Author: looking2jesus13

God is Righteous

Bible Reading: Psalm 9:7-8, 89:14, 145:17; Romans 3:21-26; 1 John 2:29

Martin Luther, that famed catalyst of the Protestant Reformation, hated the doctrine of God’s righteousness before he embraced it.  As a successful monk, he was utterly devoted to his monastic practices—incessant prayers, fastings, going without sleep, enduring bone-chilling cold, self-flagellation and the like.  He would later comment, “If anyone could have earned heaven by the life of a monk, it was I.”  One sense of the doctrine of the righteousness of God has to do with God’s hatred of sin and that’s where Luther struggled,  One day in the early 1500s, Martin Luther sat in the tower or the Black Cloister, Wittenberg, reading Romans 1:17, which says: “For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”  Luther’s eyes were drawn to the phrase “the righteousness of God,” which he believed to be an unassailable obstacle to salvation.  Though he had sought through religious means to gain God’s approval, he became increasingly terrified of the wrath of God. He even hated the Apostle Paul for what he had written.

Luther was ordered to take his doctorate in the Bible and become a professor at Wittenberg University.  During a study of the Book of Romans God opened Luther’s eyes to the truth.  He said of that experience, “At last meditating day and night, by the mercy of God, I … began to understand that the righteousness of God is that through which the righteous live by a gift of God, namely by faith… Here I felt as if I were entirely born again and had entered paradise itself through the gates that had been flung open.”  This great man’s personal experience would ultimately work to set ablaze the Protestant Reformation. Whether you despise or embrace this doctrine depends entirely on where your stand with respect to faith in Christ. 

What is meant when we speak of the righteousness of God?  When we speak of righteousness with respect to men, we voice the extent, or degree to which they measure up to God and His righteous standards.  But God is not so much defined by the term “righteous” as much as the term “righteous” is defined by God (Psalm 9:7-8).  He is the standard by which righteousness is understood and measured.  His righteousness is evidenced in that He consistent acts in accord with His own character (Psalm 145:17). 

It is impossible for any man to measure up by his own self doings to God’s righteous standards (Romans 3:23; Matthew 5:20).  But as Luther came to understand, God has mercifully provided a way for helpless sinners to be saved!  Though all have sinned and fallen short, those who believe are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption of Christ Jesus (Romans 3:23-24).  Salvation is by grace through faith in Christ and His finished work on the cross!

We’ve all been born into this world full of sin and we need look no further than our own hearts for evidence of sin’s reality.  But here’s the good news.  There is no sin in God.  When our Savior Jesus walked amongst us, He “knew no sin” and indeed “never sinned” (2 Corinthians 5:21).  Never a sinful thought, word or deed!  There’s a beauty in this particular attribute of God to which we’d do well to grow in our admiration, as we journey towards that place “in which righteousness dwells” (2 Peter 3:13). And as we do, let us endeavor to practice righteousness, even as Jesus is righteous (1 John 3:7).

Heavenly Father.  Thank you for being our Righteous God!  The more we think about Your righteousness, the more mindful we become of our own shortcomings. Forgive us for our foolhardy attempts to gain self-righteousness by our own doings.  Thank You for sending Jesus, that through His work on the cross, a righteousness by faith has been imputed to us, that we are declared righteous in Him.  Help us to walk in righteousness, even as You are.  Amen.

Be Holy, for I Am Holy

Bible Reading: 1 Peter 1:13-16; Hebrews 12:14

If you are a believer, then you are a “saint!” This is how the Bible describes those who have trusted in Jesus for salvation (Ephesians 1:1; 1 Corinthians 1:2).  What’s even more startling is that the term “saint” literally means “holy one.”  Vine’s Expository Dictionary explains the usage of the term: “a common NT designation for all believers is ‘saints,’ i.e. ‘sanctified’ or ‘holy ones.’  Thus sainthood, or sanctification is not an attainment, it is the state into which God, in His grace, calls sinful men, and in which they begin their course as Christians.”   Though I’m not sure I’d recommend it, you would be entirely theologically correct if on your next visit to church you were to greet a brother named John this way, “good morning saint John.”

The name and the position which underlies it have come by way of God’s gracious work through Jesus.  As Scripture says in 1 Corinthians 6:11, “But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.”  The term “sanctified” is the verb form of the word “saint,” and speaks to the position into which God, in His grace, has called the believer through the sin-cleansing work of Jesus.  Every believer has experienced this cleansing at their new birth, and henceforth possesses it.

All that being said, a distinction needs to be made between this positional sanctification and the progressive sanctification to which the believer is called upon to pursue. Because God is holy, we are to be holy. We are His children and in His holiness we inherit a beautiful attribute of our Father in which we are commanded to grow. In his book “the Knowledge of the Holy,” A.W. Tozer noted “we tend by a secret law of the soul to move towards our mental image of God.’ That’s certainly true in this case! As the Spirit of God works through the Word of God to unveil to us the holiness of God, we are drawn to the beauty of it and are called upon to pursue it. Likewise we are admonished in Hebrews 12:14 to “strive for…holiness without which no one will see the Lord.” Our very identity, as His “holy ones,” speaks to our destiny. We are going to a beautiful place–a holy heaven where we will meet with a holy God and be joined to a holy company engaged in holy worship, in a place where sin will be no more. The question is, if we’ve no appetite for holiness in the here and now, would we have any interest in such a place in eternity? Holiness is something we are to pursue. We do that by purposefully engaging ourselves in the Spirit-led disciplines which are essential to our spiritual growth (i.e. prayer, being in the Word, being active and involved in the fellowship of believers, etc.).

J.C. Ryle, in his classic book “Holiness,” spoke to this pursuit of holiness: “There is not a brick nor a stone laid in the work of our sanctification till we go to Christ. Holiness is His special gift to His believing people. Holiness is the work He carries on in their hearts, by the Spirit whom He puts within them…Holiness comes from Christ. It is the result of vital union with Him, It is the fruit of being a living branch of the True Vine. Go then to Christ and say, “Lord, not only save me from the guilt of sin, but send the Spirit, whom Thou didst promise, and save me from its power. Make me holy. Teach me to do Thy will.”

Heavenly Father. Praise You in the majesty of your holiness. Open the eyes of my heart, that I will behold the glory of who You are in this and every one of Your attributes. Forgive me when I have not sought after holiness through the power of the Holy Spirit and Your Word. Help me to walk by your Spirit. Give me your understanding of sin and holiness, that I might learn and grow to hate the one and love the other. Help me to walk in holiness until I arrive home in heaven where sin will be no more and Your glory will be on display for all to behold.

Holy, Holy, Holy

Bible Reading: Isaiah 6:1-7; Isaiah 57:15

Sinclair B. Ferguson defined God’s holiness this way: “it means He is separate from sin.  But holiness in God also means wholeness.  God’s holiness is His ‘God-ness.’  It is being God in all that it means for Him to be God.  To meet God in His holiness, therefore, is to be altogether overwhelmed by the discovery that He is God, and not man.”

“To meet God in His holiness”…that was the experience of the prophet Isaiah we read about in Isaiah chapter 6. We would rightly suppose that Isaiah, having been called by God to be a prophet, was a righteous man relative to his peers. As a man of faith, he understood something about God’s Holiness and was mindful, to some extent, of his own shortcomings. But nothing in his understanding or experience could have prepared him for what happened on the day he saw the Lord.

We are not given the specific manner in which it came to pass, but Isaiah “saw the Lord sitting upon a throne.”  Monarchs of that day were elaborately attired, but in this case the train of the Lord’s robe “filled the temple!”  Above the Lord stood the seraphim, a special class of angels given the task of attending to God’s holiness.  Each angel had six wings.  With two wings they flew.  And with two wings they covered their feet, reminding us of how God once told Moses to remove his shoes for in God’s presence the place where he stood was “holy ground.”  And with two wings they covered their eyes, reminding us again that God once told Moses “no man can see my glory and live.”

The most striking and most important thing in Isaiah’s vision was what he heard, as the seraphim cried out unto one another, back and forth, saying, “Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord of Hosts. The whole earth is full of His glory!” The Hebrew language often used words three times in order to emphasize what was being spoken of. But even more emphasis was forthcoming in what Isaiah saw next, when foundations of the threshold shook and the house was filled with smoke!

Isaiah was completely overwhelmed and cried out, saying, “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!” Isaiah’s vision of God’s unearthly holiness demanded a radical reassessment of himself, “Woe is me! For I am lost!” The focus on the unclean “lips” is interesting. In contrast to the lofty and worshipful chorus of the seraphim, Isaiah became painfully aware of the woeful and sinful inadequacy of his own speech and that of his people. As a result of his vision Isaiah was humbled before God, who wouldn’t be! It is a good thing to meet God in His holiness, for in the light of God’s holiness, our sinfulness is exposed and we are compelled to look to Jesus for salvation.

R.C. Sproul, “The Bible doesn’t say that God is mercy, mercy, mercy or love, love, love or justice, justice, justice or wrath, wrath, wrath, but that He is holy, holy, holy. This is a dimension of God that consumes His very essence, and when it is manifest to Isaiah, we read that “at the sound of the voices of the seraphim the doorposts, the thresholds of the temple itself shook and began to tremble” (Isaiah 6:4). Do you hear that? Inanimate, lifeless, unintelligible parts of creation in the presence of the manifestation of the holiness of God had the good sense to be moved. How can we, made in His image, be indifferent or apathetic to His majesty?”

Heavenly Father.  You are high and exalted above all in the awesomeness of Your holiness, just as Isaiah saw you!  Forgive us for growing far too unaware and comfortable in the unholy climate in which we now live.  Open our eyes, that we might rightly esteem ourselves in view of Your majestic holiness and our great need.  Thank you for opening a door for us to be made holy through the sin-cleansing blood of Your Son, the Lamb of God. Help us to pursue holiness, without which we cannot see You.

God’s Sovereignty and You

Bible Reading: Jeremiah 18:1-10; Acts 4:24-28; Proverbs 16:9

God is not just sovereign over the affairs of this world, He is sovereign over each of our lives.  Though we are not robots to His will, and bear responsibility for our own actions, our Lord is sovereign over the affairs of our lives and is at work within us, “both to will and to work for his good pleasure” (Philippians 2:13).  

There are several passages in Scripture where the analogy of a Potter and the Clay is used to illustrate God’s right to do as He pleases with those whom He has created (Jeremiah 18:1-10; Isaiah 29:16, 45:9, 64:8; Romans 9:19-21). This wonderful analogy helps us understand what God’s sovereignty means for each of us on a personal level.

Before He begins, the Potter already has an idea in mind of what the finished product will be.  And so it is with the believer in Christ.  Much as a skilled Potter molds the clay with his hands, so God’s sovereignly works out His plan to conform all those predestined by Him, to the image of His Son (Romans 8:29-30).  We are His work of art, created in Christ Jesus to manifest His glory (Ephesians 2:10).

The Potter has a wheel upon which he spins the clay.  F. B. Meyer, in a sermon on this theme, compared the wheel to life’s circumstances. As varied as they are, they all will be used by God in the reshaping of our character (James 1:2-4).  Meyer pointed out how “God has chosen the lot of each as being specially adapted to develop the hidden qualities and idiosyncrasies of the soul He loves.”  Romans 8:28 likewise speaks to how God causes all things to work together for good for those who love God.  God is sovereign over the circumstances of our lives (Genesis 50:20; Proverbs 16:9; Acts 4:24-28; 1 Corinthians 10:13).

The Potter pounds the clay to release any air bubbles within.  Then he uses his fingers to shape us.  The potter works the clay, as the wheel goes round and round, sometimes pressing gently, sometimes firmly, always patiently. Just as the Holy Spirit is at work in us through the ministry of the Word and through the trials we face, He is working to transform us from one state of glory to the next (2 Corinthians 3:18).  Sometimes it’s necessary to go through major alterations for Christ’s likeness to be formed in us.  It is helpful to remember when we are hard-pressed that God loves us and knows what’s best for us.

His part is to make something beautiful out of us–to the praise of His glory!  Our part is to trust. Implicit in that trust is a yieldedness to the Spirit.  F. B. Meyer put it this way, “He who was able to transform the Cross from a badge of shame into the sign of victory and glory must surely be able to take the most hopeless, disreputable, and abandoned lives, and make them bloom with flowers heavy with fragrance and full of blessed promise. Only let Him have a free hand.”

Heavenly Father.  How glad and thankful to know You are in charge!  And not just in charge of what happens in Your universe, but likewise what happens in the daily affairs of my life.  You are with me and care for me in every moment. Praise You for being the preeminent of rulers and that You are worthy of our trust.  Not just in what You have planned, but also in Your capacity to fulfill Your purpose.  Thank You for your patience with me as You work to make me more like Jesus.  Help me to trust You and yield myself.  Amen.

What Can God Do?

Bible Reading: Exodus 15:1-18; Job 42:2; Ephesians 1:19-23; Psalm 121:1-2 

The power output from the sun is 382800000000000000000000000 watts. That sounds like a lot, but it is actually small in comparison to the power expended in the gamma ray burst (GRB) of a supernova. The most powerful GRB ever recorded occurred in September 2008. If the power of that explosion could have been captured and converted it would have produced enough electricity to supply the entire Earth with 13.8 octillion years of power. Octillion = a number equal to 1 followed by 27 zeros. That’s a lot of power, especially when you consider that there have been and will be other GRBs. 

All that being said, the One who created all things and those stars, is even more powerful! In fact, He is omnipotent, which means God has the power to accomplish any end He desires. Stephen Charnock put it this way: “The power of God is that ability and strength whereby He can bring to pass whatsoever He pleases, whatsoever His infinite wisdom may direct, and whatsoever the infinite purity of His will may resolve.” 

God’s omnipotence is revealed in countless ways and examples throughout Scripture, but a few stand out. Creation itself testifies that God is an all powerful God (Romans 1:20; Revelation 4:11). The deliverance of Israel from Egypt was something the Jews praised God for and remember to this day, as evidence of the glory and greatness of His power (Exodus 15:6-7). Jesus’ triumph by way of His death for sins and resurrection from the dead, over sin and death and the devil himself, testify to the omnipotence of God (Ephesians 1:19-23). What is striking about this text in Ephesians is Paul’s prayer that the believer might realize “what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe” (Ephesians 1:19). This omnipotence of God is not merely theological or theoretical, it has direct relevance to the believer and is actually availed to him! Its focal point is not God giving us some kind of superhero power for some obscure purpose. No, the omnipotence of God is manifest in the miraculous work of salvation, by which we are saved from the penalty and practice of sin. We are washed clean so one day, we will stand in the Glory of His Presence. 

The phrase “He is able” is recurrent in our Bibles. Humanly we often need to be reminded of what our omnipotent God is able to accomplish in our lives. He is able to: 1) make you stand (Romans 14:4); 2) establish you (Romans 16:25); keep you from falling and present you faultless before His glory (Jude 24); make all grace abound toward you (2 Corinthians 9:8); keep that which you’ve committed unto Him against that day (2 Timothy 1:12); build you up (Acts 20:32); transform your lowly body to be like His glorious body (Philippians 3:21); save you to the uttermost (Hebrews 7:25); do exceeding abundantly beyond all that you ask or think (Ephesians 3:20). “What shall we say to these things? If God (the omnipotent God) is for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31). 

Charles Spurgeon, “O my soul, what can destroy thee if Omnipotence be thy helper? Rest thou secure. If Jesus is thine all prevailing King, and hath trodden thine enemies beneath his feet; if sin, death, and hell are vanquished by him, and thou art represented in him, by no possibility canst thou be destroyed.”

God is Everywhere Present 

Bible Reading: Psalm 139:7-12; Jeremiah 23:24 

Corrie and Betsie ten Boom helped to hide Jews during the Nazi occupation. The Nazis found out and sent the two middle aged women to a concentration camp. There they endured horrific conditions and incredible suffering. Yet in the midst of this terrible situation, they ministered hope to hundreds of prisoners, as their barracks were transformed into a Bible study. Eventually Betsie became deathly ill and was transferred to a prison hospital. After the orderlies set her on the hospital floor, Corrie leaned down to hear the words on her sister’s lips, “Tell people what we’ve learned here…there is no pit so deep in which God’s love is not deeper still.” Betsie died the following day. Then Corrie was miraculously released as a result of a clerical error. Afterward, Corrie forgave the guards who had held her captive. She touched millions of lives through her books and speaking tours, and once said of her time in the camp, “I’ve experienced His presence in the deepest darkest hell that men can create…I have tested the promises of the Bible, and believe me, you can count on them.”” 

God is everywhere present, even in the horrific prison camp, with all Corrie and Betsie endured. There is nowhere in God’s creation where God is not. King David praised God for this truth, acknowledging there was no place he could possibly go which was away from God (Psalm 139:7-10). 

It is not that God is in everything, that view is called pantheism. It supposes all things compose an all-encompassing, immanent god. Instead what the Bible teaches is the person of God, who is Spirit (John 4:24) is present everywhere in His creation. As Paul testified to the idol-worshippers on Mars Hill, it’s in the one true God “we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28). 

What a comfort to know the Presence of God as the Holy Spirit indwells the hearts of those who have received Him. (John 14:17; 1 Corinthians 3:16) We are never really alone. Whether you are at home, or at work, or in school. No matter if you are enjoying worship at church, or are all alone suffering some hardship of which others are unaware. The Holy Spirit, our beloved Helper is with us. What a precious encouragement it is to realize we can walk by the Spirit, consciously depending on Him always.

As with God’s omniscience, there is another side of this truth which will one day be tragically clear to people who do not know God. When God’s judgment falls upon mankind, Scripture tells us there will be no place to hide (Cf. Amos 9:2-4). But for people who have chosen the way of truth, there’s refuge to be found in the One who left His abode in heaven to dwell among us (John 1:14). The One who died for our sins and rose from the dead “that He might bring us to God” (1 Corinthians 15:3-4; 1 Peter 3:18). 

Heavenly Father. How incredible is the truth that you are everywhere present! Forgive me, Lord. I’m too often thinking and acting as if I’m all alone. Thank you for your abiding Presence, faithfully guiding and upholding me through all life’s circumstances. Help me to walk moment-by-moment in the awareness, comfort and strength of Your presence. Amen. 

God Knows Everything

Bible Reading: Psalm 139; Hebrews 4:13

He who knows not, and knows not he knows not, is a fool; shun him.

He who knows not, and knows he knows not, is simple; teach him.

He who knows, and knows not he knows, is asleep; awaken him.

He who knows, and knows he knows, is wise; follow him.

Arab Proverb

The one who truly knows, knows that what he himself knows is infinitely small in comparison to the God who knows all about all.

Theologians use the term “omniscience” (the state of knowing everything) in referring to this attribute. A.W. Tozer summarized God’s omniscience this way: “God knows instantly and effortlessly all matter and all matters, all mind and every mind, all spirit and all spirits, all being and every being, all creaturehood and all creatures, every plurality and all pluralities, all law and every law, all relations, all causes, all thoughts, all mysteries, all enigmas, all feeling, all desires, every unuttered secret, all thrones and dominions, all personalities, all things visible and invisible in heaven and in earth, motion, space, time, life, death, good, evil, heaven, and hell.”

King David wrote about this truth from a startlingly personal viewpoint. He understood God knew all about him, his daily activities, his thoughts, his path, his lying down, his ways, his words (even before he spoke them). David’s conclusion? “Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high; I cannot attain it” (Psalm 139:6). Indeed! It is a powerful truth. God, the maker of the Universe, knows all there is to know about each one of us!

Hebrews 4:13 puts forth the matter plainly: “And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.”  Herein lies the practical implications of this lofty truth.  People who have refused the gospel have no place to hide and no defense to make before the all-knowing judge in the courtroom of divine justice.  God’s omniscience is a fearful truth to them.  

There is, on the other hand, great comfort to be had in this truth for those who have trusted in Jesus. My old, falling-apart copy of A.W. Tozer’s “Knowledge of the Holy” has highlighted portions throughout, but only this paragraph is highlighted in pink: “And to us who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope that is set before us in the gospel, how unutterably sweet is the knowledge that our Heavenly Father knows us completely. No talebearer can inform on us, no enemy can make an accusation stick; no forgotten skeleton can come tumbling out of some hidden closet to abash us and expose our past; no unsuspected weakness in our characters can come to light to turn God away from us, since He knew us utterly before we knew Him and called us in full knowledge of everything that was against us.” Put simply, in Christ, the God who knows all about us, loves us. And that, my friends, is a wonderful truth worth knowing (Cf. Romans 8:33-39)!

Heavenly Father.  We praise You as our all-knowing God.  You know everything about everything in this universe You created.  You know everything about each of us.  As with King David, we are overwhelmed by this lofty truth.  Though you know about our sins–past, present, and future–you still sent Your Son to take our punishment.  Now, in Him, we are accepted in the Beloved and kept safe in Your loving arms.  Help us to walk daily in the light, even as You are in the light.  Amen.

God Doesn’t Change

Bible Reading: Psalm 102:25-28; Hebrews 13:8: James 1:17

My wife Laura has Stage IV Metastatic Cancer.  She received her diagnosis almost five years ago, after she had dealt with a mysterious back pain for nearly six months.  Cancer changes everything.  Laura was incredibly active before all that.  She admirably fulfilled her roles as a wife and mom and Pastor’s wife and teaching aide.  The cancer had spread mostly to her backbone and caused three compression fractures and a compromised back.  After receiving radiation treatments to shrink a tumor on her spine, she was fitted with a back brace and given a 5lb weight limit of what she could lift.  The cancer treatments left her with a weakened immune system and she contracted shingles (a common occurrence for cancer patients).  The shingles rash eventually disappeared, but she was left with a condition called Post Herpetic Neuralgia, which inflicts her with a chronic pain which she deals with 24/7.  

As a result of Laura’s cancer, we made the decision to move close to our grandkids.  We sold our dream home, left our hometown and our beloved church family (the church I’d pastored for almost 30 years) to move to be near our grandkids.  Every month we make a trip to Kennewick to the oncologist and palliative care specialist to review her blood counts and treatment plan.  She’s now on her third distinct treatment regimen, the first two having run their course.  But God is good–He’s provided the best of medical care for her.  We’ve many friends who pray for her and she has maintained a wonderful attitude through it all, trusting Jesus and finding positive ways to love and serve others (as she has always been prone to do).  By God’s grace she’s been an inspiration to me and others!

I say all of that, not to garner sympathy, though your prayers for us are always gladly welcomed, but to illustrate that life is full of change.  That’s true for all of us.  We change.  Our circumstances change.  Indeed, these days are not only filled with many changes, but it seems as if change is happening at a faster rate.

There is comfort in the realization God does not change.  God is unchanging in the perfection of His attributes.  God is omnipotent, He cannot grow stronger and will not weaken.  His infinite knowledge and wisdom will never increase or diminish.  His love will never be more, or less than it has always been.  We have bad days, God does not.  We experience mood swings, God does not.  Our strength and ability to remember things diminish with age, but not so with God.  He is unchanging in His purpose, His promises and in His Word.  “The grass withers, and the flowers fade, but the word of our God stands forever” (Isaiah 40:8).  The heavens and the earth themselves will pass away, but God will remain the same (Psalm 102:25-28).

“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever” (Hebrews 13:8).  The Jesus who brought you “out of darkness into His marvelous light” (1 Peter 2:9) is the same Jesus who is even now at the right hand of God “interceding for (you)” (Romans 8:34). He is the same Jesus who will one day “transform (your) lowly body to be like his glorious body” (Philippians 3:21).  How reassuring is this!

A.W. Tozer, “What peace it brings to the Christian’s heart to realize our Heavenly Father never differs from Himself. In coming to Him we need not wonder if we will find Him in a receptive mood…Today, this moment, He feels towards His creatures, toward babies, toward the sick, the fallen, the sinful, exactly as He did when He sent His only begotten Son into the world to die for mankind.”

“Yet, in the maddening maze of things,

And tossed by storm and flood,

To one fixed trust my spirit clings;

I know that God is good!”

John Greenleaf Whittier