Hebrews 1:1-4 says; "Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs."
God is a God of revelation. He reveals himself to all mankind in creation. Throughout history He has revealed himself to His people. He reveals himself to us in the Scripture, giving us understanding of the Scripture by His Spirit in us.
We can only know God as He reveals himself to us.
The first thing we see in the beginning verses of Hebrews is that God spoke. Long ago He spoke to the fathers of Israel by the prophets, and more recently He had spoken by His Son. The next thing we see in his text is a description the Son. He is the heir of all things. Through Him God created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature. We see what the Son does; He upholds the universe by the word of his power. We see where the Son is; at the right hand of God the Father, the Majesty on high.
Long ago, throughout the history of the descendants of Abraham, God spoke at many times and in many ways. But now, the writer says, God had spoken by His Son.
How did God speak by His Son? In the incarnation of Christ.
In Jesus, God became a human. In the incarnation, God the Son, the Second Person of the Trinity, eternal, infinite, and uncreated, entered time and the world as a finite human.
In the incarnation, God the Son became one of us. In the incarnation God became human.
The incarnation is a truth we will never completely understand. I am making propositional truth statements, and we consider these with our minds because God made us thinking beings, but ultimately we understand the incarnation because God has revealed it to us.
When we come up against truth about God that is beyond our understanding we are to study hard. We are to think hard; faith is not anti-intellectual. At the same time we must never be so arrogant to think that we can understand these things apart from the revelation of God by the Holy Spirit.
God revealed himself in the incarnation. This was His activity by His initiative. The apostle John begins his Gospel with "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it." John 1:1-5
John begins his story about Jesus with "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."
It’s important to hear what John is saying. The Word was and is God.
As the writer of Hebrews tells us, with this Word God spoke to His people but this Word was more than God speaking. This is more than a verbal expression; it is the Divine Expression.
John says; "He was in the beginning with God." This Word is a Person; this Divine Word gives us an understanding of God because He is God. In Him we see the invisible God. John uses the personal pronoun He in describing the Word. Who is the Word? We find the answer in John 1:14
"And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth."
The Word is the One who became human and lived with humans. The Word was in the beginning with God and everything was made through Him. The Word, who was in the beginning with God, who was God, who created everything, became flesh and lived among people. This is the mystery and majesty of the incarnation. In the incarnation God spoke, revealing himself in His Son in which we see His glory.
How did this happen? Like this:
"In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin’s name was Mary. And he came to her and said, 'Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!' But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. And the angel said to her, 'Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.'
"And Mary said to the angel, 'How will this be, since I am a virgin?'
"And the angel answered her, 'The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy – the Son of God.'" Luke 1:26-35
The angel came to the young woman with unbelievable news. She would be the mother of the child who will be her Savior and King. She will be the mother of the Son of God.
The incarnation of the Son of God began with a miraculous conception. This had never happened before and has not happened since. This miraculously conceived baby grew as any other baby. The Son of God was a human baby in the womb of His human mom. This Child who would be called holy, the son of God, was the son of a young woman from Nazareth. The Creator would be carried in the womb and the arms of one He created.
To fulfill the law of Caesar Augustus, Joseph and Mary traveled to Bethlehem, the City of David, in order to be counted in a census. Fulfilling the prophecies of the Messiah, the Christ, the One who would come and save the people from their sin, Jesus was born, God in human flesh.
"And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn." Luke 2:6-7
Outside of Bethlehem an angel of the Lord appeared to some shepherds announcing to them
"For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger." Luke 2:11-13
This is what we remember and celebrate at Christmas, but this is not the whole story. Jesus was born and Jesus lived as a baby and a toddler and a boy and a man. All of this is part of the incarnation.
In the incarnation Jesus, who created humanity, was submitted to His earthly parents. In the incarnation Jesus, who gave the Law to Moses, observed the Law of Moses. Indeed He obeyed his parents perfectly and He obeyed the Law perfectly.
Jesus was like the other kids in the neighborhood, except He was without sin. When He was grown, Jesus went to be baptized by John the Baptist who had been sent by God to prepare the way for Him. After He was baptized, Jesus went into the wilderness and fasted for forty days and was tempted by Satan. Adam, in the comfort of the Garden and with a full belly, failed. He sinned. Jesus – who the apostle Paul called the last Adam – in the wilderness and without food for forty days, triumphed. He rebuked Satan. He did not sin.
All of this happened in the incarnation and is part of the incarnation.
Jesus was born with a mission, and that mission was to die for the sin of all who believe. He humbled himself as a man and humbled himself before men, but at every turn he was accomplishing everything that He came to do.
Philippians 2:5-8 says; "Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross."
Jesus was obedient to fulfill His part of the mission to redeem humanity. He said; “For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me.” John 6:38
After three years of proclaiming the kingdom and healing the sick and even raising the dead, Jesus was betrayed by one of His disciples and handed over to the Roman authorities to be executed. What was His crime? There was no crime; Jesus never broke the law of God or man. The priests and elders condemned Jesus for blasphemy because He claimed to be the Son of God.
In the incarnation the Son of God was at the same time the Son of Man, and the priests and elders couldn’t get their minds wrapped around that. Jesus was their Messiah but they rejected Him because they were looking for a different kind of messiah. They were looking for a conquering king who would deliver them from the oppression of the Romans. But God the Father sent the perfect sacrifice for sin so that all who believe will be delivered from the oppression of sin.
In the incarnation we have the great mystery of the majesty of God in man. Jesus was God and man at the same time, possessing the full divine nature and human nature in the same person. Jesus was in every way human, He was born in a physical body just like we were and physically He was subject to the corruption of sin. Had His body not been subject to the corruption of sin He would not have died.
Jesus was in every way human but He never sinned. Hebrews 4:14-16 says; "Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need."
In His humanity Jesus did not inherit the spiritual corruption of the sin of Adam. We, on the other hand, were all born dead in sin and by nature children of wrath. We inherited this from Adam and Eve just as we inherited size and hair and eye color from parents and grandparents and great-grandparents. Jesus inherited size and hair and eye color from Mary and her parents and grandparents but He didn’t inherit the sin of Adam. This is very important.
Romans 5:18-19 says; "Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. For as by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience the many will be made righteous."
Adam’s sin brought condemnation on all mankind. By Adam’s disobedience all humans are born sinners. But, one act of righteousness – the sinless life and substitutionary death of Jesus – leads to justification for all who believe. We were born in the sin of Adam; we are born again in the righteousness of Christ. We are born of the Spirit and given a new nature. We are made new in Christ.
This is only possible because of the incarnation. The incarnation is profoundly significant. The sacrifice for sin had to be a human so it could be a substitute for humans. The sacrifice for sin had to be sinless to be acceptable to a sinless God. This is only possible in the incarnation. Every human ever born is born a sinner and condemned for their sin. All humans inherit the sin of Adam. In Jesus, God the Son was the only human ever born that did not inherit the sin of Adam.
The penalty for sin is death. Jesus was born without sin and lived without sin and died without sin for the sin of all who believe. Jesus wasn’t under the penalty of death for sin so His death could pay the penalty for our sin. This would be impossible for a sinful human to do.
John Frame writes in Salvation Belongs to the Lord: "Unless our savior is God, we are without hope. It is the deity of Christ that sustains his human nature through terrible suffering, that gives worth and power to his sufferings, that makes his salvation sure. . . . Only the Lord can be the savior.
It is equally important that our redeemer be man. . . . He shares our flesh and blood so that he can defeat death."
Without the incarnation, without God in flesh, without the sacrifice that was fully God and fully man, there could be no atonement.
Hebrews 9:11-14 says; "But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. For if the sprinkling of defiled persons with the blood of goats and bulls and with the ashes of a heifer sanctifies for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God."
Year after year the priests offered sacrifices for their own sin and then for the sin of the people. They entered the most holy place in the Tabernacle and later the Temple to sprinkle the blood of the sacrifice on the cover of the Ark of the Covenant, the mercy seat. The ark represented the presence of God and the blood of the sacrifice made God favorable toward the people yet the people were still in bondage to their sin natures and their sinful behavior.
Hebrews 10:11-14 says; "And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified."
The priests entered into the most holy place with the blood of the sacrifice, but it was only a type, looking forward to Christ, our great high priest who entered the true presence of God to present His own blood securing eternal redemption.
There is only one sacrifice for sin, the blood of God’s one perfect Son. There is no redemption from the penalty for sin and there is no forgiveness for sin apart from the shed blood of Jesus. Apart from the incarnation there would have been no blood.
The redemption and forgiveness secured by the blood of Jesus is eternal. The blood of the animal sacrifices held back the wrath of God for a time, but the blood of Jesus cleanses us. All who by grace through faith trust in the person and work of Jesus are eternally redeemed from the bondage of sin and eternally forgiven for their sin because of the blood sacrifice. This happened in the incarnation and because of the incarnation.
God is perfectly righteous and absolutely holy. He demands perfect righteousness from you. Unless you are perfectly righteous in every thought and word and deed every second of every day, you cannot stand in the presence of God.
Apart from Christ we are all dead in sin and children of wrath, but God in His infinite mercy sacrificed His Son and by grace through faith we are cleansed from our sin by His blood, the blood of the incarnate Son of God who paid the penalty for our sin by taking the wrath for our sin on himself, exchanging our sin for His righteousness so that we will be welcomed into the presence of God.
Hebrews 10:19-23 says; "Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful."
The incarnation is supremely significant. Full atonement has been made in the substitutionary sacrifice of the perfect Son of God. None of this would be possible without the Son of God becoming a human, living a sinless life, dying for our sin, and being raised from the dead. We enter into the holy places by the blood of Jesus, the way being opened for us by His flesh.
About Me
- Raymond Culley Carter
- Gresham, Oregon, United States
- human, Christian, husband, father, writer, preacher, amazed at the grace of God who saved me from the penalty for my sin by the finished work of Jesus Christ
Friday, December 9, 2011
Saturday, November 19, 2011
Give Thanks
Thursday is Thanksgiving Day. It’s not just another Thursday, it’s a day when most of us won’t go to work and for many of us it is a paid day off. Most of us will gather with family and friends for a special meal and time together. Many will watch football and some will play football in parks and fields.
We eat a meal to remember a time of thanksgiving celebrated in 1621 by some of the first European immigrants and their indigenous neighbors. They had fled religious persecution in England, moving first to Holland and then to the new world. They were heading for Virginia but a storm pushed them to land off the coast of what is now Massachusetts. What might be seen as a problem was – in their worldview – seen as providence, God working in their circumstances. The pictures we see of the Pilgrims do not accurately convey the hardship they had suffered. Death had come to nearly every home, and many of the families that gathered were made up of a man who had lost his wife married to a woman who had lost her husband and their combined surviving children. In their hardship they gave thanks for God’s care and provision for them.
On October 3, 1789 George Washington called for a day of national thanksgiving in his Thanksgiving Proclamation. It says in part:
Now therefore I do recommend and assign Thursday the 26th day of November next to be devoted by the People of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being, who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be. That we may then all unite in rendering unto him our sincere and humble thanks, for his kind care and protection of the People of this country previous to their becoming a Nation, for the signal and manifold mercies, and the favorable interpositions of his providence, which we experienced . . .
How far we have come.
As we gather on Thanksgiving Day we might think or even talk about what we are thankful for, but how much thinking or talking will be about who we are thankful to?
Romans 8:28 says: And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
I know I’ve ripped this text from its massively rich context, but I do so to remind us that God is working. God is working in all things. God is working in all things for the good of those who are called by Him.
The Pilgrims knew this as they went through hardship from persecution by a state controlled church to travel across a very large ocean in a very small boat and faced the New England winters. Our founding fathers – not all of whom were Christians – knew this as they declared independence from England and established that independence with blood.
Here we are the beneficiaries of the sacrifice of the Pilgrims and those who gave everything for liberty. Here we are the beneficiaries of the sacrifice of our families for us. In all of this, God is working and if you are called by Him He is working for your good.
We have been going through hard times. We all know someone who is unemployed or underemployed. In this God is working. We all experience disease, either personally or in those we love. In this God is working. We all experience strained relationships. In this God is working. I could go on but I think you get what I am saying. In this world we will hardship and suffering, and God is working.
Is hardship and suffering all we experience? Absolutely not, though sometimes it feels that way. We also experience great joy and satisfaction, but if our joy and satisfaction is only in our experience it is misplaced. Our greatest joy and satisfaction is in Christ.
We don’t hear the word providence much anymore, but just because we quit talking about it doesn’t mean that God quit. He is working. God is not only our Creator, He is our Sustainer. In Christ God holds the universe together. Colossians 1:15-17 tells us that by Christ all things were created and in Him all things hold together. If He stopped, the universe would fly apart. That’s providence on a big scale, but that’s not where providence stops.
God’s providence affects every part of life. It is by common grace, grace given to all mankind, that the sun shines and the rain falls and food grows. Whether it is recognized or not it is by God’s grace that we have people to love and work to do and homes to live in. But what if we don’t have people to love or work to do or homes to live in? God is still sovereign and He is still good and He is still working.
Are you OK with that? Or do you think that if things aren’t “good” God must not be working? I’m afraid that many have an entitlement mentality about God. Many believe that because they are Christians God is obligated to make life easy. That’s not what Scripture teaches.
“And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.”
God works all things together for good. That doesn’t mean that everything we experience will be good. When we are born again we receive a new heart, a new nature, but we continue to live in bodies corrupted by sin in a world corrupted by sin. We live with the effects of our sin and the sin of those around us; in this God is working all things together for good.
This Thanksgiving and always I encourage you to remember the One to whom you give thanks. God is good and is working all things together for the ultimate good, redeeming a people for himself who will be resurrected in sinless bodies and worship Him in the new earth where there will be no sin. Give thanks in your circumstances. Be thankful for what you have and what you don’t have. God is good and working all things together for good. If you are in Christ God is caring for you, but His work to conform you to the likeness of Christ does not guarantee ease and comfort in this life. He does guarantee that we will see Christ as He is because we will be made like Him in the resurrection.
Life can be hard, but God is always good. Have a blessed Thanksgiving. Ray
We eat a meal to remember a time of thanksgiving celebrated in 1621 by some of the first European immigrants and their indigenous neighbors. They had fled religious persecution in England, moving first to Holland and then to the new world. They were heading for Virginia but a storm pushed them to land off the coast of what is now Massachusetts. What might be seen as a problem was – in their worldview – seen as providence, God working in their circumstances. The pictures we see of the Pilgrims do not accurately convey the hardship they had suffered. Death had come to nearly every home, and many of the families that gathered were made up of a man who had lost his wife married to a woman who had lost her husband and their combined surviving children. In their hardship they gave thanks for God’s care and provision for them.
On October 3, 1789 George Washington called for a day of national thanksgiving in his Thanksgiving Proclamation. It says in part:
Now therefore I do recommend and assign Thursday the 26th day of November next to be devoted by the People of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being, who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be. That we may then all unite in rendering unto him our sincere and humble thanks, for his kind care and protection of the People of this country previous to their becoming a Nation, for the signal and manifold mercies, and the favorable interpositions of his providence, which we experienced . . .
How far we have come.
As we gather on Thanksgiving Day we might think or even talk about what we are thankful for, but how much thinking or talking will be about who we are thankful to?
Romans 8:28 says: And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
I know I’ve ripped this text from its massively rich context, but I do so to remind us that God is working. God is working in all things. God is working in all things for the good of those who are called by Him.
The Pilgrims knew this as they went through hardship from persecution by a state controlled church to travel across a very large ocean in a very small boat and faced the New England winters. Our founding fathers – not all of whom were Christians – knew this as they declared independence from England and established that independence with blood.
Here we are the beneficiaries of the sacrifice of the Pilgrims and those who gave everything for liberty. Here we are the beneficiaries of the sacrifice of our families for us. In all of this, God is working and if you are called by Him He is working for your good.
We have been going through hard times. We all know someone who is unemployed or underemployed. In this God is working. We all experience disease, either personally or in those we love. In this God is working. We all experience strained relationships. In this God is working. I could go on but I think you get what I am saying. In this world we will hardship and suffering, and God is working.
Is hardship and suffering all we experience? Absolutely not, though sometimes it feels that way. We also experience great joy and satisfaction, but if our joy and satisfaction is only in our experience it is misplaced. Our greatest joy and satisfaction is in Christ.
We don’t hear the word providence much anymore, but just because we quit talking about it doesn’t mean that God quit. He is working. God is not only our Creator, He is our Sustainer. In Christ God holds the universe together. Colossians 1:15-17 tells us that by Christ all things were created and in Him all things hold together. If He stopped, the universe would fly apart. That’s providence on a big scale, but that’s not where providence stops.
God’s providence affects every part of life. It is by common grace, grace given to all mankind, that the sun shines and the rain falls and food grows. Whether it is recognized or not it is by God’s grace that we have people to love and work to do and homes to live in. But what if we don’t have people to love or work to do or homes to live in? God is still sovereign and He is still good and He is still working.
Are you OK with that? Or do you think that if things aren’t “good” God must not be working? I’m afraid that many have an entitlement mentality about God. Many believe that because they are Christians God is obligated to make life easy. That’s not what Scripture teaches.
“And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.”
God works all things together for good. That doesn’t mean that everything we experience will be good. When we are born again we receive a new heart, a new nature, but we continue to live in bodies corrupted by sin in a world corrupted by sin. We live with the effects of our sin and the sin of those around us; in this God is working all things together for good.
This Thanksgiving and always I encourage you to remember the One to whom you give thanks. God is good and is working all things together for the ultimate good, redeeming a people for himself who will be resurrected in sinless bodies and worship Him in the new earth where there will be no sin. Give thanks in your circumstances. Be thankful for what you have and what you don’t have. God is good and working all things together for good. If you are in Christ God is caring for you, but His work to conform you to the likeness of Christ does not guarantee ease and comfort in this life. He does guarantee that we will see Christ as He is because we will be made like Him in the resurrection.
Life can be hard, but God is always good. Have a blessed Thanksgiving. Ray
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
Seventy Times Seven
In Matthew chapter 18 we read the account of Peter coming to Jesus and asking how many times he should forgive his brother when he sins against him. “As many as seven times?” Peter asks.
I suspect this is not a hypothetical question for Peter. He not thinking that someday some brother might sin against him repeatedly and he should be ready. No, I think Peter is living with a brother sinning against him. He is living with forgiving the same guy for the same thing over and over again.
Jesus replies; “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy times seven.”
Imagine Peter’s thinking; “Seventy times seven? I have to forgive this guy 490 times?”
Jesus, knowing what Peter was thinking when we can only imagine, explains by telling a parable, a story made up to make a point. The story was about a king who came to settle accounts with his people. A servant was brought to him who owed him 10,000 talents. A talent was about twenty year’s wages for this man. To convert it to our thinking, if you make $50,000 a year that would be $1,000,000. This was an impossible debt.
Unable to pay, the king ordered that this man, his wife, his children, and everything he owned be sold to pay the debt. The man begged his master to give him more time and he would pay him. Does this sound realistic? Does this seem like a good risk? I don’t think so. I think his master would have been ahead to take what he could get and move on.
But the king had pity on the man. He had mercy, not giving the man what he deserved or even the extension he asked for; he forgave the debt.
I don’t think we really understand how huge this was. Our possessions might be seized to pay our debt, but we wouldn’t be sold into slavery. This man received mercy beyond calculation in the debt being forgiven.
This should have changed his life. He should have never looked at anyone who owed him anything without thinking of the debt he was forgiven. But that’s not what happened.
The man found another man who owed him 100 denarii. A denarius was about a day’s wages. At $50,000 a year for six days a week that is just under $160.00. When he could not pay, the man had him put in prison.
This man would not forgive $160.00 even though he had been forgiven 6,250 times more.
What do you think? I think that what this man was despicable. Sadly, I have acted every bit as despicably.
Apart from Christ I owed an impossible debt, a debt I could not pay. Unlike the king in our parable, God didn’t just forgive my debt, He paid it in full. The debt I owed, the penalty for my sin, was eternal death. God paid my debt as His eternal Son took on himself the penalty I deserved.
If you are a Christian, if you are in Christ by grace through faith, your sin, past present and future, has been forgiven because the penalty for your sin has been paid.
Having received this great forgiveness from the One I sinned against, how can I not forgive those who sin against me? Jesus humbled himself in His incarnation and was humiliated in His crucifixion and yet, as he hung beaten and bloodied dying the most agonizing and painful death ever conceived by mankind, asked God the father to forgive those who unjustly convicted Him, mocked Him, beat Him, and nailed Him to a cross to die.
Our parable continues as some of the other servants went to their master and told him what the unforgiving servant had done.
The king called in this servant and said to him; “You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?” Then he threw the servant into prison until he could pay.
Jesus concludes the parable with; “So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.”
Jesus is not saying that God will condemn us for unforgiveness, He is saying our unforgiveness condemns us. Salvation is not based on anything we do, nor is condemnation. Salvation is by grace – the freely given unmerited gift of God – alone. What Jesus is saying is that if we are unforgiving we are not forgiven. Unforgiveness is a sign of one who has not been reconciled to God.
Don’t misunderstand, we get hurt by others and we get angry at others and we may struggle with unforgiveness, but if we are in Christ His Spirit is in us and we will be convicted of our sin and come to forgive those who have hurt us and those we are angry with. Those who do not are not in Christ.
I find the way to forgiveness is to consider what forgiveness cost God the Father. I find the way to let go of an offense is to consider the offense of the mocking and beating and crucifixion of the Son of God. Considering this, how can I hold on to an offense? Considering this, how can I not forgive? Considering this, I should gladly forgive my brother more than seventy times seven times.
I suspect this is not a hypothetical question for Peter. He not thinking that someday some brother might sin against him repeatedly and he should be ready. No, I think Peter is living with a brother sinning against him. He is living with forgiving the same guy for the same thing over and over again.
Jesus replies; “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy times seven.”
Imagine Peter’s thinking; “Seventy times seven? I have to forgive this guy 490 times?”
Jesus, knowing what Peter was thinking when we can only imagine, explains by telling a parable, a story made up to make a point. The story was about a king who came to settle accounts with his people. A servant was brought to him who owed him 10,000 talents. A talent was about twenty year’s wages for this man. To convert it to our thinking, if you make $50,000 a year that would be $1,000,000. This was an impossible debt.
Unable to pay, the king ordered that this man, his wife, his children, and everything he owned be sold to pay the debt. The man begged his master to give him more time and he would pay him. Does this sound realistic? Does this seem like a good risk? I don’t think so. I think his master would have been ahead to take what he could get and move on.
But the king had pity on the man. He had mercy, not giving the man what he deserved or even the extension he asked for; he forgave the debt.
I don’t think we really understand how huge this was. Our possessions might be seized to pay our debt, but we wouldn’t be sold into slavery. This man received mercy beyond calculation in the debt being forgiven.
This should have changed his life. He should have never looked at anyone who owed him anything without thinking of the debt he was forgiven. But that’s not what happened.
The man found another man who owed him 100 denarii. A denarius was about a day’s wages. At $50,000 a year for six days a week that is just under $160.00. When he could not pay, the man had him put in prison.
This man would not forgive $160.00 even though he had been forgiven 6,250 times more.
What do you think? I think that what this man was despicable. Sadly, I have acted every bit as despicably.
Apart from Christ I owed an impossible debt, a debt I could not pay. Unlike the king in our parable, God didn’t just forgive my debt, He paid it in full. The debt I owed, the penalty for my sin, was eternal death. God paid my debt as His eternal Son took on himself the penalty I deserved.
If you are a Christian, if you are in Christ by grace through faith, your sin, past present and future, has been forgiven because the penalty for your sin has been paid.
Having received this great forgiveness from the One I sinned against, how can I not forgive those who sin against me? Jesus humbled himself in His incarnation and was humiliated in His crucifixion and yet, as he hung beaten and bloodied dying the most agonizing and painful death ever conceived by mankind, asked God the father to forgive those who unjustly convicted Him, mocked Him, beat Him, and nailed Him to a cross to die.
Our parable continues as some of the other servants went to their master and told him what the unforgiving servant had done.
The king called in this servant and said to him; “You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?” Then he threw the servant into prison until he could pay.
Jesus concludes the parable with; “So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.”
Jesus is not saying that God will condemn us for unforgiveness, He is saying our unforgiveness condemns us. Salvation is not based on anything we do, nor is condemnation. Salvation is by grace – the freely given unmerited gift of God – alone. What Jesus is saying is that if we are unforgiving we are not forgiven. Unforgiveness is a sign of one who has not been reconciled to God.
Don’t misunderstand, we get hurt by others and we get angry at others and we may struggle with unforgiveness, but if we are in Christ His Spirit is in us and we will be convicted of our sin and come to forgive those who have hurt us and those we are angry with. Those who do not are not in Christ.
I find the way to forgiveness is to consider what forgiveness cost God the Father. I find the way to let go of an offense is to consider the offense of the mocking and beating and crucifixion of the Son of God. Considering this, how can I hold on to an offense? Considering this, how can I not forgive? Considering this, I should gladly forgive my brother more than seventy times seven times.
Saturday, November 5, 2011
Walk Worthy
The apostle Paul exhorted the Christians in Ephesus, Colosse, and Thessalonica to walk worthy of their calling and worthy of the Lord who called them. He exhorted them to live in a manner that reflected who they were in Christ. I believe the exhortation given by the apostle to particular churches in his day is for the Church universal and so is for Christians today. We are to live in a manner worthy of our calling and of the Lord who called us. We are to die to self and live for Christ. We are to boldly proclaim the Gospel. We are to sacrificially love.
I think most of us who know Christ as Savior agree that this is what we are to do; indeed most of us would say this is what we want to do, but many of us aren’t doing it – or aren’t doing it very well – because we seem to have little power against our sinful attitudes and behavior. Some of us have given up, thinking that we are “just sinners saved by grace” and we can’t hope to have real or lasting victory. Some of us categorize, believing that as long as we stay away from the “big” sins we are OK. We can live with a little lust as long as we don’t fall in to adultery. We can live with a little anger as long as we don’t punch anyone in the nose.
We aren’t called to give up. We aren’t called to defeat. We aren’t given the liberty to be OK with the “little” sins. We are called to walk – to live – in a manner worthy of our call and the One who called us.
I think most of us aren’t doing this – dying to self and boldly proclaiming the Gospel and sacrificially loving – because we misunderstand the concept. We think we are called to do when in fact we are called to be. We make walking worthy of Christ a matter of doing.
I don’t think this is what Paul is calling us to. Throughout his epistles Paul declares this is who Christ is and this is who the Christian is in Christ. He never says go do this and you will be this, he always points us to who we are in Christ and tells us to be who we are in Christ.
If you are a Christian you are in Christ. You have been born of the Holy Spirit and you are indwelt and empowered by the Holy Spirit. Paul writes; “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” This is an inspiring thought, but many days this is not our experience. I don’t think Paul wrote this to inspire, I think he wrote it to describe. He wrote it to describe the reality of who we are in Christ.
Paul wrote to declare the truth about those who are in Christ. All who are in Christ have been changed. The old nature has been replaced with the new. We were by nature children of wrath. We were dead in sin, but we have been made alive in Christ.
So, if the reality is that we are new in Christ why is it our experience that so often we don’t live that way?
We don’t live that way because we live in corrupted flesh – flesh that will not be completely redeemed until the resurrection – and we live in a corrupted world. I think most of us get that. That’s why we say we’re just sinners saved by grace.
We don’t live that way because we aren’t being who we are in Christ. We experience defeat by our sin instead of victory over our sin because we aren’t walking in the Spirit. Paul wrote that if we walk by the Spirit we will not gratify the desires of the flesh. What leads us, our corrupted flesh or the Holy Spirit in us? Are we looking to our experience to define our reality and inform our thinking and our living or is the true reality of who we are in Christ taught in Scripture and validated by the Spirit in us informing our thinking and our living?
We live in our experience, and we can live nowhere else, but our experience should not define us. What should define us is who we are in Christ, and I’m convinced that as we understand who we are in Christ our experience will change. We will walk in the Spirit and not pander to the desires of the flesh.
To do this we need a correct understanding of who Christ is, what He has done, and who we are in Him.
Imagine going downtown and seeing a man living on the street and sleeping in doorways. You comment to your friend who is walking with you how sad it is that people live that way. Your friend looks at you incredulously and asks; “Do you know who this man is?” When you say no, your friend says; “He is the son of Mr. Jones, the richest man in town, and heir to the Jones business and financial empire!”
Why would the son of the richest man in town live on the street and sleep in doorways? I don’t know, but I have a question closer to home. Why do we who are in Christ, born of the Spirit, by grace though faith redeemed from the penalty for our sin, reconciled to God, adopted as His children, indwelled and empowered by the Spirit, dead to sin and alive in Christ, live like the only part of this we get is that we are saved by grace through faith (we hope).
Christians who live this way are like the man living on the street while the heir to the richest man in town. They live with a false identity. They live with a false understanding of who they are. I believe that if we live in our true identity – which we can only do if we understand who we are – we will live in a manner worthy of our calling and the One who called us. We will walk in the Spirit and not indulge our flesh. We will walk in victory, putting sin to death.
Don’t misunderstand, I’m not talking about becoming sinless – as long as we live in flesh corrupted by sin in a world corrupted by sin we will sin – but we are no longer sinners by nature. We have been made new in Christ.
Many Christians live with a deficient understanding of their true identity. Many of us have a deficient understanding of who we are in Christ.
I think most of us who know Christ as Savior agree that this is what we are to do; indeed most of us would say this is what we want to do, but many of us aren’t doing it – or aren’t doing it very well – because we seem to have little power against our sinful attitudes and behavior. Some of us have given up, thinking that we are “just sinners saved by grace” and we can’t hope to have real or lasting victory. Some of us categorize, believing that as long as we stay away from the “big” sins we are OK. We can live with a little lust as long as we don’t fall in to adultery. We can live with a little anger as long as we don’t punch anyone in the nose.
We aren’t called to give up. We aren’t called to defeat. We aren’t given the liberty to be OK with the “little” sins. We are called to walk – to live – in a manner worthy of our call and the One who called us.
I think most of us aren’t doing this – dying to self and boldly proclaiming the Gospel and sacrificially loving – because we misunderstand the concept. We think we are called to do when in fact we are called to be. We make walking worthy of Christ a matter of doing.
I don’t think this is what Paul is calling us to. Throughout his epistles Paul declares this is who Christ is and this is who the Christian is in Christ. He never says go do this and you will be this, he always points us to who we are in Christ and tells us to be who we are in Christ.
If you are a Christian you are in Christ. You have been born of the Holy Spirit and you are indwelt and empowered by the Holy Spirit. Paul writes; “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” This is an inspiring thought, but many days this is not our experience. I don’t think Paul wrote this to inspire, I think he wrote it to describe. He wrote it to describe the reality of who we are in Christ.
Paul wrote to declare the truth about those who are in Christ. All who are in Christ have been changed. The old nature has been replaced with the new. We were by nature children of wrath. We were dead in sin, but we have been made alive in Christ.
So, if the reality is that we are new in Christ why is it our experience that so often we don’t live that way?
We don’t live that way because we live in corrupted flesh – flesh that will not be completely redeemed until the resurrection – and we live in a corrupted world. I think most of us get that. That’s why we say we’re just sinners saved by grace.
We don’t live that way because we aren’t being who we are in Christ. We experience defeat by our sin instead of victory over our sin because we aren’t walking in the Spirit. Paul wrote that if we walk by the Spirit we will not gratify the desires of the flesh. What leads us, our corrupted flesh or the Holy Spirit in us? Are we looking to our experience to define our reality and inform our thinking and our living or is the true reality of who we are in Christ taught in Scripture and validated by the Spirit in us informing our thinking and our living?
We live in our experience, and we can live nowhere else, but our experience should not define us. What should define us is who we are in Christ, and I’m convinced that as we understand who we are in Christ our experience will change. We will walk in the Spirit and not pander to the desires of the flesh.
To do this we need a correct understanding of who Christ is, what He has done, and who we are in Him.
Imagine going downtown and seeing a man living on the street and sleeping in doorways. You comment to your friend who is walking with you how sad it is that people live that way. Your friend looks at you incredulously and asks; “Do you know who this man is?” When you say no, your friend says; “He is the son of Mr. Jones, the richest man in town, and heir to the Jones business and financial empire!”
Why would the son of the richest man in town live on the street and sleep in doorways? I don’t know, but I have a question closer to home. Why do we who are in Christ, born of the Spirit, by grace though faith redeemed from the penalty for our sin, reconciled to God, adopted as His children, indwelled and empowered by the Spirit, dead to sin and alive in Christ, live like the only part of this we get is that we are saved by grace through faith (we hope).
Christians who live this way are like the man living on the street while the heir to the richest man in town. They live with a false identity. They live with a false understanding of who they are. I believe that if we live in our true identity – which we can only do if we understand who we are – we will live in a manner worthy of our calling and the One who called us. We will walk in the Spirit and not indulge our flesh. We will walk in victory, putting sin to death.
Don’t misunderstand, I’m not talking about becoming sinless – as long as we live in flesh corrupted by sin in a world corrupted by sin we will sin – but we are no longer sinners by nature. We have been made new in Christ.
Many Christians live with a deficient understanding of their true identity. Many of us have a deficient understanding of who we are in Christ.
Monday, June 20, 2011
To Live is Christ
This is the picture: Paul is in Rome, imprisoned under house arrest at his own expense, chained to an imperial guard but apparently free to receive visitors and write. He wrote to the church at Philippi, a church he had been part of planting after preaching the gospel there about ten years before.
Paul wrote to encourage the believers in Philippi, to remind them that God was in control and that his imprisonment in Rome was by God’s purpose and plan. Paul wrote to let them now that his confidence was in Christ not his circumstances so they would be encouraged. Paul knew how easy it would have been for these folks to be discouraged.
We need this same encouragement because it is easy for us to become discouraged in our circumstances. We need to be reminded who our God is and what He has done for us in Christ and that He is working in our circumstances to accomplish His purpose and plan.
Paul writes:
Yes, and I will rejoice, for I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ this will turn out for my deliverance, as it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account. Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all, for your progress and joy in the faith, so that in me you may have ample cause to glory in Christ Jesus, because of my coming to you again. Philippians 1:18b-26
In the beginning verses of Philippians Paul’s is commenting on his imprisonment and his expectation of deliverance either in this life or the life to come. In this we hear his response to being imprisoned. He is not discouraged, he is confident. His confidence is in knowing that God is sovereign and is in control. Paul is confident in knowing that God is working in these hard circumstances, and that he confident because he knows that God has ordained and orchestrated these hard circumstances. God ordained and orchestrated his imprisonment. Paul was confident in his circumstances because the Lord had told him that he was going to Rome. Acts 23:11 says; “The following night the Lord stood by him and said, ‘Take courage, for as you have testified to the facts about me in Jerusalem, so you must testify also in Rome.’”
Paul is less concerned about how he got to Rome than he is with the work he has come to Rome to do.
Paul has lost his civil liberty. He cannot choose to leave Rome or even the house where he is being held. He is chained to a guard twenty-four hours a day. In this Paul rejoices because he is confident in God and what He is doing. He is confident that by the prayers of the believers in Philippi and the help of the Spirit of Jesus, the Holy Spirit, he will be delivered. Paul was destined, by the will and work of God, to be imprisoned in Rome, but this was not his final destiny. He will be delivered. His final destiny was to be delivered by the will and work of God.
In our passage Paul makes the most amazing statement; for to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. When we read or hear this we connect with our hearts. Emotionally we get what Paul is saying. As believers in Christ there is something in this statement that tugs at our hearts.
One reason we connect with for me to live is Christ with our hearts because Paul is telling us about the love of his life. We connect with this with our hearts because this is a love story. Paul’s life in Christ is the story of His love for Jesus. Paul says that to live is Christ because he loves Jesus in a real and personal way, and his love for Jesus is shown in his life. True love moves the lover to action for the beloved.
Paul’s life testifies that he loves Jesus because he is living for Jesus. His life since his conversion has been about nothing else. He has given himself to the gospel, and he has given himself for the gospel. He has given himself to Jesus’ people, and he has given himself for Jesus’ people. Paul did all of this because he loved Jesus. Paul did all of this because Jesus loved him and gave His life for him and called him.
This is what grabs our hearts. This is a love story. Jesus loved Paul and Paul loved Jesus.
In travelling and preaching and writing and being thrown into jail and being beaten and stoned and finally being chained to a Roman guard, all Paul ever wants to do is tell everyone he meets about his beloved Jesus and the reality of Jesus being the One who died for sin and rose from the dead. He wants everyone he meets to know that by grace through faith in the finished work of his beloved Jesus they can be reconciled to God. Paul loves Jesus and he wants to tell everyone he meets how much he loves Jesus and he wants everyone he meets to love Jesus too.
Chris Klicka was Senior Counsel and Director of State and International Relations for Homeschool Legal Defense Association. He served homeschoolers on the HSLDA staff for 24 years. He became ill with multiple sclerosis and found out that to die is gain on October 22, 2009.
My wife and I were blessed to hear him speak twice, about ten years apart. The second time the disease had ravaged his body and a lesser man would have been in a wheel chair.
Chris Klicka loved families and he loved homeschoolers, but his primary passion at the end of his life was Jesus and the gospel. I don’t think this was a new passion, I think this was the passion that drove all of the work that he did, but disease and imminent death sharpened his focus. His life was an amazing testimony of God’s grace and everywhere he went he told everyone he met about the grace of God in Jesus Christ. The second time we heard him speak he hung on to the pulpit to keep his balance and told us that he was blessed to travel and that he believed that everywhere he went everyone he met the Lord had put there to hear the gospel. I can’t tell you what it meant to me to see and hear this man, his body wasting away but his heart on fire with love for Jesus that fed a passion for Jesus’ people and the lost.
I have an idea that hearing Chris Klicka that day compares to hearing from Paul in the Roman imprisonment as we do in Philippians. The chains were different, but the hearts were the same.
Imagine being chained to Paul, a man who said for me to live is Christ. It wasn’t rhetoric, it was reality.
In saying for me to live is Christ Paul is talking about his love for Jesus and his identity in Jesus, not his activity. It’s important that we get that.
The other reason we connect with this with our hearts is because Paul is telling us who he is in Christ. Our hearts connect because if we are in Christ it is our identity too.
Paul was a gospel man. Paul preached the gospel of the crucified and resurrected Christ and life transformed by grace through faith. Paul preached life in Christ, in this world and the next, by faith apart from the works of the law. This doesn’t take away from anything that Paul did, but he did what he did because he was in Christ. He did what he did because Christ was working in him.
Paul wrote to the church in Galatia:
I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. Galatians 2:20
For Paul, to live was Christ because Jesus lived in him. The life he lived in this world he lived by faith in Jesus. Jesus loved Paul and gave himself for Paul so Paul loved Jesus and gave himself for Jesus. This wasn’t a trade – Jesus did this so Paul did that – what Paul did was Christ in him. Life for Paul was Christ because Christ lived in him. If you are in Christ this is your life too.
It’s important that we get that. Otherwise we will try and live for Christ in our own power and will either be self-righteous or driven to despair.
Paul wrote to the church at Rome (some who were at the time Paul wrote Philippians preaching from envy and rivalry):
What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ being raised from the dead will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal bodies, to make you obey their passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace. Romans 6:1-14
Paul understood who Christ was and what He had done. Paul spent his life teaching this truth with his voice and with his pen. I need this truth to explode in my heart and mind and destroy my weak thinking about who Christ is and what He has done. Paul understood that his redemption was more than forgiveness of sin. Paul understood that by grace through faith we are made new in Christ. Paul understood that grace abounded in him as he walked in newness of life.
We have been redeemed and made new. We are not under law but under grace. The law gives us rules for living, grace gives us power for living. Sinclair Ferguson says that when the Scripture speaks of the grace of Jesus Christ it speaks of Jesus Christ himself and His graciousness. Think about that, the grace we receive is Christ, the grace we appropriate is Christ. Paul isn’t talking about who we might be, he is talking about who we are.
Paul wrote: “We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.”
For me to live is Christ.
One more passage from Paul:
For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.
From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. 2 Corinthians 5:14-21
If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
This isn’t rhetoric, this is reality. By the grace of God and the power of God in the Gospel we have been made new in Christ. We can find this hard to believe because to a greater or lesser degree the behavior patterns of the old man – the person we were before we were born again – continue in us. But we have been made new in Christ.
Herman Ridderbos writes in his work on Pauline theology:
The new life means a radical transformation, a passing over from a condition of death and slavery into one of life and liberty, which on this account is not to be explained from human effort and moral strength, but only from the creative command of God, no less mighty than the word with which he once called forth light out of darkness. It is in these categories of creation, therefore that the new man is spoken of again and again. The meaning of this is not only that the church has in Christ come to belong to the new aeon, the new order of things, and in that sense to the new creation, but that likewise this almighty and re-creating work of the Spirit enters into the existence of believers in a personal and individual way.
If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
Think of a house with a rotting foundation and termites infesting the walls. We could install some new vinyl siding, and it might look nice, but the house would still be falling apart on the inside. God isn’t about putting new siding on houses that are falling down. God has made us new and is making us new from the bottom up and the inside out. We struggle to get this when we look at our lives and our struggle with sin. We make what we are doing the gauge of what God is doing is us. This is backwards. Instead of looking at what we are doing we should look at what Christ has done. What Christ is doing in us will be incomplete until we are given new bodies and live in the new world, but what Christ did for us in His living and dying and resurrection are completely and forever finished. We should always consider what Christ is dong in us in the context of what He has done for us.
Paul could say for me to live is Christ because he understood who he was in Christ. I think a fundamental weakness we have as believers is we don’t really get who we are in Christ. We don’t get who we are in Christ and what that means for our walking in victory over sin and the flesh. We get the proposition, we get the doctrine, but we don’t get the reality. We see that this was true of believers when Paul was around because he continued to exhort the churches to know who they were in Christ and to be who they were in Christ. I suspect that, like us, even Paul had days when he needed to be reminded of who he was in Christ.
How are we reminded of who we are in Christ? By being reminded of what Christ did for us, by being reminded of the gospel. God the Son lived in human flesh for us. He was tempted in every way like us and lived a completely sinless life, keeping all of the law for us. He died for us, taking all of the punishment for our sin. He rose from the dead; death had no hold on Him because He was without sin.
Here is reality for all who are in Christ: our redemption is complete. Our redemption was accomplished in the finished work or Christ. Our redemption is applied in the new birth, when we are born again and given faith to believe. Our redemption having been accomplished at the Cross and applied in regeneration we live in the faith given us by the Spirit in us. This is who we are in Christ. This is how we say with Paul for me to live is Christ.
In saying for me Paul is speaking personally, he is showing us his heart; he is showing us what kind of man he is. He is speaking from his heart and from his life. This is a personal letter from Paul to the people who are the local church in Philippi, people who Paul knew and loved.
Paul is confident in his deliverance, not knowing whether his release from imprisonment would be in this life or the next. His confidence is in being in Christ. Imprisoned, Paul lives in a way that Christ will be honored. He lives in a way that Christ will be honored however this works out. He lives in a way that he can say for me to live is Christ and to die is gain.
In the present we have received everything that Jesus lived and died for. Our redemption was accomplished in the living and dying and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Our redemption was applied in the new birth. We have been made new in Christ. We live in Christ by the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit, daily being conformed to the image of Christ. We live in Christ looking forward to being in the presence of Christ.
Paul certainly wants to be relieved of his suffering in this world, but Paul’s motivation is not to be free from his suffering. His ultimate motivation is to be in the presence of Christ. His present motivation is to declare the gospel for the glory of God in Christ so that folks might be saved for the glory of God in Christ. As we will see when we get to Philippians chapter four, Paul was content regardless of circumstances. His confidence was in Christ, not where he was or what was going on. Paul was content to serve Christ in this world, but his heart ached to be with Him. His heart ached to be with the one he loved.
Dying was better than living because dying in this world meant living in the presence of Christ.
Jesus gave His life for Paul’s sin, He gave Paul life and a life to live, and Paul spent his life faithfully serving Jesus, telling people about this Jesus who gave His life for sin and who gives life to all who believe. Now he looks forward to seeing Jesus.
I think something happens when we read about the life of Paul. We think that’s Paul and I’m just me. I think if Paul was here he would not commend us for that kind of thinking.
Paul was an exceptional man with exceptional gifts, but he was not a spiritual super hero. He did not have power that we do not have. Paul’s power was in the resurrected Christ by the indwelling Holy Spirit, just like you and me. Paul despised Jesus and persecuted the church, and in His sin he was saved by grace though faith just like you and me. He was called to serve the one who saved him, and so are we.
Paul was an exceptional man with exceptional gifts, and what he was called to do was unique, but all who are saved are called to serve our Savior. Paul was obedient and served where he was at. Paul served at the pleasure of his King. He was obedient to go where it was hard and painful and to go to people who were hard and would cause him pain. He was obedient to travel for the gospel, be persecuted for the gospel, be imprisoned for the gospel and be executed for the gospel.
Paul’s joy in these crushing circumstances – imprisonment, separation, and opposition – is in Christ and the gospel. Paul’s desire to go be with Christ is not in any way escapism. Paul doesn’t want to die because life is hard.
What’s my attitude? Am I hanging out waiting for Jesus to come and take me from this world of sin and suffering or am I confident that while I’m here He is working in me for His glory? Am I building a home – or a church – that is a fortress against a culture and worldview that isn’t my own or am I confident in Christ to engage the culture with a biblical worldview? We’re not here to build forts but embassies.
We do not want to slide into liberalism, but the answer isn’t fundamentalism. Liberalism meets the culture without the gospel. Fundamentalism has the gospel but doesn’t meet the culture. We want to be evangelical, meeting the culture with the gospel.
Thank God that Jesus wasn’t afraid to engage a culture that wasn’t his own. Jesus came with grace and truth to rebels, folks like me who hated Him and persecuted His people. Thank God that He has called and empowered us to bring the grace and truth of the gospel to other rebels that he is calling to himself.
Of course I’m not suggesting that we be unwise about the effects of an unrighteous culture. There are places that we do not go, things that we do not do, and conversations that we do not have, but I submit that where we go and what we do and the conversations we have will offer us opportunity to present the grace and truth of the gospel.
Paul was a man of single focus. Some might say he was obsessive and that it was unhealthy. I disagree. Paul was a man who understood his task and stayed on task but was not driven by the task. He was driven by his love for Jesus and for the people for whom Jesus died. Even imprisoned and facing death Paul stayed on task because of his love for Jesus.
I read a story once – I don’t remember where – about an itinerant preacher who was in a town to preach some meetings for a local church. The travelling preacher found himself in the local pastor’s home with some of his elders and deacons. As they were talking, the local pastor mentioned several times how he was ready to go home and be with Jesus. The visiting preacher wasn’t saying much, so one of the elders at the table asked him what he thought. He replied; “I think it a poor servant indeed who is ready to go home before he has finished the work his Master has given him to do.”
Paul was ready to go home and be with Jesus, but not one second before he finished the work he was given to do. I want to go and be with Jesus, but by the grace of God I want to hang around long enough to finish the work He has given me to do.
That is Paul’s thinking.
Paul wrote to encourage the believers in Philippi, to remind them that God was in control and that his imprisonment in Rome was by God’s purpose and plan. Paul wrote to let them now that his confidence was in Christ not his circumstances so they would be encouraged. Paul knew how easy it would have been for these folks to be discouraged.
We need this same encouragement because it is easy for us to become discouraged in our circumstances. We need to be reminded who our God is and what He has done for us in Christ and that He is working in our circumstances to accomplish His purpose and plan.
Paul writes:
Yes, and I will rejoice, for I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ this will turn out for my deliverance, as it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account. Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all, for your progress and joy in the faith, so that in me you may have ample cause to glory in Christ Jesus, because of my coming to you again. Philippians 1:18b-26
In the beginning verses of Philippians Paul’s is commenting on his imprisonment and his expectation of deliverance either in this life or the life to come. In this we hear his response to being imprisoned. He is not discouraged, he is confident. His confidence is in knowing that God is sovereign and is in control. Paul is confident in knowing that God is working in these hard circumstances, and that he confident because he knows that God has ordained and orchestrated these hard circumstances. God ordained and orchestrated his imprisonment. Paul was confident in his circumstances because the Lord had told him that he was going to Rome. Acts 23:11 says; “The following night the Lord stood by him and said, ‘Take courage, for as you have testified to the facts about me in Jerusalem, so you must testify also in Rome.’”
Paul is less concerned about how he got to Rome than he is with the work he has come to Rome to do.
Paul has lost his civil liberty. He cannot choose to leave Rome or even the house where he is being held. He is chained to a guard twenty-four hours a day. In this Paul rejoices because he is confident in God and what He is doing. He is confident that by the prayers of the believers in Philippi and the help of the Spirit of Jesus, the Holy Spirit, he will be delivered. Paul was destined, by the will and work of God, to be imprisoned in Rome, but this was not his final destiny. He will be delivered. His final destiny was to be delivered by the will and work of God.
In our passage Paul makes the most amazing statement; for to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. When we read or hear this we connect with our hearts. Emotionally we get what Paul is saying. As believers in Christ there is something in this statement that tugs at our hearts.
One reason we connect with for me to live is Christ with our hearts because Paul is telling us about the love of his life. We connect with this with our hearts because this is a love story. Paul’s life in Christ is the story of His love for Jesus. Paul says that to live is Christ because he loves Jesus in a real and personal way, and his love for Jesus is shown in his life. True love moves the lover to action for the beloved.
Paul’s life testifies that he loves Jesus because he is living for Jesus. His life since his conversion has been about nothing else. He has given himself to the gospel, and he has given himself for the gospel. He has given himself to Jesus’ people, and he has given himself for Jesus’ people. Paul did all of this because he loved Jesus. Paul did all of this because Jesus loved him and gave His life for him and called him.
This is what grabs our hearts. This is a love story. Jesus loved Paul and Paul loved Jesus.
In travelling and preaching and writing and being thrown into jail and being beaten and stoned and finally being chained to a Roman guard, all Paul ever wants to do is tell everyone he meets about his beloved Jesus and the reality of Jesus being the One who died for sin and rose from the dead. He wants everyone he meets to know that by grace through faith in the finished work of his beloved Jesus they can be reconciled to God. Paul loves Jesus and he wants to tell everyone he meets how much he loves Jesus and he wants everyone he meets to love Jesus too.
Chris Klicka was Senior Counsel and Director of State and International Relations for Homeschool Legal Defense Association. He served homeschoolers on the HSLDA staff for 24 years. He became ill with multiple sclerosis and found out that to die is gain on October 22, 2009.
My wife and I were blessed to hear him speak twice, about ten years apart. The second time the disease had ravaged his body and a lesser man would have been in a wheel chair.
Chris Klicka loved families and he loved homeschoolers, but his primary passion at the end of his life was Jesus and the gospel. I don’t think this was a new passion, I think this was the passion that drove all of the work that he did, but disease and imminent death sharpened his focus. His life was an amazing testimony of God’s grace and everywhere he went he told everyone he met about the grace of God in Jesus Christ. The second time we heard him speak he hung on to the pulpit to keep his balance and told us that he was blessed to travel and that he believed that everywhere he went everyone he met the Lord had put there to hear the gospel. I can’t tell you what it meant to me to see and hear this man, his body wasting away but his heart on fire with love for Jesus that fed a passion for Jesus’ people and the lost.
I have an idea that hearing Chris Klicka that day compares to hearing from Paul in the Roman imprisonment as we do in Philippians. The chains were different, but the hearts were the same.
Imagine being chained to Paul, a man who said for me to live is Christ. It wasn’t rhetoric, it was reality.
In saying for me to live is Christ Paul is talking about his love for Jesus and his identity in Jesus, not his activity. It’s important that we get that.
The other reason we connect with this with our hearts is because Paul is telling us who he is in Christ. Our hearts connect because if we are in Christ it is our identity too.
Paul was a gospel man. Paul preached the gospel of the crucified and resurrected Christ and life transformed by grace through faith. Paul preached life in Christ, in this world and the next, by faith apart from the works of the law. This doesn’t take away from anything that Paul did, but he did what he did because he was in Christ. He did what he did because Christ was working in him.
Paul wrote to the church in Galatia:
I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. Galatians 2:20
For Paul, to live was Christ because Jesus lived in him. The life he lived in this world he lived by faith in Jesus. Jesus loved Paul and gave himself for Paul so Paul loved Jesus and gave himself for Jesus. This wasn’t a trade – Jesus did this so Paul did that – what Paul did was Christ in him. Life for Paul was Christ because Christ lived in him. If you are in Christ this is your life too.
It’s important that we get that. Otherwise we will try and live for Christ in our own power and will either be self-righteous or driven to despair.
Paul wrote to the church at Rome (some who were at the time Paul wrote Philippians preaching from envy and rivalry):
What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ being raised from the dead will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal bodies, to make you obey their passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace. Romans 6:1-14
Paul understood who Christ was and what He had done. Paul spent his life teaching this truth with his voice and with his pen. I need this truth to explode in my heart and mind and destroy my weak thinking about who Christ is and what He has done. Paul understood that his redemption was more than forgiveness of sin. Paul understood that by grace through faith we are made new in Christ. Paul understood that grace abounded in him as he walked in newness of life.
We have been redeemed and made new. We are not under law but under grace. The law gives us rules for living, grace gives us power for living. Sinclair Ferguson says that when the Scripture speaks of the grace of Jesus Christ it speaks of Jesus Christ himself and His graciousness. Think about that, the grace we receive is Christ, the grace we appropriate is Christ. Paul isn’t talking about who we might be, he is talking about who we are.
Paul wrote: “We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.”
For me to live is Christ.
One more passage from Paul:
For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.
From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. 2 Corinthians 5:14-21
If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
This isn’t rhetoric, this is reality. By the grace of God and the power of God in the Gospel we have been made new in Christ. We can find this hard to believe because to a greater or lesser degree the behavior patterns of the old man – the person we were before we were born again – continue in us. But we have been made new in Christ.
Herman Ridderbos writes in his work on Pauline theology:
The new life means a radical transformation, a passing over from a condition of death and slavery into one of life and liberty, which on this account is not to be explained from human effort and moral strength, but only from the creative command of God, no less mighty than the word with which he once called forth light out of darkness. It is in these categories of creation, therefore that the new man is spoken of again and again. The meaning of this is not only that the church has in Christ come to belong to the new aeon, the new order of things, and in that sense to the new creation, but that likewise this almighty and re-creating work of the Spirit enters into the existence of believers in a personal and individual way.
If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
Think of a house with a rotting foundation and termites infesting the walls. We could install some new vinyl siding, and it might look nice, but the house would still be falling apart on the inside. God isn’t about putting new siding on houses that are falling down. God has made us new and is making us new from the bottom up and the inside out. We struggle to get this when we look at our lives and our struggle with sin. We make what we are doing the gauge of what God is doing is us. This is backwards. Instead of looking at what we are doing we should look at what Christ has done. What Christ is doing in us will be incomplete until we are given new bodies and live in the new world, but what Christ did for us in His living and dying and resurrection are completely and forever finished. We should always consider what Christ is dong in us in the context of what He has done for us.
Paul could say for me to live is Christ because he understood who he was in Christ. I think a fundamental weakness we have as believers is we don’t really get who we are in Christ. We don’t get who we are in Christ and what that means for our walking in victory over sin and the flesh. We get the proposition, we get the doctrine, but we don’t get the reality. We see that this was true of believers when Paul was around because he continued to exhort the churches to know who they were in Christ and to be who they were in Christ. I suspect that, like us, even Paul had days when he needed to be reminded of who he was in Christ.
How are we reminded of who we are in Christ? By being reminded of what Christ did for us, by being reminded of the gospel. God the Son lived in human flesh for us. He was tempted in every way like us and lived a completely sinless life, keeping all of the law for us. He died for us, taking all of the punishment for our sin. He rose from the dead; death had no hold on Him because He was without sin.
Here is reality for all who are in Christ: our redemption is complete. Our redemption was accomplished in the finished work or Christ. Our redemption is applied in the new birth, when we are born again and given faith to believe. Our redemption having been accomplished at the Cross and applied in regeneration we live in the faith given us by the Spirit in us. This is who we are in Christ. This is how we say with Paul for me to live is Christ.
In saying for me Paul is speaking personally, he is showing us his heart; he is showing us what kind of man he is. He is speaking from his heart and from his life. This is a personal letter from Paul to the people who are the local church in Philippi, people who Paul knew and loved.
Paul is confident in his deliverance, not knowing whether his release from imprisonment would be in this life or the next. His confidence is in being in Christ. Imprisoned, Paul lives in a way that Christ will be honored. He lives in a way that Christ will be honored however this works out. He lives in a way that he can say for me to live is Christ and to die is gain.
In the present we have received everything that Jesus lived and died for. Our redemption was accomplished in the living and dying and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Our redemption was applied in the new birth. We have been made new in Christ. We live in Christ by the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit, daily being conformed to the image of Christ. We live in Christ looking forward to being in the presence of Christ.
Paul certainly wants to be relieved of his suffering in this world, but Paul’s motivation is not to be free from his suffering. His ultimate motivation is to be in the presence of Christ. His present motivation is to declare the gospel for the glory of God in Christ so that folks might be saved for the glory of God in Christ. As we will see when we get to Philippians chapter four, Paul was content regardless of circumstances. His confidence was in Christ, not where he was or what was going on. Paul was content to serve Christ in this world, but his heart ached to be with Him. His heart ached to be with the one he loved.
Dying was better than living because dying in this world meant living in the presence of Christ.
Jesus gave His life for Paul’s sin, He gave Paul life and a life to live, and Paul spent his life faithfully serving Jesus, telling people about this Jesus who gave His life for sin and who gives life to all who believe. Now he looks forward to seeing Jesus.
I think something happens when we read about the life of Paul. We think that’s Paul and I’m just me. I think if Paul was here he would not commend us for that kind of thinking.
Paul was an exceptional man with exceptional gifts, but he was not a spiritual super hero. He did not have power that we do not have. Paul’s power was in the resurrected Christ by the indwelling Holy Spirit, just like you and me. Paul despised Jesus and persecuted the church, and in His sin he was saved by grace though faith just like you and me. He was called to serve the one who saved him, and so are we.
Paul was an exceptional man with exceptional gifts, and what he was called to do was unique, but all who are saved are called to serve our Savior. Paul was obedient and served where he was at. Paul served at the pleasure of his King. He was obedient to go where it was hard and painful and to go to people who were hard and would cause him pain. He was obedient to travel for the gospel, be persecuted for the gospel, be imprisoned for the gospel and be executed for the gospel.
Paul’s joy in these crushing circumstances – imprisonment, separation, and opposition – is in Christ and the gospel. Paul’s desire to go be with Christ is not in any way escapism. Paul doesn’t want to die because life is hard.
What’s my attitude? Am I hanging out waiting for Jesus to come and take me from this world of sin and suffering or am I confident that while I’m here He is working in me for His glory? Am I building a home – or a church – that is a fortress against a culture and worldview that isn’t my own or am I confident in Christ to engage the culture with a biblical worldview? We’re not here to build forts but embassies.
We do not want to slide into liberalism, but the answer isn’t fundamentalism. Liberalism meets the culture without the gospel. Fundamentalism has the gospel but doesn’t meet the culture. We want to be evangelical, meeting the culture with the gospel.
Thank God that Jesus wasn’t afraid to engage a culture that wasn’t his own. Jesus came with grace and truth to rebels, folks like me who hated Him and persecuted His people. Thank God that He has called and empowered us to bring the grace and truth of the gospel to other rebels that he is calling to himself.
Of course I’m not suggesting that we be unwise about the effects of an unrighteous culture. There are places that we do not go, things that we do not do, and conversations that we do not have, but I submit that where we go and what we do and the conversations we have will offer us opportunity to present the grace and truth of the gospel.
Paul was a man of single focus. Some might say he was obsessive and that it was unhealthy. I disagree. Paul was a man who understood his task and stayed on task but was not driven by the task. He was driven by his love for Jesus and for the people for whom Jesus died. Even imprisoned and facing death Paul stayed on task because of his love for Jesus.
I read a story once – I don’t remember where – about an itinerant preacher who was in a town to preach some meetings for a local church. The travelling preacher found himself in the local pastor’s home with some of his elders and deacons. As they were talking, the local pastor mentioned several times how he was ready to go home and be with Jesus. The visiting preacher wasn’t saying much, so one of the elders at the table asked him what he thought. He replied; “I think it a poor servant indeed who is ready to go home before he has finished the work his Master has given him to do.”
Paul was ready to go home and be with Jesus, but not one second before he finished the work he was given to do. I want to go and be with Jesus, but by the grace of God I want to hang around long enough to finish the work He has given me to do.
That is Paul’s thinking.
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