Category: devotional

Have you noticed how many Christians turn up their noses at certain discussions relating to the faith? For example, have you talked with believers who are happy to discuss certain moral issues with you, but consider a topic like eschatology, the study of the end times, to be not worth their while? Why do you think this happens?

 

Of course, we cannot be surprised that so many are disinterested in a discussion of end times things. Too many have been over-exposed to the Left Behind sort of teaching and have turned away from that book series’ claims. Too many have found that the bickering among believers about the timing of the rapture, the coming of a possible millennium, or the rise of the antichrist is just far too speculative and divisive to be any good for anybody. And, since the topic is hard, it should be ignored.

 

Of course, other believers are not over-exposed to one brand of eschatology. Instead, they have been abused by teachers who became so fascinated with a novel way of handling the end times that they forced their point of view into every teaching they gave. Thus, the Christians who were subjected to a regular attack of passionate proclamation about how the end times already took place or some other sort of system have no interest in ever being dragged down that road again.

 

But what do we lose when we lose the ability to study eschatology together? Is there a loss at all? Should we just ignore it altogether?

 

Consider what Paul writes to the Corinthian church about a particular hope that they have in Christ.

 

1 Corinthians 1:7-9 – 7 so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift, as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ, 8 who will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

 

Paul is hear giving God thanks for the Corinthians and expressing his confidence in the gifts that the Lord has given his church. Of course, the Corinthians were blessed with some spectacular spiritual gifts. But Paul’s focus actually goes further. The Corinthians are going to be sustained by their faithful God as they await the revealing of the Lord Jesus. They are actively, passionately, insistently waiting on the unveiling of Jesus.

 

What is that about? The unveiling or revealing of Jesus Christ is a reference to Jesus’ return. The hope of the Corinthians is not in their present position. Their hope is not in their miraculous spiritual gifting. No, their hope is in the revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ. Their hope is in the return of Jesus. That is where they can place their hope for life in the presence of their faithful God.

 

What I fear, if we are not careful, is that we will give up the sustaining hope that the Corinthian church had if we let go of any conversations about the return of Christ. If we assume that this stuff all does not matter, I wonder how much hope we ignore. I don’t know about you, but I can’t afford to ignore any sort of sustaining Scriptural hope. I need it. And so I must take seriously the call to know the word of God, including what the word of God has revealed about the return of Jesus.

 

Now, I am not here to promote any system that you need to buy into. But what I would say is that you probably need to be careful turning your nose up at the topic of the return of Jesus just because some have overemphasized it or because you find it confusing or because some argue about it or because you are not good at it. God has promised us that Jesus will return. We should be fascinated by that. We should long to look into that topic as much as the Lord has revealed. We should be gracious with those who disagree with us on the order of future events or the literal or figurative understanding of a thousand year reign of Christ. But, friends, let us not hide from the topic. Why? The topic of the return of Christ is a source of sustaining hope for believers, and we need all the hope we can get.

 

The word church is an interesting word, because it means more than one thing when people say or hear it. Some people think of a building. Some people think of a local gathering. Some think of a group gathering in a home. Some people think of a structure of authority spanning the globe. Some understand it to mean all believers everywhere. Some think of an underground movement of believers worshipping secretly, out of sight of the oppressive government. Some think of a place they were forced to go as children. Some think of a social organization, a good place to go with good people to do good deeds.

 

But what do we actually see God say about the church? I think we can learn three important truths about the church in the greeting that Paul sends to the church in Corinth.

 

1 Corinthians 1:2 – To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours:

 

What do we learn about the church in this verse? First, it is the church of God. God is over the church. The church belongs to the Lord. He is the one who created the church, and the very existence of the church is for his honor. That removes so many false pictures of the church. We cannot be a social club, a political expedient, or a man-centered gathering of do-gooders who come to make themselves feel better as they shape the world into their own image.

 

The church is a local gathering of believers. If this were not the case, then the greeting that Paul gave, “To the church of God that is in Corinth,” would not have made any sense. The church is a gathering of geographically connected believers who come together for the purposes of the worship of God and obedience to his word.

 

Consider the potential failure in our Christian lives if we miss the concept of the local church. There are some believers who never connect to a local body. They bounce around from gathering to gathering, enjoying the novelty of different groups of people and styles of worship from Sunday to Sunday. Such people miss the fact that God has designed church life to be experienced in connected units, groups that gather in different places and demonstrate commitment to the Lord by their commitment to one another. A person who does not connect to a local church simply cannot experience the Christian life the way that the Lord intends.

 

But also notice that the church is a global body. Paul says at the end of this verse that the church consists of people, “called to be saints together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.” `, church is also the proper word for all saints of God everywhere. Every single saved person on earth today and throughout all of human history is part of the church universal. Thus, all Christians must grasp that we are connected to a mass of people from every nation and every people group that exists.

 

Again, consider the problems that come if we miss this truth. If we miss that the church is a global body, we will assume that every Christian group should function exactly as our local body functions. We should assume that Christians sing the songs we sing, sit in the same kind of seats we sit in, and experience the same kind of lives that we lead. But the truth is, the church global is far bigger than any of our cultures. Some churches meet outdoors. Some meet in hiding. Some meet in homes. Some meet in glorious buildings. Some sing without instruments. Some have drums and nothing more. Some have full bands. Some have orchestras. Some have a piano or maybe even an organ. We fail to think well of the church if we do not see that the church is far bigger, far greater, far more diverse than our local gathering. We are a part of a greater whole, the people of God saved by Jesus for the honor of the Lord.

 

When you think church, what do you think? If you only think local, you miss the beautiful mosaic that God is putting together of different clusters of people all over the world. If you only think global, however, you are failing to connect to a local body so as to rightly live out the commands that God has given for us to love and grow together with one another. May we all learn to connect to the church local and global to God’s glory.

While much of Christianity is quite simple to understand, there are elements of the Scriptures and of God’s moral standards that not all agree upon. We know that the word of God is clear about issues related to sexual purity, marriage, drunkenness, violence, gossip, and the like. But there are certainly areas in which well-meaning Christians disagree.

 

High on the list of things over Which good Christians disagree are issues related to the drinking of alcohol and the keeping of a Sabbath day. To some Christians, no believer should ever drink alcohol. To some Christians, no believer should ever eat at a restaurant on a Sunday. To other believers, alcohol in moderation is seen as a gift from God and something that believers are free to partake of in moderation. And some believers understand the Sabbath commands to be a fulfilled pointer to the perfect rest achieved by Christ as we rely fully on him in the gospel. Thus, those believers treat no particular day of the week as sacred even while they may continue to follow the pattern of working 6 days and resting 1.

 

How are we to resolve these issues? I’d guess that, if you have read this far, you have an opinion. You probably even have a strong opinion as to what is acceptable for Christians. You probably have a pretty clear idea in your mind as to where all good Christians should fall on the scale of Christian liberty.

 

But, can I ask you to consider something that Paul wrote to the church at Rome to help us in, not what to think about these issues, but how to talk about and treat each other regarding these issues?

 

Romans 14:1-4 – 1 As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions. 2 One person believes he may eat anything, while the weak person eats only vegetables. 3 Let not the one who eats despise the one who abstains, and let not the one who abstains pass judgment on the one who eats, for God has welcomed him. 4 Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls. And he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand.

 

In case you are not thinking about drinking or the Sabbath here, recognize that the remainder of Romans 14 will walk down those particular paths. But, before we go down that road, Paul gives us some very strong counsel. He commands us to understand that each child of God will stand before the Lord and account to God for his or her behavior in these sometimes controversial areas. And Paul then tells us not to pass judgment on one another in these areas if we find ourselves disagreeing. He will certainly call us to be convinced in our own minds of the position that we personally live out. But we are not to be so foolish as to attempt to forcibly apply our standards to others or look down on others who disagree with us.

 

Please also notice that Paul addresses both sides of the issue. The one who eats and the one who abstains are both called not to look down on the other. That would also apply to drinking or Sabbath regulations.

 

We have a bent toward judging those who hold to different standards than we do. But Paul is clear that we should not do so. There are areas in which, if we hold ourselves to a stricter standard than do others, we are to be careful not to let ourselves judge others for not holding to our particular choices. 

 

Some Christians are apt to try to tell those who are judging others for their freedoms to lay off. We like to use romans 14 as a tool to say to those who have standards that we think are the legalistic side of moralism to stop judging others in their freedoms. I’m guessing that you’ve seen that from time to time in blog posts or on social media.

 

But notice that Paul also says that the one who exercises his or her freedom in these areas has no right, none at all, to look down on or judge the one who disagrees. And for many in the modern church, this has been overlooked. There is no room for nasty condescension on either side.

 

So, let’s apply this practically. Are you convinced that no Christian should ever drink alcohol because of what you perceive as a bad social witness? Fine. But do not look down on or judge believers who disagree with you. There are believers who have come to a different conclusion, and have done so thoughtfully. Do not attempt to hold them to your standard.

 

Are you one who feels free to drink in moderation. Fine. But do not look down on or judge the believer who disagrees with your choices. Certainly do not try to talk someone into drinking alcohol who has personal qualms about the issue. Do not consider yourself superior to another because of your grasp of freedom. And, for goodness’ sake, do not flaunt your freedom by waving it in the faces of those who disagree with you. Live peaceably, not allowing others to restrict your freedom or judge you as you do not intentionally go out of your way to put down others or flaunt your freedom.

 

Friends, we are to live lovingly in the church. That means that we will have to learn to be kind to those who disagree with us. We need to be gracious enough to understand that not all issues are as cut and dried as we are given to think. We need to have godly kindness for those servants of the Lord who cannot see the issues as we see them. We need to be merciful and gracious, not quick to see ourselves as superior for our superior grasp of the issues at hand. Perhaps we are right. That is fine. But we must leave the hearts and consciences of others in the hands of the Lord to shape by his word for his glory.

 

Does this mean that we should never talk with each other about Sabbath keeping or social drinking? No, it does not. But our conversations must be kind and gracious. And both sides must understand the biblical mandate not to look down on the other side for a difference of opinion in these issues. May we honor the Lord by being gracious toward other servants of the Master, because, as Paul told us, they will stand, for the Lord is able to make them stand. 

#en

Sometimes we read the word of God, and we make everything into a mystery. We act as though the commands of God are hard to understand. But, if we are really honest, if we strip everything bare, we will find that obedience to the commands of god is a struggle for us, not because of our understanding, but because of our sinful hearts.

 

The truth is, Christianity is not complicated. God has not given a mass of indecipherable commandments that are just beyond our intellect to know how to follow. Instead, God has given us only a few commands, a few simple things, that, if we obey them under grace, we honor the Lord.

 

Of course, the first command is that we will worship God. That must include the call of God that we turn from our sins and trust in Jesus for salvation. If you have not let go of the concept of leading your own life and turned to Jesus in faith, the only real command of God on you is that you do so. Trust in Jesus. Surrender to his lordship. Ask him for salvation.

 

But then, what about the commands of God is so easy? Consider the simplicity of Romans chapter 13. The first 7 verses of the chapter are all about obeying the laws of the land in which we live. We do not break the law unless the law calls us to sin against God. We respect authority. We pay taxes. We live simple and good lives to the glory of God. That is how to obey.

 

At the end of the chapter, God calls us to look forward to the return of Christ by living out lives of purity. We are to put away things that bring us to sinful impurity and prepare our lives to meet our Lord. Nothing here is complicated.

 

And, for an example of simple Christianity, look at the commands in the middle of the chapter.

 

Romans 13:8-10 – 8 Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. 9 For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 10 Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.

 

How complicated is that? All the moral law is summed up in a command that we love our neighbor as ourselves. We commit ourselves to do others good rather than doing them harm. We seek the benefit of others, even to our own cost and discomfort. As an example, we do not kill, steal, or commit adultery because none of those things fits with a commitment to Godly love.

 

Friends, none of this is hard to understand. None of it is complicated. Not one little bit makes you scratch your head and say, “I wonder what in the world God is talking about here.” It is easy.

 

No, it is not easy to do. We are not naturally a loving people. We are naturally selfish. We naturally grumble and complain because we want our own way. We naturally squash others because we want to put ourselves forward. But the truth is, the trouble, the difficult part, in obeying these commands is in our hearts, not our heads. We are natural sinners. We have a natural evil in our very skin. We naturally rebel against the Lord. But make no mistake, we do not do this because the law of God is hard to grasp.

 

So, may we never pretend we do not know what the Lord wants of us. May we instead submit ourselves to doing what God commands Christians to Do. We are to worship the Lord. We are to love him and his word. We are to live peaceable, obedient, quiet lives in the world. We are to show kindness and love toward others. We are never to compromise God’s clear commands. We are to tell others about Jesus, especially when they want to know how we can live with the hope of God within us. We are to love the church especially, and do good to believers. We are to live in our homes to the glory of God as parents, children, spouses, and the rest. May we pray for the help of God’s Holy Spirit to do the simple things that the Lord has called us to do so that we might have the joy of honoring his name.

As many know, the letter of Paul to the romans is a glorious book, chapter after chapter of gospel truth. When we read it, we see amazing, deep, lovely truths of how we are saved by God’s grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. We see the sovereign hand of God behind our salvation. We see God’s plan to bless the entire world through his Son who came through the nation of Israel.

 

For the first 11 chapters, Romans is nearly all gospel. Most of the beginning ¾ of the book is about how we are saved and the beauty and glory of the gospel. But, once we turn into chapter 12, we see that God also will then help us to apply the gospel. Because we are saved by his grace in Christ, there are ways that are proper to live. There are things to be and to do that will honor Christ. No, they will not buy us salvation—Christ bought our salvation. But the obedient Christian life is the only proper response to the good news.

 

So, in chapter 12, Paul begins to talk to us about life in the local church. We are to give ourselves completely to the Lord as living sacrifices. We are to recognize that we belong in the body of Christ and our lives are to be lived together as we serve the Lord as a unit. Each of us is to use the special spiritual gifting and shaping we have received from the Lord to benefit the body as a whole.

 

Thus, it is a surprise when we see a call to competition arising so early in all this talk of body life and humility. In fact, to me, competing is the last thing I would think Paul would tell us to do. But he does.

 

Romans 12:9-10 – 9 Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. 10 Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor.

 

Paul calls us, under the inspiration of God, to love one another. We are to hate evil, love good, and live with familial affection toward one another. Then it comes, the competition.

 

God commands us, “Outdo one another in showing honor.” Now, I can tell you that I have been in several churches all over the globe. I’ve been in big ones and little ones, in formal ones and contemporary ones, young ones and old ones, urban ones, suburban ones, and rural ones. But I have never been in a church where I saw this competition take hold. I cannot recall a time or a place where I thought to myself that the local body of Christ had its members striving to outdo one another in showing honor.

 

What would this look like? In this picture, the local church members would have a hunger, a desire, to show a deep and genuine love for each other. Because of the grace of God in Christ, these members would love to give love. They would not battle for position. They would not seek to be personally revered. They would not strive to have things shaped according to their liking.

  

Instead of the kinds of selfishness that so often marks groups, the church that took this competitive command seriously would be full of people who were actively looking for ways to show others their value. Can you imagine sitting down with another couple of believers and plotting out just how you might make your Sunday School Teacher feel loved? Can you imagine working for ways to make the pastor feel appreciated in a month not labeled as pastor-appreciation month? Can you imagine a church where people are just used to hearing thanks given for the service of the musicians, the nursery workers, and the prayerful senior adults?

 

Now, I’m not complaining. I love the church that I serve. And, in many ways, I believe we are growing better and better at showing each other honor and doing each other kindness. But I cannot say that we have risen to the level of trying to outdo one another in showing honor. So, though life here is great, we have work to do.

 

What about you? When is the last time you really put forward an effort to show somebody honor in your church? When did you last remind somebody that you all need to do some kindness to someone who is working hard and giving a lot of themselves to the body? Have you taken this challenge seriously? May we learn to outdo one another in showing honor for the sake of the body and the glory of Christ.

You have probably heard the old saying, the end justifies the means. That is a simple definition of pragmatism. Often in our lives, we will be tempted to do whatever it takes to accomplish the plans we have. We assume that a good goal will allow us to bend the rules a bit to get something worthwhile accomplished.

 

A look at Scripture will show us that God is not happy when his people break his laws and ignore his commands, regardless of their reasoning. God does not smile on us when we turn away from his instructions to accomplish a task, even if our intent is to accomplish a big task that he commanded be accomplished.

 

One example of dangerous pragmatism occurs in the book of 1 Samuel. Saul is king over Israel. He finds himself in a bit of a pickle. He knows that the people need to fight a battle against the Philistines. He knows that his army is growing restless. They need to make a particular sacrifice to the Lord before heading out. And the prophet Samuel has not arrived. The whole schedule is being messed up. The army is in danger of falling apart.

 

What does Saul do? Does he wait? Does he obey God’s instruction that only Samuel can make the particular sacrifice? No, he does not. Saul decides to take it upon himself to make the sacrifice. After all, Saul is King. After all, isn’t it better to get the sacrifice done regardless of whether every little rule is observed? Isn’t it better to be sure to keep the people together so they can go fight their enemies?

 

1 Samuel 13:11-14 – 11 Samuel said, “What have you done?” And Saul said, “When I saw that the people were scattering from me, and that you did not come within the days appointed, and that the Philistines had mustered at Michmash, 12 I said, ‘Now the Philistines will come down against me at Gilgal, and I have not sought the favor of the Lord.’ So I forced myself, and offered the burnt offering.” 13 And Samuel said to Saul, “You have done foolishly. You have not kept the command of the Lord your God, with which he commanded you. For then the Lord would have established your kingdom over Israel forever. 14 But now your kingdom shall not continue. The Lord has sought out a man after his own heart, and the Lord has commanded him to be prince over his people, because you have not kept what the Lord commanded you.”

 

Samuel asks Saul what he has done. Saul explains his pragmatic decision. The Philistines were coming. Saul didn’t want to break the rules, but he found he had no choice. Surely Samuel will understand.

 

Samuel tells Saul that he has done foolishly. The king has dishonored the Lord God. Saul has refused to keep God’s commands. He most certainly should not have made the sacrifice that he was not called by God to make. Saul most certainly should have waited for the Lord, even if waiting made things tremendously more difficult. Saul found out that the end of keeping the army together did not justify the means of him making the sacrifice rather than waiting on Samuel. And Samuel shows us that the consequences of this decision would be Saul’s eventual loss of dynastic rulership over Israel—a gigantic loss.

 

And we should learn from this as modern Christians. We have things we want to see get done in the church. We have things we want to see accomplished in our lives. We have rules we would prefer not to have to follow. WE have compromises that we see other churches make that we think might draw people to our church. Maybe we can ignore some doctrines? Maybe we can lighten up on our criticism of some sins. Maybe we can remove the preaching of the word from being so central. Maybe we can focus more on application than on content. Maybe we can just cut a few corners to accomplish a bigger goal.

 

God shows us that he is not honored when his people ignore his commands. His word is vital. The Scripture is our authority for life and worship. We dare not compromise our commitment to the word of God for any outcome, not even for evangelistic purposes. We must be faithful enough to the Lord to trust him to work out his will for his glory when we are faithfully committed to the things he has commanded. We must not give in to the temptation toward dangerous pragmatism.

There are some Bible passages that are difficult to interpret. We wonder just how to handle them, especially when they say things that are uncomfortable for us to hear. This, of course, is especially true for those passages that speak of the sovereignty of God over our salvation. For most of us, the first time we see such a thing in Scripture, we will twist and turn and battle against that truth, because it is a very uncomfortable notion the first time you try it on.

 

In my daily readings, I recently ran across one of the passages that did the most to convince me of the biblical teaching about God’s sovereignty over our salvation, Romans 9. In that chapter of Scripture, we see that God is moving behind the scenes in human hearts to accomplish his will in a way that shows us that God, not man, is the ultimate decision-maker. This is not at all to remove human responsibility; nor does it relieve us of the command to share the gospel. But it is most certainly something that shows that God is ultimate.

 

What I found most helpful and convincing in Romans 9 regarding sovereignty was the way that Paul handled the argument. You see, Paul makes a declarative statement that, if left to itself, looks like God is fully sovereign over salvation, and I mean sovereign in the way that Augustine and Calvin talked about. But the question is whether or not Paul was trying to say what Calvinists think he was saying.

 

Romans 9:18 – So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills.

 

In verse 18, it looks as though Paul is saying that God has mercy on some and hardens others according to God’s will. Again, note that this has nothing to do with the question of human responsibility. It has everything to do with who, at bottom, is responsible for our salvation. But how could this be true? How could that hardening and mercy be what God is telling us. That just feels wrong when compared to what I was taught growing up.

 

But then comes verse 19. Paul anticipates the objection to what he was saying. If Paul was not saying that God is ultimately responsible for saving people, then Paul would have been wise to clarify his point.

 

Romans 9:19 – You will say to me then, “Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?”

 

Does Paul fix the problem for us? No. Instead, Paul knows that our objection to what he just said would be, “That’s not fair!” Paul knew that what he had said would smack against human autonomy and be terribly off-putting to many. He saw that. We would interpret verse 18 as God being over all and we would not naturally feel it to be appropriate for God to treat us that way.

 

The anticipation of the natural objection is an indication that verse 18 should be, must be, taken at face value. God has mercy on whom he has mercy. God hardens whom he hardens. We object that this seems unfair. We object that our own freedom is not apparently taken into consideration. We object that God seems to be the ultimate decision-maker when it comes to salvation. We object that God seems to be choosing in a final sense. We object that his choice appears ultimate where our choices are secondary.

 

And Paul after seeing that objection, does not do anything to clarify for us and take off of our shoulders the discomfort.  

 

Romans 9:20 – But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?”

 

Instead of comforting us in our objections to ultimate sovereignty being in God’s hands, Paul responds with a question that puts us in our place. Who are we to question God and his ways? If God is the potter and we are the clay, he is the one who has all the rights. He is the one who shapes us. He is the one who is free, more free than us.

 

Again, I will say that this actually has nothing to do with human free will. God, in his sovereignty, shapes our free will. Thus, those who come to him will feel they are doing so based on their desires. We will not, however, be able to see that it was God who first moved our hearts to desire him. Those who reject the Lord will also do so based on their freedom, a perfect and uninterrupted freedom to continue in the direction they most desire. At no point does Scripture tell us that God pushes people toward sin they do not desire to commit—that is not what hardening is about (see Pharaoh). In fact, Scripture shows us the opposite, that God holds people back from being as sinful as they naturally would be. And, Scripture shows us that God reaches into the hearts of some people to change them so that they will desire to come to him in faith and repentance.

 

Sovereignty in salvation is and has always been a tough issue. Some simply believe this doctrine to be terribly unbiblical. And, most often, the reason for the argument is that it appears to make God unfair and unloving. How could God choose to save some and not all? It must be that God leaves all the decision-making up to us. But that is precisely what Paul refuses to say here in Romans 9. Instead, Paul owns the emotional friction and finally declares the ultimate freedom of God as the potter and our lack of rights to question him as to how and why we were shaped as we are.

Human beings are not logical. We make bad, irrational, foolish decisions. Some of them are pretty funny. Many of them are harmful.

 

Some of the worst decisions that we make involve us doubling-down on sin. We find ourselves doing something that is foolish, that is ungodly, and that does not work. Instead of repenting, however, we seem to like to give it one more try just to see if what failed us before will work this next time.

 

Consider a sort of funny story from 1 Samuel. The Israelites had sinned against God, and the Lord allowed the Philistines to have victory over them. The Philistines, in an amazing encounter, go home with the ark of the covenant. (By the way, I have no idea how they carried off the ark without dying—God does not tell us.)

 

At one point, they set up the ark of the covenant in the temple of Dagon, a Philistine idol. What happens next is a perfect example of human foolishness.

 

1 Samuel 5:1-5 – 1 When the Philistines captured the ark of God, they brought it from Ebenezer to Ashdod. 2 Then the Philistines took the ark of God and brought it into the house of Dagon and set it up beside Dagon. 3 And when the people of Ashdod rose early the next day, behold, Dagon had fallen face downward on the ground before the ark of the Lord. So they took Dagon and put him back in his place. 4 But when they rose early on the next morning, behold, Dagon had fallen face downward on the ground before the ark of the Lord, and the head of Dagon and both his hands were lying cut off on the threshold. Only the trunk of Dagon was left to him. 5 This is why the priests of Dagon and all who enter the house of Dagon do not tread on the threshold of Dagon in Ashdod to this day.

 

Get the story. The Philistines put the sacred box belonging to God in their temple. The next day, they come into the temple, and the statue of the false god Dagon is face down on the ground in front of the ark. What would be a good response? I’d suggest that a good response would be to realize that Dagon is a false deity, and they ought not mess with the God of Israel. But that was not the Philistines’ response. They decide that the best move is to prop Dagon back up and see if things are better the next day.

 

Of course, the next day, they enter the temple to find Dagon on the ground again, this time with his head and hands broken off. Does this lead them to try to worship the Lord? Does this lead them to get under God’s grace if possible? Nope, it just leads them to come up with a plan to ship the ark of the covenant back so that they do not have to keep having Dagon broken. O, and they won’t step on the threshold of the door anymore since that is where Dagon’s head was knocked off.

 

We want to laugh. It is funny. But it is not funny when we do it. How often do we as a people see that something in our life is sin, failing and destructive, and yet we do not turn from it? How often do we keep going right to the place that hurts us? How often do we see a sin that crushes our parents or our families, and yet we decide to repeat it as soon as we get the chance?

 

Friends, we have a choice. WE can continue to prop up Dagon, to fall into the same sins that have never brought us life. We can set the idol back up on its pedestal, continuing to bow to things that only bring us death. Or we can change. We do not have to be the Philistines. WE can let the idol lie there in the dirt and turn our attention to the God who made us. He is willing to receive us in Christ and help us turn from our sin. He is willing to give us life and hope in a way that the Philistines never experienced. May we not prop up Dagon, but instead bow to the Lord Jesus in surrender for life.

Life is hard. Nobody who has lived a real life for any amount of time can honestly think that this world is an easy place to live. Consider the evils that we face:

• Natural Evil – disasters, disease, and death.
• Spiritual Evil – the devil and his army intending to do us harm.
• Physical Evil – Nasty folks out to hurt us and corrupt the world.
• Personal Evil – the evil in our own hearts that we battle to defeat.

Surrounded by all sorts of pains, we see that life is hard. We see that things are not what we want. Whether it is a sickness, a divorce, or a global strife, we know that the world is not what we want it to be.

 

What does God say to Christians about the pains that we face?

 

Romans 8:18-23 – 18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. 19 For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. 20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. 22 For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. 23 And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. 24 For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? 25 But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

 

Consider that passage in sort of a backward fashion. Creation groans. The universe, all of creation, has been subjected to futility ever since the fall of man. The very substance of the universe shakes and quakes and shows us that things are not right. From the moment that mankind first rebelled against the Lord, the universe has been tainted with the corruption of sin.

 

What was the impact of that corruption? Everything that hurts came about. Disease and natural disasters exist because the first humans turned away from the Lord. Adam and Eve brought death in all its forms to nature and to people. If Adam does not rebel, there is no such thing as a destructive tornado, a killer earthquake, a crocodile attack on  a river bank, a baby that does not breathe, or a cancer that cannot be stopped. Without Adam’s sin, no evil would have come.

 

So, even as we face the ugliness of the world around us, even as we face situations we hate, we ought to be reminded that these situations are reminders of the ugliness of sin. Hatred of the Creator has brought on us destruction. It is God giving humanity what we demanded to have from him, autonomy, that has brought on us the hardships of life. And every evil, from the biggest catastrophe to the annoyance of a sinus infection can trace its roots to a people telling God that we will not listen to him but we will have charge of ourselves.

 

  But then return to the beginning of the passage. Paul opened with hope, not pessimism. He wrote, “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us” (Rom. 8:18). What is he saying? The ugliest of the ugly in this life does not compare with what is to come. The pain of the present cannot compare to the joy of the future. Here, and in other places in Paul’s writings (c. f. 2 Cor 4:16-18), Paul shows us that the Lord will more than make up for the sorrow and the hardships we face in the here and now. If you are a child of God, you must understand that you have awaiting you in eternity a weight of glory, a repayment of joyful kindness, a return on your sorrow that will so far outshine the hardships that you have faced as to make them look small. Remember, this is the God who made you and thus knows how to fulfill you in ways you do not even grasp. This is the God who created the universe and who knows what perfection is all about. This is the God who loves in a pure way that you have never loved or been loved. He will give us more than we have ever lost. He will fill us with joy far more deeply than we have ever sorrowed. He will grant us life and peace that will make all the death and pain we have ever seen look tiny. In eternity, the weight of God’s glory will obliterate all the pain we have ever felt as we finally see the reason we exist and we receive the reward of his holy glory.

 

In those words, I’m not at all belittling your pain or mine. We experience things in the here and now that hurt us deeply. The losses we face are gut-wrenching and significant. But the truth of Scripture is that those losses are evidence of the groaning of creation under sin. But when the curse of sin is removed, the groaning is gone. When the glory of God is fully known, our pain will no longer define us. Instead, our pain will be the shadow of a shadow of a memory that only serves to highlight for us the greatness of the joy of the love and the kindness of God that we live under for eternity because of the finished work of Christ.

 

Do you want to know a good reason to come to Jesus for salvation? There is a reason that is easily as great as to avoid the punishment we deserve for our sin. The best reason to come to Jesus is to have as an eternal hope, the promise of a forever life that will far exceed any pain that any human has ever experienced at any time in human history. We want to be on the side of those who are given peace and relief from the groaning of this age. That can only come for those who are under the grace of Christ, freely forgiven and joyfully promised eternal life.

It is funny how easily we turn ourselves to rules and regulations. We always claim not to like extra rules. Yet, when we think about our lives, rules are the things we turn to when we consider Christian character.

 

But looking at the New testament’s handling of the concept of the law, we find that rules occupy a very strange place. The law of God convicts us of sin. The rules of the Old Testament serve to demonstrate for us that we are not able, on our own, to live out the perfect righteousness of God.

 

But then came Jesus. The Savior fulfilled the law for us. And, the Scripture is clear that we are now free from the law.

 

Romans 7:4-6 – 4 Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God. 5 For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. 6 But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code.

 

We have died to the law. We are released from the law. In Christ, we are not subject to the demands of law.

 

Of course that leads to the commonly asked question: Since we are free from the law, are we now free to sin? Of course we are not. God does not free us from law to allow us to turn to sin without consequence. God does not save us in order that we might then rebel against him and his ways.

 

What then do we do with law since we know we are free?

 

Romans 6:15-18 – 15 What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! 16 Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? 17 But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, 18 and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.

 

We are made free from the law, but not to be free to sin. Instead, the call is for us, in our freedom, to refuse to present ourselves as slaves to sin. You see, when we sin, when we disobey the clear commands of god, we become slaves to sin. But God did not free us from the law so that we can become enslaved to sin. Instead, God freed us from the law by fulfilling its requirements on our behalf. However, we now actually are to live in obedience to the law, but in a totally different way. Now we obey because we are free.

 

Consider this illustration. It is a law that we must eat. If we do not eat, we die. We are under that law. Now, pretend that you have been freed from that law. Consider that your body was given a miraculous ability to survive and keep functioning without food. Would you then choose never to eat? Or might you still choose to eat, not because it is required, but for the pleasure of food and fellowship? I think we would continue to have meals together for the joy of it all, even though we are freed from the very requirement that calls us to eat.

 

In the same way, we are freed from the law. We do not have obligation to the Lord to fulfill. Jesus did all that for us. But we will not find our lives to be full and pleasing to the Lord if we intentionally turn away from the Lord and toward that which dishonors the Lord. God has called us family members. He has adopted us. Why then would we declare a freedom to insult him and act hatefully toward him?

 

God has freed us, but in a special way. We are freed from the law, but not to reject the ways of God. We are freed from the requirements of the law so that we can freely obey the very principles that the law demonstrated. We are free—free to obey. And when we obey out of freedom, God gives us joyful fellowship with him.