Ruminations of an Assistant Pig Keeper

Lest we forget.

2011-11-11T23:55:00.004Z

A different Remembrance day

11/11/11. 93 years since the beacons were first lit, the nation stopped and silence fell to mark the anniversary of the end of the First World War. No doubt all across the country people are writing about today, I was going to. I was going to write about sacrifice and courage, about the nobility of these men and other great heroes. However there is no doubt in my mind that many people will and that they will do it far greater justice than I ever could. Also it occurred to me that maybe tales of great valour are not what everyone needs to hear. On a day when people consider great men, and remember their heroism, let us consider them, and remember their humanity. Turn with me now to Hebrews 11, the heroes of our faith and let us learn what manner of men (and women) these were.

By faith?

“⁴By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain…

⁵By faith Enoch was taken up…

⁷ By faith Noah... constructed an ark…

⁸By faith Abraham obeyed…

¹¹By faith Sarah herself received…

²⁰By faith Isaac invoked future blessings…

²¹By faith Jacob… blessed each of the sons of Joseph…

²²By faith Joseph made mention of the exodus…

²⁴By faith Moses… refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter…

²⁹By faith the people crossed the Red Sea…

³¹By faith Rahab… did not perish…”

Hebrews 11 4-31

What mighty folk these must have been, to be lauded in such a way. Surely they were paragons of virtue, the like of which we cannot be. Let us look at some of them now.

Noah.

A man of great virtue in a time of great evil. God called him and he answered, he suffered mockery, endured to the end what must have seemed like folly. He lived through a flood that wiped out everyone he knew apart from his family who were saved by his steadfast obedience. And then what? He went out and got drunk.

“²⁰Noah began to be a man of the soil, and he planted a vineyard. ²¹He drank of the wine and became drunk and lay uncovered in his tent.”

Genesis 9:20-21

It’s a bit of an anti-climax, but compared to some of these other heroes it’s not too bad.

Abraham and Sarah

Abraham! The patriarch, father of the nations through whom all would be blessed. So full of faith he gets mentioned twice in the list! And yet he’s a coward and a liar, more concerned with his own safety than anything else.

“¹¹When he was about to enter Egypt, he said to Sarai his wife, “I know that you are a woman beautiful in appearance, ¹²and when the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife.’ Then they will kill me, but they will let you live. ¹³ Say you are my sister, that it may go well with me because of you, and that my life may be spared for your sake.”… ¹⁵And when the princes of Pharaoh saw her, they praised her to Pharaoh. And the woman was taken into Pharaoh's house.”

Genesis 12:10-20

He would rather let another man take Sarah to be his own wife than risk his own skin. Rather trust his own lies than the God he follows. And then, a few chapters later he does it again! And Sarah, she laughs at God when He promises her a child.

Moses

Moses, the shepherd of Israel, leading them from slavery into freedom – so many great works done by him. Well where do we start? Murder?

“¹¹One day, when Moses had grown up, he went out to his people and looked on their burdens, and he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his people. ¹²He looked this way and that, and seeing no one, he struck down the Egyptian and hid him in the sand.”

Exodus 2:11-12

Temper?

“⁷The LORD spoke to Moses, saying, ⁸“Take the staff, and assemble the congregation, you and Aaron your brother, and tell the rock before their eyes to yield its water. So you shall bring water out of the rock for them and give drink to the congregation and their cattle.” ⁹And Moses took the staff from before the LORD, as he commanded him.

¹⁰Then Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly together before the rock, and he said to them, “Hear now, you rebels: shall we bring water for you out of this rock?” ¹¹And Moses lifted up his hand and struck the rock with his staff twice, and water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their livestock.”

Numbers 20:7-11

The people were grumbling (again) and Moses was fed up to the back teeth, he ignores God’s instructions and starts whacking the rock with a stick in frustration. Why did God even bother with him? It’s not like he was even any good at his job, he originally refused to even speak in public without Aaron around…

And the Israelites themselves? Don't even get me started.

Great faith?

The heroes mentioned here are so flawed and full of failings, so imperfect and sinful. I’m not bringing these things up to slander their name, to slag them off for being absolutely useless. I merely want to remind us of this fact: These heroes are human to the core. So often we forget do we not? We see them as giants; they were but men, standing on the shoulders of a giant God.

We forget so often that these men and women failed. They were hopeless specimens of humanity

Truly Inspirational

So then, if our heroes are broken, what have we left to cling to? Who should inspire us?

Noah, the drunkard. Lying Abraham, the coward. Angry Moses, the murderer.

Those are the people we should look to as our inspirations. Yes they are broken people, yes their lives were wrecks half of the time. But oh the grace of God shone through their faults all the more! Groucho Marx once said:

“Blessed are the cracked, for they shall let in the light.”

If I may rephrase that here: blessed are the broken, they let out the light. God’s grace is never seen so strongly in the life of those who’ve 'got it all together' and so if I can start to wrap up here by saying that there are two great lessons we can learn from these broken heroes:

1. Be realistic. So often we become discouraged because we’re struggling. So often we are overcome by all our faults and failings, we think we should be so much better than we are. These men weren’t, they were full of flaws and God used them anyway.

2. Be honest. Admit your flaws, admit when you failed, tell people about it. Don’t hide behind a mask – God works through brokenness, really, don’t think you’re worse than the people around you. You’re not. You’re not worse than Abraham, David, Noah, Moses, your minister, or me. We all struggle, we need to stop pretending we don’t and start struggling together.

I couldn’t find a place to say this, but I feel it’s important. Having read Hebrews 11 and read everything I have to say here please, don’t make the mistake of thinking that these men were chosen for great works because of their great faith and that if only you could gain such faith you too could be used by God. Yes, by faith these folk did great things. But here is where we so often go wrong. We think that they had great faith to do such things, they didn’t. Look at Abraham and the fact that he lied instead of trusting God to protect him. Or Sarah, laughing at God’s suggestion that she would have a child, and trying to do it her way instead by using Hagar as a surrogate. Heroes of the faith are not those who have great faith. Rather, they are those who have faith in a great God. As I’ve quoted countless times:

“Strong faith in a weak plank will get you wet, but even weak faith in a strong plank will get you over the river”

Jesus said that if we have faith the size of a mustard seed we would be able to move mountains. It is never the size of our faith that matters, but what we have that faith in.

Lest we forget

So then, my final words. Do not ever think that you are too small, too faithless, too broken for God. Whether it is your sin that ensnares you, or the sin of others to you that has brought you down God has a plan for you, a purpose. Look at the people whom God has used!

Noah was a drunkard,

Moses was a murderer,

David was an adulterer,

Rahab was a prostitute

Jacob was a cheat,

Joseph was abused and abandoned

Moses couldn’t do public speaking,

Aaron was a wimp,

Samson was a womaniser,

Jeremiah was celibate,

Elijah was suicidal

Samuel was adopted,

Ehud was left-handed,

Gideon couldn’t make up his mind,

Barak had to be led around by a woman,

Jonah ran from God,

Naaman had leprosy,

Bartimaeus was blind,

Hezekiah was a whiner,

Saul was very tall, Zaccheus too short,

Abraham was too old, Timothy too young,

Job was bankrupt,

Matthew was a tax-man,

Paul was too religious,

Peter was too violent,

Daniel was a vegetarian,

John the Baptist ate bugs

The disciples all fell asleep,

And Lazarus was dead!

We must constantly remind ourselves what manner of servants our God calls. Don’t expect too much from yourself or those Christians around you. To put this in the simplest words I can, and if you take nothing else from this post remember this:

We are small people, with little faith, in a big God.

If we are to continue in the Christian life we must remember we are all human. Grace is not for the blameless, but for the broken.

And so I have written this.

Lest we forget.

<<This is not what I meant to write when I sat down to write a blog post called ‘Lest we forget’. Sometimes I have a great idea for a blog or a talk or something but God has a different one, it’s quite annoying – I was talking at CU once before we went out for Hot Chocolate (funnily enough on Hebrews 11…) and I had no idea what was coming next. I was probably just babbling… Still, what can you do eh? Sorry it’s been so long, I’ve been busy. I’d love to write more regularly but no promises!
Also, the list of folk that I've quoted above is edited from a few others I found on the internet :)>>

God Bless Anders Breivik

2011-08-03T22:07:00.000+01:00

Searching Tragedies

Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock somewhere you will have heard by now of the tragedy in Norway of Anders Breivik killing over 90 innocent people as part of his ‘Christian’ crusade against what he saw as the Muslim takeover of Europe. In a time like this there will be much mud-slinging, blame shifting and many condemnations of Breivik from various leaders and public figures, particularly from those in positions of leadership within the church.

I may not be a great Christian leader, but I hope to offer here what I think is the biblical response to this great tragedy.

Let me first of all say that I do not want to reduce in any way the seriousness of what happened in Norway last week. Nor do I feel anything but horror at the devastation that Anders caused. But there is great danger in dwelling on his deeds, a danger of pride in our own moral uprightness and a danger of beginning to hate. Instead what we must do is to let God’s searching tragedies lay bare our souls and strip us of our complacency and apathy.

A Bad Approach: “You shall not murder.”

Generally speaking, people don’t like it when you kill innocent folk, especially young ones. Many people right now hate Breivik for what he has done. They are angry and they are hurt. John Donne wrote: “No man is an island” and everyone is feeling vulnerable right now and a feeling of vulnerability can often show itself in anger at the person causing it. But while the world can (and is) hoping for Anders Breivik to suffer for what he did, that should not, and must not be the Christian Church’s response. Our response to his pro-‘Christian’, anti-Muslim massacre must be this: God bless Anders Breivik. God bless him, not for one moment because we approve of what he did but precisely because we are so opposed to it.

Our Lord’s most famous instruction from his time on earth is simply: “Love your enemies” but not many people seem to realise what that actually means. It means taking someone such as Anders Breivik who has tarnished the name of the church and spat in Christ’s face with his claim of the name Christian; someone who has murdered innocent young people and shown no remorse; it means taking someone like that and showing the same care and compassion towards them that you would for your friend. It means praying, not that he would suffer, but that he would turn to Christ and be forgiven.

It is not easy. But it is necessary. To give in to anger and hate is to commit the same crime that Anders did and to be guilty in the eyes of God.

“You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ ²²But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment”

Matthew 5:21-22a

“Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it[i] to the wrath of God, for it is written, "Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord." ²⁰To the contrary, "if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head." ²¹Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”

Romans 12:19-21

We must feel anger at the evil in the world, but that anger must not control us. It must above all be ruled by love and compassion. It must always be willing to forgive. If Anders Breivik was to come to know Christ as Lord and Saviour tomorrow, and to attend your church service on Sunday, would you welcome him in? If not then perhaps you should look at your anger again. Is it righteous anger, motivated by a horror at this violation of God’s law? Or is it a frightened anger, anger at someone daring to upset your idea of a nice happy world?

“Be angry, and do not sin; ponder in your own hearts on your beds, and be silent.”

Psalm 4:4

A Worse Approach: “I’m the king of the castle”

Remember that little rhyme from childhood? “I’m the king of the castle, and you’re the dirty wee rascal!” We used to shout it out every time we took the high ground, be it slide, fort or climbing frame. It may be harmless fund for kids in the play park but this is the second, and by far the most deadly error we can make in dealing with Anders Breivik – taking the moral high ground.

Yes, it is morally better not the massacre people. But we must understand this: We were no better than Breivik before Christ found us. There is not sin in him, no wrong thought or deed that does not also appear in us. As Robert Murray M’Cheyne once said: “The seed of every known sin lies within each of our hearts”. Perhaps your anger does not express itself as violently as Anders Breivik’s did but it is still there. It is still wrong in the eyes of God. You and I do not have the right to condemn Breivik as less worth than ourselves because we are not worthy. No one is.

“Judge not, that you be not judged. ²For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you.”

Matthew 7:1-2

“for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”

Romans 3:23

Neither my warning against pride nor anger are to say that we cannot state that this is wrong. Nor to say that Anders should not be tried and punished. I merely warn that we must look deeply at our own state before anger and pride lead us to condemnation and to hate.

A biblical approach: Justice, compassion, Godly meekness.

There is one verse which I think sums up what our actions must be in response to this massacre. Micah 6 and verse 8:

“He has told you, O man, what is good;

and what does the LORD require of you

but to do justice, and to love kindness,

and to walk humbly with your God?”

So then there are three things we can draw out here in relation to the Norway killings and our response to Anders Breivik:

1. Do Justice. Justice must be done, Anders Breivik must be tried by the courts and he must be punished for what he has done, for the lives he has ruined and for the pain he has caused. God calls us to do justly, to be a people who yearn for justice to be done and we must do so in this case, as in all others. Practically therefore we must pray for justice to be done.

2. Love Kindness. Kindness, compassion, mercy. These must be the things that we love above all, although we call for justice to be done we must not take joy in the punishment of others. Our response to Ander Breivik must be one of love and kindness. Justice born of love, not anger or hate. Practically therefore we must pray for Anders, pray that Christ will make himself known to him.

3. Walk Humbly with your God. Above all we must never never ever lose sight of the most important thing in life. No matter what happens in the world the most important thing is that we walk with God, that we are ever drawn into closer fellowship with him and we must not let anything distract us from that. That will lead naturally to a humility that guards against pride and arrogance. Practically therefore we must pray that God will draw us to Him, keeping us humble and preventing us from becoming puffed up.

So therefore there are several things that we can learn from the Norway killings, I apologise for the rambly way that I have presented them. To recap: We must not hate, but rather love kindness and pray for our enemy, Anders. We must not become proud, but rather walk humbly with God. And yet we must not allow ourselves to lose our sense of justice in such a morally messy world.

I pray for justice to be done for the evil in this world and as I do I pray also that God shows me my own heart, shows me my own sin and keeps me humbly walking with him. I pray for Anders Breivik. I pray that his heart would turn to Christ. And I know that God’s grace is so amazing, so wonderful that were Anders Breivik to turn to him for rest, he would have it.

I know that if Anders Breivik were to repent tonight, then when the time came for him to die, that very day he would be in paradise with Christ. I pray that one day I find myself there and meet him, walking down those gold paved streets, hand in hand with the Christian people he killed. Ransomed, healed, restored. Stains washed away by the blood and the sacrifice of Christ. Forgiven.

I fear it is unlikely. But I know God’s grace is sufficient. Sufficient for Anders Breivik. Sufficient for me. Sufficient for you.

Only Once.

2011-07-11T23:11:00.002+01:00

A difficult question

There is a really old question that keeps on coming up: “Why do bad things happen to good people?” It would be completely impossible to address this question fully in just one short post. There are whole libraries of material written about the topic of suffering and pain which are written by far more experienced and more qualified people on this topic. We will only attempt to unpack a few small things here which will hopefully be somewhat helpful.

As we endeavour to scratch the surface of this big question we will consider it in two parts.

Why do bad things happen?

Suffering and death have been around since the beginning and so it is to the beginning that we have to go if we want to find some answers. As we do so we discover that actually death and evil haven’t been around since the very beginning:

“And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good.”

Genesis 1:31

So God made the world perfect, humanity living in harmony with its creator, peace and life for everyone. Paradise! But then we messed it up, rejecting the one command God gave us (Genesis 3) and going our own way. We rejected our creator and the life that He gave. The result?

“Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned”

Romans 5:12

“And to Adam he said,

“Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; ¹⁸thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. ¹⁹By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”

Genesis 3:17-19 ESV

From this point onwards, nothing is as it should be. Humanity is broken, our close relationship with God is lost, even the very ground is cursed to grow weeds and thorns. Everything is messed up and all seems hopeless. Paradise lost.

But is that really the end? Are we truly condemned to live life futilely working to eke out our existence in this miserable life, hoping only to prolong death and the inevitable confrontation with an angry God? What can we possibly look to when we’re overwhelmed with suffering and pain?

To answer that we must move on to the second part of our question.

Why do bad things happen to good people?

Why do bad things happen to good people? They don’t. You see the simple truth is that bad things happen to bad people. People like you. People like me.

“For there is no distinction: ²³for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”

Romans 3:22B-23

Maybe you should be asking why so many good things happen to bad people? Why do so many of us get to draw breath each day, enjoy love, happiness, wealth and prosperity? We’ve rejected our Father’s offer of life, spat in His face and ran away from Him. We were given life and we left it behind because we wanted things our way. It seems that we deserve so much worse than anything we get in this world. And yet we have the cheek to complain when something goes wrong?

So we’re back where we started. Messed up people messing up in a messed up world. It’s not really an encouraging picture. But that’s not it, surely? Surely there is some hope for our world? Some hope for us?

That verse up there is one of the best known verses in the Bible. But not so many people quote the verse that comes right after it.

“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, ²⁴and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, ²⁵whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.”

Romans 3:23-25 ESV

You see one in history; some 2000 years ago the unthinkable happened! A good man walked this earth. A man who stood as a pillar of incorruptibility amidst the ruins of our morality. A man who, like us, didn’t get what He deserved. We get a measure of life, when all we deserve is death – He deserved nothing but life and glory and He got pain and death. Jesus was His name, and in return for his moral uprightness in a morally twisted world he was shunned, beaten, flogged and nailed to a cross to die in agony.

Tragedy, right? It sounds like one, a brutal travesty of justice, a complete inversion of what should have happened. But when we look at those verses in Romans again we find that it was entirely expected. “Christ Jesus, ²⁵whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood”. What does that mean? Propitiation means turning away God’s wrath, and reconciling people to Him. So God put Jesus there, as an atoning sacrifice for our sin, to turn away His wrath, satisfy His justice and bring us back home. He couldn’t ‘just forgive’ because that would be a denial of His justice and holiness. And so instead of destroying us He made the ultimate sacrifice, giving His son. Jesus was no ordinary man, He was God made man. Fully man and Fully God. He offered Himself for us, God dying for man.

So when we are confronted with suffering and overwhelmed with pain our answer is to lift up our eyes and look to a hill. When we do we will see three crosses standing there. On one of those crosses hangs our God. We see Him there, the blood dripping from His pierced limbs, the breath coming in ragged gasps, the cry of agony as He is separated from His Father for the first time in eternity. We lift up our eyes and we see that our God is no impersonal force that doesn’t care. We list up our eyes and we see that He too suffered. We see a God who cares.

Are you in pain? He went through far greater pain to bring you home. Are you suffering? He suffered more. Have you lost much in His name? He freely gave far more for you. Do you hurt to see your friends, your family in pain? He bled and died for us His enemies, to make us His children once more. There is nothing we can go through that He does not understand.

Amidst the pain and confusion of life in a broken world remember the cross my friends and know this: God cares. Let that be your comfort. Let that be your hope. Not some vague idea of better things to come, or some pious statement that “it’s all for the best” when you don’t really believe it. Let this one thought be your comfort: God cares. He knows what it’s like to suffer, He suffered for you. That is something concrete we can grasp throughout the storms of life: God hung on a cross for us, God bled and died for us.

Remember the cross – and remembering it come, bow and worship Him.

“And I'll praise you in this storm
and I will lift my hands
for You are who You are
no matter where I am
and every tear I've cried
You hold in your hand
You never left my side
and though my heart is torn
I will praise You in this storm”

Casting Crowns, Praise You in this Storm

"Why do bad things happen to good people? That only happened once and He volunteered."

R.C.Sproul

Thanks be to God that He did.
.

Sunday

2011-04-24T00:46:00.001+01:00

Easter

Thursday brought betrayal, grief and abandonment. Friday brought the agony and darkness of the cross. Saturday brought the cold silence of the tomb. But Sunday brought hope. Sunday brought life. Sunday brought resurrection.

Sunday brought Easter.

Friday

We saw on Friday the darkness and despair of that day we now celebrate as “Good” Friday and the hope of Sunday to come but the thing about Good Friday is that without Easter Sunday it just doesn’t make any sense.

“The incarnation was a necessary means to an end, and the end was the putting away of the sin of the world by the offering of the body of Christ.”

Thomas Hewitt

Jesus came into the world to leave it. Easter is the reason that Christmas happened. But why? He said that He had come to bring life, how does dying do that? I’m afraid I’m going to use long theological words here but it’s the best way to summarise it, I’ll explain them as best as I can.

The term theologians give the death of Christ is ‘Penal Substitutionary Atonement’, let’s take that one word at a time.

1. Penal: That means punishment. Christ suffered on the cross, physically, mentally, spiritually. It was an agonisingly painful and slow death.

2. Substitutionary: That means that Christ died in our place. He didn’t deserve that death; He didn’t deserve any death at all. As the thief nailed beside him said: “And we indeed [suffer] justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong”. The only sinless man gave up His life so that we could have life instead. But why?

3. Atonement: Basically ‘At-one-ment’. Jesus suffered and died on the cross on Good Friday so that we could be made one with God again, so that we may once again live in fellowship with God, forgiven of the sin and cured of the rebellion that keeps us apart.

“For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God.”

1 Peter 3:18 ESV

That’s the simple version. The very simple version, whole books have been written on this.

Saturday

Jesus lay in the tomb, His spirit with His Father in Heaven. Not in Hell (when He said ‘It is finished’ He meant it). When the Apostle’s Creed says “He descended into hell” it literally says ‘Sheol’, that is, the place of the dead. We would say ‘He really did die’. They put that bit in because some people were saying that Jesus just swooned. I’ll do a post on why that’s a silly idea sometime.

Sunday

Atonement is great and all but how do we know it actually worked? How do we know the sacrifice was enough? How do we know that we can have life?

That’s where Sunday comes in, that’s where everything fits together. We know because Jesus rose. He broke the power and dominion sin on the cross and then he broke the power and dominion of death by rising from the dead. Our Lord conquered death; we know that we too will rise with him. The language of the resurrection leaves no room for ifs, buts or maybes. It is clear, complete and decisive. Paul speaks at length on the importance of the resurrection and the certainty of hope it gives us:

“¹²Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? ¹³But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. ¹⁴And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. ¹⁵We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. ¹⁶For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. ¹⁷And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. ¹⁸Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. ¹⁹If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.

²⁰But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. ²¹For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. ²²For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. ²³But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ.”

1 Corinthians 15:12-23 ESV

Boom. Is there anything else I can say? Let’s just draw a few points out of this, things to consider especially as we read it through.

We need to remember that the resurrection matters. No matter what any self-professed ‘Christian’ Scholar says about how it’s all about the meaning, whether it actually happened or not is unimportant etc etc. There are people who claim to be authorities of theology who say that truth of the historical event of the resurrection is unimportant. I am no great theologian, I don’t claim any great authority and certainly not any great wisdom. However, it seems to me that when the apostle Paul, speaking with the inspiration of God says: “But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. ¹⁴And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain” (1 Corinthians 15:12-23 ESV) then he should probably be taken fairly seriously… The resurrection matters, anyone who denies that denies everything.

1. The resurrection matters because to deny the resurrection is to deny redemption; Paul says in verse 17 of our passage: “And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.” No resurrection, no redemption. It’s as simple as that. Without Christ’s cross we would have no forgiveness yes, but Paul says here that the same is true of the resurrection.

2. The resurrection matters because to deny the resurrection is to deny life; Paul says in verse 18: “Then those also who have fallen asleep [died] in Christ have perished.”. It only stands to reason – if God himself, in the person of Jesus Christ couldn’t rise from the dead then how on earth are we meant to? Mere mortals, capable of defeating death, the enemy that brought God down? I think not. But Christ did conquer, He did rise and we will have life.

3. The resurrection matters because to deny the resurrection is to deny hope; verse 19 states that: “If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied”. Did you take that in? If you believe in Jesus today and yet that belief doesn’t impact eternity then Paul says you are pitiable. You are wretched and hopeless my friend, without the resurrection. With it we can rejoice! But without the foundation of our faith we cannot stand. To reject the resurrection is to exchange our hope for other people’s pity.

The resurrection matters. An atheist friend of mine once asked me what one piece of evidence would disprove Christianity for me and destroy my belief in God. My answer was that if Jesus’ body was found, then I could no longer believe. If Jesus’ body is found, then the scriptures lie, God is not good, Jesus cannot save.

But rejoice! Jesus is alive. The resurrection did happen. What a glorious hope my friends, what a wonderful hope. To know that our master and our Lord is not dead, but alive! As Christians we do not follow a God whose body lies rotting in a tomb in Palestine, we follow a God who rose! A Lord who now stands and intercedes for us before the Father’s throne.

“For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. ²³But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ.”

(1 Corinthians 15:22-23 ESV)

What a glorious hope! What a glorious day!

Easter

Without the resurrection the cross was a hopeless tragedy, a failure.

Without the cross the resurrection was just another neat miracle.

Together they form the Easter story. Together they are hope for lost sinners. Together they are grace so free, so rich, so full.

That is what Easter is all about.

The cross of Good Friday is the only place where we find our salvation but the empty tomb on Easter Sunday is the vindication of that salvation.

Sunday proves that Friday worked. Sunday gives us hope.

The cross, the grave, the resurrection. Never forget any of them.

Friday, Saturday, Sunday

Salvation, Resurrection, Vindication.

Now that’s a good weekend.

<<Written solely because a friend read Friday and said ‘it sounds like it’s a trailer for something epic on Sunday’. In a way I guess it was, perhaps more of a prequel. Whatever it is, they need to be taken together.>>

Friday

2011-04-22T22:18:00.001+01:00

“And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain.”

1 Corinthians 15:14 ESV

Friday, not so good

It’s Friday. The creator of the world, the God who upholds the planets in their orbits can’t even lift His own cross. Blood runs down the back of the man who promised a lighter yoke, an easier burden.

Friday. The King of kings is mocked and beaten. ‘King of the Jews’ they jeer. The one who supports every king, every throne, the one by whose word alone governments stand and fall is himself crowned with a crown of thorns. Soldiers mock, those who pass Him sneer and spit.

Friday. The man who said to love your enemies like you do your friends is abandoned by His friends in His time of need. His enemies are all around, His friends nowhere to be seen. He said to treat others as you would be treated. Seems like no one is listening this Friday.

He also said He was God, come to give hope and new life.

Some God He is today – He can’t even free himself.

Some hope He’s bringing – the only hope He has is the hope of a quick end.

Some life – He’s about to die.

It’s Friday. The God of justice is executed, flanked by common criminals. The saviour of mankind can’t even save himself. What hope is there for us on Friday?

Friday. Darkness falls, the light of the world is extinguished. Darkness wins. The shadows gather, covering the earth. Night falls when the sun is at its highest. The God who breathed life into Adam’s lungs struggles to breathe. Nails pierce hands that flung stars into space. Those nail-pierced feet will surely never walk again after Friday.

It’s Friday. The only man who ever lived a good life. The only perfect man is dying. The only man who truly trusted God in everything, the only man who loved God with all His heart is now crying out to God, asking why He has been forsaken. How will we stand, when He fell that Friday?

It’s Friday. The suffering ends at last as He breathes His last breath. Jesus is dead. The spear pierces His side; His lifeless body is taken down. Friday. The stone seals Him in the tomb. The Lord of life is dead. Is this the end on Friday?

What hope is there now for those He promised to save?

What hope is there now for this little band of disciples, this fledgling church? Its head cut off, it cowers in a locked room.

What hope is there now for sinners in the hand of an angry God?

What hope is there now for mankind, trembling in the face of death?

It’s Friday. Death wins and Satan laughs. Surely even the angels must tremble before the sight of that tomb. Is God not strong enough?

It’s Friday, yes it is. But Friday isn’t the end.

It’s Friday, but Sunday is coming!

It’s Friday, the creator who gave us life is dead but Sunday is coming! He will rise again; death cannot hold this King of life! The rock and dirt of a tomb cannot hold the God who made it.

It’s Friday, the saviour is not saved, but Sunday is coming! We are saved through His suffering. God judges Jesus and says His work is done. He is sinless. Pure. The sacrifice is accepted, there is hope for us on Sunday!

It’s Friday, shadows extinguish the light, but Sunday is coming! A light that shines forever is lit on this day. A fire that will never be put out is set alight on Sunday. Darkness could not hold the light of the world forever in its grip and it will reign no more!

It’s Friday, death and the Devil have won but Sunday is coming! Death was strong but this living Lord is stronger, the Devil is mighty but God is mightier. On Friday Jesus was bound by death but on Sunday death is bound forever. On Sunday Jesus rises, in resurrection power, in glory, hope and life.

Hate and death may win on Friday but Sunday is coming.

What hope there is now! Jesus’ claim of salvation is vindicated at last.

What hope there is now for this mighty church! Its head lives forevermore in heaven, seated at the right hand of God.

What hope there is now for sinners before the wrath of God! Justified!

What hope there is now, no more fear of death.

What hope!

Death is not the end.

Not any more.

Not after Sunday.

Tomb, thou shalt not hold Him longer;
Death is strong, but Life is stronger;
Stronger than the dark, the light;
Stronger than the wrong, the right.
Faith and Hope triumphant say,
Christ will rise on Easter-Day.

Bishop Phillip Brooks

<<Based on a brief story from Tony Campolo about a sermon he heard given with the repeated refrain “It’s Friday, but Sunday’s coming”. That got me thinking, how often do we fail to realise this important truth: Good Friday is not good until Easter Sunday comes. The sacrifice of Friday saves, but the resurrection of Sunday vindicates that salvation.

P.S. How many people saw the title and thought it was going to be based on that song by Rebecca Black everyone’s moaning about?>>

Apparently Tony Campolo’s story is on YouTube:

Some further listening: (I'll embed these properly another day)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3HmfiVQeww

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8oxbYxNPKYw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fa6Acbl4UJU&feature=fvst

The Beatitudes, not what you think.

2011-03-30T23:44:00.002+01:00

Some happy people?

The beatitudes – possibly one of the most well known passages in the Bible. They’re a beautiful collection of different sayings about various people (the poor in spirit, the mournful, the persecuted etc) who seem to be losers on earth but will eventually win out when they die and go to heaven. Isn’t it an encouraging thought when you fit into one of these nice little categories? Shall we read them?

“² And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying:

³ “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

⁴ “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

⁵ “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.

⁶ “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

7 “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.

8 “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

⁹ “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.

¹⁰ “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

¹¹ “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. ¹² Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

¹³ “You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet.

¹⁴ “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. ¹⁵ Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. ¹⁶ in the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”

(Matthew 5:2-16 ESV)

Wait, I’m sorry, did I say well known? Ah, I meant to say most misunderstood. You see that lovely little paragraph that I wrote up there? That’s a load of rubbish. It’s what I thought until quite recently, but I’ve been shown the error of my ways.

The beatitudes are not just a collection of platitudes, a nice mantra to repeat when you’re stressed or in trouble. The beatitudes are no feel-good, ‘it’s all going to be okay’, sayings. They are not an anthology of people who will be happy in heaven. The beatitudes are a wonderful summary of salvation. They call us to have renewed hearts and minds that live to worship God.

A joy filled life

The beatitudes are not a random collection of wise sayings, rather they are a structured whole. Firstly, they do not refer to different people. There are not people who are poor in spirit and those people will be happy, and then there are some other people who’re mournful and they will be happy. There are people who are poor in spirit, mournful, meek, hungry for righteousness, merciful, pure, peacemaking and persecuted and those people will be blessed. Who are these people? They are those who follow Christ.

The Sermon on the Mount as most of you will know is an intensely practical sermon filled with solid teaching on how to live the Christian life. But here at the very start of it Jesus gives a list of the characteristics of the Christian. He’s saying that the first thing we have to do is sort out our hearts – after that then we can worry about the practicalities.

So what about these characteristics? So they’re all about the same people, rather than being about different individuals who fulfil one of the ‘categories’. Does that then mean that it’s an anthology of various random Christian traits?

That brings us to our second point: The beatitudes form a structured picture of the Christian life. Look at the order they are given in:

Blessed are:

The poor in spirit

Those who mourn

The meek

Those who hunger and thirst for righteousness

The merciful

The pure in heart

The peacemakers

Those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake

You when others revile you and persecute you

They split up nicely into four sections that describe the different stages in the Christian life.

1. Humility before God (poor in spirit, mourning and meek). This is where the Christian starts; this is always God’s starting point. Before we are raised up first we must realise that our own goodness is not enough to put us right with God. We must become beggars, relying on God’s goodness and generosity. We must mourn our sinfulness and swallow our pride. James says to “Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.” (James 4:10, ESV). First the humbling, then the exalting.

2. Seeking God’s goodness (hunger and thirst). After realising our own sin and depravity we long for something more, something better. We long for God and for his righteousness and glory.

3. Bearing righteous fruit (mercy, purity, peace). Jesus said “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.” (Matthew 7:7, ESV). God does not withhold blessings from his people and as we strive for increasing holiness we will act increasingly holy. As we struggle we become more like Christ.

4. Attacked for our righteousness (persecuted, reviled). Paul wrote to Timothy: “Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted” (1 Timothy 3:12, ESV). If we show these fruits in our life, if we are meek and pure and merciful then Jesus says we will be persecuted. “If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.” (John 15:19, ESV). The world does not understand behaviour like Jesus calls us to and so it cannot accept us.

In summary:

"The Christian is first of all someone who is humbled before God - verses 3 to 5, poor in spirit, mourning, meek. Then he is someone who is seeking. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. And he is someone who finds, and begins to bear the fruit of righteousness in his own life. Mercy, purity of heart, peacemaking. And because of what these people are, and do, in this fallen world - they experience persecution."

- Gilbert McAdam

So the beatitudes are not only a portrayal of the Christian character as it is meant to be but also a structured depiction of the process by which we become and continue as followers of Christ.

A concluding challenge.

Verses 14-16 of Matthew 5 are often separated from the beatitudes but I think they are really part of the same whole. If you are humbled before God then you will be salt and light. If you are seeking, finding and practising righteousness you will stand out like a city on a hill. When you are persecuted for your faith it will be tempting to hide your light under a basket but that’s not what this light is for! This light is for changing lives. Take it out! Shine it where everyone can see, be salt and light where you live and work and study. Glorify God in your life. Humble yourself, and He will lift you up.

My friends, the beatitudes leave us also with a challenge. They are there as a description of character. Our character as children called by God. Do we match up? Look at your life:

Do you view yourself as a beggar before an almighty God – or as a ruler of your own little life, sufficiently good to pass muster?

Do you mourn your sinfulness, do you weep for God’s lost glory – or do you look on sin and evil with apathy and indifference?

Do you act with gentleness to others, knowing that you are a sinner too – or are you harsh, arrogant and unkind?

Do you hunger for new life and increasing righteousness – or are you unconcerned with your lack of holiness?

Do you show mercy to those around you – or do you hate those who have wronged you, never forgiving, holding grudges?

Do you have a pure heart – or is your mind taken up with sin?

Do you bring peace and wellbeing to those around you – or do you stir up trouble, never helping others, not showing love?

Do you feel like an outsider in this world, are you persecuted – or are you compromising on your Christian life in order to fit in?

Do you?

Do I?

If you don’t tick all these boxes, and I know I don’t, then pray – pray for God’s grace, that amazing grace which surpasses all understanding, grace which covers our faults in Jesus’ blood and grace which corrects them through the Spirit’s work.

Amen.

<<Heavily based on a series of sermons (well, the first two of the series) on The Sermon on the Mount by Gilbert McAdam of Calvary Reformed Church Manila. Available on Youtube. My thanks to him for correcting my mistakes… I heartily reccommend that you listen to at least the first two sermons.

For an excellent Story by Ben Mildred of Not at the Dinner Table on being a light see 'The Lamp'>>

Salvation and Grace.

2011-01-29T20:35:00.002Z

An inspiring truth

Grace. No matter what I write about, it always comes back to this single, central, splendid truth. Maybe because I digress too much, or maybe just because in the end everything is about grace. I think the latter, J.I. Packer says that:

“This one word ‘grace’ contains within itself the whole of New Testament theology.”

And if you disagree with J.I. Packer, then you’re probably a heretic…

But what does grace MEAN, it can’t be covered in a mere blog post, the subject is too vast and too glorious – a lifetime’s study would not exhaust the doctrine of grace. However, the impossibility of fully grasping something is a terrible excuse for not starting, so let us briefly scratch the surface of what grace is, and then in more depth consider what grace means for salvation.

A definition of grace

One of the best definitions I’ve heard is that grace is an unmerited gift, from an unobligated giver. God gives us salvation, something we don’t deserve and which he has no requirement to give us. We don’t deserve it and we definitely don’t earn it. Edward Norman said that:

“The whole point about the divine redemption of humanity was that humanity did not deserve it”

That’s important to grasp, grace that you somehow ‘earn’ even just by ‘choosing to believe’ in Jesus is not grace. It is works. Works won’t save you, they never can.

So that’s what grace is, God gives. We don’t deserve it, but he gives anyway. He gives life, salvation and hope. But what does grace mean, practically? What does it mean in regard to our salvation, to our eternal destiny?

Grace means that salvation is absolutely free

Salvation is free. Like we said in our definition of grace, we can’t earn our salvation. Instead, God gives us it freely. This is a unique message indeed, all other faiths claim some form of works based salvation. Either you have to do certain things or not do certain things. The Bible says no, all your good works are useless.

“All of us have become like one who is unclean,
and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags;
we all shrivel up like a leaf,
and like the wind our sins sweep us away.”

Isaiah 64:4-9 (NIV)

Isaiah there says that the best things he and the Israelite nation have done are just filthy rags to God, they’re worse than worthless – they disgust Him.

That hits us where it hurts; the doctrine of grace leaves no room for our pride. There is no room left for pride when your salvation is completely from God. If you didn’t DO anything, there’s nothing to be proud of; and that hurts.

Grace is humbling, it’s radical and it’s free. It’s not just generosity, although that is part of it. Generosity is giving more than we deserve. Grace is giving us what we don’t deserve.

Think of it like a car, if you wash my car and I give you £5 that’s pretty fair. If you wash it and I give you £10,000 that’s generous – but it’s not grace because you did something to deserve part of it. If you steal my car and wrap it round a lamppost and then I give you £10,000 then that’s grace.

Doesn’t that make you want to weep? We have stolen God’s car and we’ve wrapped it round every spiritual lamppost that we can find. In repayment, he sent his son to die. Jesus was crucified in agony for people who deserved to be in his place; for people who didn’t want his gift; for the people who put him on that cross. That is grace.

Salvation is absolutely full

Grace means that salvation covers everything. Works-based righteousness means that there would always be little bits you didn’t quite manage. Grace is different, grace is complete. This is an amazing thing, it means that there is nothing that cannot be forgiven, and there is no one that cannot receive forgiveness! Jesus said:

“Therefore I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven people, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven.”

Matthew 12:31

Every sin and blasphemy. Every single one. Every theft, lie, angry thought and rebellion against God will be forgiven through his grace. Except for one thing, rejection of the Holy Spirit’s saving work. The only thing that will not be forgiven is rejecting grace.

Salvation is absolutely finished

When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, "It is finished," and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

John 19:30

What were Jesus’ last words as he hung there dying? ‘Sheesh, I hope they manage to do enough good works to make this worth something’? ‘I sure hope this is enough to save them’? No. His last words were a cry of victory: “It is finished!” It is done! Salvation is complete, it is finished – there’s nothing left to do. The battle is won, the journey is over. It is finished. We are assured our deliverance and welcomed into the presence of God. It is finished.

It is finished.

Salvation is absolutely firm

It is finished doesn’t just mean it’s done. It means it’s certain. If it’s finished, if it’s full, if it’s free – what could go wrong? How could it possibly fail? God planned it, God executed it and God has finished it – how could anyone fear that they could be lost? Once saved always saved, there is no room for doubting or fear in the kingdom of grace.

I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.

John 10:28

When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;
and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you;
when you walk through fire you shall not be burned,
and the flame shall not consume you.

Isaiah 43:2

Everyone knows that the doctrine of grace means you can’t add to your salvation – but so many forget that it also means you can’t take away from it. There is nothing you or I can do that would make God forsake us when he has saved us.

The old hymn says it best:

The soul that on Jesus has leaned for repose,
I will not, I will not desert to its foes;
That soul, though all hell should endeavour to shake,
I’ll never, no never, no never forsake.

Some practicalities

Just to briefly outline four of the practical consequences of this beautiful doctrine of grace.

1. There is hope for the worst of us – if grace is full then there is noone beyond forgiveness. Jesus says that if only we come to him, he will forgive.

2. There is humility for the best of us – if grace is free and full then we did nothing to deserve our place with God. Paul says in Ephesians 2 verse 9 that we are saved not “as result of works, so that no one may boast”

3. There is one place for all of us – if grace is true at all then every Christian will stand before God equal in Christ, there is no favouritism, no ‘better’ Christians. When Christians meet together there are no ‘successful’ or ‘unsuccessful’ people among them. Just sinners saved by grace.

4. There is glory for God – If God’s grace saves, God is glorified. We must learn humility and everyone must honour the glory and majesty of the one who saved them.

An alternative to grace

There is always another option. You can choose works over grace. You can stand before a perfect and holy God on the day of judgement and you can tell him of the door you opened for your mum, or the old lady you helped across the street. You can tell him of the meal you cooked when your friend was ill, you can tell him of the money you gave to Oxfam, or the sponsored walk you did to raise money for Christian Aid. You can tell God of the times you went to church, or the prayers you prayed, or the passages you read, or your devotion to religious rituals. You can tell God.

And God will answer. He will tell you of the times you messed up. He will tell you of your sinfulness, He will tell you of your rebellion against Him. God will tell you of a life lived, not for him, but for your own security. God will tell you of his love, and your coldness. He will tell you of your arrogance, that you dared to think his sacrifice insufficient, that you dared to think your works enough.

You can tell God of your good deeds.

I will tell him of my sin, I have nothing else.

I will tell him of the fact that I’ve failed, I've never succeeded.

You can tell him of a life lived not as badly as that guy over there.

I will tell him of a life lived worse, because that's the life I lived.

But I will tell him of another life, a perfect life – I will tell him of Christ.

On judgement day you can talk about works but I will talk about grace, about God's love covering my failure and wretchedness. And the thing is, without grace I would still be relying on my works. Only God could change my heart, to swallow my pride, however hard I still find that, and rely on his grace. And such grace it is!

Grace, so free that even I can take it, so full that it covers even my sin, so finished and so firm that there is nothing I could do to lose it. Thank God for that grace.

Grace, ’tis a charming sound,
Harmonious to mine ear;
Heaven with the echo shall resound,
And all the earth shall hear.

Grace first contrived the way
To save rebellious man;
And all the steps that grace display
Which drew the wondrous plan.

Grace first inscribed my name
In God’s eternal book;
’Twas grace that gave me to the Lamb,
Who all my sorrows took.

Grace led my roving feet
To tread the heavenly road;
And new supplies each hour I meet,
While pressing on to God.

Grace taught my soul to pray
And made mine eyes o’erflow;
’Twas grace which kept me to this day,
And will not let me go.

Grace all the work shall crown,
Through everlasting days;
It lays in heaven the topmost stone,
And well deserves the praise.

O let Thy grace inspire
My soul with strength divine
My all my powers to Thee aspire,
And all my days be Thine.

Thanks be to God for his indescribable grace!

Further listening:

By Grace Alone

Amazing Grace, the original 6 verse version - if you find it online tell me!

For more on the unrepentable sin: Andrew Randall's sermon on Mark 28-30 (linked in the text)

<< My heartfelt thanks to Andrew Randall, now minister at Larbert Old who preached the sermon that inspired this post. Those four points have echoed in my mind nearly every day since I heard it four months ago. That talk really showed me grace, like I’d never grasped it before and it changed my life. I say inspired by, there are a few differences – mainly the inferior quality of my writing to his sermon but oh well.

Feel free to suggest any improvements/correct any mistakes.>>

Rebellion, repentance and the religious reaction.

2011-01-22T23:33:00.001Z

Tell Me the Old, Old Story

“Tell me the old, old story, tell me the old, old story,
Tell me the old, old story, of Jesus and His love.

Tell me the story slowly, that I may take it in,
That wonderful redemption, God’s remedy for sin.”

When I was a child, that hymn was one of my favourites. It still stands as a great instruction to all of us, we need to be told that story again and again don’t we.

“Tell me the story often, for I forget so soon;
The early dew of morning has passed away at noon.”

And so I’m going to tell it again, by using an old, old story that Jesus himself told. A story of rebellion, of repentance and of the religious reaction to them both. A story of a prodigal son and a prodigal God, a story of the gospel, a story of love and rejection.

Are you sitting comfortably?

Then I’ll begin.

Rebellion

“And he [Jesus] said, "There was a man who had two sons. ¹²And the younger of them said to his father, 'Father, give me the share of property that is coming to me.' And he divided his property between them. ¹³Not many days later, the younger son gathered all he had and took a journey into a far country, and there he squandered his property in reckless living. ¹⁴And when he had spent everything, a severe famine arose in that country, and he began to be in need. ¹⁵So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed pigs. ¹⁶And he was longing to be fed with the pods that the pigs ate, and no one gave him anything.”

Luke 15:11-16

Rebellion, not always a good start. The ‘younger son’ decides he doesn’t care that much for his Dad, he’d rather just have his stuff. So he goes up to his Dad and says ‘Dad, I don’t love you at all. I hate the responsibilities of being your son but having said that I’d be happy to have the privileges – so could we just pretend you’d died and give me my share of the money you’d leave behind right now?’

It sounds abhorrent. It also sounds familiar. Isn’t that what we do every day? Isn’t that what we do every single time we reject God’s word, his authority? We keep saying to God that we can do without his rules, but we expect to still get all the rewards that come of being his children. We take life, breath, success, happiness, friendship, love and all without a word of thank-you. Instead, we spit in God’s face, wish he was dead, and storm out of his house – taking all we can carry.

Then this ungrateful kid, like us, wastes everything he’s been given. Suddenly trouble comes and it’s all shown to be worthless – his ‘friends’ abandon him, his money’s gone and he has nothing to eat. He becomes a lowly worker. Worse even – this is a Jew, serving unclean pigs. Likewise, we bankrupt ourselves morally and spiritually, serving the unclean and squandering the gifts God gives us. Truly we, along with the son, are in a terrible state – but the story doesn’t end there!

Repentance

“"But when he came to himself, he said, 'How many of my father’s hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger! ¹⁸I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, "Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. ¹⁹I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants."' ²⁰And he arose and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him.²¹And the son said to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.' ²²But the father said to his servants, 'Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. ²³And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. ²⁴For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.' And they began to celebrate.”

Luke 15:17-24

Repentance. The younger son’s life turns around at this point. Finally, he realises how messed up he is, how futile life is taking his own path. He decides that actually, his father’s workers are doing better than he is. Maybe there’s hope? Maybe he can get a job with his Dad and at least have food to eat. He knows he doesn’t even deserve that – but anything is worth trying.

But the father’s love is so great that he won’t allow it – he throws a party, rejoicing that his son is home! So it is also with us, when we realise our sin and in humility come to God. He doesn’t just allow us to work for a place in his presence. He adopts us as children and treats us as if we’d never left.

“Tell me the story slowly, that I may take it in,
That wonderful redemption, God’s remedy for sin”

If rebellion was a bad place to start, repentance and reconciliation are great places to end! But Jesus doesn’t stop there. He still has one more group to introduce us to: we’ve seen the prodigal son, the wasteful sinner; we’ve seen the prodigal father, the recklessly generous God. But there’s still that second son. Jesus’ nice, rosy gospel talk has a sting in its tail.

The Religious reaction

“Now his older son was in the field, and as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing. ²⁶And he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant. ²⁷And he said to him, 'Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fattened calf, because he has received him back safe and sound.' ²⁸But he was angry and refused to go in. His father came out and entreated him, ²⁹but he answered his father, 'Look, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command, yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might celebrate with my friends. ³⁰But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him!' ³¹And he said to him, 'Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. ³²It was fitting to celebrate and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found.'”

Luke 15:11-32

The older son comes in; see his brother being reconciled with his father and rushes in to hug him too. Right? No, he stands outside in a sulk – angry that what he sees as his inheritance is being spent on this idiot. The elder brother represents the religious people; he’d followed God his father’s law, well, religiously. And what Jesus says here is that he didn’t love his father either, He’s saying that the cold religious man is just as lost as the wasteful sinner. If anything he’s more lost because unlike the younger son he can’t even see his own lostness. He’s wandering, cold and alone, futilely and frantically trying to earn his way into his father’s love. You know the thing that angers him the most? The fact that he’s been so holy, so self sacrificing, and yet this foul brother of his is still loved – despite having done nothing to deserve it.

Jesus is slapping the religious leaders in the face with this last section of the parable. He deliberately leaves the ending ambiguous – the sinner is comprehensively saved, but the religious man stays outside in the cold. Will he go in to the presence of his father, will you?

3 personalities, 3 lessons

There is so much more to be drawn out of and learned from in this passage, but for now we will just take one lesson from each of the characters in the parable. One thing to learn from the prodigal son, the proud brother, and the prodigal father.

· The Prodigal Son. You can’t have the rights of God’s children without the responsibilities. Taking our own path will always destroy us; it always leaves us mucking out the pigs. With God, we can be so much more.

· The Proud Brother. Perfect obedience can leave you just as lost as perfect disobedience. God isn’t interested in your model family, your well-mannered children or your position as church elder. When it comes to salvation He doesn’t care what you’re doing. He cares who you’re doing it for. He wants your love.

· The Prodigal Father. No matter what you’ve done that’s wrong, God’s grace is enough. No matter what you’ve done that’s right, God’s grace is still needed. Take it! The free gift of salvation is there, paid for by Christ, and offered to us for free. Whether our problem is blatant sinfulness, or prideful religion, God is willing to take us back to him. Are you willing to go?

That is the gospel we believe! That is the old, old story that we must be told again and again and again. There are three paths to take: rebellion, religion or grace. You can either deny God, earn God, or allow God.

I pray you allow him.

Tell me the old, old story of unseen things above,
Of Jesus and His glory, of Jesus and His love.
Tell me the story simply, as to a little child,
For I am weak and weary, and helpless and defiled.

Tell me the story slowly, that I may take it in,
That wonderful redemption, God’s remedy for sin.
Tell me the story often, for I forget so soon;
The early dew of morning has passed away at noon.

Tell me the story softly, with earnest tones and grave;
Remember I’m the sinner whom Jesus came to save.
Tell me the story always, if you would really be,
In any time of trouble, a comforter to me.

Tell me the same old story when you have cause to fear
That this world’s empty glory is costing me too dear.
Yes, and when that world’s glory is dawning on my soul,
Tell me the old, old story: “Christ Jesus makes thee whole.”

Amen.

Jesus and Karma

2011-01-10T14:13:00.002Z

Christ on Karma

I’m sure everyone knows someone who, whenever some tragedy happens, instantly reacts with something along the lines of ‘they must have been really bad for THAT to happen to them’. The idea that many have is that good things happen go good people, and bad things happen to bad people. It’s only fair.

Isn’t it?

Nearly two thousand years ago some Jews came to Jesus with the same idea:

“There were some present at that very time who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. ²And he answered them, "Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way? ³No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. ⁴Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? ⁵No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish."”

Luke 13:1-5

In another incident his disciples asked him whose sin was responsible for a man’s blindness from birth. Was it his sin, charged against him before he committed it? Or was it his parent’s wrong? Jesus answers them clearly:

“It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.”

John 9:3

So we clearly see from the teaching of Jesus that karma has nothing to do with it. Jesus is having none of this false doctrine. However, there are always some people who cling to their idea despite Jesus’ teachings to the contrary. And so, I propose a test.

Karma on Christ

Let us see if karma works. If it does, surely someone who lived a perfect life would have nothing bad happen to them. You know, someone like Jesus, he was perfect – what happened to him? Well he was abandoned by his friends and family, rejected by his people, spat upon, beaten, scourged and mocked. “He was led like a lamb to the slaughter, although He was innocent of crime”. The only perfect man who ever lived was crucified in agony.

Karma. Jesus. They don’t mix.

Much ado about nothing?

What’s the big deal? No Christian really believes in karma anyway, right? Besides, it’s not like it really matters – all karma does is make people be nice to each other. What’s the problem?

The problem is that it’s wrong.

The problem is the reason WHY Jesus suffered.

The problem is that karma contradicts and replaces grace.

Karma is all about good things for good people, paid for by their good works. It’s all about bad things for bad people.

Grace is good things for bad people, paid for by a bad thing happening to the one good person that ever lived.

I am a sinner; I have rejected God and rebelled against his authority. Every single day I commit treason against the king of kings. I deserve death. Note that Jesus didn’t say that the people in Siloam didn’t deserve death; He said that nobody else deserved life. I certainly don’t, none of us do and every single day we need to be thankful for one thing. We need to rejoice in one glorious truth.

God doesn’t do karma.

<<Funny how everything I write turns into grace, normally without starting out with that intention. I’m slowly learning that the reason I can’t write about anything but grace is because there isn’t. Grace isn’t a part of my faith, Grace IS my faith.

Note that this post is not to say that there isn’t justice, one day there will be. But for not there is patience and mercy, for now there is the chance to accept God’s grace. One day there will be judgement, and on that day only grace will stand up to the strength of God’s fury at our sinfulness.
Thanks to Mark Driscoll of Mars Hill Church for inspiring this post>>

A New Year Thought.

2011-01-07T15:50:00.004Z

A brief note

It’s a new year, a new day. 2010 gave way to 2011. Here’s a thought to think on, as the year begins.

“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. ²And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. ³And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. ⁴He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away."

⁵And he who was seated on the throne said, "Behold, I am making all things new." Also he said, "Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true." ”

Revelation 21:1-5

New world, Better world

There is a day coming, we know not when, we’ll not realise until it happens. But on that day, God will remake the universe. He will live with mankind; there will be no crying, no suffering, no pain and no death. Read verse four again.

“He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away”

Revelation 21:4

If that doesn’t make you pause for thought, then read it again. Realise what it is saying. It says that one day; God will wipe the tears from our eyes. Do you realise who this God is? This is the God who burned the stars into the sky with merely a word. This is the God who created the universe, who created life, microbe and mountains. This is the God who made you, and knew your every action before you were born. That God is going to personally wipe the tears from our eyes.

Now that is a thought to think on, as we go into 2011. We have a God powerful enough to create and recreate galaxies with a whisper, and we have a God kind and gentle enough to wipe the tears from our eyes.

That is a God worth following, is it not?

“And I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year:

"Give me a light, that I may tread safely into the unknown!"

And he replied:

"Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the Hand of God.

That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way."”

The Desert, Marie Louise Haskins

.
<<Further ~~reading~~ listening>>

The Meaning of Christmas.

2010-12-28T13:48:00.001Z

A festival of giving

Christmas is fading away, the trees are coming down and the lights are switching off. Time then to consider, as the last of the Christmassy feel leaves the country, what is Christmas really all about? Is it about overindulging yourself and overeating or is it about family? Is it all about having a good time, or celebrating some old religious festival that nobody really cares about? I would say it’s none of these things. In jest, two of my friends said this to me at Christmas time:

“Hope the Christmas holidays are going well. Remember the real meaning: presents.”

“And remember, Christmas is all about the presents.”

I’ve been considering that and they’re right. Christmas is all about presents, there’s simply nothing else to it. Yes there are some stuffy religious types who think it’s all about tradition, or some wishy-washy chaps who think it’s about love and good cheer but really, practically, it’s all about the presents. Not the paltry gifts we offer to each other, but the glorious gifts God gives. Let us consider a few of those gifts now, and then how God gives them.

Wonderful present number one

“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, ⁹not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”

Ephesians 2:8-9

God gives salvation. We don’t earn it, we couldn’t – Isaiah says that the best of our righteousness, the very best things we do are like filthy rags to God. No matter how hard we try, we can never save ourselves. But God can, and God has, and God will.

Our sin leads to destruction, but God offers salvation.

Wonderful present number two

“And the free gift is not like the result of that one man’s sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification.

¹⁸Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. ¹⁹For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.”

Romans 5:16, 18-19

God gives renewal. He doesn’t just pay off our debts; he gives more and more and more. That is truly grace. If we pictured our lives as a car which we’ve wrapped around a lamppost somewhere and completely trashed it, then God doesn’t just shake his head and fix the car for us – he buys us a bigger, better, more expensive one. We don’t just get a reprieve, we get righteousness.

We can’t fix our lives, but God makes us right.

Wonderful present number three

“For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Romans 6:23

God gives new life, eternally. Not only are we saved, forgiven, remade, renewed but we get eternity thrown into the bargain! Now that’s a pretty good present.

Our sinfulness deserves death, but God gives life.

There's no such thing as a free lunch

Everything has a cost somewhere. Free education is paid for by taxes, free phones by contracts, free television by the license fee. Everything costs, nothing is really free. Gifts have to be bought by the giver and the bigger the gift, the bigger the cost. Contentment, salvation, renewal, eternal life: These things are costly. What price did God pay, that we might live?

“I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

Galatians 2:20

"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

John 3:16

“But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

Romans 5:8

In a word: Christ. Jesus came, and died, he suffered in our place so we could live free. And so in Christ we have salvation:

“For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, ¹⁰ who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with him.”

1 Thessalonians 5:9-10

In Christ we have new life:

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”

2 Corinthians 5:17

In Christ we have eternal life:

“And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.”

1 John 5:11

All because of a death, but surely that’s not Christmas? Christmas is a happy time; it’s all about a baby that never cried and a manger and cattle lowing…

It’s about a birth yes, but a birth with a purpose. That little baby – who cried just as lustily as any baby despite what the carol says – that child was God. That little child, born in a dirty stable, grew up to live a perfect sinless life. That perfect sinless man died an agonising death and rose again. That death delivered a world of sin from its bondage and opened up the way to God.

“The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost.”

1 Timothy 1:15

And it is not so much the birth of Christ we celebrate, but his life. It is the purpose of that life and its result that we celebrate at Christmas time. It is the great giving of God that we rejoice in each year. Remember God at Christmas time, and remember the presents. It’s all about the presents.

“Thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift!”

2 Corinthians 9:15

<<I’m convinced that Christmas doesn’t truly end until you celebrate Hogmanay on the 31^st, so another post about Christmas is perfectly acceptable. Thanks to Ben Mildred of Not At The Dinner Table fame, whose jesting quote originally inspired this post.>>

Santa Claus Theology.

2010-12-25T00:38:00.001Z

A celebration of coming

“You better watch out
You better not cry
Better not pout
I'm telling you why
Santa Claus is coming to town
He's making a list
And checking it twice;
Gonna find out Who's naughty and nice
Santa Claus is coming to town”

You can tell its Christmas when that song starts blaring from every shop you pass. Well, you can tell it will be Christmas soon anyway. Well, within the next month at least. Or two…

Wait though, Santa Claus is coming? Is that what Christmas is all about? Or is it about God? God, who came as a child in a dingy stable, lived and died on a cruel cross and rose again for our salvation. Or a jolly fat man with a few reindeer and some singing elves? Don’t get me wrong, Santa, presents, trees, lights, reindeer – it’s all brilliant, Christmas is great. But so many of our problems are caused when we mix up God and Santa Claus – and not just at Christmas, but throughout our lives.

You see there are two dangerous ways in which we mix up God and Santa Claus. Firstly, we make Santa – all he brings and represents – into God, and secondly, we make God into Santa Claus.

Santa Claus is not God

Money, possessions, presents. These are all wonderful things but so often we make them more important than they are. We turn them into Gods without even realising we’re doing it – tell anyone that they worship money, or Santa, and they’ll probably laugh at you. The problem is that whenever we look to something outside of God to save us, to give us happiness, we begin to erect an altar to it in our hearts. We sacrifice things to it, or for it. Whatever it is, it becomes far too important to us, it becomes our life and our driving goal. Whenever something stands between us and God we have a serious problem. Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount:

“And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell.”

Matthew 5:30

Strong words, but necessary – we must not allow our love of money to overcome our love of God. As Switchfoot ask in their song ‘Company Car’:

“Have I won monopoly to forfeit my soul?”

You could have the world, but what good is it without God? Don’t make Santa Claus into your God.

“For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.”

Revelation 3:17

God is not Santa Claus

This second problem harks back to the song quoted at the beginning:

“He's making a list
And checking it twice;
Gonna find out Who's naughty and nice”

You better watch out! When Santa is around you better be good. If you’re not, you’ll be punished – you certainly won’t get anything good from him. Better be ready to earn those presents boys and girls because if there’s one thing Santa Claus does not believe in, it’s grace.

God does. God believes in grace. That fact ought to make us weep with joy, and yet shake with fear. Joy! Because we can be free, we don’t have to buy our way to God. Fear! Because we insist on trying to earn it ourselves and that pours mockery on God’s goodness and kindness and love.

Grace is not one of the important issues for a Christian to ponder. No. Grace is the issue. It is the one thing that sets the Christian message apart, the one thing you need to be saved. “Repent and believe!” the Bible says and God will deliver you. He will forgive those who repent – but if you don’t have grace, how can you possibly repent? If you’re trying to earn your salvation through your good works then you’ve not grasped how much you need saved. Grace is the centre and heart of our faith.

God is not Santa. Whether people think you’re “naughty or nice” or just something in between is completely irrelevant to him. There are only two types of people to God. Sinners and Jesus. If you are in Him, then you are God, your salvation is free and certain.

When you have a measure of spirituality without grace, you get left with cold, empty religion. All that that leads to is hypocrisy, pride and despair. Religion isn’t good enough for God, and it isn’t enough for us. The Pharisees were the most fervently religious people of their day and look what Jesus had to say about them:

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness. ²⁸So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

Matthew 23:27-28

The Pharisees were wonderful; they were great teachers and leaders. They were the epitome of religious dedication. They were great. Oh and they crucified God. That’s not so good. The thing they’d missed was grace. God’s free gift. They’d turned God into Santa Claus, centuries before Santa even existed. They were determined to earn their way to God and determined to make God owe them something. Contrast this picture with that of the thief on the cross. A broken man. A criminal. The lowest of the low. Everyone admired the Pharisees and their Santa Theology, everybody but Jesus. Nobody loved the thief, nobody but Jesus. Contrast now their reception before God, the answer to their lives that Jesus gives them:

You serpents, you brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to hell?”

Matthew 23:33

“And he [Jesus] said to him, "Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise." ”

Luke 23:43

Grace saves. Religion doesn’t. And that is why Santa Claus theology is so dangerous, so poisonous to our walk with God. But why? Why do we give up this beautiful doctrine of love and sacrifice, and replace it with a broken lie of works and a cruel, demanding God?

Two problems that cause each other

We’ve made Santa our God – chasing after money and wealth, viewing ourselves as great and God as small.

We’ve made God a Santa figure – a God who views us in the light of our deeds, who demands that we earn our own way and pay him back.

In short, we don’t like grace simply because it leaves us with nothing. We give nothing to God. We are nobody. God has paid our debt, “by his wounds we are healed” – there is nothing we can add to that and don’t we just hate it. Our grand view of our own self importance, our desire to prove ourselves, earn our own way and be able to hold God in our debt has corrupted our view of grace. Our feeble view of grace has led us to believe that God demands payment.

Our view of Santa as God makes us see God as Santa. Our view of God as Santa makes us revere Santa and what he stands for as God. When salvation becomes all about earning, all about us, materialism and despair are not far behind.

We hate grace because, as Switchfoot said:

“In the economy of mercy
I am a poor and begging man”

We don’t like to be poor. Being poor is losing when Santa reigns.

God’s remedy for our mistakes

God has an answer to our problem. It’s Grace. Grace is God’s salvation song. Look to Jesus, look to the cross. See him there, hanging in agony for your sin. Freely and without cost. And don’t you dare try and earn your salvation. Can you add to that sacrifice? Can you, by offering your seat to the elderly, paying a fraction of your money to the church, can you possibly add to that? Can you add to the death of God by being a bit nicer and going to church? Can you top God’s sacrifice with a bit of prayer and a Bible reading? No you can’t. And that, that is the beauty and the wonder of God’s grace. A salvation that is firm. And yet a salvation that is completely, and utterly free.

Look to Jesus, look to his throne. See him there, ruling and reigning in love. He died for you my friend. He died for me. How can we replace that majesty, that love, that sacrifice with money, presents and exotic holidays? Grace is free, but if grace is true we must respond in love. Love not for money, but for him who died. “There is a higher throne. Than all this world has known” – Bow before that throne, don’t worship Santa Claus.

Get your theology straightened out. Ours is a theology of grace. Not a theology of Santa Claus.

“Amazing grace! How sweet the sound
that saved a wretch like me.
I once was lost, but now am found,
was blind but now I see.”

“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, ⁹not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”

Ephesians 2:8-9

<<Grace is a pretty big topic. My thanks to Andrew Randall who inspired me to dwell on it more, and who gave me the term ‘Santa Clause Theology’ to describe a life without it. One day I’ll write more on it, but if there’s ever an ‘assistant pig-keeper topic’ then this is it. Woefully unprepared for writing on this, but by God’s grace may I speak the truth, with clarity, in love. If I can improve, do tell me – the comment box is there for a reason.

Oh, and Merry Christmas everyone. Merry Christmas indeed.>>

Many roads, one destination.

2010-12-21T17:17:00.000Z

An unhelpful statement

‘All roads lead to God’ – The battle cry of our pluralistic age, the rallying call of all those who view Christianity as intolerant and narrow for claiming a universal truth which is the only way to salvation.

‘All roads lead to God’, do you agree?

I do. All roads do lead to God, every person whether Buddhist or Hindu or Christian will find God but really, it’s the experience when you get there that matters. Allow me to explain: Say you’re standing on the top floor of a skyscraper; there are fourteen windows and a single door which leads to the lift. As you can see, there are fifteen exits to that room and they all lead to the ground but only one of them will give you a pleasant arrival. One destination yes, but two very different outcomes.

The Bible is very clear that every road that anyone takes will lead them to God:

“For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil”

2 Corinthians 5:10

“So then each of us will give an account of himself to God”

Romans 14:12

“To me every knee shall bow,
every tongue shall swear allegiance.”

Isaiah 45:23

The question we must all ask is not whether all roads will lead to God, but rather ‘What will happen when my road leads me to God?’ And that is a different question entirely. One which God has answered clearly:

“It is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment”

Hebrews 9:27

A single destination

The penultimate destination of mankind is shared by every one of us, to stand in the throne room of Almighty God, creator and judge of heaven and of earth.

“Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them. ¹²And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done.”

Revelation 20:11-12

This throne room of God is the point to which all roads lead. The Atheist, the Hindu, the Buddhist, the Muslim, the Christian, the Agnostic, The Deist will all stand before God’s judgement seat. On that day only one question remains – on what do you stand before this throne? On what have you put your trust? What foundation have you built your life, work and future hope on?

This is truly an important question because all these roads will not meet for long. The problem with the pluralistic statement ‘all roads lead to God’ is not what it says that is wrong, but what it does not say, yet should. What it leaves out is that while all roads lead to this throne room of God, they soon diverge. The difference now is that there are only two roads, and they will never meet again.

A choice to be made

The great thinker and writer C.S. Lewis described this choice in these words:

"There will be two kinds of people in the end: Those that will say to God 'Thy will be done' and those to whom God will say 'Thy will be done.'"

Both types of people met God, but both leave on very different terms. To those who choose their own way God has strong words of warning to give:

“Cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.'”

Matthew 25:30

“It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into hell, ⁴⁸'where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.'”

Mark 9:47b-48

“And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.”

Revelation 20:15

Hell is a place of no return, there is no escape from it. It is the natural destination of every soul. It is the absence of God, and with his absence, the absence of every good thing which comes from him. It is the absence therefore of love, and life, and happiness, and selflessness, and hope, and kindness, and mercy. It is our ultimate end, eternal death. But why?

“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”

Romans 3:23

We deserve hell because we rejected heaven; we deserve death because we rejected life. We deserve lovelessness because we rejected the love that was given to us. C.S. Lewis says elsewhere that:

“In the long run the answer to all those who object to the doctrine of hell, is itself a question: What are you asking God to do? To wipe out their past sins and, at all costs, to give them a fresh start, smoothing every difficulty and offering every miraculous help? But He has done so, on Calvary. To forgive them? They will not be forgiven. To leave them alone? Alas, I am afraid that is what He does.”

And there Lewis touches on the other option. The other destination, the very opposite of this eternal, loveless death. Life.

A foundation to stand on

Certain condemnation and guaranteed judgement await all who stand before God on the foundation of their own works and righteousness.

“For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ”

1 Corinthians 3

However, there is hope, a hope that does not disappoint. We cannot lay our own foundation, we cannot save ourselves but God has laid a foundation for us, he has set us free. Again and again the Bible tells of this glorious future:

“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”

Romans 8:1

“And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, ¹⁵that whoever believes in him may have eternal life... ¹⁸Whoever believes in him is not condemned”

John 3:14-15, 18

⁵And he who was seated on the throne said, "Behold, I am making all things new." Also he said, "Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true." ⁶And he said to me, "It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. ⁷The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son.”

Revelation 21:1-7

In short, heaven is being with God and in his presence for all of eternity. It is the opposite of hell, the greatest joy possible. It is indeed unimaginably great:

“But, as it is written,

"What no eye has seen, nor ear heard,
nor the heart of man imagined,
what God has prepared for those who love him" ”

1 Corinthians 2:9

So how can this infinitely preferable alternative be reached? Well, to return to C.S. Lewis’ words, we must say to God ‘Thy will be done’. We must accept that God’s plan for salvation is greater than ours and it is here that the statement ‘all roads lead to God’ breaks down. Because only one road leads to an eternity with God, only one foundation stands the scrutiny of God’s judgement and that is Jesus Christ:

“Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

John 14:6

“This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. ¹²And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”

Acts 4:11-12

“And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. ¹²Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.”

1 John 5:11-12

Christ is the sure foundation on which we must build; he must be our hope and our salvation. The old hymn by Edward Mote says it well:

On Christ the solid Rock I stand,
All other ground is sinking sand;
All other ground is sinking sand.

A decision to make

All roads lead to God, but when you arrive at that throne, when you bow the knee at last you do it either in love, or in trembling. At that moment, many roads converge, but only two leave again. It is in this life that we choose which path we leave God’s presence on. It is a decision we all must make, it is a decision which determines eternity. Do we trust in ourself for salvation, reject God and follow our own path. Or do we trust in Jesus for our salvation, submit to his authority and follow him everything in this world and eventually into life eternal.

One destination, two very different outcomes.

By God’s grace may we choose the latter.

Blog Title

2010-12-21T17:03:00.000Z

For any not familiar with Lloyd Alexander's great works "The Prydain Chronicles":

Firstly, shame on you! Read them!
Secondly, you may require some explanation as to the title of this blog. The series is primarily about a young Assistant Pig-Keeper called Taran, who is called upon to complete great adventures and save the world from evil. To quote from Lloyd Alexander himself:

The chronicle of Prydain is a fantasy. Such things never happen in real life. Or do they? Most of us are called on to perform tasks far beyond what we believe we can do. Our capabilities seldom match our aspirations, and we are often woefully unprepared. To this extent, we are all Assistant Pig-Keepers at heart.

Lloyd Alexander

I chose the title because I certainly feel "woefully unprepared" for writing, especially of some of the more weighty matters. Also, although I hope I will improve, I suffer no delusions as to my capabilities and in general my aspirations certainly do greatly outweigh them. Therefore, although we may all be "Assistant Pig-Keepers at heart" I feel that I am more greatly one than most.