Spirit Filled Puritan

“One of the great mysteries in the Old Testament was the meaning of the worship tent used by Israel called the “tabernacle.” The mystery was hinted at but not clear. When the people of Israel came out of  Egypt and arrived at Mount Sinai, God gave detailed instructions to Moses about how to build this mobile tent of worship with all its parts and furnishings. The mysterious thing about it was this command: “See that you make them after the pattern for them, which is being shown you on the mountain” (Exodus 25:40). When Christ came into the world 1,400 years later, it was more fully revealed that this “pattern” for the old tabernacle was a “copy” or a “shadow” of realities in heaven. The tabernacle was an earthly figure of a heavenly reality. So in the New Testament we read this: “[The priests] serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things. For when Moses was about to erect the tent, he was instructed by God, saying, ‘See that you make everything according to the pattern that was shown you on the mountain’” (Hebrews 8:5). So all the worship practices of Israel in the Old Testament point toward something more real.  Without Christ the holiness of God had to be protected from us. He would have been dishonored, and we would have been consumed because of our sin. But now, because of Christ, we may come near and feast our hearts on the fullness of the flaming
beauty of God’s holiness. He will not be dishonored . We will not be consumed. Because of the all-protecting Christ, God will be honored, and we will stand in everlasting awe. Therefore, do not fear to come. But come through Christ.”

Reflecting on this reminds me of the God’s holiness and God’s demand that I also need to be holy.   God is perfectly holy and he requires us to be holy if we are to live with him in heaven.  It’s easy for God to be holy.  He himself is the standard for all holiness.  However for sinners, holiness is an impossibility.  One spot on our record disqualifies us from being perfectly holy.  The moment we are conceived, we are not holy and no matter what we do, we can never achieve holiness.  That is why God’s plan to reconcile our unholiness and his holiness was created. 

Dr. R. C. Sproul, a fellow Pennsylvanian, talks about the holiness of God in this self titled series.  I heard him give a similar talk a few years ago at the Sovereign Grace Leadership Conference in Gaithersburg, MD.    In about 25 minutes, Dr. Sproul gives viewers a glimpse of the Holiness of God. 

Clips 2-4 can be found here

Questions:   Have you ever considered that when God justifies a sinner, that sinner is made positionally holy but in actuality, remains un-holy?  Have you considered that is why God continues the work throughout our lives to make us actually holy.  Are you pursing holiness in your life?  Is the Spirit leading you to become more holy?  If you can’t answer yes to these questions, you need to examine your life and faith and ask, is my heart oriented towards holiness? Hebrews 12:14.

For more on Holiness, read my October 2008 post on Thomas Watson’s book, The Godly Man’s Picture.

Quote from “The 50 Reasons Jesus Came to Die”.

Questions and reflections by me.

Picture – The cross at Mount Erebus, Antarctica, commemorating the 1979 Air New Zealand Crash near Mount Erebus.

The reconciliation that needs to happen between sinful man and God goes both ways. Our attitude toward God must be changed from defiance to faith. And God’s attitude to us must be changed from wrath to mercy. But the two are not the same. I need God’s help to change; but God does not need mine. My change will have to come from outside of me, but God’s change originates in his own nature. Which means that overall, it is not a change in God at all. It is God’s own planned action to stop being against me and start being for me.  The all-important words are “while we were enemies.” This is when “we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son”  (Romans 5:10). While we were enemies. In other words, the first “change” was God’s, not ours. We were still enemies. Not that we were consciously on the warpath. Most people don’t feel conscious hostility to God. The hostility is manifest more subtly with a quiet insubordination and indifference. The Bible describes it like this: “The mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot” (Romans 8:7).  But when we hear the gospel of Christ, we find that God has already done that [removed the guilt and punishment of sin]: He took the steps we could not take to remove his own judgment. He sent Christ to suffer in our place. The decisive reconciliation happened “while we were enemies.” Reconciliation from our side is simply to receive what God has already done, the way we receive an infinitely valuable gift.

Reflecting on this reminds me that salvation is all of God.  His grace is a covenant grace, one that is bestowed to reconcile us to the Father.  God is not patiently waiting or pining for me to do something.  Whatever I could do would not be enough to reconcile our differences.  As the Apostle Paul points out in Romans 8:7, we cannot do what it takes and nor do we want to.  Yet God loved sinners so much that he was willing to sacrifice his Son to reconcile sinners.  Isaiah the prophet spoke about this love in Chapter 53 of his book.  You can read it here

Questions:   Have you considered the love God showed that was spoken by Isaiah about hundreds of years before Jesus was born?  Have you responded to this love?

Quote from “The 50 Reasons Jesus Came to Die”.

Questions and reflections by me.

Picture – The cross at Mount Erebus, Antarctica, commemorating the 1979 Air New Zealand Crash near Mount Erebus.

“The ultimate question is not “who” you are but “whose” you are. Of course, many people think they are nobody’s slave. They dream of total independence. Like a jellyfish carried by the tides feels free because it isn’t fastened down with the bondage of barnacles. But Jesus had a word for people who thought that way. He said, “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” But they responded, “We . . . have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, ‘You will become free’?”   So Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin” (John 8:32-34)  The Bible gives no reality to fallen humans who are ultimately self-determining. There is no autonomy in the fallen world. We are governed by sin or governed by God.  Most of the time we are free to do what we want.  But we are not free to want what we ought. For that we need a new power based on a divine purchase. The power is God’s. Which is why the Bible says, “Thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart” (Romans 6:17). God is the one who may “grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will” (2 Timothy 2:25-26). And the purchase that unleashes this power is the death of Christ. “You are not your own, for you were bought with a price” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). And what price did Christ pay for those who trust him? “He obtained [them] with his own blood” (Acts 20:28).  Christ suffered and died that we might be set free from law and sin and belong to him. Here is where obedience ceases to be a burden and becomes the freedom of fruit-bearing. Remember, you are not your own. Whose will you be? If Christ’s, then come and belong.”

Reflecting on this reminds me that I am not a boundless autonomous creature.  I am free to act here on earth, but my life, my actions along with the workings of the universe are ultimately  bounded by the will of God.   So by default, since I am an earthly creature, I belong to the world and serve the desires of the world.  And the world I serve is far from perfect.  My desire to serve what gives me pleasure, rules my life.  However, earthly pleasure leads nowhere.  The old adage, “you can’t take it with you” is very true.  King Solomon’s book, Ecclesiastes,  was a laboratory on life.  In it, he chronicles his earthly pursuit of pleasure, indulging in every pleasure money could buy.  The end result he discovered was that money or pleasure ultimately do not satisfy.  His conclusion was the even the wisest man will die a fool, if he serves the pleasures of the world and not God.  The good news is that God invaded the world with grace and mercy and bestows this grace and mercy on undeserving, even ill-deserving people.  This grace and mercy transforms sinners from slaves of the world to bond servants of God.  The grace and mercy shown was through the death of Christ. 

George Sarris,  a well-known voice-over artist on radio and TV, who I met a few years back, has an interesting little pamphlet on Solomon’s experiment with live and pleasure.  You can find more about it here  http://www.ecclesiastesbysolomon.com.  You can read George’s blog Engage the Culture here http://www.georgesarris.blogspot.com/

Questions:  Have you ever thought about the fact that you can only serve one whom you know?  Do you know God?  Who are you “really” serving?

Quote from “The 50 Reasons Jesus Came to Die”.

Questions and reflections by me.

Picture – The cross at Mount Erebus, Antarctica, commemorating the 1979 Air New Zealand Crash near Mount Erebus.

“When all is said and done, God is the gospel. Gospel means “good news.” Christianity is not first theology, but news. It is like prisoners of war hearing by hidden radio that the allies have landed and rescue is only a matter of time. The guards wonder why all the rejoicing. But what is the ultimate good in the good news? It all ends in one thing: God himself. All the words of the gospel lead to him, or they are not gospel. For example, salvation is not good news if it only saves from hell and not for God. Forgiveness is not good news if it only gives relief from guilt and doesn’t open the way to
God. Justification is not good news if it only makes us legally acceptable to God but doesn’t bring fellowship with God. Redemption is not good news if it only liberates us from bondage but doesn’t bring us to God. Adoption is not good news if it only puts us in the Father’s family but not in his arms. This is crucial. Many people seem to embrace the good news without embracing God. There is no sure evidence that we have a new heart just because we want to escape hell. That’s a perfectly natural desire, not a supernatural one. It doesn’t take a new heart to want the psychological relief of forgiveness, or the removal of God’s wrath, or the inheritance of God’s world. All these things are understandable without any spiritual change. You don’t need to be born again to want these things. But the evidence that we have been changed is that we want these things because they bring us to the enjoyment of God. This is the greatest thing Christ died for. “Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God” (1 Peter 3:18).”

Reflecting on this reminds me how I can easily miss the fact that the Gospel is not all about me, but about God.  In my early Christian days, I can recall the wonderful realization that I was not going to be eternally condemned.  That was good news to me.  However what I missed was that the Gospel wasn’t all about my wants and desires to be delivered but about God’s love and plan for sinners all over the world and throughout the ages.  I know of many people who believe and teach a message of freedom from one of man’s greatest natural fears;  death.    I believed this for many years.  But there is more, so much more.  The Gospel is not an antidote for my natural desires.  God is the Gospel and He transcends the natural and the supernatural.  God and His Gospel is the fulfillment of all that is good and holy and just.

This YouTube video articulates this better than I can.

Questions:  If you have “received Christ” do you see him merely as a quick and simple solution to one of life’s biggest worries?  Have you considered that the Gospel is not a list of facts or a ticket to heaven or merely a “good deal” from God, but that God Himself is the Gospel? 

I highly recommend this book – God is the Gospel

Quote from “The 50 Reasons Jesus Came to Die”.

Questions and reflections by me.

Picture – The cross at Mount Erebus, Antarctica, commemorating the 1979 Air New Zealand Crash near Mount Erebus.

“Until we die, or until Christ returns to establish his kingdom, we live in “the present evil age.” Therefore, when the Bible says that Christ gave himself “to deliver us from the present evil age,” it does not mean that he will take us out of the world, but that he will deliver us from the power of the evil in it. Jesus prayed for us like this: “I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one” (John  17:15). The reason Jesus prays for deliverance from “the evil one” is that “this present evil age” is the age when Satan is given freedom to deceive and destroy. The Bible says, “The whole world lies in the power of the evil one” (1 John 5:19). This “evil one” is called “the god of this world,” and his main aim is to blind people to truth. “The god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:4).   Until we waken to our darkened spiritual condition, we live in sync with “the present evil age” and the ruler of it. The resounding cry of freedom in the Bible is, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind” (Romans 12:2). In other words, be free! Don’t be duped by the gurus of the age. They are here today and gone tomorrow. One enslaving fad follows another. Thirty years from now today’s tattoos will not be marks of freedom, but indelible reminders of conformity. The wisdom of this age is folly in view of eternity. “Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is folly with God” (1 Corinthians 3:18-19).

Reflecting on this reminds me how I am drawn into the cares and things of this world.  As as Christian I am suppose to not be worldly, but I am.  I am in a way that I struggle with what God offers and what the world offers.  Yet I am not ruled by the world.  God’s grace has shown me something greater than the world and thus I struggle to achieve deliverance from the world.  Yet I don’t do this of my own strength but by God’s grace.  Jesus died to deliver us from the evils of the present age which is my strength.  Jesus sacrifice provides me with the grace to persevere and overcome but also guarantee’s ultimate  success.  It is sad to see so many people who claim to be Christian live a life indistinguishable from the world.  Such people are naive at worse and presumptuous at best.  God guarantees the Christian victory over worldliness and provides something infinitely better than what the world has to offer.   I hear some people say this is because they were never taught well, while other’s use twisted doctrine to justify it.    

Questions:  Have you considered that all the world offers is actually evil and detrimental to your soul?  If you are a Christian, have you ever considered that praying a prayer one-time in your life and then choosing to live a life, indistinguishable from the world can be found nowhere in the Bible and “choosing” this is actually condemned?   Have you really considered the good news that Jesus has already sealed victory over the world for those who would repent and believe.

See a related post on worldliness and a review of the book “Worldliness, Resisting the Seduction of a Fallen World – here.

Quote from “The 50 Reasons Jesus Came to Die”.

Questions and reflections by me.

Picture – The cross at Mount Erebus, Antarctica, commemorating the 1979 Air New Zealand Crash near Mount Erebus.

“In our happiest times we do not want to die. The wish for death rises only when our suffering seems unbearable. What we really want in those times is not death, but relief. We would love for the good times to come again. We would like the pain to go away. We would like to have our loved one back from the grave. We want life and happiness.  We are kidding ourselves when we romanticize death as the climax of a life well lived. It is an enemy. It cuts us off from all the wonderful pleasures of this world. We call death sweet names only as the lesser of evils. The executioner that delivers the coup de grace in our suffering is not the fulfillment of longing, but the end of hope. The longing of the human heart is to live and to be happy.  God made us that way.  We are created in God’s image, and God loves life and lives forever. We were made to live forever. And we will.  The opposite of eternal life is not annihilation. It is hell. Jesus spoke of it more than anybody, and he made plain that rejecting the eternal life he offered would result not in obliteration, but in the misery of God’s wrath: “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him” (John 3:36). And it remains forever.”

Reflecting on this reminds me of man’s search for meaning in life and death.  Death is both an end and a beginning.  It is the end of an earthly existence but it is also the beginning of a spiritual eternity.  We are all not here by chance but we exist for for a purpose.  Purpose in existence gives our life meaning.  Man has searched for the meaning of life from the beginning of time, yet God in his kindness answered the question before it was even asked.  We exist for the glory of God.  We exist because HE WAS, IS and ever WILL BE.   Thus we find our purpose, not in ourselves but in God.  This is why he graciously shares his fellowship with mankind.  God’s offer of eternal life goes unheeded by most.  This tragedy is magnified not by God’s indifference but in man’s continued rejection of God’s steadfast love.   Read Psalm 78 to see how Asaph described this steadfast love in the face of rebellion.

Questions:  Have you considered that God calls all to eternal life, regardless of race, color, creed, religion, sex or any other man-made label or category?   God’s gracious call is for ALL to repent and believe in Jesus.   Why is it that you don’t believe? 

Quote from “The 50 Reasons Jesus Came to Die”.

Questions and reflections by me.

Picture – The cross at Mount Erebus, Antarctica, commemorating the 1979 Air New Zealand Crash near Mount Erebus.

“Christ suffered and died so that disease would one day be utterly destroyed. Disease and death were not part of God’s original way with the world. They came in with sin as part of God’s judgment on creation. The Bible says, “The creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope” (Romans 8:20). God  subjected the world to the futility of physical pain to show the horror of moral evil.   This futility included death. “Sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin” (Romans 5:12). It included all the groaning of disease. And Christians are not excluded: “Not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit [that is, those who trust Christ], groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies” (Romans 8:23). When Christ came into the world, he was on a mission to accomplish this global redemption. He signaled his purposes by healing many people during his lifetime. There were occasions when the crowds gathered and he “healed all who were sick” (Matthew 8:16; Luke 6:19). This was a preview of what was coming at the end of history when “he will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore” (Revelation 21:4). The way Christ defeated death and disease was by taking them on himself and carrying them with him to the grave. God’s judgment on the sin that brought disease was endured by Jesus when he suffered and died.”

Reflecting on this statement reminds me there is not only a reason for sickness, but a purpose.  The reason, as Piper affirms from the Bible, is sin.  Sin’s effect caused not only a spiritual fall but a physical one as well.   Many people just stop at the spiritual and never think beyond that point.  I have come to realize that if Jesus died for sinners, he died for not only sin’s affect on my eternal soul but also it’s effect on my body.  I missed this and I think many other’s do too.   As for sickness’ purpose, as with all things it is God’s glory.  While God does not take pleasure in our physical illness, he does highlight his glory through the healing of illness or, as some forget, through those who are not healed.  Our healing brings God glory and our suffering in illness can also bring him glory. 

Questions:  Have you ever considered that sins effects are more than spiritual?   If you do now recognize that sin is the source of illness and its associated suffering, do you now see that the solution for your illness is not entirely an earthly physician?  

Quote from “The 50 Reasons Jesus Came to Die”.

Questions and reflections by me.

Picture – The cross at Mount Erebus, Antarctica, commemorating the 1979 Air New Zealand Crash near Mount Erebus.

“He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Romans 8:32.    I love the logic of this verse. Not because I love logic, but because I love having my real needs met. The two halves of Romans 8:32 have a stupendously important logical connection. We may not see it, since the second half is a question: “How will he not also with him give us all things?” But if we change the question into the statement that it implies, we will see it. “He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, will therefore surely also with him graciously give us all things.” In other words, the connection between the two halves is meant to make the second half absolutely certain. If God did the hardest thing of all—namely, give up his own Son to suffering and death—then it is certain that he will do the comparatively easy thing, namely, give us all things with him.  What then does it mean that because of Christ’s death for us God will certainly with him graciously give us “all things”? It means that he will give us all things that are good for us. All things that we really need in order to be conformed to the image of his Son (Romans 8:29). All things we need in order to attain everlasting joy”

Reflecting on this statement reminds me of how people twist this concept.  Rather than looking at Romans 8:32 from God’s perspective, they look it at from man’s.  John Piper puts his finger on it when he says, “I love having my real needs met”.  Riches, cars, boats, fame, fortune, an easy life, a perfect marriage, children, friends are not real needs.   Our real need is joy.  Joy that can only be filled by God giving us the ability to rejoice in him and in his glory.  Joy is something that is permanent, not fleeting.  I often wondered how Christians in poor countries can endure suffering, opposition and persecution joyfully when Christians in America call for a divine rescue because their 401(k)’s are down 30%.  Joy is found in a person, not in things.  Joy is being given good gifts by God

Questions:  Are you joyful?  Is your joy everlasting or does it fade when faced with tough times?  Is your joy man-centered or God-centered?  The joy God provides us through his grace is the joy that is unaffected by earthly matters.  As Lent progresses, considering and meditating on joy is a wonderful way to prepare for the fulfillment of joy, Christ’s resurrection. 

For more information on how to really be joyful, consider reading John Piper’s study of Biblical joy, “The Supremacy of Christ and Joy in a Postmodern World”

Quote from “The 50 Reasons Jesus Came to Die”.

Questions and reflections by me.

Picture – The cross at Mount Erebus, Antarctica, commemorating the 1979 Air New Zealand Crash near Mount Erebus.

 “Some things never change. The problem of a dirty conscience is as old as Adam and Eve. As soon as they sinned, their conscience was defiled. Their sense of guilt was ruinous. It ruined their relationship with God—they hid from him. It ruined their relation to each other—they blamed. It ruined their peace with themselves— for the first time they saw themselves and felt shame. All through the Old Testament, conscience was an issue. But the animal sacrifices themselves could not cleanse the conscience. As a foreshadowing of Christ, God counted the blood of the animals as sufficient for cleansing the flesh—the ceremonial uncleanness, but not the conscience.  So here we are in the modern age—the age of science, Internet, organ transplants, instant messaging, cell phones—and our problem is fundamentally the same as always: Our conscience condemns us. We don’t feel good enough to come to God. And no matter how distorted our consciences are, this much is true: We are not good enough to come to him. We can cut ourselves, or throw our children in the sacred river, or give a million dollars to the United Way, or serve in a soup kitchen on Thanksgiving, or perform a hundred forms of penance and self-injury, and the result will be the same: The stain remains, and death terrifies. The only answer in these modern times, as in all other times, is the blood of Christ. When our conscience rises up and condemns us, where will we turn? We turn to Christ. We turn to the suffering and death of Christ—the blood of Christ. This is the only cleansing agent in the universe that can give the conscience relief in life and peace in death.”

Reflecting on this statement reminds me that no matter how much I worked to purge my conscience with good works, donations to charity, volunteerism, doing penance, or working at church, my conscience still condemned me.  I had one big question…How much did I have to do to earn back right standing with God and stand before him with the clean conscience and how would I know when I had reached that point.  The answer I found was a paradox.  I could do both nothing but also everything.  I could do nothing to please God.  Thus what I was doing through acts of service, was futile.  This in itself was condemning.  Yet I also found out I could do everything to please God, but not through my actions but by those perfect acts that Jesus performed on my behalf.  Thus I could do everything to please God, through Christ.  I needed a substitute to stand in my place.  And that’s what Jesus does but faith in him.   Not only can I stand before him uncondemned, but also with a clear conscience, confident that he will be pleased by the sacrifice of his Son.

Questions:  Have you tried to purge your conscience with good works, donations or acts of service?  Have you ever asked yourself why?   Did those acts solve your problem?  Are you sure?  Why are resisting the only hope you have by coming to faith in Christ? 

Quote from “The 50 Reasons Jesus Came to Die”.

Questions and reflections by me.

Picture – The cross at Mount Erebus, Antarctica, commemorating the 1979 Air New Zealand Crash near Mount Erebus.

“One of the greatest heartaches in the Christian life is the slowness of our change. We hear the summons of God to love him with all our heart and soul and mind and strength (Mark 12:30). But do we ever rise to that totality of affection and devotion? We cry out regularly with the apostle Paul, “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” (Romans 7:24). We groan even as we take fresh resolves: “Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own” (Philippians 3:12).    That very statement is the key to endurance and joy. The basis of all this? “For Christ, our  Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.” The suffering of Christ secures our perfection so firmly that it is already now a reality. Therefore, we fight against our sin not simply to become perfect, but because we are. The death of Jesus is the key to battling our  imperfections on the firm foundation of our perfection.”

Reflecting on this statement reminds me again that God created me to be perfect but  I am not perfect because of sin.  Yet, because of God’s love, he didn’t leave me in my sin but redeemed me.  God’s love is more than conditional forgiveness for all but its a covenant love which purchases (redeems) a people and He, in turn, gathers them to himself.    His plan was conceived before the world was formed and through his providence, leads each one who comes to faith through a process of remaking us into the image of His son.   As we progress, we become more holy, blameless and eventually perfect when we are brought into his presence.  Why do we need to be made holy?  Two reasons, we can’t do it ourselves and we must be holy to stand in God’s presence.    Both Old and New Testament’s mention the need to be made holy.  Our holiness is assured by God. 

Questions:  Do you see yourself becoming more holy and blameless over time?  If you were to look back, does your life exhibit more holiness today than it did, a year ago?  Are you growing in grace and in knowledge of God?  If you are not, you should be asking why.  Jesus didn’t come to just make holiness possible or to provide you with a choice between holiness and licentiousness.  He came to make you holy.  

Quote from “The 50 Reasons Jesus Came to Die”.

Questions and reflections by me.

Picture – The cross at Mount Erebus, Antarctica, commemorating the 1979 Air New Zealand Crash near Mount Erebus.