THE PROVISIONS OF GOD (For The Road Less Traveled)

The Lord gives WISDOM willingly, wholeheartedly, and abundantly to those who ask. The only condition on this promise is the request must be made in faith with no wavering, hesitation or doubting. Saints, we all need wisdom all of the time... so... what are you waiting for? (James 1:5-8)

The lord gives DIRECTION, making straight and plain the pathway of His children. There are three conditions on this promise: Trust in the Lord with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. Do not lean on... rely on, your own insight or understanding. In all your ways know, recognize, and acknowledge Him. Saints, we all need direction, all of the time... so... what are you waiting for? (Proverbs 3:5-6)

The Lord gives STRENGTH... Grace under pressure, to help in our times of need. The only condition on this promise is that we approach God’s throne of Grace fearlessly and confidently and boldly, since we have a great High Priest who has already ascended through the heavens, and is now seated at the right hand of Father God. Saints, we all need strength, all of the time... so... what are you waiting for? (Hebrews 4:16)

Wisdom, Direction, and Strength energize the Spirit led life and must be cultivated. These provisions will foster an attitude of absolute faith -- though He slay me trust – and fearless boldness as we acknowledge God in every aspect of life, refusing to rely on our own strength, understanding and abilities. Our dependence on our Father must be absolute (not qualified or diminished in any way), unconditional (not subject to any conditions), unreserved (complete and without reservations), unequivocal (leaving no doubt), categorical (explicit and direct) and indisputable (unable to be challenged or denied).Herein lies the road less traveled… the road our Savior walked!

ENERGIZING THE SPIRIT LED LIFE

“FOR THE WORK OF MINISTRY”

Most saints will never have a large national or worldwide ministry.  Our callings, though unique in content, are very similar in scope. First and foremost we are called into Christlikeness, the progressive life-long heart surgery of God’s Spirit whereby we put off our Self-nature, and put on the nature of Christ. This process involves, by necessity, the death of Self on the cross of Christ and submission to the Lordship of Christ. As we grow in grace in the knowledge and understanding of our Lord we are changed in degrees of glory, becoming more like Him and less like Self, who is the usurper of God’s rightful throne.  

God places in each of us unique mixtures of natural talents and spiritual giftings – suited to our uniqueness as individuals -- to enable us to help those we meet along our journey home to God. In a real sense our life is our ministry, as we feel the tug of God’s heart and respond to the physical, financial, emotional, and spiritual needs of others. We become what we behold, extending grace and mercy to others as God has extended them to us, loving the unlovable with the agape love we have beheld in our Lord. Our faith will be stretched by the sacrifices of our heart, and our faith will be tested again and again to come forth approved as pure gold. Love, Obedience, Passion, and Sacrifice become the foundation stones of our ministry... our life, bringing a twinkle to our loving Daddy’s eyes.

It won’t be easy to transform sin stained cripples into beacons of light in a dark and dying world, nothing of real value ever is easy. All God needs and wants is our willingness... or our willingness to be made willing, and He will do the rest.  Our job, our ministry and goal, is to become the best Bondservant – the best Love-slave -- on the planet, totally dependent on our Savior, marching to the rhythms of His heartis heart.. Most saints will never have a large national or worldwide ministry. And considering the way many mega-ministries are bowing to the altar of culture, this is a good thing. The Body of Christ is not, after all, a church building, denomination, movement, or mega-ministry, but rather all the “called out ones ... members individually” who have washed their robes of flesh in the sacred blood of Jesus. It is these individual members who received the Great Commission to “go and make disciples.”

My heart’s desire is to be what God has called me to be, and do what God has called me to do, with passion and joy, above all wearing the cloak of love that others might see Christ in me. I pray this is your desire likewise. And if you don’t know what your ministry is... well, you are just not listening. The ministry road begins with a heart willing to change...

"PREDESTINED TO BE CONFORMED 
TO THE IMAGE OF HIS SON" 

"FOR THE WORK OF MINISTRY"

BOUGHT BY GOD

Three times New Testament scripture declares we were “bought” by the Lord, twice followed by a command, and once with a warning:

* “For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.” (1 Cor. 6:20)

* “You were bought at a price; do not become slaves of men.” (1 Cor. 7:23)

* “But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction.” (2 Peter 2:1)

The Greek word agorazo, translated “bought”, means to purchase something, and is also translated redeem -- with the sense to buy out of – as seen in Rev. 5:9 where the Lord is said to have “redeemed us to God by your blood.” The consequence of someone having been bought is that the buyer has the right of possession. In Christ’s redemptive work on the cross He offered Himself for us as due satisfaction to the Law’s demands, freeing us from our liability to pay the penalty for our sin. Christ, the Lamb of God, has bought us for God with His blood. And, having paid the ultimate price, He binds us to Himself. 

Saints, we were purchased with a preciousness of ultimate value – the Blood of Jesus – paid for by Christ and made His very own. We are called to honor God and bring glory to Him in and with our body, never submitting in bondage to men or the world’s ways, but considering ourselves slaves to Christ. Beware of false prophets and teachers – slaves of corruption overcome by the lusts of the flesh – who  “even deny the Lord who bought them”, for swift destruction follows them.

“FOR YOU WERE BOUGHT AT A PRICE...”

DOCTRINE

The Word of God, the Bible, is the only supernatural source of wisdom, knowledge, and understanding of mankind’s current and future role as key players in God’s creation. God’s inspired word is conclusive and incontrovertible, a treasure of freeing truth and practical principles waiting to liberate and empower whosoever will pursue it in diligent study. Hear the Apostle Paul’s exhortation on “the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God”:

“Till I come, give attention to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine … Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth … For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” (1 Tim. 4:13; 2 Tim. 2:15; Heb. 4:12; Eph. 6:17)

Paul’s instructions to “be diligent” … “a worker” … “rightly dividing”, a command in the Greek, calls us well beyond a casual approach to scripture. This is conscientious toiling study which handles the word of God skillfully producing clear accurate straightforward truth. Our tenets of faith must be based on sound scriptural exegesis. New Testament doctrine must be substantiated by two or three New Testament scriptures interpreted literally, within the context, and in full harmony with other scriptures. A common interpretive mistake, and the focus of this study, is the misapplication of Old Testament passages to create New Testament doctrine.

Care must be taken in carrying over Old Testament scriptures to substantiate New Testament doctrine: “God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son…” (Heb. 1:1-2). The Old Testament records God speaking to us in times past by the Law and the Prophets, and the New Testament records God speaking to us by His Son… the revelation of the Son. It is therefore contextually correct to interpret Hebrews 1:1 and 2 as directly referencing the Old Covenant of The Law – The Old Testament (the Old Will), and the New Covenant of Grace – The New Testament (the New Will) respectively, since the broad context of the whole book of Hebrews is the comparison of these two covenants and the replacement of the lesser, the Old Testament Mosaic Covenant of the Law, with the greater, the New Testament Covenant of Grace. Aside from the wisdom books, Psalms and Proverbs, and a very small amount of end time prophetic scriptures, the Old Testament is historical in nature, valuable for “types and shadows” of New Testament doctrine, and understanding the nature of God through His dealings with Israel His chosen people.

The foundation of each covenant is a book, and in each book it is God speaking. The primary reason there are two books is to define these two uniquely different covenants, which are people and time specific: In Genesis 12 God splits mankind into two groups of people, Jews and Gentiles, and makes covenant, the Mosaic Covenant of the Law, with the Jews which lasts until the cross.  Since John the Baptist (Lk. 16:16) God’s covenant has been with “whosoever will”, a Covenant of Grace mediated by Jesus, through which Jews and Gentiles are one people. It is, therefore, essential the foundational scriptures for doctrine under the New Covenant of Grace be found in the “New Will”, the New Testament.

The New Testament is God speaking forth the revelation of His Son.  The prophets spoke as mere mouthpieces, but when the Son spoke it was God Himself speaking, and in a sense it is God being revealed By His Son in and through the Son’s life, the Son’s message, the Son’s redemptive work and the Son’s  return to establish His (i.e., God’s) eternal Kingdom. The New Testament reveals to mankind God’s redemptive plan established before the foundations of the world with the foreordained sacrifice of the Son of His love, that we, the “us” of Hebrews 1:2, might be partakers of salvation and know eternal fellowship with God through His Covenant of Grace –Indescribable Grace.

THE REVELATION OF THE SON

UNCONDITIONAL LOVE

Unconditional love is love without conditions, love freely given, an act of the feelings irrespective of one’s will. “For God so loved the world”: Unconditional love originated with God who demonstrated the willingness to love His creation without preconditions when “He gave His only begotten Son” to die for the sins of mankind. So we – you and I and every person that will ever walk planet earth -- know beyond any doubt that God loves us unconditionally. Unconditional love can, likewise, be expressed between people.

It is important to understand true unconditional love separates the object of love from his or her behavior. God’s unconditional love for us does not condone our behavior or demand our obedience. Ditto our love for other people: In particular, our unconditional love for other people does not demand or require that we accept, condone or enable behaviors and lifestyles we find morally or otherwise objectionable. We love a cute, playful little puppy and make him a part of the family. When he urinates on the floor we do not stop loving him, but we do set about to modify his objectionable behavior through training. The problem is some puppies are harder to train than others, requiring discipline, and some never learn. Ditto people! The world would have us believe we must accept, condone and enable a person’s objectionable behavior in order to love them unconditionally. This is a lie directed at separating people – in particular Christians – from their moral compass, the Word of God.  

We live in a time when relational issues affect so many Christian parents and grandparents who find their integrity as Christians under assault by relatives and friends who seek to force acceptance and support for their ungodly lifestyle under the guise of unconditional love. “If you really love me unconditionally you will accept me as I am.” But this is the world’s way to love unconditionally: The Bible warns not to be conformed to the ways of the world. (Rom. 12:1-2) Saints, if we really love someone unconditionally we will be true to our convictions and truthful to them about the consequences of their choices, even if we know they will reject the message and the messenger. We must love them unconditionally while holding them accountable for their bad choices, allowing them to reap what they have sown without intervention, as hard as this may be. Unconditional love is tough love that stays the course, holding lost loved ones up in prayer continually, that they might find their way out of the moral fog that clouds their mind and find their way into the marvelous light of Christ’s love. God expects nothing less of His blood bought saints.

There is a post condition to God’s unconditional love, we must one and all accept the gift of saving grace released to mankind in His ultimate act of unconditional love… the Cross of Christ. Those of us who accept will bask eternally in His unconditional love in the paradise God has personally prepared for us. Those of us who don’t accept will spend eternity in unending torment separated from God’s unconditional love -- a choice of our own choosing – even though God will continue throughout eternity to love us unconditionally. Such is the unconditional love of God…

TOUGH LOVE IN ACTION

LITTLE CHRISTS

Hear the words of C.S. Lewis: “Now the whole offer which Christianity makes is this: that we can, if we let God have His way, come to share in the life of Christ. If we do, we shall then be sharing a life which was begotten, not made, which always existed and always will exist. Christ is the Son of God. If we share in this kind of life we also shall be sons of God. We shall love the Father as He does and the Holy Ghost will arise in us. He came to this world and became a man in order to spread to other men the kind of life He has — by what I call "good infection." Every Christian is to become a little Christ. The whole purpose of becoming a Christian is simply nothing else.”

God became man for no other purpose then to draw men into Christ... into Himself, to make them little Christs; the whole universe was created for this very purpose. Jesus commanded: “Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.” It is our conformance into the likeness of Christ... our transformation, which is at issue in this command, our spiritual maturation. The “Consuming Fire”, the Love that made the worlds, will never rest... or let us rest, until we are literally perfect, the perfect reflection of our perfect Savior. God’s purpose is not to torment our natural Self but to kill it. No half measures will do, the whole of Self must die to make way for the spiritual nature of Christ to manifest and flourish in us. This is the whole enchilada, the whole essence of Christianity, the foundation on which Kingdom life is built – Christlikeness!

Of the purpose of the Church, Lewis said that it “exists for nothing else but to draw men into Christ, to make them little Christs. If they are not doing that, all the cathedrals, clergy, missions, sermons, even the Bible itself, are simply a waste of time. God became Man for no other purpose.” Now hear Martin Luther voicing this same understanding: “As our heavenly Father has in Christ freely come to our aid, we also ought freely to help our neighbor through our body and its works, and each one should become as it were a Christ to the other that we may be Christs to one another and Christ may be the same in all, that is, that we may be truly Christians.”  

The church should be contagious with this “Good Infection” spreading transformation into Christlikeness – the leaven of God’s Kingdom -- to every saint who enters its portals. This is the equipping of the saints the Apostle Paul spoke of – the true work of ministry beyond the church’s walls -- to be the catalyst of a pandemic everywhere they go. “To be conformed to the image (nature) of His Son … for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ … that He (Christ) might be the firstborn among many brethren.”

THE WHOLE PURPOSE OF BECOMING A CHRISTIAN

IS SIMPLY NOTHING ELSE

(Rom. 8:29; Eph. 4:12)

COMPLETE SURRENDER

It starts with a proper understanding of faith: To have faith in God is to believe in, trust in, cling to, and rely upon God, wholly submitted to His will… His word. Faith is willing not to have what God is not willing to give, and it does not insist on an explanation.

It is more than enough to know God promises to give what is good, since He knows so much more about “good” than we do.

“Be holy, for I am holy.” We are called to pursue and be partakers of His holiness… His ultimate good.

Without holiness -- without Christ formed in us -- no one shall see God. This would not be good!

So, when we say yes to God’s call He takes our yes seriously... literally, and invites us into His operating room. The Father’s wooing call is a two-edged sword that meets willingness with love surgery, paring the callus from hardened hearts.

We must surrender, our body’s needs, our soul’s desires, our spirit’s loneliness, our mind’s fears, and our heart’s loves -- ultimately surrendering our independence and our will to will anything differently then God wills -- all to our Lord and Savior.

And, there must be certainty in our response, a willingness not to have what God is not willing to give… Self rule, that we might have what He desires to give… Lordship, Himself indwelling our hearts and living His life through us. 

The Holy Spirit is, operationally, the mind of Christ indwelling us. Cohabitation with Self is simply not possible. 

God’s purpose is not to torment our nature, Self, but to kill it. No half measures will do, the whole of Self must die to make way for the divine nature of Christ to manifest and flourish in us.

We must allow the Holy Spirit to do His transforming work in us if we are to mature spiritually, live in the center of God’s will, and manifest Christ to the world as “sons of God led by the Spirit of God.”

In short: We must become People of One Thing… Jesus!

The “Consuming Fire” -- the Love that made the worlds -- will never rest... or let us rest, until we are literally perfect, the perfect reflection of our perfect Savior.

Christlikeness is our destiny and our only hope of eternal glory.

God is not an uncertain God…

NOTHING MORE IS NEEDED...

NOTHING LESS WILL DO…

THE WALK OF FAITH

Salvation is an act of faith... faith alone, whereby we are justified – the guilt and penalty of sin is removed and we are clothed in the righteousness of Christ, and sanctified – set apart and positionally placed into the body of Christ, the Beloved of God. It is at this point that many saints stop, failing to realize that sanctification – and by direct implication salvation --  is more than a positional act, and includes our transformation into Christlikeness, the process by which we will become holy as Christ is holy. Salvation is effected “by grace” -- made available by the agency of grace, apprehended “through faith” – understood and grasped as our personal possession through faith, and empowered by grace – brought to perfection by the power of grace. Grace is the totally undeserved kindness by which salvation is given, but it is also the power-word describing the Holy Spirit’s operational means, for grace empowers what it commands. Grace is a verb as well as a noun, and a force as well as a favor, exhibiting all the power and provision of the “fullness” of Jesus Christ which we receive “grace for grace.” Grace is more than God’s disposition of impersonal favor; it is the full power and provision of the Godhead meeting us at our point of need. And our great need, in reality our only need, is to be like Jesus…

We can picture salvation as the narrow gate accessing the road to eternal life. The difficulties we encounter on the road to heaven will teach us obedience – much as our Lord learned obedience through the things He suffered – and change us from children of God into brethren of our Lord. It is here on the road to transformation that our living faith produces righteous works for “The Way” is littered with detours to Golgotha as we allow the Holy Spirit to rip piece by piece the nature of the First Adam from our heart and replace them with the nature of the Last Adam. This is a progressive process by which the Holy Spirit eliminates Self and its sin nature from the saint’s experience, gradually conforming him into the nature of our Lord Jesus as we are literally – in a spiritual sense – crucified with Christ. The speed-bumps and washed out bridges on the road to eternal life are most effective at testing and approving our faith as we grow into Christlikeness. We human kind tend to prefer the known to the unknown, liking our independence and Self’s worldly attachments, so change will sometimes be hard... change will sometimes hurt. Saints, we need to understand this walk of faith is not only a progressive process of change throughout this earth life, but it will continue throughout all eternity and is never fully completed. You see, a finite creature can never equal an infinite one in any quality. We will forever be changing into the likeness of our Lord, absorbing His attributes and displaying His virtues, but never become fully as He is...

AND OUR GREAT NEED…

IN REALITY OUR ONLY NEED…

IS TO BE LIKE JESUS…

(Eph. 2:8; Jn. 1:16, Rom. 8:29; 1 Thess. 4:3; Gal. 2:20; 1 peter 1:6-7, 4:12-13)

TITHES, GIVING AND THE SECOND COMMANDMENT

Tithe is from the Hebrew word maser and means “a tenth part”, a requirement of the Old Testament Law in which all Israelites were to give a tithe of everything they earned and grew. One yearly tithe (10%) went to support the Levites and the temple at Jerusalem. (Lev. 27:30-33; Num. 18:21-31) One yearly tithe (10%) went to sponsor religious festivals in Jerusalem. (Deut. 14:22-26) And one tithe (10%) paid every third year supported the local Levites, orphans, sojourners, and widows throughout Israel. (Deut. 14:27-29, 26:12-13) These were two 10% yearly tithes and one 10% tithe paid every three years for a total yearly tithe of 23 1/3%. God commanded all three tithes and used the plural, “tithes” in Neh. 12:14 and Mal. 3:8-12. But this command, like the rest of “The Law” was given to the Israelites, not New Testament saints abiding under Grace. We must remember the Apostle Paul warned that to keep any part of the Law makes one a debtor to keep the whole Law. (Gal. 5:3) And no one, except Jesus, has ever kept the whole Law! This is not the road a saint saved by Grace should ever be tempted to travel…

New Testament saints are owned by God, purchased with the precious blood of His Son, so God owns us and all that we have... not ten %, and He may require all if it at any time. He wants us to “abound in the grace of giving”, and allows us to give as we have “purposed in our heart”, loving our sacrificial giving with an attitude of cheerfulness. We are to purposefully “lay aside” our excess, that which is over and above our own needs, to meet the needs of our brethren (2 Cor. 8:1-7, 13-15; 9:6-11). This is sacrificial giving, living frugally in order to have more to share; allowing the Holy Spirit to touch our heart with the needs of others. Heart-based giving is much more difficult then rule-based giving for Self will want to set the bar pretty low and keep more for him Self. Giving is a love test of sorts, the Second Commandment in action: Do we love others to the same degree that we love our Self? Do we cheerfully give unto others as we give unto our Self? The answer is defining, measuring our love for God and our spiritual maturity.

Old Testament tithing was compulsory and earned favor and blessings with God. The Jews were prone to do the external and material while neglecting the expression of the inner qualities of the Spirit (Lk. 11:37- 42). In the New Testament tithing is neither stressed nor commanded, but saints are urged to give voluntarily (2 Cor. 9:7) without neglecting the development of spiritual qualities: “But rather give alms of such things as you have ...” (Lk. 11:41). “Such things as you have” is a word cluster translated from the Greek word enonta which means those things which are within the human heart ... spiritual qualities, the Lord here speaking of the inner man from which one should give alms... from the heart... out of love, joyously extending mercy. New covenant giving is characterized by what Paul wrote to Philemon: “That your good deed might not be by compulsion, as it were, but voluntary.” (Phile. 1; 14)

Endnote: Much of the twenty-first century church teaches tithing as a way to fund large facilities, amenities, and worldwide ministries, including upscale living for the ministry team. Not only are we prideful of our churches, many saints believe the unfounded notion that a large prosperous church indicates God’s hand of blessing on the ministry, as if getting a large number of people into a building meant something. Saints are taught that tithing guarantees prosperity, and giving to get becomes a lifestyle. Then when they hit a financial speed-bump God takes the hit for failing to keep promises He didn’t make! Sorry folks, but God never promises prosperity as an entitlement, and does, in fact, warn us repeatedly about the dangerous of riches as in the parable of The Sower where riches suffocate God’s word, and in the parable of the Rich Young Ruler where riches make it hard, if not impossible, to enter God’s Kingdom.  

“GOD LOVES A CHEERFUL GIVER”

OUR TUTOR IS DEAD

“Carefully follow the terms of this covenant, so that you may prosper in everything you do” (Deut. 29:9): Under the old covenant of The Law God rewarded obedience with health and prosperity. Countless millions of sincere Christians have dragged this Old Testament precept into the New Testament -- the new covenant of Grace -- expecting health and prosperity as an entitlement of faith in God. But The Law is dead... defunct, replaced by a new and better covenant that has no provisions for guaranteed health and prosperity.  We can’t just pull cherry picked pieces of The Law into Grace, the Apostle Paul was very clear on that, holding onto any of The Law libels one for the whole of it. And, since man can’t keep the whole Law – only Christ fulfilled The Law – judgment and condemnation swiftly follow. So, we can quit salivating over those Old Testament passages on health and prosperity; “The Law was our tutor to bring us to Christ” (Gal. 3:24). Our tutor is dead...

“The former regulation (The Law) is set aside because it was weak and useless (for The Law made nothing perfect) and a better hope is introduced, by which we draw near to God” (Heb. 7:18-19): The “Better Hope” is for Intimacy with God under the New Testament covenant of Grace where God has put His Spirit, the Holy Spirit, in believers to enable us to draw near to Him. The former arrangement of doing “good” to secure God’s blessings has been replaced with a desire for intimacy with our loving Father: Our attitude is “Thy will be done.” Our hope is to become like Jesus. Our strategy is to trust in Jehovah Jireh. Our experience is to celebrate God’s glory. Our passion is to intimately and continually know Christ, irrespective of the conditions of our life. Health and prosperity have no meaning or place under Grace where the best health and greatest prosperity is to be like Jesus.  

As the Apostle Paul put it, it was through the Law that we died to the Law that we might live to and for God: “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me … I die daily.” (Gal. 2: 19-20; 1 Cor. 15:31) Saints, we too must daily crucify our fleshly nature… Self, that our Lord’s supernatural nature might emerge and reign in our lives. Isn’t it time to put away our childish ways and become the sons and daughters Christ died to produce? The desire for health and prosperity smells of misplaced love for this life in this world... futile desires of an earth-bound mindset. What we really need -- what we should really want -- is transformation into Christlikeness... By any means... At any cost... Christ in His fullness, permeating ever fiber of our being. Nothing less, not even His blessings, will do.

 “BUT CHRIST LIVES IN ME”

STRAINED THROUGH THE NEEDLE’S EYE

“And again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God.” Eye is from the Greek word trupema, and means “hole, aperture”, and needle is the Greek word rhaphis which means “needle.” Rhaphis is the feminine noun of rhapto which means “to sew.” Matt. 19:24 is identical to Mark 10:25 and Luke 18:25, and the context can only mean the eye of a sewing needle. These two words, trupema and rhaphis are only used in these three passages. There have been many creative attempts to make “The eye of a needle” something other than... well... the eye of a needle. Now either the Holy Spirit needs a Greek lesson... or it is what it is. We cannot serve God and riches for riches are deceitful and suffocate God’s word: Therefore we are commanded not to trust in riches, but to trust in God, and be rich towards God. (Matt. 6:24, 13:22; 1 Tim. 6:17; Lk. 12:21) Considering all the New Testament passages which warn against wealth, it would seem wise and prudent for saints to share their excess with others, particularly other saints, never allowing wealth to accumulate. Heart-based giving demonstrates God’s love, and, it is no doubt our excess blessings are meant for this very purpose. Giving away our excess precludes the Self-loves that wealth can bestow -- love for the world’s trinkets -- while proving our love for God and for our brothers and sisters in the Lord.

Endnote: The "eye of the needle" has been claimed to be a gate in Jerusalem, which opened after the main gate was closed at night. A camel could only pass through this smaller gate if it was stooped and had its baggage removed. This story has been put forth since at least the 15th century, and possibly as far back as the 9th century. However, there is no evidence for the existence of such a gate in the Bible, the writings of the church fathers, or secular writings. There are 27 gates mentioned in the Bible as gates of the Temple and Jerusalem, but none with this name. This phrase was not a Greek or Hebrew proverb but rather a beautiful Hebrew hyperbole, an exaggerated figure of speech implying the unlikely or impossible, and should be interpreted literally as it stands. Jesus' hearers believed that wealth and prosperity was a sign of God's blessing, which was true under the O.T covenant of the Law, so they were incredulous at His statement. They were still learning how the N.T covenant of Grace works. The context and strong language demonstrate Jesus’ great love for the rich young ruler and His great disappointment that he turned away from following Him. The young man lacked wholehearted allegiance to God. It is good to read all three passages, where this phrase appears, in context to get the full flavor of this message.

“THE DECEITFULNESS OF RICHES”

CHRIST DIED FOR ALL WHO DIED IN HIM

“For the love of Christ compels us”: It is the love which Christ has for man that is the constraining power of Paul’s preaching. “Compel”, from the Greek sunecho, means to grip tightly, to hold fast, to enclose, to hold prisoner or lock up, to surround, to hem in, to overpower. In every use of the word there is a sense of constraint that prevents an escape – literally to overpower, dominate and control. The greatest proof to us of the love of Christ for mankind is that He died. “If One died for all, then all died”: Christ died for all who died in Him, or one died for all, therefore all died.  The preposition “for” means “in behalf of” or “in place of.” This is the heart of salvation! Everyone who “dies in Christ” receives the benefit of His substitutionary death.In this very important verse Paul defined the extent of the atonement and limited its application.

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son”: Christ died for mankind, and His atonement is extended to all as a free gift of grace. “That whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life”: To “believe in Him” -- “Into Him” captures the Greek better -- is to be firmly and absolutely persuaded about who He is and the truthfulness of His promises, creating complete dependence, wholehearted commitment and conviction as we trust in, cling to and rely upon Him. To “believe into Him” is to “Die in Christ”, to die to Self and all the Self-interests of earth-life, submitting to Christ as Lord and aligning one’s heart with the heart interests of our King.  Believing is the price of accepting God’s free gift of atonement, the lack of which limits its application. Christ died for all, “that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again ... For the love of Christ compels us.” For the love of Christ imprisons us, leaving us no choice except to live our lives for Him… in Him…

ENDNOTE: Captured in the verb “Believe” is the essence of God’s plan for mankind: Transformation into Christlikeness, the metamorphosis of sin stained spiritual cripples into beacons of radiant light reflecting the holy nature of Christ to a world drowning in sin’s darkness. Many people wade in this verb, not realizing the depths of its meaning could drown an elephant.

“FOR THE LOVE OF CHRIST COMPELS US”

(2 Cor. 5:14-15; Jn. 3:16)