On Prayer (12/18/22)

It occurs to me that it has been some time since I have undertaken a sidebar study, and the subject of prayer would certainly be a suitable subject for such an exercise.  That said, I don’t think I shall pursue it at this point.  I had a fair amount to say on the subject in my first-pass notes, and while I shall touch on a few points from those notes, I don’t care to simply replay them again here.

Let me start, then, with something I believe I had picked up on, but which a few of our commentaries observe in their turn.  This concerns the one to whom we pray.  We have here, first, our God and Father, and as I noted before, the syntax makes plain that this is but one Person addressed.  But we cannot miss that our God and Father is not alone as being the recipient of prayer.  Our Lord Jesus is there with Him.  So, as the JFB observes, we have two Persons identified, but the petition made of these two persons remains in the singular.  May our Father and our Lord direct.  We must conclude, then, that there is but one subject directing, and that one subject is Father and Son.  The Lord, our God, He is One.  We can include the Spirit here, though He is not mentioned directly.  And we can devise all manner of reasons for this; perhaps simply that He is on this end of the communications line, perhaps because as is the way of His person, He will not have attention drawn to Himself, perhaps because whether it be in tongues or plain language, when we pray it is through Him already.  Explain as you please, I suppose, within the bounds of orthodoxy.  The petition remains singular.  There is one God, and He directs. 

And as to His direction, He directs us to pray to our Father.  It is there in Jesus’ example given His disciples.  Of course, it would have been kind of weird if, in His example, He had been praying to Himself, wouldn’t it?  But here’s the thing:  While it is true that our prayers ought to be offered in His name, which I must stress is not merely the stamp on our envelop, but signifies prayers that are per His ordained purpose, it is also correct to offer our prayers to Christ.  He is, after all our Lord, our King.  Who better to direct His servants?  But He, as He told us, does only that which He sees the Father doing, says only as He hears the Father say.  The Lord, our God, He is One.

What we might observe here is that we have three particular aspects of the Godhead brought into focus in this prayer.  There is God, period:  The Almighty, Most High God.  That alone should be enough to drive us to our knees in awe.  Here is the Creator and Upholder of all that is.  Here is all power, knowledge, and wisdom embodied on One Who need answer to no other, One Who speaks and it is done, Whose direction is beyond opposing.  But where this might crush is in a weight of despair, we have quickly added that He is Father.  This Almighty, Unopposable, Unthwartable God is Father to us, and not just Father in the technical aspect of being our efficient source of being, but our Father.  Here is love entered into the picture.  He may discipline.  He may not grant our every request after the fashion we desired, but He responds from the place of a loving parent, concerned for our best welfare.  Oh, to be sure, His primary care is for His name, His glory, but it is to His glory that we, His children, should prosper and mature in holiness, for holiness reflects His holiness and redounds to His glory.  Finally, we have added Jesus our Lord.  It is telling, I think, that Paul does not address Him as Son, nor as Bridegroom, nor as Brother, but as Lord.  This is Christ upon His throne, King of all kings, Lord of all lords.  It is His to command, and is that not what is sought?  Lord, may You command that it be so.

This is He to Whom our prayers are directed:  God Almighty, Creator of all; our Father, whom we do well to emulate in all things; our Lord, whose word is our command, we who are His bondservants.  Surely this should temper our prayers, shape their content, and prevent us from entertaining them with frivolities.  This is not the one to come to for trinkets and self-serving pleasures.  Oh, Lord, won’t You buy me a Mercedes Benz isn’t going to cut it here.  God wants me to have another Lear Jet isn’t going to cut it here.  It’s not what I want.  It’s what He wants.

There’s a reason the Apostles spoke of themselves as bondservants of our Lord, and it wasn’t false humility.  It wasn’t an attempt to ingratiate themselves with the poorer elements among their listeners.  It was a simple recognition of the reality of this relationship.  Is He my Brother, my Bridegroom?  Certainly.  He is also my Lord.  The former terms have much to say as to our relationship, and the bonds of love between us.  But that latter must control.  This is the chain of command.  This is the official aspect.  If we were to look back at life in the courts of merry old England, or royal France, or whatever other monarchy you care to consider, it would be quite apparent that whatever the bonds of family, however loving the family, there is a place in which those endearments must be set aside and the proprieties and order of state dominate.  In the throne-room, we might say, there is no family.  There is only Lord and subject, and you, though a brother or a son, remain subject.

When we pray, we enter into the presence of our Father, it is true.  We come before Him together with our eldest Brother.  But it remains that we come before Him as His subjects.  We accompany our Brother not as clients under His representation, but as servants in His entourage.  And we come into the throne room.  We are before the Supreme Authority of all creation, Him whose face, were we to see it, must be our death, for we remain, even in this redeemed state, sinners still too enamored of our sins.  If, then, we present petitions, surely it must be that we do so as representing Christ, rather than as having Christ represent us.  To be sure, He is our Mediator, and to be sure, it is well and good that we should express ourselves with honesty before our God, even as David, our exemplar in prayer, did.  But our requests, should they be selfish things, need have no expectation of acceptance here.  Our desires don’t enter into it, except as they find themselves aligned with the desire and intent of our Lord Jesus.

This may seem too sterile a view of prayer, and perhaps it is.  If so, well, I pray God will address the issue with me, that I may see it more correctly.  But what I see here is Paul praying for that which reflects God’s nature and God’s intention, which is to say, He prays as God’s representative.  He assuredly doesn’t come demanding.  God!  Let me go back to these folks.  They need me.  The audacity of such thinking!  They need you?  No, no, dear boy.  They need ME, and they have Me.  But that’s not where Paul’s coming from.  It’s not about him at all.  That is made clear as the prayer continues, and we see that it is “you” that has the place of emphasis, not “me”.  It’s about their development, their progress, their steadfastness, not Paul’s significance.  It’s about, then, what God intends in the first place, that these seedlings of faith should grow strong and bear much fruit.

What of our own prayers, then?  Do we pray with God’s purposes in view, or with our comfort and cares foremost in our minds?  When we pray that so and so might be healed, are we certain this is the Lord’s plan and purpose?  Oh, many will insist that yes, we can be assured of that in each and every circumstance, because sickness is not from the Lord.  Fair enough.  He’s never been the direct author of sickness any more than He is the direct cause of sin.  At the same time, He is God, and nothing on this here planet transpires apart from His awareness.  Not even a sparrow drops to the ground apart from your Father (Mt 10:29).  That’s your Brother speaking, and it’s not saying merely that your Father is aware of the fact.  It’s not just that the poor bird did not die unnoticed.  No.  When it drops, it is in your Father’s plan that it be so.  Would not the same be true of this one whom you would see healed?  It is, then, some failure of prayer if they are not?  Let me put it differently.  If God has determined that this one shall not taste healing in this life, can all your prayer, or even the prayers of all the saints combined, really alter this?  “Which of you by being anxious can add a single cubit to his life’s span?” (Lk 12:25).  Same sermon, same Preacher.  Oh, but we’re not being anxious.  We’re praying.  Okay.  Why are you praying?  Because you’re concerned for this one’s health.  Concerned, anxious, you’re playing games with semantics.  If it’s their time, they will go, pray as you please.  If not, they will not, whether you have prayed your heart out or not.  Whatever the intent of prayer, I have to tell you, it’s not to change God’s mind to follow our preferred course.  Far be it from Him to do so!

You will point me to examples such as that of Abraham praying over Sodom and Gomorrah, concerned for his nephew, Lot.  Or, perhaps you will bring up Moses, praying that God might not simply wipe out the whole tribe of Israel in His wrath.  Yes, there is a reason to pray, and especially as concerns God’s wrath falling upon His own.  And there’s something we don’t care to contemplate in the least, isn’t it?  God’s wrath falling upon His own:  Is that even possible?  Well, yes.  But only where there is good reason and good purpose to it, and I dare say, only where His wrath coming upon His own will prove to have been for their good.  But, attempting to keep with my point, while the text presents these as cases of God repenting of His plans, we must surely recognize that His plans had accounted for exactly these events long before ever they came to pass.  It wasn’t about God changing His mind.  It was about God’s representatives recalling to mind Who He Is, and seeing Who He Is expressed in what would transpire.

Prayer, I continue to hold, is more to do with aligning ourselves to God’s purpose than anything else.  It cannot be a case of seeking to align Him with our purposes.  That would be chaos and worse.  That would be setting ourselves in the place of god, and making God our plaything, and that will never do.  Nor will it ever work.  Far better, when we pray, that we should leave off any sort of agenda we may have, and seek instead to understand what God is up to, where He is at work and what He is directing, and allow that our prayers may pursue that course, that end.  Recall that indeed we have the Holy Spirit informing us what to pray.  But He does so in what we love to term that still, small voice.  It’s sadly quite easy for us to swamp out His direction with the noise of our own thoughts and desires.  It’s easy for us to fall into using prayer as a weapon, a means of more or less passive-aggressively berating or correcting some fellow believer whose views are not quite aligned with our own.  It can become a contest of pieties.  See?  My prayers are far holier than yours.  My faith is far more mature.  And we think that such prayers are pleasing in God’s sight?  How can we be so foolish?  Or perhaps we think by seeking to impart such doctrines in the course of prayer might render them more readily received, but still, such pursuits have little of seeking God’s will and far too much of seeking our own agenda.

How do we improve in this?  I don’t know as I have any answers.  I would, quite honestly, account myself a fairly poor example as to praying.  I do think there is much to be said to allowing Scripture to shape our prayer, perhaps beginning from a verse read (and properly interpreted), and shaping our prayer by its message.  We have plentiful acronyms and lessons on how to organize our prayers to make sure we hit all the bases.  But I don’t think that’s it, either.  We can, certainly, follow the course laid out in the Lord’s Prayer, perhaps taking it clause by clause, and applying each of its clauses to our present condition.  But fundamental to it all, whatever the approach, must be the humility that comes of recognizing Who it is to whom we pray, and who we are relative to Him.  He is our Father, yes, but He is also God Almighty.  He is our Bridegroom, yes, but He is also our Lord.  We are here on official business, not as family chatting around the fireplace.  We come as subjects, as servants seeking our assignments.  Let this guide us.  Let the love that we know attends upon our more familial relationship assure us as we come, but let our concerns be the concerns of our God and Lord.

So be it, Lord.  I am Yours.  You know that.  I know that.  There are many things for which I might make request, but I will satisfy myself with this, this morning.  May I come to the place of doing as You direct, of caring more for Your purposes than my plans.  May I be found of some use to You today in the pursuit of Your good pleasure, for Your good pleasure is surely my greatest good, and even if it were not, it would remain the right and proper focus of my attention.  Yet I know I drift so easily.  Grant that whatever drifting I may do, I yet hold fast to Your Way, and perhaps make some progress thereupon. Amen.

God Directs (12/19/22)

I was somewhat surprised, more amused really, to see that this morning’s Table Talk touches upon the subject of prayer.  There, the author observes how Scripture associates prayer with the incense rising from the altar in God’s tabernacle, being to Him like a sweet aroma, a cause of delight.  God delights to hear from His children.  It strikes me that here is a lesson I am learning now my daughter has moved cross country.  How it delights me to hear from her, whether it’s matters of need or matters of victories, or matters of simple pleasures.  It really doesn’t matter much what she wishes to share.  It’s the fact that she does.  Okay, Lord.  Perhaps I’m beginning to get it.

At the same time, that article points me to James 5:13-18, with its discussion of prayer and how it accomplishes much.  Elijah’s example is brought up, how he prayed and the rains ceased, prayed again and they were restored.  So, how does this stand with my perspective that prayer is more about keeping us mindful of God than of seeking Him to act according to our desires?  Well, if prayer is about His desires rather than our own, then I can go back to that point that He loves to hear from us.  We are as kids away from home as we continue this sojourn, and our Father longs to hear news of our day.  That is properly stunning, is it not?

Then, too, I would have to say that Elijah’s prayers proved effective precisely because they were of a piece with God’s purposes.  If this had been a matter of spitefulness on his part, a petty interest in showing off his powers – his powers, ha!  As if. – then I have no doubt but that he would have found the heavens as iron, his prayers to no avail.  That is to say, I don’t think his example counters my sense of the matter, only shows that in his case, he was a man of God operating as God’s man.  Prayer was part of his mission, and he fulfilled that duty.  The outcome was part of God’s purpose, and He fulfilled that prayer.

So I come back to this prayer that is set before us by Paul, and I see it again:  God is firmly in the driver’s seat here.  It rings out in every verse.  The Lord directs, the Lord causes, the Lord establishes.  These are framed as requests because that is what they are.  But in that they are requests, and my I note clearly that they are not demands made upon God, not even on the basis of them being properly reflective of His nature, they make clear that the One from whom they are requested is He Who has power to fulfill them.  We don’t go to a clothing store with requests to service our vehicle, nor do we go to the grocery store to request clothing.  We channel our requests to those who can fulfill those requests.

So, see it again.  May the Lord direct in this fashion.  He directs, and wherever He directs, there we shall go, but we should be pleased were He to direct us thusly.  May the Lord cause such and so in your lives.  He causes, and whatever He causes we shall accept from Him, knowing that whether pleasant or trying, what He causes is for our eternal good.  May the Lord establish you blameless.  Oh, He may indeed.  It is in His hands, for it is He Who establishes.  And I have to say, at least apart from the first request, these are things Paul could pray confidently, knowing that the outcomes he sought were those which God desired.  His children increasing in love?  Yes, we don’t much need to worry about whether that one was what He wanted.  His saints umblamable in holiness at His coming?  Absolutely not only in accordance with His purposes, but assured by His purposes.  The only one we might leave a question mark about is that first matter of where ministry might take him.  But you know, no harm in making desires known.  The harm, if there is to be any, is in making desires insistences.

“Paul’s destiny was in God’s control.”  You can’t miss this, which the Wycliffe Translators Commentary observes.  It’s not just this prayer.  It’s throughout.  It was there in Troas.  It was there in Corinth.  It would be there in Rome, as it had been in the events that had led to him being there.  This is merely admission and glad acceptance of that fact.  We would love it, Father, if You should happen to direct our path back up north.  Nevertheless, where You direct, there we shall be.  And that commentary also observes, as I have already, that Father and Lord are co-joined in this request, which they note as stressing His majesty.  Father and Son, God and Lord direct as one the servant of God.  Of course they do, for God is One.

But there is this, as well, which must be recognized.  Our desires, while perfectly right to express in prayer to God, are in themselves wholly insufficient.  We saw that already in this letter.  This desire to return to Thessalonica was no new thing with him, but thus far, for all that he desired to do so, he had been blocked from fulfilling that desire.  The way was not open.  His path did not, at this juncture, proceed in that direction.  It may have been the JFB, or perhaps another commentary which observed that it would be some five years before Paul would see this particular request granted.  He did not stew over it.  He did not grow resentful.  When God directs, we shall go.  If He does not so direct, well that we should recognize in our own right that God’s direction cannot be hindered.  It should also come as great comfort to us as we do follow His direction.  It is not merely that we are incapable of bucking His direction – I mean, look how that worked out for Jonah.  It is also that all the worst machinations of our enemy can neither succeed in altering His course, and His course includes our direction.

It comes to this:  God’s power to decide is not in any way, shape, or form bound by our acceptance of His power, nor of any other’s acceptance thereof.  His power to decide is not in any way, shape, or form controlled or manipulated by our pleas or demands.  God forbid that we should think to make demands upon our God!  Far be it from us!  But how we try.  Lord, Your word says, and I claim it.  Now You must do it.  Oh!  How the flesh crawls to hear such presumption in prayer.  This is God you are talking to, not some genie in a bottle.  You are no child trying to wheedle concessions out of Dad by claiming that Mom said it would be okay.  You are the creature come before his Creator.  You are the bondservant come before your Lord and Master.  Come, then, as sharing your adventures on His behalf.  Come sharing news of having fulfilled His last request.  Come as seeking instruction as to your next assignment.  But don’t come thinking to play puppet master to God.

If God’s power to decide is not bound by our acceptance, neither is His choosing limited by our capacities.  Calvin makes the observation.  “When, therefore, God marks out our life, he does not look to what we can do, but requires from us what is above our strength, that we may learn to ask from him power to accomplish it.”  Don’t expect easy assignments.  There aren’t any.  And if there were, they would serve you ill.  They would teach you only self-reliance and self-confidence such as would leave you mistakenly holding the impression that you’ve got this.  You don’t.  God pushes us beyond our strength so that we may learn to lean on His.

We were watching the latest installment of “The Chosen” last night, and this point came through powerfully as Jesus sets forth His plan to send His disciples out two by two to carry His message – and not just His message, but His power.  You will be doing these things.  How, Lord?  We’ve never done so before.  James the Lesser was brought as prime example.  Here I am, lame of foot, and You tell me I am going to heal others?  First off, what’s up with that?  Second, who are we kidding?  But this was the plan.  This was God’s purpose.  I have to say I personally much appreciated the response of Jesus as depicted in that film.  You will be healed in due course.  When you get to heaven, this will all be behind you.   It’s not said outright that his healing would await that time, but the implication is strong.  And it was stronger yet in the explanation given him.  How many can lay claim to faith in spite of not receiving the miraculous answer they sought?  This is a far more powerful testimony, James, than that of those who follow because they got a miracle.  Nothing wrong with miracles.  But nothing wrong, either, in God choosing to withhold.  His is the power to decide.  His is the directing.  Yours is to accept and to follow.

Here is the message.  “We cannot move a step with success, otherwise than under God’s guidance.”  I take the phrasing from Calvin, but that doesn’t make this some doctrine of Calvin’s devising.  It is God’s doctrine.  Indeed, you have read the same conclusion from me, and I dare say, you have read the same conclusion from Scripture.  It’s there in the Proverbs, one of the first passages I ever deigned to highlight, and honestly, one of the few even to this day.  “The mind of man plans his course, but God directs his footsteps” (Pr 16:9).  God directs.  We are free to express our wishes, but God directs.  We are free to plan our way, and even to pursue it.  But when God directs a different way, well.  Adjust, adapt, accede.  I could think back on those days when we were first looking to move off Cape.  The difference between seeking our own course, and pursuing God’s course was stark.  It’s not that we sat idle in the living room until we had clear instruction to go and pursue this house.  It was far more a case of pursuing what seemed right to us, taking the matter to prayer, and seeing how God might respond.  If the door closed, so be it.  That clearly wasn’t it.  When the door opens?  By all means go through, here is the course you are set upon.  And, I have to say, don’t suppose that direction is final.  If the Lord directs a new move, be prepared to obey.  If He does not, be prepared to accept that reality as well.  The point is not being always on the move, nor is the point being settled.  The point is being obedient, and recognizing our dependence on and subservience to God Almighty, that He has numbered our days, He directs our course, He has plans for us in accordance with His purpose.

Let me wrap this section up with a quote from Matthew Henry.  “We depend upon God in all our motions and actions, as well as for the continuance of life and being.”   The point continues, but I want to pause there.  It’s not just the direction as to where we shall go and what we shall do.  It’s the very matter of life and being.  Do you get it yet?  “In Him we live, and move, and have our being” (Ac 17:28).  In Him we exist.  It is as much as to say apart from Him we do not.  We are that dependent.  Should He turn His attention aside for the briefest of moments, we should cease to be.  Period.  You think to extend your life, or to shorten it?  Good luck with that.  If it is your time, you will go.  If it is not, you will not.  God directs.  In Him you have being. 

Thus, Mr. Henry proceeds to observe, “that divine Providence orders all our affairs and that it is owing thereto if we prosper therein, that God our Father directs and orders his children whither they shall go and what they shall do, that our Lord Jesus Christ in particular manner directs the motions of his faithful ministers, those stars which he holds in his right hand.”  How greatly we need to lay hold of this.  God’s Providence orders all things.  He is Lord.  He is our Provider.  He is our Counselor and our King.  He decides where we shall go and what we shall do, and also how we shall go about doing it.  He supplies the power we lack.  He trains us and sustains us.

Now, I have to observe that this holds true, He being God and all, whether we are considering His children, or whether we are considering the worst, most unrepentant sinner.  We may not appreciate the state of our current cast of governing characters.  I find it rather hard to imagine how one could.  Nor would I suppose that any in that crew acknowledge the fact, even in their most private of thoughts, else how could they continue as they are?  But their opinions and their ill-considered actions alter nothing as to the fundamental truth.  Divine Providence orders their affairs every bit as much as He ordains our own.  This is hard to take, I confess.  It’s hard to see the good purpose in allowing such perversions and corruptions at the highest levels, but then, it’s hardly the first time this has been so, is it?  I can’t help but wonder how long before we manage to elect a donkey to the senate, as happened in the days of Rome’s decline.  But even there, God remained in control.  God had His reasons then, and He has His reasons now.  And His reasons are assuredly good and perfect, whatever the qualities of those used to fulfill His purposes.

Father, how we would that You might once again see fit to supply us with truly wise and godly leadership.  We would that You might yet find it in Your purpose to restore this nation rather than sink it in the sea of its own sins.  Nevertheless, Lord, Thy will be done.  I pray that whatever may be the course and the outcome, You would be glorified in it, Your holiness made manifest and Your goodness on full display.  Only, I pray, have mercy.  You know us, that we are but dust, weak and liable to fall at the least trouble.  But we know You, as well, that You supply where You have brought the need.  You equip us with every thing needful for life and godliness, and You abide with us, that we may yet recall our senses and lay hold of that which You have provided.  God, I love You.  I struggle, I confess, to follow You as I ought, to speak with You as I ought, to wait on You as I ought.  But I love You, and I am ever thankful of the assurance that You love me.  As best I may, I set myself before You at Your service.  Do as You will.  Your servant listens.

Love and Sanctification (12/20/22)

There is a connection drawn for us, between that love which the Lord causes to increase in us, and the holiness that He requires of us.  Calvin takes one step farther back in this, and observes that this love flows from faith, the two combining to form our foundations.  I suppose one could argue as to which of these is first to arrive, but insomuch as faith is the necessary starting point, I would be satisfied to give it first place.  So, faith is given and received, takes root and grows, and from this font of faith, love pours forth.  Like faith, that love is first poured into us, God’s love for us being a fair portion of that in which we have come to have faith.  Jesus, the Son given on our behalf as the expression of God’s love for us is surely foundational to faith.  And faith, in turn, is foundational to that love not only being recognized and received, but also in that same sort of love coming to define us, pouring out of us.

Love is, after all, the fulfillment of the Law, by Scripture’s own declaration.  “Love does no wrong to a neighbor, so love fulfills the law” (Ro 13:10).  It fulfills the second table rather directly, doesn’t it?  If we love our neighbor, we will not wrong him in any way.  And is this not, as Jesus observed, the second commandment in importance?  “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’  This is the great and foremost commandment.  The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’  On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets” (Mt 22:37-40).  These are your foundations. 

Following an example I have often used in regard to the prophets and the apostles as the foundation of doctrine, we might see a similar relationship here.  There is the cornerstone which is first laid as the starting point of construction, the reference against which all else will be measured.  Next come the two foundation walls which radiate from that cornerstone, and these, too, must be established straight and true to the faces of the cornerstone.  There is the basis for a solid building.  Get these steps wrong, and the rest is hopeless.  But get them right, and you now have a sound foundation from which to measure all that comes after.  Here are your foundations.  The Cornerstone, Christ Jesus, of course, as the fundamental measure, with faith and love radiating from Him, as it were, at right angles, to supply the full dimension of this new life He is building in us, which is to say, the new life we are building in Him.

Love, flowing from faith, fulfills the law and produces constancy in the believer.  You can see how it is so, that both must be present.  Faith without love produces only callousness.  Here is the cold, harsh world of the legalist.  Here is the vehemence of the zealot.  But here is not the way of Christ.  Let love be without faith, and all manner of perversions may follow, depending how one may define love.  It may be the promiscuous, anything goes attitudes of the heathen masses (including our own society, clearly).  It may be the soft sentimentalism of those intent on seeing a rosy future, whatever compromises must be made to attain it.  It may be the deadly pursuit of peace at all costs.  It is only when both are present, in balance, and both properly aligned to the Rock, Christ Jesus, that we have a resilient, reliably steadfast robustness to our religion.

And let me just pause a moment to break us free of something here.  Religion has taken to having such a negative connotation anymore, and not even primarily amongst the irreligious.  Come amongst the most committed Christians, and you won’t have long to wait before you hear somebody speak of religion with a derisive tone, as if touching upon some unholy phrase that ought never to be on the tongues of a believer.  But it is not so.  We might permit such disdain for that sort of religiosity which arises where love is lacking.  But then, we might readily posit that just such religiosity is on display primarily in those who do so much to denounce religion.  What else is it?  It’s certainly not the voice of understanding and wisdom.

The term is admittedly rare in Scripture, but it is there.  And I could even accept that by wide margins, the general application of the term comes in negative usage.  Festus, for example, supposes Paul’s predicament is really just a disagreement amongst the Jews about their own religion (Ac 25:19), which is, in fairness, a pretty neutral use of the term.  Paul’s defense on that occasion makes much the same use of the term, as he notes how he lived as a Pharisee, that being ‘the strictest sect of our religion’ (Ac 26:5).  Well!  We hardly look to the Pharisees as paragons of virtue anymore, do we?  And yet… “Unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven” (Mt 5:20).  Note well.  He doesn’t strip them of all claims to righteousness, only finds it insufficient.  Or, we might posit that He accounts their righteousness as self-righteousness, being as it is the produce of works, whereas the righteousness required for entrance into heaven is of a higher sort, being that righteousness which is found in Him alone.

Well, perhaps we should look to define terms, then.  We have threskeia, which Strong’s defines as relating to ceremonial observance.  We might call it the external aspect of religion, but then we’re back to the term itself.  It may refer to the practices of false worship, but it is also, as we see, used of true worship.  The Word Study Dictionary notes a different term, theosebeia, which is more directly concerned with externals, and we have other terms for piety and godliness. But religion is, at root the external exercise of worship in accordance with God’s demands of man.  It is holy service, religion in practice.  At sum, we might allow that the term tends to refer more to the cultic practices, the rites and ceremonies, than to the heart of that one who performs them, and as such, we see the term having little application to the NT Church, which really doesn’t have much of any rites and ceremonies.

Mind you, we are not devoid of such things.  We assuredly have our observance of the Lord’s Supper, our baptism ceremonies, and, however much we may deny it, our liturgical flow as to the order of gathered worship.  We have our practices, such as praying over our meals, or praying at bedtime, or what have you.  And any of these could reasonably be construed as rites and ceremonies.  And where the heart is not in it, that’s all they are, and yes, “your religion is useless.”  But where the heart is engaged, and the outward form observed from a heart after God?  I fail to see an issue.

Okay, we have another example of the usage of this term in Colossians 2:23, where Paul speaks of ‘the appearance of wisdom in self-made religion’, with its various exercises intended to produce piety, and yet ‘of no value against fleshly indulgence’.  So, observe two things here.  It is not religion generally that Paul is rejecting.  It is self-made religion, a specific sort of practice.  Whether or not this is to be taken as connecting with worship of angels, or whether that is just one more aspect of the general problem, the point is simple enough.  Your formulas won’t cut it.  Your attempts at self-sanctification will achieve nothing beyond increasing your sins.  This is not the way.  This is not true religion.  It’s rather akin to what the Pharisees had been doing, isn’t it?  Seeking to add to the commandment as delivered.  It may have begun from good enough intentions, but in practice, it proved vile, prideful, and utterly devoid of anything of love or faith.

The last example we have is from James 1:26-27.  That one who thinks himself religious (threskos – diligent in the duties of outward service to God), yet leaves his tongue unbridled deceives his own heart.  “This man’s religion is worthless.”  Let his deeds be as they may, they clearly do not express his soul, but rather cloak it in hopes of keeping its real condition hidden.  He continues.  “This is pure and undefiled religion in the sight of God our Father:  Visit orphans and widows in their distress; keep yourself unstained by the world.”  But let us understand and understand well that even such actions as visiting widows and orphans, if done as fulfilling a duty, is vain, empty show, and worth nothing.  It is where the heart is that matters.  It is faith issuing in love, love flowing from faith.  It’s never going to be found in careful conformity.  Keep yourself unstained by the world?  This is so far beyond us that were this all we knew of pure religion, it should drive us to utmost despair.  Woe is me!  I am undone!  I am doomed, for I cannot keep my feet from picking up the dust of this world.

But love fulfills the law, producing constancy such as these outward exercises can never do.  Indeed, such outward exercises may flow from love, but they can never produce love in us.  They will never add the least little bit to our faith.  It’s akin to thinking that somehow knowing the sum will cause addition to happen, or that dining on the finished meal means we have attained the skills of a chef.  Barnes observes that where love abounds, so does every other virtue.  This is, if you will, our power cell.  I could turn once more to that beautiful observation of Peter’s in his second epistle.  God has granted you everything pertaining to life and godliness (2Pe 1:3).  I could suggest that this grant was given us in this outpoured love, this agape love which has filled us to overflowing.  That love abounds because God has caused it to abound.  It is at once both the result of His work in us, and the evidence of His work in us.

And so, we find love to a purpose.  And we have its purpose stated.  “So that He may establish your hearts unblamable in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all His saints.”  Love and holiness are connected matters.  The latter is the product of the former.  Isn’t that something?  We want so much to work up holiness.  We have all these ideas of how to keep our noses clean, how to divest ourselves of this or that former practice, how to establish new habits, setting up little fences around ourselves all Pharisee-like, lest we accidently cross over into sin.  But holiness is the product of love.  Sanctification comes of loving God and loving man, for as we observed already, love fulfills the Law.  Paul stressed this to the Galatians, as they were being tempted back to a hollow religion of works.  “The whole Law is fulfilled in this:  You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Gal 5:14).  You don’t need flagellations.  You don’t need ascetism.  You don’t need monkish isolation.  You need to love your neighbor.  Shouldn’t that be just a tad easier?  Especially, when that love we are to have is given us in Christ Jesus!

Sanctification is the purpose of love, and love, as the JFB observes, is the ‘spring of holiness’.  You would be holy?  Love.  You would be accounted righteous?  Care about your neighbor.  Care enough about your neighbor to risk rejection and ensure he has opportunity to hear this Gospel.  Let him know of God’s love for him.  There is a place here, certainly, for noting the reality, the certainty of sin.  But it’s more the antidote to sin that needs presenting, and the reality of sin is only there, at least at this stage, to make evident the need for its antidote.  We don’t need to shy away from preaching with the fire of the stereotypical preacher of old, railing away on issues of fire and brimstone.  But to present that without clear presentation of the love of Christ, the offer of forgiveness if only you will repent?  That’s just mean.  It’s also, if you will forgive me, a little lacking in self-awareness.

To preach in such a fashion would have to suppose that the one preaching has advanced beyond such behaviors as would require repenting and seeking after forgiveness.  And there are plenty to hold to just such a form of religion, believing perfection is not only necessary, but possible in this life by main strength.  But it is not.  I know I had brought up, some little while ago, the example of my days as supervisor, giving review to my workers.  There was that lesson of always leaving room for improvement, always leaving a goal toward which to further progress.  Well, here is sanctification in a nutshell!  When it comes to this exercise of love, there is always room for improvement.  When it comes to our own sanctification, there is always room for improvement.   Come so far as you may, there is always further to go.  If you doubt it, ask God to show you.  He will.  But the pilgrim is ever making progress toward that goal, and he is doing so because it is God who is at work in him, both to will and to work for His good pleasure (Php 2:13).

God wills that we make continual progress, and so we do.  God will that we do so through prayer, and continue to do so until that day in which Christ returns and we find we have reached our goal.  That’s the message here, and it’s the observation Ironside makes in regard to our message.  God wills that we make continual progress.  And here, beloved, I think we must discern not the mere expression of preference, but the determination, the holy decree, if you will.  “For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus” (Php 1:6).  He is able.  He alone is able.  He is willing.  He has said it, and by His own right arm, He has done it.  He has done it!  It is finished!

“The saints are ‘His’” writes the JFB.  But it’s not just them saying it.  God says it.  We’ve been through this often enough.  “I have called you, and you are Mine” (Isa 43:1).  By name!  I have named you.  Don’t neglect the power of that.  Naming was a big deal.  The one with power to name has power of ownership.  “You are Mine.”  “I give eternal life to them, and they shall never perish.  No one shall snatch them out of My hand.  My Father has given them to Me, and He is greater than all.  And no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.  I and the Father are One” (Jn 10:28-30).  Not happening.  Can’t be done.

So, what are we to do with this?  To be sure, holiness is required of us, and not some passive sort of holiness where we, “let go and let God”.  We remain moral agents with moral responsibility as to our choices.  We, too, shall appear before Him in that day when He comes to judge the living and the dead.  We are not somehow getting a skate save and going round through some special, TSA-approved line.  We shall stand before Him.  We shall hear the record read out, for good or for ill.  More likely, for good and for ill.  All that was hidden, or that we attempted to keep hidden, will be exposed.  All that was misunderstood shall be made clear.  This cuts both ways.  The good we have done, which may have gone unnoticed, perhaps even by ourselves, will be manifestly shown to be good.  The sins we have thought to hide away and keep for our private moments will no longer be private matters.

We shall know need of comfort on that day.  We shall know need of relying on our Savior’s words declaring this debt paid in His blood.  And we shall no doubt know the shame, the abject sorrow, that it should be necessary that He has done so.  This is public confession time, and we shall be left no alternative but to face ourselves in all our failures and weaknesses.  But it is devoutly to be hoped that we shall also find, peppered through the proceedings, record of those things done in His service, from true hearted love for Christ, which bore real fruit, brought real honor to His name.  And there shall be the assurance of our Attorney by our side, confident Himself, and having at hand every necessary payment for our sins.  Indeed, already paid.  That is our assured condition.  Already paid.

I could wonder, given some of the discussion of this day in Scripture, and the value of that atoning work of Christ, whether perhaps, just perhaps, we shall be surprised to discover that the record of our sins is in fact entirely blotted out of the ledger, and only the accounting of our deeds of true holiness remain.  I would love to discover that it is so, and I can’t rule it out as a possibility.  But I don’t know as I would advise counting on it.  Far better that we should take to hear the full weight of this realization.  We, too, shall appear before Him.  We, too, shall hear the record of the lives we lived, find our hidden places exposed.  We, too, shall face the cleansing fire of Truth.  Far better, then, that we should live our remaining days in light of that recognition.  Holiness may remain beyond us, but striving for it, seeking after it, living lives of faith poured out in love:  That is not beyond us.  Living lives of true faith in Christ, true love for Christ, as true expressions of Christ’s own love for the fallen of this world.  Yes, this we can do.  We cannot do it to perfection, but we can do it to our uttermost, in the power God provides, for as we observed earlier, He does not call us and position us based on our capacities, but rather, in such fashion as will require us to draw from His.  So, let’s get to it.

Father, I assuredly have much to shed from my collection of habits, sins that have as to date refused to loose their hold, or upon which I have refused to try and loose mine.  Would that this were not so, but it clearly is.  To the degree it is in me to do so, I repent of these things yet again, this morning, and pray that You would indeed not only supply me with everything needful to win this battle, but would train me to remain attuned to the dangers and to avail myself of that which You have supplied.  I pray that You might indeed cause love to abound and overflow from this man.  It’s so easy for me to become isolationist.  It’s my nature.  But it’s not Yours, and it’s not Your desire for me.  May You, then, cause me to increase and abound in love both for my brothers and sisters, and for the lost in this neighborhood, and wherever they may be found.  Establish me, Lord, in holiness, else I am undone.  I lay myself before You, for my need for You is great, as great as ever it was.  Please, Lord, let this be more than words.  Let this be more than an exercise in study or in writing.  Let this inform my heart, and my heart lay hold of You just a little more this day, and each day hereafter.