Carry on His Work

I recently read an insightful quote in Matthew Henry Commentary:  “We are apt to dote too much on men and means, instruments and external helps; whereas God will change his workmen, and yet carry on his work.  There is no need of immortal ministers to be the guides of the church, while it is under the conduct of an eternal Spirit."  While God employs the teaching and testimony of His saints long after He receives them into glory, I agree with the sentiment.  Many times I imagine many have wondered how the church or organisation was to survive after the passing of a much loved leader, but God is able to change His workmen and carry on His work.

One verse Oswald Chambers directed his listeners to take to heart was one that God ministered greatly in his own life were the words of Jesus in Luke 11:13:  "If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!"  Knowing the church is God's precious possession purchased with the blood of Jesus Christ, His Body of believers will be sustained by the Holy Spirit now and forever.  I enjoyed the journal entry from October 7 by Chambers during the Great War whilst in Egypt:

"A gem of an experience came after the evening service, a soldier came to see me under deep compunction of conscience, and after a talk we knelt in the deep and glorious moonlight at an old sun-bleached form in the compound and he transacted business with God on Luke 11:13, confirmed by 1 John 5:14-15, and his witness was undoubtedly John 14:27, 'My peace I give unto you.'  One never gets used to the unspeakable wonder of a soul entering consciously into the Kingdom of our Lord.  It was a great joy to experience it all again." (McCasland, David. Oswald Chambers: Abandoned to God. Discovery House Publishers, 1993. page 255.

How awesome it is Jesus Christ has gone to the Father but has not left us alone, having provided the Holy Spirit who guides us into all truth and helps us be fruitful in our endeavours for the Gospel.  God's workmen come and go, but the Holy Spirit abides in us and is ever with us.  It is not "new blood" we need in the church:  the blood of Jesus is sufficient to cleanse all sinners and cause them to be born again into God's kingdom, servants of the Most High!  As much as we might want Oswald Chambers or other believers to carry on labouring forever in their posts on earth, the world does not need another Chambers or Spurgeon to spark revival:  the world needs Jesus Christ and believers who may remain nameless, filled with the Holy Spirit, through whom Jesus will be made known.

Wisdom, Redemption and Sin

God's wisdom and redemptive power are attributes of the living, almighty God Who is worthy of praise.  His thoughts are higher than our thoughts and His ways past finding out, yet He has graciously revealed Himself to mankind in the person of Jesus Christ.  He is able to take something intended for evil and use the same thing for eternal good.  Glorious!

Lately I have been studying through the opening chapters of Genesis and considering the fall of mankind into sin and the resulting curse.  Satan was exposed as being a deceiver, liar and murder from the beginning as he coaxed Eve to eat the forbidden fruit in violation of God's command.  Many times as a youth I wondered how life on earth would have been different if sin had not entered into the world.  I can tell you one difference:  without sin in the world God would not have been provided an opportunity to demonstrate His love, grace, mercy, compassion, kindness and goodness.  If everything was always perfect and pain free, grace would not exist and the Gospel would be unnecessary.

Don't get me wrong:  sin entering the world was an absolute catastrophe.  It was a tragedy that could have been prevented if Adam and Eve continued in the fear of God and obedience to Him.  Sin led to separation from the presence of God, multiplied sorrow, conflict, fruitless toil and ultimately death.  These are all bad things, yet God proved Himself a wise redeemer.  To sinners who loved their sin and did not regard Him at all He came down, put on human flesh, walked among us and we beheld His glory.  The glory of God was made manifest in a world of darkness as the Light of the World Jesus Christ, the One who will by His very presence illuminate the new heavens and earth where only righteousness dwells.

God chose sinners--not angels--to be His saints.  Jesus came to heal the brokenhearted, to free slaves to sin from bondage, to exchange beauty for ashes, to give hope to the hopeless and to raise the dead to new life by faith in Him.  The good cannot be seen for how good it is without us first realising how wretched, lost and hopeless we are in ourselves.  There is no need to be washed unless we are filthy; we would not have appreciated an offer of salvation unless we were once irrevocably doomed to destruction.  Without a stark comparison between God and the man created in His image mankind would have assumed we are like Him and can live independently from Him.  But God knew better, knowing all:  thus sin, redemption, forgiveness, salvation and eternal life with God are ours forever by faith in Jesus starting right now.

Renewed to Live

When we change our clothes, an article of clothing is put off before we put another on.  This concept is held forth in the Bible concerning the new man, for after we are born again we are enabled by the Holy Spirit to put off the old man--and the sinful behaviour, pride and self-confidence--and then to put on the new man which resembles Christ in humility, meekness, love and righteousness.

Romans 13:12-14 exhorts believers, "The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light. ¹³ Let us walk properly, as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy. ¹⁴ But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts."  Because of the spiritual regeneration which has taken place in our hearts by the power of the Gospel, God intends our lives to align with Him in holiness.  A person can claim they have cast off the works of darkness or put on the armour of light, but our lives speak truer than words alone.  We are called to cast off every weight and sin which easily besets us so we can run with endurance the race set before us.  Those who are drunk and feeding the lusts of the flesh clearly have not cast off the works of darkness, nor put on the LORD Jesus Christ.  It is entirely possible there are genuine children of God who are not living up to their responsibilities before God as His children, making provision for the flesh rather than crucifying its lusts.

Having been born again, Christians are to walk in newness of life.  This is far more than mind games or positive thinking but knowing what Christ has accomplished in His death and resurrection and how we have been filled with the Holy Spirit.  We are to live up to the standard of who God created us to be, not comparing ourselves with others or how we used to be.  Romans 6:5-13 says, "For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection,

⁶  knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. ⁷ For he who has died has been freed from sin. ⁸ Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, ⁹ knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. ¹⁰ For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. ¹¹ Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. ¹² Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. ¹³ And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God."

Reckoning ourselves to be dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus are two sides of the same coin of Gospel truth.  Instead of presenting ourselves as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, we are to present ourselves to God as instruments of righteousness to Him.  Saying and doing are two different things, and knowing what Jesus has done means ours is not a lost cause:  our old man was crucified with Him, and thus we shall also live with Him.  After Paul exhorted believers to cease walking in vanity, alienated from God by ignorance and blind in heart, he wrote in Ephesians 4:20-24:  "But you have not so learned Christ, ²¹ if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: ²² that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, ²³ and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, ²⁴ and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness."

A new detail is revealed in this passage, that the old man is put off and the new man put on by being "renewed in the spirit of your mind."  We have been made new creations in Christ, but we need daily renewal by the Spirit of God as we have fellowship with God, by reading His word and meditating on it, by interactions that edify and sharpen with other followers of Jesus.  This renewal is more than "repaired" or "refurbished" or "like new" as it is renewal not possible in this world but with God all things are possible to those who believe.  It is the making new of something He already made new:  new and fresh and changed for the better again and again.  Rather than seeing it as a cycle of putting off the old man and putting on the new man, it is better seen as an increasing resemblance to our Saviour day by day inside and out.  Though we fall short of God's perfection, let us be aware of His will and desire for us:  to be dead to sin and be alive to God in Christ Jesus our LORD, presenting ourselves as instruments of righteousness to God.

The True Beauty

"Charm is deceitful and beauty is passing, but a woman who fears the LORD, she shall be praised. ³¹ Give her of the fruit of her hands, and let her own works praise her in the gates."

Proverbs 31:30-31

It is amazing the lengths and pains people are willing to endure to pursue their ideals concerning personal beauty.  The treatments, augmentations, lifts, sculpting and injections can almost become a idolatrous pursuit of beauty that quickly passes away.  People post images of themselves to seek favour of friends and strangers, and compliments and criticisms both increase along with followers.  The standard of what is considered beautiful today changes by the day, for we are never satisfied.

God tells us what is better than perfectly manicured brows, youthful skin and a toned body from hours in the gym:  the woman who fears the LORD, she shall be praised.  This chapter of Proverbs focuses primarily on the great value of a virtuous woman and wife who is industrious, diligent, caring and godly.  Unlike society that places emphasis on appearances, this passage focuses on who she is and how her God-fearing character is revealed in ways that benefit her and others.  Her true beauty is not accentuated by her fine clothing, make-up or flattering filters but from her trusting relationship with God.  Beauty seen as praiseworthy by God comes from within, and it comes from Him.

Proverbs 31:25-26 says, "Strength and honour are her clothing; she shall rejoice in time to come. ²⁶ She opens her mouth with wisdom, and on her tongue is the law of kindness."  The woman described here is clothed with something better than designer clothes that fade and go out of fashion, for she is clothed with the strength and honour of her Designer.  Her mouth speaks forth wisdom governed by the law of kindness, and this is something that marked Jesus Christ who has become wisdom for us.

Both men and women can be vain and seek attention for themselves:  did you know those who walk wisely are able to attract people closest to them to behold the beauty of God?  See what is written in 1 Peter 3:1-4: "Wives, likewise, be submissive to your own husbands, that even if some do not obey the word, they, without a word, may be won by the conduct of their wives, ² when they observe your chaste conduct accompanied by fear. ³ Do not let your adornment be merely outward--arranging the hair, wearing gold, or putting on fine apparel--⁴ rather let it be the hidden person of the heart, with the incorruptible beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious in the sight of God."  Charm is deceitful and beauty is passing, but the beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit has incorruptible beauty in the sight of God.

The woman described in Proverbs 31 is not fearful or timid but confident in God, comfortable in her skin, delighting in her relationship with God and others.  Like Jesus who was servant of all, she is assertive in demonstrating love and kindness by wisdom and the fear of the LORD.  This gentle and quiet spirit was seen in Jesus, and by His grace all who trust in Him have the opportunity to adorn Him with the humility, grace and kindness He has given us.  There is nothing wrong with styled hair, new clothes that fit well or receiving compliments:  our aim ought to be to compliment the LORD with hearts that rest in Him.  To hear God say, "Well done, good and faithful servant!" is infinitely greater than the adoration and praise of millions.  God knows true beauty when He sees it.