Tag Archives: bible

The Cost

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The passage beginning in Luke 14:25 starts with these words . . .

Now great crowds accompanied him . . .

“Him”, of course, being Jesus.

I read this passage yesterday, kind of randomly. Every time I read it it hits me like a ton of bricks. I wonder sometimes if I’ll hear this on judgment day too, and be cast away. No, I’m not trusting in works to save me and, yes, I am trusting fully (desperately!!) in Jesus Christ as my only way to the Father. He’s my only shot.

But, still. Let this sink in:

. . . and he turned and said to them, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.

“Salt is good, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is of no use either for the soil or for the manure pile. It is thrown away. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

– Luke 14:25-34

I suspect anyone who thinks Jesus is easy to understand (but then I wonder if this is terribly easy to understand – thus the terror) or soft and cuddly is either far, far deeper in the Lord’s service than I am or they don’t read passages like this. It’s been said elsewhere, and far better than I can, but Jesus here is speaking of being executed, of giving up everything for his sake. I wonder, I wonder . . . how can I call myself his disciple? Only by his grace. And only in a good-faith effort, by the power of his Spirit, to truly live that sacrifice. We must start with the small things. Help me Lord.

As a side note, it’s interesting how Luke continues, in the first verse of the next chapter:

Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him.

I suspect the “great crowds” in 14:25 had begun to slink away at his words, and tax collectors and sinners were filling the void.

May I too draw near to him.

Hope does not put us to shame

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Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

– Romans 5:1-5

Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

– 1 Corinthians 13:7

You’ve heard of a fool’s hope, forlorn hope, false hopes, and “all we can do now is hope”. Hope seems to be a most milquetoast emotion, the way we often talk about it. Hope seems the last resort of the weak.

But not in the Bible. In the Bible hope is strong, it is virile, it is tough. Hope is a warrior. Hope sees the victory, before the battle has even begun. Hope bursts forth, the fruit of suffering that has produced endurance and a character strong enough to hope.

Hope is not a salve to numb us or a delusion to hide us away from hopeless reality. Hope is Reality. Hope is something that sets us apart; it is a key aspect of what we call holiness. Hope charges the bunkers of despair, hope outflanks its lines, hope takes the enemy camp. Hope is the flag raised on the Mount Suribachi of our fears, and hope doesn’t give heed to the bullets.

Hope is a primary trait of Biblical love, and Biblical love is something else which is as high above our often weak, watery view of love as the stars are above the earth.

Hope laughs at the darkness and sets it alight. Hope is rooted, grounded, anchored, and secured in Jesus. Hope has no fear of our problems, of our darknesses, of our heartbreaks and our loss. Hope has seen the Beloved tortured and nailed to a cross, beaten bloody and killed by His own who did not recognize him. And three days later Hope was born anew as the stone tumbled away and the powers of death crumbled. Hope has seen the worse the enemy can bring, and has seen him defeated. Hope will see the defeat of the principalities and powers that plague us today.

Child of God, your deepest dream will come true. In your flesh you will see God. And He will make all things right.

And because God’s love has been poured out in our hearts, we hope.

On Anxiety

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“Therefore http://cialistadalafils.com/ I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

“Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

– Matthew 6:25-34

As I read this passage, while simultaneously observing our culture (and myself), a few things jump out at me:

First, Jesus was admonishing his listeners to not be “anxious about their life”. Notice their worries: What shall we eat? What shall we drink? What shall we wear? These worries were not the same worries most of us have in the 21st century West. When we worry about “what shall we wear”, it’s because we’re having a hard time choosing from all the clothes in the closet. In Jesus time, they were worried about not having any clothes. Ditto for “what shall we eat”; they weren’t stressed because they couldn’t decide between Mexican and Steak. they were stressed because they were running out of oil and grain, and harvest was still two months away.

For the most part, we have it so much better than they did, materially. And yet I am surrounded by people consumed by their worries. I know people, who have almost everything they could possibly wish for materially, socially, spiritually, and familialy (new word!), who are paralyzed with fear for the future and with uncertainty about the now. I want to tell them “don’t worry! Just live!” But then I look at myself; all it takes is just one tear in just one of the multiple safety-nets that I have been blessed with to start me revving the engine of worry in my own life.

For many of us, worry is something that we wrongly think comes at us from the outside. And yet in the Bible anxiety is rightly shown to be something we do, and that we should not do. “Do not be anxious” is a command, much like “rejoice!” is a command. It is in our power to refuse anxiety, and Christ tells us to do so.

And it’s only because of Him that we can do so! This universe can be a scary, lonely place, even for well-heeled, modern, 21st century types like many of us. But the Gospel, the Good News proclaimed by Jesus, includes the wonderful reassurance that our Father knows our needs, and He cares for us. No matter what happens in this life (and there are many bad things that can and do happen) He is there, and in His hand is ultimate healing, ultimate sustenance, ultimate protection.

We are not alone.

Jesus calls us to focus our lives on what is really important. Have you ever noticed that worry does a great job of crowding out of your mind the things you need to be focusing on? Like living, for instance. Worry sticks our feet in plaster, befogs our eyes, and stuffs our ears with cotton.

Jesus tells us to throw all that aside, and live, setting our eyes, minds, thoughts, and actions toward the Kingdom of God that Jesus Himself has inaugurated, and toward the righteousness that is the banner of that Kingdom.

“. . . and all these things will be added to you.”

[Note: this was cross-posted at Thinklings]

What’s a Christian to do with the Old Testament law? Part 3 (the Law of Christ)

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"Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven."

– Matthew 5:19-20

(Ok, here's where I need to take a deep breath)

I've said sometimes when teaching, "if the words of Jesus don't scare you, you're not really reading." This statement of Christ is a great example of what I'm talking about. It scares me.

And it confuses me a bit as well. When Jesus refers to the "least of these commandments", what is he referring to?

In the previous few statements in chapter 5 of Matthew, Jesus has affirmed the law and the prophets, and has claimed in himself to be the fulfillment of them. He reiterates that he has not come to abolish the law, but rather to fulfill it.

In reading ahead to the end of the chapter, we see that Christ launches into a series of "you have heard it said / but I say to you" statements, where he reinterprets six commands from the Old Testament and moves their "center" from the skin-depth of our external actions to the depths of our hearts. For example, “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment" (vv. 21-22a).

It is important to notice that Jesus doesn't make the law easier here. He makes it harder.

Some have argued that the purpose of the law is only to show us our need for Christ, and our inability to please God on our own. While this view has some attraction for me (I don't need to take these commands seriously? Cool!) I don't believe it is correct.

My friend Jared summarizes nicely my discomfort:

The Law is indeed a mirror (as James' epistle elucidates), it does indeed confront us in its very existence with our failure to measure up, with the complete imperfection within us. No, by the law will no one be justified. Yes, the law's declaration demonstrates our own alienation from God's holiness. But this notion that this negative declaration is only why it exists, to show us we can't do it, is just . . . weird. I just can't read the Sermon on the Mount, for instance, in which Jesus makes the Law harder by making it about our hearts and not just our behavior, and think it's just some bizarre logic puzzle meant to mean the opposite of what it says.

When Jesus says "Love your enemies," yes it is implicit that we can't do that perfectly, that it is not in our own power to do that or even want to do that. But it is still a command. It is still something to do. And with the Spirit's transforming power, in the new life in Jesus, it is something we can and must do.

I like what Dallas Willard says about this stuff: The life of faith is not opposed to effort, it is opposed to earning. There is a huuuuge difference. And I think many of those who get hung up on the Law as mirror — setting one "use" of the Law against another — fall off the horse on the other side.

Well said.

So what's Jesus doing here? I believe that Jesus meant what he said; this is how we are to live. This is what the Kingdom of God looks like: it's a Kingdom populated by followers of Jesus who live not just in accordance with the letter of the law, but who accord with the spirit of the law as well. Kingdom people are people who understand that anger in their heart does lead to murder, that lust in their heart does lead to adultery, that the person standing next to us is not a fool to be despised, but is rather a creature fearfully and wonderfully created in the image of God. Kingdom people are people who understand that we don't live for ourselves, for our dignity, or to get "what's coming to us".

In the following verses and chapters, Jesus is going to describe his Kingdom, populated by the blessed meek, the blessed poor in spirit, the pure in heart that he described at the beginning of his sermon.

If you're like me, the description of the Kingdom in the sermon on the mount is both very good news and very bad news. It's good news when I think of how wonderful it would be to live in that kind of society; a society of Jesus-followers living from the heart and living out the love of Christ to each other. But because I'm crooked deep inside, it becomes bad news when I start imagining myself conforming to this law of the Spirit, because it seems impossible.

But I've learned that what seems impossible to me is often not impossible for God. And this is the gospel, the good news, that a dead man like me can be made alive in Christ and can actually do the good works which the Lord, who's workmanship I am, has prepared for me to do.

When we live in accordance to the law of Christ, which is the law of the Spirit, not just the letter, our righteousness will surpass the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees, who knew the letter backwards and forwards but who had lost the purpose of the law, and who had become dead to the things of God even as they memorized and lived out the externals of his commands.

And we are to live in accordance with Christ's law. Not to earn salvation, because Christ has already earned it. This life of obedience in the Spirit is natural; a result and a reflection of Jesus.

The law of Christ, which is the fullest expression and completion of the law and the prophets in the Old Testament, is joy. As is being a citizen of the Kingdom of God, lit up by that same law, a shining city on a hill.

[Note: this was cross-posted on the HNW Gap Singles site]

What’s a Christian to do with the Old Testament law? Part 2

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Disclaimer: I have no illusion that what I'm writing in this post represents the only valid understanding of the scripture in Matthew 5. This is my best understanding to date, though.

"For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished." – Matthew 5:18

Jesus makes a remarkable statement here. Some have said that Jesus' previous "I have not come to abolish the law" statement was a defensive counter to the religious leaders' accusations of him as a lawbreaker. This makes some sense, except for the fact that many believe that the Sermon on the Mount came early in Jesus' ministry, before much of that criticism had been leveled. And also, note the reach of Jesus' statement. Not only did he not come to abolish the law, but he affirms that not the smallest letter or stroke of the pen of the law would pass away until all of it is accomplished! That's quite an overreach, if all he was trying to do was deflect criticism.

Plus, Jesus never strikes me as the kind of person who feels the need to defend himself.

Notice how Jesus talks about the law: to Jesus, the law is not a set of dead rules to follow. No, the law has a purpose, which can be accomplished. And we know this from scripture – the law is a mirror for us to see ourselves the way God sees us. The Psalmist writes of how the law "revives the soul", enlightens us, makes us wise, and endures forever.

Sometimes we get the idea that the law was an evil thing that Christ did away with. But that's not what he's saying here. To Jesus, the law is a very good thing, with a very good purpose, and it was to be accomplished, in him.

So, has the law been accomplished? People debate these days whether any of the Old Testament law applies to us today. There are some aspects of it that, obviously, were accomplished in Jesus' passion. For instance, we don't sacrifice animals for sin anymore, because Christ is our ultimate and all-sufficient sacrifice. We don't follow the rituals of the temple anymore, because we ourselves are now the Temple of the Holy Spirit. And certain aspects of the law – the dietary laws, for instance – were specifically set aside in Scripture. Others, such as circumcision, are shown to have been replaced by new signs in the new creation (in this case, baptism).

I am not versed in all the theology behind Christ's statement. But I know that the law was not a mistake. It points us to Jesus, and in him it finds its fulfillment, and it is perfected in the "Law of Christ".

More on that in a later post.

[Note: this was cross-posted on the HNW Gap Singles site]


What’s a Christian to do with the Old Testament law? Part 1

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“The Sermon on the Mount is probably the best-known part of the teaching of Jesus, though arguably it is the least understood, and certainly it is the least obeyed” – John Stott (from The Message of the Sermon on the Mount, InterVarsity Press, 1978, p. 15.)

“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

– Matthew 5:17-20

Sometimes, when preparing to teach the GAP, I foolishly think “I’m up to this”. The good news about the Sermon on the Mount is that I don’t hold any illusions about my qualifications to teach on it. Nearly every statement Christ makes in this sermon is a conundrum to me. When I read with open eyes and heart the words of Jesus, I find myself scandalized. So much of my life fails to line up with his words, and so many of his words don’t match my preconceived notions of what being a Christian is all about.

The good news here, again, is that I know that if Jesus and I aren’t lined up, I’m the crooked one.

Take this statement: “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.”

Now, that’s quite a statement, isn’t it?

Yet, I’m so glad Jesus said it! In that one statement Christ affirms the witness of the Old Testament about himself, and he begins lifting the fog that often surrounds my reading of the first five books of the Bible. Jesus lived in a time of great piety surrounding the Old Testament law, the Torah. And he was often accused, by the Jewish religious leaders, of ignoring or setting aside the law, which they held so dear.

And in my day I find myself confused when reading the Torah (don’t you?). How many of us read, for instance, Leviticus for pleasure?

We don’t get it. And the religious leaders didn’t get Jesus. He didn’t come to abolish God’s word. How could he? He is the Word!

No, Jesus has come to fulfill the law. He is the fulfillment, the end point of what the Old Testament was getting at. In his perfect life and atoning death he fulfilled what Moses and the prophets wrote about, commanded, and hungered for. Emmanuel, God with us, here to usher in a new age, a new Kingdom, a new way to be human.

And it only makes sense that Matthew would report Jesus’ words regarding the fulfillment of the law in himself. One of the main purposes of Matthew’s gospel is to show how Christ fulfilled the Law and the Prophets. Do a search sometime on the word “fulfill” in Matthew using your favorite Bible software or Bible website. Over and over you read “All this took place to fulfill . . .” and “that what was spoken by the prophets might be fulfilled . . .”. By my rough count, there are fifteen such statements in Matthew. Jesus is the fulfillment!

Read Leviticus, and the other OT books of the law, with Jesus in mind and the seemingly dead regulations, sacrifices and symbols begin to sparkle with life. It’s all about him. Jesus is the firm foundation upon which the Bible must be read, to understand it and to live it.

Of course, knowing that doesn’t mean that Jesus’ statements in Matthew 5 are crystal clear to me. I still struggle with them. And I know I’m not alone.

I’ll write more on this in a later post.

[Note: this was cross-posted on the HNW Gap Singles site]

A blessing

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The Lord bless you and keep you;

the Lord make his face to shine upon you

and be gracious to you;

the Lord lift up his countenance upon you

and give you peace.

– Numbers 6:24-26 (ESV)

Chronological Bible reading plan

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For those of you who might be interested, I’ve put a link to the ESV Chronological Bible Reading Plan in the Navbar, under the daily verse.

Out on the ESV blog there is a cool post that visualizes the various Bible reading plans. For example:

The Through the Bible reading plan is about as simple as they come: you read one passage each day from the Old Testament and one from the New Testament, starting in Genesis and Matthew in January and ending in Malachi and Revelation in December. Here’s how it looks:

For comparison, here’s the text from the blog and the image for the Chronological reading plan:

The Chronological Reading Plan from Back to the Bible lets you read the Bible in the order in which events occurred. So, for example, you read the account of David and Bathsheba in 2 Samuel on the same day you read the parallel account in 1 Chronicles. The next day, you read the psalms that David composed related to the events in the historical books.

Several trends become apparent when visualizing the reading plan this way:

1. The antiquity of Job.

2. Parallel passages in some of the Old Testament historical books.

3. The wide historical distribution of the Psalms and the Minor Prophets.

4. Parallel passages in the four gospels.

If you’ve resolved to read the Bible more this year, check out the rest of the post; it will give you a good overview of the different reading plans you might choose from.

The ESV me likee

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The first Bible I ever bought as a believer was the New King James Version, and I’ve always had a soft spot in my heart for this wonderful translation. I treasured my battered leather-bound NKJV for over ten years until it started falling apart. I still have it, lovingly tucked away in a drawer.

Since that time I’ve bounced from version to version. I like the NIV. It’s readable, of course, but it somehow leaves me a bit flat. The NASB is a translation I respect greatly, but it can sometimes make for a hard read; I don’t always “grasp” what it’s trying to say. For devotional reading I’ve enjoyed my New Living Translation.

I recently discovered the English Standard Version. I love this translation! Something about the way it reads . . . I’m no scholar, but it seems very transparent, allowing the meaning of the passage to reach me relatively unhindered.

Peter over at Stronger Church has a great post [hat tip: Mr. Standfast for directing me to Peter’s blog] about why he’s begun using the ESV more and more in his services (side note: Peter is a Pastor who has evidently been at the same church for 25 years! Wow!). Peter writes:

The ESV – to me – is now the better choice for best of both worlds. I like the way it reads. It’s not as easy to read as the NIV, but not that far off. And it’s worlds better than the NASB, even from the 1995 NASB update. From charts that I have seen, it occupies a place of middle ground between those two translations.

What helped win me over was also the level of technical savvy among the people who promote the ESV. The passage of the day in the right sidebar is fed by an RSS feed from their site, they offer several great Bible reading plans. I’m currently following their One Year Bible plan, which is also an RSS that I download into my feedreader every day and read on the bus.

And did I mention they have a Blog?.

Most importantly, though, the ESV is just a great translation and they have done excellent work in making it accessible to as many people as possible. Check it out if you get a chance.