Have you ever thought, “What a raw deal. We are all being punished for our sins in this less than perfect world because Adam and Eve blew it? Paul wrote about this to the saints in Rome:
Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned… For if many died through one man’s trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man, Jesus Christ, abounded for many… For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ. (Rom 5:12-17, ESV2011)
T. Austin Sparks wrote:
“He that has My commandments, and keeps them, he it is that loves Me…“.
How this may apply I do not know. I trust it does not seem hard; it is not meant to be hard. It is intended to bring us into possession of the secret of things… spiritual enlargement is a question of obedience, progress according to obedience. But obedience is not an enforced response to a law in pain of judgment. This is the obedience of love, consecration and devotion. Obedience is the active side of faith. Faith and obedience are two sides of one thing and cannot be divided without destroying completeness. And obedience is the proof of faith, and faith is the demand for obedience. (1)
We who have believed into Christ and were immersed into His death by baptism have also been raised into HIS newness of life in His Spirit. It was His agape love for His Father that motivated Jesus His whole life even when it meant that He would die a terrible death on the cross. For He knew that it was not only His body that was on that cross, but all the sins of fallen man down through the ages. He was the Father’s perfect sacrificial Passover Lamb for the sins of the world.
In Genesis we read of Abraham living out this act by faith with his and Sarah’s only son.
And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering, and laid it upon Isaac his son; and he took the fire in his hand, and a knife; and they went both of them together. And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father, and said, ‘My father:’ and he said, ‘Here am I, my son.’ And he said, ‘Behold the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?’ And Abraham said, ‘My son, God will provide himself a lamb…’ (Gen 22:6-8a, KJV)
The Father has always wanted many sons and daughters to love and walk with Him just as Adam did before his fall. But Adam and Eve’s fall and being cast out from the face of God in the garden was not the final end of that thought in the mind of God. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in [Grk. eis – into] him should not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16, ESV2011). Through the sacrifice of Jesus, He traded our eternal death for His eternal life.
It is important to know that verses in the New Testament which speak of our initial act of saving faith often miss the depth of meaning that is behind them because of poor translations. We don’t just believe in Jesus in some kind of mental ascent, but the gift of God of saving faith places us into Christ by the Holy Spirit. Even that favorite verse of evangelical Christians, John 3:16, misses that depth of what salvation is by saying we only have to believe in Him much like we might believe in a certain political figure or our football team. The gift of salvation is an intimate act that places us IN Jesus Christ and His Spirit within us teaches us all things (See 1 John 2:27). Paul wrote,
Know you not, that so many of us as were baptized into [Grk. eis] Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that just as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of [His] life. (Rom 6:3-4, KJ2000 – emphasis added)
I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ lives in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. (Gal 2:20, KJ2000 – emphasis added)
But the scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe. (Gal 3:22, KJV – emphasis added)
Even the righteousness of God which is by the faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe… (Rom 3:22a, KJV – emphasis added)
We who have been crucified with Christ have met the end of our old, weak, adamic natures and we now have been raised in total newness of Life. This means that we no longer have to access our Christian walks by our own weak faith that so often fails us, but we now can live by the same faith by which Jesus lived in a loving relationship with His Father! For “without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.” (Heb 11:6, ESV2011 – emphasis added)
In Christ we are all called to live in HIS life, walk by HIS faith and do HIS works not our own least any man should boast. This is what Paul was talking about when he wrote,
I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through [Grk. en in] him who strengthens me. (Phil 4:12-13, ESV2011– emphasis added)
Entering into God’s Rest
...the one who enters God’s rest has himself rested from his own works, just as God did from his. Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest… (Heb 4:10-11, ISV144– emphasis added)
This is so hard to believe isn’t it? God rested on the seventh day of creation. In John chapter one we read that the Word, Jesus Christ, made all things in the beginning and without Him was nothing made that was made. He did it all by merely speaking everything into existence. And the Word of God still speaks! Jesus told the disciples,
“If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you. (John 14:15-17, ESV2011– emphasis added)
For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait [in God’s rest] for the hope of righteousness. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love. (Gal 5:5-6, ESV2011– emphasis added)
Yes, faith which abides in Christ will find its outworking through God’s love in us. It is here that we can truly rest and cease from our own religious efforts. Peter often tried to do his own “good” works because they seemed like the right thing to do at the time (calling fire down from heaven on a Samaritan village, cutting off the ear of the high priest’s servant, etc.) As a result he often received a rebuke from Jesus. There are many Marthas in Christendom, but few Marys who have “chosen the better part” resting at Jesus’ feet.
Yes, saving faith works through God’s love within us from a position of emotional rest. Without His faith working in us we are only left with dead works at best.
Whoever has my commandments and keeps them [whoever hears my commands and does them], he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.” (John 14:21, ESV2011)
And at the very end He prayed for us saying,
I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. (John 17:20-23, ESV2011)
Being one with the Father and the Son as Christ’s body is abiding in His rest.
(1) https://austin-sparks.net/english/books/008167.html
photograph above by: joan-gray-NkkjoQeA63c-unsplash(1)
Monthly Archives: September 2024
Precious Stephen, the Martyr of Christ
Stephen was chosen by the apostles to be a servant [deacon] of the Hellenist widows in those earliest days of the Church. Of him we read, “And they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit.” It also says, “And Stephen, full of grace and power, was doing great wonders and signs among the people” (Acts 6:8, ESV2011). Not bad for somebody that was given the task of “waiting on tables.” But there were corrupt men of the local synagogue in Jerusalem who were jealous and hated him and they brought false witnesses against him. “But they could not withstand the wisdom and the Spirit with which he was speaking” (Acts 6:10, ESV2011). “And gazing at him, all who sat in the council saw that his face was like the face of an angel” (Acts 6:15, ESV2011). Stephen was facing death by stoning because of the false accusations that were being spoken against him so Stephen gave them a history lesson to show them what was in their evil hearts.
But it was Solomon who built a house for him [the first temple]. Yet the Most High does not dwell in houses made by hands, as the prophet says,“‘Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. What kind of house will you build for me, says the Lord, or what is the place of my rest? Did not my hand make all these things?’“You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you. Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who announced beforehand the coming of the Righteous One, whom you have now betrayed and murdered, you who received the law as delivered by angels and did not keep it.” (Acts 7:47-53, ESV2011)
Did they repent when they heard these things? Not hardly!
Now when they heard these things they were enraged, and they ground their teeth at him. But he, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. And he said, “Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.” (Acts 7:54-56, ESV2011)
They were experiencing demons in their hearts, but Stephen was in the presence of Jesus and the Father. You see, this is what happens when we are no longer of this world because we seek God with our whole hearts. We become so heavenly minded that we are despised by those who build temples and religious systems with their own hands and minds and call it “the church.”
An Experience I Had in Alaska
For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways. On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone. (Ps 91:11-12, ESV2011)
Last week I met with eight brothers and sisters in one of their homes and we all shared what the Lord had put on our hearts that evening after we had a meal together. For some reason I shared with them what happened to me while living on a remote island off the west coast of Alaska. I had been going through depression for many months after going through a terrible and ugly church split and on top of that the economy took a dive and there was not work to be found where we lived. I finally found work in Alaska but even that job which I had been hired to do in a wilderness area of Alaska was not going well because of a union dispute.
So one day I left the camp and decided to hike around one end of the island along the seashore. Because the tide was coming in I could not go back the way came so I tried to go over the 1500 foot high ridge that was on the crest of the island. I saw a red fox climbing up this steep mountain side and thought, “I will just follow him and find a way up the mountain and back to where I came.” This was a big mistake. You see, foxes can go where a man cannot.
The little path I was on as I followed him traversed what became a cliff face and it got narrower and narrower as I climbed until it was about half as wide as one of my feet. Below me was a crevasse in which I could see huge boulders that were at the foot of the mountain where it met the Arctic ocean. If I had fallen there, no one would have ever found me. I could not go on any further so I slowly started backing up until the path until it was wide enough to turn around. At this point my foot slipped and I started to fall head over heels down this rocky cliff face, but all of a sudden my feet landed and stuck fast on a rock. All I could do was stand there and shiver from fear. Eventually, I was able to crawl on my hands and knees until I could get down to the narrow beach from where my assent started. Once there, I had to move forward through the boulders that were at the base of the mountain until I found a more gradual tundra covered slope. Walking on foot deep tundra is very exhausting, but eventually I was able to get over the ridge top and back to the camp from where I started.
As I told this story to the group a sister named Holly spoke up and said, “Michael, though you were cutoff from your family and fellow Christians and felt all alone on that remote Island, God was with you.” I had not felt His presence for years after that very decisive church split in 1982, but Holly’s words spoke deep into my heart and I finally saw that though I felt cutoff from God for almost 14 years, He had never left me and even saved my life. It was as though He had sent an angel to stop my fall and help me down off the steep mountain. As I meditated on this and was praying this morning the following verses came to mind.
For the LORD will not forsake his people; he will not abandon his heritage;
For justice will return to the righteous, and all the upright in heart will follow it.
Who rises up for me against the wicked? Who stands up for me against evildoers?
If the LORD had not been my help, my soul would soon have lived in the land of silence.
When I thought, “My foot slips,” your steadfast love, O LORD, held me up.
(Ps 94:14-18, ESV2011 – emphasis added)
My feet slipped on that steep mountain, but His steadfast love kept me from falling to my death.
After Holly spoke those words at that home meeting last week, Jesus’ presence flooded my heart. It was like Stephen being faced with the devil in those religious Jews who were about to kill him for his faithful testimony,but he didn’t see the Devil, HE SAW JESUS! Since then I have had no fear of man, only Christ’s love.
The mouth of the righteous utters wisdom, and his tongue speaks justice. The law of his God is in his heart; his steps do not slip. The wicked watches for the righteous and seeks to put him to death. The LORD will not abandon him to his power or let him be condemned when he is brought to trial. (Ps 37:30-33, ESV2011 – emphasis added)
What a loving and mighty God we serve as brothers and sisters IN Christ. Amen!
A Wilderness Voice 