New Thoughts (11/1/06-11/7/06)
A prophet is one who brings God’s word to the people. God speaks to and through him so that His purposes may be communicated to the people of God. Fundamental to the definition of a prophet is the fact that he speaks by this divine inspiration, being moved by God’s Spirit to declare God’s concerns to man. I pursue this point because we are in a time when many and sundry lay claim to the title of prophet or at least the gift of prophecy. It is a claim almost assured of drawing the appreciative oohs and ahs of those who hear it. Sadly, we have by and large neglected to see if there is anything to such a claim. Many will put forth the Scriptural quote, “Do not touch my anointed ones, and do My prophets no harm” (1Chr 16:22), as an apology for their own dereliction of duty. We are called to test the prophets because many false prophets are out and about (1Jn 4:1). Paul makes it a point of order for service. Allow two or three prophets to speak, he says, and judge what they say (1Co 14:29). Nowhere does it say to accept every prophetic word blindly!
God’s people are never to blindly accept every supposed message as authentic by default. He tells us repeatedly to test, to check. He lays down strong punishments to be meted out upon those who would dare to speak falsely in His name. To be found a false prophet was deadly. Now, what use was such a penalty if every message was to be accepted without question? No! The people of God were taught to know God and to know His revelation of Himself so that when something contrary was spoken they would know it and reject it. False prophets were to be stoned. False teachers were not to be so much as given a pleasant greeting, lest people think we endorse their lies
Why do I belabor this? Well, in part because for my own part I failed to do as I ought. I checked. I listened and I clearly recognized that what was claimed for Scripture was not what Scripture said. What was claimed of God and Jesus is not what God and Jesus have claimed of themselves. Yet, I remained. Yet, I took up my position in the worship team as usual. Oh, I had my excuses (which I was calling reasons, at the time), but they are weak and meaningless in the light of God’s Word.
That said, the necessity for solid knowledge of the Word and of the God who wrote the Word was made so abundantly clear. However much one’s imaginations may wish to titillate with thoughts of adulterous and naked women, the facts of Scripture present a different picture entirely. Sarah is spoken of as a model for righteousness amongst women, not as a wizened hag. Yes, she is declared past the age of child-bearing, but she is not presented as someone no longer capable of inspiring a husband’s desire. Not in the least. The long lives of Abraham and Sarah are indeed lengthy by our current standard, but they were not so at the time. They were middle aged.
David, contrary to the suppositions and vain imaginations that were put forth as teaching, was no illegitimate child of Jesse’s. For one thing, anybody who has read the Book would know that God is not circumspect about such things. Where sin has marred the work, He is plain in declaring it so, even as He did not hide the circumstance of David’s siring of Solomon in sin. However, of David, He has said that Jesse begat David (Mt 1:6). I take from the KJV for this because there, the word that joins the two makes plain that Jesse was the true and legitimate father of David, just as God begat Jesus. In contrast, Matthew carefully avoids such a claim for Joseph. Joseph was Mary’s husband, but he is never said to have begotten Jesus (Mt 1:16).
Then, there is the attack that was made upon the opening of John’s Gospel. Not surprisingly, we were not asked to turn to that text as it was spoken on (I cannot call it ‘taught’). How can one read that opening verse and miss the one that follows? “The Word was with God, the Word was God. He was IN THE BEGINNING with God” (Jn 1:1-2). There is simply no way to interpret that as saying that the Word was made God. The text does not allow for it. The grammar does not allow for it. The context does not allow for it. A basic understanding of who God is does not allow for it. What John declares, he declares as a matter of absolute, settled certainty. The Word was – absolutely, a settled matter not subject to any doubt – God, and He was, in that very same certainty, in the beginning. Before time began, He was.
This should be obvious to anybody with the least sense of the Triune nature of God, yet it was spoken of as though somehow one part of God must have come into existence before the other. What nonsense is that? It is worse than nonsense. It is out and out heresy of a sort that the Church long ago rejected. It suggests that Jesus is somehow a created being, yet Scripture clearly teaches that every created thing was created by Him. There has never been anything that came into existence that He did not create (Jn 1:3). How, then, can any man of God think that He was created Himself? He must exist before Himself to create Himself, if that is the case, which is obvious nonsense.
Another type we have here is that of the Pharisee. The Pharisees were “dedicated to a life different from the usual.” That in itself is not a bad thing. As Christians, we are likewise dedicated to such a life. There are pitfalls to watch out for, though, and a quick look at what happened to the Pharisees serves well to point them out. Start with this: They departed from the text of Scripture. They were not satisfied with the Law as God had revealed it, and preferred to add a whole raft of oral traditions to it. Let me translate that. They took man’s opinions as being of equal standing with God’s. To be more blunt, they promoted man to the place of God.
Here is another trait of the Pharisees: They specialize in outward rites, outward observances, a show of what men deem to be righteousness. They take great pride in their good works – good, at least, by their assessment – but at the same time neglect pursuit of real piety. Their beliefs were not far off from Truth, only a little. They believed in angels. They believed in Messiah. They believed in the resurrection. They just didn’t quite believe aright. They also supported the idea of Israel as a theocracy, such as it was originally founded. However, from what I can see of it, they pursued that theocracy by attempting to shape it to the ways of the world, just as had their fathers before them.
That, at root, seems to be the great issue of the Pharisees. In their pursuit of righteousness, rather than lift themselves up to the image of God, they seek to shape God in the image of man. Rather than rise to the standard of Scripture, they seek to shape Scripture to their own liking. Rather than promote a theocracy that looks likes what God designed, they design a theocracy that requires their man on the throne. So, in the end, while promoting something they call God, they are really only promoting themselves.
This is not far off from the sort of matter that Paul warns us about. Deception and his coworkers come disguised as angels of light. They may appear righteous at first glance. They will speak much that is true, but in amidst that truth they slip the seed of error, in hopes of misleading ‘even the elect,’ were that possible (Mt 24:24). Jesus warns us of this, as well! They will come with signs and wonders. They will have their works to show, their signs to perform, and fine sounding words to speak. But, they are not God’s men. They are deceivers, spreading their misinformation under the guise of true religion.
In light of the events I have been witnessing of late, this is so critical to understand. It is not OK to allow the man of God room to play with his Scriptures in making his point. It is not OK to play games with God’s Word because the point was true. Now, anybody who has looked at my studies will know that I am quite happy to paraphrase the text. The line has to be drawn, though, not to be crossed. To change the phrasing is acceptable. To change the meaning is reprehensible.
We, particularly of the charismatic church, need to get it through our thick heads that signs and wonders are not proof positive of a man of God. Do we not read? “One [is coming] whose coming is in accord with the activity of Satan, with all power and signs and false wonders, and with all the deception of wickedness for those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the TRUTH so as to be saved” (2Th 2:9-10). Don’t look to works as the proof, either. Yes, a faith devoid of works is a very dead and worthless faith. However, works alone do not give evidence of real faith. If works define faith, then UNICEF is doubtless the epitome of faithfulness to God. Believe that? I didn’t think so. But, let me have Jesus speak for Himself on this matter. “Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness’” (Mt 7:23-24).
What, then, remains to define the man of God’s own choosing? There is but one thing left: He loves the TRUTH. He sees the Truth that is revealed in Scripture and will not suffer himself to tolerate anything contrary. He will surely not teach anything that is contrary. No, and such a lover of Truth cannot be expected to knowingly employ untruth even as a tool to promote Truth. Far be it from us! Consider: When Jesus speaks of what Ephesus has right, what is on that list? “You cannot endure evil men. You put the test to those who claim to be apostles but aren’t, and you found them false” (Rv 2:2). By contrast, look at what is said against Pergamum, in spite of their perseverance: “You have there some who hold the teaching of Balaam, who kept teaching Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel […] to commit acts of immorality” (Rv 2:14). Or, consider Thyatira’s issue. “You tolerate Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, and teaches, and leads My servants astray” (Rv 2:20).
Think, particularly, of Balaam. He prophesied truly enough, though his motivation was terribly wrong. Outwardly, the words even sounded good for Israel, but the words disguised a heart for destruction. Look, the enemy is not going to come with flashing lights to warn us. He will come with subtleness – a word here, a thought there, all carefully surrounded by things which are true. He knows, after all, that we can easily recognize and reject the big, bold lie. He is not a fool, at least in that regard. No, he moves subtly, spreading his poison in small doses until he accomplishes his corruption and, lo, a cult is born.
So, here we have a man convinced of his own righteousness facing a Man who is Righteousness. The Pharisee, still concerned with the outward show, is so put off by the fact that Jesus has allowed this woman to touch Him that he cannot fathom the possibility that Jesus truly is a man of God. “A prophet would know…”, he reasons. Well, I suppose we should note that this Pharisee has not had any prior contact with a prophet such as he purports to understand. He has maybe had his Scriptures. But, he has held to his traditions with even greater certainty. He has the hand-me-down experience of his predecessors to inform him what to believe. He has never checked it out for himself. He has not taken the time, really, to grow intimate with God and with God’s self-revelation, so all he has to go on is what he’s been told.
His training has taught him to live in such a way that he would never allow himself to be touched by such a woman – at least not where it could be seen by anybody! (Yet, I have to ask again how it was that she so easily entered his house?) At any rate, even such a meal as this was too public for such matters. Clearly, this Jesus, who by appearances did not understand what sort of woman this was, was no prophet. Jesus, however, would prove by His response that He knew quite well what sort of woman this was, and that he also knew what sort of man His host was.
The manner of Jesus’ reply makes it very clear. Simon, it seems, thought he was doing Jesus a huge favor just by inviting Him to dinner. After all, Jesus was no Pharisee, and a Pharisee would never deign to dine with a non-Pharisee. It just wasn’t done! We might presume from this that Simon was a rather low-ranking Pharisee, but that is neither here nor there. The point is simple. Simon thought himself the better man, the more pious man. So, he felt no particular need to display the common courtesies of respect to Jesus. This is what is evidenced by the list of grievances Jesus presents. “You did not give Me water for My feet. You did not greet Me with a kiss. You did not provide oil for My head.” All of these were the duties of a proper host towards his guest, yet Simon neglected them all when it came to Jesus.
Even in calling Him ‘Teacher,’ there is somewhat of a slight. While that term may be a respectful term, it is a lesser one. Yes, the scribes might be referred to by that title, but the more respectful term was ‘rabbi.’ Simon would even yet grudge Jesus the label of teacher, though he rejected the thought of Jesus as prophet. But, in no way could he bring himself to call Jesus ‘Rabbi’. That was too far for him to go, because he still saw himself as the superior participant in this meeting. He thought he was doing Jesus a favor, and we know not what else may have been going through his head. Honoring this Teacher was clearly not on the list, though.
His invitation showed no real love for the Christ, any more than Judas’ concern for the poor box showed any real love for the poor. Both used their show as cover for their real condition. Judas, of course, comes to mind with this story because of his role in a similar event later in the course of Jesus’ life. Now, it is interesting, is it not, that Judas had traveled with the other disciples for nigh on three years, and through that whole time, his cover had held. Nobody suspected what he was really like. Nobody saw beneath the disguise. He could pump forth righteous indignation. He could present the face of compassion. He could put on all the right moves, do all the right things, yet, in the end, he was proven to be an enemy of the kingdom.
If there is anything we should learn from the likes of the Pharisees and of Judas, it is that works are no more a proof of faith than are signs and wonders. While signs and wonders will accompany the man of God, we are warned that the servants of our enemy will also have signs and wonders – false though they may be. While a faith that has no works is dead, we are warned by the Master Himself that there will be any number of souls that come before Him on the day of Judgment, holding their works out for Him to see. But, His judgment shall remain, “Depart from Me. I never knew you.” (Mt 7:23). Neither signs nor works can reliably stand as proof of the man of God. What, then, is left? After all, even with spirits we are cautioned to test and see. Even with prophecies, we are cautioned to keep limits, and to pass judgments. In the end, of all the things by which we might define a man of God, the only one that stands is adherence to the Word of God’s Revelation.
This adherence may not consist in an absolute, word-for-word, memorized approach to the text. No, there is a right way to divide the word of Truth (2Ti 2:15). There is a way of handling it accurately, even if not quoting it literally. This is the defining mark. Memorizing chapters and verses, as helpful as it can be, is not the mark. Even the Apostles misquoted the texts on occasion, or attributed them to the wrong author. This is no sin, so far as I can tell. However, whatever they taught was always, always of one accord with Scripture. Whatever they taught always, always held together with everything else that Scripture teaches. As much as modern scholarship likes to break out a Johannine gospel or a Pauline view, the truth is that there is One Gospel which not only John and Paul, but likewise Peter and the other Apostles, brought to the people of God. And, to a man, these teachers would condemn any who came with a different message. Look how strongly Paul states the case: “Even if we ourselves should come with a contrary Gospel; even if it an angel from heaven who comes with another story to tell, let him be accursed! I’ve said it before, and I say it again now: If any man is preaching a gospel contrary to what you have received, let him be accursed” (Gal 1:8-9). That’s strong! Even if I come to you myself and tell you the story has changed, let me be accursed. Those are the words of a man dedicated to Truth, and God is Truth.
The one who comes with any other message is but disguising his real intent. He is a thief, come only to steal, kill and destroy (Jn 10:10). To such, we are taught to give no greeting, no least intimation of agreement or support, lest we aid the poison in spreading. Yet, in our day, if a man stands up for the Truth, he is shouted down as being trapped in religion. He is accused of holding to tradition rather than giving place to the Spirit. My, my! Yet, the Scriptures I read tell me to test the spirits by the Word, not to test the Word by the spirits. The Gospel that was set before me by the Apostles whom Christ Jesus appointed tells me that there is a true religion, and that this true religion is beautiful in God’s sight. How long will we accept that the things God calls good are somehow bad, just because it makes a handy catch-phrase? How long will we tolerate being told that things must be either / or, when God says they are both?
We are told that Christianity is not a religion, it’s a relationship. Well, there’s something God didn’t say. Christianity is both. To pretend it is not a religion is to lose sight of the sacred nature of the matter. To lose sight of the relationship is to be trapped in empty ritual. We can find just cause to condemn that even in this present passage. But, ritual is not religion. Neither is real religion, true religion, devoid of ritual. Indeed, I must ask, when baptism is no longer about the death we have died to sin and the life into which we are reborn, but is instead something that would be really cool to do because of a particular setting or occasion, how is that not empty ritual? How blind are we going to become to our own slide?
Oh, Lord, my God! Strengthen what remains! Jesus, my Savior, come! Here is a house that has been determined to declare Your glory and to pronounce Your Gospel message to the city. Do not, my God, suffer Your children to be deceived, I pray! Do not, my Father, allow our leaders to be dazzled by things that impress the eyes of the flesh, but let them rather prefer the things that impress You. God, since when have You been impressed by numbers? Since when have You been impressed by the acts of men? No, but You are the God who sent back the greater portion of the army, lest we get it in our heads that we were something. We are nothing! Oh, my God, how can we forget? Rescue this house, my Lord, and if it be that my own eyes are deceived, then rescue them, as well. Father, I want to be found bearing the image of Your sweet, eternal Son on the day I come before You. Otherwise, what has all this trouble been worth? No, but I know You are faithful to keep us to the end. Lord, I pray to see Your light shining out of this. I pray that You will, as You have in times past, bring correction in Your own way. Purify Your bride, my Lord, even as You so graciously purified this woman who came to You in her brokenness. Let us likewise be broken before You, thinking nothing of ourselves, having no reputation to defend, but simply caught up in our love for You.
When I look at the way God deals with this woman, how great a cause I have to love Him the more! This woman has come to Him broken. She has come in repentance. She has been aware of her sin, perhaps for a long time, but she has not seen a way out. How many of the hopeless we see each day are in that same place? How many prostitutes really want to remain in that trade? How many drug addicts find it more desirable to remain out on the streets with nothing as winter approaches than to be returned to a more normal life? No, she has seen herself as she is, and she cannot tolerate that it continue this way. She must have change, real change, lasting change, permanent change, else she will perish.
If I have my difficulties with recurring sins, with things that don’t want to let go, then I think I must understand that I have not yet known this desperation. I have come to Him for forgiveness, true enough. But, I have not yet reached the point where I so revile those sins that I would never again suffer their touch upon me. Indeed, I doubt I am alone in having come in ‘repentance’ and yet known full well that so soon as I could, I would take up my sins again. That’s not repentance. That might be fear of reprisal, or recognition of the damage being done to myself, but it’s not repentance.
This woman is repentant. It shows in her complete disregard for everything as she comes to Jesus. She doesn’t care what Simon might think. She doesn’t care what her clients might think. She doesn’t care about anything, except that the opportunity to live again has been set within reach. I wonder if she isn’t pouring out the bulk of the profit she has had from her sins as she anoints the feet of Jesus with that perfume. Can it be that in that act she is rejecting even the seemingly positive side of her sins? This is a complete and absolute rejection of that life. And, look at the way Jesus reacts to this!
Jesus has no word of rebuke for her. She needs none. He has no words of shame for her. She needs none. He has one thing to tell her: She is forgiven. Those sins are done; dealt with. Whatever burden of debt she may have felt, whatever she may have thought she needed to do as penance before God would accept her, Jesus says it’s enough. It’s covered. She has been saved from her past by her faith, which is, after all, His faith. It is ever His to give and ours to receive. I tell you, if she had not had faith to believe that He would forgive, she would never have come. Why should she? Will she really come and publicly humiliate herself like this, pour out her profits like this, if there is she is not certain that He will come through on her behalf?
Faith has saved her. Jesus declares it her faith, yet we must surely understand that even though hers, it is not of herself, but the gift of grace. Faith has saved her, rescued her from the perils of her lifestyle, pulled her from the pit, and set her on solid ground. Now, she is told to go in peace. Fear is gone. She has just encountered perfect Love, and perfect Love casts out all fear. Knowing forgiveness from God, there is no further cause for fear. The day of the Lord need no longer be something looked to with anxious eyes, dreading the Judge before Whom we must stand. It is become a day to rejoice in, to look to with confident hope, knowing that in the moment we stand before Him, we will be made like Him, and enter into the blessing of the kingdom. Compared to that, what are these earthly blessings that He graciously provides? Oh! They are to be enjoyed, by all means. Who are we to refuse the gifts of our Lord and King? Yes, they are to be enjoyed, but they are not to become the focus. They are not things to be grasped with clutching hands that refuse to let go. When we allow ourselves to clutch like that, we simply encumber ourselves in a fashion that makes it so much harder to run the race set before us.
Your faith has saved you. What a wonder! Go in peace. What a blessing! Now, walk in that peace. Walk in the confidence of knowing God’s lovingkindness is upon you. Walk in the peace of knowing that sin no longer has a hold upon you. Walk in the peace of knowing that Daddy God has not disowned you, but has come instead to rescue you.
Looking to that forgiveness, I see that it is, like faith, a freely given gift from my God. It is another reflection of His grace. As much as we might find it comforting to think that this woman did something to make Jesus respond, that really isn’t the case. There is something in what Jesus says to Simon that makes the point. He says that she loved much, and that the love she manifested was ample proof of the magnitude of the forgiveness she had experienced. Even this display, then, is no cause for Jesus to act, but rather a reaction to the act He has already performed. What we miss, here, is that this woman’s sins were forgiven before she ever came to Simon’s house. Forgiveness does not come because we have loved God. It is quite the opposite case. Love for God comes because He has forgiven us. Apart from that forgiveness, we know only fear and anxiousness.
Forgiveness is God’s free gift to us, and it leads to a love which is the only possible response to that gift – at least among those who accept it. Love, now that it has found us, provides a solid foundation upon which faith can build. Faith, after all, is confident knowledge. It is not some blind acceptance, as many would have us believe. It is knowledge. We trust Him because we know Him, and the more we come to know Him, the stronger is our faith. This act of forgiveness, this gift God gives us as we first come home to Him, is evidence of who He is. It is one of the first things we come to know about God for ourselves. This is not something that some preacher tells us, and we take his word for it. This is something we have experienced personally, in a very real way, and it is an experience designed to inspire confidence.
Had we met Him only as the condemning Judge, I suppose we would still have confident knowledge of who He is, but it would be incomplete. We would be left knowing only His wrath, only His just rage. We would know nothing of His love or His mercy. We would know His truth, but have no witness of His wisdom. We would know half of Him at best. But, having experienced His forgiveness, having been brought to the place of love, we experience the whole of God. We do not simply look at the other half, we know the whole. We are still quite aware of His wrath and His justice, but we also know His love and mercy. We love all of Him, or we do not love Him at all.
So, we have faith founded on love founded on forgiveness, and this faith leads to salvation. “Your faith has saved you.” There is not only forgiveness for past sins, there is rescue! There is the reality of freedom from not only those sins, but from their impact. Oh, there will be restitution to be made. There will be consequences to be faced for our sins, but the weight of misery is gone. Do you know, in this state of forgiveness and salvation, we can face the fallout of our sins with a certain joy? They need not be a burden any longer, for with each restitution, we strike a blow against our old enemy, and assure ourselves the more of victory.
Then, as salvation works its way upon us, we are able to truly go in peace. The God we feared, we now love because we now know He loves us. The burden of sin we bore, we now face and set aside. The great debt we knew we could never repay, we discover the means to repay in our hands. When we look to home and the throne of God, we know no fear, for we are only coming closer to our Beloved. We do not come to a Judge, but to a Bridegroom who has been waiting for us with building excitement lo, these many years! We come to the Author and the Finisher of our faith, our confident knowledge. He is the Author of it, and He is the Subject of it. He is the Theme of it, and the Word of its exposition. Truly, this Jesus, who comes forgiving sins, is our All in all.
