Jesus,
Our Man in Glory
A. W. Tozer
CHAPTER 1 – Jesus, Our Man in Glory
HAVE YOU HEARD any sermons lately on the Bible truth that our risen Savior and
Lord is now our glorified Man and Mediator? That He is
seated at the right hand of the Majesty in the heavenlies?
Few Christians are fully aware of Christ’s high-priestly office at the throne.
I suspect this is a neglected subject in evangelical preaching and teaching. It
is a major theme in the letter to the Hebrews. The teaching is plain: Jesus is
there, risen and glorified, at the right hand of the Majesty on high,
representing the believing children of God, His church on earth.
Here is one of the great Biblical encouragement’s to acknowledge
Jesus and to trust Him in His priestly ministry for us:
Since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the
Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a
high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one
who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin. Let us
then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy
and find grace to help us in our time of need. (Hebrews 4:14–16)
The Scriptures assure us that there is a true tabernacle—a true sanctuary in
heaven. Jesus our great High Priest is busy there. In that heavenly sanctuary
is a continuing and effective altar. There is a mercy seat. Best of all, our
Mediator and Advocate is there on our behalf. What an amazing truth!
Amazing—and yet how difficult it seems for us to comprehend it and to count on
it. In the light of God’s gracious revelation, I can only ask in humility and
chagrin, ”Why are we so ineffective in representing
Him? Why are we so apathetic in living for Him and glorifying Him?”
Everything about Jesus is glorious!
It is well for us to confess often that everything the Father has revealed
concerning Jesus Christ is glorious. His past—as we would humanly look on the
past—is glorious, for He made all things that were made. His work on earth as
the Son of Man was glorious, for He effected the plan
of salvation through His death and resurrection. Then He ascended into the
heavens for His mediatorial ministries throughout this present age. In view of
what the Scriptures tell us of Jesus, it should be our
primary concern to show forth the eternal glories of this One who is our divine
Savior and Lord.
In our world are dozens of different kinds of Christianities. Certainly many of
them do not seem to be busy and joyful in proclaiming the unique glories of
Jesus Christ as the eternal Son of God. Some brands of Christianity will tell
you very quickly that they are just trying to do a little bit of good on behalf
of neglected people and neglected causes. Others will affirm that we can do
more good by joining in the ”contemporary dialogue”
than by continuing to proclaim the ”old, old story of the cross.”
But we stand with the early Christian apostles. We believe that every Christian
proclamation should be to the glory and the praise of the One whom God raised
up after He had loosed the pains of death. I am happy to be identified with
Peter and his message at Pentecost:
”Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and
signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know. This man
was handed over to you by God’s set purpose and foreknowledge; and you, with
the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross. But God
raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was
impossible for death to keep its hold on him.” (Acts 2:22–24).
Peter considered it important to affirm that the risen Christ is now exalted at
the right hand of God. He said that fact was the reason for the coming of the
Holy Spirit. Frankly, I am too busy serving Jesus to spend my time and energy
engaging in contemporary dialogue.
We have a commission from heaven.
I think I know what ”contemporary dialogue” means. It
means that all of those intellectual preachers are busy reading the news
magazines so they will be able to comment on the world situation from their
pulpits on Sunday mornings. But that is not what God called me to do. He called
me to preach the glories of Christ. He commissioned me to tell my people there
is a
That is what the early church was excited about. And I think our Lord may have
reason to ask why we are no longer very excited about it. The Christian church
in the first century was ablaze with this concept of the risen and victorious
Christ exalted at the right hand of the Father. Although it worshipped no other
man, it urged the worship of this glorified and exalted Man as God, because He
had always been the eternal Son, the second Person of the Godhead. Paul wrote
to Timothy: “There is one God and one
mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a
ransom for all men—the testimony given in its proper time.” (1
Timothy 2:5–6).
Consider with me some of the things we know about the priesthood for which God
anointed our Lord Jesus. Not only was He the eternal Son, but He was also the
glorified
Priesthood in the Old Testament
The true idea of the priesthood, as it was developed in the Old Testament and
fulfilled by our Lord Jesus Christ, was ordained by God. It came from His mind
and heart. It was dimly foreshadowed in the lives of praying fathers, heads of
their households, who assumed responsibility and concern for their families.
Job was a good example of this kind of Old Testament family priest. Afraid his
children might have sinned, he prayed to God, asking Him to forgive and cleanse
them. But the concept is much more clearly embodied in the Levitical
priesthood, ordained by God for
We must acknowledge that God’s concept of the priesthood arose from man’s
alienation from God. It is based on the fact that man has strayed from God and
is lost. This is a fundamental part of truth, just as surely as hydrogen is a
part of water. You can not have water without hydrogen. Just as surely, you
cannot have Bible truth without the teaching that mankind has broken with God
and fallen from his first created estate, where he was made in God’s image.
God’s concept and instructions are very plain. There has been a moral breach.
Sinning man has violated the laws of God. In other words, man is a moral
criminal before the bar of God. It is clear from the Bible that a sinful man or
woman cannot return to God’s favor and fellowship until justice is satisfied,
until the breach is healed.
In an effort to heal the breach, man has used many subtleties and
rationalizations. But if he rejects the cross of Christ, if he rejects God’s
plan of salvation, if he rejects Christ’s death and resurrection as the basis
for atonement, there is no remaining ground for redemption.
Reconciliation is an impossibility.
It is a part of my calling and responsibility in the ministry to warn men and
women that rejection of the atoning work of Jesus Christ is fatal to the soul.
With such rejection, the efforts of the Savior and His intercession as great
High Priest have no meaning.
Man is at fault
Alienation was not
God’s fault. It was man who alienated himself. Man is away from God, like a
little island that has pulled away from the mainland. Drifting out to sea, it
has lost the attraction of its original position. So man has morally pulled
away from God and from the attraction of God’s fellowship. Man is alienated,
without hope and without God in this world. The important element in God’s
concept of the priesthood is mediatorship. The Old Testament priest provided a
means of reconciliation between God and man. But he had to be ordained of God.
Otherwise, he was a false priest. In order to help man, he had to be appointed
by God.
God, for His part, needs no help. There never was an Old Testament priest who
could help God. The work of the priest was to offer a sacrifice, an atonement, so that alienated man could be forgiven and
cleansed. In the Levitical order, an offering had to
be made to God by the priest on behalf of the sinner. The priest was appointed
to plead the case of man before a righteous God.
That ancient priestly system was not perfect. It was only the shadow of a
perfect, eternal priesthood to be brought about by the Savior-Priest, Jesus
Christ, the eternal Son. Every priest in the order of Levi knew only too well
his own sin. This was the point of the breakdown. When that priest stood before
God in the holiest place to present an atonement for
the sins of the people, he was face-to-face as well with the reality of his own
failures and shortcomings.
In our own day, we recognize what this means to us as liberated and forgiven
believers. Singing the hymnody of Isaac Watts, we revel in Christ’s atonement
and God’s forgiveness:
Not all the blood of
beasts
On Jewish altars slain,
Could give the guilty conscience peace,
Or wash away the stain.
But Christ, the heavenly Lamb,
Takes all our sins away;
A sacrifice of nobler name,
And richer blood than they.
The Old Testament priest knew that the ritual of sacrifice could
not completely atone for sins or change man’s sinful nature. In that priestly
system, God ”covered” the sin until the time when
Christ would come. Christ, the Lamb of God, would completely bear away the sin
of the world. Jesus our Lord qualified completely to be our great High Priest.
He was ordained and appointed by God. He was the eternal Son of whom the Father
said, ”You are a priest forever” (Psalm 110:4). He
made reconciliation for the people. He showed the only genuine compassion for
lost mankind. The Scriptures affirm that in these qualifications as priest,
Jesus our Lord became the Author, the Source, the
Giver of eternal salvation.
What Jesus’ manhood means to us
Let me review again what it means to us that Jesus was born into this world and
lived among us. I once heard a preacher say that Jesus was man but not a man. I
am convinced that Jesus was both man and a man. He had, in the most real sense,
that substance and quality that is the essence of mankind. He was a man born of
a woman.
Unless we understand this, I do not think we can be fully aware of what it
means for Jesus to be representing us—a Man representing us at the right hand
of the Majesty in the heavens. Suppose you and I were able right now to go to
the presence of the Father. If we could see the Spirit, who is God, and the
archangels and seraphim and strange creations out of the fire, we would see
them surrounding the throne. But to our delight and amazement, we would see a
Man there, human like we are—the Man Christ Jesus Himself!
Jesus, the Man who is also God, was raised as a victor from the dead and
exalted to the right hand of the Father. I think it is safe to say that during
this age of the work and witness of the Christian church on earth, Jesus would
be the one visible Man in that heavenly company at the throne. Of course, there
are questions that students of the Bible have discussed for many years. All of
us do well to confess that much about the glorious
We might state our question like this: If the risen and glorified Jesus is
ministering there, what about the great number of Christian men and women who,
having died in the faith, have gone on to meet the Lord? Where are they?
First of all, and beyond any other consideration, we know that they are safely
sheltered in God’s heavenly realm. The apostle Paul declares that it is ”better by far” for the Christian to” depart and be with
Christ” (Philippians 1:23) than to continue in this world of sin and tears. At
death, only the physical body succumbs. For the believers in Christ, their
undying and immortal spirits have passed into a blessed spiritual abode
prepared by our God. Let us be assured that God is ever faithful in His
gracious plan for His creation and for His redeemed children.
We surely know that all things are not going to continue forever as we now know
them. Paul in the first century wrote advice and encouragement to the Thessalonian believers. He told them plainly that he did
not want them to be unaware of the state of those believers whom he described
as ”asleep”—having passed into the presence of the Lord through physical death.
His message was one of distinct consolation. It continues to shine as a word of
hope for every believer:
We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring
with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. According to the Lord’s own
word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left till the coming of
the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord
himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the
archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise
first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up with
them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord
forever. Therefore encourage each other with these words. (1 Thessalonians
4:14–18)
Plainly our Creator-God and Redeemer still has many
kingdom secrets not yet revealed to us. But we do know that in that glad day of
Christ’s coming, there will be great transformations, all taking place with
split-second speed.
Concerning those great changes, Paul wrote to the Corinthian Christians:
The trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be
changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable,
and the mortal with immortality. (1 Corinthians 15:52–53)
Paul used the familiar analogy of plant life to describe to the Corinthians the
reality of the promised resurrection: What you sow does not come to life unless
it dies. When you sow, you do not plant the body that will be, but just a seed,
perhaps of wheat or of something else. But God gives it a body as he has
determined.…
So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is
perishable, it is raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in
glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural
body, it is raised a spiritual body. . .Just as we have borne the likeness of
the earthly man, so shall we bear the likeness of the man from heaven.…When the
perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with
immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: ”Death has been
swallowed up in victory.” (1 Corinthians 15:36–38, 42–44, 49, 54) Surely it was
this same revelation by the Spirit of God that caused the writer Jude to
exclaim:
To him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his
glorious presence without fault and with great joy—to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ
our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen. (Jude 24–25) We rest upon
God’s revelation that in the heavenly world today, Jesus in His glorified body
represents us at the throne of God. Each of us who loves and serves Him has a
right to the great scriptural promises. In that great climactic event of the
ages, our Lord will come and we shall all be changed. He will present us before
the eternal throne with exceeding joy, glorified even as He is glorified!
CHAPTER 2 --Jesus, God’s
Final Revelation
It does not speak too well for our Christian testimony when God
tells us that He has sent His Son to be His final revelation in this world—and
we act bored about it! What a gracious gesture it was on God’s part. And the
living God and Creator continues to speak to the men
and women of a lost race:
In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and
in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son.
(Hebrews 1:1–2)
But it leaves us with some questions to answer. Why is Christianity so boring
to so many in our day? Is Jesus Christ still dead?
“Oh, no,” we are quick to reply. He is a risen Savior.” Perhaps, then He has
lost His power and His authority?
“Of course not,” we respond. “He ascended to the right hand of the Majesty
on high.” Then that means He has left us
to our own devices? Are we now on our own?
“Not exactly,” we answer with caution. “We really have not been in very close touch
with Him lately, but He is supposed to be our great High Priest at the heavenly
throne.”
The
key to our boredom
That must be the key to our boredom with Christianity: we have not been keeping
in very close touch with our Man in glory. We have been doing in our churches
all those churchly things that we do. We have done them with our own
understanding and in our own energy. But without a bright and conscious
confirmation of God’s presence, a church service can be very deadly and dull. We go to church and we look bored—even when
we are supposed to be singing God’s praises. We look bored because we are
bored. If the truth were known, we are bored with God, but we are too pious to
admit it. I think God would love it if some honest soul would begin his or her
prayer by admitting, ”God, I am praying because I know
I should, but the truth is I do not want to pray. I am bored with the whole
thing!” I doubt if the Lord would be
angry at such candor. Rather, I believe He would think, ”Well,
there is hope for that person. That person is being truthful with Me. Most people are bored with Me
and will not admit it.”
Some people believe we are living in a kind of vacuum. They see this as an age
in which God is not revealing Himself. They think this is an interval between
the time when God spoke to mankind and the time future when He will again be a
speaking God. Do you suppose they think God has become tired and is resting for
a while? No, the God who spoke in the
past is speaking yet. He is speaking through the revelation of the risen and
ascended Christ, the eternal Son. In all the history of God’s dealings with
man, there has never been an utter blackout of God’s voice.
We should be thankful for this inspired letter to the Hebrews. It indicates
that what God is now saying to mankind through His Son far surpasses anything
in the world’s great varieties of human philosophies. God’s Word is not an
appeal to the reasoning mind of man. It is a matter to be taken into the heart
and soul.
Hebrews is a book and a message and a revelation. It stands high and lofty in
its own strength because it is a fitting, forceful portrait of the eternal Son,
the great High Priest of God forever and forever. I am sad because a large
number of professing Christians who have tried to study the letter have finally
given up. They have turned away with the very human comment, “This is too deep,
too hard to understand.”
We
must approach the Word expectantly
I have always felt that when we read and study the Word of God we should have
great expectations. We should ask the Holy Spirit to reveal the Person, the
glory and the eternal ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ. Perhaps our problem is
in our approach. Perhaps we have simply read our Bibles as we might read a piece
of literature or a textbook.
In today’s society, great numbers of people seem unable to deal with God’s
revelation in Christ. They run and hide, just as Adam and Eve did. Today,
however, they do not hide behind trees but behind such things as philosophy and
reason and even theology—believe it or not! This attitude is hard to
understand.
In Jesus’ death for our sins, God is offering far more than escape from a
much-deserved hell. God is promising us an amazing future, an eternal future.
We do not see it and understand it as we should because so much is wrong with
our world. The effects of sin are all around us. The eternal purposes of God
lie out yonder. I often wonder if we are making it plain enough to our
generation that there will be no other revelation from God except as He speaks
it through our Lord Jesus Christ.
If we have ever confessed that we need a Savior, this letter to the Hebrews
should be an arresting, compelling book for us. It is a great book of
redemption with an emphasis that all things in our lives must begin and end in
God. As we study God’s character and attributes, we will discover an important
fact. Time and space, matter and motion, life and law, form and order, all
purpose and all plan, all succession and all
procession begin and end with God. All things move out from God and return to
Him again.
I pray that God may open our eyes to see and understand that whatever does not
begin in God and end in God is not worthy of any attention from man made in the
image of God. We were made for God, to worship and admire and enjoy and serve
Him forever.
God
has always spoken to us
When the author of Hebrews wrote to declare that “in these last days” God was speaking
through His Son, he reminded us that for thousands of years God had been speaking
in many ways. Actually, there had been
some 4,000 years of human history during which God had been speaking to the
human race. It was a race that had separated itself from God, hiding in the
Garden of Eden and holding itself incognito ever since.
For most people in the first century of the Christian era, God was only a
tradition. Some fondled their man-made gods. Some had ideas of worship and even
built altars. Some mumbled incantations and said prayers. But they were
alienated from the true God. Although they were made in the image of God, they
had rejected their Creator, casting in their lot with mortality.
That situation might have continued until man or nature or both failed and were
no more. But God in love and wisdom came once more. He came to speak, revealing
Himself this time through His eternal Son. It is because of the coming of Jesus
into the world that we now look back on the revelation in the Old Testament as
fragmentary and incomplete. We could say that the Old Testament is like a house
without doors and windows. Not until the carpenters cut in doors and windows
can that house become a worthy, satisfying residence.
Years ago my family and I enjoyed Christian fellowship with a Jewish medical
doctor who had come to personal faith in Jesus, the Savior and Messiah. He
gladly discussed with me his previous participation in Sabbath services in the
synagogue. Often he had been asked to read from the Old Testament Scriptures.
“I often think back on those years of
reading from the Old Testament,” he told me. ”I had the haunting sense that it
was good and true. I knew it explained the history of my people. But I had the
feeling that something was missing.” Then, with a beautiful, radiant smile he
added, ”When I found Jesus as my personal Savior and
Messiah, I found Him to be the One to whom the Old Testament was in fact
pointing. I found Him to be the answer to my completion as a Jew, as a person
and as a believer.”
Whether Jew or Gentile, we were made originally in God’s image,
and the revelation of God by His Spirit is a necessity. An understanding of the
Word of God must come from the same Spirit who provided its inspiration.
The
purpose of Hebrews
The letter to the Hebrews was written to confirm the early Jewish Christians in
their faith in Jesus, the Messiah-Savior. The writer takes a recurring theme
that Jesus Christ is better because He is superior. Jesus Christ is the
ultimate Word from God!
This is a reassuring, strengthening message to us in our day. Hebrews lets us
know that while our Christian faith surely was foreshadowed in and grew out of
Judaism, it was not and is not dependent on Judaism. The words of our Lord
Jesus Christ, spoken while He was here on earth, still speak to us with
spiritual authority. At one time He reminded His disciples that new wine must
never be put in old, unelastic wineskins. The parable
was patent: the old religious forms and traditions could never contain the new
wine He was introducing.
He was saying that a fixed gulf exists between vital Christianity and the old
forms of Judaism. The Judaism of the Old Testament, with its appointed Mosaic
order, had indeed mothered Christianity. But just as the child progresses to
maturity and independence, so the Christian faith and the Christian evangel
were independent of Judaism. Even if Judaism should cease to exist,
Christianity as a revelation from God would—and does—stand firmly upon its own
solid foundation. It rests upon the same living, speaking God that Judaism
rested on.
It is important for us to understand that God, being one in His nature, is
always able to say the same thing to everyone who hears Him. He does not have
two different messages about grace or love or justice or holiness. Whether it be from the Father or the Son or the Holy Spirit, the
revelation will always be the same. It points in the same direction, though
using different ways and different means and different persons.
Begin in Genesis and continue through the Old and New Testaments and you will
perceive the uniformity. Yet there are ever-widening elements in God’s
revelation to mankind. In early Genesis the Lord spoke in terms of a coming
Messiah, foretelling a warfare between the serpent and
the Seed of the woman. He noted the victorious Champion-Redeemer who was to
come.
The Lord told Eve in very plain words of future human pain in childbearing and
of woman’s status in the family. He told Adam of the curse upon the ground and
of inevitable death as the result of transgression. To Abel and to Cain He
revealed a system of sacrifice and through it a plan of forgiveness and
acceptance.
God’s message to Noah was of grace and of the order of nature and government.
To Abraham He gave the promise of the coming Seed, the Redeemer who would make an atonement for the race. To Moses, He gave the Law and
told of the coming Prophet who was to be like Moses and yet superior to him.
Those were God’s spoken messages “in the past.”
God’s
message to us
Now, what is God saying to His human creation in our day and time? In brief, He
is saying, ”Jesus Christ is My beloved Son. Hear Him!”
The reason many do not want to hear what God is saying through Jesus to our
generation is not hard to guess. God’s message in Jesus is a moral
pronouncement. It brings to light such elements as faith and conscience and
conduct, obedience and loyalty. Men and women reject this message for the same
reason they have rejected all of the Bible. They do
not wish to be under the authority of the moral Word of God.
For centuries God spoke in many ways. He inspired holy men to write portions of
the message in a Book. People do not like it and try their best to avoid it
because God has made it the final test of all morality, the final test of all
Christian ethics.
Some are taking issue with the New Testament record. ”How can you prove that
Jesus actually said that?” they challenge. Perhaps they are taking issue
because they have come across the unforgettable words of Jesus in John’s
Gospel:
As for the person who hears my words but does not keep them, I do not judge
him. For I did not
come to judge the world, but to save it. There is a judge for the one who rejects me
and does not accept my words; that very word which I spoke will condemn him at
the last day. (John 12:47–48)
God is a living God and Jesus Christ, with all power and all authority, is at the
control panel, guiding and sustaining all things in the universe. That concept
is fundamental to the Christian faith. It is necessary that we really and fully
comprehend that our God is indeed the Majesty in the heavens.
Hebrews
reassures us
We can get this assurance from Hebrews, read in the context of the total
inspired record. And as we are assured of this, we will have discovered a
fundamental means of retaining our sanity in a troubled world and in a selfish
society.
If we are going to keep our minds restful at all, we will actually think God
into His world—not dismiss Him from His world, as many are trying to do. We
will allow Him by faith to be in our beings what He actually is in His world.
The idea that God exists and that He is sovereign in the heavens is absolutely
fundamental to human morality. Our view of human decency is also involved in
this. Decency is that quality which is proper or becoming. Human decency
depends upon an adequate and wholesome concept of God.
Those who take the position that there is no God cannot possibly hold a right
and proper view of human nature. That is evident in God’s revelation. There is
not a man or woman anywhere who can hold an adequate view of our human nature
until he or she accepts the fact that we came from God and that we shall return
to God again.
We who have admitted Jesus Christ into our lives as Savior and Lord are happy
indeed that we did so. In matters of health care, we are familiar with the
custom of a ”second opinion.” If I go to a doctor and
he or she advises me to have surgery, I can leave that office and consult with
another specialist about my condition. Concerning our decision to receive Jesus
Christ, we surely would have been ill-advised to go out and try to get a second
opinion! Jesus Christ is God’s last word to us. There is no other. God has
headed up all of our help and forgiveness and blessing in the person of Jesus
Christ, the Son.
In our dark day, God has given us Jesus as the Light of the world. Those who
refuse Him give themselves over to the outer darkness that will prevail
throughout the eternal ages.
We may not like what the Great Physician tells us about ourselves and our sin.
But where else can we go? Peter supplied the answer to that question. ”’Lord,’
he said, ‘to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We believe
and know that you are the Holy One of God’.”
This is the Savior whom God is offering. He is the eternal Son, equal to the
Father in His Godhead, co-eternal and of one substance with the Father.
He is speaking. We should listen!
CHAPTER 3 – Jesus, Heir of All
Things
Rebellion and sin have left a monstrous blight upon the earth that God created.
But we who have come to trust this Creator God and the written revelation He
has left for us are convinced of two truths. One, heaven and earth are a unity,
designed and created by the one God. Two, this sovereign God did not make the
universe to be an everlasting contradiction; a day of restoration lies ahead.
When we approach the letter to the Hebrews, we discover a revealed truth within
the writer’s insistence that God has appointed Jesus, the eternal Son, “through whom he
made the universe,” as “heir of all
things” (1:2).
With that expression, the writer is asking us to stretch our minds and expand
our understanding. See it again: God has appointed His Son, our Lord Jesus
Christ, the One who made the worlds in space, to be the eternal heir of “all things.”
Perhaps in our day and age it does not sound very important that Christ is the
heir of all things. That is because we may be applying our own restricted
meaning to the words “all things.” We use the expression to denote
the circumstances of life as they come along, easy or hard, simple or complex.
But in these opening lines of the Hebrews letter the Holy Spirit is trying to
give us a particular and significant meaning for the ”all things” that are
committed to Jesus Christ.
“All things” equals the universe
When the words all things are used in the Bible as they are found here, they
are the theological equivalent of the word ”universe”
as used by the philosophers. Admittedly, this is not an easy concept for us to
grasp. We are not used to stretching our minds! The preachers of our generation
are failing us. They are not forcing us to crank up our minds and to exercise
our souls in the contemplation of God’s eternal themes.
Too many preachers are satisfied to dwell primarily on the escape element in
Christianity. I acknowledge that the escape element is real. No one is more sure of it than I. I am going to escape a much-deserved
hell because of Christ’s death on the cross and His resurrection from the
grave. But if we continue to emphasize that truth to the exclusion of all else,
Christian believers will never fully grasp what the Scriptures are teaching us
about all of the eternal purposes of God.
This same observation is true also of those who are intrigued with just
the social and ethical aspects of Christianity. These may be very fulfilling
and engaging, but if that is where we stop, we will never comprehend the
greater promises and the loftier plans of the God who loves us and who has
called us.
We
must get serious
As I have said before, for a great number of unthinking people Christianity has
come down to this: a nice, simple, relaxing way of having good clean fun, with
the assurance that when this earthly life is over we will still go to heaven.
We need to take ourselves by the scruff of the neck and vow,
”I am going to think this thing through! I am going to pray through and
lay hold of God’s meaning for my life, for my witness and for my future!” Our
Lord is trying to show us His amazing and significant plans for our eternal
future.
In our relationships down here on earth, we learn of a father who has decided
he will prepare an inheritance for his son. He is going to arrange for his son
to come into possession of all that is in his estate: properties, bank
accounts, stocks and bonds, possessions. The son will receive title to the
entire estate when the inheritance becomes effective. Think of it! The son is coming
into an inheritance none of which he ever owned or possessed.
But that is not the case with the title and possessions and authority and power
of our Lord Jesus Christ. Already He is Lord. As the risen, eternal Son, He is
seated in the heavenlies awaiting
the day of universal consummation. In his Gospel, the apostle John has
introduced us to the eternal Son, who from the beginning was the Word of God:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
He was with God in the beginning.
Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been
made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. (John 1:1–4)
Before there was an atom or a molecule, before there was a star or a galaxy,
before there was light or motion, before there was matter or mass, the eternal
Son was God. He was. He existed. He would have been there even if there had not
been accretion, for He was the self-existent God. Therefore, all thing sin all
places have always belonged to Him.
God
has a master plan
God is planning to do some wonderful and spectacular things with His vast
creation. Paul, in his letter to the Ephesians, gave us a little glimpse into
the future of the redeemed:
He has made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure,
which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times will have
reached their fulfillment—to bring all things in heaven and on earth together
under one head, even Christ. (Ephesians 1:9–10)
The apostle is assuring us that even as an architect builder gathers the
necessary materials needed to fashion the structure he has designed, so God
will gather all things together. And how will He do that? By
”bringing all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even
Christ.” If we will give the Scriptures attention, we will learn from them that
a great future day is coming in which God will prove the essential unity of His
creation. That spectacular display will be correlated and fulfilled in the
person of our Lord Jesus Christ. God will make it plain that all things have
derived their form from Christ; they have received their meaning by the power
of His word; and they have maintained their place and order through Him.
Jesus Christ is God creating.
Jesus
Christ is God redeeming.
Jesus
Christ is God completing and harmonizing.
Jesus
Christ is God bringing together all things after the counsel of His own will.
Not
yet do we see it
After that flight of anticipation for a future still coming, I must admit that
we earthbound creatures do not yet see it or sense it like that. Let me speak
again of our acknowledged human shortcomings, even those that have to do with
our faith. It is very hard for us to envision the risen Christ Jesus as He is
now glorified at the right hand of the Majesty on high. At best
”we see but a poor reflection” (1 Corinthians 13:12). At worst we are
stone blind!
Not always can we see the hand of God in the things around us. We experience in
this life only unfinished segments of God’s great eternal plan. We do not see
the hosts of heaven in the ”cloud of witnesses” around
us. We do not see the ”spirits of righteous men made
perfect” (Hebrews 12:23) or the beckoning row on row of principalities or the
shining ranks of powers throughout the universe. In this time of our
incompleteness, we do not comprehend the glory that will be ours in that future
day when leaning on the arm of our heavenly Bridegroom we are led into the
presence of the Father in heaven with exceeding joy.
We do our best to exercise faith. Yet we see the future consummation only dimly
and imperfectly. The writer to the Hebrews has tried to help us in the proper
exercise of our faith. He has done so with his amazing statement that our Lord
Jesus Christ is the heir of all things in God’s far-flung creation.
It is a concept having to do with everything that God has made in His vast
universe. Everything has been ordered, created and laid out so that it becomes
the garment of Deity or the universal living expression of Himself to the
world.
When we read that God has appointed Jesus, the Son, to be the heir of all
things, the reference is to the whole creation of God as it will be seen in its
future, ultimate perfection. We cannot believe that God has left anything to
chance in His creative scheme. That includes everything from the tiniest blade
of grass on earth to the mightiest galaxy in the distant heavens above.
All
things—what is included?
”Heir of all things.” What does that phrase really
include? It includes angels, seraphim, cherubim, ransomed men and women of all
ages, matter, mind, law, spirit, value, meaning. It
includes life and events on the varied levels of being. It includes all of
these and more—and God’s great interest embraces them all!
Are you beginning to gain a new appreciation of God’s great universal purpose?
I am not simply assuming the role of philosopher. The purpose of God is to
bring together—to acquaint all rational beings with all other segments within
His complex creation. I repeat that I believe in the essential unity of all
God’s creation. Thus, I believe a day is coming when each part of God’s
creation will recognize its own essential oneness with very other part. Toward
that day the whole creation is moving.
When I wrote about this concept in an editorial in Alliance Life, a reader
hastened to accuse me of being pantheistic. I am not pantheistic. And the
essential unity of God’s creation is not pantheism. Pantheism teaches that God
is all things and that all things are God. According to pantheism, if you want to
know what God is you must come to know all things.
Then, if you could put all things in your arms, you would have God. Pantheism
is ridiculous—claiming and teaching that all things are God.
God is imminent in His universe. That I believe. But beyond that, He is
transcendent above His universe and infinitely separated from it, for He is the
Creator God.
Not
a new concept
These basic concepts—the mysteries of creation and God’s unity forever
displayed in His works—are not new. They were believed by the great Christian
souls and minds of the earlier centuries. One of the notable Scottish Moravian
authors was James Montgomery. Out of his writing comes this beautiful poem
expressing the unity he sensed in God’s creation:
The glorious universe around,
The
heavens with all their train,
Sun,
moon and stars are firmly bound
In one mysterious chain.
The
earth, the ocean and the sky
To
form one world agree;
Where
all that walk or swim or fly
Compose
one family.
God
in creation must display
His
wisdom and His might;
Where
all His works with all His ways
Harmoniously
unite.
We are only too aware that the universe as we know it is in discord. On every
side sounds the raucous rattle of sin. But in that coming day sin will be
purged away and all things that walk, creep, crawl, swim or fly will be found
to comprise one family indeed.
And
the church, too
Allow me one more point. I want to say something about the body of Christian
believers and this universal unity that one day will be established in the
person of Jesus Christ. If I could ask, ”Do you
believe in the communion of saints?” what would be your reply? Would the
question make you uncomfortable?
I suspect many Protestants would chide me right here, feeling I was getting too
close to doctrinal beliefs held by ecumenists or perhaps by Catholics. I am not
referring to ecumenicity and dreams of organizational church union. I am gazing
ahead in faith to God’s great day of victory, harmony and unity, when sin is no
longer present in the creation. In that great coming day of consummation, the
children of God—the believing family of God—will experience a blessed harmony
and communion of the Spirit. I surely agree with the foresight of the English
poet, John Brighton, who caught a glimpse of a coming day of fellowship among
the people of God. He wrote:
In one eternal bond of love,
One
fellowship of mind,
The
saints below and saints above
Their
bliss and glory find.
I believe that is scriptural. I do not think anyone should throw out the great
doctrine of the communion of saints just because the ecumenists embrace it.
Some
day we will comprehend
The unity of all things in Christ is a concept every believer should lay hold
of. When we witness the future day of Christ’s triumph, when He returns and we
reach the consummation of all things, then we will fully comprehend the
necessity for the “all things” in God’s eternal plan.
Many people are having their greatest battles over their deepening sense of
futility and uselessness. It is important that we grasp God’s revelation that
every one of us is essential to His great plan for the ages. You will seek
answers in vain from fellow men and women. Seek your answers rather from God
and His Word. He is sovereign; He is still running His world.
God wants us to know that He must have all the parts in order to compose His
great eternal symphony. He would have us assured that each one of us is
indispensable to His grand theme!
Jesus, God’s Express Image
I wish I could comprehend everything that the inspired Word is trying to reveal
in the statement that Jesus, the eternal Son, is the ”radiance
of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being” (Hebrews 1:3). This
much I do know and understand: Jesus Christ is Himself God. As a believer and a
disciple, I rejoice that the risen, ascended Christ is now my High Priest and
intercessor at the heavenly throne.
The writer to the Hebrews commands our attention with this descriptive,
striking language:
In these last days has spoke to us by his Son,… [who is] the radiance of God’s glory and the exact
representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word.
(Hebrews 1:2-3)
We trust the Scriptures because we believe they are inspired—God-breathed.
Because we believe them, we believe and confess that Jesus was very God of very
God.
Nothing anywhere in this vast, complex world is as beautiful and as compelling
as the record of the Incarnation, the act by which God was made flesh to dwell
among us in our own human history. This Jesus, the Christ of God, who made the
universe and who sustains all things by his powerful word, was a tiny babe
among us. He was comforted to sleep when He whimpered in His mother’s arms.
Great, indeed, is the mystery of godliness.
Yet, in this context, some things strange and tragic have been happening in
recent years within Christianity. For one, some ministers have advised their
congregations not to be greatly concerned if theologians dispute the virgin
birth of Jesus. The issue, they say, is not important. For another thing, some
professing Christians are saying they do not want to be pinned down as to what
they really believe about the uniqueness and reality of the deity of Jesus, the
Christ.
We
are convinced
We live in a society where we cannot always be sure that traditional
definitions still hold. But I stand where I always have stood. And the genuine
believer, no matter where he may be found in the world, humbly but surely is
convinced about the person and position of Jesus Christ. Such a believer lives
with calm and confident assurance that Jesus Christ is truly God and that He is
everything the inspired writer said He is. He is “the radiance of God’s glory and the
exact representation of his being.”
This view of Christ in Hebrews harmonizes with and supports what Paul said of
Jesus when he described Him as ”the image of the
invisible God, the firstborn over all creation”(Colossians 1:15), in whom “all
the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form” (2:9).
Bible-believing Christians stand together on this. They may have differing
opinions about the mode of baptism, church polity or the return of the Lord.
But they agree on the deity of the eternal Son. Jesus Christ is of one
Substance with the Father—begotten, not created (Nicene Creed). In our defense
of this truth we must be very careful and very bold—belligerent, if need be.
The more we study the words of our Lord Jesus Christ when He lived on earth
among us, the more certain we are about who He is. Some critics have protested, ”Jesus did not claim to be God, you know. He only said He
was the Son of Man.”
It is true that Jesus used the term Son of Man frequently. If I can say it
reverently, He seemed proud or at least delighted that He was a man, the Son of
man. But He testified boldly, even among those who were His sworn enemies, that
He was God. He said with great forcefulness that He had come from the Father in
heaven and that He was equal with the Father.
We know what we believe. Let no one with soft words and charming
persuasion argue us into admission that Jesus Christ
is any less than very God of very God.
God became flesh in Jesus Christ
The writer of Hebrews was informing the persecuted, discouraged Jewish
Christians concerning God’s final and complete revelation in Jesus Christ. He
spoke of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Then he declared that Another had come. Although made flesh, He was none other
than this same God. Not the Father, for God the Father was never incarnated and
never will be. Rather, He is God the eternal Son, the radiance of the Father’s
glory and the exact representation of His being.
Something has happened to the word glory, especially as it relates to the
description of deity. Glory is one of those beautiful, awesome words that have
been dragged down until they have lost much of their meaning. The old artists
may have had something to do with it, depicting the glory of Jesus Christ as a
luminous halo—a shining neon hoop around His head. But the glory of Jesus
Christ was never a luminous ring around the head. It was never a misty yellow
light.
We
are inclined to irreverence
I have a difficult time excusing our careless and irreverent attitudes
concerning our Lord and Savior. I feel strongly that worshipping Christians
should never be guilty of using a theological word or expression in a popular
or careless sense unless we explain what we are doing. It is only proper when
we speak of the glory of God the Son to actually refer to that uniqueness of
His person and character that excites our admiration and wonder.
To those who love this One and serve Him, His glory does not mean yellow light
or neon hoops. His true glory is that which causes the heavenly beings to cover
their faces in His presence. It brings forth their worshipful praise: ”Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God of hosts!” The glory of
the Lord is that forth-shining that gives Him universal praise. It demands love
and worship from His created beings. It makes Him known throughout His
creation.
It
is the character of God that is the glory of God.
God is not glorified until men and women think gloriously of Him. Yet it is not
what people think of God that matters. God once dwelt in light which no one
could approach. But He desired to speak, to express Himself. So He created the
heavens and the earth, filling earth with His creatures, including mankind. He
expected man to respond to that in Him which is glorious, admirable and
excellent.
That response from His creation in love and worship is His glory. When we say
that Christ is the radiance of God’s glory, we are saying that Christ is the
shining forth of all that God is. Yes, He is the shining forth, the effulgence.
When God expressed Himself, it was in Christ Jesus. Christ was all and in all.
He is the exact representation of God’s person.
“Exact
representation,” “person”
The word person in this context is difficult of comprehension. Church history testifies
to the difficulties theologians have had with it. Sometimes the person of God
has been called substance. Sometimes it has been called essence. The Godhead
cannot be comprehended by the human mind. But the eternal God sustains,
upholds, stands beneath all that composes the vast
created universe. And Jesus Christ has been presented to us as the exact
representation of God’s person—all that God is.
The words exact representation, of course, have their
origin in the pressed-upon-wax seal that authenticated a dignitary’s document
or letter. The incarnate Jesus Christ gives visible shape and authenticity to
deity. When the invisible God became visible, He was Jesus Christ. When the God
who could not be see nor touched came to dwell among
us, He was Jesus Christ.
I have not suggested this picture of our Lord Jesus Christ as a kind of
theological argument. I am simply trying to state, in the best way I can, what
the Holy Spirit has spoken through the consecrated writer of the letter to the
Hebrews.
What
is God like?
What is God like? Throughout the ages, that question has been asked by more
people than any other. Our little children are only a few years old when they
come in their innocent simplicity and inquire of us, ”What
is God like?” Philip the apostle asked it for himself and for all mankind: ”`Show us the Father and that will be enough for us’”
(John 14:8). Philosophers repeatedly have asked the question. Religionists and
thinkers have wrestled with it for millenniums.
Paul preached at
Sin has made man like a bird without a tongue. It has within itself the
instinct and the desire to sing, but not the ability. The poet Keats expressed
beautifully, even brilliantly, the fantasy of the nightingale that had lost its
tongue. Not being able to express the deep instinct to sing, the bird died of
an over-powering suffocation within.
Eternity
in our hearts
God made mankind in His own image. He ”set eternity in
the hearts of men” (Ecclesiastes 3:11). What a graphic picture! How much it
explains ourselves to us! We are creatures of time—time in our hands, our feet,
our bodies—that causes us to grow old and to die. Yet all the while we have
eternity in our hearts!
One of our great woes as fallen people living in a fallen world is the constant
warfare between the eternity in our hearts and the time in our bodies. This is
why we can never be satisfied without God. This is why the question
”What is God like?” continues to spring from every one of us. God has
set the values of eternity in the hearts of every person made in His image.
As human beings, we have ever tried to satisfy ourselves by maintaining a
quest, a search. We have not forgotten that God was. We have only forgotten
what God is like.
Philosophy has tried to give us answers. But the philosophical concepts
concerning God have always been contradictory. The philosopher is like a blind
person trying to paint someone’s portrait. The blind person can feel the face
of his subject and try to put some brush strokes on canvas. But the project is
doomed before it is begun. The best that philosophy can do is to feel the face
of the universe in some ways, then try to paint God as
philosophy sees Him. Most philosophers
confess belief in a “presence” somewhere in the universe. Some call it a “law”—or
“energy” or “mind” or “essential virtue.” Thomas Edison said if he lived long
enough, he thought he could invent an instrument so sensitive that it could
find God.
Religions
have no answers
The religions of the world have always endeavored to give answers concerning
God. The Pharisees, for example, declare that God is light. So they worship the
sun and fire and forms of light. Other religions have suggested that God is
conscience, or that He may be found in virtue. For some religions, there is
solace in the belief that God is a principle upholding the universe.
There are religions that teach that God is all justice. They live in terror.
Others say that God is all love. They become arrogant. Like the philosophers,
religionists have concepts and views, ideas and theories. In none of them has
mankind found satisfaction.
Greek paganism had a pantheon of gods. They saw the sun rising in the east and
moving westward in a blaze of fire and called it Apollo. They heard the wind
roaring along the sea coast and named her Eos, mother of the winds and the
stars. They saw the waters of the ocean churning themselves
into foam and named him Neptune. They imagined a goddess hovering over the
fruitful fields of grain each year and gave her the name Ceres.
Given such a pagan outlook, there is no end to the fantasies of gods and
goddesses. In Romans 1 God has described the human condition that incubates
such aberrations. Men and women, intrigued by their sin, did not want the
revelation of a living, speaking God. They deliberately ignored the only true
God, crowded Him out of their lives. In His place they invented gods of their
own: birds and animals and reptiles.
Often enough we have been warned that the morality of any nation or
civilization will follow its concepts of God. A parallel truth is less often
heard: When a church begins to think impurely and inadequately about God,
decline sets in.
We must think nobly and speak worthily of God. Our God is sovereign. We would
do well to follow our old-fashioned forebears who knew what it was to kneel in
breathless, wondering adoration in the presence of the God who is willing to
claim us as His own through grace.
Jesus
is what God is like
Some are still asking, “What is God like?” God Himself has given us a final, complete
answer. Jesus said, “Anyone who has seen
me has seen the Father,” (John 14:9).
For those of us who have put our faith in Jesus Christ, the quest of the ages
is over. Jesus Christ, the eternal Son, came to dwell among us, being ”the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation
of his being.” For us, I say, the quest is over because God has now revealed
Himself to us. What Jesus is, the Father is. Whoever looks on the Lord Jesus
Christ looks upon all of God. Jesus is God thinking God’s thoughts. Jesus is
God feeling the way God feels. Jesus is God now doing what God does.
In John’s Gospel, we have the record of Jesus telling the people of His day
that He could do nothing of Himself. He said, ”`The Son can do nothing by
himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the
Father does the Son also does’” (John 5:19). It was on the strength of such
testimony that the Jewish leaders wanted to stone Him for blasphemy.
How strange it is that some of the modern cults try to tell us that Jesus
Christ never claimed to be God. Yet those who heard Him 2,000 years ago wanted
to kill Him on the spot because He claimed to be one with the Father.
In
Jesus the revelation is complete
God’s revelation of Himself is complete in Jesus Christ, the Son. No longer
need we ask, “What
is God like?” Jesus is God. He has translated God into terms we can understand.
We know how He feels toward a fallen woman: ”`Neither
do I condemn you,’ Jesus declared. `Go now and leave your life of sin’” (John
8:11).
We know how He feels toward fishermen and workmen and common people: ”`Come, follow me,’ Jesus said, `and I will make you
fishers of men’” (Mark 1:17).
We know what God thinks of babies and little children: ”Jesus
said, `Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the
kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these’”(Matthew 19:14).
Jesus has been in our world. He spoke and taught about all these things and
about everything that concerns us. The record shows that His listeners were
amazed and astonished, almost to the point of being frightened. ”The crowds
were amazed at his teaching, because he taught as one who had authority”
(Matthew 7:28–29). ”`No one ever spoke the way this man does’” (John 7:46).
When you read your New Testament and realize afresh the attitudes and the
utterances of our Lord Jesus Christ, you will know exactly how God feels. Where
can we look in all the vast creation around us to find anything as beautiful—as
utterly, awesomely, deeply beautiful—as the Incarnation? God became flesh to
dwell among us, to redeem us, to restore us, to save us completely. Young or
old or in between, we join in Lowell Mason’s hymn of praise:
O could I speak the matchless worth,
O could I sound the
glories forth
Which in my Savior shine,
I’d soar and touch the
heavenly strings,
And vie with Gabriel
while he sings
In notes almost divine.
I’d sing the characters
He bears,
And all the forms of love
He wears,
Exalted on His throne:
In loftiest songs of
sweetest praise,
I would to everlasting
days
Make all His glories
known.
There is a closing stanza which anticipates the welcome we shall receive in
heaven and the everlasting career awaiting us there:
Soon the delightful day will come
When
my dear Lord will bring me home,
And
I shall see His face:
Then
with my Savior, Brother, Friend,
A
blest eternity I’ll spend,
Triumphant in His grace.
The convinced man who breathed those words was saying that Jesus is God! And
the world above and the poorer world beneath join in response: “Amen, amen! Jesus is God!”
Jesus, Lord of the Angels
Our Protestant churches have never been very enthusiastic about
the Bible references to the many kind s of angels and angelic beings which make
up the Lord’s heavenly host. Because we do not see them, we generally do not
discuss them. There seem to be many Christians who are not sure what they
should believe about God’s heavenly messengers.
In short, where the matter of Bible teaching about angels is concerned, we have
come into a sad state of neglect and ignorance.
Personally, I despise the cynical references to angels and the comic jokes
about them. The preacher who reported his guardian angel had had a hard time
keeping up with him as he sped over the highway spoke in bad taste and probably
in ignorance. If that is the best a preacher can say about the guardian angels
or God’s angelic host, he needs to go back to his Bible.
The writer of the letter to the Hebrews gives his readers a vivid, vital
portrait of Jesus, the eternal Son. He knows their familiarity, through the Old
Testament, with the concept and ministry of angels. He trades on that knowledge
to point out the overwhelming superiority of the victorious Jesus as He minister sin the heavenly world above:
Again, when God brings his first-born into the world, he says,
“Let
all God’s angels worship him.”
In speaking of the angels he says,
“He
makes his angels winds,
his servants flames of fire.”
But about the Son he says,
“Your
throne, O God, will last for ever and ever,
and righteousness will be the scepter of
your kingdom.” (Hebrews 1:6–8)
In this revealing comparison between angels and the Messiah-Savior, Jesus
Christ, we need to bear in mind that the ministries of angels were very well
known and highly respected among the Jews. It should be of great significance
to us, then, that the writer would assure them that Jesus our Lord is
infinitely above and superior to the brightest angels who inhabit the
The
readers needed encouragement
This full- orbed vision of the glories and credentials of Jesus Christ was
needed just then by the persecuted Hebrew Christians. And to us in this 20th
century of the Christian church, the same revelation comes with God’s authority
and meaning. The word that assured the Hebrews reveals to us that the eternal
Son was preeminent above Abraham, above Moses, above Aaron and the priests of
the Old Testament era.
Much of our Bible study tends to be one-sided. We choose to read what we like.
We neglect those portions that seem to have less interest for us. Do you agree?
Among Protestant Christians for several years there has been a rather
mystifying psychology. Our Roman Catholic neighbors in their hymnody and
teaching have given considerable recognition to the holy angels. Protestants
seem to have reacted in a reverse way. It is as though we have decided to say
nothing at all about the angels.
In Old Testament times and in the early Christian church, there were churchmen
and scholars who gave much attention to matters relating to angelic hosts and
their appearance. When Paul spoke of the creation to the Colossians, he
mentioned both the visible and the invisible world, naming thrones, powers,
rulers, authorities (Colossians 1:16). Often these have been perceived of as
ranks or degrees of angelic beings and their authority and power.
Paul mentioned the existence of archangels in the heavens when he wrote to the
Thessalonians. ”The Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud
command, with the voice of the archangel” (1 Thessalonians 4:16). No, we are
not prepared to argue against the reality of either the visible or the
invisible world. Because the religion of the Hebrews was divinely given, it
reflected the two worlds accurately.
Science
demands measurable evidence
Consider why we think like we do in today’s society. We are participants in a
new age—a scientific age, an atomic age, a space age. We have been conditioned
by our sciences. No longer have we any great sense of wonder or appreciation
for what God continues to do in His creation. Amid our complex engineering and
technological accomplishments, it is difficult for us to lookout on God’s world
as we should.
As believers in God and in His plan for mankind, we must not yield to the
philosophies that surround us. We have a God-given message to proclaim to our
generation: The world was made by Almighty God. It bears the stamp of deity
upon it and within it.
An architect leaves his stamp upon the great buildings he has designed. A
notable artist leaves his mark and personality on his paintings. The same
principle applies to the visible and invisible worlds. We call them two worlds,
although probably they are but one. God’s stamp as designer and creator is
there, just as His own mark and personality can be found throughout the sacred
Scriptures.
God has told us much about His invisible world and kingdom. In that telling He
has revealed many things about the heavenly beings that do His will.
Angels are an order of transcendent beings. They are shown to be holy and they
are shown to be sexless. Jesus in His earthly ministry, speaking of the
resurrection and the coming kingdom, said that we will be without sexual
identification in that heavenly abode—“like the angels’” (Mark 12:25). But we
will not become angels in the life to come, contrary to what some have believed
since childhood. God makes it clear that we do not change from one species to
another. We are redeemed human beings, and we look forward in faith to the day
of our resurrection and glorification as redeemed human beings. Angels are one
order of created being; humans are another (Hebrews 2:16).
Angels
and Christians
We are probably most familiar with angels as a result of the
Christmas story. They heralded Jesus’ birth. “Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host
appeared with the angel, praising God …” (Luke 2:13). Jesus Himself spoke of “legions” of angels. ” “Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and
he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels?” (Matthew 26:53). The writer to the Hebrews
refers to their number as “thousands upon thousands” (Hebrews 12:22). And David
the psalmist refers to “the chariots of God” as numbering ”tens
of thousands / and thousands of thousands” (Psalm 68:17). No one is able to
answer conclusively why God made the heavenly host so numerous.
Going back into the Old Testament, we note that angels apparently had some
function at the creation. In His conversation with Job, God spoke of laying
earth’s “cornerstone” and remarked that ”all the
angels shouted for joy” (Job 38:7). Angels figured in the giving of the Law at
Sinai. “The law,” wrote the apostle Paul, “was put into effect through angels
by a mediator”(Galatians 3:19).
An angel—Gabriel by name—appeared to the virgin Mary with the announcement that
she would give birth to a Son whom she was to name Jesus (Luke 1:26–31). In
telling the story of Lazarus, the destitute beggar, Jesus declared that “angels
carried him to Abraham’s side” (Luke 16:22). It is a picture almost reminiscent
of the ”ticker tape” parades welcoming our nation’s
heroes. That righteous beggar was escorted into the precincts of heaven with
the angels leading the procession. I am convinced that the angels of God have a
large role in preserving the righteous. Although most of us do not talk about
it, Jesus said of the children, “Their angels in heaven always see the
face of my Father in heaven” (Matthew 18:10).
In all that Jesus said about angels, no words are more significant for us
members of a fallen race than His statement that ”there
is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents”
(Luke 15:10).
We read with tender feeling of Jesus’ agony and stress as He prayed in the
At Jesus’ resurrection, angels were much in evidence. An angel rolled the stone
from the tomb’s entrance. Angels announced to Jesus’ distraught followers the
joyful tidings of His resurrection.
Anyone who wants to can put a film of unbelief over his or her eyes and thus
deny the existence and activity of angels. But in doing so, he or she is
denying clear biblical teaching.
Some protest the discussion of angels, saying, ”Let’s
be practical!” By which they mean, ”Let’s limit our
considerations to three-dimensional, sense-perceived objects.” There is a day
coming when the answers to our questions will be plain. On that day we will
discover that the ministries of the angelic beings are indeed practical and
very real.
I
have never seen an angel
Now, you probably are wondering how much personal experience I have had with angelic
beings. ”Have I ever seen an angel?”
I have never seen an angel. Nor have I ever claimed to be a visionary person.
My calling has been to pray and study and to try to find from the Scriptures
what God is doing and what He has promised to do. I proclaim the teaching of
the Scriptures that the angels of God are busy in their special ministries. I
base that observation on the Word of God, not upon any facet of my own human
experience.
The Bible does not tell any of us to spend our time trying to get in touch with
angels. It does tell us that angels exist and that they are busy. Their
activity is frequently mentioned in the Scriptures. I am not going to skip over
those references, ignoring them, as some do.
At times we talk about the providential care of God without really knowing what
we say and what we mean. Some Christians testify to ”coincidences”
in their lives—perhaps two very important things occurring at just the right
time and place. Hundreds of years ago Thomas Aquinas wrote to the Christian church,
saying, ”The function of God’s angels is to execute
the plan of divine providence, even in earthly things.” Then John Calvin
followed with his teaching that ”angels are the
dispensers and administrators of the divine beneficence toward us.”
God has His own ways and means of working out His plans on behalf of His
believing children. We ought not to ask the Lord for a printed list of rules
about His providences and guidance. As we trust in the Spirit, live in the
Spirit and walk in the Spirit, we will realize that God is always on our side.
Angels
in disguise
This was true in my own experience. After I had found the Lord as a youth, I
was attending a church that seemed to be of very little spiritual help to me.
Actually, it was the kind of church in which it would be easy to backslide. One
Sunday morning I awoke in a bad mood. ”I am not going to church today!” I
decided. So I went for a walk in the country. I did not have any golf clubs to
use as an excuse. Neither did I tell the Lord I was going to worship amid the
beauties of nature. I knew within myself that I really was backsliding—going in
the wrong direction that Sunday morning.
I turned aside to walk through a grassy field. In the middle of the field my
foot suddenly kicked something hidden in the grass—something red. I stooped and
picked up an old red-bound book. It looked as if it had been in the rain, had
dried out, had been rained on again and dried out again. The book was not some
old literary classic. It was not a discarded book of cheap fiction. It was a
Christian handbook: a thousand questions and answers for anyone interested in
Bible study.
I opened it. And after I had scanned a few pages of biblical teaching, I became
impressed by the fact that I should have been in church with other believers
that morning. I threw the book back on the ground and started for home,
wondering who had put such a message directly in the way of a discouraged
Christian boy who was too gloomy to go to church.
I am not saying that the book was placed there by an angel or some other
heavenly visitor in just the right spot. In all likelihood it was dropped in
that place by someone who had chanced to pass through the field. But in the
providence of God it was that day the reminder I needed of the goodness and
faithfulness of God in my life.
I recall still another personal experience during my early Christian life as an
unsettled young man. Actually, I was doing some “bumming around,” as we used to
say. I was away from home, away from the church and away from everything that
was right. I would spend weekends “riding the rods.” I had little money, and I
would hitch free rides on the freight trains, riding the rods under the
boxcars.
The Lord chose a particular Sunday to teach me the lesson I had to learn. I do
not remember now which town was involved, but I was involved and so was the
Lord. The freight train slowed down, then braked to a stop. The car that I was
riding halted directly alongside a church yard. The train had hardly stopped
when the church bells began to ring. They rang more loudly and more insistently
than any bells I have heard before or since!
I have sat under strong preaching, but never has a preacher laid conviction on
my soul like those church bells did that Sunday morning. I do not know if they
were Methodist or Presbyterian or Anglican church
bells. But they reminded me that I should not be riding freight trains. Rather,
I should be back where I belonged. And, believe me, very soon I was back where
I belonged—and straightened out spiritually, too!
How was all of that arranged? The right day, the right hour, the right place.
If I had walked up to the engineer to inquire if he was an angel, he probably
would have smiled, spit some tobacco juice over the cab window sill and replied, ”Not that I know of!” But this I am sure of: when that
engineer put on those brakes, it was by the providence of God that I would be
halted practically in a church yard, with the bells pleading,
”Go back, young man! Go back, young man.”
God
knows us well
My point is that God knows us so well that He does a number of little
providential things at the very moment of our need. We think we have planned
and executed everything all by ourselves. We are not aware that it has been
God’s plan and that He has been out there ahead of us the whole time.
It was some years later, as I read Psalm 71 in the familiar King James Version,
that I noticed for the first time the words, ”Thou hast given commandment to
save me” (71:2). My heart has been warm ever since with that thought. God has
sent His Word throughout all of the earth to save me. You may be critical if
you wish. Do with that text as you will. You may even have some theological
problem with it. But God has “given commandment,” and these words are for me!
God saw me, a lonely, lost boy in rural western
Nothing can compare with this knowledge. God and His Word are on my side. The
living Word of God has charged Himself with the responsibility to forgive me,
to cleanse me, to perfect that which concerns me and to keep me in the way
everlasting.
We are living in a world full of God’s created beings—many of them not seen by
us or those around us. We ought to thank God for the angels and for God’s
providential circumstances everyday. As one of the old saints long ago
remarked, “If you will thank God for your providences, you will never lack a
providence to thank God for!”
Jesus, Standard of Righteousness
The message of the first century Hebrew Christians was precise and direct: Let
Jesus Christ be your motivation to love righteousness and to hate iniquity. In
our present century our spiritual obligations and responsibilities are no
different. The character and attributes of Jesus, the eternal Son, have not
changed and will not change.
But about the Son he says,
“Your
throne, O God, will last for ever and ever,
and righteousness will be the scepter of
your kingdom.
You
have loved righteousness and hated wickedness;
therefore God, your God, has set
you above your companions
by anointing you with the oil of joy.” (Hebrews 1:8–9)
Without
excuse
There is a tendency for people to relegate everything in the realm of righteousness
or iniquity to deity, whatever their concept of deity may be. For the true
Christian, however, our risen Lord made a promise to us before His death and
resurrection. That promise effectively removes our excuses and makes us
responsible:
When he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will
not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you
what is yet to come. He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and
making it known to you. All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I
said the Spirit will take from what is mine and make it known to you. (John
16:13–15)
I will readily admit that we are not God. We cannot do in ourselves what God
can do. But God created us as human beings, and if we have the anointing of the
Holy Spirit and His presence in our lives, we should be able to do what Jesus,
the Son of Man, was able to do in His earthly ministry.
Please do not close this book and turn away when I tell you of my persuasion. I
am persuaded that our Lord Jesus, while He was on earth, did not accomplish His
powerful deeds in the strength of His deity. I believe He did them in the
strength and authority of His Spirit-anointed humanity.
My reasoning is this: If Jesus had come to earth and performed His ministry in
the power of His deity, what He did would have been accepted as a matter of
course. Cannot God do anything He wants to do? No one would have questioned His
works as the works of deity. But Jesus veiled His deity and ministered as a
man. It is noteworthy, however, that He did not begin His ministry—His deeds of
authority and power—until He had been anointed with the Holy Spirit.
I know there are erudite scholars and theological experts who will dispute my
conclusion. Nevertheless, I hold it true. Jesus Christ, in the power and
authority of His Spirit—anointed humanity, stilled the waves, quieted the
winds, healed the sick, gave sight to the blind, exercised complete authority
over demons and raised the dead. He did all the miraculous things He was moved
to do among men not as God, which would not have been miraculous at all, but as
a Spirit-anointed man. Remarkable!
This is why I say that Jesus Christ has taken away our human excuses forever.
He limited Himself to the same power available to any one of us, the power of
the Holy Spirit. Review with me the message of the apostle Peter to Cornelius
and his Gentile household:
God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power,… he went around
doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God
was with him.(Acts 10:38)
The letter to the Hebrews says the anointing God placed upon Jesus was an
anointing above His fellows. It is my feeling that the “anointing above His
fellows” was not given because God chose to so anoint Him, but because He was
willing. He could be anointed to that extent!
What
did the anointing signify?
Going back into the Levitical
priesthood, we discover a ritual of an anointing with a specially prepared holy
oil. Certain pungent herbs were beaten into the oil, making it fragrant and
aromatic. It was unique;
In Leviticus we read of the consecration of Aaron as the first high priest. The
anointing oil and the blood from the altar are mentioned together: “Moses took
some of the anointing oil and some of the blood from the altar and sprinkled
them on Aaron and his garments. . . . So he consecrated Aaron and his garments”(8:30).
The fragrance of the anointing oil was unique. If someone went near an Old
Testament priest, he could say immediately, “I smell an anointed man. I smell
the holy oil!” The aroma, the pungency, the fragrance were there. Such an
anointing could not be kept a secret.
In the New Testament, when the Holy Spirit came, His presence fulfilled that
whole list of fragrances found in the holy anointing oil. When
New Testament believers were anointed, that anointing was evident. Read
it in the book of Acts. ”All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit” (Acts
2:4). “And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God
boldly”(4:31). ”Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit,
looked up to heaven”(7:55). ”While Peter was still
speaking these words, the Holy Spirit came on all who heard the message”
(10:44). The list goes on.
The Holy Spirit has not changed. His power and authority have not changed. He
is still the third Person of the eternal God head. He is among us to teach us
all we need to know about Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God.
I am suggesting—indeed, I am stating—that no one among us, man or woman, can be
genuinely anointed with the Holy Spirit and hope to keep it a secret. His or
her anointing will be evident.
The
anointing is no secret
A Christian brother once confided in me how he had tried to keep the fullness
of the Spirit a secret within his own life. He had made a commitment of his
life to God in faith. In answer to prayer, God had filled him with the Spirit.
Within himself he said, ”I cannot tell anyone about
this!”
Three days passed. On the third day his wife touched him on the arm and asked, ”
I am happy to tell everyone that the power of the Spirit is glad power! Our
Savior, Jesus Christ, lived His beautiful, holy life on earth and did His
healing, saving deeds of power in the strength of this oil of gladness.
We must admit that there was more of the holy oil of God on to head of Jesus
than on your head or mine—or on the head of anyone else who has ever lived.
That is not to say that God will withhold His best from anyone. But the Spirit
of God can only anoint in proportion to the willingness He finds in our lives.
In take case of Jesus, we are told that He had a special anointing because He
loved righteousness and hated iniquity. That surely gives us the clue we need
concerning the kind of persons we must be in order to receive the full
anointing and blessing from Almighty God.
When Jesus was on earth, He was not the passive, colorless, spineless person He
is sometimes made out to be in paintings and literature. He was a strong man, a
man of iron will. He was able to love with an intensity of love that burned Him
up. He was able to hate with the strongest degree of hatred against everything
that was wrong and evil and selfish and sinful.
Invariably someone will object when I make a statement like that. “I cannot
believe such things about Jesus. I always thought it was a sin to hate!”
Study long and well the record and the teachings of Jesus while He was on
earth. In them lies the answer. It is a sin for the children of God not to hate
what ought to be hated. Our Lord Jesus loved righteousness, but He hated
iniquity. I think we can say He hated sin and wrong and evil perfectly!
We
must hate some things
If we are committed, consecrated Christians, truly disciples of the crucified
and risen Christ, there are something’s we must face.
We cannot love honesty without hating dishonesty.
We cannot love purity without hating impurity.
We cannot love truth without hating lying and deceitfulness.
If we belong to Jesus Christ, we must hate evil even as He hated evil in every
form. The ability of Jesus Christ to hate that which was against God and to
love that which was full of God was the force that made Him able to receive the
anointing—the oil of gladness—in complete measure. On our human side, it is our
imperfection in loving the good and hating the evil that prevents us from receiving
the Holy Spirit in complete measure. God withholds from us because we are
unwilling to follow Jesus in His great poured-out love for what is right and
His pure and holy hatred of what is evil.
Hate
sin but love the sinner
This question always arises: ”Did our Lord Jesus
Christ hate sinners?” We already know the answer. He loved the world. We know
better than to think that Jesus hated any sinner.
Jesus never hated a sinner, but He hated the evil and depravity that controlled
the sinner. He did not hate the proud Pharisee, but He detested the pride and
self-righteousness of the Pharisee. He did not hate the woman taken in
adultery. But he acted against the harlotry that made her what she was.
Jesus hated the devil and He hated those evil spirits that He challenged and
drove out. We present-day Christians have been misled and brainwashed, at least
in a general way, by a generation of soft, pussycat preachers. They would have
us believe that to be good Christians we must be able to purr softly and accept
everything that comes along with Christian tolerance and understanding. Such
ministers never mention words like zeal and conviction and commitment. They
avoid phrases like “standing for the truth.”
I am convinced that a committed Christian will show a zealous concern for the
cause of Christ. He or she will live daily with a set of spiritual convictions
taken from the Bible. He or she will be one of the toughest to move—along with
a God-given humility—in his or her stand for Christ. Why, then, have Christian
ministers so largely departed from exhortations to love righteousness with a
great, overwhelming love, and to hate iniquity with a deep, compelling
revulsion?
Why
no persecution?
People remark how favored the church is in this country. It does not have to
face persecution and rejection. If the truth were known, our freedom from
persecution is because we have taken the easy, the popular way. If we would
love righteousness until it became an overpowering passion, if we would
renounce everything that is evil, our day of popularity and pleasantness would
quickly end. The world would soon turn on us.
We are too nice! We are too tolerant! We are too anxious to be popular! We are
too quick to make excuses for sin in its many forms! If I could stir Christians
around me to love God and hate sin, even to the point of being a bit of a
nuisance, I would rejoice. If some Christian were to call me for counsel saying
he or she is being persecuted for Jesus’ sake, I would say with feeling, “Thank
God!”
Vance Havner used to remark that too many are running
for something when they ought to be standing for something. God’s people should
be willing to stand! We have become so brainwashed in so many ways that
Christians are afraid to speak out against uncleanness in any form. The enemy
of our souls has persuaded us that Christianity should be a rather casual
thing—certainly not something to get excited about.
Fellow Christian, we only have a little time. We are
not going to be here very long. Our triune God demands that we engage in those
things that will remain when the world is on fire, for fire determines the
value and quality of every person’s work.
I have shared these things with you because I am of the opinion that the glad
oil, the blessed anointing of the Holy Spirit, is not having opportunity to
flow freely among church members of our day. We can hardly expect any such
spiritual movement among those who proudly class themselves as liberals. They
reject the deity of Christ, the inspiration of the Bible and the divine ministries
of the Holy Spirit. How can the oil of God flow among and bless those who do
not believe in such an oil of gladness?
But what about us of the evangelical persuasion with our
biblical approach to fundamental New Testament truth and teaching? We must
ask ourselves why the oil of God is not flowing very noticeably around us. We
have the truth. We believe in the anointing and the unction. Why is the oil not
flowing?
We
are tolerant of evil
I think the reason is that we are tolerant of evil. We allow what God hates
because we want to be known to the world as good-natured, agreeable Christians.
Our stance indicates that the last thing we would want anyone to say about us
is that we are narrow-minded.
The way to spiritual power and favor with God is to be willing to put away the
weak compromises and the tempting evils to which we are prone to cling. There
is no Christian victory or blessing if we refuse to turn away from the things
that God hates.
Even if your wife loves it, turn away from it.
Even if your husband loves it, turn away from it.
Even if it is accepted in the whole social class and system of
which you are a part, turn away from it.
Even if it is something that has come to be accepted by our whole
generation, turn away from it if it is evil and wrong and an offense to our
holy
and righteous Savior.
I am being as frank and as searching as I can possibly be. I know that we lack
the courage and the gladness that should mark the committed people of God. And
that concerns me. Deep within the human will with which God has endowed us,
every Christian holds the key to his or her own spiritual attainment. If he or
she will not pay the price of being joyfully led by the Holy Spirit of God, if
he or she refuses to hate sin and evil and wrong, our churches might as well be
turned into lodges or clubs.
O brother, sister! God has not given up loving us. The Holy Spirit still is
God’s faithful Spirit. Our Lord Jesus Christ is at the right hand of the
Majesty in heaven, representing us there, interceding for us. God is asking us
to stand in love and devotion to Him. The day is coming when judgment fire
tries every person’s work. The hay, wood and stubble of worldly achievement
will be consumed. God wants us to know the reward of gold and silver and
precious stones.
Following Jesus Christ is serious business. Let us quit being casual about
heaven and hell and the judgment to come!
Faith Has Eyes Only for Jesus
Is Satan giving you a hard time in your life of faith—in the Christian race you
are running? Expect it if you are a believing child of God!
Satan hates your God. He hates Jesus Christ. He hates your faith. You should be
aware of the devil’s evil intentions. He wants you to lose the victor’s crown
in the race you have entered by faith through grace.
The writer of the Letter to the Hebrews gives us good New Testament counsel:
Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on
Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him
endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the
throne of God. (Hebrews 12:1-2)
The Holy Spirit, in giving us in the Bible a wide variety of encouragement,
uses many figures to portray the believing people of God. He lets us think of
ourselves as farmers, plowing and planting and reaping. He lets us think of
ourselves as carpenters, planning and constructing. Again, He lets us think of
ourselves as soldiers, bearing the strong armor of God and going forth to stand
against the enemy.
But here, the Holy Spirit describes Christian believers as runners on the
track, participants in the race of life. He provides both strong warning and
loving encouragement: there is always the danger of losing the race, but there
is the victor’s reward awaiting those who run with patience and endurance.
There are important things each of us should know and understand about our
struggles as the faithful people of God.
First, it is a fact that the Christian race is a contest. But the race is in no
sense a competition between believers or between churches! As we live the life
of faith, we Christians are never to be in competition with other Christians.
The Bible makes this very plain. Christian churches are never told to carry on
their proclamation of the Savior in a spirit of competition with other
churches.
Our
contest is with Satan
All of us Christians have a common enemy, that old devil, Satan. As we stand
together, pray together, worship together, we repudiate him and his deceptions.
He is our common foe, and he uses a variety of manipulations to hinder us in
our spiritual lives.
When by faith we have entered this lifelong spiritual course, the Holy Spirit
whispers, “Do you truly want to be among the victors in this discipline?” When we breathe our “Yes! Yes!” He whispers of ways that
will aid us and carry us to certain victory.
The Spirit tells us to throw off everything that would hinder us in the race.
He tells us to be aware of the little sins and errors that could divert us from
the will of God as we run. But here is the important thing: He tells us to keep
our eyes on Jesus, because He alone is our pace setter and victorious example.
In a very real sense, faith is fixing our eyes on Jesus, keeping Jesus in full
view regardless of what others may be doing all around us. This is excellent
counsel, because as human beings we know we are not sufficient in ourselves. It
is in our nature to look out—to look beyond ourselves for help. This world is
big and deadly, and we are too weak and not wise enough to deal with it!
It is also a human trait to look beyond ourselves for assurance. We hope to
find someone worthy of trust. We want someone who has made good, someone who
has done what we would like to do. The Hebrews writer points us to the perfect
One, our eternal High Priest, seated now at the right hand of God. He is Jesus,
the Pioneer and Perfecter of our faith. He has endured the cross and is now the
eternal Victor and our Advocate in heaven.
Differences
of opinion
One of my not-too-secret enjoyments is having a little fun with the human
translators of the Scriptures. These have been good men, I know. But as
scholars and language experts, they sometimes seem confused. In the King James
Version of this text, for example, Jesus is called the Author and the Finisher
of our faith. Other translators have called Him the Pioneer. One translator
simply says “the Starter and the Finisher of our faith.” Scholars in another
version call Jesus” the Leader and perfect Model of our faith.” Still another
translator suggests, “Jesus, the princely Leader and another describes Jesus as
“the Forerunner and Finisher of our faith.”
Fortunately, we can put all of these suggestions together and come up with a
clear, simple, forceful portrayal of Jesus. He is Jesus Christ, our Lord, the
Author and the Pioneer of our faith. He is the One upon whom the Christian
faith rests. He is the One who blazed the trail. He is the One who is leading
us through life to a successful consummation.
In these studies from Hebrews, we have referred often to faith. The faith we
are considering is not that which you might regard as your own personal faith.
Jesus is more than the Author of just your faith. He is the Author, the
Pioneer, the Leader, the Perfecter of the faith subscribed to by our fathers
through out the long centuries. The faith of our fathers rests on the biblical
teachings and truths concerning God and the person of Jesus Christ.
It is truth that God made the heavens and the earth, that God subsists in three
persons, that God spoke to men through the prophets. It is truth that God sent
His one and only Son into the world in order that whoever believes in Him
should not perish. It is truth that to effect our
salvation, Christ had to die and to rise again. It is truth that He is now at
the right hand of the Father, that He is interceding for His believing people,
that He is coming back to take His people to be with Him forever. It is truth
that God has promised a new heaven and a new earth, that
death will finally be put down, that the enemy of our souls will be destroyed.
This, in brief outline, is the faith of our fathers. Christ Jesus is the Author
and Finisher of that faith, regardless of our personal attitudes or whether or
not we demonstrate perfect confidence.
But Jesus helps us with that, too! It has been my experience that if we are
fully acquainted with and deeply moved by the truths on which our faith rests,
our personal faith will spring up joyously in confidence and delight.
We
have the perfect Model
Twenty centuries ago the Hebrew Christians were told to fix their eyes on
Jesus, who for the joy set before Him had endured the cross and scorned the
shame.
The physical pain and suffering Jesus endured are well known. He was beaten and
scourged until His back was raw. Thorns from the mock crown pressed into His
brow. Nails were driven into His hands and feet. But we should remember also
the mental pain—the cruel psychological pain of shame and rejection. Jesus
endured it all; He suffered it out. He scorned the shame by looking down on it
as something not worthy to be mentioned when set over against the glory that
was to be revealed.
Jesus’ death in our stead and His resurrection from the grave are fundamental
Christian doctrines on which all evangelicals agree. I can preach these truths
in any Bible conference anywhere and be assured that I will be invited back.
But what could happen at a Bible conference would be for some fellow to whisper
to another, “Tozer seems to be getting over on the legalistic side!” This could
easily happen when I insist that our Lord Jesus Christ not only endured the
cross and despised the shame, but He invites us to do the same thing!
After Jesus had rebuked Peter for saying that suffering and death could never
come to the Son of Man, Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone would come
after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever
wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will
find it.” (Matthew 16:24-25)
When Jesus told His disciples that the hour had come for the Son of Man to be
glorified, He added:
I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it
remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. The man who
loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world
will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me. (John
12:24-26a)
Paul, after saying that some believers had been circumcised to avoid the
persecution of Christ’s cross, continued:
May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which
the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. (Galatians 6:14)
To those same readers he also said:
I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.
The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me
and gave himself for
How can there be any question but that our Lord Jesus Christ identified us with
Himself? Instead of putting the cross son that hill outside
We
died with Christ
Evil-minded men hung Jesus on a wooden cross, just as Jesus had told His
disciples they would. The salvation of a lost world was at stake. When He died,
His body was taken down and laid in a tomb. When He arose from the dead and
ascended to the right hand of God the Father, that wooden cross had no further
meaning in the mind of God. None at all!
Some Christian churches are very enamored with splinters they say came from the
wooden cross on which Jesus died. Apart from such dubious claims, that old
wooden cross is no longer in existence. I hope we realize that when we sing
“The Old Rugged Cross.”
But there remains a very real cross. It is the cross you take and the cross I
take as we follow our Lord Jesus who willingly took His cross. That is why I
say that our Lord identifies us with Himself.
I find a deep, compelling message in the words of an old hymn no longer sung.
And I am concerned for the spiritual desire now seemingly lost with the hymn:
Oh, for that flame of living fire
Which shone so bright in saints of old,
Which
bade their souls to heaven aspire,
Calm
in distress, in danger bold.
Where
is that Spirit, Lord, which dwelt
In
Abram’s breast and sealed him Thine,
Which made Paul’s heart with sorrow melt
And
glow with energy divine?
That
Spirit which from age to age
Proclaimed
Thy love and taught Thy ways,
Brightened
Isaiah’s vivid page
And breathed in David’s hallowed lays.
We have to ask, too, “Where is that Spirit, Lord?” Why must we cry in pathetic and
plaintive manner, “Where is Thy Spirit, Lord?” I think it is because we differ
from the saints of old in our relation to the cross—our attitude toward the
cross.
Half
right, all wrong
In our modern gospel churches, Christians have decided where to put the cross.
They have made the cross objective instead of subjective. They have made the
cross external instead of internal. They have made it institutional instead of
experiential.
Now, the terrible thing is that they are so wrong because they are half right.
They are right in making the cross objective. It was something that once stood
on a hill with a man dying on it, the just for the unjust. They are right that
it was an external cross—for on that cross God performed a judicial act that
will last while the ages burn themselves out.
So, they are half right. But here is where they are wrong: They fail to see
that there is a very real cross for you and me. There is a cross for every one
of us—a cross that is subjective, internal, experiential.
Our cross is an experience within. It is a cross we voluntarily take, and it is
hard, bitter, distasteful. But we take our cross for
Christ’s sake, and we are willing to suffer the consequences and despise the
shame.
This is where people accuse Tozer of legalism, because I charge much of
evangelicalism with this modern attitude: “Let the cross kill Jesus! Let Jesus
do all the dying! We will live on in our faith and be happy and have fun—and we
will all get to heaven in the end!”
But if we are serious about the Christian faith and the demands of our Lord
Jesus Christ, we will acknowledge that the cross on the hill must become the
cross in our hearts. When that cross on the hill has been transformed by the
miraculous grace of the Holy Spirit into the cross in the heart, then we begin
to know something of its true meaning and it will become to us the cross of
power.
The
world is already dead
Let me remind you of something. In Paul’s word to the Galatians already
referred to, Paul considers the world to be already dead. He does not plead for
it. He does not try to salvage anything out of it.
Why was Paul willing to let the world go? I am sure I know the answer. Paul’s
love and interest and concern were for people. That is where ours should be,
also. When John wrote that God so loved the world, he did not mean that God
loved
God’s love and concern are for people. He loves human beings made in His image,
though now fallen and lost. When I say that Paul followed Christ in reckoning
the world dead, I only remind you that he was turning his back on this organized
and selfish world. He was not turning his back on people and their needs and
their sins. Paul cared and was concerned for every individual for whom Christ
died.
I should say something else here about this world and its selfish and often
godless society. Why is there so much attraction to the magazines, the radio,
the television, the sports, the concerts, the fun? We
may be reluctant to admit it, but we have an enemy, and he has many helpers.
All of these things that surely add up to fun and entertainment have an overall
design of keeping people from taking God seriously. There is some great master
plan that is surely succeeding in keeping men and women relatively happy in
this world without ever a serious thought of God and salvation and eternal life!
Millions of men and women seem to be very content with the arrangement as it
is. They do not want to be reminded at all that they are going to die and that
after death comes the judgment of a holy and righteous God. They would rather
remain gullible and deceived than to learn the truth about this world and the
next.
God
spare us from gullibility
When I was a boy on the farm, we “butchered” every year in the early fall. It
was my job to coax the fattened hogs into the barn. I would throw them some
corn, and they were pleased as they came grunting in with that corn still
grinding in their mouths.
But in minutes they were dead. My father would then bleed them and dress them
out. That is how we got our supply of pork for the winter.
The gullible pigs have never learned. Wherever they are, they are still being
led to the slaughter generation after generation. All it takes is a supply of
shelled corn!
You may not like the illustration, but there are plenty of gullible people who
have never recognized why they are being kept so busy and so well entertained
with the things that are amusing and fun. Paul said that he had caught on—and
he reckoned himself dead to this world and this world dead to him.
I wonder how many of the saintly men and women who have lived for Christ
throughout the centuries were accused of narrowness
and legalism and of being spoilers. I think they knew and accepted the offense
of the cross for what it is. I think they allowed the cross to kill their
self-love, their self-confidence, their self-will, their self-pity, their
self-righteousness. I think they were faithful in keeping Jesus Christ in full
view, looking away from themselves and following Him
all the way—even unto death. They took
the promises of God at face value. Their eyes were on the Lord and the city
whose builder and maker is God. They looked beyond the passing attractions of
this world to see the lovely face of Jesus Christ shining in wonderful glory.
Faith and Discipline Ready Us for Heaven
I have found there is an entirely new way to shock complacent Christians in our
churches today. These twentieth century Christians go into shock when I say
that it is an error to assume that being saved is to be automatically ready for
heaven.
Very few people in our churches are willing to consider what the Bible actually
teaches about discipline and chastening in preparing us for our heavenly home.
The writer of the Letter to the Hebrews gave definite instruction to those who
were children of God through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ:
Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not
disciplined by his father? If you are not disciplined (and everyone undergoes
discipline), then you are illegitimate children and not true sons. God
disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his
holiness. .. . Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy;
without holiness no one will see the Lord. (Hebrews 12:8 -14)
Now, I know I will have to explain what I mean about our daily Christian lives
being in preparation for an eternity in the heavenly realms. First, let us see
if we are in agreement about the most important proclamation we can make
concerning faith. There is no doubt
about it. First in importance concerning faith is the good news—the truth that
every man and woman in our lost world may have God’s gifts of forgiveness and
eternal life through believing faith in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. It is
not possible to overstate the importance of this basic truth in the Christian
gospel. It has been proclaimed often. Paul gave this stark, simple instruction
concerning salvation to the jailer at
As Christian believers (I am assuming you are a believer), you and I know how
we have been changed and regenerated and assured of eternal life by faith in
Jesus Christ and His atoning death. On the other hand, where this good news of
salvation by faith is not known, religion becomes an actual bondage. If Christianity
is known only as a religious institution, it may well become merely a
legalistic system of religion, and the hope of eternal life becomes a delusion.
God’s
objective is our holiness
I have said this much about the reality and assurance of our salvation through
Jesus Christ to counter the shock you may feel when I add that God wants to
fully prepare you in your daily Christian life so that you will be ready indeed
for heaven. Perhaps it is a good thing for you if you are shocked. It is my
observation that many Christians are so cosmopolitan, so worldly-wise, so
self-assured that they are past being shocked by anything! Probably your first question as you come out
of shock will be, “Have you forgotten the dying thief? Did not our Lord tell
him his faith had made him ready for paradise?”
Let me share something with you. No one could love the Christian gospel and
witness it to others without an understanding that the God of all grace has
surely made a necessary provision for those who may trust Jesus in the final
hours of life. We admit our humanness. We do not have God’s wisdom and
discernment. Only God is all-knowing and all-powerful. He is full of grace and
truth. We can trust Him to be faithful and right in all of His dealings with
us. Remember that most believers have
been found of the Lord and received His love and grace at an earlier time in
their lives. Many testify to faith extending back to their childhood. Thus,
they have been in God’s household for a long time, and He has been trying to do
something special within their beings day after day, year after year. His
purpose has been to bring many sons—and daughters, too—to glory (Hebrews 1:10).
Now, if we are truly sons and daughters by faith, we will respond to the wise
discipline and the necessary rebukes aimed at bringing us to the full measure
of spiritual stature. God’s motives are loving. Our
heavenly Father disciplines us for our own good, “that we may share in His
holiness.”
I have known people who seemed to be terrified by God’s loving desire that we
should reflect His own holiness and goodness. As God’s faithful children, we
should be attracted to holiness, for holiness is God-likeness—likeness to God! God encourages every Christian believer to
follow after holiness. Holiness is to be our constant ambition—not as holy as
God is holy, but holy because God is holy. We know who we are and God knows who
He is. He does not ask us to be God, and He does not ask us to produce the
holiness that only He Himself knows. Only God is holy absolutely; all other
beings can be holy only in relative degrees.
The angels in heaven do not possess God’s holiness. They are created
beings and they are contented to reflect the glory of God. That is their
holiness.
Holiness is not terrifying. Actually, it is amazing and wonderful that God
should promise us the privilege of sharing in His nature. It is impossible for
any person to be as holy as God is holy. It is encouraging that God “knows how
we are formed” (Psalm 103:14). He remembers we were made of dust. So He tells
us what is in His being as He thinks of us: “Be holy because I am your God and
I am holy! It is My desire that you grow in grace and
in the knowledge of Me. I want you to be more like Jesus, My eternal Son, every day you live!”
Our Lord endeavors to prepare us for our eternal fellowship with the saints,
the martyrs, the heroes of the faith who suffered through fire and flood and
blood and tears when they were God’s pilgrims on this earth. Do not try to
short-circuit God’s plans for your discipleship and spiritual maturing here. If
you and I were already prepared for heaven in that moment of our conversion,
God would have taken us there instantly!
As believers and disciples, we are satisfied to know that the mysterious
quality of God’s holy person sets Him apart from all others and all else
throughout His entire universe. God exists in Himself. His holy nature is such
that we cannot comprehend Him with our minds.
God’s holy nature is unique. He is of a substance not shared by any other
being. Hence, God can be known only as He reveals Himself. There is absolutely
no other way for us to know Him.
Today
we may enjoy God’s presence
In Old Testament times, whenever this utterly holy God revealed Himself in some
way to humankind, terror and amazement were the reaction. People saw themselves
as guilty and unclean by contrast.
Early in the Revelation, the final book of the Bible, the apostle John
describes the overwhelming nature of his encounter with the Lord of glory. He
says, “When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead” (Revelation 1:17).
John was a man, a person born into a sinful world. But he was a believer and an
apostle. At the time, he was in exile “because of the word of God and the
testimony of Jesus” (Revelation 1:9). But when the risen, glorified Lord Jesus
appeared to him on
I notice particularly that the Lord did not condemn John. He knew that John’s
weakness was the reaction to revealed divine strength. He knew that John’s
sense of unworthiness was the instant reaction to absolute holiness. Along with
John, every redeemed human being needs the humility of spirit that can only be
brought about by the manifest presence of God.
This mysterious yet gracious Presence is the air of life eternal. It is
the music of existence, the poetry of the Christian life. It is the beauty and
wonder of being one of Christ’s own—a sinner born again, regenerated, created
anew to bring glory to God. To know this Presence is the most desirable state
imaginable for anyone. To live surrounded by this
sense of God is not only beautiful and desirable, but it is imperative!
Know that our living Lord is unspeakably pure. He is sinless, spotless,
immaculate, stainless. In His person is an absolute
fullness of purity that our words can never express. This fact alone changes
our entire human and moral situation and outlook. We can always be sure of the
most important of all positives: God is God and God is right. He is in control.
Because He is God He will never change! I
repeat: God is right—always. That statement is the basis of all we are thinking
about God.
Holiness
takes time
When the eternal God Himself invites us to prepare ourselves to be with Him
throughout the future ages, we can only bow in delight and gratitude,
murmuring, “Oh, Lord, may your will be done in this poor, unworthy life!” I can only hope that you are wise enough,
desirous enough and spiritual enough to face up to the truth that everyday is
another day of spiritual preparation, another day of testing and discipline
with our heavenly destination in mind. For as I hope you have already seen, full
qualification for eternity is not instant or automatic or painless.
I hope, too, that you may begin to understand in this context why our
evangelical churches are in such a mess. It has become popular to preach a
painless Christianity and automatic saintliness. It has become a part of our
“instant” culture. “Just pour a little water on it, stir mildly, pick up a
gospel tract, and you are on your Christian way.”
Lo, we are told, this is Bible Christianity. It is nothing of the sort! To
depend upon that kind of a formula is to experience only the outer fringe, the
edge of what Christianity really is. We must be committed to all that it means
to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. There must be a new birth from above;
otherwise we are in religious bondage and legalism and delusion—or worse! But
when the wonder of regeneration has taken place in our lives, then comes the
lifetime of preparation with the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
God has told us that heaven and the glories of the heavenly kingdom are more
than humans can ever dream or imagine. It will be neither an exhibition of the
commonplace nor a democracy for the spiritually mediocre. Why should we try to be detractors of God’s
gracious and rewarding plan of discipleship? God has high plans for all of His
redeemed ones. It is inherent in His infinite being that His motives are love
and goodness. His plans for us come out of His eternal and creative wisdom and
power. Beyond that is His knowledge and regard for the astonishing potential
that lies resident in human nature, long asleep in sin but awakened by the Holy
Spirit in regeneration. Yes, God is
preparing us by making us disciples of Christ. A
disciple is one who is in training. Being a disciple of Christ brings us to the
day-by-day realities of such terms as discipline, rebuke, correction, hardship.
Those are not pleasant words. To be
admonished and instructed, to be punished and reproved, to be trained and
corrected—no one chooses these things because they are neither pleasant nor
entertaining. But they are in God’s plan for our spiritual maturity.
What
will be our response?
In times of testing and hardship, I have heard Christians cry in their
discouragement, “How can I believe that God loves me?” The fact is, God loves
us to such a degree that He will use every necessary means to mature us until
we reach “unity in the faith” and attain “to the whole measure of the fullness
of Christ” (Ephesians 4:13).
A critic may cringe and charge that God is breaking our spirits,
that we will be worth nothing as a result, that we will wear only a sad,
hang-dog look for eternity. Oh, no! That is not true. What God plans is to
bring us into accord with the wisdom and power and holiness that flow eternally
from His throne. God’s loving motive is
to bring us into total harmony with Himself so that moral power and holy use
fullness become our sin this world and in the world to
come.
This has been a message from my heart about down-to-earth preparation that will
result in readiness for heaven’s joys. Let me therefore conclude with a simple,
down-to-earth illustration—the example of a newborn baby brought suddenly into
the confusion of our noisy world.
Is the little fellow “ready” for this world in which he must live? When the
time of his birth neared, the doctor told the parents-to-be, “The baby is
ready!” So, as the baby was born, it could have been said in the biological
sense that he was “ready.” But what do
you really think? You must know that the baby is not really ready at all! From
the first little whack he gets to make him cry and get his breath right on for
the next eighteenth or twenty years, that baby and child and young man will
need to learn much about his environment. He will need to mature day by day.
In the broader social and human sense, he is not ready for this world until
years have passed and he has completed his formal education. So it is with the
Christian believer who has confessed his or her faith in Jesus Christ. Oh, yes,
he or she is forgiven and “saved.” But is he, is she automatically prepared for
heaven and all of the eternal glories above?
To say yes is to be ridiculous. You might as well say that you can pick
up a newborn baby, prop him up in the chair of the nation’s President or Prime
Minister, and whisper in his ear that he is ready to govern.
My mind returns frequently to some of the old Christian saints who often prayed
in their faith, “O God, we know this world is only a dressing room for the
heaven to come!” They were very close to the truth in their vision of what God
has planned for His children.
In summary: Down here the orchestra merely rehearses; over there we will give
the concert. Here, we ready our garments of righteousness; over there we will
wear them at the wedding of the Lamb.
Faith Is Not Given Us to Fail
Coming into the Christian life by faith does not release us from the cautions
God has given us in His Word. Study the Bible seriously, and you will find that
God desires His church to be watchful and alert, diligent in the humble life of
faith and trust.
In the Letter to the Hebrews, we come to a sobering caution and a spiritual
responsibility:
See to it that no one misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up
to cause trouble and defile many.(Hebrews 12:15)
In the King James Version, this verse carries an even stronger warning:
“Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God.”
We know our human natures, and we do not deny our human weaknesses. We confess
that we need both the cautions and the encouragements God has provided. We know
very well our need to lean on the divine promises for the better kind of
life—the life of faith and trust that is pleasing to God.
This Letter to the Hebrews was written in the first place to provide caution
and encouragement. And it still speaks plainly to us today. Its message and
appeal come to us with urgency: “There are decisions to be made. You must dare
to believe! You must dare to obey God! Go on over to the victory side where
there is forgiveness and blessing from the eternal Son, who is now your great
High Priest in the heavenlies!”
The cautions may be negative, but our Lord’s emphasis is positive: “Each of you
must press forward in your Christian faith and experience! Be diligent and be
wise, and you will not be among those who delay and question and hold back!”
Now, what warning was the writer trying to give us when he said that some
people might miss the grace of God—might fail of the grace of God? And what
warning should we take from the writer’s reference to some who would actually
fall away?
It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the
heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, who have tasted the goodness
of the word of God and the powers of the coming age, if they fall away, to be
brought back to repentance, because to their loss they are crucifying the Son
of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace. (Hebrews 6:4-6)
Controversial
statements
The interpretation of these statements has always produced differences of
opinion among Christians. My purpose is not to engage in argument. Rather, I am
hopeful that some of these considerations I am proposing will be helpful if you
feel concerned or even confused.
Ministers have said to me that there are so many positive Scriptures that they
just work around the more difficult and controversial sections. When I preach
month after month in a specific book of the Bible, I try faithfully to deal
with the “hard-to-understand” passages when I come to them.
For centuries, there have been differences in the interpretation of certain
verses relating to the faith and endurance of Christian believers—the
“perseverance of the saints,” as some call it. In
Christian theology, so the dictionaries say, this simply means “the continuance
in a state of grace until it is succeeded by a state of glory.”
I look back into church history, and in my own mind, I can visualize John
Calvin and John Arminius—who polarized the issue of
God’s sovereignty versus man’s free will—squaring off in their own differences
at this point. But why should this be made such a
great test in the area of our Christian fellowship?
People have cornered me and pressured me, asking pointedly, “Are you
Calvinistic or Arminian in doctrine?” I think I have
effectively parried this thrust by repeating a conversation I once had with a
prominent English clergyman of our times. He spoke to me of another minister of
his acquaintance, and I asked, “He is a Calvinist, I presume?”
My minister friend smiled with good humor. “Well,” he replied, “I think he is
what we might call an equivocating Calvinist! “From a personal point of view
and to answer the curious, I would say that the phrase also describes me fairly
well!
We
need to disagree graciously
I have always said that these are personal matters for each of us to determine
in our own sincere lives of faith. I have found many thoughtful people in our
fellowship who do not want to be pushed from a position of charity and
understanding to the extreme edge of any doctrines, particularly where the
deity and the uniqueness of Jesus Christ are not in question.
Scores of books have been written by people who have taken opposite sides on
some of these difficult passages of Scripture. I have read and studied many of
these books.
In this context, I recall a friend’s story. He told me that he had discovered a
woodworking shop where all varieties of wooden products, like clothes pins and
chair legs, were made and sold. There was a rather startling sign in front of
the shop. It read: “All Kinds of Twisting and Turning Done Here.” When I have read
the narrow, partisan arguments set forth in some of these books I mention, I
have felt they too could use the words as an overall title: “All Kinds of
Twisting and Turning Done Here”!
We do well to remember that we are Christ’s only representatives in an evil
world and in a very self-centered society. I believe our Lord wants us to be
day-by-day examples in the gracious art of putting our Christian love and
concern ahead of any divisive dialogue.
One school of thought has always insisted that those who have fallen away could
not have been genuine believers. They may have had the appearance of being
Christians, but they were not. They could speak the language of Christians.
They had the reputation of being Christian believers. They may have won the
trust and confidence of the Christians around them, but they had not attained
unto the grace of God. And because they had missed, in some way or another, the
grace of God, they had fallen away.
On the other side, there are many reasons for considering those who have fallen
away as once Christian believers. They were described as enlightened, as having
shared in the Holy Spirit, as having tasted the goodness of the Word of God and
the powers of the coming age.
But, the arguers persist, they merely had received light. They had only tasted.
They may have recognized the Holy Spirit, but they did not possess Him. As a
result they fell away.
We
should compare Scripture with Scripture
When it comes to the original Greek, I do not profess to be a scholar. But I do
know how to compare the basic meaning of the same words when they are used in
different places in the Scriptures. Some teachers have commented:
“Enlightened—that means they merely had light, but they were not born again.
They merely received light.”
But when Paul wrote to remind the Ephesian Christians
of his prayer that the eyes of their understanding would be enlightened, he
used the very same word we find in Hebrews 6:4. Paul was praying for an
advanced spiritual state for genuine Christians whom he called saints and
chosen of God. Clearly enlightened may mean much more than merely receiving
information about the gospel.
The next expression refers to their tasting of the heavenly gift, the goodness
of the Word of God and the powers of the coming age. The word tasted has caused
some to conclude that these to whom the writer refers merely licked at
it—sampled it—to see if they liked it, and decided that they did not. But the
very word used for tasting here is also used in Hebrews 2:9, where we are told
that Christ “tasted death for everyone.” If tasting the heavenly gift means
merely nibbling but never swallowing and digesting, are we to say the same for
Christ, who tasted death for everyone? Christ experienced death. We can hardly
conclude other than that the people mentioned in Hebrews 6 likewise had
experienced the heavenly gift, the goodness of the Word of God and the powers
of the coming age.
Then there is the expression, “who have shared in the Holy Spirit.” Those who
suppose these were not genuine Christians minimize this sharing in the Holy
Spirit. “They went along with Him, but they never really possessed Him.”
But I find this same Greek word translated “sharing” or “partaking of” used
elsewhere in the Scriptures for accepting, receiving, eating. I have to believe
this word means actual experience, also. These had received and experienced the
Holy Spirit. This would indicate that
those who had experienced and actually shared in spiritual attainments could
fall away, some even “crucifying the Son of God all over again” to the point
they could not be brought back to repentance.
Backsliding
and the “unpardonable sin”
Right here, I would like to suggest a point for clarification. I do not think
we are referring to what we commonly call “backsliding” when we are considering
what it may mean to fall away. Look at Peter. He failed miserably, but he was
forgiven and became a great apostle. Look at Mark. He went back for a time, but
he was restored and served Christ until he died.
We also know that there have been many backslidden Christians who have agonized
over the possibility of having committed the unpardonable sin. I have
discovered a very helpful rule in this matter. I believe it holds good throughout the whole
Any person who has ever committed that dark and dread unpardonable sin feels no
guilt and confesses no worry. Jesus dealt with the Pharisees and told them face
to face that their expressions concerning His person and their attributing the
work of the Holy Spirit to the devil were evidences of
the unpardonable sin. But His warning caused them no worry. They still believed
themselves to be entirely righteous! They felt no need for repentance, no
sorrow for sin, no guilt for unbelief. “Do not worry about us,” was their
attitude. “We do not have any problem!”
Returning to our rule for Christians with guilt and concern, the very fact that
a person is worried and concerned indicates that the Spirit of God is still
working in his or her life.
Being human and therefore finite, we may not know in this life all that the
inspired writer meant when he used the words fall away. I suggest that to
actually fall away means that the person has no worry about his or her
spiritual defection. He or she shrugs it all off as though it was a foolish
relationship in the first place.
Concerning the words, “it is impossible to be brought back to repentance,” I
have found a helpful suggestion. Let me refer to the example of a sinning man
in the church at
It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a
kind that does not occur even among pagans: A man has his father’s wife. And
you are proud! Shouldn’t you rather have been filled with grief and have put
out of your fellowship the man who did this? Even though I am not physically
present, I am with you in spirit. And I have already passed judgment on the one
who did this, just as if I were present. When you are assembled in the name of
our Lord Jesus and I am with you in spirit, and the power of our Lord Jesus is
present, hand this man over to Satan, so that the sinful nature may be
destroyed and his spirit saved on the day of the Lord. (1 Corinthians 5:1-5)
With
God all things are possible
It is plain that Paul condemned this man for his incestuous acts, and it
appears further that he could not be brought to repentance by the Corinthian
church. So Paul said, “We will hand him over to Satan for the destruction of
the flesh that the spirit may be saved in the coming day of our Lord Jesus
Christ.”
In the light of this action and the instructions of Paul given to the believers
in the church, I ask you a question—and I think it is a searching question: May
we not conclude in faith, relative to those the church cannot bring to
repentance, that God Himself may accomplish it, even by bringing them to the
point of death and turning them around to Himself? The suggestion is surely
inherent in this study of the incestuous man, for we learn in Second
Corinthians that he indeed repented.
Some of these questions have been on the lips of Christians throughout the
centuries. Some of them have been bitterly argued. There are believers still
who spend much time and effort trying to convert other people to their opinions
concerning them.
When it comes to this issue of the impossibility of renewing a person to
repentance, the question has long ago been settled in my own heart and mind: I
am not going back!
For me, the question of falling away is only academic. It is academic and not
real to all Christian believers who, like their Savior, have set their faces
like a flint. We will follow the Lamb wherever He leads us!
We have not come into the Christian faith to promote or protect shallow
Christian experience. Neither is it our calling to defend the coldness of heart
that is all too apparent in Christian circles. Let us never,
never defend such coldness of heart! Rather, let us covenant to follow
Jesus Christ fully and faithfully. We know that He will faithfully and lovingly
do His part to keep us and sustain us.
God’s
first-aid kit
But, you ask, “What if I fail? What if I stumble through some weakness of the
flesh?” Probably the very best way for me to close out this discussion is to
remind you of God’s first-aid kit for His devoted family.
I had some part in raising a family of six boys and one girl. As a family, we
could never have made it without the first-aid kit. There was hardly a time
during those years that we were not giving attention to a cut or a bruise, a
cold or an illness. It is remarkable that they all survived—and in good health!
God has provided an effective truth—I call it our spiritual first-aid kit—in
John’s first letter:
If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins
and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make
him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives.
My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody
does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense—Jesus Christ, the
Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours
but also for the sins of the whole world. (1 John 1:8-2:2)
That is a plain, blunt, helpful message from the Scriptures. If you say you
have not sinned, you are lying! Jesus is our great High Priest, and He appears
with the Father on our behalf. He is our Advocate, our Intercessor. Go to Him,
confess your sin and your need, and He will cleanse and forgive. He will bless
and heal.
No
turning back!
Now, we have come through these difficult, hard-to-understand passages, and it
remains for us to determine that we are committed followers of the Lamb. We are
not going back! I never want to experience whatever it means to fall away, to
fail the God who is full of grace and truth. I do not want to know—or
experience—whatever it means to fall away.
I do not want to know any more about hell. What I do know about hell is enough
to make me want to know much more about heaven and our Savior, who is already
there. I do not want to find out how far
I can go toward the edge without finally perishing. But I do want to know, by
the grace of God, how closely and carefully I can walk with Him in faith and
blessing and victory.
Faith’s Manifesto: We Claim God Now!
How many are within the ranks of the Christian church by confession of
faith—yet living daily as spiritual paupers and beggars, as though Christ Jesus
had never been raised from the dead?
I long for every believer in the church of our Lord to join me in a clear-cut
manifesto to our times. I want it to be a declaration of our intentions to
restore Christ to the place that is rightfully His in our personal lives, in
our family situations and in the fellowship of the churches that bear His name.
Too many within the Christian church seem able to do no better than to be
concerned—and then to be apologetic. Let me say that the time for apologies is
long past! The need today is for men and women of faith and courage and daring.
The need is for Christians who are so concerned for the presence of Jesus
Christ in their midst that they will demonstrate the standards of godliness and
biblical holiness as a rebuke to this wicked and perverse generation.
The church, generally speaking, is afflicted with a dread, lingering illness
that shows itself daily in the apathy and spiritual paralysis of its members.
How can it be otherwise when twentieth-century Christians refuse to acknowledge
the sharp moral antithesis that God Himself has set between the church, as the
body of Christ, and this present world with its own human systems?
The differences between the churchly world and the followers of the Lamb are so
basic that they can never be reconciled and they can never be negotiated. God
never promised His believing people that they would become a popular majority
in this earthly scene. But the inspired writer to the suffering Hebrew
Christians in the first century promised something better. He emphasized the
availability of Jesus, our Lord and Savior, in the life of the true Body, His
church:
You have not come to a mountain that can be touched and that is burning with
fire. But you have come to
The
blessings are here and now
These warm, glowing New Testament words speak of God’s great plan for Christ’s
life to be exhibited constantly in the faithful and believing church. They
speak of great treasures and glorious realities that we should presently be
enjoying in our Christian life and walk.
The Hebrews writer says plainly that if we are a New Testament church, we have
come to the joys of
Because there are no limitations known to our God, the writer presses on to
assure us of the reality of our fellowship with Jesus, the mediator of the new
covenant, and of His blood, which speaks better things than the blood of Abel
that cried out for revenge.
These are all reasons why we should take our stand, put ourselves on record.
This revelation of what God expects of the New Testament church makes me fall
down before the Lord. I find myself crying in faith and determination: “Jesus,
I will trust You and follow You in this present evil
age. I will trust You to be my very life and
sufficiency in the fellowship and joy of the body of believers, Your church!”
Repeat:
this is a present reality
Let me hasten to the Spirit’s emphasis here to Christian believers. The
inspired Word of God insists that the reality and the blessings from the heart
of the living Christ are not reserved for some future and heavenly age.
We are forced to part company with a great segment of
popular Christian theology which congenially offers us soothing advice: “Let’s
not get mixed up or sidetracked. All of these precious things are references to
heaven. So we will just bide our time, and we will have it all—some day!”
Actually, there is no mention at all of a future heaven in these promises to
the church. There is no reference to the day we will die. Rather, the New
Testament
We can meet God and His Spirit in blessed reality now! We can know and commune
with our Lord Jesus Christ in our heart of hearts now! We may know the joy of
sensing all around us God’s innumerable company and the fellowship with the
church of the First born now!
As committed Christians, we know what we believe and we know what God has done
for us. We want to make it plain to our own day and age that we are highly
privileged to be part of a Christian church in God’s plan and in God’s will. We
are thankful for the dimensions of His grace and love. We know where we stand
in faith, and we are not bound by ecclesiastical traditions, except where we
choose to be and intelligently and openly desire to be.
Because we experience the life of Jesus Christ in the body, we need not be
engaged in finding out what other religious groups are doing. Our statement of
faith is clear: through the Holy Spirit we get our instructions from the throne
of God as we study and lean upon His revelation in the Scriptures.
We desire to make it very plain that we have a valid reason for our assemblies
and fellowship. It is a reason of spiritual life and spiritual maturity. It is
not a social reason—even though our Christian fellowship does have social
implications.
The
negatives must be dealt with
Let me remind you that the writer to the Hebrew Christians began this section
with a negative reference: “You have not come to [Sinai],” and then he proceeds
to the positive declaration, “You have come to
This is the way it is in this world. We do not deny it, and we do not apologize
for it. To say that we will never discuss anything in the negative would be
similar to saying that there is only one side of a coin. If I should try to
split all of my Canadian quarters right through the middle because I am
impressed with the likeness of the Queen but I want to get rid of the likeness
of the elk on the other side, someone might soon appear at
There is polarity in the universe, and we do well to recognize it. In order for
right to be established and grow, wrong must be exterminated, or at least
minimized. Of these words, exterminate an minimize, I
prefer exterminate. I like to see the extinction of things that are wrong and
unworthy.
We are always going to have to deal with the negatives—the things that are
offensive and out of place—in order that we may emphasize the things that are
right and that have a rightful place.
I am reminded that when Jesus came to offer Himself to
When Martin Luther came into his effective ministry, he had to personally
engage the power of
The Christians of our own day who still think they can be “carried to the skies
on flow’ry beds of ease” are wrong, terribly wrong!
We must face up to what is going on in the churches and meet it as men and
women of God. It is not enough just to show a smiling countenance and insist
that we are hoping for the best. Where we see there is wrong, we must face up
to it, show why it is wrong and dismiss it; and then plant truth in its place.
A builder dares not erect any structure until he has cleared the sand and
debris away in order to place the foundation squarely down on rock.
Some
things we must oppose
As Christian believers, we must stand together against some things. So, if you
hear anyone saying that A. W. Tozer preaches a good deal that is negative, just
smile and agree. “That is because he preaches the Bible!”
Here are some of the things we oppose:
We are against the many modern idols that have been allowed to creep into the
churches. We are against the “unauthorized fire” that is being offered on the
altars of the Lord. We are against the modern gods that are being adopted in
our sanctuaries. We are specifically against the baptized foolery and
sanctified frivolity that have come to the fore, even in conservative Christian
churches.
We hold firmly to our belief that the Christian church is a divinely appointed
body and that as a church we are called to worship and witness for Christ. We
believe in another dimension also: that we are called to an attitude of
separation from the things of this world that grieve
the heart of God.
We are against this world’s ways and its false values. We are against this
world’s follies and its vain pleasures. We are against this world’s greed and
sinful ambitions. We are against this world’s vices and its carnal habits.
We believe this spells out clearly the Bible truth of separation. God asks us
to stand boldly against anything or anyone who hurts or hinders this New
Testament body of Christians. We dare to state that an apathetic tolerance is
not necessarily a virtue. It may be a downright vice if it is given to excusing
hurtful abuses.
Actually, the body of Christ has been given deposits of love and faith that
bring self-healing and self-building. But if the church tolerates within itself
those things that harm and destroy, it will not heal itself—it will wither!
Therefore, it is necessary for us to stand with and teach the Bible and all it
truths. The Word of God is the “antibiotic” that seeks out and destroys the
viruses that would plague the life of the church.
Now,
to the positive side!
But there is a positive side. We do need to rejoice in the positive blessings
that come to us through Jesus Christ our Lord. His positive will is our glory! It is a positive reality that we do not have
to wait for that day when Christ is fully revealed to know the everlasting joys
and possess the everlasting treasures that have come to us through His death,
resurrection and glorification. The
apostle Paul does not advise us to wait until we get to heaven. In his Letter
to the Ephesians, he encourages us to claim our spiritual inheritance and
heavenly blessings now:
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing
in Christ. He predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ
{that is here and now} to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely
given us in the One he loves {that is also here and now} In him we have redemption
through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of
God’s grace {that, too, is now}. And he made known to us the mystery of his
will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ. (Ephesians
1:3-9)
Paul then races on into the future to show us that all of our gracious
blessings which we now have in Christ constitute only the prelude for all of
the ages to come. It is a remarkable listing of the shining glories to which
we, as members of the body of Christ, are called in our pilgrimage here.
Note that I am speaking of the “body of Christ, not what is
frequently referred to as the institutional Christian church. It can be
fairly said that the institutional church is largely known in the world as an
organization and not as a living organism. The institutional church offers many
good things to its members, but it does not necessarily recognize the true
glory of Christ’s life within. It lives and thrives on sociability, amusements,
group activities—things that may be innocent and pleasant and nice but which
lack the glories of the church of the living God.
That wondrous delight which the disciples felt when they met with their risen
Lord is not there. There is no delight, no adoration, no worship except what is
superimposed by the beauty of the stained glass windows and the solemnity of
organ tones. It is paramount that the
But
we are citizens of heaven
The
To these believers, God has imparted His own nature. They have a distinct sense
of belonging to one another while they live—almost as exiles—in an unfriendly
world. These earthly citizens of heaven speak a common language—that of their
constitution, which is the Bible, the Word of God. They love to sing the songs
of
This is the Bible pattern. God the Father is there. Christ the Son is present.
The Holy Spirit indwells each member. The life and spirit of Christ is the true
glory of the church.
Let us not overlook the fact that the “inner man” is a real being as certainly
as the eternal, physical “man” is a real being. For certain the soul within us
has ears and can hear the voice of God. The spirit within us can experience and
taste the glories of God in a blessed fellowship now. Such is the joyful
purpose of the church!
I dare to remind you, as a fellow-believer, that God has set before us a rich
table of blessings. He is saying, “This is all yours, and it is for you now!”
God tells us that we share in fellowship with all of those who are enjoying His
blessings in the heavenlies. He is saying, “Share
these blessings! They are all yours. And Christ, your elder Brother, is in the
midst, presiding over My table!”
The reality of our spiritual blessings in Christ can never be apprehended by a
downright secular philosophy. The deaf person will never acknowledge the
satisfying impact of a symphony orchestra. He or she cannot hear. The ailing
man on a starvation diet cannot describe the taste and delight of good,
nutritional food. He is on his death course.
So, the person who is dead in trespasses and sins but brags of culture and
education and refinement can only shrug and walk away when we try to describe
the glory of God, the beauty of Jesus, the wonder of the Holy Spirit and the
present accessibility of Zion, city of God.
But when that person shrugs and walks away, we still have our smile and our
joy. We know what we have found: the “spirits of righteous men made perfect.”
Are
we falling short of the goal?
Are we so absorbed with worldly affairs that we do not enjoy God’s promised
blessings as we should—right now? Why are we not trusting
God to let us inspire one another as we sense the presence of these good,
invisible gifts? They are the things that are ours in Christ now because we are
part of the body of Christ. Oh, for the spiritual insight and godly trust of an
Elisha!
Remember that Elisha, the prophet in a day long past,
lived so close to God that he was able to tell
The next morning, Elisha’s young assistant came
rushing in, pale-faced and trembling, to report the military build-up. “Oh, my
lord, what shall we do?” he cried. But the old prophet just bowed his shaggy
head in reverent prayer: “Lord, open his eyes so he may see.”
And God answered the prophet’s prayer. God opened the young man’s eyes and let
him see the true situation. God showed him the presence of the heavenly host
between the city and the enemy forces. The young man “saw the hills full of
horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.”
As the enemy troops advanced, Elisha prayed again.
“Strike these people with blindness.” God did so, and Elisha
himself led the confused and blinded troops to
Our
conclusion
Here, then, is the conclusion of our manifesto of faith:
If those who call themselves the people of God would give up their carnality
and worldly-mindedness, if they would live with the reality that Jesus is
victor at the heavenly controls, they could be the kind of New Testament church
that makes glad the heart of God. There would be such an overflow of the Holy
Spirit’s gifts and graces that their spirituality would be effective in every
contact and activity, just as it was in New Testament times.
God grant that it may be so!
Faith Will Endure the Final Shaking
The Living God does not ask us to believe Him and honor Him only because of His
mighty acts done in the past. The writer to the Hebrews informs us of a
spectacular future judgment promised by God. It will be a “shaking” of His
creation and the actual removal of temporal things to ensure that “what cannot
be shaken may remain.”
This is the brief review of God’s acts provided in the Letter to the Hebrews:
See to it that you do not refuse him who speaks. If they did not escape when
they refused him who warned them on earth, how much less will we, if we turn
away from him who warns from heaven? At that time his voice shook the earth,
but now he has promised, “Once more I will shake not only the earth but also
the heavens.” The words “once more” indicate the removing of what can be
shaken—that is, created things—so that what cannot be shaken may remain.
Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be
thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our “God is
a consuming fire.” (Hebrews 12:25-29)
We believe the Holy Spirit of God is the true Author of what is written here.
We note the warning that men and women may be guilty of refusing to heed the
God who speaks to His creation on earth.
God’s first divine act described in these verses was His giving of the Law—the
Ten Commandments. On Mount Sinai He spoke to Moses and through him to the
people of
When this message was written to the early church nearly 2,000years ago, both
of these mighty, divine acts were already history. God had spoken to the fallen
human race, first from the mount, from the earth, and then from heaven itself
with the plan of redemption through Jesus Christ.
But the Hebrews text continues with the promise of a future act of God. It
speaks of the great day of consummation—the final judgment that is often
mentioned in the Scriptures.
God’s
word at Sinai
First, I want to review the two great acts of God in the past. The Old
Testament record makes it clear that God chose the nation of
The Israelites, at the time God spoke from Sinai, had just been delivered from
grinding slavery and oppression in
God called Moses to go up into the mountain. He told him to prepare the people
of
The giving of the Law on Sinai was accompanied by supernatural terror,
according to the Scriptures. The mountain burned with fire. There was darkness
and tempest. There were the sounds of a mighty trumpet and the divine Voice, so
overpowering that the encamped people pleaded that they could not endure it and
begged that they should not have to hear it.
The experience was so far beyond the limits of normal human expression that
Moses cried, “I am trembling with fear!” God was dramatizing the necessity for
people to live according to His will. In unforgettable fashion, God was setting
before human beings the high principles of morality that He requires of His
creatures.
God
said, “This is what I expect”
It was in those Ten Commandments that God said to His earthly people, “Here is
what I expect from you, My covenant people. My Law
declares specifically your individual moral duty to Me
and to your fellow beings.” God promised
History tells us that
I will only remind you, for you surely know it well, that many people have
declared the Ten Commandments no longer valid, no longer relevant in our
society. I watch the papers to check on the sermon topics of my fellow
ministers, and it is apparent that Christian churches are not paying attention
to the Ten Commandments.
Dwight L. Moody preached often on the Commandments. John Wesley said he
preached the commands of the Law in order to prepare the way for the gospel. R.
A. Torrey told ministers if they did not preach the
Law they would have no response to the preaching of the gospel. It is the Law
that prepares us for the gospel. It is the Law that shows us our need for the
gospel of salvation and forgiveness.
That
Law has not been annulled
When I said the Ten Commandments are no longer in vogue, I referred to common
attitudes held generally among unbelievers. In our Christian churches, we
generally respond, “Well, we are not living under the Law; we are living under
God’s grace!”
It is accurate to say that our binding obligation is not to Old Testament Law.
As believing Christians, we are under Christ’s higher law—that which is
represented in His love and grace. It is true that if
we are in Christ, His better law of love is operative in our lives.
Is that a big relief to us? Something else needs to be said about God’s Law and
God’s will and God’s grace. Everything that is morally commanded in the Ten
Commandments still comprises the moral principles that are the will of God for
His people. As believing, regenerated Christians, we must acknowledge that
God’s moral will for His people—then and now—has not changed.
God expressed His will for His covenant people. He said, for example, “You
shall have no other gods. You shall not make for yourself an idol. You shall
not bow down to them or worship them” (Exodus 20:3-5). It has always been God’s
will that His people shun idolatry.
We take our position in God’s grace that we are not bound by Mosaic Law. Are we
free, then, to worship idols? No, of course not! We are in our Savior, Jesus
Christ, by faith. We have met God. We love Him with our whole being. We admire
Him and we worship Him. To us, it would be utterly senseless to worship an idol
made by the hands of human beings. That is our higher reason—and it confirms
the moral will of God.
We can apply the same moral and spiritual standards of our faith to the matters
of taking the name of the Lord in vain, to covetousness and murder and adultery
and stealing and lying. We are not bound by the exterior chains of the old
Law—true. If we are what Christ means us to be through love and grace, that
kind of external allegiance is not necessary.
The apostle Paul expressed well for us this new principle of grace:
Through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of
sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by
the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man
to be as in offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, in order that the
righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live
according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit. (Romans 8:2-4)
God’s
second mighty act
Now, let us review the second mighty act of God—the giving of this gospel of
grace. The gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ is the declaration of God’s
redemptive will for men and women on this earth.
Quite surely we can agree that this act was more completely divine than the
first. I say so because of the participation of the three Persons of the
Godhead—Father, Son and Holy Spirit—in the plan of salvation for the lost.
This brings us to the mystery and miracle of the Incarnation—God coming to take
our humanity and our flesh, yet without sin. Luke quotes the message of the
angel Gabriel to Mary:
You have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son,
and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the
Son of the Most High. The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the
Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born
will be called the Son of God.” (Luke 1:30-35)
The overshadowing of the Most High, the Father; the energy of the Holy Spirit;
the enfleshment of the eternal Son—here were the
Persons of the Godhead cooperating in a gracious act on behalf of lost men and
women.
Later, at the crucifixion, in that most important of all moments for a lost,
death-doomed race, the three Persons of the Godhead are again in full view. Our
writer to the Hebrews expressed it concisely: “Christ through the eternal
Spirit offered himself unblemished to God” (9:14).
Then, in that culminating miracle—the resurrection of Jesus from the dead—we
view again the Trinity in action. Jesus Christ our Lord—to use the apostle Paul’s words in Romans 1:4—”through the Spirit of
holiness was declared with power to be the Son of God by his resurrection from
the dead.”
So, in this mighty, once-for-all act of redemption, the three Persons of the
Godhead were participating as one—lovingly, harmoniously, effectively working
in behalf of lost humanity. In this personal communication from heaven, God
declared His redemptive will for us, even as He had declared His high, moral
will earlier at Sinai.
Why
would
There is a question to be considered at this point. Why did
First, consider the acceptance of idolatry in
Then the mighty hand of God—the God who had never forgotten or abandoned His
people—delivered these Israelites from slavery and from their pagan
surroundings. On the mount, He gave them His Word and His Law. But, as the
Bible admits, the children of
From the very start of their heathen rituals, the Almighty God condemned them.
But although they were His covenant people, they refused to hear and heed the
voice of Him who spoke on earth.
There were other areas of disobedience as well. God in His Law had commanded
that one day in seven should be observed as a holy and reverent Sabbath. But
We
are guilty, too
How do we apply this kind of rationale to our practices in this generation?
Surely we must admit that the Israelite farmer of long ago was not alone in his
shortcomings! We have become quite adept in our own time in finding and using
economic, social and other reasons for doing things we should not do and for
making decisions that we should not make. We presume the grace of God is so
wide and so flexible that we can do just about anything that pleases us or is
convenient, and God will look the other way.
But Jesus was very dogmatic concerning the lives and attitudes of His
disciples. We recall how plain and direct His teachings were. Jesus was not
concerned at all about the preservation of economic and cultural customs. He
said it was most important that His followers should accept the offense of the
cross.
I remind you and emphasize it that every serious-minded, committed believer is
going to be challenged and even persecuted because he or she is a disciple of
the crucified Jesus. Some times there are alternatives, both of them good. But
at other times, we shall be called upon to take a right and proper stand for
Jesus’ sake. Jesus did not promise that consistent Christian living would be
easy. He did not promise a release from daily problems and pressures. He did
not promise to take us home on a fluffy pink cloud. We live in the knowledge of the grace of God,
but we dare not forget that our Lord came to die for us and to express the
never-changing moral and redemptive will of God for His people. Before we
condemn the Jews of Bible history for their failure, we must be sure we are not
overlooking spiritual and moral short comings of our own.
The prophetic Scriptures announce a coming day when there stored Jewish remnant
will come into a blessed, glorious future. We confess that we are indebted to
In the light of that history, the writer to the Hebrews has this question for
his Christian readers: “If they did not escape when they refused him who warned
them on earth, how much less will we, if we turn away from him who warns us
from heaven?”(12:25).
We
have a personal responsibility
In our day, we hear strange things concerning the measurement of spiritual life
and activity. What measurement will be made of your life if
you are among those who insist—sometimes loudly—”I am just as good a Christian
as most of the people in our church!”
God’s message is clear:
“Once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.” The words
“once more” indicate the removing of what can be shaken—that is, created
things—so that what cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom
that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with
reverence and awe, for our “God is a consuming fire.” (Hebrews 12:26-29)
The apostle Peter was in that generation to whom the above words were
originally addressed. I close this chapter by telling you that Peter got the
message and responded to it! Through Peter, the Holy Spirit has given us one of
our best glimpses of the coming shaking of all things and what our preparation
should be:
But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with
a roar, the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in
it will be laid bare. Since everything
will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought
to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed
its coming. That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire,
and the elements will melt in the heat. But in keeping with his promise we are
looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness. (2
Peter 3:10-13).
Faith Rests on an Unchanging Jesus
Many adherents of Christianity are beginning to admit that their attachment is
to little more than a pallid “world religion.” If they think about it at all,
they may wonder where the moral and spiritual dynamic of the early church has
gone. God has humble, faithful people
who personally know that moral, spiritual dynamic. “Genuine, effective faith,”
they will insist, “must always rest on an unchanging Jesus Christ, the same
yesterday, today and forever!”
The writer of the Letter to the Hebrews provides us a list of the shining
virtues that Christians must exhibit in every generation. And he ties them to
the reality of Christ’s eternal and divine person:
Keep on loving each other. Do not forget to entertain strangers. Remember those
in prison and those who are mistreated.
Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure. Keep your
lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have. Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of
God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith.
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. (Hebrews 13:1-8)
These exhortations are a call to the personal faith and godliness
characteristic of the early Christian church. They are based on solid, fundamental
Christian doctrine. That is the apostolic method of teaching, instructing and
encouraging.
A
New Testament pattern
We do not know if Paul was the human writer of this letter, but we can say that
this same method of exhortation is apparent in the letters Paul wrote. He first
gives his readers the scriptural reasons for certain Christian actions and
attitudes. He provides the basis and the reason, and then he exhorts them to
respond appropriately.
So it is in this letter. Earlier sections state what Christ has done for the
human race and what He now means to the Christian. We are assured that Christ
is greater than Moses and Aaron, greater than the angels. We are told that once
for all, by His own blood, He purchased mankind’s salvation. That is the
foundation, and it is strong and true.
Then comes the exhortation: If all of the above is
true, then “keep on loving each other.” It is a good and gracious argument:
because we have reasons for doing something, we ought to do it without delay
and without reservations!
Now, in the light of these reasons for exhortation and spiritual action, let me
share a thought with you about our modern times and about modern ministries.
Quite often we hear are mark that “the Reverend Doctor John Doe is an
inspirational preacher.” Frankly, in my judgment there are too many
“inspirational” preachers in our day who are trying to cheer up their listeners
without using sound, biblical methods.
From my own contacts with them, I describe the “inspirational” preacher like
this: after warming his audience with his natural charm, he energetically waves
his arms and exhorts people to be a little holier, a little better, a little
busier, a little happier and—perhaps—a little more
generous. But he fails to give a single compelling reason why they should be
any of these things in their daily lives.
It is a method of exhortation without true biblical background or pattern.
Suppose you are standing in your own yard, on your lawn, during a quiet summer
evening. And suppose I am standing on the sidewalk only a few feet from you.
Suddenly I shout at you, “Look out! Jump! Quick!” I reinforce my shout of
warning by waving my arms and jumping up and down. You are not likely to jump. You have no
reason to jump—or even to move! You may be puzzled or curious. But you know
your yard and your lawn well enough to know there is no compelling reason for
you to jump.
But, if I saw you standing on a railroad track and I could also see a speeding
train about to run you down and crush out your life, I would surely scream at
the top of my lungs, “Jump! Train! Jump quickly!” In that case, there is plenty
of reason for action, and you would jump for your life. You might possibly set
an unofficial world record for the standing broad jump! You would be moved to action with good
reason. The train is coming, and you will be killed if you do not jump.
I can be very hard to move. If I am being exhorted to action by a man who is
merely overheated emotionally, I am likely to drag my feet. I want that man to
deal with me on the basis of valid reasons for my interest, my consideration
and my decision to act and to move.
Probably you have had some contact with the appeals of ministers who have
espoused the cause of liberal Christian theology. Many of them say they want the
same piety in people that we want. They want the same honesty, the same
loyalty, the same purity, the same degree of philanthropic love expressed for
their fellow men. They urge the performance of these good qualities—and quote
persuasive poetry along with their urging.
But they fail to provide the good and necessary reasons for these
qualities and actions—reasons that are inherent in the Bible and in the
proclamation of Christ’s saving and keeping gospel.
They want the spiritual virtues without dealing with the root hindrances to
such virtues. They want men and women to be more like Jesus, but they want
nothing to do with the new birth from above that imprints Jesus’ image on
people’s lives. They want humankind to be forgiving and forgiven, but they do not
recognize the biblical necessity for atonement, regeneration and justification.
They want the blessing and the display of the fruits of the Spirit, but they
reject the Bible’s declaration that fruits are related to the fullness of the
Spirit. Actually, they seem to expect fruit and harvest without any tree at
all!
We
must have a basis for our faith
Their disappointments must be hard for them to explain. The apostolic method
was to provide a foundation of good, sound biblical reasons for following the
Savior, for our willingness to let the Spirit of God display the great
Christian virtues in our lives. That is why we come in faith and rejoicing to
the eternal verity of Hebrews 13:8. Because Jesus Christ is eternal and without
change forever and ever, we can trust Him and live for Him!
Hebrews 13:8 is the verse of Scripture that gives significance to every other
section of teaching and exhortation in the Letter to the Hebrews. In this verse
is truth that is moral and spiritual dynamic if we will exercise the faith and
the will to demonstrate it in our very needy world.
We hear much discussion about revival and renewal. People talk about spiritual
power in the churches. I think this fact—this truth—that Jesus Christ wants to
be known in His church as the ever-living, never-changing Lord of all could
bring back again the power and the testimony of the early church.
I wonder if you feel like me when I survey much of Christendom in today’s
world: “They have taken away my Lord and I do not know what they have done with
Him!” If we would only seek and welcome our Lord’s presence in our midst, we
would have the assurance that He is the same Lord He has always been!
As Christian believers, we stand together in the evangelical faith—the
historical faith of our fathers. Yet we must confess that the evangelical
church today is bogged down with moral boredom and life-weariness. The church
is tired, discouraged and unastonished. Christ seems to belong to yesterday.
The prophetic teachers have projected everything out into the dim future where
it is beyond our reach—unavailable. They have dispensationalized
us into a state of spiritual poverty—and they have left us there! But
regardless of such teachers, the course of spiritual victory is clear: let us
trust what the Word of God continues to say to us.
The
Scriptures are open and plain
The Scriptures are open and plain. Jesus Christ is our Savior and Lord. He is
our great High Priest, alive and ministering for us today. His person, His
power and His grace are the same, without change, yesterday, today and forever! He is the same Lord because He is the same
God. He is the same, never having changed in substance, in power, in wisdom, in
love, in mercy. In His divine person, Jesus Christ has never known correction
or change. He feels now as He has always felt about everyone and everything. Jesus will not yield to those who charge that
He is an absentee, that He is far away and unavailable. Our faith tells us that
Jesus Christ is close at hand, that He is a living force in our lives today. He
is the Holy Spirit of God fulfilling His promises moment by moment.
We true Christians must stand together in our faith. Our Lord is as powerful
now, as real now, as near to us now, as loving now as He ever was when He
walked among the men and women on the shores of
Jesus had come for the humiliation of death. He came to declare God’s
redemptive will. The plotting of jealous men could not destroy His divine
affection for a lost race. Putting him on a cross did not drain away any of His
love. That is why we believe with assurance and blessing that He is the very
same Lord Jesus Christ now!
And it is this ever-living Christ who wants to demonstrate Himself through our
faith and love to those around us. How do you suppose Jesus feels today about
the sinful men and women who walk our streets? He loves them. No matter how we
feel about them, He loves them! We may be righteously indignant about the
things they do. We may be disgusted with their actions and ways. We are often ready
to condemn them and turn away from them. But Jesus keeps on loving them. It is
His unchanging nature to love and to seek the lost.
It
is the sick who need a doctor
And how does Jesus feel about the outcasts—the helpless and the hopeless? He
said many times when He was on earth, “I have come to help the needy. The well do not need a doctor—but the sick need attention and
love!” By contrast, what is our
attitude? We look at the needy and measure them and say, “Let us determine if
they are worthy of our help.” I do not think Jesus during all
of His ministry on earth ever helped a worthy person. He often asked
those who appealed to Him, “What is your need? Do you need My
help?” What would we think of a doctor
who would make it known that he would treat or attend only those who could
prove themselves well and healthy? What should we think, then, of Christian
churches that seem to indicate they have help available only for those who can
demonstrate they do not need help?
Jesus is our Lord and Savior. The best thing we know about Him is that He loves
the sinner. He has always loved the outcast—and for that we should be glad, for
we, too, were once outcasts. We are descended from that first man and woman who
failed God and disobeyed. They were cast out of the garden, and God set in
place a flaming sword to keep them from returning. The greatest encouragement throughout the
Bible is God’s love for His lost race and the willingness of Christ, the
eternal Son, to show forth that love in God’s plan of redemption. The love of
Jesus is so inclusive that it knows no boundaries. At the point where we stop
caring and loving, Jesus is still there, loving and caring!
I confess that I like kids. In my congregation, people used to remark that if
they could not find me, it was probably because I had run across some little
boy or girl delighted to get a piece of candy. But our Lord Jesus loved the
children with a kind of love that none of us can even remotely approach. He
loved and gave Himself to the children. It was a special kind of love for all
who approached Him in need. And He is still the same today!
Do you ever have times of discouragement? I mean, really rough and depressing
periods? Do you have those human times when it is not easy to pray? Do you ever
have a week when things are not as fresh and bright as they were the week
before? I do, sometimes. And in those times we remember that we are changeable.
In our humanness we do change. Thus, we need to remember that Jesus, our Lord,
changes not. The manner of our love for one another may change, but the
Savior’s love remains the same, always constant.
Love
one another
This is a good place for me to mention something else about our love for one
another within the fellowship of our churches. The writer to
the Hebrews appeals to us to “keep on loving each other as brothers” (13:1).
In effect he is saying, “You are all born of the same Spirit. You are all
witnessing for Christ and waiting for His coming. Therefore, you are to love
one another!”
Being the humans that we are, how is it possible for
us to love one another in the bonds of our faith? Perhaps this perception of
mine will be of help to you.
I have always insisted that it is possible to love people in the Lord even
though we may not like them! Here is what I mean. Some people are so nice and
friendly and outgoing, so easy to get along with that we have no hesitation
about accepting them and loving them. We find it easy to love people like that.
But then there are the others! Some are unfriendly. Or perhaps they cut us
down. Or just ignore us. Some have personalities that rub us wrong: it may be
simply their temperament, or they may be boastful or sarcastic—or ignorant. And
we think within ourselves, “It seems impossible for me to like that person!” I have come to believe that the Bible
supports the position that we can love such people even if we do not like them!
We do not like their boorish or distasteful human traits, but we will love them
for Jesus’ sake.
I am being frank about this, and I hope I am being helpful. Do not ever say
that you are not right with God because you like some people more than others.
I believe you can be right with God and still not like the way some people
behave. Our admonition is to love them in a larger and more comprehensive way
because we are all one in Christ Jesus. This kind of love is indeed a Christian
virtue, and the Holy Spirit will help us to nurture it and display it in all of
our contacts.
There is much of eternal mystery in this gracious fact of God’s love for us and
the expression of our love for Him. A. B. Simpson’s writings were always
meaningful concerning this relationship. He said in one place, We become the objects of the very same
love that the Father in heaven has for His Son. This is, indeed, the mystery of
mysteries: that we are permitted to share the intimate and exclusive affection
of the eternal Father toward His only begotten Son. He loves us now, not for ourselves, nor in proportion to our personal claims
upon His affection, but precisely as He loves Jesus Christ, with infinite
complacency and unlimited measure. This is the mystery hid from ages, and at
last made known to the saints, “Christ in you, the hope of glory.”
Some human clouds may for the moment shut out the radiance of Jesus’ glorious
face, but no one and nothing can change or quench His love for you. His eternal
plan through the cross does not change, and it never will! Our Lord has never
begun anything that He will not complete, bringing it to fruition in His plan
for the ages. It is our responsibility
to believe His Word and to obey His truth. It is our task to practice the
Christian virtues in the power of the Holy Spirit as we await the coming of Him
who will come.
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