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This Sunday (July 13, 2014) I am intending to preach on Colossians 2:6-10.
My mind is whirling. There is a much debated blog intended to be a guide for women married to ungodly (or very ungodly) men. I have previously written concerning just one issue, although there are many others.

Some of those who have commented on the blog have challenged the opposition (of which I am one) to provide a Biblical answer instead of emotional appeals. My previous blog was based upon 1 Corinthians 7 and Romans 13, as well as other passages.

But my mind still whirls. You see, I am not a “proof-texter.” Instead, I believe that the whole of Scripture is the work of One Author, and has one message, from beginning to end. The message of the Bible is nothing else than the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

The modern church chops the Bible up into unrelated verses and sentences, and will frequently come to some rather strange conclusions. One of these strange conclusions that captivates the hearts of American Christians I will call neo-Marcionism.

Marcion was a second century heretic. I know that “heresy” is an unused term, but it is a good one. Marcion taught that the Jehovah God of the Old Testament was evil, truly the devil. And Jesus Christ was the true God who appeared to Adam and Eve in the form of the serpent and then came again to rescue men and women from the tyranny of the Old Testament God.

The recent movie, Noah, as I understand it, was based upon the teachings of Marcion. But that is neither here nor there.

Neo-marcionism posits a complete disconnect between the god of the Old Testament and Jesus of the New Testament. It rears its head every time you hear someone say, “Oh. That’s Old Testament. It isn’t relevant to us today.”

This, like all Marcionism, leads to the bondage of the devil and an outright denial of the heart of the Gospel.

One thing that is very clear throughout the Old Testament is this: God never, ever, treats anyone more or less than they deserve. His justice cannot be denied, and all of his works are equity and truth. Note well the following passages:

For he cometh to judge the earth: with righteousness shall he judge the world, and the people with equity (Psalm 98:9).

“Yet the house of Israel says,`The way of the Lord is not fair.’ O house of Israel, is it not My ways which are fair, and your ways which are not fair?’” (Ezekiel 18:29)

God cannot change. He cannot deny his justice or his equity. This means that he will always treat men and women exactly as they deserve.

This is not good news for man, for man is sinful, and God will never acquit the guilty (Nahum 1:3).

But God is also merciful. He loves to show lovingkindness and tender mercy to the children of men.

The great question of the Bible is this: How can God save man without denying justice and equity? How can God save us when he says “The soul that sins shall die” and we are all sinners?

To understand the Gospel, you must also understand the hopeless situation that man was in. God is a righteous judge who will never, ever, treat men and women unfairly, for He cannot. And the law declares that we are all guilty before a just and holy God.

But then angels appeared and announced the birth of a Child. “Thou shalt call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins.”

If God cannot ever bless an unrighteous man, there is only one way for us to be blessed by God. We have to be righteous. So the most important question anyone can ask themselves is this: “How can I be righteous before God?”

The answer of the Bible is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. You have to have a righteousness that is not your own.

This has been confessed repeatedly by the faithful, and is included in every confession of faith written by the orthodox. My favorite expression of this great truth is in the Heidelberg Catechism:

60. How are you righteous before God?
Only by true faith in Jesus Christ: that is, although my conscience accuses me, that I have grievously sinned against all the commandments of God, and have never kept any of them, and am still prone always to all evil; yet God, without any merit of mine, of mere grace, grants and imputes to me the perfect satisfaction, righteousness, and holiness of Christ, as if I had never committed nor had any sins, and had myself accomplished all the obedience which Christ has fulfilled for me; if only I accept such benefit with a believing heart.

61. Why do you say that you are righteous by faith only?
Not that I am acceptable to God on account of the worthiness of my faith, but because only the satisfaction, righteousness, and holiness of Christ is my righteousness before God; and I can receive the same and make it my own in no other way than by faith only.

This is the only way that God can be reconciled to man. Man must become righteous and must pay the penalty for his sin. But we cannot do it, for we daily increase our guilt. So God became flesh in the womb of Mary and fulfilled the law in our place, and took the penalty of the wrath of God in our place.

By faith, we are in Christ. His obedience was our obedience; His righteousness is our righteousness; His death was our death; His life is our life.

This is the heart of the gospel.

But the neo-marcion has subtly changed this. The prevailing view is not that God’s justice was completely satisfied; but that God decided to be nicer and not so cruel. God, they say, was tired of all of that justice stuff and started to forgive instead.

But what they forget is that God cannot ever change, nor can he ever be unjust. The only reason that we have hope of eternal life, the only reason that we have peace with God, is that God now considers us to be righteous, because the righteousness of Jesus Christ was imputed to us and our sins were imputed to Him.

Because of this John can write, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (I john 1:9)

How can it possibly be just, fair or equal for God to forgive sin? Only by a clear understanding of the Gospel can we see it. When we are clothed with Christ’s righteousness by faith and our sins are cleansed by the blood of Christ, then it would be the highest injustice for God to punish us in hell, for punishment has already taken place on the cross.

A righteous man suffering in hell is a tremendous injustice, and God is not unjust. In Christ, it is “as if I had never committed nor had any sins, and had myself accomplished all the obedience which Christ has fulfilled for me.”

But the devil always attacks this. “You don’t deserve God’s love.”
“Look at your filthy garments. How can God love you?”

And this leaves us wide open to the vain philosophies of men which seek to cheat us of the reward of Christ.

Paul writes, “You are complete in Him”.

First, we are complete. We are filled. Every spiritual blessing is ours – forgiveness of sin, everlasting righteousness and life. We are fully accepted in the beloved, because we are righteous before God by faith. It would be unjust for God to punish our sins for he already punished them in Christ and we are in Him by faith. The Holy Spirit is ours, creating in us clean hearts and working in us, conforming us to the image of Christ. 

But the devil is always there to point out how far short we come, trying to point us either to despair, or to works-righteousness, desperately trying to match a standard that we cannot possibly achieve.

And, second, we are complete in Him. It is true that we cannot ever fulfill the law, nor can we make a sacrifice for sin. Christ did it all in our place.

We either fall too far one way, denying that Christ did it all; or fall too far the other way, saying that it hasn’t been done.
The scripture teaches that we are righteous before God by faith.
It also teaches that this righteousness is not earned or accomplished by us, but by Christ.

To deny either one of those is to deny the heart of the gospel.

Look, then, at the previously mentioned blog:
Q11. How good a husband is my husband to me?
A11. Much better than I deserve, and therefore I will thank God for him every day.

Dear daughter of God, if you are in Christ by faith, then you no longer deserve eternal wrath and punishment, but you are deserving of eternal life and every spiritual blessing, as if you had never committed nor had any sin.
Did you earn this? Did you actually do any of these good works? Of course not. Personally, you have rebelled and sinned grievously against God.

But to continue to believe that you do not deserve eternal life is to deny the Lord who bought you. Jesus paid it all. It is all done. His righteousness is given to you and your sins were nailed to the cross.

As a child of God, you are an heir to the promise of God.

Don’t forget that your husband is commanded to deal with you as an heir to eternal life (1 Peter 3:7); no longer a sinner, but as a co-heir of eternal life.

Don’t ever let the devil tell you that you don’t deserve it. The Holy Spirit points out sins to us to draw us closer to God in repentance and faith, comforting us by the gospel; the devil and his children point out sins to leave us in despair – hopeless, and doubting the goodness of God and the salvation that He has freely given to us.

Don’t let the devil do to you what he tried to do to Joshua (Read Zechariah 3). Resist the devil and he will flee from you.

6 As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him:
7 Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving.(Col. 2:6-7)

For you husbands, please hear the words of Peter, who commands you to deal with your wives as co-heirs of eternal life. Because she is in Christ, because an inheritance awaits her, purchased by Jesus Himself, everything that you do with her is far less than she deserves, not far more.

No matter how well you treat her, her reward will only come (by grace, never by merit) when Jesus comes again. Treat her as a daughter of God.

Next time you belittle her, strike her, cut her down, insult her, or even cause her tears, remind yourself how Jesus promises to deal with those who mistreat his children.

If you say, “It’s better than she deserves”, you have denied Christ, denied the gospel, and harmed one of God’s children.

I would seriously and urgently plead with you to repent before Jesus comes again to bring vindication and justice to His people.

In the life of a pastor, sometimes you just don’t have time to write as much as you would like.
It was my intention to keep this blog going, be interesting and hopefully edifying.
It is still my intention.
I hope you will bear with me.
I so greatly appreciate all of your support and I promise that I have not forgotten.
But there is family to care for, sheep to tend, sermons to prepare, students to encourage and stimulate – and sometimes what you want to do has to take a back seat to the work that our Lord calls us to do.
I have something rattling around my now fifty year old skull that I shall attempt to put on pixels tomorrow.
Of course, we know how that goes at times, do we not?

Sam

Behold, at that time I will undo all that afflict thee: and I will save her that halteth, and gather her that was driven out; and I will get them praise and fame in every land where they have been put to shame. (Zep 3:19 KJV)

Zephaniah prophesied to those in Israel who were about to be carried into exile by the Babylonians.  Because of Israel’s sins and idolatry, they were about to be completely destroyed and carried away captive.

But God makes a tremendous promise to them – at least to those who had the ears to hear.  For there were still a few left in Israel who would also suffer along with the wicked.  God says to them that the time will come when He will gather them back together and save them.  Therefore they were to sing aloud with joy, for God rejoices over them with singing (3:17).

The time would come very soon when the people of God would be chained together behind the horses of Babylon and forced into a long march to a strange nation.

But God tells them: I will deal with those who afflict you.  The affliction to come is not the final word.  It may appear as if the Babylonians are blessed by God.  They will appear to be invincible and you will appear to be weak and good for nothing except to be used as slaves until you are dead.

But for some, it would be even worse.  What about those who were lame, or who did not have the strength to walk the long distance to Babylon?  What about those who fell?  To the Babylonians it didn’t matter.  They would be left to die where they fell or dragged by the horses until they were dead and someone noticed.

But God’s promise in 3:19 is that He would deal with the cruelty of Babylon.  And that He Himself would save the lame and the outcast. Even though they would be forgotten by men, counted as rubble by the powerful of the world, used for the lusts of the rich – God would not forget.  He will save the lame and gather those who were driven out of the land.

God has a special care for the weak and helpless that put their trust in Him.  He has a purpose for all that He does, and much of it we can’t see – especially in times of oppression and pain.  But God calls us to look up from our chains to the One who is Seated in Heaven and sing with joy!

He will deal with the oppressors and He will gather together the lame and the outcast.
And those who were counted as nothing will be given a name.  They will be set for praise throughout the world.
He will use the weak to confound the wise.  The day will come when every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord to the glory of God.

In that day, oppression will cease.  The weak will be strengthened, the poor made rich, and the afflicted will be lifted up, for we will be partakers in the one whose Name is above every name.

So here I am. I’ve become one of those guys. A blogger.

My resistance could only hold out for so long. I am astounded that anyone would find anything I have to say to be helpful, but as the proverbial straw and the hundredth monkey, I was asked to blog one time more than my defenses could hold.

So here is a blog. Another one. Don’t we have enough?

Why the name? I was thinking about our wonderful 16th century catechism – the Heidelberg Catechism. Question one asks, “What is your only comfort in life and in death?”

The answer is this: “That I, with body and soul, both in life and in death, am not my own but belong to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ; who with his precious blood has fully satisfied for all my sins and redeemed me from all the power of the devil, and so preserves me that without the will of my Father in heaven not a hair can fall from my head; yea, that all things must work together for my salvation. Wherefore by His Holy Spirit He also assures me of eternal life and makes me heartily willing and ready from now on to live unto Him.”

That’s what I plan on doing here. We as fallen men and women live in a world of pain, isolation, sickness, sorrow, doubt, confusion – sin. It isn’t how we were made. We were made to love God heartily. We were made to live with him, forever praising and glorifying him.

But man fell. Adam decided that he could be as God and decide for himself what was comforting, what was right, what was true and what was false.
And we all inherited that way of thinking.

Even after we became Christians, we still find ourselves looking for comfort in taking the forbidden fruit, if you will. One more girl at the bar. One more drink. One more night. One more kiss.

Maybe a different job, a different spouse, a different church, a different set of friends.

Maybe its all the other people in my life that make me miserable. Those jerks that I work with. The idiot in front of me. The madmen on the roads. And so we think we find comfort in fleeting dreams of murder and mayhem, all the while lying to ourselves. We try to convince ourselves that the creation exists in order to make us happy.

But we will never be happy as long as we worship ourselves, for this life apart from Jesus Christ is merely one faltering step after another leading to the grave. This life is merely carefully postponed dying apart from redemption.

There is only one comfort to be found. Jesus Christ has redeemed us from a life of futility, drunkenness and misery and restored our fallen humanity. We can now be fully human as God created us to be. When our sins are cleansed and we stand before God whole and forgiven and complete, we have all that we need and we long for the day when we finally put off this body of sin and death and live in His presence forever.

It’s what we were made for. It’s what we long for. It’s what it means to be fully human, fully alive.

My intention for this blog is to talk about what it means to be fully and completely human, in the image of God.

The devil seeks to drive us from that. The devil seeks to convince us, as he did our father Adam, that we can find peace and comfort in our own wisdom and power and strength.
And from there, we see the result. The weak are abused and violated; those who are different are driven out. We live in a world of crime and sin and all sorts of misery.
And we think that when we have finally done away with conscience, that voice that remains as a remnant of Eden, that we will finally be free.

What freedom is it to be no greater than an animal, serving the lusts of the belly, where the fittest destroy and drive out the weakest? What freedom is found when all creation only exists to serve your lusts and make you “happy”? Are you not then a slave to all?
This will never bring peace, for God is in heaven.

In Christ we have freedom. True freedom to live fully human. We squarely face our pain and our misery and long for the redemption of the body. We breathe the springtime bouquets and praise the God who made the jasmine. We break bread together, lingering over a meal – because food isn’t just fuel.

We caress our spouses, hold our children and grandchildren in our arms and rejoice in the God that made the heavens and the earth and us to dwell in them.
And most of all, we praise the God who redeemed us from our misery, body and soul, pointing our eyes to heaven where Christ is seated at His right hand.

Would you follow my journey?