INFINITESIMAL SMIDGEN OF TIME

Understand we follow the God who chose the way of the Cross.  If our Father and our Savior did not avoid the “place of the skull”, then we should not be surprised where God might lead us. His will is unpredictable, His ways beyond our comprehension, and He does not esteem this infinitesimal smidgen of time we call life. 

The Apostle Paul met the Flogging Post of most towns he visited, enduring whippings, canings and scourgings, planting churches by the flesh of his back. It is clear this was God’s will for Paul, God having showed him how many things he would “suffer for My name’s sake.” Hear how the great Apostle to the gentiles viewed suffering by his own words: “For I (Paul) consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us … I now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ … That no one should be shaken by these afflictions; for you yourselves know that we are appointed to this ... From now on let no one trouble me, for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus … For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.” Notice the plural pronouns -- us, we, our – Paul uses to clarify that “we”, the saints throughout time, “are appointed to this”… appointed to affliction.

Hear the Apostle Peter’s words: “Therefore, since Christ suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same mind, for he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin.” Suffering produces a change in our nature – holiness – whereby we “cease from sin.” Suffering and sacrifice arm us with the mind of Christ producing transformational faith as we learn to trust in, cling to, rely upon, and depend upon God. Adversity and affliction are therefore “not worthy to be compared with the glory (the nature of Christ) which shall be revealed in us.” We learn obedience through the things we suffer, just as Christ “learned obedience by the things which He suffered.” Suffering and sacrifice are not the worse things that can happen to us - disobedience to God is! 

(Rom. 8:18; 1Cor. 4:17; Acts 9:16; Gal. 6:17; Col. 1:24; 1 Thess. 3:3; Heb. 5:8; 1 Peter 4:1)

ARM YOURSELVES WITH THE MIND OF CHRIST

SCISSORING THROUGH MUD TO MAKE A POINT

MUD PIES: We repudiate self-flagellation and all other forms of penitence as unscriptural, while imposing an attenuated version on ourselves, equating boring pleasure less lives with godliness. “All I need is stale bread, potable water and God, gosh darn it, and I’m happy.” Mud pies! The basic desires of the human heart are God given for we were made in His likeness. At issue is not that we have desires but how we satisfy them as Kingdom children.

DON’T MISS THE POINT: We don’t have to suffocate our natural desires to please God, and we don’t have to ignore God’s precepts and commands to please ourselves. God made provision for the fulfillment of our natural desires within the boundaries of His sandbox so the pleasure-fruit of our spent desires does not rot with guilt and empty regret. If we let life become a choice between enjoyment and serving God we have really missed the point.

EDWARD SCISSORHANDS: We fulfill desires by “spending” them, purchasing the pleasure-fruit they produce. Said another way, we sow desires and reap their pleasure-fruit. Christians are adept at removing scriptural obstacles to spending desire in the world much like a saintly Edward Scissorhands, snipping out any restraining passages: “Oh, I don’t think you have to “Blank” to be a Christian”, missing the truthfulness of their first four words. We can fulfill our desires in the Kingdom’s sandbox or the world’s litter box. The pleasure-fruit of spent desire will produce in kind, righteous fruit or those stinky little…

ENJOYING LIFE IN GOD'S SANDBOX

WHOSE COMMANDMENTS DO WE KEEP

“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, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds.” It is contextually correct to interpret Hebrews 1:1-2 as directly referencing the Old Testament and New Testament 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.

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.

“If you love Me, keep My commandments … He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.” (Jn. 14:15, 21, 15:10)

Notice Jesus specifically said to keep “My” commandments in these three passages; scripture repeats this command thirteen times. “His commandments” are the commandments flowing forth out of the life, words, and redemptive work of Christ recorded in the New Testament. There are 1050 New Testament commandments, which reduces to about 800 when redundancies are removed. These commandments cover every phase of man’s relationship to God and his fellowmen, now and hereafter. If obeyed they will bring rich rewards now and forever. These should not be confused with the Old Testament Ten Commandments which are part of the Law of Moses applicable to the Old Covenant. The New Covenant of Grace abolishes the Law of Moses including the Ten Commandments. The fourth commandment is the only commandment of the Ten Commandments that is not specifically reintroduced as a New Testament commandment (some in modified form), so nine of the Ten Commandments are still in force in the New Covenant as New Covenant commandments. Keeping the Sabbath holy, the fourth commandment, is no longer applicable so we are free to set aside Saturday or any other day as a special day devoted to God. To make keeping the Old Testament Sabbath a New Covenant commandment would be paramount to dragging the Law into Grace. We cannot do that…

“Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments … And whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments … Now he who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him.” (Jn. 2:3, 3:22, 24)

Now these are serious thoughts from a serious God. Since God the Holy Spirit wrote the commandments of God the Son down for us we can be sure God the Father is serious about how we conduct ourselves.  “Be holy, for I am holy … Pursue … holiness, without which no one will see the Lord.” It is in obedience that we “pursue holiness.” For a list of New Testament commandments with scripture references see Dake’s Annotated Reference Bible, pages 544-548 or visit Christian Assemblies International at https://www.cai.org/bible-studies/1050-new-testament-commands

(1 peter 1:16; Heb. 12:44)

“KEEP MY COMMANDMENTS”

SHINE ON ME

God’s glory is radiant light: He “covers Himself with light as with a garment”, “dwelling in unapproachable light.” God reveals bits of Himself, His nature, to us; we only know God through these self manifestations. The importance of glory as a manifestation of God is attested to by 430 scriptures. God’s radiant brilliance -- His unchanging essence, the inner reality that makes God who He is -- may be a physical manifestation of His nature. “God is love.”  Perhaps the deep passion of His agape love for us is expressed and released as brilliant, glorious light. Perhaps love is the intrinsic glory of God, His covering and His dwelling place. And perhaps the fullness of His love in us will likewise express itself as glorious light... a beacon of light to a world in darkness. Or, said another way, perhaps we are reflectors of His glory as His agape love flows through us.

Endnote: Let’s go deeper. Moses desired to see God’s glory, the inner reality which makes God who He is: “And he (Moses) said, “Please, show me Your glory.” Then He (God) said, “I will make all My goodness pass before you.” God clearly equated His glory with His goodness in this passage. So, perhaps His glory is a physical manifestation of His goodness… perhaps goodness is the intrinsic glory of God. Perhaps God’s unchanging essence – the inner reality that makes God who He is -- is His goodness. And, He loves because He is good, not the other way around, love springing forth naturally out of a good heart. I may need to ponder this a few million years…

(Exodus 33:18-19)

Come shine on me Father, shine on me! Let Your goodness and love be my intrinsic glory as I reflect Your goodness and love on others. 

REPENTANCE

The New Testament concept of repentance is derived from the marriage of the Greek meta – a change of place or condition – with noeo – to exercise the mind, think, comprehend -- forming metanoeo, to repent, change the mind. We must distinguish between the classical Greek usage of metanoeo, which had no moral content, and the scriptural usage where the context is typically moral/sin. Theologically, metanoeo involves regret and/or sorrow accompanied by a true change of heart toward God. We see Jesus in Matt. 11:20-24 condemning the cities that had seen His great works and had not repented, tying repentance to “sackcloth and ashes”, remorse, and a lack of repentance to eternal judgment, the penalty for sin, etc.  In repentance there has to be a turning from and a turning to, just as when one changes their mind it has to change from something to something, or it’s not really changed but just something is added with nothing replaced. This is seen most clearly in scripture where repent is coupled with “convert”, the Greek epistrepho, which means “to turn to.”  Acts 3:19: “Repent and be converted…” Acts 26:20: “Repent, turn to God…”, where “turn to” translates epistrepho. Notice that repentance comes first in these passages: We must first change our mind about the world and our sinful nature before we can truly turn to God.

The O.T. Hebrew verb nacham is translated to repent, to comfort, and to relent, taking its meaning from the context. In a majority of the verses where nacham is translated repent, it is God who is the one who repents. So, repentance is more of a Grace thing than a Law thing. 

True repentance without tears is a rare thing, not impossible, but highly improbable. And, if I turn to God without turning from sin, I fall headlong into First John where habitual sin will choke/smother God’s word working in my life. Thankfully, repentance is a process: Many of the usages of repent are in the present imperative active, a command involving continuous action into the future, Matt. 4:17 for example, and God is very patient. But we should remember the Sower Parable, in particular the thorn bushes, where the desire for riches and the pleasures of this life “choked” (Luke’s term for drowning) the word of God. Repentance must be maintained, the turning away and turning to steadfast to overcome the temptations of the world.

I love the thought of turning toward God for this is where righteousness comes into play.  God makes us “the righteousness of God in Him” (Jesus). Isn’t that awesome! Sinless in God’s eyes, not perfect, not spiritually mature yet, still in reality filthy rags, but sinless in His eyes. This is so He can work in us, “willing and doing of His good pleasure in us”, maybe getting rid of our old nature bit by bit, so He doesn’t kill us in the process. God is good.

“REPENT THEREFORE AND BE CONVERTED,

THAT YOUR SINS MAY BE BLOTTED OUT,

SO THAT TIMES OF REFRESHING MAY COME

FROM THE PRESENCE OF THE LORD”

KNOW: THE PERSONAL RELATIONSHIP CONNECTION

In many places in the New Testament the word “know” is used to carry a relationship connection between God/Jesus and man.  The Greek word the Holy Spirit consistently chose in these passages is “ginosko” which means intimate relationship gained through experience, and carries the sense of personal fellowship with God, Christ, or the Holy Spirit in many passages.  Here are a few examples from the Apostle John’s writings:

* The good shepherd knows His sheep and is known by them (Jn. 10:14).

* My Father (God) knows me (Jesus) and even so I (Jesus) know the Father (Jn. 10:15).

* But you know Him (The Holy Spirit), for He dwells with you and shall be in you (Jn.14:17).

* At that day you will know that I am in the Father, and you in me, and I in you (Jn.14:20).

* And this is eternal life that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent (Jn. 17:3).

* Now we know that we know Him if we keep His commandments.  If we say that we   know Him and do not keep His commands, we are a liar.  But if we keep His word, His love is perfected in us.  By this we know that we are in Him (1 Jn. 2:3-5).

* By this we know love because He laid down His life for us (1 Jn. 3:16).

* By this we know that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us (1 Jn. 3:24).

* Beloved let us love one another for God is of love; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God (1 Jn. 4:7).

“I never knew you” (Matt. 7:23).  Jesus will say this on the Day of Judgment to many who do works in His name but lack relationship with Him.  It is oh so important to recognize this relational dynamic the Bible clearly teaches. 

“AND YOU SHALL KNOW THE TRUTH”…

“IF YOU LOVE ME, KEEP MY COMMANDMENTS”

There are 1050 commands (total count with some repetition noted) in the New Testament for Christians to follow. They cover every phase of man’s life in his relationship to God and his fellowmen, both now and hereafter. These commandments, if obeyed, will greatly enrich our earth-life, producing godliness while preparing us for forever with our Lord. They are not to be confused with the Ten Commandments nor the Law of Moses which were abolished in the New Covenant/New Testament, although it should be noted nine of the Ten Commandments were reintroduced in the New Testament as New Covenant commandments (Keeping the Sabbath day holy is the exception).  Following are some of the commandments found in the epistle of 1 John:

*Walk in the Light *Confess sin *Keep His commandments *Keep His words *Walk as He walked *Do not love the world *Do not sin *Practice righteousness *Love in deed and truth *Keep His commandments *Love God more than the world *Love one another *Spread the word throughout the world.

This is some of the “meaty stuff” we often gloss over. And, we must not forget the First and Second “Great Commandments” to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love our neighbor as we love our Self. When the New Testament speaks of keeping commandments, it is talking about these New Covenant commandments. Jesus said “If you love Me, keep My commandments (John 14:15), establishing obedience as the truest measurement of our love for our Lord… the First and Greatest Commandment. Notice obedience is directly commanded three times in 1 John (Keep His commandments 2x, Keep His words). Stating the obvious, we must first know His commandments before we can obey them!

OBEDIENCE… 
THE TRUEST MEASUREMENT OF OUR LOVE