May 14, 2002
The witness presented his evidence to my father. He said, “She was at the country dance driving your car, and she appeared to have been drinking. I know she is under the legal age.”
My father listened. He knew where I had been; he’d given me the keys to the family car. He also knew that I took three or four of my girl friends with me, and that when our group did anything together, we had fun and laughed ourselves silly. Dad knew me better than the witness. He quickly made his judgment, “She is innocent.”
At seventeen, I didn’t think much about what would happen had my dad believed this “witness.” My dad knew my attitude toward drinking and my ability to have fun without it. I also knew my dad. He was not a person to jump to conclusions, nor did he believe everything he was told. He was fair. More than that, he loved me too much to let slander turn him against me. He would defend me against any accuser.
Not everyone has such a father. For some, harsh parents have made “judgment” a scary word. Their children fear condemnation every time the gavel falls. This fear carries over to their view of God. They see Him as a harsh “judge,” a stern, frowning, bearded image with a huge hammer and a list of rules. They are repelled by such a god and rightly so.
That does not mean God looks the other way when people violate His laws. He is holy and hates sin. He is merciful and loves sinners. How can such a contradiction exist?
The Bible says God will judge sinners and punish sin: “The wages of sin is death,” meaning those who die in their sin will face eternal separation from God. No one can escape. We are “by nature objects of wrath” because all of us “sin and fall short of the glory of God.”
However, God does not sit on His throne with a hammer and an expression of anger. The Bible says, “God is not willing that anyone should perish but wants everyone to repent (of their sin).”
To partly understand this contrast, I think about my dad. He was not perfect, but he was always quick to show mercy and come to my defense. He would rather declare me innocent than listen to any accuser who brought my sins (actual or not) to him. Yet my dad would also take away my driving privileges if I abused his rules.
Sin against God is far more serious than breaking my dad’s rules. Sin is an offence against Him that requires severe punishment, yet God is also a wise and loving heavenly Father. How does God handle the seeming contradiction between not wanting us to perish, and the fact that our sin demands a penalty?
God’s love solved it. He came to earth, put on flesh and became one of us. Then He took the blame of our sin on Himself and paid our penalty. By dying on a cross, God the Son satisfied the judgment made on sin by God the Father. When we believe this, accept His solution for sin, and turn from sin to God (repentance), He comes to live in our hearts. Then we can confidently say, “Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right had of God and is also interceding for us.”
Our sin, and the accusations of any enemy who takes our sin to God, are no match for the grace of God. The Lawgiver on the throne becomes the Law keeper in our hearts, all because His love provided a way for us to escape His judgment.
Showing posts with label saved by grace through faith. Show all posts
Showing posts with label saved by grace through faith. Show all posts
Wednesday, June 6, 2018
Monday, December 18, 2017
Envy killed Jesus .......... Parables 681
August 22, 2000
Have you ever wanted to be someone else? How about Bill Gates? Or Oprah Winfrey? Would you like their empire? Their stardom? Their money?
Perhaps the green-eyed monster bites less deeply. Maybe it’s just the neighbor’s car or the hairdresser’s hair. Whatever that person has, we want it.
The Bible has two words for wanting what someone else has. One is jealousy, the other is envy. Jealousy is simpler; it stays at wanting what someone else has. While it is a reflection of an ungrateful attitude (doesn’t God richly provide all we need?), jealousy is not as serious as envy.
Envy runs deeper. Instead of wanting something, it also wants to deprive the other person of it. Jealousy would like Bill Gates’ income; envy would like Bill Gates to be poor.
Envy is the destructive force that ruins another life. It drives a man to kill another in order to have his wife. It drives thieves to plunder another person’s home or rob a bank. A person can burn with jealousy but envy moves him to make sure other people experience loss and pain.
Envy killed Jesus. The religious leaders of His day were fearful of His popularity, envious that people listened to Him and not to them. They plotted to discredit Him and when that did not work, they plotted to destroy Him.
Pilate, the Roman governor, knew what motivated these envious men. In Mark 15:9 he says, “Do you want me to release to you the king of the Jews?” The next two verses add: “knowing it was out of envy that the chief priests had handed Jesus over to him. But the chief priests stirred up the crowd to have Pilate release Barabbas instead.”
Having their motivations uncovered was not enough to stop envy from moving them to imprison and then kill an innocent person.
Later, some envied the Apostle Paul’s ministry. In Philippians 1:15-17, he says, “It is true that some preach Christ out of envy and rivalry, but others out of goodwill. The latter do so in love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. The former preach Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing that they can stir up trouble for me while I am in chains.” They not only wanted Paul’s success, they also wanted trouble for him.
With the next three sentences, Paul shows that even envy is not as powerful as God’s grace: “But what does it matter? The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached. And because of this I rejoice.”
Even though God used envy for good in that situation, He does not want us to be motivated by envy. He says, “Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind.”
How is that possible? Again, it is only by His grace. Those who come to Him in faith and repentance can claim this from Titus 3: “At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy . . .”
As powerful as envy is, this sin or any other sin is not a match against the power of God and the fullness of His salvation.
Have you ever wanted to be someone else? How about Bill Gates? Or Oprah Winfrey? Would you like their empire? Their stardom? Their money?
Perhaps the green-eyed monster bites less deeply. Maybe it’s just the neighbor’s car or the hairdresser’s hair. Whatever that person has, we want it.
The Bible has two words for wanting what someone else has. One is jealousy, the other is envy. Jealousy is simpler; it stays at wanting what someone else has. While it is a reflection of an ungrateful attitude (doesn’t God richly provide all we need?), jealousy is not as serious as envy.
Envy runs deeper. Instead of wanting something, it also wants to deprive the other person of it. Jealousy would like Bill Gates’ income; envy would like Bill Gates to be poor.
Envy is the destructive force that ruins another life. It drives a man to kill another in order to have his wife. It drives thieves to plunder another person’s home or rob a bank. A person can burn with jealousy but envy moves him to make sure other people experience loss and pain.
Envy killed Jesus. The religious leaders of His day were fearful of His popularity, envious that people listened to Him and not to them. They plotted to discredit Him and when that did not work, they plotted to destroy Him.
Pilate, the Roman governor, knew what motivated these envious men. In Mark 15:9 he says, “Do you want me to release to you the king of the Jews?” The next two verses add: “knowing it was out of envy that the chief priests had handed Jesus over to him. But the chief priests stirred up the crowd to have Pilate release Barabbas instead.”
Having their motivations uncovered was not enough to stop envy from moving them to imprison and then kill an innocent person.
Later, some envied the Apostle Paul’s ministry. In Philippians 1:15-17, he says, “It is true that some preach Christ out of envy and rivalry, but others out of goodwill. The latter do so in love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. The former preach Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing that they can stir up trouble for me while I am in chains.” They not only wanted Paul’s success, they also wanted trouble for him.
With the next three sentences, Paul shows that even envy is not as powerful as God’s grace: “But what does it matter? The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached. And because of this I rejoice.”
Even though God used envy for good in that situation, He does not want us to be motivated by envy. He says, “Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind.”
How is that possible? Again, it is only by His grace. Those who come to Him in faith and repentance can claim this from Titus 3: “At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy . . .”
As powerful as envy is, this sin or any other sin is not a match against the power of God and the fullness of His salvation.
Friday, August 25, 2017
A gift is free or it isn’t a gift .......... Parables 632
March 16, 1999
Have you every bought yourself a gift? I did it once, for Christmas. It seemed like a silly thing to do but at least I didn’t have to exchange it. However, I did miss being surprised when I opened it. Besides, I had to work to pay for it. In the true sense of the word, it wasn’t a gift.
Gifts should not bring an expense to the recipient. One time, someone gave me a gift certificate for a spa. I am not a spa person. It took me a year to redeem it. Then I agonized during the two hour session. Do I tip the girl who pampered me? And how much? This treatment seemed such a frivolity. A suitable tip would actually be more than what I thought the treatment should cost. Besides, having to pay anything would make this gift seem less like a gift.
Gifts should be free. At least that is what the promoters claim. Send for their product and receive a “free gift.” Sometimes, they say if you don’t like their product, just return it and keep the “free gift.”
When I was younger, I sent for whatever it was, just to get the gift. After a while, I realized I didn’t like being on mailing lists. I also realized keeping the gifts made certain whoever sent them took my name off their list. Obviously, their so-called ‘free’ giveaways were not their actual intention.
Personal gifts can come with a price tag too. Most givers do not expect to be paid for their gift, but they often expect something in return, anything from a simple thank you to an equally priced gift.
When I became a Christian, someone told me that God’s salvation is a free gift. They explained I could do nothing to earn it and showed me verses like Ephesians 2:8,9: “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith — and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God — not by works, so that no one can boast.”
Even though I believed this was so, it was years before the idea of earning things from God became foolishness to me. Somehow, I thought I could earn His approval or at least prove that God gave this gift to a worthy recipient.
Now I know why I cannot earn His grace. I failed to understand God’s standard. To spend eternity with Him, I must be perfect. No matter how hard I try, that is beyond me. Besides, if anyone could earn eternal life or somehow pay for it, what would be the cost? Can we offer our goodness and expect Him to ignore the other stuff? Isn’t that like serving an omelet with 12 good eggs and a few rotten ones?
God is perfect and our goodness is like filthy rags compared to His (Isaiah 64:6). It is to that standard that the Bible says we fall short, like arrows that cannot make it to the target.
So God’s eternal life is a gift, but is it free? Are there no strings attached? Don’t we have to do something to get it? Be good? Or at least go to church?
Soldiers in training lined up in front of their sergeant. Two of them had lost their rifles. The sergeant had two rifles slung over his shoulders. He called one of the men forward and barked, “You lost your weapon. How can you be a soldier? What should happen to you?”
The trembling soldier listed a string of what he thought were suitable consequences and soon found himself running laps full tilt with his rifle held high over his head. This is work.
The sergeant called the other soldier and asked the same questions. The man replied, “I cannot be a soldier without my weapon, Sir. I simply need it, Sir.” The sergeant handed him his rifle and told him to rejoin the ranks. This is grace.
God’s gift is wrapped in a Person and set before us. Grace means that our part is simply realizing that we cannot have eternal life without Him.
Have you every bought yourself a gift? I did it once, for Christmas. It seemed like a silly thing to do but at least I didn’t have to exchange it. However, I did miss being surprised when I opened it. Besides, I had to work to pay for it. In the true sense of the word, it wasn’t a gift.
Gifts should not bring an expense to the recipient. One time, someone gave me a gift certificate for a spa. I am not a spa person. It took me a year to redeem it. Then I agonized during the two hour session. Do I tip the girl who pampered me? And how much? This treatment seemed such a frivolity. A suitable tip would actually be more than what I thought the treatment should cost. Besides, having to pay anything would make this gift seem less like a gift.
Gifts should be free. At least that is what the promoters claim. Send for their product and receive a “free gift.” Sometimes, they say if you don’t like their product, just return it and keep the “free gift.”
When I was younger, I sent for whatever it was, just to get the gift. After a while, I realized I didn’t like being on mailing lists. I also realized keeping the gifts made certain whoever sent them took my name off their list. Obviously, their so-called ‘free’ giveaways were not their actual intention.
Personal gifts can come with a price tag too. Most givers do not expect to be paid for their gift, but they often expect something in return, anything from a simple thank you to an equally priced gift.
When I became a Christian, someone told me that God’s salvation is a free gift. They explained I could do nothing to earn it and showed me verses like Ephesians 2:8,9: “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith — and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God — not by works, so that no one can boast.”
Even though I believed this was so, it was years before the idea of earning things from God became foolishness to me. Somehow, I thought I could earn His approval or at least prove that God gave this gift to a worthy recipient.
Now I know why I cannot earn His grace. I failed to understand God’s standard. To spend eternity with Him, I must be perfect. No matter how hard I try, that is beyond me. Besides, if anyone could earn eternal life or somehow pay for it, what would be the cost? Can we offer our goodness and expect Him to ignore the other stuff? Isn’t that like serving an omelet with 12 good eggs and a few rotten ones?
God is perfect and our goodness is like filthy rags compared to His (Isaiah 64:6). It is to that standard that the Bible says we fall short, like arrows that cannot make it to the target.
So God’s eternal life is a gift, but is it free? Are there no strings attached? Don’t we have to do something to get it? Be good? Or at least go to church?
Soldiers in training lined up in front of their sergeant. Two of them had lost their rifles. The sergeant had two rifles slung over his shoulders. He called one of the men forward and barked, “You lost your weapon. How can you be a soldier? What should happen to you?”
The trembling soldier listed a string of what he thought were suitable consequences and soon found himself running laps full tilt with his rifle held high over his head. This is work.
The sergeant called the other soldier and asked the same questions. The man replied, “I cannot be a soldier without my weapon, Sir. I simply need it, Sir.” The sergeant handed him his rifle and told him to rejoin the ranks. This is grace.
God’s gift is wrapped in a Person and set before us. Grace means that our part is simply realizing that we cannot have eternal life without Him.
Wednesday, November 16, 2016
What about being good? .......... Parables 511
May 21, 1996
“Good” is a workhorse when it comes to adjectives. We use it to define behavior, manners, attitudes, character, taste, quality, size and even the weather (sometimes). It can measure acceptability, appropriateness or reliability and describe a certain degree of accuracy, legitimacy, wholesomeness, agreeability, attractiveness, competency and even completeness.
Which of these many associations did the rich man mean when he asked Jesus, “What good thing must I do to get eternal life?”
For one thing, he sounds as if he understands goodness is somehow linked to eternal life. He therefore assumes if he does the right “good” things, namely actions, eternal life would be his.
Jesus answered his question with another question, also using the word “good.” However, He did not describe anything the man could do. Instead, He asked, “Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only One who is good.”
Rather than tie goodness to what someone could do, Jesus tied it to “being,” to who someone is. Then He limited the use of “good” even farther by saying only One Being is good.
Without giving the man a chance to ask any questions about God’s goodness, Jesus went on: “If you want to enter life, obey the commandments.”
The man insisted that he had but in the remaining conversation, Jesus showed him he fell short of moral and religious perfection. He told him to sell or give away all his possessions, then come and follow Him, but the young man turned away. His great wealth was more important to him than what Jesus offered. His goodness was only on the surface.
Not only that, this man missed the point. Jesus said none is good but God. In other words, doing good to please God is like jumping off a rooftop flapping our arms to impress an eagle. God’s goodness is perfect and limitless. Our goodness falls short, is mixed with selfish motives and grinds to a halt when the sacrifice is too great. Nothing we do looks good compared to Him.
The man was asking the wrong questions. He hoped for eternal life by doing something to earn it, but missed the connection between what Jesus said about “good” and his own shortcomings in that department. If he had really listened and agreed, he would have asked for mercy, not continued to ask how he could earn eternal life.
Many people assume that “being a good person” is all that is necessary to please God. To them, eternal life is a matter of their own efforts measuring up. However, Jesus says our “good” is not quite good enough. To please God, it needs to be the perfect good that He alone possesses.
Of course the goodness of God is in Jesus Christ, who is God the Son. The Bible says, “God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.” Anyone who has eternal life, has it in Him and because of Him, not according to personal merit points.
Wealth plus pride kept the man from getting what he said he wanted. Maybe he was proud that he was a self-made man with a sizable bank account, that he refused to count his own anything he could not work for or earn. His problem: eternal life is a free gift.
Jesus showed this man he needed to relinquish his wealth. It stood in the way of trusting God. He couldn’t do it and for that reason, he walked away sorrowing. What he may not have realized is that someday, he would lose it all anyway. Even at a “good” funeral, where the deceased is a believer on the way to heaven, there is no U-Haul behind the hearse.
“Good” is a workhorse when it comes to adjectives. We use it to define behavior, manners, attitudes, character, taste, quality, size and even the weather (sometimes). It can measure acceptability, appropriateness or reliability and describe a certain degree of accuracy, legitimacy, wholesomeness, agreeability, attractiveness, competency and even completeness.
Which of these many associations did the rich man mean when he asked Jesus, “What good thing must I do to get eternal life?”
For one thing, he sounds as if he understands goodness is somehow linked to eternal life. He therefore assumes if he does the right “good” things, namely actions, eternal life would be his.
Jesus answered his question with another question, also using the word “good.” However, He did not describe anything the man could do. Instead, He asked, “Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only One who is good.”
Rather than tie goodness to what someone could do, Jesus tied it to “being,” to who someone is. Then He limited the use of “good” even farther by saying only One Being is good.
Without giving the man a chance to ask any questions about God’s goodness, Jesus went on: “If you want to enter life, obey the commandments.”
The man insisted that he had but in the remaining conversation, Jesus showed him he fell short of moral and religious perfection. He told him to sell or give away all his possessions, then come and follow Him, but the young man turned away. His great wealth was more important to him than what Jesus offered. His goodness was only on the surface.
Not only that, this man missed the point. Jesus said none is good but God. In other words, doing good to please God is like jumping off a rooftop flapping our arms to impress an eagle. God’s goodness is perfect and limitless. Our goodness falls short, is mixed with selfish motives and grinds to a halt when the sacrifice is too great. Nothing we do looks good compared to Him.
The man was asking the wrong questions. He hoped for eternal life by doing something to earn it, but missed the connection between what Jesus said about “good” and his own shortcomings in that department. If he had really listened and agreed, he would have asked for mercy, not continued to ask how he could earn eternal life.
Many people assume that “being a good person” is all that is necessary to please God. To them, eternal life is a matter of their own efforts measuring up. However, Jesus says our “good” is not quite good enough. To please God, it needs to be the perfect good that He alone possesses.
Of course the goodness of God is in Jesus Christ, who is God the Son. The Bible says, “God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.” Anyone who has eternal life, has it in Him and because of Him, not according to personal merit points.
Wealth plus pride kept the man from getting what he said he wanted. Maybe he was proud that he was a self-made man with a sizable bank account, that he refused to count his own anything he could not work for or earn. His problem: eternal life is a free gift.
Jesus showed this man he needed to relinquish his wealth. It stood in the way of trusting God. He couldn’t do it and for that reason, he walked away sorrowing. What he may not have realized is that someday, he would lose it all anyway. Even at a “good” funeral, where the deceased is a believer on the way to heaven, there is no U-Haul behind the hearse.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)