Thanking God for His Love

Thanksgiving Day is a wonderful American holiday! Despite our country’s spiritual and moral decline, the principle upon which Thanksgiving was founded – giving thanks to God for our blessings – continues to be practiced by millions of fellow countrymen. A precious gift that each Christian should be abundantly thankful for is God’s gracious, abounding love towards them. Even those who don’t know God in a saving way have Him to thank for His love towards them. Often oversimplified by Christians is the complexity of God’s love. The Bible describes various ways in which God extends love towards His human creations. When we generalize these expressions, confusion abounds and a distorted view of God’s love emerges.

Jesus explains in the Sermon on the Mount that God provides for both good and evil men, the just and the unjust (Matt 5:45). Throughout New Testament teachings Christians are encouraged to love their enemies and meet needs of poor believers and unbelievers. Why? This imitates God! We see in the Old Testament how God repeatedly blesses the entire nation of Israel even though many, and most often the majority, were in the midst of idolatry and wicked living. This did not necessarily imply these Jews were all truly saved, but that many of God’s blessings were extended to those who were merely Jews outwardly, as Paul refers to them in Romans 2:28-29.

John 3:16-17 expresses the pinnacle of God’s love towards the unbelieving world. As these familiar verses say, God did not send His Son incarnate to condemn the world, but to provide salvation for all who will believe in Jesus. Following the call to live a God-honoring life, 1 Timothy 2:3-4 says, “This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” Additionally, we know that God does not desire that any person eternally perish, calling all men to repent (2 Peter 3:9). Providing further understanding of God’s loving provision for the fallen world, 1 John 2:2 says about Jesus, “He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.”

We see here God’s providential love for all people, as well as His inviting and pleading love, evidenced by the gift of His Son and offer of salvation. However, must there be another sense of God’s love in order to explain why all men are not saved? If God desires for all to be saved (1 Tim 2:4), wishes that none would perish (2 Pet 3:9), and has provided a propitiation for the world’s sin (1 Jn 2:2), why have so many post-Calvary remained unsaved? Orthodox Christians certainly don’t believe in universalism – the belief all men are unconditionally saved. Therefore, historically Christians typically answer this dilemma in one of two ways: 1) God upholds the libertarian (uninhibited) free will of all people to choose or reject the Gospel as His utmost priority. 2) God upholds His sovereignty over people by electing some to eternal life in order to supremely show His glory in man’s salvation.

To provide some brief background, both camps believe in man’s free will but they define free will differently. The first group contends that God cannot interfere with a person’s salvation decision in any way that would create bias towards accepting or rejecting Christ as Savior and Lord because that would not provide a fair playing field for all people. Any interference or influence by God in this process denigrates their understanding of the creature truly loving their Creator. This group largely upholds the doctrine of original sin (man is born in sin with a bent towards sin) but contends that God removes spiritual blindness through some measure of grace to allow unbiased choices. Theologically this is called prevenient grace, but neither the term nor the concept is expressly found or explained in the Bible. God’s special love for his adopted children is contingent upon their unprejudiced free choice to accept Christ.

Group number 2 holds that because of man’s utterly sinful condition (as described in part 1 of the “Seekers” blog post), their free will always exert itself through sinful rebellion and rejection of Christ’s atoning death and resurrection. Although God offers salvation to all people, only those in whom the Holy Spirit overcomes this spiritual deadness by making them alive in Christ (Eph 2:4-5) through regeneration (Titus 3:5) will respond in saving faith. By God’s grace alone, those regenerated will always respond in free will because the truth has been so clearly and beautifully revealed to them. Additionally, this group affirms the biblical distinction between God’s preceptive will (precepts and commands) and His decretive (sovereign) will (ref., Gen 50:20; Deut 2:26-27,30 and 29:2-4; Jdg 14:4; Josh 11:19-20; 1 Sam 2:22-25; 2 Sam 17:14; 1 Kings 12:9-15 and 22:19-23; Mk 4:11-12; Acts 2:22-23 and 4:27-28; Rom 11:7-9,31-32), which accounts for God’s different types of love.

Seen by those who believe in God’s sovereignty in salvation, a distinct love exists for those whom He has chosen and is initially displayed through His election of them. Ephesians 1:4b-6 explains this love, “In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.” Romans 9:14-16 follows Paul’s explanation of how God chose Jacob over Esau before they were born and had done anything good or bad, explaining, “What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God’s part? By no means! For he says to Moses, ‘I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.’ So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy.” Some opponents of this view have tried to describe it as unjust and in conflict with God’s character (in their understanding of it), but note that the Bible describes God’s election in loving and merciful terms.

I’ve personally seen in my own life and witnessed in many lives of family and friends the rescuing love of God. Even though I believe I was a Christian throughout my experiences, beginning in junior high I began choosing seasons of rebellion and hard-heartedness. At the age of 28 these wayward paths had escalated and culminated with devastating bondage to various sins, a failed marriage and blinding self-deception. In the midst of my wandering, the Lord graciously rescued me from this life of sin without my help, for sure. The parable of the Good Shepherd leaving the 99 sheep to find the 1 that was lost resonates powerfully and deeply in my heart. I didn’t find my way back to the flock, Jesus rescued me from a perilous precipice from which I couldn’t find my way down.

Considering that this is a story many believers share, why does the view of God’s sovereign grace in the salvation of condemned sinners elicit such strong antagonism? If we truly understand man’s sinful condition as the Bible describes, should we assume that anyone deserves salvation? Most Christians do not believe certain people are owed salvation, but on the other hand, when contemplating how God could choose to save some and not others, they somehow think this impugns His justice. Is He not the only wise God? Is He not the essence of love, mercy, kindness but also perfect justice? Anticipating potentially unfavorable reactions and resistance to the absolute sovereignty of God in salvation, Paul says in Romans 9:19-23:

“You will say to me then, ‘Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?’ But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, ‘Why have you made me like this?’ Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory.”

Who are we to say that God’s sovereignty and human responsibility are irreconcilable if the Bible provides overwhelming evidence to the contrary?
Instead of attempting to fully reconcile God’s mystery in salvation with our human logic and emotions, let us remain faithful to the full council of God’s Word by embracing what we can’t comprehend because we trust in the perfect character of God. After all, are not His ways infinitely higher than our ways and His thoughts beyond our finite thoughts? Surely the Lord needs no apologists to explain away the controversial mysteries contained in His revelation.

In the next post we’ll look at the term “foreknowledge” and compare the disparaging viewpoints related to this debate, as well as contemplate why some believe and others don’t - if the belief is true that God is not sovereign in salvation.

Happy Thanksgiving to each of you and please know that regardless of where you side on this controversial doctrine, God loves you just the same, and so do I! Thank you, Lord, for extending immeasurable grace to us for every errant thought, word and deed that fails to reflect your glory!

“Seekers”- Seeking a Biblical Understanding, Part 2

If we conclude from Scripture that every person will reject God rather than seek Him, the previously analyzed perspective may be derived (perhaps unknowingly) more from the writings of humanistic thought than the pages of God’s Word. This leads us to ask, what causes men and women to pursue a reconciled relationship with God through Jesus Christ?

Concisely, Jesus says in John 6:44, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him,” and in verse 65 he reiterates this truth, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted by my Father.” Jesus directs these statements to a largely unbelieving Jewish audience that continues to reject him as the Messiah. Many in the crowd either saw first hand or heard that Jesus had recently fed 5,000 men (likely 20,000 counting the women and children) from five barley loaves and two fish. Although Jesus’ ministry was fairly new at this point in the Gospel of John, he had already been identified by John the Baptist as the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world, turned water into wine, healed the sick, and explained that eternal life comes only through himself. If these signs weren’t obvious enough, after Jesus was baptized the Father confirmed in an audible voice from heaven, “You are my beloved Son: with you I am well pleased.”

As we are well aware, even after three years of ministry that included miracle after miracle, sign after sign, fulfilled prophecy after fulfilled prophecy, still most rejected him. Far removed from the early life and ministry of Jesus, we’re prone to read the gospels with baffled brains and tremendous disdain for the people who saw the miracles and audibly heard his divine words. We think, “What a bunch of flipping idiots! Of course this is the Christ you ignorant Neanderthals!” However, we should realize that this reaction carries more than a pinch of pride and reveals that we haven’t fully grasped how or why anyone is saved. Evidence of understanding results in unhesitating delight with Jesus’ words in John 6:63, “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all.”

God’s work of guiding people to the truth extends past the gospels as seen in the early church with the conversion of Lydia. Acts 16:14 records that, “The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul.” After exhorting pastors to be kind, patient and gentle with quarrelsome and opposing unbelievers, Paul says in 2 Timothy 2:25, “God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth.” It is interesting, is it not, that this verse says God grants them repentance rather than offers them repentance that leads to the truth.

In addition to our fallen flesh, God must also overcome the work of Satan upon unbelievers’ minds. Second Corinthians 4:4-6 explains this dynamic:

In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

Perhaps not theologically, but countless Christians functionally believe that the they provide some measure of help, if not a great help, in securing eternal life. Why is this not so? Perhaps a spiritually blind person could stumble upon the truth. Granted, a spiritually deaf person may see the signs of eternal life. However, neither sensory perceptions nor consciousness exists in a spiritual corpse (Eph 2:1,5)! Truly, the flesh is no help at all! In this there are no exceptions - not one single person begins their journey to faith in Christ without God drawing them. Perhaps it’s fair to say that there are no true “seekers” without the gracious initiative of the Seeker.

Once sought, for what reasons? How does salvation by grace through faith in Jesus occur? Tune in next week my friends…

“Seekers”- Seeking a Biblical Understanding, Part 1

For well over a decade, many evangelical churches have increasingly targeted “seekers.” Most commonly, this approach involves removing the traditional trappings associated with church and providing an alluring atmosphere to plant them in the pews. Seeker-friendly churches are widespread throughout most medium to large U.S. cities. Some of these churches do an excellent job of removing the nonessentials while retaining the essentials. Sadly, other churches dilute the gospel and retreat from sound, holistic biblical teaching in an effort to provide ‘relevant and practical’ messages.

What is the underlying reason that some churches water-down the gospel message and shy away from controversial passages? An increasing number of evangelicals describe “seekers” as people who are searching for a relationship with God because of inherent decency and desire. They contend that most people are curious about the Lord but reluctant to attend church due to previous negative experiences, outdated music and communication styles, undesirable religious symbols, unfamiliar terminology, awkward alter calls, and a host of other reasons.

While the earnest, glass half-full view of human nature seems commendable, numerous scriptures present a tremendous challenge to adopting this perspective. Perhaps most pointedly, Paul references passages from Psalms 14 and 53 as he writes in Romans 3:10-12, “as it is written: ‘None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.’"

Going beyond the dimension of seeking God, Romans 3 provides deeper insight into man’s condition. By nature, all people (not even one) are unenlightened and unrighteous – even bad! Ephesians 4:18 describes unbelievers as ‘darkened in their understanding’ and separated from God because of their hardness of heart. Prior to salvation, Ephesians 2:1-3 explains that we were children of wrath and spiritually dead in our sins. Understanding man’s bleak spiritual condition apart from Christ, we come full circle to John 3:20, “For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed.”

Scripture says nothing of people, in and of themselves, seeking after the one true God. However, let us not confuse this truth with people seeking a god. False gods are abundant. False religions and spiritual philosophies masquerade as alternatives to knowing the real God, as their adherents worship a god derived from demonic influence (1 Cor 10:20, Col 2:8, 1 Tim 4:1) and merely human thoughts. This Sunday, many Christian church goers will seek social acceptance, meaningful friendships, peace of mind, physical health, material wealth or supernatural experiences without truly seeking a right relationship with God. Religious people often seek a god they can serve in order to obligate certain privileges, but this scenario doesn’t end well when the benefits they’ve so diligently earned don’t arrive. Tragically, some decades-long church members have regularly warmed their favorite pew, but the light of Christ has never warmed their heart.

Dead, blind, deaf, dumb, rebellious and condemned. These words describe our condition before faith in Christ. If all people are disinclined to seek the Lord, what causes some people to sincerely seek Him? We’ll unpack an alternate understanding of a “seeker” next week.

One Bible, Many Interpretations

If we’re all reading the same God-inspired source, why do Bible-believing Christians hold so many disparate doctrines? Did God have in mind only one correct interpretation when He inspired the Scriptures, or did He leave it open for various acceptable understandings? Intelligent and highly educated biblical scholars fail to draw the same conclusions from a large number of biblical texts. Should we then conclude that all are equally acceptable?

Before we look at possible reasons for these phenomena, it’s crucial to grasp the miraculous work of God to preserve the essential orthodox truths of our faith for almost two thousand years of Christendom. Millions of believers throughout the world believe in the eternal Triune God; Jesus Christ’s virgin birth, sinless life, death on the cross in our place, and bodily resurrection; salvation by grace through faith in His person and work; and His impending return.

We should also thankfully embrace God’s tremendous extension of grace to us concerning doctrines nonessential for salvation. After all, there are dippers and dunkers, robed choirs and robe-less rockers, kneelers and dancers, hand claspers and hand raisers, mega churches and house churches, tongues speakers and tongues denouncers, prophecy users and prophecy abusers, wine drinkers and teetotalers, Christian flag waivers and trendy art displayers, candle lighters and spot lighters, shouters and whisperers, demon denouncers and demon deniers, culture embracers and culture separators. Need I continue?!

Lightheartedness aside, contrary to what some in emergent and other liberal theological churches assert, many secondary biblical doctrines can positively or negatively affect a Christian’s relationship with God and other people. No less than God’s glory and our joy are at stake! Therefore, cognizance of factors that produce significant discrepancies, and acknowledgement that each of us is influenced by them to varying degrees, will better equip us to more accurately interpret Scripture.

The following list provides examples of some influences affecting biblical interpretation:
· Extent of Scripture knowledge
· Method of reconciling what the Bible teaches on a particular topic (systematic theology), or perhaps, lack of method
· Awareness of the historical and cultural context of the passage(s)
· Allegiances to current or former local church and/or denomination
· Experiencing or witnessing abuse from a pastor, relative or friend that adamantly espouses certain viewpoints
· Placing emphasis primarily on a person’s moral character to determine the correctness of the doctrines they champion
· Exclusive or primary exposure to only one perspective
· Comfort – reluctance to change viewpoints due to potential friction with church body, family or friends
· Culture – the unique social influences, philosophies and values of the society in which we live shape our instinctive inclinations
· Pride prevents us from being open to competing interpretations because we feel vested in our current, superior (so we think) understanding
· Valuing experiences and feelings above plain scriptural meaning
· Unrepentant sin hardens hearts and may blind people to seeing biblical truths that address it

Although undoubtedly incomplete, this list reveals the complexities Christians face as they seek correct biblical understanding. However, the Bible’s self-directed claims do not allow us to use them as an excuse for indifference or complacency. Consider the following passages:

In John 17:17 Jesus prays to the Father on behalf of His disciples, “Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.”

Jesus explains in John 4:23-24, “But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth."

1 Corinthians 2:13
And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual.

2 Timothy 2:15
Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.

Hebrews 4:12
For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

These Bible verses reveal that God’s word is truth at its very essence, and He uses it to sanctify us. True worshippers are called to worship God in spirit and in truth. The Holy Spirit directly taught Scripture writers and interprets spiritual truth for believers. Referring to Scripture, the apostle Paul calls it the ‘word of truth,’ and adjures us to rightly handle it. The Word is immeasurably more than sage advice; it exerts tremendous spiritual power to change lives.

Kick conventional wisdom to the curb! The Bible does not make room for relative truth. Understanding the human limitations that prevent us from perfectly comprehending the Bible, through God’s power and wisdom may we humbly embrace a lifelong journey to constantly seek His truth.