Eternal Life

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It’s important to know what happens after this life, and Jesus Christ has not left us guessing. There is a lot that remains a mystery, but we have been told enough to be sure that there is an eternal life and that life after our death will be real and wonderful—that is, for those who trust in him.

How real is all of this? Guesses are not much help. Wishing won’t make it happen. We need to hear from someone who knows and we need to be persuaded that what they say includes us. Jesus said numbers of times that he could give us eternal life—that is, a quality of life that would begin now and continue after our death. But all this came together when he was killed and then rose from the dead. Here is where he gained the credibility to tell us what is to come.

Some think faith in God and in Jesus Christ is a leap in the dark, but it’s not really like this—especially when it comes to knowing what happens after death. Jesus Christ died. Pure and simple—he was dead. Then, he was seen alive by numbers of people, even by many people at one time. We know the conversations he had with various people and the effect he produced on those he met.

Some claim these records are just made up, but they are people who have already decided that miracles don’t happen. If you read the Bible text as it is, it passes all the usual tests of historical reliability. This is important because faith in Jesus Christ is not an idea or a philosophy or a wish. Jesus shows it is real by dying, and rising from the dead with a new body—same person, same body, but transformed now into something eternal. So what happened?

First, Jesus appeared to two women. Perhaps they needed to know first. Perhaps they were better at assimilating something that was totally unexpected. Whatever, they told the apostles Jesus had chosen, and two of them raced to the empty tomb. The body wrappings had collapsed. Apparently, Jesus didn’t need to unravel anything to get free.

Then, Jesus appeared in a locked room—without breaking in. The disciples had locked themselves away because they were nervous about what the authorities might do next. The locked door was no trouble to Jesus. He just came in.

Now clearly, the disciples were dealing with the same Jesus they had known. They knew who he was. He repeated what he had said before he was killed—’Peace be with you.’ He had more reason to say this now that before, because death was not a threat any more. He hadn’t just ‘cheated’ death by escaping it. He had defeated it by rising from the dead.

He was the same Jesus who had hung on a cross, and had the same body—even though it was now changed. The disciples were still having trouble believing a crucified Jesus could  be talking to them. It must be a spirit they thought. So he asked them to feel the holes made by nails in his hands and feet. He asked for some fish to eat so they could see it disappear!

He also reminded them that he had prophesied all this. He showed them that this is what their religion was about—the Messiah must suffer and rise from the dead, and God’s forgiveness for sin must be announced everywhere. Forgiveness and eternal life belong together. God can see what we are of ourselves, and it doesn’t warrant eternal life. But Christ died in the way sinners deserve to die—and he did it for us and in our place. His resurrection is not just saying that there is a thing called eternal life, it is saying that we can have it because we are relying on what he has done about our sins.

Put in another way, Jesus came to remove the shroud—the death garment—in which we are all wrapped . God had said earlier that he would ‘swallow up death for all time’ and ‘wipe away tears from all faces’ (Isaiah 25:7-8).

A week later, Jesus repeated his visit to the apostles, and this time, Thomas, who missed the first meeting, was present. The others hadn’t convinced him that Jesus was really alive, so Jesus told him to do the feel test—’Check these wounds  in my hands and in my side!’ Thomas is the prototype for all of us who were not there when Jesus rose. The Lord expected him to believe without seeing for himself. But he did say, ‘You are blessed because you saw and believed.’ And then he added, ‘Blessed are all who haven’t seen and yet believe!’

Jesus doesn’t need to pop up out of nowhere to make people believe. He has appeared to chosen witnesses and told them to go everywhere announcing, not only that we can live after dying, but that we may be forgiven by believing his message. This is what makes life after death believable. We are forgiven because Jesus died in our place. We don’t have to fear death because we are forgiven. It will be good to meet God, not dreadful.

There were other remarkable meetings with Jesus, especially at the side of a lake when Jesus told disciples where to put a net to catch some fish, and then he ate some with them, sitting around a fire. At that time, Jesus completely rehabilitated Peter who had failed badly. Peter now had confidence, not only in Jesus but in what Jesus would do in him.

For a final time, Jesus came to his apostles. He told them he had all authority in heaven and earth. He said he would be with them to the end of time. Then he ascended into heaven. He was lifted up until he was lost to sight in a cloud. The Jesus Christ in whom Christians believe has returned to his Father, God, but returned as a human being, raised from the dead.

Now, where does this leave us? We have  no way of finding out what happens after death, but Jesus does. He says he will give eternal life to all who believe in him. ‘Eternal life’ is literally ‘life of the ages’. It’s what you have beyond this present life, but it is also what you have when you give up making our you are good enough as you are. Simply, you are trusting him to forgive you. It is a quality of life, not merely a length of life. In that sense, eternal life has begun already. Jesus said, ‘This is eternal life, that we know the Father (God) and Jesus Christ whom he sent.’ If you know God, you can be sure of the future.

 Jesus is called ‘the first fruits’ of all who have died, meaning that he is the first of the ‘crop’. He rose from death, and those who trust him will rise—like he did. He had a body and could relate and converse and eat, and his followers will also have a body and converse and eat. Jesus no longer had restrictions as to what his body could do, and it certainly wasn’t going to die again, and we will have a body in which we will know one another and relate and converse, and we will never die.

That leaves a lot we don’t know, but then, it is amazing to know this much. Jesus is the key to it all. He said, ‘I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in me will live even if he dies’ (John 11:25).

Suggested reading: John 20:19-29

© Grant Thorpe, 2/8/2019

 

 

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Imitating God

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Paul says, ‘…be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God’ (Ephesians 5:1-2).

Copying God! That sounds like a big ask! Jesus said something similar. ‘Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect’ (Matt. 5:48). He had in mind letting our kindness shine on people whether they are good or bad, just like God does every day.

What I like here is we are to copy God ‘as beloved children’. That makes all the difference. He likes us. He made us to be his children. He has good things planned for us. We are not likely to copy someone who doesn’t like us!

So how can we be persuaded that we are God’s beloved children? It is a very big thing to say that we know God and know that he loves us and to know it in a way that stops us being jumpy and irritable and scared and selfish. A huge thing!

Paul continues by telling us about Jesus. He is the example. He ‘loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God’. This is very interesting.

When Jesus died on the cross to take our place, what he had in mind was that this was what his Father wanted. He knew how much the Father loved us. He knew the Father didn’t want us to die as sinners. He knew his Father’s forgiveness would flow freely to us if he took away our sins. So he died so we would know the same loving Father he did.

How amazing! Can you doubt that you, like Jesus, are a beloved child of God? Is there any reason not to live a life of love?

The best way to live for others is to live for God, as we are told here that Jesus did. Other people don’t always inspire our loving, but God succeeds all the time.

Wedon’t succeed all the time. Sometimes we forget God’s loving of us and treat people as those who should serve us rather than as those we can serve. We get proud of ourselves instead of proud of our loving Father. Then things go wrong, sometimes, terribly wrong.

Doing people harm is one thing but what is really sad here is that by not living in love, we hide God’s Fatherly care from others. There is nothing more important than that people know the truth about God, so Jesus said, ‘let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven’ (Matt. 5:16).

Remember that God always remains Father to us when we fail. He continues to put good things before us. For example, when Peter was told he was going to deny Jesus, the first thing Jesus said to him was, ‘Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms…’ (John 14:1-2).

We need to know that God remains our Father while we struggle to live as his children. Gradually he gets us reflecting what he is like. We, ‘…beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another’ (2 Cor. 3:18). We don’t reflect God by competing with him—that is, by trying to be as good as he is! Rather, we look at the Lord, and get transformed by him. So, let’s imitate God, as beloved children!

How Good it is that God is Judge (3)

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This is the third article in a series about God as Judge. I have hoped to show why Christians can savour this truth and in what way. The other two articles are further down in the blog.

What does it mean that God is Judge of the whole world? It’s easy to dismiss this because he doesn’t seem to do anything, and the powers we answer to are more likely to wear wigs, or blue uniforms, and our brush with them has probably been minimal. Then again, our popular teachers say we are our own masters and that the idea of any external arbiter should be dismissed.

I am unlikely to persuade someone that God is Judge if they don’t already believe that Jesus is the world’s Saviour. Our persuading begins with him. He is the way God has explained himself. He explains what he means by judgement by sending his Son in the likeness of our sinful flesh, and as an offering for sin (Romans 8:3). What happens to him and how he receives what happens to him is what God means by judgement. Jesus said, ‘Now is the judgement of this world,’ and he was speaking about his own death (John 12:31). It is this event that gives all that we are saying its moral credibility.

The Apostle Paul had a conversation with a Roman governor, Felix, about faith in Jesus Christ. That was his starting point, but his conversation included, necessarily, ‘righteousness, self-control and judgment to come’, which left Felix frightened, and the discussion ended (Acts 24:24-27). The same thing would probably happen today. But I’m not primarily interested in what modern people are likely to believe but rather, what is true. At the end of the day, that is what is going to matter.

In fact, God is always doing what he needs to do to tell us that this world is his. When the gospel is being preached, he is revealing his righteousness—the true way of being right before God. Paul puts this in the present tense because God is revealing himself, and revealing how to relate to him, by having his servants preach the gospel. At the same time Paul says God is revealing his wrath (Romans 1:16-18). How this happens may seem surprising, and, I suspect, is often misunderstood.

Paul lists a number of things that are going wrong with his first century world, a list not too different from one we may compile for our own century. But he is not telling us that these things are wrong. He assumes we know that. He is saying that when people do these things, God is revealing his wrath—to them and to the world at large. The sin in this passage is not bad behaviour but repressing what God is revealing about himself. So when people do whatever they like, give way to lusts, degrading passions including homosexuality, depraved minds, wickedness, greed, murder, strife, deceit, malice, gossip, slander, insolence, boasting, untrustworthiness, lack of mercy, and pride in doing these things, God is revealing his wrath. People don’t just do these things, they can’t help doing them because God has given them up to them. This means that the very people who think there is no God to assess or reward their actions are actually in the hands of God.

Contrary to popular belief, God is not naturally angry but is provoked to anger by those who live their life as though he were not around. He is jealous for the affection and obedience of the creatures he has formed. He wants to give himself to them and to give them a full life. When he gives us up to our own choices, it is as though Christ himself is saying, as he said to Paul earlier, ‘It is hard for you to kick against the goads’ (Acts 26:14).

Paul’s letter is written to Christians and it is we who need to know how God acts as Judge. If we take judgement into our hands, we get it wrong. Wrath is God’s affair, not ours, but he is doing what is right in regard to people who ignore him. Our task is to be witnesses to Jesus Christ, and, in the context of that revelation of love, to tell people about judgement.

If we know God is gracious, we can see these things. We can see how God gives people over to their sins and to the social consequences of them. The world can’t see its own dilemma. Nor can it see the way God is caring for those who trust him.

The prophet Isaiah refers to this phenomenon (Isa. 26:1-12). He describes God caring for those who honour him and his law and who long for him to intervene in their world. They may be afflicted and helpless (v. 6) but know that God’s hand is ‘lifted up’ (v. 11) to save them. Their path is ‘smooth’ and ‘level’ (v. 7). They have ‘perfect peace’ (v. 3). On the other hand, God’s hand is ‘lifted up’, not only to bless his people but also to be angry with those who ignore him; his judgements are in the land (v. 9). As a result of this, things go wrong, terribly wrong (vv. 5-6). Still, says Isaiah, they can’t see it (vv. 10-11).

I wonder if we can see the parallels to this in our situation. God’s judgements are being revealed in our land. This can be tricky because there is often no direct correlation between evil and suffering. Many people get away with evil for many years and others seem to suffer innocently. But then, there are social consequences of some actions that ought to register as a moral result of actions.Here are some examples.

  • When people give free reign to their passions, they release a euphoria that can’t be sustained. Freedom and good will are eroded by permissiveness because demands for selfish pleasure increase. Peter Lowman has some articles that show Western secular writers over recent centuries confessing that without God, we have no substantial basis for purpose, meaning, ethics or love. You can read them at http://www.bethinking.org/atheism/after-god.
  • In economic terms, we are trying to build a generous economy out of selfish people and it’s not working. Our politicians try their best and speak to us warmly about how we should be able to live but they can’t produce it. And the pie we are trying to share is shrinking. We think capitalism will spread the wealth but it was not designed for that. It was put forward as the best was to generated wealth, not spread it. Only generous people can make a generous economy.
  • Then again, we are trying to make happy families by changing partners, and that’s not working either. Just ask the children affected by this. On a wider scale, we want the nations to behave like a family and be reasonable, but we have no Father God to call us to account and demonstrate tender strength.
  • And again, we are trying to define goodness by majority decisions and are becoming more polarized than united. Is this just because other people are unreasonable? Or is it saying that goodness must be defined by someone greater than us all of us put together?

In many respects, our postulating in the West about knowing what is good for the world sounds to me like the Emperor who paraded naked because he had been persuaded that his invisible ‘clothes’ were beautiful. A young boy in the crowd said, ‘The Emperor’s got no clothes’, not realising he was supposed to make out that the Emperor did have clothes on. The fact is, we are not doing well. This may sound like the naïve cry of someone uninformed about public affairs, but it should be obvious.

These dysfunctional aspects of our way of life are God’s judgement. He loves us too much to let us indulge our fantasies and is speaking to us by being what he is — our Judge. The world may not be willing to acknowledge this. Rather, as someone quipped, we look for ‘a breakthrough a day to keep the crisis at bay’. Something else must be the problem, not us.

It is important for Christians to know these things because they are the background for our announcing the good news of Jesus Christ. Somewhere, there will be people who can no longer be sated with the goodies of this world and who know life cannot proceed without righteousness, not in this life or the next, and they will hear our good news with different ears.

It is important for us Christians to know, also, that God’s hand has been, and is being, ‘lifted up’ in our favour. Have we seen the enormity of Christ rising from the dead to abolish death? Do we know how amazing it is to be forgiven for all our sins and to stand righteous before God, forever? It is easy, when things are going well, to ‘not need’ the favour of God because the world already favours us enough. We slip into thinking God is only interested in the present world and that he doesn’t want to give us any more. Let us remember that his hand is ‘lifted up’, as Judge, in our favour, and nothing can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8:38-39). That is what we need to know.

We have stood where judgement fell on this world because God sees us as united to Christ in his crucifixion. Judgement fell on us well and truly. We know the fervour of his wrath and the heat of his holiness. Jesus Christ endured its pain, but we know it as a moral power (Rom. 6:4-6; Gal. 2:20; 5:24; 6:14; Col. 3:3-6). We love God for his holiness and for his love in reaching out to us in this way. We see the need for people to know this gracious God and cannot think God unkind when his wrath is revealed. God gives us confidence to stand before him, even when things are tough, and this is evidence, at least to us, that we are being saved. It may also be evidence to some that they are not (Phil. 1:28; 2 Thes. 1:5).

The world’s Saviour is still our Judge. We call on him as Father but should fear him as one who judges impartially (1 Peter. 1:17). Then again, Peter tells us, ‘It is time for judgement to begin with the household of God’ (1 Peter 4:17). He then talks about judgement coming to those who reject the gospel. We have to get the balance right because we will not be convincing to the world about God being Judge if we do not live before him ourselves. All the letters Christ sends to the churches in the book of Revelation (chapters 2 and 3) talk about Christ standing, effectively, as Judge among his people. He speaks about what he has for and against them, what they should do to remedy defects and what he promises to those who hear what the Spirit says to the churches. He does this, not to throw doubt on the salvation of his people but to ensure that the light from his churches burns brightly.

Picking up the exhortations Christ gives in these letters, let us ask ourselves these questions. Do we love Christ fervently, endure under trial, hate what he hates and love what he loves, live by his word and trust in his righteousness alone? These are the things Christ watches over us to produce in his church. Those Christ loves he rebukes and chastens.

If we know God is our Judge and that this judging has been entrusted to Christ, we have the proper sense of how our gospel must come to those who don’t know Christ. Paul said, ‘Knowing the fear of God, we persuade others’ (2 Corinthians 5:11-21). Through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, we have a proper understanding of our responsibility to God, a deep gratefulness for the love of Christ, a due sense of its cost and a hearty enjoyment of our new place in God’s favour. As such, we can say to others, with moral earnestness, ‘Be reconciled to God’. The stakes are high, and the rewards real. It is no fiction to say, ‘How good it is that God is Judge!’

I wrote the following poem some years back and I hope it captures some of what I have been saying in these articles.

§§§§§§§§§§§§

Sovereign Lord your hand is guiding

All the destinies of man.

Nations, families, cultures, kingdoms,

Flow as water through your hand.

Yet your rule is kind and good, Strong and wise and gentle;

Leaving none who seek you crushed

But calmed and gladly humbled.

 

Sovereign Judge the world is aching

Through its shame and wrongful ways.

You are showing your displeasure

In the tumults of our age

Yet your wrath is righteousness,

Purging our pollution;

Wishing not we be condemned,

But that we be chastened.

 

Sovereign Father, all your actions

Lead us to your own dear Son,

By whose death all failure’s terrors

Are absolved, forever shunned.

By your unexpected love You have won us Father.

Let us do what pleases you,

Be your new creation.

 

Sovereign Lord and Judge and Father,

Hallowed by your holy name.

May your kingdom come in glory,

May your gracious will be done.

 

 

How Good it is that God is Good (2)

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I read an interesting opinion piece by Stuart Waiton in The Australian (30 Dec. ’13) that referred to the frequent public apologies being offered in recent years. He claims it is an attempt by those in authority to regain honour for our justice system by giving it a more humane face. 

My reason for drawing attention to the article is that our world sees judging as cold, rigid and unforgiving and that this attitude may well carry over into how we think about God. If he is Judge, what chance is there of having a relationship with him? I have sought to show in an earlier blog, that God being Judge arises from his relationship with us and expresses that relationship, something for which we are grateful and rely on. But let me continue by showing what it means that Jesus, to whom God has entrusted all judging activity, came and died among us.

Jesus said, ‘Now is the judgement of this world…’ (John 12:31), and the context shows he is talking about his death. If all judgement has been entrusted to him, we have to understand that, from his cross, Jesus, far from being only a victim, is actually judging the world. Jesus said, “This is the judgement: Light [Jesus] has come into the world.” People then either prefer darkness or come to the light (John 3:19-21). The Jews and Romans who encountered him hated the light and crucified the Son of God. They, on behalf of us all, reveal the truth about humanity (John 9:39-41). We have judged ourselves by condemning Jesus.

The early preaching of the apostles regularly drew attention to this. ‘You nailed [him] to a cross by the hands of godless men’ (Acts 2:23). This is our sin really, that we kill the Son of God (John 16:8-9) and crucify him again, so to speak, when we are awakened by the truth and then turn away from it (Heb. 6:6).

Notice that Jesus, from the cross, is not only revealing the truth about us; he is disempowering the Prince of the world; Satan is thrown down from his position of eminence. Clearly, all who continue to follow the world and its Prince, share his fate. Judgement is not only being announced, it is being executed. Then again, with the downfall of the world’s Prince, Jesus becomes the rightful leader of humanity and will gather ‘all men’ to him. This means all who believe in him—people of all nations and all who will inherit the world to come. History is being rearranged, the truth needed for the future of the world is being established and the new people are being gathered. This great throng will find that the judgement of the world has already occurred and that it has not led to their condemnation but to their life (John  5:24).

We should note that Christ’s death does not look like a judge declaring what is right and wrong and then executing his decision. His weakness rather than his strength is what we see. This is why the Church cannot preach the gospel from a position of strength. We need to live in the love that took Christ to his cross and suffer the scorn and pain of those who reject him. Going to the world with a message that judgement is being worked out when Christ is crucified is not a message of vindictiveness but of forgiveness. This leads us to a second way in which Christ’s death is the judgement of this world.

Jesus did not come to judge but to save (John 3:17). Strange mission for a judge! But God is a Saviour. His Son is a Saviour. He has been given all responsibility to judge the world so that all will honour him as they honour the Father. If we stand before our Judge, and what he says will happen, he tends to have our attention! But Christ has also been given authority to judge so we will believe in him and not be condemned (John 5:22-24). He wants our attention so we will be saved. We could say that Jesus Christ, the Judge, has come over to our side of the courtroom to act as our Advocate (1 Jo. 2:1). He intercedes or intervenes for us so we will not be condemned (Rom. 8:34). He does not change roles but brings his authority as Judge into his role as Advocate. But how can he be an advocate for those deserving condemnation?

Christ becomes the subject of the judgement he has come to reveal. In the Bible, this is spoken about in three ways.

First, the prophet Isaiah (53:5-12) foretells that a Servant of God will be chastened with a view to our wellbeing. He says we will be healed because of the scourging he receives. God lays our iniquity on him, and he makes himself a guilt offering for us, we who will now be declared righteous. Christ becomes this suffering Servant. He brings justice to the nations (Is. 42:1-4) but in this strange way of suffering for those whose fate lies in his hand. He is highly exalted because he sprinkles many nations (52:13-15). He becomes great by pouring himself out to death and interceding for his people (53:12). He takes the place of the people he condemns and wins a new future for them.

Second, Christ is made a curse for us (Gal. 3:10, 13). This is the penalty for breaking God’s law, but it also expresses the revulsion God has when we turn from him to make idols of things he has made and live by our lusts instead by his commands. This becomes clear by reading Deuteronomy 28. Jesus Christ loved his Father, felt his jealous love for the creatures he had made, and made himself an offering for the sins of his people.

Third, Christ makes propitiation for us (Rom. 3:25; Heb. 2:17; 1 Jo. 2:2; 4:10). That is, he turns God’s wrath away from us by submitting himself to the holy wrath of his Father against us. Looked at from God’s point of view, wrath is expressed by giving us up to our sins (Rom. 1:24, 26, 28) but now he gives up his Son to our sins (Rom. 4:25; 8:32). He becomes all that we are in our ignorance and hatred of God. Quite stunningly, Paul says God made him to be sin for us—the one who had never sinned—so we would be made the righteousness of God in him (2 Co. 5:21).

Whole books are written on this matter, as they should be, but my point here is simply that Christ’s death is the place for the world’s judgement. At one time or another, all of us must come to terms with this. God’s desire is that we will not run from, but to the one he has appointed as our Judge.

The biblical term for a judgement that is favourable to us is ‘justification’. This is not saying we are justified in what we have done but that God has announced that we are justified in his sight on the basis of what Christ has done. No amount of pleasant words or happy thoughts can hide the truth that we are answerable to God. We need to know that the court has sat, that all the facts are known and that God is now righteous in declaring us righteous. Only Christ can secure this for us and he has done so, fully and freely.

Many try to know the love of God by avoiding the fact of judgement but it doesn’t work. No number of human platitudes, or even divine providences, can break through to us that God is love. His loves comes to us as justification (Rom. 5:1-5; 8:31-38). Then it has moral validity and is convincing. The real holy God has come to a real sinner and really announced that he or she is justified. Christ has really come to us as our Judge, to save and not condemn, but his ‘no condemnation’ is still the word of our Judge! His word is final because it is just.

Then again, our righteousness is not just a formal acquittal; it is an unassailable righteousness before God forever. It comes to us with all the dignity of Jesus dying willingly because he loved his Father (John 14:31). It is not called ‘the righteousness of God’ for nothing! He is its author and sustainer, and we ‘are made the righteousness of God in [Christ]’ (2 Cor. 5:21). All this is done so we will never sin again, but then, we do, and we have an Advocate who is righteous and who has made propitiation. There is no real peace outside of this.

How necessary this is! It is necessary now because no one can properly function when they live under condemnation. It is not surprising that we spend so much time justifying ourselves! How much better to hear it from our Judge; that is, from our Saviour. It is necessary, too, in regard to the final judgement. None of us can avoid standing before Christ at the end of our life. God has appointed him as the world’s Judge and assured us of this by raising him from the dead (Acts 17:31).

Christ has brought the final judgement into history, while he was among us, so we could hear this word of justification now. Those who hear this word have no remaining threat standing against them; not here or hereafter. Love has hit home. This is very heaven! It is also the one moral incentive that gives us a ‘head of steam’ in our fight against the world, the flesh and the devil. It’s called gratitude, or perhaps just holy love.

I want to consider how God’s judgements may be working out in our present history. It is of no value to have an idea of God being Judge if he himself is inept or inactive. God willing, I will look at this in a further blog.

Get to know God while you are young!

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I spoke last Sunday on Ecclesiastes 12:1-8 and thought you may be interested in some observations from that. I will return to my series on God as Judge soon.

The passage describes old age, or so it seems to me. The alternative is that it is describing a funeral. Either way, it is saying to young people, ‘Remember God while you are young’, and three times he says, ‘…before’ all the stuff that happens when you are old seems to destroy the evidence that life can be enjoyed.

Joy is quite a strong theme around this end of the book. He tells young people to delight in their youth, and ‘also’ to remember God in their youth (9:9; 12:1), and then the editor of the book says the Preacher sought to find delightful words to help us (12:10). Clearly, when he talks about old people saying thay have no more delight in life (12:1), he is saying that young people need to find where true delight is before the discovery of it becomes difficult.

There are lots of things for young people to enjoy, well most young people anyway. It is during this time that they do themselves a favour by living their enjoyable lives before God, according to his law, and discover the depths of life that will never fade.

Young people, and all of us, are not just left to have a good time, we are told to do so! It seems that real joy is a choice rather than just a happening. If joy is sought in things ‘under the sun’, the material world, there will never be enough of them to satisfy us, and certainly not enough to last. Life gets more difficult with old age. The good things of this world are not so much the source of our joy as the occasion for it. A good thing received, with thankfulness to God, becomes the source of ongoing joy, not just an event. We need lots of these experices while growing up in order to go on having joy in old age.

On the other hand, if we have sought meaning and joy merely in having and doing things, old age is proof that we have been grasping at a vapour. ‘Where is the fun I used to get out of this?’ ‘Why doesn’t this seem significant any more?’ With this observation, the Preacher brings his argument to a close by repeating his opening claim, ‘All is vanity’ (1:2; 12:8). Finding delight in the creation of itself is a lost cause, and he has driven his last nail into the coffin of this hope by talking about where this hope ends.

Psalm 23 is an example of finding joy now that lasts into the future. The writer recounts what God has done for him, leading him to food and water, restoring his life and leading him in right paths. But then he sees the possibility of dark valleys looming and says God will still be with him. He is persuaded that goodness (what God called the creation at the beginning) and steadfast love (what God promised to his covenant people) will always be with him. His earlier experiences told him what God was like and what he would do. His future experiences will not be able to alter who God is or how much he can be trusted.

As believers in Christ, we have every reason to remember our Creator, while young, and when old. Surely, God is with us! Christ is God with us! It is his presence that gives our present life quality, delight and permanence. He is not with us in things as they should be but in things as they are. He has entered into the sorrows of our hearts, borne our griefs and sorrows, endured their wrongness and judgement before his Father, and risen from the dead to give us peace. Christ gives us abundant life—both at work and in pleasurable company. He enters into our sorrows and joys agains as we pray, and gives us joy.

Of course, old age comes with increasing troubles. The question this passage poses is, ‘Is that all there is?’ The obvious answer is, ‘Not if we remember our Creator!’ There is much to enjoy now, and not least, the fact that our present life includes a foretaste, and is preparation for, a new heaven and earth. It’s good to get going on this as soon as possible.

If you’d like to hear more, you could listen to the message. You’ll find it online at http://www.sermonaudio.com/sermoninfo.asp?sermonID=1214132216541.

You may also like to listen to Don Carson say some parallel things, at http://www.sermonaudio.com/sermoninfo.asp?SID=9813224462. It’s based on James 1:12-25.

How good it is that God is judge (1)

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I thought this topic could be one short piece but the matter of judging is not dismissed so quickly! Here is the first of three on the topic.

 

The Christian message says, among many other things, that God is the world’s Judge. The truth of this brought comfort to Jesus Christ who entrusted himself to God who judges justly, but alarmed the unbelieving Roman governor Felix who dismissed the idea (1 Pet. 2:23; Acts 24:25). The Christian message also says that God has entrusted this task to his Son Jesus Christ (John 5:27; Heb. 12:23) and it is this that changes the whole matter for believers.

 

Judgement is hardly a favourite subject, particularly if we are the focus of its attention! Even a parking ticket can get us angry, let alone a judgement that painfully exposes us. On the other hand, we all expect justice when it comes to our own rights and privileges. In some communities, the longing is painful and urgent. And, looking at the matter more broadly, no country can build a harmonious community or develop a prosperous economy if the many forms that evil takes are not curtailed. So, judgement must always be in our thinking. The question is, who will we trust to exercise this authority?

For a long time now, the thought of being answerable to God has been scorned. We prefer to think that enlightenment and critical thinking have freed us from the superstitious idea that God supervises what we do. It also appears that the message of the Bible has not established a reign of justice and, on some occasions, its followers have been responsible for injustice. Can there be any good news, or even believable news, in God being our judge?

Finding an alternative is not simple. I think it fair to say that the world is not doing very well being its own judge. The following is an old quote but I use it again because I think it is still true. Harold Berman, a former Harvard Law School professor and described as one of the great polymaths of American legal education, said,

‘It is supposed by some, especially intellectuals that fundamental legal principles … can survive without any religious or quasi-religious foundations on the basis of the proper political and economic controls and philosophy of humanism. History, however, including current history, testifies otherwise. People will not give their allegiance to a political and economic system, and even less to a philosophy, unless it represents for them a higher sacred truth’ (quoted in Mark W Janis, Natural Law, Religion and the Development of International Lawˆ (1999), p. 169).

There is massive distrust of leadership and authority in our present world, and it may be that some of the reason for this is not just that many leaders have acted dishonourably but that we have been relying on them for too much. No human authority can fulfil our expectation for justice.

 

How, then, should we think of God being Judge? If we are going to rediscover and enjoy this truth, some myths about what it may mean may need to be dispelled.

Israel regularly celebrated God as the world’s King and Judge. It is a common theme in their Psalms. Here is one example.

‘Say among the nations, “The Lord reigns! Yes, the world is established; it shall never be moved; he will judge the peoples with equity.”  Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice; let the sea roar, and all that fills it; let the field exult, and everything in it! Then shall all the trees of the forest sing for joy before the Lord, for he comes, for he comes to judge the earth.  He will judge the world in righteousness, and the peoples in his faithfulness’ (Psa. 96:10-13).

This faith was launched when God redeemed Israel from slavery in Egypt as told in the book of Exodus. They had been abused and enslaved but were released by God sending plagues that destroyed Egypt’s economy,  military and particularly, their idolatry. It was not done in a corner but established as fact among neighbouring nations (Josh. 2:9-10). Here is the important point: it is people whom God has saved who believe and are glad that he is Judge. They may be sobered by being subject to so great a God, and may tremble when chastised by him, but are grateful for being the objects of his protection.

There is an assumption here: God does not judge in favour of Israel because of their moral superiority but because of their faith in him. The truth is that there is no human being morally superior to another. We are all unworthy. God acts to save those who cry out to him. Israel did the right thing in turning to God and God defended them. This is what the Bible means by vindication: not one person getting their rights but God acting to defend those who trust him.

The fact of God’s intervention to save and establish Israel as a nation became a firm principle in their national life. They were responsible to do what was right (particularly to trust in the Lord) and God would vindicate them before the nations and demonstrate that they were right to trust him. On the other hand, if they did not keep their covenant with God, he would warn them, and judge them, even give them back into the hands of their enemies. His judgements, rightly understood, were acts of love because God knew they could not prosper without him. But then, he would have mercy on them, time and time again, because his covenant was not based on their performance but on the fact that he was their God. They would be restored, showing that their God still intervened in the world to vindicate them.

If judgment is exercised outside of a settled relationship, it may well be cold, unfeeling and harsh. We may well fear such a judge and, because none of us is without faults, learn to despise such a figure. But for faithful Israel, it was different. They did not present themselves as paragons of virtue when they asked God to be Judge on their behalf, and to vindicate them. They knew their sins but still asked God to act because they trusted him. Psalm 40 is an example of this. Notice the confession of sin being followed by a request for deliverance.

‘As for you, O Lord, you will not restrain your mercy from me; your steadfast love and your faithfulness will ever preserve me! For evils have encompassed me beyond number; my iniquities have overtaken me, and I cannot see; they are more than the hairs of my head; my heart fails me. Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me! O Lord, make haste to help me! Let those be put to shame and disappointed altogether who seek to snatch away my life; let those be turned back and brought to dishonour who delight in my hurt!’ (Ps. 40:11-14).

Here is justice that derives from love, is carried out with compassion and requires a like kindness from those favoured by it. It is clear that a system can never be relied on to deliver mercy; only a person can do that, and this is what God has demonstrated to and through Israel.

God’s judgements are in stark contrast with the unjust judgements of earthly rulers. The Lord calls them ‘gods’ in the sense that they perform a godlike function—judging. When they give unjust judgements, Israelites could appeal to God to intervene on their behalf because he was the Judge over all judges.

‘ God has taken his place in the divine council; in the midst of the gods he holds judgment: “How long will you judge unjustly and show partiality to the wicked?  Give justice to the weak and the fatherless; maintain the righ of the afflicted and the destitute. Rescue the weak and the needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked.” They have neither knowledge nor understanding, they walk about in darkness; all the foundations of the earth are shaken. I said, “You are gods, sons of the Most High, all of you; nevertheless, like men you shall die, and fall like any prince.”  Arise, O God, judge the earth; for you shall inherit all the nations!’ (Ps. 82).

Without justice and judgement, civil society and even love begin to break down—the foundations begin to shake. We all need to be accountable to someone! Israel’s faith in God as Judge, and Judge over their leaders as well, gave them a basis for true society and a place to go when injustice was perpetrated. It gave them a reason to perform well themselves because they would also have to answer for their actions. It gave them hope because God would reward their faithfulness. Because they had a God who was trustworthy, they learned (some of the time anyway) to be this way with one another and this built a strong community and a strong economy.

When people in the West today talk about ‘the Judeo-Christian ethic’ they mostly have in mind certain modes of behaviour, but this separates the ethic from the Giver of the law and the Judge who supervises the nations. It is this that we need to recover, not least because a law cannot be merciful, but the maker of that law can be. We need, not only to believe in the Judge, but to love him because only he can faithfully act to establish our life and secure our future.

 

Jesus shares and develops the faith of Israel. He tells a story about a widow who hounds an unjust judge until she gets what she wants. Jesus encourages his people to pray and not lose heart. He asks however, if such a faith will be found on the earth when the Son of Man returns, faith that God will avenge his chosen people (Luke 18:8). Those who come to God must believe that he is and that he rewards those who seek him (Heb. 11:6). In rather crass terms, we may say that people who believe in God must believe he will make it worth their while trusting him. People who don’t believe God will act to help them when they trust him may soon abandon their faith altogether. Then again, people who have not discovered the trustworthiness of God to judge on their behalf may soon give up on being trustworthy themselves. We urgently need this faith that Jesus commends here. We need to believe God is Judge and that he will act on our behalf. We need Jesus to assure us of this.

Jesus Christ came to Israel as King and Judge—fulfilling these functions in the name of his Father God. It will be him who establishes justice in the earth and he will not let up until he has the nations, not only submissive, but waiting on his law (see the prophecy in Isaiah 42:4). Those who believe in him rely on him to do this. Everyone who trusts in him is declared to be in the right, and so, to be defended by God’s justice. Jesus died to establish this faith and lives to accomplish it. It will be the point of his return in glory at the end of history. This needs opening up and I plan to do that in the next blog, especially the matter of Christ’s death being a judgement, and so, the basis for a judgement in our favour.

 

Have we learned to love God as Judge? Have we recognised Jesus as the one entrusted to exercise this function? Jesus says it is basic to what he came to do. Through him we learn that the Judge is not against us but for us. On one occasion he said that all judgement was entrusted to him, but that (at that point), he was not judging anyone (John 5:22; 12:47-48). He was living out what it meant that God was in covenant relationship with his people. The Judge comes with mercy to restore us to himself, even while he remains our Judge.

The certainty of God’s promised vindication makes it worthwhile being patient in doing what is good. The assurance of his intervention encourages us to pray and to wait with patience, and the thought that we will answer to him keeps us humble and vigilant. I trust this good news has also taught us to run, not from our Judge but into his care.

The apostles lived under Christ as Judge and spoke of this often (Acts 10:42; Rom. 2:16; 2 Tim. 4:1, 8). It determined the way they lived and preached. They said it was public truth because God had raised Jesus from the dead, openly and undisputedly, and in doing so, assured everyone that he was the one who would judge the living and the dead (Acts 17:31). We can’t do anything about dying, except defer it a little. In the end, God is our Judge. But Christ has not just cheated death, he has defeated it by dying for us, and rising from the dead. With a message like that for the world, judgement has passed into his hands. No one should want to dispute that he has authority to judge the world.

These things have given us a message for the world. Christ as Judge assures us that our lives are worthwhile, and, of course, keeps us focussed. We are not our own but are bound to live for the one to whom we must give an answer. We tremble at the thought of not pleasing our Saviour, but it is love that teaches us to fear (2 Cor. 5:10-11, 14).

All this would be morally untenable if it were not for the coming and the death of Christ. In the next blog, I want to look at how Christ’s death on a cross is God’s judgement on our sins and how this changes everything and brings much joy to those who believe. In a third blog, I want us to see how God’s judgements may be working out at present and how this jealous love of God should give us hope.

Love that is free

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Everyone knows the value of love and freedom. We desire and pursue them all our life and feel they are what we were made for and how we were made to function.

A person who loves is happy, eager, observant and generous. A person who is free does not get caught on the miserableness of other people; he or she lives according to their own nature. Desirable indeed! People like this would make vibrant families, strong economies and generous communities, and pick up the slack of those who fell behind, perhaps even getting them back into the flow of life.

So much for the altruism! In fact, ‘love’ and ‘freedom’ may already have become ‘weasel words’. The weasel was thought to suck eggs and leave them empty. This may not be what the weasel does but the idea is understandable. How many have heard the words ‘I love you’ and then been discarded, or been offered freedom only to be enslaved? Is there anything inside the word ‘love’ or the word ‘freedom’ when they are spoken to us? Freedom and love are more often talked about than achieved or even understood.

Love and freedom have very specific meanings and potency for those who follow Christ. They have met God in his free act of love towards them, and because of this are free to love. This is worth looking at again.

God doesn’t need to be constrained to love by anyone or anything because he is love. He chooses to bestow his love for reasons we can’t trace or secure by our efforts. Our love needs to be motivated by something or someone, and this is powerful and delightful while the stimulus remains. However, God sends his Son to seek and save people who don’t want to know him or who are openly hostile to him. He always acts according to his own nature and our heartlessness doesn’t frustrate him but gives him his opportunity. ‘God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us’ (Romans 5:8).

All this can be quite disarming. In fact, it may be one of the things we don’t like about God. Here are a couple of ways this may be so—one that is found among people generally, and the other that is particularly found among Christians.

One of the words often used in our modern vocabulary is ‘deserve’. When someone gets sick or is attacked or misunderstood, others will say, ‘They don’t deserve this’. On the surface, this sounds right enough: the person may have done nothing to warrant what seems like a pay back or punishment, but here they are, suffering. The trouble with this view is that it assumes the person should get what they deserve. Would we like this to be always true? Would we like to have an accident every time we are silly, or lose a friend every time we are mean? The truth is that, for most of the time, most of us get far better than we deserve. However, the idea survives, and secular humanism perpetuates the idea, that we are good and only deserve for good things to happen to us.

The worst part of this view is not the disillusionment it leads to but the fact that God’s nature is hidden from those who hold to it. God’s love is free! He doesn’t give us what we deserve; he gives us himself—extraordinarily and freely.  We don’t deserve the creation God’s given us, or the providence we live in, and certainly not a message of forgiveness. On the other hand, to know God’s free act of love in sending his Son is the basis of our own freedom, and our freedom to love and be loved.

Truth is always an action of course. Love needs to be established, not as an idea or example but as a new freedom to love. Our problem is not the miserableness of enemies or neighbours or family but the lostness of not knowing the love of the Father. God’s Son knew this love. He was sent among us, loved us, embraced us and answered to God for everything wrong done by us, so we would know the Father’s love in the same way he did. Remarkable! It undoes us, or perhaps I should say, it undoes all the huff we have about ourselves, and brings us out into the light and the fresh air of what is actually true—that God is love, and that his love comes to us freely.

Through the Father’s love revealed in Jesus Christ, the illusion that we deserve anything dissolves. Jesus bears what we deserve on his cross. He wants the world to know that the Father loves believers in the same way the Father loves him.

Now for a second way we may avoid, or even dislike, the freedom of God’s loving. I refer to a ‘discipleship mentality’ that focusses on performance. I’m not referring to discipleship or being devoted to learning from Christ. That would have to be the best idea possible. Rather, I’m referring to a discipleship mentality that can only look at God through the lens of its own conscience. Will God hear my prayers? Have I met all the conditions? Can I enjoy life or should I always be checking my performance to see if God might be happy with me? People who live this way have the same problem as the secular humanist. They think favours only come to those who deserve them.

One of my recurring prayers is that God will release us all from the heresy of thinking that God gives his favours out according to our performance. Such a view has reversed the order of the good news of Jesus Christ. He died and rose and released us from our guilt and revealed the Father’s love, precisely, to change the way we live, not because we try to change.

Paul says, in paraphrase, ‘God sent his own Son among us, and condemned sin his his flesh, so that what he requires would be fulfilled in us who walk according to this good news revealed by the Spirit’ (Romans 8:1-4). If you turn that around and say we must change the way we live to receive the Father’s love, we are back in the driver’s seat, God’s love is hidden from our consciousness and we are far from free.

Walking according to the Spirit must mean that we rely on the love of God being poured into us (Romans 5:5). God’s love for us now flows in us. The Spirit reveals Christ—God’s love for us sinners—and this empowers us to change the way we live and to put to death the deeds that arise from our sinfulness (Romans 8:13). If this foundational truth is lost, there is no power to set us free or to send us out as lovers of God and of others. We will remain caught in the web of our own passions.

What is at stake here is not the well being of Christians but the honour of God. If the word we have heard is that we have to perform to be loved by God, he has been dishonoured and misrepresented. The truth is that he has freely chosen to love us and this is the sole fountain from which our life flows. To know this God and walk according to his Spirit is life and peace (Romans. 8:6). It is to have freedom and to love.

‘Oh, how abundant is your goodness, which you have stored up for those who fear you and worked for those who take refuge in you…’ (Psalm 31:19).  This is the confidence and delight we can have in God our Father. Those who trust in his goodness, even while discovering more in themselves to regret and reject, will be free, and will love both God and man.

I, and other readers, would love to hear what you have discovered about the goodness of God our Saviour and the power of this to produce freedom and love.

Grant