Nobody Wants a Boring God

As Christians, we serve a very interesting God.  He is interesting for many reasons (not least of which is His unique reality in this universe), but we see this best perhaps when life itself becomes interesting.  In the unforgiving jaws of a boring, predictable, run-of-the-mill life, God is still incredibly interesting - it is simply more difficult to perceive this.  If we desire to glory in our God in His fullness, we must prepare ourselves for the possibility of unsettling, discouraging, painful, even hazardous circumstances.  When we encounter the living God in these conditions, though, we do not walk away disappointed.

We remember how God sent Moses back to his enslaved people in order to begin His certain task of dislodging them from Egypt.  Exodus 4:30-31 recounts how the divine power displayed through Moses's miraculous signs causes the downtrodden Israelites to believe.  This could never be counted boring, but it is expected:  God is powerful.  We believe, with a genuine belief, because we have seen that power.

Something wonderful happens at the end of verse 31, though.  The display of God's power is momentous enough - it kindles belief in the midst of an oppressed people!  However, Moses and Aaron then deliver incredible news:  the One who holds this power is concerned for you, dear brothers and sisters.  Your omnipotent God has seen your travails, and He is not pleased with your present station.  At this, the people prostrate themselves and worship their God.

It is one thing to perceive the excellencies of the Lord; they are worthy of notice, of worship, of appreciation, of pure wonder, all by themselves.  However, we must confess that it is another thing altogether when those very same qualities are directed, incredibly, at us!  We, these sinful, transient, weak, myopic, squabbling trifles, pass under the specific notice of the Divine, of the Perfect!  His mighty hands, which fashioned the cosmos, now extend to give us grace!  When we have not deserved the slimmest iota of life here on earth, He gives a lifetime, and He fulfills His powerful and heartening covenants for His children.  Believe, by all means, dear friend, but do not forget to worship as well.

One further point on the Exodus narrative - Moses applies to Pharaoh for the release of his people, and is summarily turned down.  Furthermore, the workload of the Israelites is augmented to an impossibly grueling pace.  In this moment, as despondency readies itself, the Lord says simply, "Now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh; for under compulsion he will let them go, and under compulsion he will drive them out of his land.” (Ex. 6:1b) 

In other words, the stage is now set for the Lord to begin His work.  Indeed, He might have worked such that Pharaoh was induced to free the Israelites before this point, but this would not been nearly so interesting, so telling of God's character, as what He actually does.  The increase in difficulty for the Israelites, as God reckoned in His perfect wisdom, was not wasted, because it allowed Him to reveal Himself far more strongly to His people.

This pattern can be harrowing, and it is certainly familiar to us in its essentials, but it is far from boring; amen?  Life is rarely easy.  How easy it is for me to imagine that the remedy to my present dilemma, whatever that dilemma is, can come only in one form.  I quietly, and often unwittingly, conclude that there is only one recourse that will extricate me.  Any other course of events tends to whisper that God has answered my prayers in the negative, but this ignores the manifold complexities of the world, of God Himself, and of His perfect plans.  We all know that God delivered the Israelites, and He delivers us as well, even when it is death itself that brushes our difficulties away, like a shroud from our faces.

Life is certainly interesting when we follow an interesting God - it becomes something not to be feared, but anticipated, as our indestructible God reveals His perfect plans and perfect character. 

Adoption and the Spirit of the Son

We have occasionally noticed the Christian's spiritual adoption on this blog - its strength and its gracious nature.  As the subject of spiritual adoption is a glad one for any follower of Christ, I will beg your indulgence in turning now to one of its chief effects, which is seen in its relation to the Holy Spirit. 

Galatians 4:4-7 is the focus of our attention here.  It says, "But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.   Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, 'Abba! Father!'  Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God."

It was the Father's good pleasure for His divine Son to be established in an earthly family, that we in turn might be transplanted into His heavenly family.  We see the chain clearly:  the mission of the Son brought redemption, and then adoption into God's own family.  May our knees bend and touch this hallowed ground!  This work of grace will prostrate us if we let it.  And yet, for all this lustrous wonder, God has fashioned yet another link for this glittering chain - our adoption prompts Him to send us the Spirit of His Son.  Did you notice that in the text?  Look once more:  we have the Holy Spirit because we have been adopted into God's family.

This is marvelously unthinkable to our stunted human sensibilities, but it joins so simply with the rest of Scripture.  God adopts us and sends the Spirit of His perfect Son into our imperfect hearts, that we might learn to act and think more like His Son.  Indeed, we see something like this in earthly adoption, in which a child must learn how to operate in his or her new family.  What behavior is expected?  How does the household operate?  The more this new child can integrate into this new situation, the easier things become.

God's family is holy.  It is righteous behavior that becomes His household, and the perfect paradigm, the exemplary member of this family is our oldest brother, the Lord Jesus Christ.  Our loving Father wants us to look like Him, because Jesus' flawless and divine example is the pattern by which the Father is honored, and by which we are satisfied.  Thus He disciplines His children (Heb. 12:6), of course, but His gifts do not stop here.  Mere discipline would simply assure constant discipline, thanks to our sin-filled hearts.  We would never learn or change. 

Thankfully, God's "divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness," according to 2 Peter 1:3b.  These powerful blessings are channeled into our souls by means of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.  We would have nothing worth having as Christians, were it not for the continual work of the Holy Spirit in us.  The Spirit of He who sympathizes with us, who immersed Himself in those difficulties that we ourselves must endure (Heb. 4:15), knows how to care for us and to give us exactly what is needed out of this immeasurable treasury of "life and godliness."  And we begin to look like Him, because His Spirit, having breathed life into us, now resides in us and changes us - because the Father desires us to look like His unique and divine Son.

I want to show you some familiar words; read them afresh in the light of this discussion:  "And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.  For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son." (Rom. 8:28-29a; emphasis added)  The Spirit of Jesus within us, then, is certainly not going to spend His time and energies frivolously within us.  He will work with purpose, the Father's good purpose - He will keep us in the faith, and He will begin to conform us to Christ's image.

Adoption gives us the Spirit of Christ, and it delivers certainty about our purpose.  Rest, dear worker of the Kingdom; take heart, dear solder in Christ, in the glad knowledge that the Spirit whose very presence gilds your soul is an abundantly sufficient guide and helper in your every step toward righteousness, because of what He has come into your soul to accomplish!

The Exemplary Savior

The earthly life of Christ is an unprecedented gift to the believer.  Aside from its glorious culmination in satiating the Father’s just wrath for the sins of His children, it also provided a dramatic paradigm of what a life of total obedience looks like.  Our Lord did not hesitate to demonstrate the very life that He expected of His followers, and afforded a truly complete example of a God-centered, righteous life.  We see the effects of this example throughout the New Testament.

Romans 8:29 – we have been “predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son.”  The example of Christ becomes indispensable as we strive to grow in Christ-likeness, or to “put on the Lord Jesus Christ.” (Rom. 13:14; cf. 1 John 2:6)

Hebrews 4:15-16 – Christ’s earthly perseverance in the face of temptation emboldens us to seek mercy and grace because we understand both that it is effectual and that our Lord is sympathetic! 

1 Peter 2:18-25 – Jesus’ righteous example in an evil world demonstrates that we are obliged to suffer for the reason and cause of righteousness.   If persecution was visited upon Him, then we ourselves ought to anticipate it fearlessly as we grow to be more like Him.

1 Thessalonians 1:6 – the Thessalonians were said to have become imitators of Jesus Christ because they “received the word in much affliction, with the joy of the Holy Spirit.”  Like Christ, they could not be dissuaded from joyfully holding fast to the Word of the Lord in light of earthly suffering.

Ephesians 5:1-2 – the example of Christ’s sacrifice upon the cross should stir us to exhibit a selfless love.  If Christ could love even those who were yet His enemies, surely we should work to free our own love from the fetters of human inclinations.

Romans 15:2-3 – we must work in selflessness (and righteousness) to please others, for, search the gospels though we may, we will never find an example of Christ serving Himself.

Philippians 2:5-11 – Jesus’ humility before the Father, even to the point of horrific death, rises into view here.  Clearly if our divine Lord did not hesitate to humble Himself as profoundly as He did, so too must we humble ourselves.

John 13:14-15 – “For I have given you an example,” Jesus says, “that you also should do just as I have done to you.”  He upholds His life here as an example of how to serve one another with humility.

1 John 3:16 – by Christ’s sacrificial example, we come to understand the extent of selfless love, and seek in turn to love our brothers and sisters in Christ in the same way.

These examples from Scripture are of the most personal importance to believers, because - incredibly - the very power, love, and patience that fueled Jesus Christ in His earthly work are the selfsame ones that are wondrously and abundantly furnished to us through the work of the Holy Spirit (Phil. 2:12-13; 2 Pet. 1:3-4).  This is a blessing beyond human perception, a gift beyond our paltry understanding!

Three Things We Learn from the O-Word

Fear not.  The O-word cannot hurt you.

 

1.  Obedience Is an Indispensable Part of Loving God.  "For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome." (1 John 5:3; cf. John 14:21)  Do I love God as I should?  Have I a genuine love for Him?  Says John, look to your obedience - is it genuine and heartfelt?  Do you desire to obey Him freely?  If these things be so, then I have a clear indicator that I do truly love the Lord.  Simply keeping the commandments, according to John, is not enough - we must find the yoke to be easy and the burden light (Matt. 11:30).  Such an attitude is not possible unless we are resolved in our hearts that God's ways are best, and that He is praiseworthy and gracious in His ways.  If we truly love God, our hearts should be glad to obey Him.

 

2.  Obedience Is an Indispensable Part of Belief in God.  "He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him." (John 3:36)  Here, belief and obedience are equated:  one either believes in Christ unto eternal life, or one disobeys Christ unto eternal damnation.  And before the clamor of "works based salvation" arises, let us note that these two ideas are mutually exclusive; John the Baptist does not say here that one may believe but disobey, and thus lose salvation.  He says in effect that to believe is to obey, and vice versa.

What is here rendered "obey" is in some translations given as "believe," but this is misleading, as it is a different word in the Koine than the "believes" earlier in the verse, and, unsurprisingly, carries different connotations.  To believe in God is to possess obedience toward God; belief without obedience is like a song without sound.

 

3.  Obedience Is an Indispensable Part of Having a Relationship with God.  "By this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments." (1 John 2:3)  Knowing God, of course, goes far beyond mere intellect assent or understanding.  It is used as a term of intimate relation by the Bible writers - thus Adam knew Eve and she conceived (Gen. 4:1).  Christ the judge tells the hypocrites, "I never knew You; depart from Me." (Matt. 7:23b)  The Galatians are urged, as they have come to be known by God, to not enslave themselves to worthless things (Gal. 4:8-9).  According to 1 Corinthians 8:3b, "If anyone loves God, he is known by Him."

To know God, then, is to possess a close and loving relationship with Him.  This is the state of salvation, friends - such a relationship could never be, otherwise:  our deadness of soul will prevent it every time.  The loving walk with God must be tended with obedience from His children.  Yes, Lord; we are walking together and I agree with you as my Lord wholeheartedly; I see who You are and what You have commanded, so I respond with obedience to Your revealed will.

So we see how, in one deft move, our obedience irreplaceably contributes to the proof of our love for, belief in, and walk with God.  See how obedience cannot help but strengthen all of these!  We rightly view God as our Father; it is just and good that our hearts love and obey Him.  We believe in Him as our sovereign God; our obedience lends hands and feet to that otherwise false and hollow belief.  And we know Him as a kind and gracious King; the more we know Him, the more we seek to follow Him. 

His commandments are by no means burdens!  Far from it - adhering to them helps us to draw closer to our God, to possess assurance of His good pleasure, and ultimately to walk in deeper fellowship with Him.

Life After Life After Death

Matthew's account of the Resurrection is rather terse.  It deals simply and briefly with representatives of two groups of people - the faithful and the faithless - and many elements found in the other gospels are missing.  In this account, though, the purpose of Christ after His resurrection, and indeed of His own church, are well revealed. 

Matthew's treatment of the faithful after the Resurrection includes the angel instructing the women at the tomb to tell the disciples to go to Galilee, where Jesus will meet them.  A short moment later, Jesus Himself appears, is worshipped, and reiterates the same command.  In Galilee, He is worshipped by the disciples; He delivers the momentous Great Commission, and the gospel abruptly ends.  So we see the urgency in getting the disciples to the place where they will receive their marching orders, and those order ring in our ears as the book closes.  Might we suppose that Matthew perceived this matter to be of vital importance?

This idea is reinforced by how Matthew, in the very midst of this narrative, accounts for the chief priests, who artfully concoct a ruse to explain away the Resurrection.  What does Jesus do with these traitors?  He does nothing, although He might have done much, had He desired.  Our Lord could have appeared in their midst and declared, even as He said to His disciples, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth."  Do you see how this would have been as terrifying to the chief priests as it was strengthening to the disciples?  Yet we see that He does nothing of the sort.  The silence of the Lord is a deafening judgment.  There is nothing left to say to these perennial naysayers, these grasping murderers, and their schemes, like the kings in Psalm 2, can do nothing to hinder the powerful workings of the risen Lord.  Jesus therefore sets about the task of building His church through His disciples. 

The Great Commission was Christ's concern after He arose, and it was Matthew's concern as he closed his gospel.  It also must be the church's continual concern.  The temptation is, at times, to relegate the Great Commission to the realm of good examples:  something from another time and place for the church to admire, to be aware of, and to make part of its purpose, alongside other separate concerns, such as social justice, political activism, or benevolence apart from the gospel.

As the Great Commission does not seem to last long when it is forced to stand alongside lesser concerns, it seems good to recall a few reasons why the Lord's command at the end of Matthew persists even to this day, and why it did not die with the apostle John.

1.  The Extent of the Imperative.  It was patently impossible for a mere dozen men to make disciples of every nation.  Discipleship is a long and winding climb, in which salvation is but the first of ten thousand steps.  Of course, we understand that this is why Peter and Paul and the others worked to raise up others, their spiritual teknoi - to propagate and carry on that work.  We note that these spiritual descendants did not end their work of discipleship in the twilight of the first century; this commission has been carried and passed as a spiritual heritage through a score of centuries.

2.  The Enactment of the Imperative.  This command accomplished the building of the church.  A few scant months after Jesus delivered the Great Commission, the church sprang up in response to the obedient work of the disciples.  The ecclesiology that the disciples laid down under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit sought to fulfill the Great Commission (look at the purpose of pastors and teachers in Ephesians 4:12, for instance), so that is how we define the purpose of the church - the same church of which we are glad partakers even today.

3.  The Endurance of the Imperative.  All this is all well and good, unless perhaps there is a countermanding order for later believers in the church age?  If the church endures, and if indeed the church was created for the work of discipleship, then the only reason we might suppose our mission has changed would be if the Lord of that church, the Alpha and the Omega, has changed it Himself.  There is not the barest scent of change in His Word, though, and it is mutinously arbitrary for anyone else to decide that it should be changed. 


The purposes of the resurrected Lord continue to this very day, and we labor, by His grace, in the long shadow of the Great Commission.  May this world not distract us to lesser objects!

The Strength of Adoption

“But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.” (John 1:12) How comforting it is that our adoption by God is not simply an empty title or an honorary position – we are not merely called children of God; rather, we have become children of God by His grace.  As the hymn says, “I, thy true son.”

 

If anyone doubts the strength of adoption, we remember what some have pointed out regarding our Savior’s earthly kingship.  Although both Joseph and Mary were tied directly to the line of David, Jesus would have inherited His claim to the throne from His paternal side, per Jewish custom.  Thus His right of earthly kingship came from Joseph, who was not His father by birth, but by adoption.  If there were no strength behind adoption, then, Christ would have no claim to the throne, and He would not fulfill all the Messianic prophecies, meaning that He could not be our Savior!  The strength of Christ’s earthly adoption is the basis for the strength of our heavenly adoption!

 

We also see its strength by its longstanding nature.  Our adoption was in the Lord’s plans before time began (Eph. 1:5), and it will culminate through to eternal glory (Rom. 8:23)!  This is no casual undertaking by the Father, but carefully calculated and painstakingly brought about.  We are certain that God is faithful to complete the work that He starts in His people (Phil. 1:6).

 

Finally, its strength is made obvious when we consider our own hapless natural parentage.  We were formerly sons and daughters of Satan (John 8:44, 1 John 3:8) , to be classified as “sons of disobedience” (Eph. 2:2) and “children of wrath” (Eph. 2:3).  This is an evil, self-destructive, despondent sort of lineage; children from this family possess absolutely no qualities that might charm a holy Judge to spare them.  In spite of this, however, that very Judge has made Himself to be the heavenly and eternal Father of a great multitude adopted out of this natural family.

 

Our response to our own adoption should reflect an intimate awareness of its strength.  For instance, we know that the Holy Spirit brings a powerful testimony to those adopted by God that they are indeed His children (Rom. 8:16).  This certainty is what allows us and strengthens us to hold to the Lord and to get on with His kingdom work, in spite of seemingly overwhelming adversity.

 

Along these lines, Paul proclaims that our adoption by God should generate a ruthless attitude toward personal sin (Rom. 8:12-17).  Gone is the spirit of slavery within us, and in its place, the spirit of adoption powerfully directs us away from fear and toward Spirit-led living!  We thus cling with a divinely-imparted tenacity to our newfound Father through earthly temptation until our labors give way to the triumphant glory of eternity.

The Imputation: Yes, But What Does It Actually Mean?

In the last blog post, we addressed some glorious considerations surrounding the Father's imputation of Christ's righteousness to us, and of our sin to Christ.  We can all, I think, agree that the imputing work of the Father is indeed glorious, but it seems important to take an "at the end of the day" sort of look at what it truly means to have Christ's righteousness imputed to our spiritual accounts:  what are the practical ramifications of this mighty undertaking? 

Some will say that justification results in God's children receiving the righteousness of Christ.  In several senses, this is entirely correct:

• Christ's righteousness is credited to our spiritual account (2 Cor. 5:21).
• Upon justification, the Spirit of Christ takes up His permanent residence in our enlived souls, and works in and through us (Phil. 2:12-13, Gal. 2:20).  This moves us firmly and wondrously into the place of posse non pecarre (the ability not to sin).
• Justifications sets us on a path of growth in personal holiness that will continue through our lives (James 3:2, Romans 7:14-25) and culminate in sinless glory in the presence of the Lord.

Far be it from us indeed to dispute such clearly-articulated, peace-giving, and God-glorifying principles; they are heartening companions in life's foxholes.  However, this is one path along which we cannot push even one step too far - the consequences are too dangerous.  Those who force this issue further arrive at the tragic conclusion that imputation means that Christ's righteousness becomes our own in the fullest extent - it is not merely credited to our account, but wield it in life with nearly sinless efficacy.

Even if we manage to overlook clear lexical evidence to the contrary (look up dikaioo, or "justify" sometime), we can still reap a sizable harvest of concern and disappointment at these thoughts.  To those who believe that Christ's righteousness is their complete and pervasive possession, the path to obedience is not about seeking obedience to the Word of God.  Rather, it is tied closely to knowing that the righteousness of Christ is active within them, and if they can simply keep from getting in the way of the natural righteousness which Christ has placed within them, then natural obedience is the natural result. 

This may strike you as odd or silly, but this sort of mindset is pervasive.  You may have heard it said that in order to obey, believers need simply to stop getting in God's way with their own efforts to obey Him.  If so, then you have struck pay dirt.  "Don't try; just trust"?  "Let go and let God?"  There is theological fool's gold in them there hills.  It may seem an innocuous frame of mind, but let us consider three pertinent points:

1.  This point of view blasphemes Christ.  2 Corinthians 5:21 proclaims, "He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him."  We see here that we become God's righteousness because Christ became sin.  If we hold that our becoming God's righteousness signifies that we were made righteous, then we are left with the unenviable task of maintaining that Christ similarly was made a sinner when He became sin.  The clear parallelism of this verse cannot be argued; we cannot suppose from these words that Christ's "becoming sin" is a different sort of "becoming" than our "becoming God's righteousness" simply because we wish to. 

Of course, to label the Lord Jesus Christ, the divine Lamb of God, as a sinner of any sort is rank blasphemy.  He became sin only in so far as He stood condemned in our place for those sins, so that we might stand justified in His place for His righteousness. 

2.  This point of view sunders our reliance upon Jesus.  If the imputation of Christ's righteousness, such that we stand justified before God, means that we are natural obeyers, how little do we need Christ in our moment-by-moment as our authority!  Natural obedience negates our need for the Word which the Spirit of Christ wrote, preserves, and illuminates.  The conviction of His Spirit is scarcely necessary if our obedience is automatically engaged merely by a passive acknowledgement of the work that Christ has already completed in us.  Ironically, I become my own authority as the righteousness of Christ is channeled into my sanctified bosom.

Rather, passages like Philippians 2:12-13 or 2 Peter 1:3-11 teach us with diamond clarity that the presence of Christ in us, working in our souls, should prompt us to strive for obedience, rather than assume its existence. 

3.  This point of view belittles the glory that Christ wishes to reveal in our lives.  The Lord has determined that His people would see His glory through the travails of life.  "Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?  Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!" (Rom. 7:24-25a) "Concerning this I implored the Lord three times that it might leave me.  And He has said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.'  Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me." (2 Cor. 12:8-9)

We see who our Lord is when we are obliged in our weakness to turn to Him.  His compassion, patience, and wisdom are clear and comforting, and we have the blessing of seeing faithful biblical truth come to brilliant life in our own hearts!  Our weaknesses are intended to humble us before Him in all of His gracious wonder, and He allows us to soldier through weakness for this reason.  It is no use to pretend those weaknesses have departed when they are still very real, my friend.


The imputation of Christ's righteousness to our spiritual accounts has given us salvation and paved the way for our growth in holiness.  It is devastating folly to conclude otherwise.  What else is there, but to humbly and gladly serve the Lord of glory?