Posts Tagged Grace
Dissecting the James Dilemma-Part 1
Posted by Peter in Bible, Christianity, God, Jesus, Law, New Testament on May 20, 2010
I have spent enough time both in and out of the flock to know which Bible verses give believers fits, and James 2:14-26 probably tops the list:
14 What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him? 15 If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, 16 And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit? 17 Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. 18 Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works. 19 Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble. 20 But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead? 21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar? 22 Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect? 23 And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God. 24 Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only. 25 Likewise also was not Rahab the harlot justified by works, when she had received the messengers, and had sent them out another way? 26 For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also. James 2:14-26 (KJV)
I must confess, I’m not entirely sure I’ve heard a truly satisfactory reconciliation of this passage in James and Paul, specifically, “Therefore we conclude that man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.” Romans 3:28. I think the reason is because there is an attempted reconciliation where none is necessary.
Explanations usually begin with an acknowledgment of an apparent contradiction then employ circularity to explain why the two are not contradictory (e.g. the Bible cannot contradict itself, therefore there is no contradiction). Other explanations suggest James really means something other than what he is saying. These are equally problematic.
Part of the problem, in my opinion, is that all such explanations are necessarily aimed at an opposing logical fallacy, the straw man that the two are contradictory.
Paul clearly maintains that one is justified by faith, regardless of works. James clearly maintains that one is justified by faith and works. The assertion that these positions contradict each other is only valid if justification is a one-time event, and only a one-time event. If justification is both an event and a process, there is no contradiction.
Was Abraham justified by faith apart from works? Yes. Was Abraham also justified by his subsequent works? Yes.
To say that “faith without works is dead” means “faith alone is insufficient for justification” is simply a misunderstanding of the faith/works relationship. In James 2:22 he writes, “and by works was faith made perfect.” What came first? Faith, by which Abraham was initially made righteous. Then, works which worked to perfect that faith. Thus, Abraham was made righteous by his faith and continued to be made righteous by the perfection of his faith through works.
In Part 2, I will discuss the nature of works and whether any ol’ good works will do.
Hebrews Bible Study-Week 2
Posted by Peter in Bible, Christianity, Israel, Jesus, New Testament, Old Testament on September 23, 2009
I know it’s been three weeks since I published Hebrews Bible Study-Week 1, but the first Wednesday of the month our church has a church-wide Night of Worship, so there was no meeting that Wednesday. The second Wednesday, we had several out, either sick or ministering out of town, so last Wednesday was actually just our second real week of study.
We picked up on the theme of a lawyer building a case from Week 1. The author is making the case for “the Son.” In chapters 1 & 2, the Son is depicted as greater than the angels, which in the ancient Jewish culture would have been extremely significant. Now, in chapter 3, the Son is depicted as greater than Moses. This would have been just as significant, if not more so, than being greater than the angels given Moses’ status in the Jewish tradition.
Also, we are introduced to the Son, and the author for the first time asserts that Jesus is the Son. We are advised to guard against hard hearts, which are the result of unbelief, so that we may enter God’s rest, unlike the Israelites in the days of Moses. We also learn that sin lies. The very nature of sin is deception, which goes hand-in-hand with unbelief and hard hearts.
Chapter 4 confirms that the promise to enter His rest is still available, and this is one instance in which we are permitted to fear – the fear of not entering God’s rest. Actually, this is also one of the few things in scripture for which we are encouraged to labor. Thus, we are to rest from our works, but work to enter into that rest. A beautiful and thought-provoking paradox that makes perfect sense.
Question: Can You Be Legalistic About Anti-Legalism?
I hope that I am as anti-legalism as they come (which is funny seeing as how I am a lawyer by trade). However, I was wondering if you can actually become legalistic about being anti-legalism.
I hope to one day be as bold and comfortable in my own skin about my views of legalism as the Apostle Paul was, but I sure want to avoid becoming legalistic about it. It’s just something I have been thinking about lately. Any thoughts?
To Which Well Are We Drawn?
Posted by Peter in Bible, Christianity, God, Israel, Jesus, Law, New Testament, Old Testament on June 4, 2008
My wife, my mother and I were returning from a trip to Dallas a couple of weeks ago, and we began discussing John 4. The question was posed, “Why do we still thirst?” It’s clear from the text of John 4 that if we drink of the water provided by Christ, we will not thirst.
John 4:1 Therefore when the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John 2 (although Jesus Himself was not baptizing, but His disciples were), 3 He left Judea and went away again into Galilee. 4 And He had to pass through Samaria.
5 So He came to a city of Samaria called Sychar, near the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph; 6 and Jacob’s well was there. So Jesus, being wearied from His journey, was sitting thus by the well. It was about the sixth hour.
7 There came a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give Me a drink.” 8 For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. 9 Therefore the Samaritan woman said to Him, “How is it that You, being a Jew, ask me for a drink since I am a Samaritan woman?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.)
10 Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.”
11 She said to Him, “Sir, You have nothing to draw with and the well is deep; where then do You get that living water? 12 “You are not greater than our father Jacob, are You, who gave us the well, and drank of it himself and his sons and his cattle?”
13 Jesus answered and said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.”
15 The woman said to Him, “Sir, give me this water, so I will not be thirsty nor come all the way here to draw.”
It has been my experience that most Christians I know try quite to hard drink of the water Jesus claims to provide, yet they still thirst (myself included). Therein lies the problem. We try really, really hard to drink of the right water, but our very effort indicates that we are trying to drink from the wrong well.
John 4 is so rich in symbolism and meaning, it’s easy to get lost in it, and it would take a whole series of posts to begin to cover it, but one point is key to the question posed (Why do we thirst?). And that point is this, we need to drink of the water that is freely given, not that we have to go and draw for ourselves.
This story of one Samaritan woman’s encounter with the Jewish Messiah is a beautiful portrait of law and grace. Here we have Jesus telling a Samaritan woman that she will never be completely satisfied by drinking from Jacob’s well, but only by drinking from the water that He will freely give.
How often do we retreat to drinking from Jacob’s well? Probably more often we would like, and certainly more often than is necessary. It is almost incomprehensible, especially to those of us who grew up in America, that we can never satisfy our thirst by our own efforts. We instill in children from a very early age to work hard, make good grades, and do the best that they possibly can, and I will do the same with my children. But, the lesson in our constant return to Jacob’s well is that we can never attain through our own efforts what we can attain through God’s gift of grace.
This truth is not limited to our efforts to achieve righteousness through obedience to the law, we simply cannot. It is through the gift of grace that we are made righteous and enabled to live righteously. This principle is applicable to every aspect of our lives.
It is no different for the study of God’s word. You can spend hours, days, or even years reading the Bible, commentaries, and researching and never comprehend a simple passage better than you will with a tiny drop of God’s grace in revelation. I often find myself praying about scripture after several days of struggling with something, only to find that a simple prayer for God’s help was all that was required. I wonder how much better my study would be if I intentionally begin by doing what I will most likely end up doing anyway.
If we all apply this principle of receiving freely before we begin doing, the doing part might get a whole lot easier and the receiving a whole lot better.
The Lesson of Nicodemus Continued.
Posted by Peter in Bible, Christianity, God, Israel, Jesus, Law, New Testament on March 11, 2008
Last time, we began The Lesson of Nicodemus and learned that there’s a little of Nicodemus in all of us. We also learned that Nicodemus didn’t quite get what Jesus was trying to teach him about the “victory of the people” not coming through the “ruler of the people.” Do you think he ever got it? Let’s explore.
Near the end of this conversation with Nicodemus, Jesus tried one last example. I don’t think it was so much to make him understand, that clearly wasn’t going to happen, but to simplify and tell him what to do. For example, I desperately want to learn more about the internet, code, programming, and web design, but for the time being I rely on tutorials that simply tell me where to input text and which buttons to click. I think what Jesus finally did was say to Nicodemus, “Okay, look, you don’t have to understand it all, just do this.”
What is the “this” Nicodemus was supposed to do? Lift up the Son of Man just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness. John 3:14. Jesus is referencing a short section of the book of Numbers wedged in between war stories. The Israelites had just achieved victory over the Canaanite king of Arad, and they started grumbling against God and Moses because of the “wretched food”. God, perturbed with the Israelites much the way Jesus was perturbed with Nicodemus, sends poisonous snakes among the people. Many were bit and many died.
The Israelites recognized their sin and asked Moses to intercede on their behalf. God instructed Moses to make a bronze snake and mount it atop a pole, and to tell the Israelites that whenever anyone was bit to look at the bronze snake and they would recover. In other words, when the Israelites suffered the consequences of their sin (snake bites), they had to look at a reminder of their sins before their recovery.
By contrast, Jesus refers to the scribes and the Pharisees as the “snakes” and a “brood of vipers”. Matthew 23:33. The new remedy for the snakes and vipers: placing Jesus on a pedestal and keeping your eyes focussed on him. Jesus knew that the condemnation that came from the scribes and Pharisees (the law, the ruler of the people) was venomous, and that He was the antidote (the victory of the people).
There is no escaping Paul’s conclusion that I have now written about three posts running, “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” Romans 8:1
So, did Nicodemus ever learn this lesson? When we next hear from Nicodemus he is defending Jesus before the Sanhedrin. John 7:50-51. As we discussed last week, Nicodemus was a Pharisee and a ruler of the people. Essentially he was a high court judge whose interpretation of the law very likely became law. However, when the Sanhedrin is trying to persuade the temple police to arrest Jesus, Nicodemus speaks out in Jesus’ defense. He says, “Our law doesn’t judge a man before it hears from him and knows what he’s doing, does it?”
Imagine, Nicodemus, a first century Pharisee, saying, “Our law doesn’t judge a man…” Nicodemus might not have completely got it by this point, but he was definitely learning. Our last encounter with Nicodemus is when Jesus is about to be entombed. Pontius Pilate has just given Joseph of Arimathea (also a member of the Sanhedrin, but a disciple of Jesus) permission to remove and bury Jesus’ body. Who shows up? Nicodemus, bearing gifts, 75-100 pounds of myrrh and aloes.
Why is this significant? Myrrh was the key ingredient in the holy anointing oil God instructed Moses to make in Exodus 30:23. The anointing oil was reserved for the ark and sacred items only. The only people allowed to be anointed with the oil were Aaron and his sons, the priests. The creation of this oil for any other purpose or for use by any other person was punishable by being cutoff from the people of Israel.
Do we know definitively the myrrh Nicodemus brought to anoint Jesus was of this holy concoction? I cannot say for certain. However, we do know that myrrh was often worth more than its weight in gold, and Nicodemus brought 75-100 pounds of it to anoint Jesus. Whether he offered jugs of this precious oil as an homage, or whether he realized Jesus was a high priest worthy of anointing subjecting himself to the potential for excommunication, Nicodemus was there at the end preparing the body of Christ for its return.
So, either Nicodemus really got it, choosing Jesus (the victory of the people) over the law (the ruler of the people), or he just fixed his eyes on Jesus and followed. Either way, Nicodemus is a lesson for us all, even when we don’t quite get it, we fix our eyes on Jesus and follow.
But, I’m hoping he finally got it. One day we can ask him.
John 3:16: The Lesson of Nicodemus.
Posted by Peter in Bible, Christianity, God, Israel, Jesus, Law, New Testament, Old Testament on February 28, 2008
I hope my readers know that I try my best to give fresh, new, if sometimes controversial insight into the most wonderful of texts, which has been around in some form for approximately 4000 years, yet never, ever gets old.
So, it should come as no shock that I felt somewhat surprised to find myself contemplating writing about the most recognized, memorized, and athletic eventized scripture in the history of the world: John 3:16. Actually, I have felt over the last week that my last post, Therefore, there is now no condemnation, was somehow incomplete. I realize it was long, but I think volumes could be and need to be written about condemnation.
Anyway, I was thinking about whether to continue the condemnation discussion or just move on. So, I sent a quick wire up to the Lord, “What do You want me to write about today?” Honestly, it was somewhat rhetorical, I wasn’t really expecting an answer, but the answer came almost before I finished the question, “John”. (A lesson for another day: God will answer even the most insignificant of questions, so be careful what you ask.) That was it, “John”. But, it was so clear I knew it wasn’t a mistake.
- “John what?”
- “John three.”
- “John three? John three what?”
- “Sixteen.”
Okay, so I decided it was just me. I mean, come on, John 3:16. Everybody knows everything there is to know about John 3:16. Or, do they? “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”
When Jesus spoke those words, He was answering the questions of a Pharisee named Nicodemus. Nicodemus is referred to in John 3:1 as a ruler of the Jews. The phrase “ruler of the Jews” means Nicodemus was a member of the Sanhedrin, the highest legal or judicial body of the Jewish people. Nicodemus was a teacher and interpreter of the law, and, as a member of the Sanhedrin, Nicodemus’ interpretations of the law could very well have become law. Like a high court judge today, if there is ambiguity in the law, and the court decides the issue in question, the decision becomes the law.
Yet, despite his credentials and knowledge of the law, Nicodemus just didn’t get it.
Nicodemus recognized that Jesus had to be a teacher from God. All this cool stuff Jesus was doing and saying could not have come from anywhere else, but that was as close as Nicodemus got to really getting it. How did Jesus respond? I’m paraphrasing, “You’re a teacher of Israel, you should know this stuff and you don’t get it. You don’t get the earthly things I’m telling you, how are you possibly going to get the heavenly stuff?”
So, what does Jesus do? He cuts to the chase and gives Nicodemus the greatest lesson ever. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.” But, that’s only half of it, here’s the best part:
- For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He who believes in Him is not condemned… And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. John 3:17-19.
Why does Nicodemus get this lesson when he wasn’t getting the rest of it? Why Nicodemus, when Jesus even said Nicodemus wouldn’t get it? Nicodemus gets this lesson because Nicodemus is the lesson. The Greek name Nicodemus means “victory of the people”. Only God is capable of such wonderful irony: the ruler of the people unable to see the victory of the people, which is within him. You almost get the idea that Jesus must have wanted to bop Nicodemus on the head.
This is Paul’s lesson from Romans that I talked about last week all over again. To be more precise, Paul’s lesson in Romans is the lesson of Nicodemus all over again. Nicodemus was a prisoner to his own knowledge of the law. He could not escape.
But wait, then most of us would need the same bop on the head because we all fall into this trap. God did not send Jesus to condemn, but to save. From what? The condemnation of the law of sin and death. Nicodemus is really a picture of each of us. Nicodemus embodies the law as a ruler of the people. Nicodemus is also a portrait of the victory of the people, that elusive victory that remains just beyond the grasp. The lesson of Nicodemus is that the victory of the people is already a part of you.
Nicodemus didn’t get it. And when we try to see the victory of the people (Jesus) through the lens of the ruler of the people (the law), we don’t get it either. The victory of the people does not come through the ruler of the people. The victory of the people is the liberation of the people from the ruler.
Yes, an important lesson of John 3:16 is that God gave his only begotten Son to save the world, but the more important lesson is what the world was saved from: the ruler of the people, or the condemnation of the law of sin and death.
Therefore, there is now no condemnation…
Posted by Peter in Bible, Christianity, God, Jesus, Law, New Testament, Old Testament on February 24, 2008
I think one of the most difficult concepts for Christians to grasp is that “there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” Romans 8:1. Have any of you felt condemned lately? And by lately I mean since you’ve started reading this blog post (shouldn’t you be doing something else instead of playing around on the internet?). I’m sure I haven’t felt condemned in the last 10, 15 minutes anyway.
I suspect we all know people who wake up and go to bed feeling guilty about something. I suspect, too, that we all know people who wake up and go to bed making others feel guilty. In my last two posts, I have discussed forgiveness at length. Condemnation is the companion of unforgiveness. Actually, condemnation is just another form of unforgiveness. It is an unwillingness to forgive yourself, and the consequences of condemnation are just as dire.
In quoting Romans 8:1 above, I left out the most important word in that verse: “Therefore”. Romans 8:1 actually reads, “Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” The great Derek Prince would say, “When you find a therefore you find out what it’s there for.” I couldn’t agree more. One of these days, take a book of the New Testament and underline every “Therefore” and read what is written right before and right after. If you have ever had difficulty understanding portions of the Bible, this is a good way of extracting explanation.
Here is how it works. Romans is great for practicing this because it is packed full of therefore’s. Before the Romans 8:1 “Therefore” the first paragraph following the last paragraph with a “Therefore” is Romans 7:14. Therefore, a new lesson. “For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold into bondage to sin.” Verse 7:21 begins the next paragraph, “I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good.”
Let’s stop for a minute and contemplate this. Paul is describing the internal struggle that goes on in all of us. Paul, in essence, is saying, “I want to do good so badly, but this evil within me just won’t let me. I’m a prisoner to my own sin.” That paragraph concludes, 25“Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin.”
Now, the “Therefore,” 8:1 “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are Christ Jesus.” What??? [Insert head scratch here.] Yeah, I know, it’s a little weird. Paul is saying, “We can’t win this struggle against the flesh, we can’t escape the slavery to sin. Therefore, we shouldn’t worry about it.” It’s one of those things that make you go “hum”?
Actually, that is exactly right. This is why, verse 8:2 says, “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death.” This is key. Paul does not say we are free from sin or death, rather that we are free from the law of sin and death. Even better. We would all like to be without sin and death, but how much better is it be out from under the system of law that fashions sin and death in the first place?
Paul goes on in verse 3, “For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh 4 so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.” Notice, God did not condemn us. He condemned “sin in the flesh so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us…”
The word “For” in verse three is just as important as the “Therefore” in verse one, it is the “because”. You will find this structure repeatedly throughout scripture: concept, conclusion (therefore), explanation (because). Because “the requirement of the Law” is now “fulfilled in us” who walk according to the Spirit, there is no condemnation in Jesus.
We all understand this: If you do the crime, you do the time. As a lawyer, I have heard this countless times. Similarly, we understand the idea that sin has consequences. But, through faith in Christ, we are no longer under the rule that if we do the crime, we do the time. Jesus served our sentence for us. This is not to say that we don’t deserve to do the time. We do, and God knows this, so in order to make sure that justice was served, He sent Jesus to be punished in our place. How much better is it that the law is fulfilled in Jesus than merely abolished (which would have put God in a compromising position since his Law was perfect)?
Jesus said, “Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill.” Matthew 5:17. To fulfill means to pay in full. We owed a debt to God, we may still run up the bill from time to time, but our obligation is fulfilled in Christ. It is PAID IN FULL.
Will you continue to pay your bills after they are paid? Will you keep sending the bank or credit card company a check after your debt is paid off? Of course not. Yet, this is exactly what we are doing when it comes to sin. We are still trying to pay for what has already been paid for. However, the currency we try to pay with is good deeds, not sinning too badly, giving a little here and there, and not being as bad as the next guy.
We are still using scales to measure our “goodness” when we can never, ever do enough to make them balance. Does this sound familiar, “I go to church occasionally, I volunteer here and there, I don’t drink or use drugs, and I’ve never hurt anybody, so, I think I’m a pretty good person.” That is a lie from the devil. He wants you thinking like this for a whole host of reasons I’m sure, but two that I know of: (1) so that when you do do something wrong, he can hammer you for it, and (2) so you will continue to be under the bondage of the law. The law of sin and shame is a prison, and you have been set free. Why go back?
God doesn’t measure our “goodness” the way we do. We have got to grab hold of this (and not let go). We are righteous through faith in Jesus. God doesn’t look at us and see dirty, rotten scoundrels. He sees the righteousness of Christ. If we could ever see ourselves as God sees us, there would be no limit to our potential.
Which do you suppose is more distressing to God, that we sin or that we render Christ’s sufferings worthless by walking in condemnation? “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” No condemnation. No condemnation means no condemnation. No condemnation.
It still means no condemnation. No, not yet, still no condemnation.
The Ministry of Death
Posted by Peter in Ancient Hebrew, Bible, Christianity, God, Hebrew, Jesus, Law, New Testament, Old Testament on January 17, 2008
Imagine the uproar if an unbeliever were to call a pastor preaching about the 10 Commandments a “Minister of Death”. The battle lines would be drawn, would they not? Ah, but would the unbeliever be right?
…ugh! Yes, I was as horrified to write it as you were to read it. I cannot even imagine a Christian thinking such a thing…except one. In 2 Corinthians 3:7 the Apostle Paul writes: “7 But if the ministry of death, in letters engraved on stones, came with glory… 8 how will the ministry of the Spirit fail to be even more with glory?”
I have read this before, probably more than once, but this latest time I was stopped dead in my tracks. I could not leave it. I read, and reread, and reread. I read commentaries on this passage, read different translations, I tried breaking down the Greek, I even resorted to reading blogs about it, imagine that (just kidding), and still, nothing. I felt completely unsatisfied.
I have been very blessed in my life to have been exposed to amazing teachers and lecturers. I have also been fortunate to have heard extraordinary preachers and teachers of the gospel. And yet, I have never once heard a sermon or teaching on the “ministry of death”. So, I turned to the greatest teacher of all, the author Himself. Not Paul, although that would have been really cool, but here is what I believe the Holy Spirit had to say on the matter. For now.
“What is death?” It’s funny how the Holy Spirit answers a question with a question. Where better to find the answer than the first place death is mentioned in the Bible. Genesis 16 “And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, ‘Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.’”
Interesting: you die only after the knowledge of good and evil. Please note, God did not say you die after you commit evil, rather when you first know about good and evil. The Hebrew word translated “evil” is rah, spelled in Hebrew RESH AYIN. The ancient Hebrew pictograph for the letter RESH is a man’s head and its symbolic meaning was the first or highest person. For AYIN it is an eye meaning to see, and not simply to see but to see with divine sight, to see how God sees. Thus, to know evil is for the FIRST MAN (or Adam) to SEE as God sees.
Why would the knowledge of good cause death? For that matter, why would the knowledge of evil cause death? Simple: none of us are perfect, yet we are.
And this paradox hurts our brain so much that it just kills us. No, not really. You see, none of us are righteous, and no amount of attitude adjustment, behavioral modification, or religious rule following will ever make us so. Yet, at the exact same time, we in Christ are wholly and completely justified before God. Spotless. Washed whiter than snow. Otherwise, Jesus’ sacrifice was insufficient.
The intent was never for man to be perfect, contrary to popular opinion. How could we? We are not God. Man’s ability to be in the presence of God, walk with God and fellowship with God was always a matter of divine gift. It is the knowledge that we are unable to do this on our own that causes us such grief. Therefore, God, in his mercy, asked man to not partake of the knowledge of good and evil, so that we would never realize our unworthiness.
Once man did obtain this knowledge, the process of teaching man this lesson began. Now, through Jesus’ sacrificial life and death, we are worthy again. Jesus was perfect, and as “He is, so also are we in this world.” 1 John 4:17. We can walk with God, fellowship with God and even be in the presence of God, and once again it is as a matter of divine gift: God’s gift of grace.
So, the ministry of death is aptly named, it is God’s 4000 year long lesson about overcoming death, or the knowledge of good and evil.
On Doubt: Another True Thomas Moment
Posted by Peter in Ancient Hebrew, Bible, Christianity, God, Hebrew, Jesus on December 5, 2007
Thank you all so much for the response to my last post, the emails and feedback were very reassuring. To get where I want to go today, I need to give a little background information. For those of you who do not know, I was oppressed by a spirit of doubt for several years until the Lord very graciously (1) revealed the nature of my affliction, and (2) performed a miracle of deliverance on me beyond what I could possibly express here.
To be perfectly honest, I was somewhat apprehensive about putting this out there, creating a permanent record in the public sphere because of the potential skepticism, religious implications, and possibly even financial and political implications. But, it is what it is, and I hope this disclosure gives additional insight into who I am and context to this blog.
Since that time, God has opened up a whole host of truths to me which I would have had a very difficult time accepting, or rejected outright. One, revelation about Genesis 1:1, has been the subject of several posts, and which I will develop more in later posts. As I said, your comments and emails following the last post were a tremendous blessing to me. Thank you so much. But what I want to share is what, I believe, was the Lord’s blessing.
First, the scripture to make it official. John 20:25 “…But he [Thomas] said to them, ‘Unless I see in His hands the imprint of the nails…I will not believe.’ … 27 Then He [Jesus] said to Thomas, ‘Reach here with your finger, and see My hands…and do not be unbelieving, but believing.”
It may seem obvious that my Thomas moment would have come when the Lord removed the veil of doubt from me, but that was just my first Thomas moment. Last weekend I came across a teaching by Joseph Prince that I had Tivoed and watched several months ago about the name Yahweh and the meaning of the Hebrew letters that spell Yahweh (YHWH). In short, he showed how in Hebrew the first letter of the four words making up inscription (or accusation) above the cross on which Jesus hung would have spelled YHWH. In Hebrew it would have read, “Yeshua (Jesus) HaNazarei (the Nazarene/of Nazareth) Vemelek (the King) HaYehudim (of the Jews).” Forgive my transliteration.
For those of you familiar with this blog, you will recall that the YOD or “Y” is pictured in the ancient Hebrew as the hand or arm and the VAV or “V or W” is pictured as a nail or tent peg. The HEY or “H” has a symbolic meaning of God’s grace. Joseph Prince’s teaching, then, concluded that God’s grace came by the nail in the hand.
I must say, I could not agree more. Also, this was in the context of a broader teaching, so I do not at all question this picture not really being developed further. I spent a fair amount of time meditating on that, researching the ancient Hebrew and praying for revelation. I knew there was something more I was missing, yet I simply could not find it.
Nevertheless, I was and have been, for several months now, stirred that I was missing something specifically for me, but I was stuck. Recall that there were several instances in the New Testament where either Jesus or Paul would say essentially, “there is so much more I want to show you, but if you can’t even get this, how can I?” Well, I had that very sensation only in reverse. I felt like God was having one of those moments with me, until this week.
It was another true Thomas moment that struck me while crossing the street of all things. Here it is: YHWY, YOD (Y) the hand, meaning my hand or works, HEY (H) a man with outstretched arms, meaning God’s grace, VAV (V or W) the nail, and HEY (H) same man with outstretched arms, meaning grace. There it was, so obvious. A man standing with outstretched arms, they seemed to be held out right in front of me, showing me the HAND and the NAIL or nail hole, and saying, “‘Reach here with your finger and see MY HANDS…and do not be unbelieving, but be believing,’ this is My gift of GRACE.”
Here is the visual (remember, Hebrew is read right to left):
A Little Context
I want to do a little backtracking for a moment. I probably should have written this as the very first post of this blog. It has been very graciously brought to my attention that the subject matter of this blog is somewhat complicated (or that I may be making the subject matter of this blog complicated). Not that it is too difficult, but that it is unfamiliar.
I have reviewed the prior posts, and I must confess, I agree. So, please, indulge me for a moment to do what I should have done a month ago. I would like to give a little context to this blog.
As many of you know, my wife and I recently spent time in Israel. I will post more on Israel later, but the shorthand version is that we have been blessed tremendously since that mission trip (trust me, when God said to Abraham in Gen. 12:3 “I will bless those who bless you…” he was not kidding).
I want to talk about just one of those blessings that relates very specifically to this blog. For several months before our trip to Israel, I had been praying a very specific and consistent prayer: “God, increase my faith”. When I use the term “consistent”, I may be giving myself too much credit, it’s probably more appropriate to say that I had been nagging God about it.
You see, I had this notion (one that I now know is wrong, but one that I believe is shared by many) that certain things God had shown me or promised me were not happening because I lacked the faith. I say me very deliberately. Not out of selfishness, or arrogance, but because the promises God makes are intensely personal, and I believe we should all internalize them that way.
I do not believe the Bible or any other word given by God, whether in a prophetic encounter, a vision, a word of knowledge, or otherwise is ever generic. There may be multiple if not infinite applications, but each and every word is specific and significant to me and YOU. The issue should never be, “Is this for me?”, I assure you it is, but rather, “How does this apply to me?”
But, back to lacking faith…You see, my eyes have recently been open to the fact that when we reason that this blessing, or that prophetic word, or this healing did not happen because we lack faith, we believe a lie of the enemy–a very effective one.
The enemy will always try to point the finger at you and at me: “I don’t have the faith…” or “You’ve just got to believe…” And while internal reflection is good, we need to be careful not to ignore what we know to be true. The Bible says God has given each person a measure of faith. I believe any measurable quantity given by God is enough…for whatever you need (the whole mustard seed thing).
However, I believe that our concept of faith has been distorted. I do not believe the Holy Spirit will ever tell anyone, “You don’t have enough faith.” As the need arises, I believe the Holy Spirit imparts supernatural gifts of faith as necessary, but that is something altogether different from my or your measure of faith. The question is, I think, faith in what? When I think, “I don’t have enough faith…”, my focus is on me, not God.
Faith, then, should look like what? Faith that God is faithful. Faith is irrelevant unless you know that God is faithful, to his Word, to his promises, to YOU. Here is a difficult concept to grasp, it should not be, but it is: God is on your side (and my side). He is not sitting around waiting to thump you when you mess up. To the contrary, He is waiting to pour out His blessings on you beyond what you could ever imagine.
“Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” (Rom. 4:3) I do not need a whole lot of faith in someone whose faithfulness I question, what would be the point? I just need a measure of faith in someone I know is faithful. When God says, “And all things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive,” and I know God is faithful to His Word, His response is greater than you could ever imagine.
My prayer was, “Increase my faith.” Naturally, my fleshly expectation was that I would see miracles, signs and wonders, healing and deliverances, but that’s not where I lacked faith…I have seen those things, more would not increase my faith. Where I was lacking was in believing God’s Word to be true (all of it). So, God’s answer, not at all what I expected, but nothing short of proof (in the measure I needed) that his Word is true.
That is really the point of this blog. I have posted on a variety of words that I thought were really cool when you looked at the ancient Hebrew, they seemed to be a window into the mind of God. But, what I should have done first was explain the purpose of it all, and that’s what I am doing now. My next few posts will try to tie together some of what I have posted before and finish what I have started.
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