You Are Now Considered Perfect

Posted on November 6, 2011 by JohnJ

Romans 8:4 “the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us”

These are some of the most exciting words of Scripture. This is what mankind has been waiting for all these millenia since Adam’s fall. Cursed to live an imperfect life, slaves to sin, unable to live in holiness, crushed by the gulf separating fellowship with God, mankind, as well as all creation, has been waiting for the restoration. (Romans 8:19-23)

And the Law came making our sinful nature even more pointedly painful. The requirement of the Law is perfection, as it shows that if you can follow the Law in every aspect you would be sinless, guiltless. Of course, no one ever could. Until, that is, the fulfillment of the Promise. In one gracious act, the perfect man, the God-Man, Jesus Christ, offering Himself in our place, cursed, consigned to death, He voluntarily took our curse, our punishment, our sentence of death upon Himself. Every sin, every ungodly act, every hateful behavior, every word uttered in hate, every act of disobedience, from every human being who ever lived. Jesus bore all that weight of sin on the cross, and died in our place. All so that after the resurrection, He could justify all who would come to Him accepting His offer of redemption.

And so Paul says in Romans chapter 8, “Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” Because what the Law couldn’t do – that is, make us perfect, because it could only point out how sinful we all are – “God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us . . . .”

The requirement of the law – perfection – is now fulfilled in those who have surrendered to the grace of the living God, born again, not of flesh but of the Spirit.

Ponder these words carefully, and see if it doesn’t give you goose bumps. What an extraordinary thing to be able to experience. It is called Justification. The saying is “just as if you never sinned.” That’s how some cutely define Justification. And the result is accurate but never forget that before life in Christ we very much were sinners, in open rebellion against God, by nature and by behavior. But now forgiveness is ours through faith in Christ, and accepting His redemptive work on the cross, His resurrected life being imparted to us when we surrender to His amazing grace.

The requirement of the law is fulfilled in us . . . by the mercy of His offering on the cross and the empty tomb. It is an awesome adjudication. We should be profuse in our thanks!

[Scriptures taken from the New American Standard Bible © 1995]

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Christ in Space

Posted on November 3, 2011 by JohnJ

Colossians 1:17 “He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.”
Ephesians 1:23 “which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.”

Nova last night broadcast a curious show about Space – What Is It. Not merely the “outer space” with which we are all familiar. But the more exotic space, like the space between atoms. As any physics student knows, atoms, the smallest of matter’s building blocks, are composed of electrons “revolving” around a nucleus. And just as there are vast distances between the solar system’s planets and the sun, so are there vast distances between the atom’s nucleus and the electrons, relatively speaking. So that truly, the atom consists mostly of space.

But if there is nothing smaller than these elements of the atom (leaving aside the exotic world of sub-atomic particles), what indeed makes up this Space?

You gotta love science. With the gift of intelligence and creativity coupled with an insatiable investigative curiosity man has pondered the construct of the physical universe which is his domain and he wants to know everything about it. He knows only what his eyes see and constructs theories to explain that which meets his gaze. Thus some very fanciful ideas have crept into mainstream culture. Copernicus gave us a realistic view of the solar system, confirmed by Galileo, Newton gave us the concept of gravity, Darwin gave us Evolution, Einstein gave us the relativity of the fabric of space-time. There almost seems no limit to the heights of man’s imagination. In fact or fiction.

Not that there is anything wrong with investigating to the fullest extent possible the creation we inhabit. When God made man in His image that depth of mind was an integral part. Indeed today, it seems incomprehensible that one can hold a palm sized plastic electronic device and capture teensy weensy waves of radiation that swirl all around us, capture and harness them and enable us to speak to another person hundreds and thousands of miles away. When thought of in this way the phone seems utterly inscrutable. Small wonder then that the designs of the foundations of God’s creation remain inscrutable. If man could comprehend how God made and sustains the universe in all its intricacies, it wouldn’t be much of a creation, eh?

But back to the show last night, and Space. Indeed, what is it? Can it be something that is comprehensible? Can the electromagnetic forces that hold the electron in orbit around its nucleus be comprehended? Or the forces binding the proton to the neutron? Or the fabric of the curvature of space-time? The verses at the head of this article give you an idea of where I’m heading.

God, who created all the things that have been created, or as the Gospel writer says of Jesus Christ, “All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being” John 1:3, Jesus Himself was God as the agent of creation. So how do all things, atoms, subatomic particles, gravity, space, time, hold together? By none other than the One who offered Himself on the cross for our redemption. I believe that’s exactly what Paul is saying in the verses above. He is writing for a completely different purpose perhaps, but the reality is clear, none the less. That is why Paul could tell the world’s great philosophers gathered to hear him atop Athens’ Acropolis that it is this God that “is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and exist . . . ” Acts 17:27-28. And we can see that “in Him” indeed we all exist. It boggles the mind, does it not? Not unlike atoms, and the spark of life, and all the other taken-for-granted aspects of life that we usually barely give a moments notice. Not that the creation is God, or God is His creation. But there is an intimate relationship between the creation and the Creator. Like the writer of the book of Hebrews puts it, it is Jesus Christ who “upholds all things by the word of His power.” Hebrews 1:3

Since in reality God Himself is so intimately entwined in our daily lives, our very existence, it should give us pause. To realize He is really that close to every one of us every second of our existence! Think about it, since, as Jesus told a gathering, “Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered” (Luke 12:7), God’s involvement in our lives is on a macro and microscopic level. In fact I would say that if at any time God, for even an instant, forgot about us, we would simply cease to exist, since He is the power that binds all things together.

So be comforted. God does not forget about you as you occupy your space on earth. He has cared enough to send his Son to our world for our salvation, and daily holds the physical universe together, for the benefit of everything in and outside of space.

[Scriptures taken from the New American Standard Bible © 1995]

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God’s Global Testamony

Posted on October 25, 2011 by JohnJ

Acts 14:16-17 “In the generations gone by He permitted all the nations to go their own ways; and yet He did not leave Himself without witness, in that He did good and gave you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness.”

God created man in His image and it didn’t take long for man to turn from Him, being deceived in the Garden. But He never left his creatures alone. The Old Testament is a monument to the untiring repetitive calling for His people to return to the blessings of fellowship with their Creator. But continually turning away to their own devices they ran as far away as they could. And on an Earth this large they had plenty of places to hide.

But as Luke states in Acts 10:35 “in every nation the man who fears Him and does what is right is welcome to Him”, meaning that God’s grace calls to man wherever on the globe that individual might be. The creature is never left alone. And if in God’s grace he is called to search for Him, He will be found by him. God’s own creation assists in this calling, with the blessings of rain, food, and shelter, and all of the things man calls good in his life, proving that He is there and is not silent.

Paul declares that God’s testimony was never very far from any man “because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse” as he wrote in Romans 1:19-20.

Paul also tells the philosophers and inquiring minds in Athens the same message, that God “made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation, that they would seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and exist”, Acts 17:26-28. So it isn’t like only those the citizens of western civilization have the opportunity or ability to come to God. It is ingrained in every man to seek for Him, though by far the majority suppress this with alarming success.

Indeed God permitted man to reject Him if that was what he desired. But He never stopped beckoning him to return. He used nature itself as a testimony, and ultimately He came down to Earth to our level, in the person of Jesus Christ, to do the ultimate call to return, from the raised cross and the empty tomb.

Listen to His still voice, your heart can hear Him. “Cease striving and know that I am God.” Psalm 46:10

[Scriptures taken from the New American Standard Bible © 1995]

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Murder in God’s Name

Posted on October 20, 2011 by JohnJ


John 16:2 “They will make you outcasts from the synagogue, but an hour is coming for everyone who kills you to think that he is offering service to God.

It is interesting that in these days of increasing militant Muslim activity that the godlessness of their so-called worship of Allah should take the form of murdering the followers of Jesus Christ. Certainly this verse from John was most immediately fulfilled in the early days of the church, when believers in Christ were manifested by true spiritual conversion, resulting in a very vocal declaration of the grace of God in their lives. This exuberance being conspicuous among the inhabitants of the Roman world would make them an easy mark for the State to persecute. And persecute they did, first by the Jews themselves, then by the Roman Caesars. First by Nero when Rome burned in the sixth decade A.D., then through Trajan, (A.D. 98-117); Hadrian, (A.D. 117-138); Antoninus Pius, A.D. (137-161); Marcus Aurelius, (A.D. 161-180) and on through the Diocletian Persecution, (A.D. 303-311). note And horribly and unthinkably, persecution was notoriously practiced against the Protestants during the Reformation by the Roman Church itself, in direct contradiction to Jesus declaration of the believer’s unity in Christ: “The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me.” John 17:22-23

So while not the originators of Christian persecution, the followers of Islam today have inherited the Satanic drive to protect and perpetuate their own errors by destroying any who offer the saving message of Christ. It is still reported of individuals in Muslim societies of the Middle East being persecuted, killed or outcast if belief in Christ is maintained. And just as Jesus warned the Jewish leaders that because they wished Jesus dead, that they really did not know God, and in fact were doing the deeds of their father, the devil. See John chapter 8.

But make no mistake, the well known and documented view of Muslim society to quell Christian gathering and sharing of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is directly antithesis to true spirituality, and of knowing the real God, regardless of how often and of how loudly they may proclaim, Allahu Akbar, God is Great! No, instead they will be the ones who will be hearing “I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.” Matthew 7:23

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note
History of the Christian Church, Volume II: Ante-Nicene Christianity. A.D. 100-325, pp. 36-49. Philip Schaff, New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1907, 1910, reproduced by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company

[Scriptures taken from the New American Standard Bible © 1995]

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The Certified Call

Posted on September 1, 2011 by JohnJ


Amos 1:1 and Amos 7:14 – 15The words of Amos, who was among the sheepherders from Tekoa . . .
Then Amos replied to Amaziah, “I am not a prophet, nor am I the son of a prophet; for I am a herdsman and a grower of sycamore figs.
“But the LORD took me from following the flock and the LORD said to me, ‘Go prophesy to My people Israel.'”

Does the Lord always need to use the professionals to perform and display His works among the people? Does one have to be schooled and specially trained in order to be certified as a minister of the Word? Many of the prophets of the Old Testament are professionals, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Elijah, just to name a few, who were from the schools of the prophets or are from the ruling classes.

But Amos is not one of them. He was an indigent sheepherder, “living in indigent circumstances, not as a prosperous man” as C.F. Kiel writes in his commentary. note Imagine yourself being a bus driver, a mechanic in an automobile tire shop, a janitor in a hospital, a migrant worker, or any of the millions of lowly jobs most people would consider beneath themselves, and then getting the call from God to bring His message of warning, punishment, and hope to your fellow countryman. Wouldn’t that be a shocker?

Never mind that misled people too numerous to mention have assumed this authority for themselves for thousands of years, most recently the likes of Mary Baker Eddy, Joseph Smith, Warren Jeffs, ad nauseum, self proclaimed prophets who either self willed or self deceived assumed a role never bestowed by God. It does beg the question for the individual, how will they know they have been sent? Maybe more importantly, how will they know God is calling them? Are the days gone where such confirmations of visions such as Isaiah or Ezekiel or Daniel received no longer received? It is hard to argue with such confirmation as “I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of His robe filling the temple” as depicted in Isaiah 6:1 – 4, though who couldn’t hope for such a visual affirmation?

Maybe the point is that your heart needs to be in a state of receptivity, in order to accept the call, like a radio needing to be on and its tuner dialed in to receive signals from a station. Not only must we be turned on to the things of God but our hearts must be tuned to hear His word, to be able to tell His voice from the myriad other deviant signals that are filling the airwaves. Such were the problems of the Old Testament where there certainly was no lack of false prophets that the likes of Isaiah and Jeremiah and Amos had to contend, often to the threat of bodily harm. That is why it is so important to be familiar with the Scriptures, that with the Word all those evil signals can be deflected. If you aren’t intimately familiar with the Word of God it will be next to impossible to be able to tell the false word from His true Word.

So on my soapbox I again say that it is imperative to daily read His word, read through the entire scriptures year after year so you can tell the fiction from the truth. Then maybe you’ll one day be surprised with a personal invitation, like Amos, to prophesy to your fellow citizens.
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note
Kiel-Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament, vol. 10, Minor Prophets, p. 233, William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. reprint 1977

[Scriptures taken from the New American Standard Bible © 1995]

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