chapters revealed Jesus’ credentials and ‘manifesto’ as the Messiah the people of God had been waiting for; now in chapter 9, Jesus wanted his disciples to grasp his true identity and also his mission as the Son of Man. His mission is to face suffering, rejection, death and resurrection; and the mission of the disciples (and apostles) mirrors their master’s. Notice however how the disciples missed the whole communication of the Lord regarding his mission – they were so involved in their own status, their ‘greatness’ and the impact of their ability to heal, to overcome demons and the like.

Verse 23 of Luke 9 spells out the cost of true discipleship and the model for ‘denial’ is Jesus himself – Jesus did not go his own way, but God’s; he sought not his own glory but his Father’s; he did not pursue his own agenda or good, but the agenda and good of God.
‘To take up the cross’ means the disciple is to consider him or herself ‘dead to self’ – it is a cross-shaped discipleship – it is not an optional extra – it is for everyone and and the word ‘daily’ suggests that it is not an occasional affair, but an everyday affair.

The mission of Jesus, his suffering, death and resurrection, provide the model for the true disciple and for genuine service. This service for which the disciples (apostles) are commissioned is only possible because Jesus enables them to see who he is.
True discipleship involves denying self and putting self, and every sinful habit and ambition, to death. My sin is what took Jesus to the cross. God hates my sin and punished it at the cross. With my sin now dealt with, through Jesus’s death on the cross, I am to take up my cross in a daily battle with sin – the image is one of death – I am to put sin to death. To ‘save my life’ is to live for me, my personal agenda, my comfort and my ambition. To ‘lose life’ is to lose my life for Jesus’ sake. Thus, genuine discipleship means putting personal ambition and goals to death as we place Jesus and the service of his kingdom as our primary goal.

To evaluate whether we are genuine disciples, we need to ask ourselves about our motives. What is the driving force of my life? What ambition dominates and directs me? If we pause, we will realise that when the Lord Jesus talked about discipleship, he was in fact seeking to help the disciples to evaluate whether their discipleship was genuine. When Jesus dealt with the Pharisees, he, in his mercy and grace, was also seeking to help them see what had basically gone wrong with their claim of spirituality and their positions among God’s people.

Ultimately, there are only two controlling ambitions, to which all others come down in the end. One is our own glory, and the other God’s. The problem with the Pharisees – ‘they loved human praise more than praise from god.’ To love the glory of God more than the glory of other people is to seek to bring glory to God rather than to others. It is to desire that everyone will honour God (rather than us or others), and that we and they will give God the glory that He deserves.

The Pharisees were obsessed with the quest for glory. They were not concerned to bring glory to God; they wanted it for themselves and this impaired the whole of their lives. We need to pause and see how much Pharisaism remains even in Christian hearts. To begin with, notice how much the disciples (apostles) themselves had to be taught what it means to follow Jesus and his mission; and how much they had to realise that seeking their own glory was a big problem in their own lives.

For ourselves and the church today, even in our most sacred moments, we may find ourselves motivated by concern for our glory rather than God’s. Examples may be found in our worship, our evangelism and our ministry.
In public worship, selfish vanity often intrudes into it subtly. The ‘chairman’ becomes proud of the way he is leading the service, the preacher of his eloquence and learning, the choir and musicians of their musical ability and the congregation of their piety in being in church at all! Just as our attention should be absorbed exclusively with God in self-forgetful adoration and worship, we become self-conscious, self-righteous, and self-important and self-congratulatory again.

Evangelism is supposed to be a proclamation of the gospel by which people are rescued from self-centredness and liberated into God-centredness. Yet much of our evangelism is human centred. Our publicity draws attention to the speaker or the sponsor more than the Saviour. We become proud of our organisation or puffed up with conceit over our own evangelistic enthusiasm.

‘Ministry’ means ‘service’ – lowly, menial service; it is, therefore curiously perverse to turn into an occasion for boasting. Christian ministers are to take as their model the Christ who came to serve, not the Gentiles (or the Pharisees) who preferred to be lords. It is the authority which stems from sound teaching and consistent example. It is never authoritarian to the extent that someone attempts to dominate another’s mind, conscience and will. “Not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock” – but with much sadness, we see the opposite taking place so very often in many churches – the community of God is being ‘controlled’ and ‘presided’ by one or several ‘charismatic’ individuals who seek their own glory and their own ‘kingdoms’ and agenda (under the guise of being spiritual and putting God’s glory first). Yet lording it is exactly what the Pharisees were doing, keeping the people in subjection under them; and not too few of those who are called to lead churches and to minister to the flock are knowingly or unknowingly doing the same as the Pharisees.
Domination by clergy or ministers is an offence both to God and humanity; to the three Persons of the Trinity and to the fellowship of believers.

As we look at these different examples in worship, evangelism, and ministry, we cannot help but conclude that all these areas have become contaminated whenever the focus shifts from bringing glory to God to bringing glory to ourselves or other people. To love the glory of God more than our own glory is also to seek approval from God rather than other people. Come to think of it, that is what genuine discipleship is all about!
That is why we may wonder why the terms and motivations of discipleship seem so stringent and so difficult to fulfil.
False disciples cannot bear the prospect of the ridicule and rejection which would follow an open commitment to Christ. They cannot accept that the call to true discipleship is total commitment to Christ (and God). The apostles finally got it and everyone of them (except John) denied themselves, took up their cross and followed the Master to the end. Ironically, they would share God’s glory in the new heaven and new earth because they seek not their own glory in following the Lord Jesus!

OUR GOD IS THE GREAT GIVER
“He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him freely give us all things?” (Romans 8:32)

The above verse comes through to me with a new impact as we study the Gospels – since God delivered up Christ for His people, everything else that is needed by them is sure to be given.
Other verses that come to mind:
“If God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothes you?” (Matt. 6:30)
“If when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, how much more, after being reconciled, shall we be saved by his life” (Rom. 5:10)

Our text (Rom.8:32) tells us of the gracious character of our loving God as interpreted by the gift of His Son. This is recorded not merely for the instruction of our minds and understanding, but also for the comfort and assurance of our hearts. The gift of His own beloved Son is God’s guarantee to His people of all needed blessings; the greater includes the less and His wonderful spiritual gift is the pledge of all needed temporal mercies.

This brings before us the truth on which we seldom meditate or think about – the heart and role of the heavenly Father in the plan of Salvation, and invariably the TRINITY in the Godhead.
What must it have meant to the heart of the Father when His Beloved left His heavenly home! God is love, and nothing is so sensitive as love; the sending forth of His Son was surely something the heart of the Father felt, that it was a real sacrifice on His part. Ponder over: God ‘spared not His own Son’ – expressive, profound words – knowing as only He could, all that redemption involved, yet God did not withhold the only suitable sacrifice. Though knowing full well the humiliation of Bethlehem’s manger, the ingratitude of men, the not having where to lay His head, the hatred and opposition of the ungodly, the enmity and bruising of Satan; yet the Father did not hesitate. God did not relax any of the holy requirements of His throne nor abate one whit of the awful curse. No, He “spared not His own Son but delivered him up for us all.”

Why did the Father make such a costly sacrifice? He spared not His Son so that He might spare us! It was not want of love for the Saviour, but wondrous, matchless, fathomless love for us! The Father made this costly sacrifice not grudgingly or reluctantly, but freely, out of love.

For us Christians, who are sometimes tempted to interpret our afflictions as tokens of God’s hardness, who regard our poverty as a mark of His neglect, and our seasons of darkness as evidences of His desertion, do confess to HIm now the wickedness of such dishonouring doubtings, and never again question of love of Him who spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all.

If God spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with HIm also freely give us all things? The gift of His own Son, so ungrudgingly and unreservedly bestowed, is the pledge of every other needed mercy – here is the truth – if God has done the greater, will He leave the less undone? Infinite love can never change.
The sad thing is that our hearts dwell on what we have not, instead of on what we have. Therefore the Spirit of God would here still our restless thoughts and quiet the ignorant discontent with a soul-satisfying knowledge of the truth; by reminding us not only of the reality of our interest in the love of God, but also of the extent of the blessing that flows from that love.

Note: the one Gift was bestowed when we were enemies of God; will not then God be gracious to us now that we have been reconciled and are His friends and members of His family?

“However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven” (Luke 10:20 TNIV).
“”Then he turned to his disciples and said privately, ‘Blessed are the eyes that see what you see. For I tell you that many prophets and kings wanted to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it” (10:23).

Notice that the Lord was pointing to his disciples (and to us) the most important and unique gift from God to us who believe – our names written in heaven (written in the book of life as another translation puts it). And this gift is so valuable that other gifts in comparison (even the gift of spiritual power over the demons) cannot be compared – this is the gift we should rejoice in and not in our ‘abilities’ on earth (for the gifts here are not eternal, and not so glorious in comparison. Adding on, the Lord told his disciples what they see and hear are indeed privileged information and ‘hidden’ even from God’s servants in the past; they are only available to the disciples (and us) because of the new age and new kingdom the Lord Jesus brought into being through his first coming as the Messiah and God-man (and his mission at the cross and beyond).

Let us elaborate on the meaning and implications of the words of our Lord.

To begin, we need to note that unbelievers do not understand and appreciate what the Lord communicated. The apostle Paul recorded this in Romans 2:5:-
“Because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed”. The root cause of unbelief is the hard and impenitent heart which refused to believe.

But what about believers? Do we really appreciate deeply the meaning of what the Lord Jesus communicated? We need to first evaluate whether we are true believers and that our names are indeed written in the book of life!
If this is true and we are genuine believers, rejoice and ponder over the implications:
To Christians and the church, the question of salvation is one of supreme importance, and the witness to the way of salvation is the most precious gift believers bring to the church and to the rest of the world. God’s servants of the past emphasised what the Bible highlights – the central theme of salvation. These servants of God and the Lord Jesus clearly regard ordinary human beings as lost, and accordingly call on them to repent, turn or return to God, come to Christ, put faith in him, and so find the pardon, peace, and newness of life that they need.
The New Testament delineate this salvation as concepts of reconciliation, redemption, and propitiation, all won for us by the sacrificial death of Christ; forgiveness, remission of sins, justification, adoption, regeneration (new birth); the indwelling of the Holy Spirit as God’s seal of ownership within us; sanctification, and glorification.
By contrast, the chief notions used to describe the condition of those who do not believe in Jesus Christ are spiritual deadness, darkness of mind; delusion with regard to God, gods, and supernatural powers generally; moral delinquency bringing guilt and shame; and a destiny of certain distress.
Those who are not Christ’s are perishing, and need to be saved.
Do we see the eternal implications revealed by our Lord Jesus when he communicated these truths in Luke10? Are these our constant concerns for the unbelievers and the church? Do we just focus on ‘what to rejoice in’ and not on the deep conviction of the eternal consequences for unbelievers as well as the outcome for those who are hypocrites and ‘tares’ in the church of God??

Perhaps another record of the words of the Lord Jesus in Luke would bring home this truth clearly and distinctly:
“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. People will come from east and west and north and south, and will take their places at the feast in the kingdom of God” (Luke 13:23-29).
The Lord was warning the Jews of the danger of missing the salvation of God and ending up in hell and outside the kingdom of God. The door to enter is narrow for it has to do with repentance and faith in Jesus Christ (which leads to a relationship with, and, in Him, and the entrance to the kingdom of God). The unbelieving Jews, for all their privileges and claims, may miss this door and end up entering the wide door and walk the broad way that leads to death and destruction. Many unbelievers would follow suit and find out too late that there is a way that seems to lead to ‘life’ and ends up as the way to ‘death’ and eternal destruction.

Today, many so-called believers, and even churches, rejoice in their ‘spiritual power’ and their ‘wealth and prosperity’ whilst many unbelievers around them are not hearing the warnings and words of the Lord Jesus, and they themselves are presumptuous that Jesus knows them. It will certainly come as a complete shock when the Lord Jesus tells them, “I don’t know you or where you come from. Away from me, all you evildoers!” But hold on: is it not true that they claim to know Jesus, describing the relationship with Jesus as eating and drinking with him? Is it not true that in a parallel passage Matthew 7, such ones claim even to cast out demons and prophesy in the name of the Lord Jesus, and yet Jesus declared, “I never knew you”.
In this parallel passage in Matthew 7, we read in verses 13-14:
“Enter through the narrow gate, wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it”. Do not be surprised and shocked that among those interacting with you in the church are those who have entered through the wide gate and are walking on the broad road. The average church rejoices when it ‘sees’ increase in ‘membership’ but the Lord reminds us that those who enter the small gate and walk along the narrow road are among the few who find it. Why so?
In an earlier passage in Matthew 6, the Lord said, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (vs21). “No one can serve two masters. Either you hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other..”(v24).
Where is our treasure? What matters most to us? Is it our wealth, our family, our reputation, our status in life? What is it that fills our minds and hearts each day when we awake from the bed? These reflect where our heart is.
Who is it we are serving? Ourselves, our pleasures, our ambitions? Do not be mistaken – these very ‘masters’ can be whom we are serving, even in our service in church and in our outward religiosity. They may be hidden from the eyes of others but not from the eyes of God who sees everything. Nothing will be hidden on the day of judgment! Do take heed to the words of the Lord Jesus!

THE GOOD SAMARITAN (LUKE 10:25-37)

There is actually two stories in the above passage. The first is that of the lawyer or expert in the Law who asked the question that occasioned the parable. Although the two stories are related in that the second is an answer to a question raised in the first, they actually deal with different matters.
The first concerns salvation; the second concerns God-pleasing conduct that flows from those who are genuinely saved.
The parable begins with a question asked of Jesus by a certain lawyer: “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” (v 25). The motive of this man was probably wrong since we are told that he asked the question to ‘test’ Jesus and later tried to avoid the personal application of Jesus’ answer. Whatever the motive, the question is an important one but it is seldom asked. Because in order to ask about salvation we must admit our need of salvation. We must admit that we are sinners, in need of pardon for sin and deliverance from God’s wrath. Unfortunately, we will confess to almost anything but depravity.

Notice that the subject of salvation was also raised in the previous passage and sharing. Jesus told his disciples not to rejoice because the spirits submit to them but to rejoice that their names are written in heaven (in the book of Life). Here in the above account, the question was asked as to what need to be done to inherit eternal life, i.e. to have our names written in heaven.
Jesus asked this lawyer: “What is written in the Law?” The lawyer answered, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” , and, ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’
Jesus replied that he had answered correctly and then told him, “Do this and you will live.” At this point, it was evident to the lawyer, as it should be to anyone who thinks about it, that he had not done so. No one loves God “with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his strength and with all his mind. No one loves his neighbour as “himself.” The lawyer should have said, “But I have not done that. I can’t. No one can. So what can I do now?” He was convicted by Christ’s words, but rather than admit his spiritual need he tried to ‘justify himself’ by passing over the weightier of the two commands and raising a quibble about the second. He asked, “And who is my neighbour?”

The irrevocable word of God still remains valid, that he who observes the law perfectly will live. He who always loves God and his fellow-man will inherit eternal life. But alas, no man has ever been able to observe this law perfectly, nor can anyone else do so. And because no imperfect observance of the law (however excellent it may be) can be accepted, and because the judgment of God that the soul that sins (even if only on a single occasion) shall die is just as irrevocable, we know that no man can ever inherit eternal life on the grounds of his own merit.
But thanks be to God and praise be to God that Christ Jesus as man lived a life of complete love towards God and men and, as the entirely innocent one, endured death for us on the cross, forsaken by God, so that by faith we are absolved from the death we deserve and inherit eternal life. This, however, does not remove the obligation to obey Jesus’ words, “Go, and do thou likewise.”
But the difference is as follows: the Law has said, “Do this and you shall live,” while Christ says, “I have given you eternal life through grace, and this new life in you will enable you to have real love towards God and your fellow-men and to carry it out in practice, so go forth and live a life of true love to God and to your fellow-men, through the power I give you.” (herein includes the ministry and power of the Holy Spirit dwelling in us; the Union with Christ in regeneration and new birth; and also the outworking of progressive sanctification which enables the Christian to increasingly be like the Lord Jesus and to live a life of true love to God and fellow-men progressively, yet without perfection here on earth, until we reach the city of God, the new heaven and new earth).
When this becomes a reality for us, we can rejoice that our names are indeed written in heaven and in the book of Life, and loving God and men as written in the Law becomes more and more a reality in our lives.

We now come to the second story – this is so familiar with many of us that we need not elaborate on the story of the parable of the good Samaritan.
At the end of the story, Jesus asked the lawyer , “Which of these three do you think was a neighbour to the man who fell into the hands of robbers -the priest, the levite, the samaritan? The lawyer replied, “The one who had mercy on him.” Jesus then said, “Go and do likewise.”
In fact, Jesus was actually asking, “Do you love your neighbour? Never mind whom; for if you do love, then your love will inevitably operate as it should when you come across the needy.We are not followers ofChrist until we are ready to give whatever is needed, and at a personal cost, even great personal inconvenience. In short, it is only our feeding the hungry, our giving drink to the thirsty, our receiving the stranger, our clothing the naked, our caring for the sick, and our visiting the prisoners that show us truly to be Christ’s disciples (Matt. 25: 34-36). These things do not make us disciples, but their absence clearly shows that we are not.
Loving our neighbour in outworking: Whenever we feel hostile to anybody or any group of people, however badly they may have behaved toward us, stop and remember and say to ourselves: “God made them in his image, as God made us. God loves them, as God loves us. If they turn to Christ, they will be forgiven, as we are forgiven. It is not our part to cherish hostility toward them when my Saviour-God has shown such wonderful redemptive love toward sinful us. To love our neighbour, our friends, and even our enemies is to desire God’s best for the one category as well as the other. To be merciful and compassionate to our neighbours and wrongdoers and to desire and seek their welfare is central in the real Christian life.
But this is the part that needs also to be qualified. To desire God’s best for our neighbour may involve loving them enough to correct them and to point them to the right way that would lead to their welfare and to what is best for them.
In Matthew 23, we read what Jesus lamented:
“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing. Look, your house is left to you desolate. For I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.” (Matt. 23:37-39). Note compassion expressed by the Lord Jesus in his love for his people, yet note also the reference to coming judgment for Jerusalem. The Lord Jesus also pronounced “woes” to the unbelieving Pharisees and teachers of the Law; he also pronounced ‘woes’ on the cities which rejected the preaching of the kingdom of God. Perhaps we also need to ask, “Do we love our neighbour enough to risk being misunderstood and being mocked at, or even be persecuted by sharing the gospel with them; are we willing to love enough to correct various ones for their good welfare and for what is truly ultimately best for them?? Or like the priest and the levite, we just keep away and quickly pass by the wounded person without being noticed so that we can keep ourselves away from misunderstandings and dangers? Or are we prepared to be inconvenienced and even to encounter danger and misunderstanding by stretching out our hands to help those who do not deserve to be helped (because of their hostility and ill-will) and to love those who are not loveable or lovely? If we are, then we are indeed genuine disciples of the Lord Jesus and we are on the narrow road that leads to eternal life and glory!

The Root Problem

No version of the gospel goes deeper and clearer than that which declares man’s root problem before God is his sin, which evokes wrath, and God’s basic provision for man to be propitiation, which out of wrath brings peace.
There is no doubt that the gospel brings us solutions to human problems – problems of our relation with ourselves and our fellow humans and our environment. But the deepest of all problems, that is the problem of man’s relation with his Maker, depends on the settling of this largest one. Unless we make it plain that the solution of those former problems depends on the settling of this deepest problem, we are misrepresenting the message and become false witnesses of God. Note that a half-truth presented as if it were the whole truth (and many churches and so-called Christian groups are guilty of this) becomes something of a falsehood by that very fact.
No reader of the New Testament can miss the fact that it knows all about our human problems – fear, cowardice, illness of body and mind, loneliness, insecurity, hopelessness, despair, cruelty, abuse of power and the rest – but equally no reader of the New Testament can miss the fact that it resolves all these problems one way or another, into the fundamental problem of sin against God.
By sin, the New Testament means not social error or failures in the first instance, but rebellion against, defiance of, retreat from, and consequent guilt before God the Creator, and sin, says the New Testament, is the basic evil from which we need deliverance, and from which Christ died to save us.