Overcoming Faith

Jesus Christ was a man who routinely did the impossible.  He healed people lame and blind from birth, cleansed lepers, and raised the dead.  Once he cursed a leafy fig tree and caused it to wither up from the roots completely in a night.  The disciples were amazed and Peter pointed out the sight to Jesus the next day.  Mark 11:22-23 reads, "So Jesus answered and said to them, "Have faith in God. ²³ For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, 'Be removed and be cast into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says."

Causing a healthy tree to wither completely from the roots overnight or casting a mountain into the sea by merely speaking are both in the realm of the miraculous.  In one sense no miracle is greater than another, for every miracle transcends human ability and knowledge.  Jesus taught His disciples faith in God is of primary importance in God doing the impossible.  Everything Jesus did was significant and accomplished His purposes.  Whilst man would be content to harness the miraculous power of God for a party trick to impress others, Christ's purpose in causing the tree to whither was an object lesson to illustrate the importance of faith.  It is not our goal in following Jesus to whither trees or throw mountains around, but to recognise our need for faith in our praying.  It is God who does the impossible!

See how Jesus continued in Mark 11:24-26, "Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them. ²⁵ "And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses. ²⁶ But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father in heaven forgive your trespasses."  Unbelief that grows in our hearts can be withered by God and unforgiveness which resembled an immovable mountain in our minds God can remove when we trust and ask Him.  We are called to believe God and forgive others, regardless what they have done.  Jesus said if we have "anything against anyone" we are to forgive them. Have you found this impossible?  Forgiving the sins of others is just as impossible as forgiving ourselves of sin.  Through the shed blood of Jesus and faith in Him God forgives us.  Praise God nothing is hard for Him!

Alan Redpath wrote a fitting conclusion concerning the impossible:  "My friend, I do not know your problems, but I know my Lord, with whom nothing is impossible.  Therefore, if some of you face mountains of impossibility, and you say to yourself wistfully that life can never be any different for you, I believe that the Lord has something to say to you through His Word that can mark the end of your defeat by the impossible, and the beginning of a life of victory which overcomes the world, even our faith in God." (Redpath, Alan. “Victorious Christian Living: Studies in the Book of Joshua.” Redpath Family, 2013, pp. 49.)

Our Manner of Serivce

Today I had a new thought as I read 1 Chronicles 18 which provides insight into man's relationship with God.  Having a "relationship" with someone in no way ensures it is a healthy one.  There are strained relationships, dysfunctional ones, business relationships or relationships for convenience, and distant or failed relationships.  Based upon all the kinds of interpersonal relationships humans are capable of having a healthy, close relationship is exceptionally rare.  All people have a relationship with God as those created by Him, but it does not ensure our hearts are inclined or right before Him.

After God established David as king, He gave him victory over his enemies.  1 Chronicles 18:13 says, "He also put garrisons in Edom, and all the Edomites became David's servants. And the LORD preserved David wherever he went."  The Edomites were defeated by David's army and were subjugated to Israel.  The people of Edom became David's servants, and their manner of servitude was of a different sort from the Jews who dwelt in Jerusalem.  Through battle David had become ruler of Edom, but there was no love or loyalty towards David, a foreign king.  David conquered them but they remained Edomites.  They would happily shrug off an obligation to serve David if a better deal came along, and therefore David strategically placed garrisons in Edom - military installations which neutralised the threat of rebellion.

I wonder:  how many relationships of God's "servants" resemble the one between David and the Edomites?  Perhaps they were obliged to bring tribute or gifts to their new king as the defeated Syrians did in 1 Chronicles 18:6, "Then David put garrisons in Syria of Damascus; and the Syrians became David's servants, and brought tribute. So the LORD preserved David wherever he went."  Having been conquered by the love of Jesus Christ, do we serve Him out of love or obligation?  Do we bring offerings to our LORD because we are required to demonstrate our allegiance or because we desire His presence?  The Syrians and Edomites may have been glad to have David as their king should they be attacked, but the garrisons were likely intrusive and a source of bitterness.  The garrisons were reminders they were an occupied people, and I believe professing believers can have this sort of animosity brewing against God.

Those who have tasted and seen God is good do well to embrace their new identity in Christ, choosing to reject their old loyalties and give their allegiance, love, and respect to their new King!  May our sacrifice and service be out of love and thankfulness for who God is and how He has delivered us from sin and death.  The flesh is unwilling and unable to convert, but the Gospel makes new creations through faith in Jesus.  The flesh can be subjugated for a season, yet only those who are born again can be genuinely subject to God.  Once we are born again by faith in Christ can we have a right relationship with God, a closeness well represented by a father and his beloved child.

Revelations Belong to Us

"The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law."

Deuteronomy 29:29

This verse follows a long and extensive list of commands in the Law of God given through Moses.  There were many promises of blessings for the obedient and even more curses for the disobedient.  Though Christians are not under the condemnation of the Law's covenant because a new covenant has been established through Jesus and the Gospel, this truth and principle of this verse is incredibly relevant today.

The first thing this verse asserts is there are secret things only God knows, and they all belong to Him.  They are His to conceal or reveal as He sees fit.  No amount of searching on our part can unlock them.  God has freely chosen to reveal many mysteries to us not previously known, but other things He has not revealed nor will He.  The secrets we do not know, however, should not hinder us from heeding and observing the truth God has revealed.  Things God has plainly written in His Word are for us and our children forever that we may do all God has commanded us.

God delights to reveal Himself to us, and may we each have open eyes and ears to behold wondrous things from the Bible concerning God and His ways.  But never let what has not been revealed weaken your grasp or resolve concerning what God has already revealed.  From the beginning man has shown great interest in new things, but when it comes to scripture the new is confirmed and supported by what God has already said.  God revealed the Law for a clearly stated purpose:  so His people might do all the words of the Law.  In a similar way Jesus has demonstrated His love for us while we were yet sinners so we might respond accordingly.  Based upon Christ's divine revelation of sacrificial love during His life culminating on Calvary, we too are to love others.

We might have a thirst for hidden knowledge, but God's will is for us to live according to the knowledge we already possess, to walk according to His will as already revealed in His Word.  If you want to know God, the best way to do so is through the testimony of scripture.  God wants much more than to fill our heads with knowledge but so we would walk in the fear of the LORD and obedience to Him.

Our Need of Holiness

"Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord: ¹⁵ looking carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled..."

Hebrews 12:14-15

The writer of Hebrews strongly asserts personal holiness is essential in the lives of Christians.  This is an exhortation to be Christlike and a warning against the negligence of examining ourselves according to God's Word.  Holiness is an established and constant quality of God's character, righteousness revealed in the Bible.  No man can be holy by the efforts of the flesh, but spiritual regeneration through faith in Jesus will lead to a life marked by holiness.  Ours is a faith that works.

To be holy is to be pure, and there is much in this world and in our own flesh which defiles.  It is always fashionable to the flesh to ignore sins as defined in scripture in ourselves and others.  We can use grace as a cloak for sin or otherwise the many warnings of Paul and others are without merit.  How we think and live matters, and every tree is known by its fruit.  The things we think about, what we do, and the desires of our hearts are clear indicators to the discerning if we are in Christ or not.  Since we are the ones God will hold accountable for our conduct and words in this life, it is wise for us to closely monitor ourselves in the light of His Word.

Our primary aim should always be to take our own sin personally when God reveals it:  to admit it, forsake, confess, and repent of it.  Then we ought to put into practice choices which honour God in obedience.  We live in an age of grace, and Hebrews suggests people fall short of it.  As Hebrews 12:16 continues Esau is provided as an example of a person poisoned by bitterness:  "...lest there be any fornicator or profane person like Esau, who for one morsel of food sold his birthright."  As the firstborn Esau had the birthright, an inheritance, and a blessing his father delighted to give him.  But he was profane and a fornicator who missed out on everything.  His descendants (Edom) rejoiced to see the children of Israel in strife, plundered them, and delivered them to their enemies (Obadiah, Amos 1:11-12).  Hatred and bitterness toward Jacob began with Esau, and it burned for generations defiling many.

Holiness is completely foreign to human beings born in sin and steeped among sinners.  Holiness is not what seems good to a man but is defined according to God's unyielding righteousness and purity.  It is only through the Bible we know what holiness looks like (and like God it cannot change) and Jesus is the personification of holiness for us.  God's people were never to be like other people, and what is acceptable and promoted in the world will always be contrary to God.  The people who say they love Jesus but love the world do not know Jesus.  They cannot perceive the need for holiness.  God said to His people in Leviticus 20:7 as He did at many times and in many ways:  "Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I am the LORD your God."  Because we have been born again through Jesus Christ our lives ought to be marked with God's holiness.

We are not made "holy" through keeping the 10 Commandments because they are incapable of changing us within.  Jesus came and fulfilled the Law so our sins could be washed in His blood shed on Calvary through faith in Him.  Having been born again, the righteousness of Christ has been imputed to us.  Since we are recipients of the Spirit which raised Jesus from the dead, all believers are called to lead holy lives because we walk in His grace.  The way we once lived and approved of sin is well contrasted with the character of the indwelling Spirit in Galatians 5:19-25:  "Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, ²⁰  idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, ²¹ envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. ²² But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³ gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. ²⁴ And those who are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. ²⁵ If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit."

Is your life marked with the works of the flesh or the fruit of the Spirit?  Without holiness not one of us will see the LORD (regardless of your theoretical theology), and therefore personal purity is of great importance.  I close with a quote from Alan Redpath:  "God does not wait for clever people; He wants clean people.  Are we clean enough for God to use?  Are we humble enough for God to entrust us with blessing, or would we take the glory to ourselves?  I know that we can be sanctified only by the God of peace.  Yet though holiness, in the positive sense, is nothing more and nothing less than the indwelling and infilling of the Holy Ghost, expressing the life of the Lord Jesus in me, on the negative side it is the putting away of all known sin.  Have we done that?  Are we clean enough for God to give us revival?  Are we broken enough and humble enough for God to use us, or are we to go through our lives on the wretched wilderness level of failure and see nothing happen?" (Redpath, Alan. “Victorious Christian Living: Studies in the Book of Joshua.” Redpath Family, 2013, pp. 44–45.)