Seeznak

Pwned by God

9 Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, 10 nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And such were some of you. -I Corinthians 6:9-11a

And such was I. So what is the difference now- am I no longer immoral, or idolatrous? No way. But what is the difference? Here the Word informs me in the next sentence:

But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. - I Corinthians 6:11b

The only difference between myself and the ‘unrighteous’ is not the good or religiousy things I do; it is the grace of God in Christ.

This grace is the basis for all subsequent good works, though we (I, at least) are oft tempted to think of our goodness as a sort of booster shot for us to continue in God’s grace. That is clearly not the case in this passage, where Paul argues for our unquenchable pursuit of righteousness because we’ve already been irrevocably owned by our Lord.

You are not your own, 20 for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body. -I Corinthians 6:19b-20

How to Feel Stuck for the Glory of God

 Don’t we all hit that brick wall of boredom at some point in our lives, when we feel as if our lives are static and useless? I’ve been there a few times, and I expect to be there again. It’s a feeling both great and small; great because everything worthwhile seems to be so far past my horizon, and small because of my inability to climb up from the tiny pit I find myself in.

Paul, of course, was crazy, but crazy in a way that helps me to see how those times in life that I feel trapped in uselessness might serve a greater purpose. Consider what he wrote to the Philippians while imprisoned in Ephesus:

12 I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel, 13 so that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ.

-Philippians 1:12-13

I see three things from this text which speak to us when we feel trapped in uselessness:

1. You are where you are for a reason.

Remember who Paul was writing to- the same Philippian church that was started during another prison stint, in which the earth quaked and wrists were unbound and a suicidal jailer was converted. God could have pulled Paul out of prison at anytime, but we know that God kept him there because his imprisonment was the greatest service he could make to “advance the gospel.”

1. Your limited circumstances display God’s unlimited glory.

It was through the confining chains of “what has happened to me” that God most used the apostle. While we’re not going to contribute to a new edition of the Bible, we can find encouragement in the fact that Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Philemon, and probably I & II Timothy and Titus were written from prison. At Paul’s lowest point God gave him his greatest potency.

1. You have a job that you will never get fired from.

And that job is to display Christ. In the two verses, two groups of people are gaining knowledge of Christ because of the brick walls surrounding Paul: in v. 12, fellow Christians are being encouraged (“I want you to know, brothers…”) and unbelievers are being evangelized (“it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard…”).

You and I are not useless in any place, at any time. God’s mind-blowing purpose in our lives is greater than we can think or imagine. Let us celebrate a freedom that is greater than any bondage, be it spiritual, mental or physical.

Insert Affected, Knowing Smile

Here is a claim that we are quite prepared to roll our eyes at:

The claim of Scripture is that a specific kind of delight actually preserves, sustains, and ultimately saves those who are enduring affliction, and that brand of delight is focused on God’s Word:

If your law had not been my delight,

I would have perished in my affliction.

-Psalm 119:92

“The only way I made it,” the Psalmist tells his Lord, “was through finding, in Your law, joy of a greater potency than all my troubles. By Your precepts you have given me life!”

Do not roll your eyes at the simplicity of how to find this joy. It is very near, and it is very difficult. But it is delightful.

Ephesians 4:7-10 - A Different Kind of Victory

Martin Luther’s determination to “beat importunately” upon the Word of God has become a model for my studies, especially when I am to teach a text. I’ve been asked to preach at our church next week, on Ephesians 4:7-10. For the past few days, I really have felt as if I was beating to no avail. But I think I have found a small keyhole by which to enter into understanding the potency of the “grace [which] was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift.”

7 But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift. 8 Therefore it says,

“When he ascended on high he led a host of captives,
and he gave gifts to men.”

9 (In saying, “He ascended,” what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower regions, the earth? 10 He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.)

The point of the passage is not, as I assumed on first reading the text, to advance our understanding of ourselves as the recipients of Christ’s gift; the point is to magnify Christ as the victorious giver, and how He gives. Although the broader context of the passage is indeed about the recipients, as Paul makes clear in the first six verses of chapter four, as well as the verses after our passage, these four verses are chiefly about the manner in which Christ gives to us.

The key is in the word “therefore” at the front of verse eight, which is clarifying the “measure of Christ’s gift,” which is, in turn, clarifying how “grace was given to us.” Verse eight points us to Psalm 68, a war song and an ode to the Lord’s victories. Paul is radically interpreting the Psalm to mean that the Lord’s glorious victory was achieved through the descent (what we call the incarnation) of the Son of God to earth, His death and resurrection, and His subsequent ascension to the throne of God.

This means that Christ’s humble life traversing the dusty roads of Judea, His embarrassing death as a criminal accursed by God, and His resurrection that has been debated, denied, and laughed at, is the greatest victory the world has ever seen- a triumph that has forever felled sin, the devil, and death.

It also means that the gifts which Christ has given to us through His Spirit are the spoils of war, which our Great King delights to bestow upon us.

The Mighty Mountain and The Little Hill

O mountain of God, mountain of Bashan;

   O many-peaked mountain, mountain of Bashan!

Why do you look with hatred, O many-peaked mountain,

    at the mount that God desired for his abode,

    yes, where the Lord will dwell forever?

-Psalm 68:15-16

The mountain(s) of Bashan, usually meaning the entire range but here, with the singular ‘mountain’ probably refers to Mt. Hermon’s ridge, at its highest point, stands 9230 feet above sea level.

The ‘mount that God desired for his abode’, Mt. Zion, rising up amidst Jerusalem, is a mere 2533 feet in elevation. Considered with Jerusalem’s average elevation of 2400 feet, the little hill does little to pontificate grandeur:

Nevertheless, God chose this little hill to be the place in which He would meet with His people. The contrast between these two mountains, and the choice of Zion as the more, shall we say, worthy of the two, is yet another example of God’s joy in baffling our human expectations.

It should cause little wonder that Psalm 68’s ode to the Lord’s victory, just two verses later, is quoted by Paul in a discussion of Christ’s spiritual gifts to His church-

When he ascended on high he led a host of captives,

   and he gave gifts to men.

-Eph. 4:8 (quoting Ps. 68:18)

These gifts to us are the spoils of victory, which Jesus won for us at the cost of His life. These are worthy, effective, and purposeful gifts given to build up the church to unity (see 4:11-13). The “measure of Christ’s gift” (4:7) to us often seems to follow the same ironic logic of God’s mountain-measuring stick - what is little in our eyes is much in God’s; what is weak is strong; what is put to death brings life.

Let us worship God for His strange and never-seasonal Christmas-spirit to us, the blest inhabitants of little Zion:

That He has blessed us (Eph. 1:3)

That He has chosen us (1:4)

That He predestined to do adopt us (1:5)

That He lavished grace upon us (1:8)

That He made known to us this mystery (1:9)

That He has obtained an inheritance for us (1:11)

That He loved us with a great love (2:4)

That He made us alive with Christ (2:5)

That He seated us besides Christ as royal children (2:6)

That He created us in Christ for good works (2:10)

That He has allowed us access to Himself through Christ (2:18)

That He is building us into His dwelling place (2:22)

That He has given grace to each of us according to His mysterious measurements (4:7)

On Psalm 96

Read Psalm 96, and note how these words sit quietly amid the many famous lines of praise: fear (4b), tremble (9b), judge (10c, 13).

When God sets things right (i.e, when He judges), it is a cause for rejoicing, since all becomes as it should be, and we should be prone to remember that it was God’s wrathful judgment upon Jesus in our place that set us right with God.

Thus,

- We glory in the Cross.

- We continue to fear God for His supremacy over us, and for the greatness of His wrath against Jesus on account of our sin.

- We no longer have any fear of God’s judgment against us, for the perfections of Christ are ours by right.

Pondering Isaiah 63 (II)

How is God saving (v. 1) or redeeming (v. 4) in Isaiah 63:1-4?

The only answer I can find is in 63:5-

“I [God] looked, but there was no one to help;

    I was appalled, but there was no one to uphold;

So my own arm brought me salvation,

    and my wrath upheld me.”

Both the answer and the mystery of this passage is that God is bringing salvation to Himself! Read the last two lines of v. 5 again- So my own arm brought me salvation, and my wrath upheld me. What is in need of saving is God’s purity and holiness. God has been violated by His own chosen people, who give verbal assent to God while speeding down a freeway of desolation. God cannot stand by while evil reigns; His anger is aroused and He rises up to defend that which is most precious in the cosmos: His own majesty.

These verses demand every reader to stand in awe of God’s holiness, but there is more to it than a defensive judgment of sin. Trampling the people’s lifeblood in the winepress of God’s wrath produces something, and that something, curiously enough, is something often associated with a blessing- wine.

Since there was no one else to defend God’s holiness, God Himself came forward to save, and in this we find echoes of the Cross, wherein God became both just and the justifier, producing an overflow of blessing which we, through faith, receive.

The connection between God saving His own holiness and thereby saving His people is confirmed by verses 7-14, in which a song is sung of God’s great compassion toward Israel.

Rejoice, O Rejoice, that God despises sin; for if He didn’t, we would have never seen a Saviour.

Pondering Isaiah 63 (I)

Who is this who comes from Edom,

     in crimsoned garments from Bozrah,

he who is splendid in his apparel,

     marching in the greatness of his strength?

“It is I, speaking in righteousness,

     mighty to save.”

-Isaiah 63:1

The Lord brought down His hand of discipline on the people of Israel through the Edomites, a distantly related tribe living southeast of Judah. This passage from Isaiah makes it clear that it was indeed God’s work, but what made this passage jump off the page into the bottom of my stomach was what God said as He came: “It is I, speaking in righteousness, mighty to save.”

Mighty to save?

To save whom? Or what? Isaiah seems to have a similar question, because, after hearing the salvific words of the Lord in v. 3, he doesn’t grasp how God could be both mighty to save and covered with the blood of His people. God replies:

“I have trodden the winepress alone,

    and from the peoples no one was with me;

I trod them in my anger

    and trampled them in my wrath;

their lifeblood spattered on my garments,

    and stained all my apparel.

For the day of vengeance was in my heart,

    And my year of redemption had come.      (vv. 3-4)

Again, God’s wrath and redemption are mingled. There are two clues, I believe, to help us in understanding how this passage can be sweet to our souls, and these clues are in verse 5 and verses 7-14. Read those passages, and as we wrestle with this Word, we will see God as both more holy and more loving.