New Thoughts (11/4/01-11/7/01)
Before I pursue the bulk of my thoughts on this passage, I need to consider this verse that Mr. Clarke brought up. Is 19:18 - In that day, even the cities of Egypt will swear allegiance to the LORD in the very language of Canaan. This is the second time in relatively recent studies that I have come across this promise for the seemingly unsalvageable sons of Edom. Given the recent events our nation has been involved in, it is particularly important that God's people remember God's promises are not only for them, not only for this nation, or for the current bounds of Christianity. He has declared those promises even to the sons of Edom, even to those nations we have learned to associate with Islam, with the spread of lies and terrors. In so much as they attack us, there is certainly a national call for all reasonable defense. This is the purpose of God ordained government, after all. Yet, it is the purpose of the Christian to pray for his enemies. Our prayers ought to be focused on the true battlefield, on the war for the souls of the lost. Islam has spread a great darkness over far too great a portion of this world; a darkness thick enough to cause people to seek their own destruction. Isn't this exactly what we've been looking at in this passage of Romans? The temptation of Islam, by which it lures its victims to the taking of their own life, is the lure of fleshly pleasures, it is the very choice that Scripture is telling us to make in so many places, but they have been led to make the wrong choice. They have chosen flesh, and so have assured that the death they thought to die for a moment will last an awful eternity. If we settle for the patriotic spirit of retaliation, we do no better than to seal their souls to that destruction. If we pray for their salvation, we show ourselves Christians, we do the work of our Father. Will many still be killed in their sins? Will many continue to refuse to offered salvation? Assuredly they will. Many in our own nation choose no better. Many in our own churches choose no better. Their choice is not our responsibility. The possibility of choice for them is. Pray. Pray hard.
We, like they, are left with a choice: either "displease the body or destroy the soul," "either your sins must die, or you must." So have Mr. Henry and Mr. Barnes put it, and so every Christian understands. For that matter, a large portion of society at large understand this truth. And yet, we choose the body. Knowing the death they must inevitably lead to, we still choose the instant gratification of sin. Why? Why is it so hard, Lord, to choose life? You give it to us so freely, and yet, even within Your Church, we turn aside from Your offer and walk after our own desires. How can this be? I do it myself, and yet I cannot understand. How can I choose these things over You, my Lord? I can't even claim momentary enjoyment as a reason, for it's no longer even a matter of enjoyment, just a different kind of pain, a different kind of tension. Perhaps we have simply heard the message of forgiveness too often for our own good. We have learned well that You are a gracious and forgiving God. We have learned well that our very lives depend on that one fact. Yet, we have learned to treat that very saving forgiveness with contempt. We have learned to think that we can demand Your forgiveness, that we can go on as we were, and just issue the obligatory "I'm sorry," at the end, and You will somehow be bound by our little incantation to forgive and forget. Can we no longer see witchcraft for what it is? Are You no more to us than some mystical power that we can manipulate to our advantage, if only we utter the proper phrases? Simon the magician's got nothing on us!
No! You are a holy and sovereign God. You have indeed saved us, but not for us to toy with that salvation. As Mr. Barnes said, You have imparted life, and You have 'a right to require that it be spent in [Your] service.' This is the call to Your people. We were saved with a purpose. We were saved to serve, and our service to You will necessarily include suffering. This is warfare. Warfare is no longer about comfort and pleasure. It's about preserving the freedom You have given us. Yet, You do not call us to war without equipping us for the battle, and that right well. 2Co 1:5 tells us that both suffering and comfort are ours in abundance. Oh, how we hate to hear the first half! The comfort part's fine with us, but we really don't want to hear about that suffering bit. That's natural, I suppose, but it's still sad. Indeed, Moses and David far surpassed our faith. Not that I think they looked forward to their own sufferings and trials, yet they faced them with confidence in God. Look at the record David has left. In his darkest moments, yet he knew how to rejoice, how to call on his God. Look at all that Moses had to go through; facing his own fears, facing the most powerful men in the land at that time, dealing with an obstinate and faithless people for forty years. And in the end, he was not even allowed to enter the land of his reward. But his reward was so much greater! And I think he knew that, because he'd experienced it in part throughout his trials. Indeed, not only the sufferings, but also the comforts had been his in abundance! Who else has enjoyed the relationship Moses had with God? Who else has seen even the backside of His glory?
Indeed, in faith, many of the people we read of in the Old Testament far outstrip us, yet in liberty, we are miles beyond. We have left behind us much of the care and detail of the Law. Gone are the ceremonial concerns, as we are taught to focus on true holiness, rather than ritual holiness. We have learned that it's not the things that are good or evil, it's their usage, it's how our heart is involved in that usage. Where we fall apart is in the 'not all things are profitable' part. We've learned not to care about the profitability that matters, so long as we can maintain our freedom. But this is not the focus we were called to keep in view. We are supposed to be a people in pursuit of true holiness. We've mistaken our freedom for license. We've neglected the Law that provides for us the only reliable map to reach that holiness, and thought somehow we'd get there by chance. God is calling us to better things, to a hungry pursuit of the holiness He offers. This is not a call to return to legalism, for legalism was a belittling of His Law; a taking of the impossible, and reducing it to 'achievable goals.' God does not call us to achievable goals, but to most assuredly unachievable ones. He calls us to walk worthy of our calling. He calls us to be holy as He is holy. Are you up to the task? I'm certainly not. Has He then called us unjustly, asking of us that which He knows we cannot do? Yes, He's called us to the unattainable, at least insomuch as our nature is involved. Yet, He is not unjust. He has provided the means we lack. He has provided the power we need. Indeed, He has given us comfort in abundance, for He has provided us with the very Spirit of God to assist us in our weakness. Do you, then, still want to cry out about the impossibility of the task? Would you really wish to so despise the precious Gift which the Father has given? To claim inability to do as He asks is no more than pride in another disguise. It is the pride that wants everything to revolve around our abilities, our flesh. It is that same spirit of the age that wants to set the temple up as god, rather than honor the God who fills the temple.
Reject that spirit. Reject the offer of the snake, and allow God to be God. He will not share that office, nor could He. There is one God. There can be no others. Worship Him who has saved you from death. Serve Him most heartily, as you would any earthly benefactor. Serve Him most fully, for He is a wonderful Master. Praise Him with all due awe and honor, for He has indeed done great things. He has formed you from the dust, breathed life into you, and preserved that life when you would not. By Him and for Him were all things created. Bow down and give glory to Him. Praises indeed be to His Holy Name!
Nor has He stopped with that wonderful deed. Three times, in three different ways, we are told in this passage that we are His children. And each of these times, another aspect of what it is to be His is presented to us. First, there is the very spirit of adoption which He has given us. Adoption satisfies the legal requirements, as it were. It is the official certificate of membership into God's family. It is also, as Mr. Clarke noted, a total severing of our relationship with our previous family. All connection to our old self was done away with when our adoption papers were served. The life of sin is no longer to be any relation to us. On top of this official welcome into the family, comes official standing within that family. As adopted children, we, too have our place in the inheritance of our Father. It is an established, defensible fact for us.
This leads into the second means by which God speaks of us. We are children, natural children, as those born to our Father. We are minors, as it were, and have been since our rebirth. Thus, while our inheritance in Him is sure, we are not yet of an age to receive the full inheritance. Until we are mature enough, we continue under benefit of a heavenly trust fund, while our youth is watched over by our tutor, the Holy Spirit. He it is who brings growth in us. He it is who trains us to the ways of the kingdom, so that when we attain to our inheritance, we will comport ourselves in a manner worthy of our estate.
Finally, we are spoken of as sons. In this, we see the inner work of the Spirit coming to fruition in us, for by this term, God is telling us that we are coming to have a character shaped by God Himself; shaped by His loving chastisements. We have been allowed to enter in to His councils, learning of salvation. We are coming to a place of obedience to His will in all our actions. We have come to a place of 'affectionate intimacy' with our Creator. We are truly united to Him. There are no bonds known to man that can surpass the bonds of family, and it is these very bonds that hold us to our Lord. It is no longer the relationship of servant and master, even though that relationship can develop a level of love. Our relationship is far beyond that. We have entered into the family. The very cry of our heart in prayer, "Abba! Father!" These are not the words of a servant. They are forbidden to the servant. Yet they are ours to cry out, and so we do. We could not do otherwise, for in this intimate, loving relationship, we pray to Him. And in intimate prayer, we cannot help but express our desire for Him. In the intensity of that desire, we search for every word that can help to express our love, even knowing that all of our outpoured prayers cannot fully express what we would say to Him.
Does this describe my relationship with Him? This cry of prayer that seeks to declare our desire for God, is it on my lips? Mr. Clarke has well pointed out that prayer is the best barometer of our belief. If we don't believe, we won't have much cause to call on Him whom we consider a figment. Oh, recent events show that we'll do it anyway, when things get tough enough, but it's not the cry of love, it's the desperate act of one who feels his doom approaching. On the other hand, if we do believe our God, if we do take His Word as Truth, if this Bible is more than a curious antiquity to us, how can we not pray to Him who has saved us? How can we not declare the depth of our thankfulness, our love, our desire to be with Him?
I cannot but admit that there are times when this depth of feeling, this being lost in prayer is far from me. All too many times. Yet, there are those points where it just pours out from me. Sometimes, it's as I do these studies. Sometimes, it's in shower songs. Rarely, (and this strikes me as somehow odd), does it come in times dedicated to prayer alone. Perhaps we of the West have learned a poorer definition of prayer. Paul told us to pray without ceasing. This strikes us as an impossibility. We must work. We must take care of the needs of our families. We have any number of distractions that seem to prevent us from getting away to our 'prayer closet' for 'time alone with God.' I think we've missed it. That closet is no more a place than His temple is. His temple is our body. Where better shall we go to talk to Him, than in His temple. Just as we carry His altar with us wherever we go, we carry our prayer closet with us. We needn't run to some far corner to get alone with God. All that's needed is to stop flapping our lips. Talk to Him, spirit to Spirit. Pour out your heart to Him. Your cares, your love, your hurts, your triumphs. All of it. This, we can do at any point. This we can do, because the Spirit within us draws forth our heart of longing, emboldening us to call upon our Father, our Daddy, not with our Christmas wish list of stuff we'd like to have Him do for us, but simply crying out our joy at being with Him.
Finally, I would guard us against any false assurances. Grand theological arguments won't serve as evidence of faith. Opinions as to the deep mysteries of God will not serve either. The only possible assurance we can have that our faith is genuine, that our salvation is true, is the evidence God Himself provides. Where He has worked, He testifies directly to the heart. It is not only possible to know, it is impossible that one would not know that his salvation is certain. God does not leave Himself without a testimony. But, be assured, that His testimony is not purely a matter of revelation or inspiration, although He may well use these means in guiding His people. They remain, however, means of guidance, not of assurance. Nor is our assurance just the warm feelings of the heart. No, and it's not a matter of reasoned persuasion, either. Only one thing serves as our assurance of God's work in us, and that is the fruit it produces. The Spirit cannot abide and fail to produce. By this, it should be equally clear that where there is no fruit, there is no Spirit. In that absence, all that our mind may choose to tell us of our assured salvation, all that our mind may choose to tell us regarding our love for Him is worse than nonsense. It is a delusion of the most deadly sort.
Way back in the first year of this study, I had asked what the nature of our inheritance is. Oh, what an answer to come across! Our inheritance consists not in riches, not in lands, nor property. Our inheritance is not just a sharing in the name, not even a sharing in the Name above all names. No, our inheritance is God Himself! He is our portion! He is our heritage! Just as the Levites were given God Himself to be their inheritance in the land, so we, too, have God as our part! This is a great and awesome promise. It is beyond that. Words fail when I consider the magnitude of this. Can we not see, that where such an inheritance is the promise, where such bountiful unity is to come, there must be a preparation, a maturing of the one who would lay hold of that inheritance? Where, then, is the evidence of that maturity? How shall our Tutor know to declare the classes done and graduated? It will be evident by our unity with Him here and now. That unity will show in the fruits we know to be of His Spirit. That evidence will show in our standing with Him here, now, against any trials that may come. That evidence will show in our willingness to share in His humility and suffering gladly, with joy unspeakable. We are indeed united with Him, united in suffering, united in glory. We cannot have the latter, if we refuse the former. We cannot pick and choose the aspects of Him who is all, and in all, that we want to share in. It's all or nothing; a total commitment. Nothing less would be worthy of such a God. Choose you this day, and choose wisely. Choose life.
