New Thoughts (6/30/06-7/4/06)
Before getting into the real meat of this passage, there is one topic I should like to take opportunity to pursue. Jesus declares that He has come in His Father’s name. His use of this phraseology ought to inform our understanding of what it means to pray in His name. Clearly, when Jesus came, He did not come with God’s name as His own, as if we might have referred to Him as God Junior. No, the name by which He was called by Mary and by those who knew Him was quite different than the name of the Father, which no Jew would call aloud.
What, then, does Jesus mean when He says He comes in the Father’s name? It means that He comes by the Father’s authority, as the Father’s representative, wielding the Father’s delegated power. It means that what He does, how He acts, the words He speaks; all of these things are such as ought to put is in mind of the things that define God. In them we should see God’s majesty, His authority, His interest and pleasures, His commandments. In short, we should see in Christ everything that God is.
Thayer’s Lexicon notes that to act in one’s name is to act by that one’s authority, to function as that one commands, to promote the purposes and pleasures of that one in whose name we act. This is clearly displayed in the life and ministry of Christ. His every act, His every teaching, His every thought was bent to the purpose of doing as the Father required to have done. Jesus had no personal agenda, no grand scheme to promote Himself. That is exactly why He could say to these men that He had no interest in their praises.
Now, consider the significance of this functioning in another’s name as it applies to our own lives. Jesus declares to us that whatever we ask in His name, we shall surely see come to pass. By and large, we have fallen into taking that promise more as incantation than as doctrine. We behave as thought the mere inclusion of the phrase “in Jesus’ name” somehow binds God to our purpose. In so doing, we have utterly missed the point. The whole point of asking in His name is to ask such things as He has delegated to us, to ask such things as serve His purpose. A sunny day tomorrow might be nice for me, personally. It might provide me with an opportunity to go to the beach or some such pleasantry. I might even ask my God for such a boon favor, and He might even oblige if He sees fit to do so. But, He is hardly bound to do as I ask, even if I do ask it with that wonderful phrase at the end of my request.
What has my request to do with His purpose? Some will argue that He purposes to bless me, and therefore whatever I ask along the lines of blessing myself must be in accord with His purpose, and therefore within the bounds of the promise. That’s nonsense! How does that fit within the commandment to love others as being more important than myself? How does that fit within the command to be a servant? The prayers of selfishness are not such as God is ever going to be bound to answer. It is the prayers that befit His own plans and purposes, that pursue His own desires that He is pleased to answer.
We need to ask ourselves just what it is that the name of Jesus represents to us. What sort of character was His? What were His interests, His pleasures? Well, He says His will is to do the will of the Father, so in looking at Him, we can consider not only Him but also the Father who sent Him. We cannot consider all that Jesus represents without considering all that the Father represents, for they are one and the same. If we would ask in Jesus’ name, we must seek only those things that abide by law of the kingdom and serve the needs of the kingdom. When our prayers are aligned to kingdom purpose, of course the King shall be pleased to answer!
Let me reiterate. There is no great sin in asking God to bless us. That is not my point. The sin, if there be any, lies in our tendency to consider Him obliged to bless us. It is the sin of presumption. It is the sin of twisting His words to suit our fancy. It is the great and heinous sin of taking the word of faith and treating it like magic. In so doing, we make ourselves like Simon the magician. We are seeking after the things of God not for His glory but for our own. Far be these things from us!
With that, I am brought to the great question of this passage: Whose glory do you seek? This is the main thrust of Jesus’ complaint about the Pharisees. “You work ever so hard at doing those things that will cause others to praise you, but you give no thought to what might cause God to praise you.” In contrast, He declares that He is completely disinterested when it comes to the glory men might or might not bestow upon Him. The opinions of man do not count.
We must be careful here. The point is not, as some would seem to suppose based on their behavior, that we can happily go about causing all manner of offense amongst the people we meet because we’re Christians, and their opinion doesn’t matter. Neither is the point that we should take no care at all for our own reputation. These ideas are stuff and nonsense. The whole of the matter is that if we will but bend our every purpose to His purpose, if we are pursuing the things that draw praises from God, we will have received the only favorable opinion that matters. I would love to say that if we are doing what draws His praises, we will likewise have the praises of man, but that is not likely to be the case. Indeed, we are warned that the closer we draw to God, the more the world (man) will hate us. Yet, the Scriptures also command us to walk in a fashion that will be seen as honorable both by God and man.
There is a paradox there, but it is not a hard one to understand. Generals in a war may well hate each other as enemies, yet they will often respect each other both for shrewdness of ability and perhaps even for honor. Men may be offended by honorable behavior because it serves to point up their own dishonorable state, but they cannot think the honorable dishonorable, not with honesty. I am drawn back to that verse I was considering a few weeks ago. “Keep your behavior excellent, so that in every thing that they slanderously accuse you of doing evil, they will, seeing your good deeds, glorify God when He comes” (1Pe 2:12). Here is the key to offending in pursuit of God’s glory. The world may revile the things you are doing now, but when they are called before the Judge and forced to look upon those acts in the pure light of Truth, what opinion must they render then? If they still find grounds to revile my deeds in that light, then my deeds have been worthless and unworthy of that Name in which I serve. I have failed as an ambassador of Christ. If, on the other hand, they are forced to concede that what they once declared evil was actually good, then have I cause to expect my Father’s praises.
In this light, I must consider that thought which Paul puts forth. “If we would only judge ourselves, we would have no need to fear being judged” (1Co 11:31). This is why I find it so necessary to seriously consider the many tests that Scripture puts forth by which I can measure my progress. If I fall into thinking that my works are consistently of the sort that my Father will praise in that day, then I am a blind fool. If, on the other hand, I fall into self-condemnation, I am faithless and lost. It is easy to think that having been saved from sin and death I need not give further thought to that last day, because my Jesus has me covered. It is easy to think that way, but it is wrong. Yes, He has me covered. That much is true. But, to make of this an excuse to slide through life is to do no more than prove that the salvation I think I have is not really mine. If I am sliding through my days, forgiving myself every mistake without any concern for improvement, then I had best think twice about any claim I might make to salvation.
I am not suggesting that I must somehow walk perfectly or else stop claiming to be Christian. That would hardly fit with the testimony of Scripture, either. I am simply saying that when those errors come, I must rush to the feet of my Savior in repentance, real repentance with a real determination not to fall into that error again. The Word of God says that if we confess our sins and turn away from them, then He is faithful to forgive us (1Jn 1:9). That is such a marvelous promise, but we must never lose sight of the conditions. There, too, is that reminder that if we come to the place of claiming we have not sinned, we are calling God a liar, which would be a sin in itself (1Jn 1:10). It is the temporal paradox of belief, that we are at once saint and sinner, always progressing in some direction between those two points. We are at once goat and sheep. But, praise be to God, He has determined that we shall come to the point of purity in the end. The unbeliever, to his sorrow, shall be purely a sinner, with no goodness at all. The believer, to his great joy, shall be purely a saint, every last shred of sinfulness washed away in that moment of greeting when we see the Christ as He truly is.
If there is a big question to be asked from this passage, that question is what sort of glory do you seek? Whose praises are you after? Reading verse 41, particularly as it appears in the NAS, can become a source of confusion to us, if we’re not careful. “I do not receive glory from men,” says Jesus. What am I to make of that? Is He really saying that He will not accept our praises? How often do I hear that phrase, “I don’t receive that!” used? That expression makes clear how we now view the word, ‘receive.’ It’s in essence a more polite way of saying, “I refuse that!” That sense does belong to the word used here, but it is not only useable in that sense. Jesus is not saying that He refuses the praises of men. What He is saying is that He doesn’t strive after those praises. If they come, they must come because of what He is striving after: the praises of God in heaven. If there are praises for Him in the mouths of men it is because He already has the praises of His Father.
This is one of those cases where I really like the way the New Living Translation has treated the passage. “Your approval or disapproval means nothing to me, because I know you don't have God's love within you.” Even that somewhat misses the matter, but it comes much closer. To say that our approval or disapproval means nothing to Him is not, in itself, wholly accurate. Inasmuch as our opinion of Him reflects our opinion of God (whether or not we think of it that way) I think He is very much interested in our opinion being true. In that sense, it is part of His mission to the world to see us approve of Him because His mission is to glorify the Father, to bring us to the place of approving Him. On the other hand, when faced with the choice of gaining the Father’s approval or that of fallen man, His choice is clear. Ours should be, too.
The other half of this important phrase is glory. What is this glory after which we strive? It is something we receive, something we strive after and take hold of. It is something we will claim for ourselves and make our own. As such, it should be clear that we are not talking of that same sort of glory which is God’s and His alone. We are not discussing magnificence and splendor, that weighty, shekinah glory that fills the temple when He is manifestly present. This is something lesser, for it is something we think to find not only from Him but from men. In this context, the glory that is being spoken of us the good opinion of others. It is a question of making ourselves the objects of praise and honor in the eyes of another.
With that in mind, the overall point of the passage becomes clearer. “I do not seek after the honorable opinions of men. What I do is not done to win their praises.” By way of contrast He offers up their own efforts. “You seek after each other’s praises, yet in so doing you give no thought at all being honorable in God’s sight.” As Jesus turns this picture around, He also brings in the matter of belief. Being as this is the case with them, He wonders how it can ever be possible for them to believe. “How can you believe?” He asks. I see it along the lines of Him saying, “What sort of belief can look like this: laboring hard after the praises of other men, yet neglecting to put any effort into gaining the praises of God?”
We might ask what sort of belief Jesus is thinking about in this question. That word, too, has many shades of meaning. It may be as simple as one’s opinion. It may reference those things we have been persuaded to accept as truth (whether or not they are really true). In a stronger sense, it may express the confidence we place in those truths we hold. Now, I think, we are getting closer to the point at hand, as Jesus begins to speak of them about the Scriptures they claim to be convinced of. You claim to hold to a moral conviction that these Scriptures are religious truth, you claim to have put your trust in them, and that trust must surely lead you to obey them. You search through them, form your opinions, and think to have found the key to eternal life in those things you believe to be true. But, I have this against you. What you have believed is nothing more than opinions. If you had really believed what Moses really said, you would believe Me; because it is Me that He was writing about.
There is a certain necessity that arises from belief. Belief, as we have seen is our opinion and conviction regarding what is true, particularly what is true in matters of religion. In that context, what we believe is what we place our trust in. What we have really put our trust in, we must necessarily obey. This brings me back to that testing nature of Scripture which ever seems to lead me to acknowledge my goathood even as I cling by faith to the Truth of my sheepness. I am back at the point of needing to look at these connections of necessity backwards. If belief is a joyful trust in Jesus the Messiah which must necessarily lead to my obedience to Him, then what is expressed by my disobedience? That same necessity leads me to acknowledge that inasmuch as I disobey, I express a lack of trust in Him, a failure of belief. I am brought back to that question I hear Him asking the Pharisees: “What sort of belief is this?”
God, I cannot come with my thanks until I have expressed my remorse. For, I know that there is still so much in which my daily activities express more of unbelief than of belief. How this pains me! How shall I be freed from this unbelief, my Lord? However much I may repent of it, yet I find that it springs up once more, disguising itself in the garb of confidence. Lord, far be it from me to see any cause for confidence in myself! Far be it from me to ignore what You are plainly saying because it’s not what I wanted to hear.
Yes, I can see that in much of what is troubling me at present, I am rebelling against Your voice. Let that cease this moment. Lord, I claim to believe You, and I claim to have heard Your voice in that which I pledged to accomplish for You a few years back. Yes, and I knew even as I pledged it that I knew now how it would come to pass. Yet, I fell prey to the praises of man. I allowed the planning of man to push aside all thought of Your provision. Ever since, it seems, I have been trying to calculate and conjure up the way in which I shall make this thing happen. I have lost sight of You in the process. Forgive me, Lord. Restore in me the faith to believe that what You asked of Me, You will provide for. All I can see is the frustration, the delay of this dream and that. I confess, that having asked for Your answer on one front in particular, I have been upset to hear of this matter in response. Here, I had thought it closed, and having then been shown that it is not, I have not been happy to take up that yoke again. Forgive me, Lord. Restore me to joy in pursuing the completion of that vow. Restore me to trust that You will provide, even as You have said, and when I see Your provision, Lord, let me gladly return unto You what is rightly Yours.
In sum, my God, make this belief real. I dare not continue with the possibility that all my claims of loving You are false. No, it is not really a fear in me, but even that may be a dangerous thing. Show me, my Lord, how to really and truly walk in Your ways. I was about to ask You to show me if there’s anything in me that still strives for the praises of men, but I really don’t need to be shown. I already know it. Instead, I would simply ask that You fashion me into the man You made me to be, truly seeking after Your praises above all else, striving for Your approval alone, and allowing the rest to follow as it will.
I turn now to a matter which must be of concern to me, being as I consider myself a student of Scripture. I must hear carefully what Jesus says to the scribes here. They search the Scriptures thinking to secure to themselves eternal life by that searching, yet they miss what the Scriptures are pointing out. They point to the Christ. They point to the Truth, but these students will not come to the Truth and receive life. This puts me in mind of that other passage, when the Pharisees asked Jesus whether they, too, were blind. Jesus answered them by saying, “If you were blind, you would be sinless. But, by your own confession, you see, so your sin remains” (Jn 9:40-41). I am likewise put in mind of the warning James has for his readers. Don’t too many of you become teachers. Bear in mind that we teachers incur a stricter judgment (Jas 3:1).
This all combines as a stern warning to me. As I have become a teacher, I must be all the more careful in regard to what I teach. I must be all the more diligent in my studies, yet I must ever and always remember that it is not the text that gives life. It is Him of whom the text is written. If all I bring to the table is a concern for study, I have brought nothing of use. I have not brought life. If, on the other hand, what I bring is not from the earnest and accurate consideration of God’s Truth, which is most clearly expressed in these Scriptures, then I have not only failed to bring life, I am become a bearer of death.
Life, I must recall, is so much more than simply eating and breathing. It is so much more than the mere continuation of the functions of this physical body. No, real life, genuine life, consists in an active devotion to God. Yet, the blessings of that life are by no means restricted to those to be had in eternity. The blessings of life shall culminate in an eternity spent in the praises of God, but that is the culmination, not the whole. Even in this present life, those who live in and for God experience His blessings in real and tangible ways.
Through the years, people have tended to fall to one side or the other of this particular truth, and failed to grasp it’s reality. There have been those who thought that devotion to God necessitates our letting go of every earthly good, taking a vow of poverty. But, this is a twisting of the message. Certainly, we must die to the things of this world, and recognize that they are secondary concerns for us at best. Those things with which God chooses to bless us we must always be ready to let go of. We are but stewards of His goods, and what He has given to us is given that we might give. But how can we give of our poverty?
On the other side of Truth, there is that whole prosperity movement, the insistence that God is determined that all His followers shall be rich in the material goods of this life. This, too, is but a half-truth. God may very well pour out material blessings on certain of His children. It can be expected particularly for those who have learned not to cling too much to those gifts, who recognize in that abundance not a means to keep themselves amused but a means to promote and serve the needs of the kingdom.
The reality of the message is as Paul wrote. “I have learned to be content in whatever circumstance I am. I can get along with little and I can live properly in prosperity. In every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, of having abundance and suffering need” (Php 4:11-12). Isn’t it interesting that this is the lead up to that great confession, “I can do all things through Him who strengthens me” (Php 4:13)! The author of Hebrews has similar advice for us. “Don’t fall in love with money. Be content with what you have because Christ Himself has told you, ‘I will never desert you, never forsake you’” (Heb 13:5).
Oh, but this is a message I need to take to heart today! How my eyes have been on things that don’t matter. As much as I have been faithful to study, I have allowed my thoughts to be stuck on my own abilities. I have lost sight of the Truth in my pursuit of His words. How can that be? Well, He has told me the answer, hasn’t He? “Only believe.” Do not be afraid any longer. Only believe (Mk 5:36). In all the circumstances I find myself, in all the concerns that seem to weigh me down of late, His answer is so simple. “Only believe.”
This is the answer to knowing real and genuine life, life defined by God’s standards, in this world. This is the answer to keeping study in line with Truth. This is the answer to pretty much everything! “Only believe.” There are vows that must be kept, yet I know not how I might keep them. “Only believe.” There are dreams that I hold to, though I fear they might die on the vine. “Only believe.” There are issues of parenting that overwhelm me, the near choking concerns of responsibility. “Only believe.” Here, in the midst of this time of study, that is the thing my God wants me to remember. It is the truth I need to accept, to imbibe, to instill into my every fiber. “Only believe.”
It’s not enough to know. That’s what so much of this message has been about. It’s not enough to know what the Scriptures say. It’s not enough to do everything we can to comply with what we understand Scripture to say. It’s not enough to study, although without study, we have little cause to expect Dad’s approval. When I have seen His truth, unburied it here in the pages of His revealed will, it does me no good unless I accept that truth, unless I believe. Yes, and in this, I must always consider that other matter. What sort of belief in this Truth would allow me to continue being concerned with the approval of my fellows rather than the approval of my Father?
Only believe. I’m trying, Father. I’m trying. Lord, forgive me if I have managed to make an idol of study. Forgive me if I have put this effort in Your place, and left You out of it. God! I have been so foolish. I know there is much that I have ‘learned’ in these times and still failed miserably to put into practice. This may well be one of those things. I should know it by now. It should be so much a part of me as to require no real thought any more. How often have I seen Your hand deliver me? How often have I experienced Your provision, and yet I still seem to think it’s going to be my doing that brings everything about.
My God, You know my vows and you know my dreams. You know my thoughts and my ways. You know, too, that I am devoted to You, though I express it so poorly some days. I lay all this before You, my King. I pray that I can find the strength of will not to pick it back up except as You command me. Bring me to the place, Lord, that in all of this I can simple believe. You are my God, my King, my Father, the giver of every good and perfect gift. If my desires have pursued imperfection, show me the perfection I should pursue. Help my unbelief.
Eternal life is knowing You, the only real God, and knowing Your Son (Jn 17:3). Everything else is just stuff. Everything else is but a distraction, however pleasant or unpleasant. God, let me know You. Let my concerns and my pursuits reflect You. In this is the secret of satisfaction, and I would be satisfied in You. Bring me to that place of letting go.
There is a clear attack upon the Pharisees and the scribes in these words that Jesus speaks, although it is an attack aimed primarily at correcting, not destroying. The first things He says, in particular, would be as empty as any political rhetoric if there was not the implication that He was different. He points out to them that they have not heard or seen God. This is certainly true. But, unless we realize that He is simultaneously saying that He has heard and seen God, it is an empty truth. Apart from that implicit claim for Himself, this point is pointless.
That He does make this claim for Himself is made clear as He proceeds. Moses is bearing witness to Me. The whole of Scripture is bearing witness to Me. Now, that’s a bold claim! This is not something one says to the teachers of Torah unless one is prepared to back it up. It’s rather like boarding an airplane and declaring loudly that you have a bomb. The response will be both rapid and likely violent. If you cannot back up your words with some proof, you will have said nothing more than, “I am a fool!” Had Jesus not been able to offer proof that He was not simply delusional or heretical, He would have been dead on the spot. For all the effort that the Pharisees put into concocting charges against Him later, right here in the things He is saying, they either had sufficient cause to stone Him or else they realized that there was evidence to back His claims. That they did not immediately destroy Him in this moment would seem to suggest they knew He spoke truly.
Now, in the last of the charges that are leveled against them in this passage, I hear a clear warning. As ever, I see the things laid against the teachers of Israel and I know I must look to my own house. Hear the charge: You claim to believe the Torah; the Law of Moses and the writings of the prophets. What you claim to believe you must surely be claiming to obey as well. What else can be meant by your profession of righteousness. Everything you do seeks to gain you recognition as a righteous man. Everything that angers you angers you because it calls your righteousness into question. Well, I tell you this: All your much vaunted obedience to Torah is stuff and nonsense. What’s more, you know it! Again, I am put in mind of the fact that they did not destroy Jesus on the spot. They knew how real their righteousness was.
It is not enough, though, to look at those poor, deluded Pharisees. The declaration of God’s earnest assessment of mankind has not changed. All our condemned. There is none righteous. All our own claims of obedience to the Law of God are as much stuff and nonsense as ever that of the Pharisees was. “Unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you’re not getting into heaven” (Mt 5:20). What is Jesus saying here? Is He really saying we need to get even more caught up in the minutia of the Law than they were? Is He really suggesting that we strain over every last detail of our daily regimen to make certain everything complies? Yes and no. Here is the key difference. “I do not think of myself as having laid hold of righteousness yet, but I do this one thing: I forget what’s behind and I strive all the harder toward what lies ahead. I press on toward the goal of righteousness, the upward call of God in Christ. If any one of you thinks himself perfect, let him have this attitude. If your attitude is any different, God will make you aware of your mistake. In the meantime, hold your ground. Continue to live in righteousness to that degree which you have attained” (Php 3:13-16).
When I consider the goal, how far ahead of me it still lies, how can I have confidence in my own strength? When I think about where the scribes and Pharisees started, the purity and earnestness of their original purpose, and then I see what they have become, how can I have any confidence in myself? Am I a better man than they? Did I start from a better stance? No! As I look upon all the heroes of Scripture, I am brought to this simple conclusion: All confidence I may have in myself must melt away in fear and trembling before the perfection of my Lord. There is room for confidence in this faith, in fact, faith demands confidence. But, if my confidence thinks it has any footing at all in my own meager abilities, then my confidence is delusion. If I have any sense of having arrived, then I must know with certainty that I have become horribly, terribly lost.
What possible claim can I make to obedience? Oh, I can point to this matter or that in which I managed to do as God commands. But, I can always find far more occasions where I have insisted on my own path. What cause for confidence shall I find, then, in being able to find an occasional act of obedience? My confidence is not in that.
Neither is my confidence in these studies. If anything, it is in these studies that I find all my self-confidence stripped away on a regular basis. Everything that finds its footing in me melts away as I am forced to recognize myself once again. Here I am, a teacher of God’s people in some limited scale, and I am brought up short. Here I am, come up to Paul’s words once again, “You who teach others, why do you not teach yourself?” (Ro 2:21). How is it that I am called to teach these who, so far as I can tell, are farther along in their progress toward the heavenly city than I? I wonder if Paul felt that same sense of wonder at his own calling. I wonder if he didn’t have those moments where even as he was writing letters to the church, he was feeling them written to himself.
I suspect he did. It seems to be the hallmark of a real Christian teacher that the things he is called to teach to his students are the very things he is being taught himself. It is the lesson God is giving to me, the correction He is bringing to me that I can best impart to those I teach. If I have not felt the correction, not learned from His loving discipline, then any attempt I make to teach it will bring not the healing of discipline, but the destructive force of condemnation. It is good for me to have these times of introspection, these moments of testing. It is good to bear the yoke of recognizing my condition (Lam 3:27), for it is this recognition that brings me to the place of waiting silently for the salvation of the LORD (Lam 3:26). It is, after all, the answer to the prayer that pride might be cast out of me. Where is pride when tests such as these are presented, and the answers tallied? What room is there for boasting then? There is none. There is only the Lord of my salvation, and in Him alone can I trust.
