A soul is costly

No man can by any means redeem his brother Or give to God a ransom for him—For the redemption of his soul is costly, And he should cease trying forever—That he should live on eternally, That he should not undergo decay. (Psalm 49:7-9)

Man has been searching for the elixir of eternal life for a long time. But the secret lies with no mere mortal. The redemption of his soul from death costs too much—we might as well cease trying to find it. But perhaps, if God Himself came to us, he could pay the sufficient price…

Normal days are harder than crises

“We do not need the grace of God to withstand crises, human nature and pride are sufficient, we can face the strain magnificently; but it does require the supernatural grace of God to live twenty-four hours in every day as a saint, to go through drudgery as a disciple, to live an ordinary, unobserved, ignored existence as a disciple of Jesus. It is inbred in us that we have to do exceptional things for God; but we have not.”

From Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest, Oct 21

Rescue or recovery

I had a conversation with the wife of the U.S. federal “expert witness” and advisor on mine safety. This lady mentioned that the news changes its terminology when reporting on mine disasters – if the miners are believed to be alive, reporters talk about the “rescue efforts.” But if it is believed that the miners are likely dead, the language shifts subtly, and the salvation measures are called a “recovery,” not a rescue. Rescue connotes the saving of life, but when there is no life, “recovery” connotes the mere retrieving of bodies.

Is our salvation rescue or recovery? I think it is more like recovery. For God does not just help out my life when I’m in a strait. He goes to get my stillborn corpse, and weeping over it, infuses his own life into my breast. Thus emptied of himself, he falls dead (for three days). God doesn’t just help my life- he gives me my life completely. I have none before I get his.

Maybe this relates to why Jesus waited two days to go to Lazarus. He decided that it would bring more glory to God (and thus more love to Lazarus) if he raised him from the dead instead of only healing his fatal illness. It seems like somehow in the divine mind, it is better that all die and some are resurrected than that all live and some are healed of their ails.

The Grand Canyon

I selected the following from the transcript of a sermon John Piper gave at Mars Hill Church in March 2010. What a beautiful picture of how God’s love and glory unite!

Let me give you an illustration here of how I’m trying to make my communication better. I used to say things like this, I still do, but I try to say more now. I say, “Nobody goes to the Grand Canyon to increase their self-esteem.” And I think that’s a pretty clever statement. [Congregation laughing] The problem with clever statements is that they can obscure a truth if you just get carried away with the cleverness of them.

The point of that statement is, why do people go to the Grand Canyon? It’s big, it’s deep, it’s breathtaking, it’s huge. It makes you feel little, and yet people go. There must be something inside of us that loves to be near bigness when we feel little. Yes, yes, yes, we’re made for God. However, if you walk up to the edge of the Grand Canyon, and you’re within about a foot of the edge, and it’s straight down for a mile, and you feel like the power of the Grand Canyon might just flick you over the edge, you’re not gonna enjoy it. You’re gonna be terrified the whole time. You’re gonna be thinking like, “I could die here.”

What you need to have added to the awe of the moment is security. The God who is the Grand Canyon needs to have his arms around you. He needs to be whispering in your ear, “It’s all right. I won’t drop you. I’m your dad. I’m your friend. I gave my life for you. I won’t drop you. I just want you to enjoy this, so relax, and look.” And what I’m arguing against is that the people say, “I just want his arms around me. I just want his arms around me. I want to feel that I’m central to his life.” I’m saying, please, please, don’t feel like you have to sacrifice that longing to be God-centered, to really see the canyon, to really know that the one whose arm’s around you is doing it so that you might not miss the deeply, all-satisfying more of the canyon, because as wonderful as it feels right now to have the arms of God around us with ourselves for maybe the first time in our life being cared about. “Nobody’s ever cared and now God seems to care and Piper comes along, he ruins it.” I’m just, I’m pleading with you. I’m pleading with you, that’s your brain, it’s not the book talking. That’s your background talking, it’s not the book.

Own the arms, love the arms, feel the arms, relax in the arms, enjoy the arms. “He seeks one sheep.” Don’t stop there because the Bible doesn’t stop there. It may take you awhile and maybe this is what I’ve left out is the process that’s required for some broken people. It may take you awhile to become so secure there, that you can open your eyes and say, “Whoa. That’s deep. You sure about this?” “I’m sure.” And maybe over some years they could fall in love with the canyon, the grandeur, the majesty, the awe, the wonder.

On tawhid and the trinity

A Muslim friend recently challenged me on the point of God’s consistent message of Tawhid, or his Oneness, as found in the ancient revelations. Why would the unchanging God fundamentally change the way he showed himself to man, shifting from oneness to three-in-oneness? He raises a very good question. Below was my attempt to answer him, which I think resembles theories of progressive revelation.

____________________

Although the scriptures are clear about the singleness of the Sovereign One, they are also replete with hints about something much more grand and mysterious, hints I believe are preludes to the Messiah, the climax of God’s reaching out to man.

1) In Genesis 1:2, the “Spirit of God is hovering over the waters”- before he begins creation. With the traditional Islamic interpretation of the “Spirit of God” meaning Gabriel, this would mean that Gabriel existed “in the beginning” before God started creation.

2) The word translated “God” in the first chapter of Genesis is plural (“Elohim”) and he talks to himself saying “us”, as in Genesis 1:26, Genesis 3:22.

3) Ibrahim meets with Allah in person in Genesis 18: “behold three men were standing opposite him”…two of them go down to Sodom while “Ibrahim was still standing before YHWH” and barters with him about the city’s fate. It is YHWH who replies to Ibrahim during this conversation, and YHWH is the one who departs afterward.

4) Yaqub/Jacob wrestles with God in Genesis 32. “A man wrestles with him until daybreak” – literally grappled with Jacob. When Jacob asks for his name, he says “why do you ask my name?” When he departs Jacob names the place Peniel (meaning, the face of God), saying, “I have seen God face to face and lived.”

5) When Moses received the second copy of the ten commandments in Exodus 34, YHWH: descended in the cloud and stood there with him as he called upon the name of YHWH. Then YHWH passed in front of him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord God, compassionate and gracious, slow to ander, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth…” This seems like a physical presence of God

There are many interesting hints like this in the book of Judges (Samson and Gideon have similar mysterious encounters) and the prophetic revelations to Israel and also the Zabur of David/Dawood have hints of God coming to man, but I’ll select a very intriguing one, one of my favorites:

6) The book of the prophet Isaiah, in 9:6- “For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; And the governremnt will rest on His shoulders; And his name will be called wonderful counselor, mighty God, eternal father, prince of peace.” (!)

So you see, I’m not saying that these things make God into gods plural. I’m saying that the true nature of the one God was gradually being revealed throughout time, he was preparing his people for the time when he himself would come to save them. Jesus was the fulfillment of God’s constant intention throughout the ages, ever since the Fall of Man.

7) God gave the first prophecy: “And I will put enmity between you [shaitan] and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise him on the heel.” (Genesis 3:15) That is, there would come one born of woman who would defeat Shaitan. And who can defeat the greatest of angels but the Maker of the angels?

God has always been one, and he has always three in one. Only at the coming of Jesus did God see that it was time to reveal the fullness of his nature, and the true meaning of his name Immanuel, which means “God with us.”

A grim view of human nature

The scriptures don’t speak too kindly of human nature. In fact, they’re downright insulting. A bit too pessimistic and severe to suit the humanist. Or good-natured, old-fashioned-respectful American-dream-living folks. Listen to Paul’s intense claims in Romans Chapter 3:

For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, as it is written:

“None is righteous, no, not one;
no one understands;
no one seeks for God.
All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;
no one does good,
not even one.”

“Their throat is an open grave;
they use their tongues to deceive.”

“The venom of asps is under their lips.”

“Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.”

“Their feet are swift to shed blood;
in their paths are ruin and misery,
and the way of peace they have not known.”

“There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.

The Remedy is the righteousness of God through faith.

But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith.

Pessimism toward man is the prerequisite to optimism toward Christ.

Baptism as a symbol

I was recently visiting a church where the pastor, during the baptism ceremony, repeatedly emphasized the importance of the heart-decision to follow Christ and deemphasized the importance of the baptism ceremony. “What’s happening here is just a symbol,” he kept saying. I agree. But in my study of symbols in communication (an excellent slice of communication theory) I learned of the inseparable interaction that occurs between the symbol and the thing signified–they are symbionts that together establish meaning and create reality. There’s a lot of weight in a symbol. Especially a sacramental symbol modeled by Christ Himself. I found a great excerpt from Piper on this:

“Sometimes we refer to baptism as a symbol. That may be saying too little, unless we remember that there are two ways to symbolize something. If you write the word LOVE on a blackboard for a group of 2nd graders and say that is the English language symbol for a commitment of the heart to someone’s welfare, that’s one kind of symbolism. But if you take your girlfriend out to a lagoon and sitting with her under a tree you pull a diamond ring out of your pocket and ask her to marry you and offer the ring as a of your love, then you are doing something very different—you are expressing love through a symbolic action. The teacher who writes LOVE on the board need not have any love. But the giving of a diamond ring is love in action.

Baptism is a symbol of faith in that second sense. It is an expression with the whole body of the heart’s acceptance of Christ’s lordship. Why is this so fitting that Jesus commanded it of all his people? I think it is fitting because what happens in becoming a Christian involves the body as well as the heart. In conversion the heart is freed from sin to be enslaved to God. But in Romans 6, Paul really stresses that our bodies too are involved in this change over. For example, verse 13: ‘Do not yield the members of your body to sin as instruments of wickedness but yield yourselves to God as men who have been brought from death to life and your members to God as instruments of righteousness.’ It seems fitting that since the lordship of Christ lays claim to our whole body, we should express our acceptance of that lordship with an action of the whole body.”

The un-purpose-driven life

The following are some pieces of My Utmost for His Highest regarding the pursuit of God’s purposes, which might make Mr. Warren mad.

August 3
‘Naturally, our ambitions are our own; in the Christian life we have no aim of our own. …We are not taken up into conscious agreement with God’s purpose, we are taken up into god’s purpose without any consciousness at all. We have no conception of what God is aiming at, and as we go on it gets more and more vague. God’s aim looks like missing the mark because we are too short-sighted to see what He is aiming at. At the beginning of the Christian life we have our own ideas as to what God’s purpose is–“I am meant to go here or there,” “God has called me to do this special work”; and we go and do the thing, and still the big compelling of God remains. The work we do is of no account, it is so much scaffolding compared with the big compelling of God.’

August 4
‘He can do nothing with the man who thinks that he is of use to God. As Christians we are not out for our own cause at all, we are out for the cause of God, which can never be our cause. We do not know what God is after, but we have to maintain our relationship with Him whatever happens. We must never allow anything to injure our relationship with God; if it does get injured we must take time and get it put right. The main thing about Christianity is not the work we do, but the relationship we maintain and the atmosphere produced by that relationship. That is all God asks us to look after, and it is the one thing that is constantly assailed.’

August 5
‘It cannot be stated what the call of God is to, because His call is to be in comradeship with Himself for His own purposes…. If we are in communion with God and recognize that He is taking us into His purposes, we shall no longer try to find out what His purposes are. As we go on in the Christian life it gets simpler, because we are less inclined to say–Now why did God allow this or that? Behind the whole thing lies the compelling of God. “There’s a divinity that shapes our ends.” A Christian is one who trusts the wits and the wisdom of God, and not his own wits. If we have a purpose of our own, it destroys the simplicity and the leisureliness which ought to characterize the children of God.’

Amen, Mr. Chambers. When I try to determine what God wants from me, it almost inevitably becomes an attempt to control my own life (in a nice Christian way). It is the hardest thing for me to quit grabbing for the road map and just let the Spirit of Christ be my guide. I have no say in my direction, I can’t even plan or prepare myself. But I must trust that the Lord will both communicate to me when I must turn or speed up or slow, and also prepare me adequately to pass through the thing into which he thus leads me.

The Christian life has no purpose, so to speak.

We are not driven by goals, we are not driven to any foreseeable end. We have only a great Means to whatever ends He wills. And we know that His ultimate end is simply Himself. Humble, doting dependence is our place. We cling to the Lord’s leg like a tenacious toddler, and he does the walking.

I must live a Spirit-driven life; and the Spirit has His purposes.

Beautiful passages from Isaiah 33

O LORD, be gracious to us; we wait for you.
Be our arm every morning,
our salvation in the time of trouble.
[A sweet plea for God to hold us up]

The sinners in Zion are afraid;
trembling has seized the godless:
“Who among us can dwell with the consuming fire?
Who among us can dwell with everlasting burnings?”
[God’s holiness- for he himself is a consuming fire]

He who walks righteously and speaks uprightly,
who despises the gain of oppressions,
who shakes his hands, lest they hold a bribe,
who stops his ears from hearing of bloodshed
and shuts his eyes from looking on evil,
[A holy life- who can say they have done this, and exempted himself from the consuming fire of God’s holiness?]

he will dwell on the heights;
his place of defense will be the fortresses of rocks;
his bread will be given him; his water will be sure.
Your eyes will behold the king in his beauty;
they will see a land that stretches afar.
[Paradise- beholding the King in his beauty, and green hills, like Gandalf said]

For the LORD is our judge; the LORD is our lawgiver;
the LORD is our king; he will save us.
And no inhabitant will say, “I am sick”;
the people who dwell there will be forgiven their iniquity.
[God himself will work holiness for us, and he is our whole government- all three branches- on that day. Halleluiah!]

A beautiful passage from Isaiah 30

For thus the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel, has said,
“In repentance and rest you will be saved,
In quietness and trust is your strength.”

The repose of a baby on his mother’s breast is the dependence that becomes faith.

But you were not willing,
And you said, “No, for we will flee on horses,”
Therefore you shall flee!
“And we will ride on swift horses,”

“I don’t think God’s going to show- it’s too late- we have to take matters into our own hands.”
That thought was the downfall of the first king of Israel.

Therefore those who pursue you shall be swift.
One thousand will flee at the threat of one man;
You will flee at the threat of five,
Until you are left as a flag on a mountain top
And as a signal on a hill.

The sign waves sadly on the barren barrow, a sorry solitary vestige of those who fell to fear.

Therefore the LORD longs to be gracious to you,
And therefore He waits on high to have compassion on you
For the LORD is a God of justice;
How blessed are all those who long for Him.

He is peering over the lip of heaven, bursting with expectancy for someone to finally return the anxious longing he has for their union with him.