Kingdom Work In the Here and Now

"For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ" (Philippians 3:20).

Now then, we are ambassador's for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God. For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him" (2 Corinthians 5:20-21).

The other week I blogged about the futility of politics. Even the best human political system will fail to set human nature aright. Only Jesus Christ can set humanity aright. But I want to make it clear that this is not an apathetic stance to take. I do not believe in standing idly by while evil prevails. I simply reject politics as the answer to the problem. Politics is not the answer to the problem of fallen humanity's sin and depravity.

At best, even a seemingly good political movement can be nothing more than a temporary and cosmetic treatment for the real ongoing condition sin in human hearts as we draw ever closer to the necessary day of God's judgment. The Great Commission that Jesus Christ gave us, His followers, is the most important work with which we must be busy. That is the Kingdom work that we are assigned to do here and now in this world. 

"And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, 'All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Amen'" (Matthew 28:18-20).

Evangelism and discipleship: that's where it's at. Kingdom work is not about political campaigns. It's not about protest demonstrations on the steps of some capitol building or courthouse. Nor is it even about voting or legislating. Our King, Jesus Christ has commanded us to evangelize and disciple people in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. 

It is necessary for God, in due time, to pour out His righteous judgment on all the wicked who refuse to turn away from sin and be reconciled with Him. But in the meantime we must be about our Father's business. We must be doing the work of evangelizing the people of the earth; and like student-teachers, teaching them to be Christ's disciples. 

We are to be going around and telling people that they are sinners and that they need Jesus to save them from their sin. We must be teaching people, by word and example, to turn away from sin and turn toward Jesus Christ to practice holiness and righteousness through the power of the Holy Spirit.

This is the work of the Church; not the government of any worldly empire, nation, state, or city. This is the work of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ. This is our Father's business, about which we must be. This is the responsibility of every believer in His salvation by grace through faith in Him who died for our sin and rose victoriously over death.   

Why God is Superlatively Great

From the astronomical to the microscopic; all matter, all space, all time belongs to God. He is the Creator and Owner of every soul, and every spirit. God is the Lord and Judge of every thing, creature, every person that exists. He is the Absolute Decider of what is good. He is the Absolute Standard of goodness.

After revealing Himself to humanity through nature, and through the Old Testament prophets; the Creator of all things took on mortal human form and came personally into the world that He created (Hebrews 1:1-2). Jesus Christ is God in Person. He died on the cross for the sin of humanity, though He Himself has no sin. And He rose victoriously over death. 

By accomplishing these works, Jesus made redemption; forgiveness of sin, and eternal life, accessible to every human being who places their trust in Him, and follows Him. Anyone who wants to can personally know the Creator of the universe as their Friend, Savior, and Everlasting Father. 

Jesus said that the first and greatest commandment is "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength (Dueteronomy 6:5, Matthew 22:37-38). God is love in three Persons; Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (1 John 4:8). The reason that we as human beings even have a concept of love and of goodness is that we were created by, and in the image of God who is love (Genesis 1:26-27). 

Anyone who truly loves, as we were created to love, will love God who is love. And Jesus Christ is God in Person. Therefore anyone who truly loves will love Jesus Christ. "Let loving hearts enthrone Him". But as fallen human beings, all of us have sinned, and have not loved God who is love, and who created us in His image for the purpose of love. 

"But", Paul the apostle wrote, "God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8). John the apostle wrote, "In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins...We love Him because He first loved us" (1 John 4:10 & 19).

I stated that God is the Absolute Decider of what is good; the Absolute Standard by which goodness is measured. Some wicked people accuse God of being wicked because He judges sin. By accusing God of evil, these evil people manifest (show, reveal, demonstrate) their own evil, wicked, fallen nature. God is God. People are not. God is the One who decides what is right and what is wrong. He is the One who decides what is good and what is evil. 

Because He is good, He judges and condemns sin. But also, because He is good, God has provided salvation from sin through His Son, Jesus Christ. No one has to be condemned for their sin. As I stated before, anyone who wants to can be redeemed. All one has to do is trust in the salvation that is by grace through faith in Jesus Christ (Romans 5:1-2). Those who do, receive His Holy Spirit who is now begun to work in them to reform them, conforming them to holiness, to righteousness. 

Politics

I grew up in a conservative home with parents who nearly always vote Republican. And so, I followed suit when I first began to vote. In fact I am still registered as a Republican voter. However, in more recent years I have been more inclined toward the Libertarian point of view, which is also known to some as "classical liberalism". For the most part I agree with the idea that one group of people should not have the power of coercion over another group. 

For example, I am a Christian; but I do not believe in forcing people, against their will, to practice Christianity. It is only God who has the right to pronounce judgement on the wicked and unbelieving who refuse His salvation. And indeed He will; in due time. On the other hand, I believe I should be able to practice Christianity through both public and private observance; giving praise to God at all times. And indeed, that is what God has called His people to do, whether or not we meet with any resistance from the wicked. 

But I have come to the point now, in my life, at which I place absolutely no confidence in any human government or political system. The Kingdom of God is all I trust. And the Kingdom of God does not come by means of human politicking. Whether or not I should even continue to vote, I'm not sure. But one thing I am certain of; no human government or political system is ever going to bring about the righteousness of God in the hearts of human beings.

Basically what it comes down to is that all systems of human government are flawed, and ultimately will falter and fail. That is because the human flaw of sin is deeper than politics. It is a spiritual condition from which only Jesus can save us. Only He can bring about reconciliation with God (Romans 5:10, 2 Corinthians 5:20, 1 Timothy 2:5). The history of Israel in the Old Testament bares out this truth pretty well. 

At the start, God was their only King. Their only human rulers were judges who settled disputes, gave spiritual guidance, and served as military leaders when necessary. But because of the human flaw of sin, there was constant turmoil. Later, the people clamored for a human king. In their unfaithfulness, they wanted to be like the other nations. It was their desire to be like the pagan nations that also often drove them to commit idolatry. But God granted them their request for a king. And He issued a warning through the prophet Samuel, that their king would take advantage of them, and abuse his authority (1 Samuel 8). 

God gave Saul to be their king. And because of Saul's failures and sin, he was replaced by David. David had his own moral and spiritual failures, but through a covenant of grace, God made him to be the ancestor and foreshadow of the Messiah who would provide salvation from sin. That Messiah, Jesus the Son of God, will come again to establish His Kingdom. 

The prophet Isaiah foretold:

"For unto us a Child is born,
Unto us a Son is given;
And the government will be upon His shoulder.
And His name will be called
Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Of the increase of His government and peace
There will be no end,
Upon the throne of David and over His kingdom,
To order it and establish it with judgment and justice
From that time forward, even forever.The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.
(Isaiah 9:6-7).

I place no confidence in any human government or political system. There is no lasting hope in any worldly king, president, congress or parliament. But my citizenship is in heaven. And as a citizen of heaven, I eagerly look forward to the day when the King, Jesus the Lord, will return to establish His everlasting and perfect Kingdom (Philippians 3:20, Revelation 11:15). 

Why History Is Great

According to a recent article in Huffington Post, there are some people who think the United States of America is two thousand and fourteen years old. Actually, 2014 is the current year in the Christian Calendar because it is based on the birth of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. And hopefully most people know that. And by the way, just in case anyone is confused on the matter, Jesus Christ was born in Bethlehem, Judea, Israel; not to be confused with Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, U.S.A. The Christian Calendar, also called the Western Calendar or the Gregorian Calendar, was introduced by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582. But the Calendar is thought to be off by something like three, four, or six years. So the birth of Jesus Christ was not precisely two thousand and thirteen years ago.

The United States of America, though, did not exist when Jesus was born. The United States of America was officially formed in the year 1776. That makes the nation only two hundred and thirty-eight years old. And the Pilgrims of Mayflower fame landed at Plymouth Rock in 1620. That's three hundred and ninety-four years ago. And it was "in 1492" (five hundred and  twenty-two years ago) that "Columbus sailed the ocean blue". That is the year that he is said to have become the discoverer of the New World, though he never actually set foot anywhere on the continent that is now known as North America. He actually landed in the Caribbeans and mistakenly thought that he was in India.

It is important to know about history; real, accurate history. It is important to know the truth about the past in order to know where we came from and where we are going. As the saying goes, "The only way to understand the present is by understanding the past". God's people, the children of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; understood that. That is why they preserved their history in writing. That is why when God gave the Law to Moses, instructing him to write the Pentateuch; he inspired Moses to write down the history of all things. 

Under Divine guidance, Moses wrote history; from the Creation of the universe, to the Fall of Man into a sinful state, to the Flood of Noah. He recounted from the Flood to the calling of Abraham by God, to the immigration of Jacob's family into Egypt when Joseph saved Egypt from a severe famine. Moses then reviewed the subsequent enslavement of the people of Jacob (a.k.a Israel) in Egypt, and his own birth, upbringing, and Divine calling to lead Israel out of Egyptian slavery into the Promised Land.

And why did Israel become enslaved in Egypt. Because a new Pharaoh came into power, who did not know the history of how Joseph the Hebrew saved Egypt from starvation. So he was ignorant, and without proper gratitude to the Hebrew people. As Jesus Christ the superlative Savior said "Salvation is from the Jews" (John 4:22). Paul the apostle said that the Gentiles owe material gratitude to the Jews because it was through the Jews that Jesus Christ and His spiritual blessings came into the world (Romans 15:26-27).

But the historically ignorant Pharaoh feared the Hebrews and enslaved them. And he ordered the massacre of all Hebrew first-born son's at birth, much the same way as Herod "the Great" would later do when Jesus Christ was born in Israel. History has a way of being repeated like that. As another saying goes, "Those who do not know history are doomed to repeat it". But Moses, like Jesus, was rescued from infanticide. His mother hid him in a basket, coated with pitch and put him on the Nile River. He was then discovered by Pharaoh's daughter, who took him in and raised him as her own. She gave him the Egyptian name, "Moses" which means "drawn from the water". 

Centuries later the Israelites were again in captivity (this time in Babylon/Persia) because of their unfaithfulness to the LORD. But during that time they were saved by history from annihilation. Haman was seeking to turn the king, Xerxes, against all the Jews. But on a sleepless night, Xerxes called his servants to come and read to him from the history of his kingdom. It was through this reading that the king learned, or was reminded of Mordecai's loyalty to the king (Esther 6:1-3). Mordecai was a Jew. And as a result of Mordecai saving the king's life on an earlier occasion, Esther, Mordicai's relative, was able to persuade Xerxes to favor all her people. Haman's evil plan backfired on him with fatal result. 

In his first letter to the Corinthians, Paul reviewed some events recorded in the Books of Moses. And he said "Now all these things happened to them as examples, and were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come" (1 Corinthians 10:11). History is recorded for the sake of our generation to learn from the past. There are many examples of how historical ignorance is detrimental, while historical knowledge is indispensable. But the historical sequence of Creation, the Fall, the Flood, Israel and Jesus Christ is the superlative example. 

As I demonstrated in an earlier post, Why Science Is Great; the scientific laws are a testament to the truth of our orderly Creator and sovereign God, and the brokenness of the world due to sin - the need for salvation. Archaeology also testifies to the historical reliability of the Biblical texts. And the events recorded therein are of utmost importance.

Sin and the Remedy

Biblically, the word sin refers to a couple of things that are related to each other. For one thing, it refers to any specific act or attitude of disobedience against God. His commands are revealed to us in the Scriptures. Therefore, any specific act of disobedience against His revelation, in Scripture, is a sin. This includes idolatry, irreverence, theft, murder, adultery, lying, and envy (Exodus 20:1-17). And it also includes homosexuality, because contrary to what some falsely claim; the truth is that both the Old and New Testament, and Jesus Christ Himself, address the issue (Leviticus 18:22, Mark 10:6-8, Romans 1:24-27, 1 Corinthians 6:9-10). 

So, all specific acts/attitudes of disobedience against God are sins. The Greek word that is translated "sin" in the New Testament literally means "to miss the mark". In other words, it is a failure to meet God's standard of what is good. As the Scripture says; "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23). No one can be good without God, because God Himself is the Absolute Decider of what is good. He sets and upholds the absolute standard. We can either obey, or disobey. It is evil to reject God's standard and substitute one's own. The problem is, "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God". None of us meets God's standard of goodness. 

And so this is another thing to which the word "sin" refers. It refers to the human condition. It refers to the fallen nature of the human race. When sin entered the world through one man, and death came by sin, (Romans 5:12) it affected the whole nature of the human being. As a result, we are all born with a sinful nature, inherited from our first parents, Adam and Eve. Since that day in the Garden of Eden, humanity has been in a spiritual state of rebellion against God. Thus, every specific act of disobedience against God is symptomatic of the spiritual condition of the inward soul. This condition, this fallen nature, is referred to in Scripture as sin. Sin runs deeper than actions. Sin is a spiritual disease.

So all such things as faithlessness, kleptomania, malice, lust, gender confusion, every kind of sexual deviance, greed, inordinate anger, the state of being a sociopath or a compulsive liar; all tendencies and inclinations to disobey God, are sin (Matthew 5:21-30). The Bible says that "the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 6:23). Jesus Christ came into the world and died in our place, for our sin. He didn't just die for specific acts of disobedience which we have committed. He died for our sinful condition.

Those who place their trust in Him are saved by His grace. And having been saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, we receive His Holy Spirit who works in us to reform our inward nature. This is a life long process. An individual may have a particular type of sin that is a point of weakness for them. The individual may struggle with that point of weakness throughout their life in this world. But each believer, when he or she stands before God at the end of his or her life in this physical world, will be perfected in accordance with His holiness through Christ (see Romans 5:1-2, Philippians 1:6, and 1 John 3:2). So, as we think of sin as a spiritual sickness, Jesus came with the remedy; the cure. This is why Christians like myself sometimes refer to Him as the Great Physician.

A Christmas Poem

Our God is far higher than the notes and rhymes

Of the greatest players and poets of all places and times

Yet He generously inhabits the most artless praise

From the hearts of contrite sinners believing His grace

In the city of David, God's light has shone

Look there in a stable, the Child is born

The angels here, in a holy throng 

Are heard angelically singing their beautiful song

They sing with glad tidings and good will toward men

But for them the same song is a requiem

For Heaven's High Prince of Peace has now

To our cold, dark world descended low

Clothed now in mortal form
To make the most miserable depths of Sheol His dorm

All this to save sinners; broken, contrite

Reconciled to Him; wayward hearts set aright

Our God is far deeper than sin, death and shame

To deliver us from these three things He came

It may be at one's darkest place
That one meets the loving Savior's face

Trembling now I'd

With these feelings inside

Of reverence and adoration

With words here confide

With six strings allied

A song of great celebration!

But alas! All my words and melody

Too insipid to compare with His rhapsody

Which He has composed from eternity

Even unto eternity

Let it, then, so be

Let Him write in me

Let it, then, so be

Let Him live in me

Conduct, in me

His own symphony

Why Science Is Great

The reason science is great, the reason it is even possible at all, is that the universe operates according to orderly sets of laws. If it did not, then our own brains would not operate in an orderly manner, allowing us to think and to make valid observations of the universe, of which we and our brains are a part. Now atheists would have us to think that this natural universe, which operates according to orderly sets of laws, came not from an intelligent Creator and sovereign Lawgiver, but from random, mindless, unguided processes. And these atheists make the ridiculous claim that theirs is the more rational worldview. But they are not rational. They are irrational, and spiritually blind. Their hearts are insensitive to the truth of God.

The word of God describes them rightly; that "... they became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools"(Romans 1:20-22). They have the absurd view that since scientific laws govern the universe, that somehow refutes the word of God who made the laws that govern the universe. But science, the orderly, systematic study of the natural universe, is great because it truly points to our orderly Creator and sovereign Lawgiver who orders and commands His creation as He sees fit. 

Of course, the Scriptures tell that God has the power to command nature to behave differently than normal at specific points - any points - in time and space. When He does, we call the result a miracle. This should not surprise us since He made the universe. It is His. He owns it. From the astronomical, to the microscopic; all matter, all space, all time belongs to Him. Philip Yancy wrote, "Some see miracles as an implausible suspension of the laws of the physical universe. As signs, though, they serve just the opposite function. Death, decay, entropy, and destruction are the true suspensions of God's laws; miracles are the early glimpses of restoration".  

In the physical universe we can plainly see the order and splendor of our God who made all things. And we can also plainly see the brokenness of our world which groans under the weight of sin's curse. So we can see the need for a Savior. And if we read the Gospels, we can learn about that Savior. His name is Jesus. He is the Son of God. 

He took on human form and came into our broken world. He lived within the time and space of human history. He took on Himself all of the brokenness of our existence, and our world, though He had no sin. He died on the cross to pay the penalty for our sin (Romans 6:23). And on the third day, He rose again, conquering death. All who trust in Him receive forgiveness of sin, and eternal life in Paradise with Him.

Science is great because we can see His work through the world that He created. And we can see the brokenness of our world because of sin. We can see our need for reconciliation with God. But the gospel of Christ is greater than science, because it tells us we can be reconciled with God now, by grace, through faith in Jesus Christ (Romans 5:1-2).