Why Jesus Came, Part II

Christmas celebrations are largely about family gatherings. We all enjoy being those whom we love the most. So as we think of the story of Jesus’ incarnation we see another reason that God sent his son, his great love for sinners. This is what I John 4:9 tells us. The sending of Jesus into the world by the Father revealed his great love for sinners. The triune God wanted to reconcile himself with sin stained and fallen humanity.

When we look at this verse in its context we see that love is defined by God himself. Love is defined by God’s character in his act of sending his only begotten son for lost sinners. God’s creatures exhibit love and affection but their love only reflects the love that is found in God’s actions. Love is defined by God. Love exists in God. God is the perfection of love.

Some may find these statements to be in opposition to the teaching that God is also just and has promised to punish sinners with eternal death. We must remember that while God is love he is not just love. He has many qualities in perfection which are not in contradiction to each other. God is therefore loving and just, holy and merciful, etc.. We may not be able to reconcile these things in our minds but there is nothing inherently illogical about God being perfectly just and loving. Love does not excuse sin. Love does no wrong. The amazing thing about God’s grace is that he maintains his justice and love towards undeserving sinners. That is why he sent his son, Jesus.

In love Jesus came to reveal the self-sacrificing love of the Father by taking the sinner’s place. Jesus willingly came in love to do all that justice demanded so that sinners could be justified and freed from sin. This is John’s point. The self sacrifice of Jesus demonstrates the perfect love of God. Jesus’ coming is the revelation of perfect love. All real love must reflect that same self-sacrificing love towards others. This is what makes love so powerful. This is what makes the story of Jesus’ incarnation so wonderful.

In the end, the love of God demonstrated through Jesus compels us to love God and others as he has loved us. The love of God in Jesus transforms the sinner and enables him to do what the law requires and what a sin corrupted nature prevented; to love God and to love one’s neighbor. Jesus came to define and demonstrate the perfect love of God. “This is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins.”

"Why did Jesus Come?"

I have begun preaching a short topical series on the question, “Why did Jesus come?” Likely you know the answer. Jesus came to save sinners from sin. My goal is to challenge people to consider some more forgotten reasons that God gives us in his Word. We often think Christmas is ultimately about us, that God sent his Son for us. While Jesus Christ did come to save sinners there is more to the story.

The first installment was taken from I John 3:5. Jesus was manifested or revealed to take away our sins. In him there is no sin. So you are saying, “How is this different in what I stated in the paragraph above?”  What John is getting at in this context is that believers ought to live righteously. So often today people think that Jesus has saved them from the result of sin, eternal condemnation, but that it doesn’t go any further. The Apostle John says that salvation from sin should result in a life of purity and no longer living in lawlessness. What John means here is the completeness of the atonement. The word translated “take away” means removal by destroying the power of. So sin isn’t just punished in Jesus but the root of sin, its power in the sinful nature of man is broken and destroyed. I am not talking about perfectionism but rather the idea that a new life principle is at work. Believers are regenerated and enabled to live to God. They are no longer lawless as related to God’s law.

John also is not saying that in Jesus personally there is no sin. The doctrine of the sinlessness of Jesus Christ is essential.  However, he isn’t just speaking of the absence of sin. I think that in this context John means that the believer is “in” Jesus (v 5). He “abides” in him (v 6). John is writing about the believer’s union with Jesus by faith. The effect of this union with Jesus Christ is that Jesus’ mighty moral power is active in the believer by the Holy Spirit. Believers united to Christ have a positive, practical, and perfect obedience in Christ. Think of Ephesians 2:10. Believers are saved by grace through faith for good works. Those works are the believer’s works done by the power of Jesus working through him. In other words, Jesus’ righteousness is imputed to the believer through the instrumentality of faith AND that righteousness is like leaven that is working in and through the believer. He lives a changed life.

This is the fullness of the gospel. Jesus did not come only to die for sinners but to make them righteous before God (2 Corinthians 5:21). The gospel is really about Jesus, not about us.

The next installment will be preached this Sunday, December 22, from I John 4:9. Looking at that verse and its context, can you see another reason that Jesus came? Stay tuned and we’ll see yet more of the story!

Trumpets

In my devotional reading from Numbers I was reading about the Lord’s command to Moses for him to make two silver trumpets, “…for calling the assembly and for directing the movement of the camps.” (Numb. 10:2). Now this was an eminently practical method of communication at that time. Yet, my mind wandered to the reference of trumpets as a means to call the assembly in the Bible.

There are nearly twenty verses in the English New Testament that refer to the trumpet or its sounding. If you are thinking most of these refer either to the voice of Christ or the last trumpet when Christ returns you are correct. Perhaps the most famous of those is I Corinthians 15:52, “in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed.”

As God ordered Moses to create the sounding trumpets to call the people of God together was he foreshadowing the promise of the last trumpet, the final call? Isn’t that the believer’s fondest hope? We are still pilgrims wandering in the wilderness of sin in this life (I Peter 2:11). We don’t live under the Mosaic administration but we wait for the sounding of the trumpet to call us to assemble together before the Lord (I Thessalonians 4:16).

I can’t help but think that God was setting the stage for the final trumpet call in that command for Moses. We are the people of God. He calls us to worship him every Lord’s day but that day is only a promise of the Sabbath rest to come (Heb 3:16-4:10). That Sabbath will be ushered in by the final and glorious trumpet call. Will you be ready? Will you hear it and rejoice?

Is It Manly to be a Christian?

I think that men face a real quandary when it comes to attending a church, let alone becoming an active member.  In fact it seems that men are facing a challenge of being men from all sorts of directions in our culture. 

An interesting article was written by John J Miller in Hillsdale College’s Imprimis (http://imprimis.hillsdale.edu/file/archives/pdf/2013_09_Imprimis.pdf) entitled, “Football and the American Culture.” It is not news that football and many contact sports are under scrutiny these days because of the threat of serious injuries. This conflict over violent sports has a history. Miller ends up taking the line of Theodore Roosevelt that football is a positive social good that ought to be preserved. There is something culturally good about manly sports.

I never was good at sports. I have enjoyed watching some sports including football so I found the above article interesting. I was never motivated by sports though. I was one of the guys that would be found in the marching band at the football game. For me music and the theater were the place my imagination could run. Being able to play the part of hero or villain was motivation for me. We’ve all been caught up in a movie or musical where the music builds to the suspenseful tension or victorious climax. History is full of manly men being public speakers and actors.

Unfortunately the Church appears to have become another accomplice in the attack on manliness.  Missouri-Synod Lutheran pastor Jonathan Fisk in a recent “Worldview Everlasting” video (http://www.worldvieweverlasting.com/2013/10/18/when-relevancy-fails/) gives an example of how men are being marginalized in the Church. It seems the Church has moved to presenting a childish religion that may well be driving young men out of the Church. Christian faith ought not to be trivialized by sing song music, mere emotionalism, or silliness in order to cater to children or others. I fear that many evangelical churches have unwittingly marginalized manliness in favor of more contemporary acceptable views of human behavior. What is a man to do?

May I suggest the manliness of reformation theology? The reformers were no mere book worms or sensitive males looking to get in touch with their feelings. When Luther defended himself and stood on his conscience that was bound only to God’s word, he stood against the powers that ruled the world. Martin Luther was a man’s man. Jesus called his disciples to love God with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength. Peter was no weakling and Paul no effeminate (2 Corinthians 22-28). The Church is under attack by its foes; false religion and humanism. It needs men to be men and for boys to grow up to be men. We are in a warfare ( 2 Corinthians 10:3-6) that needs men to be strong, thoughtful, and courageous leaders.

This is not to say the Church doesn’t need women. By no means. The Church needs both. The Church needs men and women who know the difference and the skills, callings, and talents that each give.

Holiness:

I've recently finished reading through the Old Testament book of Leviticus and the Bible Student's Commentary (English translation of Korte Verklaring) of the same book by A. Noordtzij. While there are some issues in Noordtzij's perspective that I disagree with (see the publisher's note) I found the study worth while. Many of us neglect the reading of the Pentateuch except to gain a sense of the history of the people of Israel. We get lost in the varied regulations of the law that we deem inappropriate to our Protestant ears as being far too legalistic and regulated to a immature time in the life of the people of God (Gal. 4:1-4).

There are at least two things that stand out in the reading of Leviticus that I think are helpful to us as believers in Jesus Christ. The first seven chapters outline the regulations of the various required offerings in the old covenant. I would encourage you to read this section. You can gain a deeper understanding of the significance of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. His offering of himself means much to us as believers. Seeing Jesus as the focus and fulfillment of the Old Testament law (Luke 24:27) reveals not only the complete work of Jesus Christ but also our sin and the sin damaged relationship we have with God, our creator. It helps us to take our sin more seriously.

This leads me to the second point. If we come to take our sin before God (Psalm 51) more seriously we understand his covenant of grace in love toward us more too. We also come to understand the characteristic of God's holiness more. All too often we take God less seriously than we ought. A father in the faith, Dr. Arnold Frank, wrote a fascinating book, The Fear of God: A Forgotten Doctrine (http://www.amazon.com/The-Fear-God-Forgotten-Doctrine/dp/0979673658). Part of the right fear of God, reverence, is related to understanding holiness. We as sinners understandably don't understand holiness. Our lack is not excusable. In fact the law of the Old Testament is written for us to gain an understanding of God's holiness and thus true reverence (Proverbs 1:7).

Our lack of reverence and godly fear has seeped into our worship. I am not suggesting a ritual oriented worship. I do think how we think of God affects our worship of Him. A good reading of the Old Testament help us. God is same forever. He doesn't change. And a good reading of the Old Testament reminds us that we as those transformed by the gospel ought to be a holy people (I Peter 1:13-19). That has been the challenge to me. Rethinking holiness and desiring to really glorify God by being holy; only by grace yet really in life that I live in Jesus Christ.