Beatitudes 2: The Time of the Blessings

November 8, 2006

As we begin to focus on differing aspects of the Beatitudes, we must ask “who” those are that are blessed and “why” they are blessed. But first we must consider the “when” of the blessing. Our first clue as to the “when” the blessings start is when each of the Beatitudes begins with a “blessed are.” For example, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Mat 5:3). There are many ramifications for when this blessedness starts. But people are not said to be blessed exclusively in the future, but the blessing or inner joy is to be now. At least that is the clear teaching of the first beatitude. At the very least the blessing starts now.Each of the beatitudes begins with the “blessed are,” but not all of them say that the reason for the blessing is that it is a present possession. In fact, the second through the seventh give the reason that people are blessed with the words that start off with “for they shall.” That certainly sounds like something that people will have to wait until eternity to have. However, we should not jump on that idea too fast without giving it some serious thought. Why are people blessed now if they have to wait for it until eternity? True enough that the full experience of the blessings of salvation and of knowing God will have to wait until eternity, but that does not mean that salvation and knowing God do not start now. In eternity those things will grow.

We can at least admit the possibility that just because the words are in the future tense does not necessarily mean that one must wait for eternity for the whole blessing. Another point that must be made is that the first beatitude and the eighth beatitude have the same blessing. There is some discussion about whether the Beatitudes continue after the eighth beatitude or not. For the moment, we will look at the Beatitudes as having eight expressions. In that case, we have the first beatitude and the last beatitude as bookends. Each of them give the same reason for the blessing and both are in the present tense. Both tell us that certain types of people are blessed because “theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” But how are we to understand this if the other six are in the future tense?

I would like to propose another way of looking at the Beatitudes. We know that the text teaches us that the kingdom of heaven is a present possession. Perhaps what we should ask is in what sense are the promises future. Are these promises held out as something to be obtained in heaven or things that will be obtained as people “fulfill the conditions” that are set out? In other words, if this is true the future tense simply points to the fulfillment of the conditions. For example, the second beatitude teaches “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted” (Mat 5:4). Now we should not think of trying to force out mourning so that we can be comforted. But we should know that those that have hearts so tender to God that they mourn for the right reasons, then those are the hearts that shall be comforted. Is that heart comforted in eternity? Yes, but is the promise only limited to that? I don’t think that the future tense has to mean that. It only has to mean that it happens as a result of the mourning.

When the text tells us that “blessed are those that mourn,” the word “mourn” is a participle in the present active. In other words, this is a description that is ongoing of a certain type of person. This describes the character of a person and it describes a person that mourns over and over. Mourning is a description of those that are truly blessed of God. So I think that the future tense of the comforting of this type of person is a promise that this person will continue to be blessed in the future. To link this with the kingdom of heaven as in the first beatitude, the person that has the kingdom of heaven is the type of person that mourns and has joy in that mourning because he or she receives the continuing comfort of God. This also fits with the biblical portrait of God since His lovingkindnesses are new every morning. God is a God that gives fresh blessings and fresh strength. He renews the strength of His people. It also fits with God’s nature to work a heart in people to make them fit for blessings.

We must take into consideration that people are blessed because of the promise attached at the end of each of the Beatitudes. If the promise is not something that can be attained to now, then the blessedness is also not attainable now. But the text clearly tells us that people are in a state of blessing now. This means that the promises must be applied now as well. If a person that mourns is blessed right now and he is said to be blessed because he shall be comforted, then he is only blessed now if he is comforted now. The promise, then, must be an encouragement that it will always be there for those that follow hard after God and seek hearts that are described in the Beatitudes. This is a great encouragement that as long as we have a heart that truly mourns God will keep on giving the comfort. That is the strength that we need to keep mourning.
This way of looking at the Beatitudes is also important because of how each beatitude relates to the Beatitudes as a whole. Biblical expositors have looked at the Beatitudes in various ways and have linked them together in various ways too. If each of the Beatitudes builds on the other, then it makes far more sense to look at the blessings as building on each other as well. If the blessing for those that mourn, for example, is to be comforted, then that is what builds the person to be meek and to hunger and thirst for righteousness. It seems to be a great burden for people to practice all of the Beatitudes without the promises to sustain them. In this way the souls that are persecuted receive blessings to enable them to withstand the persecution rather than the persecution coming on top of mourning and meekness. While mourning and meekness describe those that are blessed, they also describe those that receive the comfort and strength of God through the promises.

I also think that it is best to look at the Beatitudes in this way (receiving the promises now) because of the way the Beatitudes relate to the rest of the Sermon on the Mount (SOM). When Jesus gives the Beatitudes, He does not leave them behind when He starts with the rest of the SOM. Rather, He is describing what kind of person that lives according to His teaching. Living out the Beatitudes is the only way to live out the SOM. Without the things promised to those described in the Beatitudes, the SOM is beyond impossible for a human being to accomplish. For example, Jesus teaches and commands several things in the SOM: “But I say to you, do not resist an evil person; but whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also. 40 “If anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, let him have your coat also. 41 “Whoever forces you to go one mile, go with him two. 42 “Give to him who asks of you, and do not turn away from him who wants to borrow from you. 43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR and hate your enemy.’ 44 “But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. 46 “For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same?”

What does it take to turn our cheek when one is struck? At the very least, it takes a person that is poor in spirit, is meek, merciful, pure in heart, and a peacemaker. But the promises for being those things are what a person needs to carry out what those states of heart demand. One cannot just keep being struck without the promises of God applied to his heart to sustain him. So the promises are what sustain a person to keep turning the cheek. Then we see that man is to love his enemy as well. Surely it is clear that many of the Beatitudes are necessary to be able to love a person’s enemy. But the promises are as necessary as the state of the heart as well. It is those with a certain kind of heart that have the promises and the heart and the promise together sustain the person to keep on pursuing the things of God.

As we go on in our study of the Beatitudes, let us be careful to take each of the Beatitudes as a whole. There is the declaration of blessedness. Then it tells us what type of person is blessed. Then the text tells us what it is that makes that person blessed. The Beatitudes tells us of the kind of hearts that God loves and the kind of hearts that He works in His people. This is not a section of Scripture that teaches us how to attain a type of heart by hard work, but underneath this what is taught is that the Beatitudes describe how a fallen human being that has eternal life in His heart is to be. This should teach us great humility, not to be proud and think that we can attain hearts like this by our own works.

But for the moment, know that it takes great pain and death to self in order to have hearts like Christ describes in the Beatitudes. However, behold the promises that He sets out and know that this happens only by grace. Let us set our minds on things above and covenant with God to serve Him with our whole beings. Pray that He would open the eyes of our hearts so that we could see the things that we have reserved for self from Him. Pray that He would rip pride out of our heart by the roots. Pray that He would make us like Christ. After all, what do you think the Beatitudes point to? Surely you will agree that they Beatitudes teach us how to be like Christ and that we need the life of Christ in us to even begin to have hearts like this. Indeed, that is what is going on. Man is driven to the end of himself, even the death of self, and Christ must live in us if we will have hearts as described in the Beatitudes. The promises must be for the present because the promises are really the life of Christ in the heart as applied by the Spirit.

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Resolutions of Jonathan Edwards

November 8, 2006

Jonathan Edwards, Resolution 1:
“Resolved, that I will do whatsoever I think to be most to God’s glory and to my own good, profit, and pleasure, in the whole of my duration, without any consideration of the time, whether now or never so many myriads of ages hence. Resolved to do whatever I think to be my duty, and most for the good and advantage of mankind in general. Resolved to do this, whatever difficulties I meet with, how ever so many and how ever so great.”

The first thing to notice is that this first resolution was written when Jonathan Edwards was a young man. The second thing to notice is the link that he sees between the glory of God and of his own good, profit, and pleasure. It is this thought that I will try to think about today. Can it really be true that what we do that is most to the glory of God is also the best for our own good, profit, and pleasure? This seems like nonsense to the world, and perhaps even to many Christian ministers. Why is that?

On the one hand man is a very selfish creature and wants to use God for his own goals and pleasures. So we see many religious people praying for wealth and many other things. We see so-called preachers preaching about how God returns blessings of riches and wealth to those who give money. On the other hand, we see many who practice forms of rigorous self-denial in efforts to gain the blessings of God or even heaven. Both of those positions would seem to be at odds with what Jonathan Edwards is really saying. If we follow the historical line of thought that he followed, we can see that the glory of God is seen to be what is best for human beings as well. But can this really be true?

Let us take the case of the type of self-denial in Luke 14 where we see that in order to follow Christ a person must deny self and take up his cross in order to follow Christ. Then we are told that the person must hate his life. How can something like that be considered a person’s greatest benefit, profit, and pleasure? We see another passage in Revelation 12:11 where it is said of the martyrs that “they did not love their life even when faced with death.” In other words, they gave up their lives cheerfully and joyfully much like their Master the Lord Jesus Christ who for the joy set before Him endured the cross (Heb 12:2). To say this yet another way, they loved Christ and His glory so much that it was no sacrifice to lay down their lives for their true and greatest love and pleasure.

A person will give up all secondary things for the sake of something far more important and better. In the case of the martyrs and of all that are called to practice self-denial, the greatest and best is the glory of Jesus Christ. There is nothing greater than the glory of God in the face of Christ. There is nothing that should even hold a candle to the glory of God in the minds and hearts of His people. But we must be very careful as we read what Edwards is saying. We must not reverse his order and think that what we think is good and pleasurable for us is necessarily what gives God glory. No, no, and a thousand times no. Rather than that, it is that which gives God glory is that which is best for our good, profit, and pleasure. We must never get that order mixed up or turned around.

Mankind has been created for the purpose of living and loving God and His glory. While most men are earth worms in the sense that they live their lives and give all their being in order to obtain worldly things, which is not what they were created for. Man must realize that God has no greater blessing to give man than Himself. It is simply impossible for God to bless man by giving man things without giving Himself. This should shatter the way that men think of things in modern America when it is thought that God gives money and toys to those that He loves. As Edwards said in one of his sermons, God gives those He hates plenty of wealth and earthly things. We must always strive to keep our minds focused on what is really best for other people and for the whole universe and that is the glory of God. Not only did God create me for His glory, He created all other humans and all other things for His glory as well. Not only should man realize that living for the glory of God is what is best and even most pleasurable for himself, he must see that this is also what is best for every living human being in the world. That is what they were created for. If we do not live for the glory of God, we are living very narrow and extremely selfish lives. To live for the glory of God is the best for all and for the entire universe, but to live for self is to focus on self rather than what is best for all others. The shame of it is that living for self is the worst thing for self too. When God’s glory is not lived for, the whole universe suffers. Loving the glory of God is that important.

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Paradox of Love

November 6, 2006

“To have found God and still to pursue Him is the soul’s paradox of love, scorned indeed by the too easily satisfied religionists, but justified in happy experience by the children of the burning heart.” –A. W. Tozer

There has been a great push for evangelism for many years within Christendom. Evangelism is necessary and good, but the push has watered down the message of the Gospel and then has left souls thinking that evangelism is all that there is. We push and push to get people to be saved, and then we go on to get them involved in evangelistic efforts. So evangelism becomes what drives the church. However, this has assisted in developing a false Gospel and watering doctrine down. It has also developed a type of Christianity that focuses on one event rather than pursuing the knowledge of God. People have replaced knowing God with some form of evangelism. Rather than seeing evangelism as loving God and then pursuing God even more, evangelism is seen as virtually the whole of obedience.

The Church must be teaching people what it means to find God and still pursue Him. We have got to return to the doctrines and practices of the Psalms. We must pursue God as a deer in the desert longs for the water brooks (Psa 42). We have to learn Psalm 63 as the normal practice of the soul. The more of God that we have should push us to earnestly desire Him even more. We have to seek God earnestly while our souls thirst for Him and our flesh yearns for Him (v. 1). We must learn experientially to see His power and glory and to realize and taste that His lovingkindness is better than life (v. 3). We have to pursue God so that our souls are satisfied as with the richest of foods. (v. 5). God must become our fountain of life (Psa 36:9) and the river of our delights (Psa 36:8). We are not teaching people the truth of God until we do. We have to teach people that salvation is the beginning of walking with God and that they have a lot of growing and maturing to do.

The Church must return to the theology and practice of Paul. We can recall the conversion of Paul in Acts 9 when he saw the bright light and fell to the ground. We might think that Paul was modern because after three days he then set out and began a life that consisted of taking the Gospel to all the known world. However, we must remember what drove Paul. Indeed he went on mission trips and proclaimed the Gospel to people that had never heard it. But he also took trips to strengthen and encourage the churches. Let us look at Paul’s heart and what drove him in the following text:

“But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ.8 More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ; 9 and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, 10 that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; 11 in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.12 Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. (Phillipians 3:7-12).

Here is a man that had a heart for God. He wanted to know God through Christ and he was ready to suffer for that. He knew that all things were nothing but a loss compared with “the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.” Do we really believe that he was willing to count all things a loss compared to knowing about Christ? No, we must remember John 17:3 where John said that eternal life is to know God and Jesus Christ. Eternal life is not a static something in the soul that only comes to life when the soul dies. Eternal life is the person of Christ dwelling in the soul. “And we know that the Son of God has come, and has given us understanding so that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life” (I John 5:20). Knowing God and Jesus Christ is eternal life. If a person has the waters of life in his of her soul, then that person is thirsty for more of the water of life. Having Christ, who is eternal life, leads a person and drives a person to know Him more and more. Those with life burn for more. Those who have been evangelized apart from true life become religious and evangelize to prove that they have life. We must return to a true message of Christ as eternal life for believer and unbeliever alike. May all of our souls burn with desire to know Him more.

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Communing With God

November 3, 2006

“The modern scientists has lost God amid the wonders of the world; we Christians are in real danger of losing God amid the wonders of His Word. We have almost forgotten that God is a person and, as such, can be cultivated as any person can. It is inherent in personality to be able to know other personalities, but full knowledge of one personality by another cannot be achieved in one encounter. It is only after long and loving mental intercourse that the full possibilities of both can be explored.” –A.W. Tozer

It is a sad but pregnant reality that many have lost God amid the wonders of His Word. This has happened in Bible study and theology. This has happened in church after church and life after life. As some scientists have forgotten God in their pursuit of knowledge and information about the world, so many within the confines of Christendom have lost and forgotten God in the midst of their religious pursuits. Bible study has become a pursuit of happiness and self-fulfillment rather than how man is to know God. One way this happens is when we forget that the one God subsists as three Persons. We are to have fellowship with God (I John 1:3-4) and we are to know God (John 17:3). We are to abide in His love and His love is to abide in us (I John 4:12-13). To abide in love and to love is without argument something that persons and Persons do.

It is in the exchange of knowledge and love that communion with God happens. It is only when the love of God is abiding in man and man is abiding in the love of God that men know God and pursue His glory from the heart. We seem to think in the modern day (modern to us, but not necessarily the future) that we can develop a program for everything. We want a program for Bible study and a program for prayer and a program for visitation and one for everything. We think that when we have such a program that we can simply plug it in and it will work. But when we think that way we have forgotten God. So what we have within Christendom is books being written on programs for this and for that. We have mega-churches growing because of these programs, but still we have forgotten God. It matters not how much knowledge an individual gains or how much a particular church grows in numbers if God is not there. It is still nothing but religious activity.

But wait, one might add, our church is having prayer meetings and teaching the spiritual disciplines. Fine, but is God there? Where is God in all of that spiritual activity? The Pharisees prayed long prayers too. The Pharisees practiced the spiritual disciplines. But the act of saying words in a spiritual setting and doing what is called “spiritual disciplines” does not mean that those things are necessarily spiritual. Only those things that come from the Spirit of God are spiritual. If our prayer and spiritual disciplines are not done by the Spirit then there is nothing spiritual about them. In other words, it is God who determines if what we do is spiritual or not. Whatever we do can be spiritual if the Holy Spirit is there and is working the love of God in our hearts. But whatever religious things we do can also be as unspiritual as something can be if we are just trying to be religious or spiritual in and of our own works and wisdom.

All prayer, spiritual disciplines, and all true Christian work must come from communion with God if they are to be truly spiritual. “It is inherent in personality to be able to know other personalities, but full knowledge of one personality by another cannot be achieved in one encounter. It is only after long and loving mental intercourse that the full possibilities of both can be explored.” Man must know God and not just a meeting that happens once. To know God one must obtain knowledge about God and His workings in the world and Church. One must have that long and loving mental and spiritual intercourse with God. It is necessary to know what the love and holiness of God is like so that believers may walk in that love and be holy as He is holy. True Christianity knows nothing of an external religion that does not know God. Instead, as Christ said and prayed, He wanted His joy and love to be in His people. Not just for them to have joy and love, but for His joy and love to be in them. It is the Holy Spirit that pours out the love of God in the hearts of His people (Romans 5:5). It is the fruit of the Spirit to have the very attributes of God worked into our heart (Gal 5:22) and to share in the Divine nature (II Peter 1:4). When it is God’s love and joy that is in us and we live because of the life of Christ in us, then we are sharing in the Divine life. That is eternal life and that is what it means to know God. That is also what it means to be spiritual. That is when the Holy Spirit has worked the life of Christ in His people that their lives are partaking of the Spirit of God.

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Beatitudes 1: Blessedness

November 1, 2006

The world is terribly confused about what blessedness is. Another problem is that the Church is more like the world in what it believes about blessedness. The confusions abound about this topic. However, there is no real need to be confused on this issue. While there are many teachings on this issue, Jesus is the One that we must listen to on this topic and any other. Jesus gave us specific teachings on the blessed life.First, we must look at what the word “blessed” means. Most think of it in terms of happiness, but to get at the depths of the meaning of the word and the biblical concept in its own context we must dig deeper. What is happiness? It would appear that the world thinks of happiness as the feeling of pleasure that goes along with whatever they like. So the world thinks of being happy when something they like happens and when things they don’t like don’t happen. But what we can’t miss is that the world operates on feelings of pleasure in response to things received or of something done to them in the material realm. The world thinks of happiness as being produced by what is obtained or by what is received. The world, then, is dependent on other people and things to produce for them the pleasures or attitudes that are needed to make them happy.

The biblical concept, however, is much different. The concept of blessedness is deeper than a mere superficial happiness. On the one hand the word can have the idea of happiness, but it really goes to an inner joy and not just the outward response. In another sense there is a blessedness that comes relative to the position one has granted in Christ. The truly blessed person in biblical terms is blessed no matter what happens to him or her because s/he is in a state of blessedness granted by the living God. There is nothing that can happen to the true believer that is not intended by God for good and He will turn everything to the good of His people (Rom 8:28-39). The true believer is also told that s/he has a Father that trains and disciplines a person out of love in order that s/he may share in His holiness (Heb 12:10). Believers can also know that whatever else happens to them, as long as they are beholding the glory of God they are being changed from one degree of glory to a greater degree of glory (II Cor 3:18).

While it is truly an astounding concept, the believer is blessed because of his position in Christ. All that the Father sends to His children in Christ is meant to make them like Christ which is the greatest blessing possible. The believer must develop the mindset that even if people abuse me and mistreat me, that should provoke joy in me and bring me to rejoicing in the Father (Mat 5:11-12). Believers are to consider themselves blessed because of their position in Christ at all times. They are to grow in humility and submission to God throughout their lives in order to be able to accept whatever trials the Lord brings to them and respond in joy. This does not mean that the joy will come in an instant each time, but that the believer sees that God is working all things to bring them to greater degrees of glory in order that they may love Him and see His glory through their Beloved in all things.

The Word of God tells us that those who are truly blessed either practice or are described by the following things: being poor in spirit, mourns, gentle or meek, hunger and thirst for righteousness, merciful, pure in heart, are peacemakers, and are persecuted. There is nothing in that list that corresponds to what the world would call blessed or happy. There is hardly anything in that list that the vast majority within Christendom thinks is conducive to true happiness. Why is that? Most likely it is because hardly anyone believes what Jesus says anymore. If we really believe that Jesus is Lord, we need to understand that joy and happiness are found in being like Him and not the world. Those who love the world do not have the love of God in them (I John 2:15-17).

What are the things that the world pursues in its effort to be happy? The world teaches us that we are to think highly of ourselves and take pride in who we are and what we do. The world teaches us that we should be confident in our ability to make good and moral choices. The world teaches us to think that we are good and that when we do wrong it is nothing but a choice. The world thinks that happiness is to laugh and be entertained by all sorts of lewd and silly things. The world teaches that happiness is in getting revenge and getting back at people. The world teaches us that happiness is obtained by having more material things and being free to pursue sinful lifestyles. The world thinks that the more we can fill our minds with television and movies and certain kinds of books the happier we will be. The world thinks that if we can just stop people from saying bad things about us and not shoot us then happiness is just getting along. In other words, the world pursues riches, material possessions, and glory and honor for self. One would almost think that the world is at war with God when the list of things that the world wants is compared to what Christ says.

How can it be that the person that is poor in spirit and mourns is happier than the rich and worldly person that does all for himself and his own honor? The very fact that we might be surprised about this shows that the world has influenced us far more than Jesus has. Let us look at the life of Christ for a moment. Did the things of the world bring joy and happiness to Christ? What was it that He sought? Well, we do see Jesus going to parties and hanging out with people that were not religious. But Jesus constantly sought to manifest the name of God wherever He was and whatever He did. His pleasure and joy was in pleasing the Father. Hebrews 12:2 tells us that Christ endured the cross for the joy that was set before Him. We can also know that all that Christ did in life was primarily for the glory of God, but also to earn righteousness for His bride the Church. We know from Ephesians 5:1-2 that Christ loved His people and gave Himself up for them. Then in Ephesians 5:25 we see that “Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, so that He might sanctify her.” The life and death of Christ were filled with suffering and persecutions and therefore with perfect joy and peace. Believers are to pursue what He pursued.

We must also remember that love is always attended with some degree of joy. Christ walked in perfect love all of His life and we know that because nothing is acceptable without love (I Cor 13:1-3). We see that the new commandment given by Christ, which was really not brand new, but a new way of looking at it, was for His disciples to love others as Christ had loved them (John 13:34). We know that Jesus was filled with the Spirit and all that have the Spirit have the joy of God (Rom 5:5; I John 3:24-25; 4:13-16). In fact, the fruit of the Spirit is love and joy (Gal 5:22). Jesus lived life on earth abiding in the love of the Father (John 15:10) and said that He wanted His disciples to have His joy in them and that their joy would be made full (John 15:11; 17:13). Jesus also prayed to the Father and said that He had made the name of the Father known “so that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them.” I don’t think that it can be denied that despite being the Man of sorrows Jesus lived a life of perfect joy on earth. He was not wealthy and depended on the financial support of others. He also did not own a house and had a rock for a pillow. His joy was inner and it was from God.

As we begin a study on true blessedness, let us remember that Jesus Christ is our example in this. There is no true blessedness apart from His teaching and His life and death. The world wants to avoid all suffering and discomfort, but Jesus embraced those things and He had perfect love and joy. The Church must learn to look to Christ instead of the world in its pursuit of blessedness. In a different way, we must see that blessedness will not be found in just imitating Christ, but in the life of Christ being lived in and through us. We must always keep in mind as we pursue blessedness that we are not to pursue joy apart from Christ, but joy as a part of the life of Christ in us. So when we pursue what each beatitude tells us, we must never think that we can do this in our own strength and power. True blessedness is simply the Spirit working the life of Christ in us that we may share in His life.

This should necessarily teach us not to seek blessedness apart from the inner life of the believer. This is not something that is exclusively external, but is something that flows from the heart to the external. There may be many that try to copy the outward acts that the beatitudes prescribe, but without the heart they are not living by the power of God in the heart. Christianity is of the heart and not just the behavior. The essence of the beatitudes goes to the depths of the heart as well. What we are in the depths of our inner person is what we really are.

We should also note what the things are that make a person blessed. The kingdom of heaven is mentioned twice. Why should one want to be impoverished of spirit? We should desire that because that is the true state of affairs, but also because only those have the kingdom of heaven. What is that kingdom? It is the reign and rule of Jesus Christ in the hearts of man. The greatest blessing that man can attain to is to have Jesus Christ reigning in his heart and not his selfish and prideful desires that follow after the domain and rule of darkness. Blessedness is always linked with Christ in terms of what it is and what it leads to. This shows a great difference between what the world thinks of blessedness and what the Bible sets it out as. The world wants to follows the desires and rule of self as blessedness. Scripture says that the man following after the lusts of self is really in the bondage of sin and of the devil. The Bible also says that having Christ and His reign of grace is real blessedness. The essence of blessedness, then, is to be in the state where that which reigns over and in me is Christ. All that happens to me is because He wills it to show His life and glory in me. That is the best for me as well and is true blessedness.

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Losing God Even in the Word, Part 2

November 1, 2006

“The modern scientists has lost God amid the wonders of the world; we Christians are in real danger of losing God amid the wonders of His Word. We have almost forgotten that God is a person and, as such, can be cultivated as any person can. It is inherent in personality to be able to know other personalities, but full knowledge of one personality by another cannot be achieved in one encounter. It is only after long and loving mental intercourse that the full possibilities of both can be explored.” –A.W. Tozer

Last time we explored how evangelicals and religious people lose God while amid the wonders of His Word. Continuing in the same line of thought, it is easy to see that prideful people can simply stuff their minds with facts and think that they are becoming very religious. Paul tells us that “knowledge puffs up” or “makes arrogant.” What happens when people study the Bible and do the so-called spiritual disciplines without a humble and broken heart? It makes them even worse in their pride. Imagine that, if you can, that Bible study can actually harden a person’s heart and bring greater condemnation. The so-called spiritual disciplines can also harden a person’s heart and bring greater condemnation. While this may shock you, consider the case of Judas. He knew far more about Jesus and the teachings of Jesus than virtually anyone else other than the disciples. But when he chose money more than Jesus he was rejecting far more than others as well.

Let us consider the case of the scribes and the Pharisees. Jesus condemned them far worse than the prostitutes or anyone else. He condemned their praying, their giving of alms, their fasting and their knowledge. He blasted them because they tried to act so righteous on the outside while inwardly they were hypocrites. “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which on the outside appear beautiful, but inside they are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness” (Mat 23:27). It is hard to imagine that the spirit of the Pharisees is alive today, but as long as the evil one is still active that spirit will still be alive. As long as man is proud and self-centered the Pharisees will live among us. They might know a lot about the Bible and they might be very outwardly moral, but they are not lovers of God and of His glory. They have lost sight of God amongst the wonders of the Bible.

One might ask how that is done. Well, all we have to understand is that man is full of self and pride unless God changes the heart. It is easy for man to think that God will elect him and not send him to hell. After all, he thinks of himself as being quite a nice fellow and thinks God should think the same. But down deep that heart is still wicked in its pride and self-centeredness. It only loves God for what it thinks God does for it. It only loves God because it thinks that God loves it. When the truth of God is seen, however, that heart will rise against the glory of God in a heartbeat. That heart reads the Bible with false spectacles on because it reads the Bible as if it is all about self. It might be caught up with various doctrines and all, but that pumps that heart with pride too. The proud heart loves what people say about it and its knowledge. The proud heart loves for people to notice how moral and good it is. The proud heart wants people to notice just how faithful it is in the spiritual disciplines. The proud heart thinks much of a god, but it never comes to know the true God.

We must never lost sight of the fact that religious people can simply be religious people and not people that know God. Eternal life is in knowing God and His Son and not in all the religious activities that are so popular in the conservative world today. One can school their kids at home and be a Pharisee. One can oppose abortion and be a Pharisee. One can not touch a drop of liquor and be a Pharisee. One can memorize the whole Bible and still be a Pharisee. One can pray hours a day and still be a Pharisee. One can fast and mediate hours on end and still be a Pharisee. The Pharisees did not know God and modern Pharisees don’t either.

One reason that people can lose sight of God amid the wonders of His Word is because the person in his pride has never been delivered from pride and self-love. So that person takes the Bible and studies it for reasons of pride and self rather than to know God. The proud person always thinks that the Bible speaks to others when it speaks of sin. The proud person is his or her own god. So it studies the Bible and practices so-called “spiritual disciplines” as a service to self and pride. But the true God is not in his or her thoughts and so the true God is lost amid the wonder of the Word and of the things that the Word prescribes for believers to do out of humble hearts.

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Losing God Even in the Word

October 30, 2006

“The modern scientists has lost God amid the wonders of the world; we Christians are in real danger of losing God amid the wonders of His Word. We have almost forgotten that God is a person and, as such, can be cultivated as any person can. It is inherent in personality to be able to know other personalities, but full knowledge of one personality by another cannot be achieved in one encounter. It is only after long and loving mental intercourse that the full possibilities of both can be explored.” –A.W. Tozer

It is interesting to think of how Tozer has put this. Scientists (some of them) and lovers of “nature” have gotten so enamored with nature and its complexities and beauty that they have forgotten the Creator of all of those wonders. In one sense scientists and lovers of nature are caught up with what they know and how those things can make them feel. It becomes abhorrent to them that there is a grand Designer of it all. But they have lost sight of God in those things where His glory shines. They may study things about the sun and the moon and really forget that those great luminaries in the sky shine the glory of God upon them. Some are so enamored with trees and mountains that they forget that those things testify to the wisdom and majesty of God. Some are so caught up with the animals that they forget the One who designed them, feeds them, and manifests His glory through them. We wonder how anyone could not see God and His glory through His creation. Christians are amazed that anyone could be so blind.

However, within Christendom many are even blinder in one sense. We have the glory of God shining through His specific revelation to man and even more through Christ the very outshining of His glory. Within the confines of evangelical churches as well as liberal organizations many are fervent in their study of the Bible. What is wrong with that? Well, in one sense nothing. But we must also remember that the scribes, Sadducees, and the Pharisees were given to diligent study of the Bible. Jesus told the Sadducees that they were mistaken because they did not understand the Scriptures nor the power of God (Mathew 22:19). Jesus took the scribes and the Pharisees to task throughout the Sermon on the Mount when He repeatedly corrected their misinterpretations. In fact, the case could be made that Jesus spent a lot of His time correcting the wrong teachings of the scribes and the Pharisees. We also see Paul doing that to the various churches. So we must be careful if we assume that just because we know a lot of things about the Bible that we know the Bible. This is a terrible delusion.

What we have in modern evangelical thinking is a massive number of helps and commentaries on and about the Bible. We think that because we know many things about the Bible we must know God. After all, the Bible is the revelation of God. But we must be very careful about this. In the Old Testament we find over and over that the people of God were constantly told by God that they did not know Him. In other words, just hanging out at religious services (even if commanded by God) does not necessarily lead a person to know God. Studying the Bible does not necessarily lead a person to know God any more than reading a biography necessarily means that we know the author. We might read several books by an author and books on the author without knowing the author. This is exactly what is going on within the churches today. People have given themselves to study and some spiritual disciplines (as they are called) but these do not necessarily lead people to know God.

When people get caught up in various moral or spiritual activities, they might be in great danger of losing sight of God. The hearts of atheists and the irreligious are quite proud in their suppressing of the knowledge of God. But the hearts of people also can suppress the truth of God in the midst of Bible study and prayer. The heart is so deceitful and not one can know it but God and those He wants to show it to (Jer 17:9). So people can apply a salve to their conscience by learning many things about the Bible and even certain things about God and the Gospel without ever knowing God. This is, in one sense, a very tragic thing. It is like dying of thirst while laying in flowing water. Eternal life is to know God (John 17:3). It is not to know about God and it is not necessarily found in knowing many things about the Bible. “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 8 The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love” (I John 4:7-8). It matters not how much one knows about God and the Bible if it does not lead to a loving and knowing God. All of that knowledge will only condemn a person even more if he or she does not know and love God. This is a person losing God in the midst of the wonders of His Word.

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Can Teaching the Gospel Hinder Men From Knowing God? (Part 2)

October 27, 2006

“The doctrine of justification by faith-a biblical truth, and a blessed relief from sterile legalism and unavailing self-effort-has in our time fallen into evil company and been interpreted by many in such a manner as actually to bar men from the knowledge of God. The whole transaction of religious conversion has been made mechanical and spiritless. Faith may now be exercised without a jar to the moral life and without embarrassment to the Adamic ego. Christ may be “received” without creating any special love for Him in the soul of the receiver. The man is “saved,” but he is not hungry nor thirsty after God. In fact, he is specifically taught to be satisfied and is encouraged to be content with little.” -A.W. Tozer

In the last blog we ended by looking at one way justification can be taught in a way that bars men from the knowledge of God. This time we will look at a second way that a sterile teaching of justification bars men from the knowledge of God. The first way (last time) was how men come to Christ. The second way is how men are to behave toward God after conversion. Tozer points out how this mechanical and spiritless way of religious conversion leads to a faith that does not jar the moral life. Christ can now “be “received” without creating any special love for Him in the soul of the believer. Can we imagine that the Lord Jesus Christ will live in a soul and not give that soul a love for Himself? The very definition of a believer is one that has the life of Christ in his soul and one that has the love of God poured out in his heart (Rom 5:5ff). A believer is one that the love of God has set on this person and has given that person a love for what is best. What is best is for God to give a person Himself and a love for Himself. It is not possible for a person to be converted and not have a love for God in his or her soul. If a person does not love God, that person is not savingly loved by God. It is impossible. All believers know God and eternal life is in knowing God (John 17:3). I John 4:7-8 is quite clear on this issue: “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 8 The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love.” All those that love God (everyone) are born of God and know God. The person that does not love does not know God. Any individual that does not love God is an individual that is lost and unconverted. There must be a love for God in the soul or the person is not converted.

The importance of focusing on the love for God is seen in the modern teaching that men can be saved and yet not hunger and thirst after God. We have diminished justification and evangelism into such a mechanical and easy thing that we don’t see that men must be turned from self-love to a pursuit of God out of love. Those that are justified are reconciled to God and adopted as His children. All those that have God are one with Christ and are His bride. All those that have Christ have the Holy Spirit and He works His fruit of love in the hearts and lives of His people. There is no such “critter” as a believer in Christ that does not love Christ. Therefore, all those that are of Christ have some hunger and thirst after spiritual things. We are known by our chief love and if our chief love is God it will be seen by hungering and thirsting after Him. However we teach men justification, it must include a heart that hungers and thirsts after God. If our teaching of justification does not lead to that, we are not teaching justification in its biblical parameters.

Tozer goes on to say that men are “specifically taught to be satisfied and is encouraged to be content with little.” What an indictment on anyone who does this. Where is there room in the Greatest Commandment for being satisfied and content with just a little religion or just a little Christ? Men and women must be directed to pursue God with panting hearts. A doctrine of justification that allows for men and women to be cold toward God and the things of God is not a doctrine within the confines and life of Holy Writ. Perhaps we are careless in pressing men on to pursue God because we don’t want to offend them. Perhaps we are content to have people cold toward God because we are content with their church attendance and tithes and we don’t want to have them stop that. Whatever the case, men must be taught the Gospel in ways that are to goad them on to seeking the glory of God. If we don’t do that, then we are not being faithful to God or to the people.

Pastors are to teach the whole counsel of God and not just focus on one or two teachings. Pastors must teach the people to pursue God and not be satisfied with the present state of things. Those in the congregations must urge their pastors to preach and teach the whole counsel of God. All must begin to teach justification in such a way that it urges men to hunger and thirst for God. The Gospel of God should produce a faith that works by love.

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Justification 24, Humiliation 8

October 25, 2006

This week we will end our study on justification. I have been trying to draw out how other factors influence how we view and apply the doctrine of justification. We cannot just have a bare doctrine of justification since the Bible sets it out in differing contexts. One context that we have looked at is faith. We have asked questions of what it means to be justified by faith and the corresponding thoughts on not having faith in ourselves. This week, I would like to think of justification in the context of the Gospel. I would like to think of the Gospel in terms of II Corinthians 4:4-6 & Romans 3:23-26 and how it should influence our thoughts on faith and justification.

“4 in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. 5 For we do not preach ourselves but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your bond-servants for Jesus’ sake. 6 For God, who said, “Light shall shine out of darkness,” is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ” (II Corinthians 4).”

23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; 25 whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed; 26 for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus” (Rom 3)

What we can see from the text of II Corinthians 4 is that the Gospel is all about the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. II Corinthians 4 does not describe what that glory is, but it tells us that the most desirable and beautiful part of the Gospel is the glory of God. The light that cuts through the darkness of the soul is the light of the Gospel, but of the Gospel of the glory of Christ. Now, if no one ever sees the glory of Christ, then no one ever really sees the Gospel. The light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ (v. 4) is God Himself who shines in the heart “to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ” (v. 6). Now, let us look at this a bit closer. The light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ is what the evil one wants to hide. He is not trying to hide the words of the Gospel as such, but he wants to hide the light of the Gospel. Verse 6 tells us that God has to shine in the heart to give the Light of the knowledge of His glory in the face of Christ. The Glory of the Gospel, then, is the character and beauty of God displayed in the Gospel. The light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ is the knowledge of the glory of God as seen in Christ.

Romans 3:23 tells us that sin is falling short of the glory of God. This instructs us, in light of other Scriptures, that man’s purpose on earth is to glorify God. But man has fallen short of that. What does it take to be saved from the sin of not glorifying God? What is needed is for Christ to display the glory of God in the place of people that do not glorify God. Man has fallen short and needs someone to glorify God in his place. How did Christ do that? By living and dying in a way that glorifies God in the place of sinners. When we see in Romans 3:24 that justification, grace, and the redemption that saves sinners is in Christ, we should ask why that is and how it glorifies God. We must never think of man in and of himself as being the primary reason God saves sinners, but God always does that which glorifies His name the most. If He did not do that, He would not be holy and loving.

We must not forget that we are dealing with justification and the faith that is used as an instrument to justify. Justification, then, is what God does to sinners to save them from hell in a way that exalts His name. In justification which is by grace alone, the glory of His grace (Eph 1:6) is displayed. In the life and cross of Christ we see the glory of God’s grace displayed. When God declares a sinner just, it is based on the glory of His grace and not on the sinner’s worthiness or merit. It is all about the glory of God. When we see that it is Christ that redeems sinners, we must understand that as the glory of God shining in the purchase of sinners. Since it is all of grace, the redemption price is set out in even more glorious terms. The purchase price is the second Person of the Trinity taking human flesh to Himself in order to purchase sinners. In this we see the grace, mercy, justice, and wrath of God displayed. How beautiful to behold the Divine character in the face of Christ at the cross.

In verse 25 we see that the Father set out Christ as a propitiation and that through faith. Notice Christ is only a propitiation through faith. Only faith sees the glory of this and looks at Christ as a bearer of wrath who removes the wrath of the Father and discerns the glory in that. In this we see the character of God in its beauty. How wonderful the love that would love His own glory enough to save sinners in such a way that restored His glory. How marvelous was the justice that would not allow sinners to be saved without a perfect justice shown. How delicious to the soul is the sight of a perfect holiness that did not back off of pouring out His wrath upon His own Son so that He could display His glory in saving sinners. We then see in verses 25 and 26 that the text tells us that God is demonstrating His own righteousness in salvation. He did all of this in the demonstration of Himself so that He could be both just and the justifier. This shines forth the beauty of the Gospel because we can see the beauty of the character of God being put on display through Christ.

While that was but a short time spent on the point, I hope it is enough to suffice. We should now consider the role of faith in salvation from several verses.

“With respect to the promise of God, he did not waver in unbelief but grew strong in faith, giving glory to God” (Rom 4:20). “For this reason they could not believe, for Isaiah said again, 40 “HE HAS BLINDED THEIR EYES AND HE HARDENED THEIR HEART, SO THAT THEY WOULD NOT SEE WITH THEIR EYES AND PERCEIVE WITH THEIR HEART, AND BE CONVERTED AND I HEAL THEM.” 41 These things Isaiah said because he saw His glory, and he spoke of Him” (John 12).

44 “How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and you do not seek the glory that is from the one and only God?” (John 5:44).

40 Jesus said to her, “Did I not say to you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?” (John 11:40)

We see from these texts that faith beholds His glory and not anything of self. Faith in Christ is to behold His glory in the Gospel and not see faith as from self. Faith sees His glory and rests and trusts in that glory rather than seek the glory of self. Faith wants the character of God to be seen and not that of self. Faith must behold the glory of God in the Gospel and trust Him rather than anything it can do of itself. We can see from John 11:40 that it is faith that beholds the glory of God in an event. That text is in the context of Lazarus being raised from the dead. Many people saw that Lazarus was raised from the dead, but only a few saw the glory of God in it. The ones that saw the glory were those with true faith. As we see in John 12:39-41, some could not believe because they were hardened. Isaiah, however, saw His glory. Then, in Romans 4:20 we see that those who believe the promise and grow strong are those that grow strong in faith. It is in that growing strong in faith that people see and give glory to God.

Let us look at the other side of this. The fleshly nature looks at Christ and interprets Him and the cross in terms of self. The person in the fleshly nature is all about self and thinks that God and the Gospel are about self too. He sees a glory of the cross and of Christ in a sense, and is perhaps moved to tears and good works by that glory. But that glory the fleshly person sees is of self. He believes the cross is all about him and his worth. So he does not see the glory of God in the cross which means he loves God and the cross only out of self-interest. The cross is meant to slay the pride and self-centeredness of man, but many teach it in a way that actually leads men to focus on themselves. This is all of pride and has nothing of the true Gospel since it does not demonstrate the glory of God.

Faith cannot be seen by looking for faith. One can only know that he sees a deer if he is sees the deer. The proper way to know if you see a deer is to look at the deer, not at self looking at the deer. So we will only know that we believe in Christ if we see Christ. We can only believe the Gospel if we see the glory of the Gospel. Therefore, faith is the sight of the soul beholding the glory of God in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. While many believe certain facts about Christ and the Gospel, they are lost if they do not see the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. After all, that is the heart of the Gospel. So we can see that to be justified before God one has to believe the Gospel, but true believers in the Gospel see the glory of God in the Gospel. We must teach the glory of God in justification or we will not be teaching the glory of God in the Gospel and there will be nothing that is a true object of faith. Satan would then have effectively hidden the Gospel and we would be helping him do so.

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Can Teaching the Gospel Hinder Men From Knowing God? (The Pursuit of God, Part 13)

October 25, 2006

“The doctrine of justification by faith-a biblical truth, and a blessed relief from sterile legalism and unavailing self-effort-has in our time fallen into evil company and been interpreted by many in such a manner as actually to bar men from the knowledge of God. The whole transaction of religious conversion has been made mechanical and spiritless. Faith may now be exercised without a jar to the moral life and without embarrassment to the Adamic ego. Christ may be “received” without creating any special love for Him in the soul of the receiver. The man is “saved,” but he is not hungry nor thirsty after God. In fact, he is specifically taught to be satisfied and is encouraged to be content with little.” -A.W. Tozer

The Gospel of the grace of God, the Gospel of the glory of God, and justification by faith alone are really one and the same Gospel. In fact, this one Gospel is the only Gospel. However, the doctrine of justification by faith alone can become an avenue that keeps men from God. In the modern day we tell men certain facts and if they give some form of intellectual assent to them we will consider them saved. As Tozer says, justification by faith relives us from sterile legalism and unavailing self-effort. But that is only true where it is taught with accuracy and applied to the heart faithfully. The doctrine by itself can be taught to the intellectual part of man and the heart left untouched. Or, to put it another way that Tozer has spoken of previously, the real beliefs of a person can be hidden underneath the rubbish of creeds and religious notions. This is not an effort to deny the importance of creeds, but to point to the importance of reaching the inner man with the teaching of Scripture. One can give assent to the creeds and still have a heart that is depraved and separated from God.

Tozer says that justification by faith (alone) is now interpreted by many in a way that bars men from the knowledge of God. He then answers how this can be true by saying that religious conversion has been made mechanical and spiritless. In other words, we try to get people to pray a prayer or utter assent to a statement of Scripture or a creed and yet we do not try to get them to seek God for a change of heart. When we have a canned message that we term “the Gospel” and we do nothing more than try to get a prayer out of someone or try to get them to give assent, we are engaged in mechanical evangelism that is spiritless in the sense that it is focused only on the outer man. When we teach people that we consider believers and we do nothing but teach their minds, we are engaged in mechanical and spiritless teaching.

But the impact of this statement surely hits home hard when he says that many are teaching justification in a way that bars men from the knowledge of God. Can that be true? Surely Tozer was exaggerating. How can someone teach justification by faith alone and do that in a way that bars men from the knowledge of God? This should provoke much thought and a lot of searching of heart in all those concerned about the glory of God in the world. We should all ask ourselves if we are teaching the Gospel in such a way that bars men from the knowledge of God.

How can we teach the Gospel in a way that bars men from the knowledge of God? Tozer points to at least two different ways. One, in the way men supposedly come to Christ. Two, the way men behave toward God after conversion. The first way is how we teach people to come to Christ. If we do not teach them about the Law in order to show them their true need for Christ, we have not taught them about the holiness and righteousness of God. People must be taught the Law because the Law expresses the glory of God. The Law came with glory and it still has much glory because it is a reflection of the holiness and love of God. If we do not teach men the Law, then indeed there is not much change in their life because they see salvation as a mechanical process by which they simply agree that certain facts are true. But where is the sovereign God in all of that? Where is man to learn of sin in truth if we do not teach him that sin is only known as sin when it is against God? Sin is not bad just because it is harmful to people, but it is extremely bad because it is against God. But until these things are taught, man sees sin as related to himself. Without the Law and the display of God’s holiness and love through it, men do not see their pride. Anyone that is not delivered from pride and self as the center of their being has not been delivered by the humble Savior in the Gospel. If justification is only taught as a doctrine to be held by the mind then the heart of man is not touched. We must teach justification in a way where the whole of man is touched in order that the whole of man may be saved. Christ does not save part of man, He wills save the whole man or the whole man will perish. Justification must be taught in a way that reaches the whole man or it is not really taught.

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