The plans of ethe diligent lead surely to abundance,
but everyone who is hasty comes only to poverty. Proverbs 21:5
Let me share a painful truth with you: There is no shortcut to spiritual maturity.
None.
I know I want it to be otherwise. But this is the plain truth.
As is so often the case in Proverbs, some axioms are repeated over and over, and in different ways. So with this one. And in this case, there is an added dimension.
In the natural, I was what was termed in my day “a late bloomer.” And this brought problems with it.
Although I was somewhat bright (simply “precocious” might be a better word – I’m sure I thought I was brighter than I was) I was also emotionally very immature, even for my age.
Because I was a bit snappy, I started school what was probably a year too early. My parents should have kept me back a year. Though I think I was enrolled early to save my Mother’s sanity at home. One more year of me in the house would have driven her up the wall!
But I was bored. I didn’t see the relevance of anything I was being taught. And my report cards regularly bore the comment: “Reid is not working up to his potential.”
Yeah. My grey matter was sufficient. But my emotional maturity was too far behind to make a good mix.
School wasn’t fun.
I always wanted to be – or at least treated – older than I actually was. Which led me to inserting myself into conversations and situations above my paygrade. It made me a Grade A pain in the neck to my friends and family. Not to mention my teachers.
Maybe you too can remember back to when you wanted to be older than you were? Wanting to be big enough to ride certain rides at the amusement park. Anxious to get that driver’s license. Being old enough to stay home alone without a baby-sitter. Wanting to make your own decisions, etc.
Well that same phenomena replicates itself in the life of the Believer too.
We come into the spiritual life when we are born again, and we look around at those who were saints before us, and we want their experiences, their insights, their impact on others, and their seeming grasp of God, the Word and spiritual matters.
The problem is, there is only one way to get “older.” Time.
But, as I said above, there are no spiritual shortcuts to growth. Only time and the natural process will avail – and only these are desirable. So it is with our souls.
In fact, spiritual growth spurts are not even something to be desired – to grow in sudden, huge leaps.
Time with God, time letting the soul in Christ mature and let every aspect fully develop in balance and harmony. Time to learn God’s Word so as to handle it responsibly. Time to analyze your own heart in the light of the Scripture by the illumination of The Spirit. Time to reflect on past decisions. To consider what makes for spiritual maturity. Time to learn how to begin to master oneself in the power of the Spirit. Time to walk with God consistently so as to know His ways and providence. To cultivate spiritual habits and disciplines that lend themselves to solid growth.
Time.
If you are running from ministry to ministry and seminar to seminar hoping to have some instant miraculous experience which catapults you into spiritual maturity – stop! There is no such thing. You must walk the entire path with Him, you cannot simply be conformed to His image in a moment.
By the age of 12, Jesus Himself, the very Son of God, was more than able to hold His own with the teachers and the rabbi’s in the Temple. But He still remain under His parent’s authority, and didn’t enter into any kind of “ministry” until around 30.
So as Luke 2:52 reminds us: “And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man.”
Yet how many new-Born Believers want instant ministry? And how many of us who have walked with the Lord, as still discouraged at our slow rate of growth?
One does not gain spiritual maturity by bestowal – it is by growth. One learns the Word by study, not osmosis. Faith grows in testing, not ease. Age, even in Christ comes by way of time, not sudden leaps forward. Diligence is what leads to abundance. Faithfulness is what perseveres long enough to reap the harvest. Yearning for Heaven makes a man order his steps to get there. Those who imagine they have it all now, or can get it all in a flash are fooling themselves. Such hastiness will only come to poverty.
Yes, it is true the writer to the Hebrews can chide some of his readers for not contributing to their own growth, and needing to get on the stick. At the same time, we are reminded of how patient Jesus was with His own disciples and their slow growth.
How much more with you and me?
Walk WITH Christ, do not try to cross the finish line while you are still in the starting gate.
In due time, you too will fully bear that image. You will “grow up into Him.” (Eph. 4:15)
A few years ago I preached through John’s Apocalypse, and in going over some of those notes, revisited the topic of the Antichrist from Revelation 13.
Because the view I settled on is not a common among us today (though historical), I thought I might post the text of that sermon below, along with a link to the audio if you might prefer to listen.
I am not trying to garner support for the view I adopted, but offer it up as a way perhaps (as my title implies) to re-think what notions of antichrist we might have.
Ch. 12 of Revelation provides quite a bit of insight regarding the nature of true spiritual warfare. James Hamilton in his commentary summarizes what we looked at last time: “By his death, resurrection, and ascension Christ defanged the dragon with seven heads and ten horns. Satan no longer has any standing in Heaven to accuse believers. He knows his time is short, and he is making war on the woman and her seed. Hamilton Jr., James M.. Revelation: The Spirit Speaks to the Churches (p. 258). Crossway. Kindle Edition.
Exactly HOW Satan wages this war is what 13 focuses upon. And what emerges in this chapter is a picture of 2 “beasts”. 12 ends with Satan standing on the shore of the sea. And as we have seen all along, the sea is usually a symbol of what is mysterious, dangerous, unstable and unknown – the unredeemed world. Now, Satan calls the first beast from this sea. In vs. 11, he’ll call out another beast – but from the earth. And we’ll have to wait until next time to see how the 2 figure together. What we have at this point is Satan and the 1st beast.
This Beast, given all that is said about him here and then in more detail in ch. 17 is most often identified as “The antichrist.” In fact the chapter ends with the very familiar idea that this Beast gives a mark to all who are his, and that the number of the Beast is – 666. Something we’ll have to wait to address.
Antichrist.
The very word conjures up all kinds of mental images. Most often, a charismatic world leader with near supernatural powers, poised to lop off the heads of anyone who doesn’t worship him. Reigning over a one-world government using a one-world religion. Scary to say the least.
But it might surprise many today that not all in the church have held quite that same vision historically. From the 2nd century on, there have been 2 main ways of understanding the idea of antichrist. Both are orthodox. Both views have their pluses and their minuses.
First view: Antichrist as a literal historical person who will try to pass himself off as Christ, with the goal of replacing him and wreaking havoc on the world. Irenaeus (130-202) would be a prime example. He along with many others – solid, excellent men throughout history have argued some future, specific person will emerge as THE antichrist. F. F. Bruce, Donald Grey Barnhouse, Robert Mounce, George Eldon Ladd, John Walvoord, John MacArthur – etc. It is perhaps the most dominant view in American Evangelicalism today. It has a political, one-world government emphasis.
Second view: Antichrist isn’t so much a person as it is a pervasive heresy which deludes the world and keeps them from the knowledge of God in Jesus Christ. This view was held by Polycarp (69-155), a personal disciple of John and Tertullian (160-220) to name a few. The idea here is of antichrist being a false teaching with perhaps a primary false teacher rather than a political figure. So the emphasis here is neither political nor personal. It’s why many of the Reformers identified antichrist with the Papacy. Not a specific Pope as much as the office and the system deceiving many in the guise of Christ and true Christianity. This is the direction I am going to take and the one I believe has the most Biblical support. Though as I said, both views have both their pluses and their minuses.
Whichever view one may take, we have the words of John in 1 John 2:18 reminding us: “Children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come. Therefore we know that it is the last hour.” Other passages like this must be used in forming an opinion.
Interestingly, 1st and 2nd John are indispensable here since those are the only 2 books where the word antichrist is ever used in the Bible. So how John uses it must bear on how we understand the concept here.
Whoever or whatever antichrist is – from John’s words we know that while a final manifestation of antichrist is coming, in some sense it has already been here, and is here even now. Something more than a simple future person must inform our thoughts. That said, let’s look at the passage itself.
It divides itself up into 4 sections. The 4th section specifically aimed at Christians, encouraging us and calling us to courage and faithfulness.
Revelation 13:1–2 “And I saw a beast rising out of the sea, with ten horns and seven heads, with ten diadems on its horns and blasphemous names on its heads. And the beast that I saw was like a leopard; its feet were like a bear’s, and its mouth was like a lion’s mouth. And to it the dragon gave his power and his throne and great authority.”
The 1st thing we have to ask ourselves is – do we see anything like this anywhere else in Scripture? And if so – is there help in explaining what we see here? And thankfully the answer is a resounding YES! Not only do we get far more detail about The Beast in Ch. 17, we especially have the 7th ch. of the Book of Daniel to really help unpack it.
Daniel 7:2–8 “I saw in my vision by night, and behold, the four winds of heaven were stirring up the great sea. And four great beasts came up out of the sea, different from one another. The first was like a lion and had eagles’ wings…And behold, another beast, a second one, like a bear…After this I looked, and behold, another, like a leopard, with four wings of a bird on its back. And the beast had four heads, and dominion was given to it. After this…behold, a fourth beast, terrifying and dreadful and exceedingly strong. It had great iron teeth; it devoured and broke in pieces and stamped what was left with its feet. It was different from all the beasts that were before it, and it had ten horns. 8I considered the horns, and behold, there came up among them another horn, a little one, before which three of the first horns were plucked up by the roots. And behold, in this horn were eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking great things.”
The first thing you want to notice here is that the Beast in Rev. 13 – shares the key characteristics of the 4 beasts in Dan. 7. It is in some way a composite if you will. Leopard, Bear, Lion and 10 horns. But next, we need to see how Dan. 7 explains that vision.
Note then that The Beast in Revelation it is a composite of – kingdoms, not of individuals. We know this from the explanation given in Daniel itself. This would seem to indicate The Beast of Rev. 13 is not a man either but something else – a sort of kingdom unto itself. Let’s go further in Daniel.
Daniel 7:17–25 “These four great beasts are four kings…“Then I desired to know the truth about the fourth beast, which was different from all the rest… and about the ten horns that were on its head, and the other horn that came up and before which three of them fell, the horn that had eyes and a mouth that spoke great things, and that seemed greater than its companions. As I looked, this horn made war with the saints and prevailed over them…“Thus he said: ‘As for the fourth beast, there shall be a fourth kingdom on earth, which shall be different from all the kingdoms, and it shall devour the whole earth, and trample it down, and break it to pieces. As for the ten horns, out of this kingdom ten kings shall arise, and another shall arise after them; he shall be different from the former ones, and shall put down three kings. He shall speak words against the Most High, and shall wear out the saints of the Most High, and shall think to change the times and the law; and they shall be given into his hand for a time, times, and half a time.”
Dan. 8 goes on to explain that the Lion represents the Babylonian world empire. The Bear = the Medo-Persian empire. The Leopard = the Grecian empire, which then breaks into 4 after Alexander the Great’s death, and then into 10 (the 10 horns) which gives rise to the one horn that persecutes the Jews terribly for -1260 days – Antiochus IV Epiphanes. Which then gives way in some way to Rome. Contemporaneous with Rome, Christ’s kingdom will come on the scene.
In other words, no more global world powers are prophesied to come after these. Not in terms of political or military might. Yet we see this Beast here in Revelation and it is identified somehow with what Daniel saw.
So what might all of this mean? One thing is for certain, that the historical rise and fall of these world empires, prefigure in some way a final world empire – one that bears the traits of all that came before – and to which they were pointing. But not necessarily a political empire or government.
This prefiguring is a common way the Bible speaks. Historical events of the past are often meant to foreshadow things yet to come. Example 1: The Flood, followed by the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah are both pointed to as prefiguring the final destruction of the earth in judgment. Both serve as specific examples of God’s coming judgment. Example 2: The Jews entering Canaan is meant to prefigure both something of our rest now in Christ, and the final rest of heaven yet to come.
Second, remember John’s words that we looked at earlier – antichrist is to come, but there already ARE antichrists? The idea is that there have always been world systems that have been contrary to God’s rule and His people. This is nothing new. But behind them, inspiring them as it were – is Satan’s influence. We see this in John’s vision here.
Let me try to illustrate this in contemporary terms. Behind the murderous and godless rise of Marxist Stalinism and its opposition to all things Christian – was the influence of the Devil. He was behind the rise of Mao Zedong, Adolf Hitler, Pol Pot – and inciting the murder of the 94 million killed in the 20th century under movements dedicated to stamping out Christianity as central to their core values. Each one of these was an antichrist.
So in some sense antichrist has been here in the past in Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, Antiochus IV Epiphanes, Communist Russia, China, Cambodia and Germany etc.
And, for 215 million Christians today, antichrist is here now the way I John notes. Antichrist is here in some Islamic countries & present-day China and North Korea. Did you know for instance that for the 17th year in a row N. Korea has been ranked as the most dangerous place on earth to be a Christian? 27% of the population live in prison work camps. Simply owning a Bible is a capital offense. For N. Korean Christians today, they are staring at the very face of antichrist. And, antichrist, the final antichrist, is yet to come.
What I am, arguing is that antichrist is not so much a person, as it is a global mindset, a universal worldview that denies God, the very idea of God, and marginalizes and persecutes everyone not in sync with it. A sort of dominant global group-think. All of which aligns perfectly with the demonic deception we saw portrayed in locusts from the bottomless pit and what came out of their mouths, and the flood that came out of the mouth of the dragon in Ch. 12.
Its key features are easily identifiable. If you do not buy into a completely naturalistic view of humankind as a cosmic and evolutionary accident; and of no moral responsibility beyond ourselves; of the highest good being material wellbeing, self-government, ever shifting cultural morality and self-defined “spirituality” – you’re out! So that while many are on the lookout for an antichrist person, they are at the same time actually imbibing the very spirit of antichrist in the world’s values versus God’s. It will have its various spokesmen, it’s false prophets – (we’ll see that later), but ultimately, its savagery becomes evident in how it blinds people to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and sees them lost in Hell and under judgment for the very sin they deny even exists. This is far more subtle and pernicious, for you have far more control over people if they simply all believe your version of reality.
In fact the 4 places where John uses the term antichrist spell it out for us quite plainly I think.
1 John 2:18: Children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come. Therefore we know that it is the last hour.
1 John 2:22–23: “Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son. No one who denies the Son has the Father. Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also.”
1 John 4:1–3: “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already.”
2 John 7: “For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not confess the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh. Such a one is the deceiver and the antichrist.”
If I understand these correctly, when taken together, antichrist is: The fundamental denial of the person and work of Jesus Christ as revealed in the Bible, and the entire world view which springs from that revelation.
Let me summarize these: Every religion and every cult that denies the Biblical revelation of the incarnate Son of God dying a substitutionary death for sinners on Calvary – is antichrist. But the great antichrist of the last day is a secular denial of God & Christ, that gains global acceptance and will demand a totally naturalistic worldview. No God of creation, and no humankind as the special creation of God in His image. This, IS antichrist. A wholly secular worldview.
II. 3-4 One of its heads seemed to have a mortal wound, but its mortal wound was healed, and the whole earth marveled as they followed the beast. And they worshiped the dragon, for he had given his authority to the beast, and they worshiped the beast, saying, “Who is like the beast, and who can fight against it?”
The idea this pictures an individual receiving some sort of physical head wound seems unlikely given what we’ve just seen. Based on this verse some in the early church speculated Nero might be the antichrist, since after he died rumor had it he would rise from the dead and re-take the Roman empire. I remember similar wild speculations that JFK would recover from his head wound, and under the guise of being a great social reformer, then gather a one-world government. In fact, in Ch. 17 we read: 17:8 “The beast that you saw was, and is not, and is about to rise from the bottomless pit and go to destruction. And the dwellers on earth whose names have not been written in the book of life from the foundation of the world will marvel to see the beast, because it was and is not and is to come.”
All those speculations aside, given the historical antichrists and the present day antichrists and the antichrist to come, it seems best to see this as understanding that time after time after time, antichrist rises up as an ideology, usually attached to a nation and a leader, and then it is brought down – as all of the previous empires were. And then it rises up again somewhere else with new leadership. It is a never-ending repeat. The Beast, was, and is not, and is to come. Antichrist thought systems emerge, die and remerge.
But what of the world? It never stops giving its allegiance to the Beast. It worships the Beast and what it stands for. Godlessness raises its head over and over and people love it so. In what way do they worship the Dragon and the Beast? 2 Cor. 4:3–4 “And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” And to hear the present-day atheists like Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris – all belief in God must go! For it frees mankind to live out his most base desires without guilt or shame or fear of judgment.
III. 5-6 And the beast was given a mouth uttering haughty and blasphemous words, and it was allowed to exercise authority for forty-two months. It opened its mouth to utter blasphemies against God, blaspheming his name and his dwelling, that is, those who dwell in heaven.”
So the Beast will be allowed to have its day. And it does what it does by one primary means: Uttering haughty and blasphemous words: By what it teaches and promulgates as truth. It will deny the truth of God, of the Gospel, of sin and judgment and righteousness. It will mock and make fun of everything sacred and holy and good. And it will have its 42 months, its 1260 days, its 3-1/2 years. Its period of trampling God’s people down.
IV. 7-10 Also it was allowed to make war on the saints and to conquer them. And authority was given it over every tribe and people and language and nation, and all who dwell on earth will worship it, everyone whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who was slain. If anyone has an ear, let him hear: If anyone is to be taken captive, to captivity he goes; if anyone is to be slain with the sword, with the sword must he be slain. Here is a call for the endurance and faith of the saints.”
Conquering the world in its deception and the church in its persecution, there will come a day when it will seem like the Church and the Gospel will seem to be all but snuffed out. For those in N. Korea, that day is now. But just as Jesus was crucified and buried and even His disciples thought it was all over – the new dawn is just about to break.
No wonder vs. 10 ends by saying this calls for “the endurance and the faith of the saints.”
Well then, what provision has been made for Believers so that we will endure? John is given 3 things.
a. vss. 5–7 And the beast was given a mouth uttering haughty and blasphemous words, and it was allowed to exercise authority for forty-two months…7 Also it was allowed to make war on the saints and to conquer them. And authority was given it over every tribe and people and language and nation,
Our God and King is as much Lord over Satan and The Beast as He is over all else.
Without God’s permission – even The Beast can do nothing.
We can trust our Heavenly Father who reigns over all.
b. vs. 8 All who dwell on earth will worship The Beast EXCEPT, everyone whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who was slain.
Believers have been promised that we will NOT be deceived – because our salvation was decreed before God even made the world.
We can trust our God.
c. vs. 10 If anyone is to be taken captive, to captivity he goes; if anyone is to be slain with the sword, with the sword must he be slain.
Believers have their trials appointed by God and so are not at the mercy of The Beast – even when it may look like it.
He knows our individual strengths and weaknesses. He knows our constitutions. He is as much Lord over our sufferings as He is our blessings. We can trust Him.
The very confidence of Jesus when He stood before Pilate is ours. Pilate said don’t you know I have the authority to release you or crucify you? And Jesus calmly answered: You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given to you from above.
As He trusted the Father, so do we. For in our faith in Him, we overcome The World, The Beast, and even Satan himself.
In J.I. Packer’s excellent little book “God’s Plans for You” he opens Ch. 6 “How God Leads Us” like this: “Evangelicals differ from most Roman Catholics and liberals in that they are constantly uptight about guidance. No other concern commands more interest or arouses more anxiety among them nowadays than discovering the will of God.”
Packer then goes on to quote Joseph Bayly in a 1968 monograph: “If there is a serious concern among Christian students today, it is for guidance. Holiness may have been the passion of another generation’s Christian young men and women. Or soul-winning. Or evangelizing the world.… But not today. Today the theme is getting to know the will of God.” Packer, J. I. 2001. God’s Plans for You. Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books.
It is my experience that Packer and Bayly are both right. This is a huge issue. And maybe, just maybe, more than it ought to, or need to be.
In that regard then, I’d like us to briefly consider the events of Acts 15 and the Council at Jerusalem.
The setting is clear. vs. 1 says that some men from Judea, had gone to the largely Gentile church in Antioch telling the new Believers that unless they were circumcised in conformity to the Mosaic law, they couldn’t be saved.”
Naturally, this created quite the concern. Not simply due to the practical realities, but what impact this had on the Gospel. Paul and Barnabas vigorously confronted the issue. The text says there was “no small dissension and debate.” A right proper brouhaha broke out. With the result that Paul and Barnabas were sent to Jerusalem to put the matter before the apostles and elders there.
This is where what went on in the Council becomes interesting and I believe instructive to us.
Let’s recap the Council. It has a lot to say about the natural progression of spiritual maturity.
So, how did this group proceed to ascertain the Lord’s mind and leading on what was before them?
1 – (v 6) The apostles and elders got together to consider it.
2 – (vss 7-9) Peter stands up and appeals to his being led to preach to the Gentiles, but does not see even his extraordinary vision as definitive. What he does appeal to is the providential outpouring of the Spirit that attended his ministry at Cornelius’ house.
3 – (vss 10-11) Peter argues theologically and with reason. He especially notes the unbearable burden of salvation by obeying the Law, and then appeals to the Gospel of grace they’ve all been preaching.
4 – (v 12) Paul and Barnabas reinforce the nature of God’s providential work among the Gentiles.
5 – (vss 13-21) First, James reasons from Peter’s and Paul’s activity, and then, how this confirms or fulfills the Old Testament prophecies. His appeal to Scripture is important. He then adds that the Word will still have its impact on Believers.
6 – (vss 25 & 28) They write a group letter to the Antiochene church. The letter appeals to 3 things. a. Their arriving at consensus after discussion & debate; b. Examination of God’s providential acts; c. The verification of the Scriptures. This is termed as seeming “good to the Holy Spirit and to us.”
Now hold on to your hat. Because what is missing here is as important, maybe even more so, that what is included.
What is missing?
No vision. Here is this most important issue, striking at the very heart of the Gospel itself, and no one among the apostles, prophets and elders – gets a vision to settle the matter. No one.
No “leading”. No one just stood up and said “I feel led.” And the whole group then saying “o well then, if you feel led – let’s…”
There was no supernatural sign. No attesting miracle or anything of the like from anyone EVEN THE MOST EMINENT APOSTLES. No one said: “God told me” as definitive.
Note then, how as the church matures, calling upon God given reason informed by the Scriptures, with the counsel of others operating similarly, and confirmed in providence becomes the norm above immediate impressions or revelations.
This is vitally important. Let me repeat it.
Calling upon God – given reason informed by the Scriptures – with the counsel of others – and confirmation in providence – THIS becomes the norm over immediate impression or revelations.
Note also that the Bible does not record a litany of individuals being “led” supernaturally in personal matters – but only where there is something pivotal regarding redemptive history for the Church. It simply is not the Biblical pattern. Where key events in the Redemptive history and progress of the Church at large are at stake, yes, visions like Peter’s on the roof in Joppa occured. But here, we’re told how that event was central to opening Gospel mission to the Gentiles. It wasn’t an every day occurrence, nor was it repeated.
Note how such leadings decline the more the Word is ingested and people reason in wisdom out of God’s Word, in conference with God’s people, and in concert with providential markers. These grow fewer and fewer as the narrative of Acts proceeds.
And note too how impulses are never to be given the force of a MANDATE. To do so, puts them on par with Scripture and creates new sins which the Bible knows nothing about. For if someone fails to do what is mandated by God, such failure can be nothing other than sin, but one not applicable to any other but yourself. An entirely new category of sin is created. The individual “God told me” but I did not obey – which is not applicable to the Church at large.
Note lastly: The more a relationship matures, the less directives are needed, and the more communication shifts to fellowship.
The better I know my boss’s goals and desires, the less I have to ask for specifics, and the more I can carry out his business freely.
The better a child knows the ways and desires of the parent and matures in terms of what is good versus what is bad or harmful, the less rules are needed, and the more the child lives on the principles. We move from precept to principle as we mature. It is this way in sanctification, and this way in growing in the Spirit.
Things like God’s manifestations on Sinai are for the immature and again at pivotal moments. Once things are spoken there, the less He speaks in the same way. Once the Law was given, the Israelites did not need to go to Mt. Sinai every morning for fresh revelations. They had what He had written.
The pillar of cloud and fire disappear once they come into the promised land. They are no less led, but know that their mandate is to conquer – they are no longer wandering. Such leading signs are indicative of immaturity, earlier stages in growth and wandering, not maturity and entering into what God has sent us to do.
The supernatural manna ceases as soon as they enter the promised land, and now they are to cultivate food and feed themselves. They are no less dependent upon God, but have entered into a more mature relationship which assumes they be about God’s business, rather than looking for new leadings.
As Deuteronomy 29:29 reminds us: “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.”
Does the Spirit prompt and guide? Surely. But first and foremost through His Word, then in Providence, God given propensities, wise counsel, etc. Believers are not doomed to live constantly trying to divine God’s secret will for their individual circumstances. We are so much freer than that.
There is so much more to say, but I’ll leave it here for now. Give yourself to what God has revealed already, and trust Him in what He hasn’t.
It has been my experience, that I most often find out I’ve been “led” in the aftermath of something when it has come to pass – not before. It just might be that way most often period. After all, we walk by faith, not by sight. Needing a leading, is needing some form of sight.
Proverbs is a loving Father, doing his best to educate his son in the way of the World in light of the reality of God, sin, and human frailty. As such, Solomon spends a lot of time dealing with the issue of temptation. He knows well from experience how the allure of sinful things can draw us off from following God and His Word. Nothing’s changed.
Context is important here.
As a Father speaking to his son, perhaps in his teen years, Solomon knows full well two things are at play; first, raging hormones.
We are complex creatures. As such we do not just have minds and bodies, but those two are bound together in such a way that each impacts the other. Our physiology often impacts our psychology. In the extreme we see this in alcohol and drug use (Solomon will deal with alcohol more than once). But even something more benign like caffeine can make one anxious or jittery.
In my mother’s latter years, she came to me complaining that she could not sleep in her own bed because she became so anxious and fretful – but could not attach the anxiety to a specific matter. She prayed and sought the Lord and could not overcome. It grew worse. She saw it as a lack of faith issue. Not trusting the Lord enough.
One day, looking over her medications, and doing a little research online, I suspected the root cause may have been interactions between 2 certain meds. Calling the Dr. we switched out the one, and overnight her crippling anxiety eased wonderfully. Her problem wasn’t unbelief, it was chemically induced.
Teenagers, boys or girls are undergoing immense changes physiologically which have psychological and spiritual implications. Solomon got that.
Second, he’s talking to a young man. And so he casts the character of temptation in general, in the form of a seductive woman. He is not saying women are somehow inherently temptresses to be thought of poorly. He is using this example to demonstrate how attractive sin always is, and how we each have our individual propensities toward particular sins, even at specific times and certain circumstances.
Hence my title: “What’s in your wallet.” Where do you locate your wealth? What is most alluring to you that you count gain? What tempts you most? For what you value or treasure most – that will be your “temptress.”
Is it fame? Reputation? Success? Family? Money? Social status? Peer opinion? Relationship? Safety? Being known and appreciated? Marriage? Obliteration of pain or failure? Accomplishment? Self-image?
What?
Irrespective of what it is that tempts you most, Solomon’s words to his son here are absolutely indispensible in overcoming temptation. Even temptation complicated by hormones, past experiences or individual propensities and circumstances. Solomon outlines his approach in vss. 1-4.
Proverbs 7:1–2 “My son, keep my words and treasure up my commandments with you; keep my commandments and live; keep my teaching as the apple of your eye;”
Here is the “secret” to obedience – that God’s Word is “treasured”, prized and delighted in – not because of the material only, but especially because of Who has written it to us.
We delight in Him and therefore want to know everything He has said.
And when that kind of love is at the bottom of it – we are never in the place of simply carrying out commands, we are indulging ourselves in our highest Love.
Only an entranced love can keep you from the seductions and wiles of the enemy. Nothing else will do.
The apple of the eye is the pupil. It represents both what we prize most – i.e. keep our eye on, but also what we protect most. We protect our eyes at all costs. So we need both to value and protect the Word of God.
2. Proverbs 7:3 “bind them on your fingers; write them on the tablet of your heart.”
The idea is that effort must be expended in order to keep these things of the Spirit embedded in the heart and mind. A mere surface acquaintance will not do. Due to the effects of the Fall on our human constitution, this takes work.
God’s commands must be kept and guarded from loss, and corruption. Loss in ignoring them or not retreating to His Word for them, but inventing our own and guarding in letting people redefine them, including ourselves. We must not either add to them nor subtract.
And how are we to do this? As above, like the reflexive response of batting anything away that comes near the eye. As though this is most sensitive and needs careful protection.
3. Proverbs 7:4 “Say to wisdom, “You are my sister,” and call insight your intimate friend,”
Understanding ourselves, God’s Word and the nature of temptation will find us on our knees, calling out for wisdom and insight and deep intimacy with truth as God knows it. Nothing less than conscious, constant, deliberate dependence upon the indwelling Spirit of Christ as the very Spirit of wisdom Himself.
And in pursuing this – what does Solomon say will be the result? Proverbs 7:5 “to keep you from the forbidden woman, from the adulteress with her smooth words.”
It is to seek Christ and the depths of His finished work on our behalf, and the gift of His Spirit. This Jesus Christ, “in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” (Col. 2:3)
“Let your eyes look directly forward, and your gaze be straight before you. Ponder the path of your feet; then all your ways will be sure. Do not swerve to the right or to the left; turn your foot away from evil.” (Prov. 4:25-27)
When contemplating any course of action, it only makes sense to ask: “Where will this take me? What is the end of what I am contemplating?” In either word or deed.
But of course, this also begs the question of whether or not I am on my way to anywhere at all?
If one were to pursue a career as a lawyer – they would plot out a course that would take them there. The right undergraduate courses in college, and then Law School. Then setting their sights on passing the Bar, and then – only then – the practice of Law itself.
It is the same with anything in life. To be a teacher, a race car driver, an electrician – name it.
But, as the old saying goes, if you aim at nothing, you’ll hit it – too.
Setting a course in the natural is one thing – but how many actually contemplate setting a course toward Heaven?
Do we imagine we will just stumble in there someday? That “being” a Christian is the end game, the goal itself? Do we forget Jesus words: Matthew 7:13–14 (ESV) — “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.”
Nobody just wakes up in Heaven someday and says “whew! I made it.”
Why do so few find it? Why do so few enter in? Because so few are actually looking for it and seeking to enter in.
If you are aiming at entering heaven, keep your eyes on that destination, and make the decisions which coincide with going there. Keep looking for the door of that Great City. Keep your eyes fixed on what you intend to do and be there – and who you are longing to spend eternity with.
No one will get there by accident. Only those who inquire as to The Way – Jesus – and who order their lives to go there to be with Him and the Father.
Where are you headed?
In this case, Siri can’t help you. Only Jesus can. For as He told us: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6)
Where was He going? To the Father. By way of the Cross.
What is the way so we can go too? Through Him. Only through Him.
Matt. 16:24: “Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.”
And by grace, He is still issuing that call today.
No, this isn’t a post about the 1962 hit by Anthony Newley. It is about the existential question the book of Proverbs begs us to consider in nearly every chapter. For the Bible has a LOT to say about being a fool. The first mention of which appears in vs. 7 of chapter 1: “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.”
Newley’s song, co-written with Leslie Bricusse, is a lament about the loneliness, emptiness and self-doubt that plagues a person who never risked the kind of vulnerability that loving another deeply requires.
Proverbs on the other hand, often appeals to the wretched condition of one who never trusted themselves to the revelation of God in His Word, and ends up too in loneliness, emptiness and self-doubt.
Even worse.
Newley’s song never gives an answer as to why he remained that way.
Proverbs does: “Fools despise wisdom and instruction.”
In a nutshell, the Fool, is the one who takes the very notion of God lightly (the idea behind the word “despise” here), and takes true wisdom and instruction lightly. He or she does not know that one cannot understand the universe and the meaning of human life, apart from fearing the God who made it all.
If He is not in His rightful place in our thoughts, we can know nothing of the truth, only uncontextualized facts.
Fools do not want a sovereign God.
An untamable God.
A demanding God.
A holy God.
A judging God.
A God with absolute rights.
A God who is to be feared on any level.
One who imposes Himself in any aspect of life – and who cannot be quantified and harnessed to their own wills.
This is what makes a fool.
The Fool wants fantasy above reality.
I pray this is not you.
Flee to Him today.
Own the self-evident reality of this God. Believe the Gospel and be saved. For this God, so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, so that all who believe in Him would not die, lost as they are, but have everlasting life.
Only a fool, would refuse the obvious and heralded truth.
About 20 years ago, I had the joy of teaching some classes in a Christian school on Worldview. I really had fun. Along with my classes – which were mostly seniors – I got to speak in chapel from time to time to the entire student body. One of those times was especially memorable to me.
I chose as my topic for that chapel, how to “Cult-proof” yourself. Five things which if you stick to, will keep one from being sucked into actual cults (i.e. Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormonism, Children of God, etc.); cultish or cult like Christian Churches or ministries; and all false religions to boot.
A pretty high claim I know. But I still stand by it.
What were those 5 things? The simple and so-called “Five Solas” of the Reformation. I didn’t invent them. But they have stood the test of time, and are as relevant now as ever. Maybe more so in an age of the wild proliferation of religious sects, and organizations like NXIVM, Scientology, Multi-level-marketing schemes, extreme breast-feeding (yes, it’s a real thing), separatists and Preppers, on and on.
1 – Sola Scriptura: Standing on the Word of God as the final authority in all matters of life and faith, especially in opposition to dreams, visions, experiences teachings and writings as located in one’s self, or another’s person or personality.
Sola Scriptura does not mean we ignore Church history, nor the teachers and preachers God has gifted His Church with throughout the ages. But it does mean we sift everything through the careful, systematic sieve of the Bible’s teaching. That we and those we listen to are held to the scrutiny of sound principles of Biblical interpretation. Requiring that doctrines and teachings are neither contrary to “the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.” (Jude 3) Note – already in place by the closing of the New Testament canon; nor invented out of whole cloth, privately interpreted or dependent upon wild or unique applications of obscure passages.
All those claiming to have some new or secret revelation are to be dismissed out of hand. “To the teaching and to the testimony! If they will not speak according to this word, it is because they have no dawn.” (Isa. 8:20)
It is in the Scriptures alone, that we find that we are saved by –
2 – Sola Gratia – grace alone.
Every false group, EVERY false group, no matter how seemingly orthodox, will make salvation and reconciliation to God, dependent in some way on receiving their unique teaching or brand and some form of human merit as prescribed by them. Performance in their eyes. Not the reception of free grace. Do this, don’t do that, in order to make yourself worthy as they imagine it.
Run! You can do NOTHING to make yourself worthy of salvation in the least bit. As Luther once said, we bring absolutely nothing to the table but the sin that makes our salvation necessary. Salvation has nothing to do with our worthiness, but of Christ’s. He saves the unworthy. Only the unworthy. When we inject any personal worthiness into the equation – we either say that Jesus’ righteousness imputed to us is not enough, or that we can somehow do something He couldn’t. It is a lie. Eph. 2:8-9 “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”
3 – Sola Fide – by Faith alone. The Bible also teaches us that salvation and right standing with God is received by faith alone, apart from any human effort. We always receive it as opposed to making it happen. We can never do enough. But every aberrant group will have you jumping through hoops – and never answering the question “how much is enough?”
As the passage just quoted says – “by grace you have been saved through faith.” Believing what God has said in His Word is true, and obeying the Gospel by believing and resting upon Christ and His finished work on our behalf. When those in John 6 asked Jesus what they must be doing to do the works of God – He answered: “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent.”
On the “mount of transfiguration”, the voice of the Father was heard as Jesus stood with Moses (representative of the Old Testament Law) and Elijah (representative of the Old Testament prophets), the text says: “He was still speaking when, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.” (Matt. 17:5) He is the fulfillment of all the Law and the Prophets, so that Paul can write: “Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith.” Phil. 3:8-9.
4 – Solus Christus – We are saved by Christ alone. We are not saved by a doctrine, a creed, nor an association with any group or person other than being found in Christ by faith. He alone saves us from the wrath to come on all human sin.
He is the one who died in the place of sinners. He alone atoned for human sin. He alone was God incarnate. He alone fulfilled all the Law required. He alone fulfilled the Scriptures. He alone died, was buried, rose again and stands at the right hand of the Father on high. He alone has the power to forgive sins. He alone will come to mete out final judgment on those who remain in their rebellion against Him, and reward the saints who have put their trust in Him. He alone will raise us from the dead.
5 – Soli Deo Gloria – All of this is to the glory of God alone.
Nothing was more important to Christ Jesus than that the cosmos would come to honor, love and revere the Father as He did. So it is when teaching us to pray, the first thing on His mind is that we seek that His name be hallowed, be restored to its rightful place. God has done all things for His own glory.
And what is this glory? Is it some sort of divine ego trip? No! God can bless us with nothing greater than revelations of Himself – for He is the source of all goodness, beauty, justice, glory, sweetness, wonder, pleasure and holiness. He can give us nothing higher than Himself. And all He needs to be glorified, is to be revealed. And where is He best revealed? “For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” 2 Cor. 4:6.
After the chapel where I shared this, a young man, dressed in all black, complete with a full-length leather coat and stegosaurus spiked hair came up to me, holding up his hand with the five fingers splayed said “Cool!” He had written one sola on each finger in permanent marker. Then, make up and all he said: “I’ll bet you sing hymns in your church, don’t you.” I said yes. And he said: “I wish they did at my church.” Then he turned and walked away. He was so hungry. But he was not being fed this kind of truth in his home Church.
We’ve been examining the Lord’s Prayer of Matthew 6, under the picture of tuning a six stringed instrument – the heart. And we’ve seen how these all resonate with one another so that the whole man is brought into harmony with God’s glorious nature, plans and purposes. Nothing is of greater use in this regard. It is the epitome of being “godly minded”. As Romans 8:6 tells us – “to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.” This is the most wonderful means of setting the mind on the Spirit, leading to life and peace.
In this last installment – let me play off of the tuning metaphor just a bit more. For at the very beginning of the prayer are 2 words, that act (if you will) as the two prongs of the tuning fork to serve as our key reference point. 2 words of such power, grace and wonder, that sometimes, having prayed just these – one has prayed astonishingly: “Our Father.”
Our Father.
Can there be anything more amazing to the Believer (and make no mistake, these words can only be uttered in truth by one who has been born again by the power of the Spirit) than these two realities in framing prayer?
First, “Our.”
As you’ve no doubt noted, every pronoun but those specific to the Father in this prayer is in the plural. Our, Father, not just “my” Father. Give “us” this day. Forgive “us” our debts as “we” forgive. Lead “us” not into temptation. Deliver “us” from evil.
Prayer is never a wholly solitary thing, because we have been joined together with all those in Christ by faith into one body. We are a mystically unified whole. I cannot sin without it impacting the whole, nor can you. And I cannot pray or grow in Christ’s likeness without it impacting the whole. We are part of one another, and what affects and impacts us singly, reverberates throughout. It is why we pray with one another in mind: Romans 12:5 “so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.”
When we pray these things beloved, we are entering into ministry to all our brothers and sisters in Christ. Never alone. This is a most sweet and wonderful reality. It will change all of your praying forever.
But secondly in this first word, is not only that we are one with each other in Christ – the “our” here includes Jesus Himself! Think on this for a moment. By virtue of the new birth, and the wonder of adoption into the family of God, Jesus teaches us to pray “Our Father” – His and mine. His and yours. His and ours. We pray as true children of the living God, with as much right of access and guaranteed as much a hearing as the very Son of God Himself.
Prayer isn’t some mere earthly religious activity – it is cosmic glory!
O that we could just soak in that for a while, but I must press to finish.
The second prong of the tuning fork then, as already hinted at is bound up in the word “Father.”
Our – Father.
There is no need to heap up multiple adjectives to try and butter up a distant deity. In Romans 8, Paul tells us that we have been given the Spirit of sonship. Romans 8:12–21 “So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ.”
When we pray, we come to a loving, gentle, kind, merciful, patient, perfect Father. Creator God indeed, but also our true Father.
As Sinclair Ferguson writes in his book “The Holy Spirit”: “The fact is that the Christian’s own spirit does display an awareness of sonship, as the rest of the New Testament makes clear (e.g. 1 Jn. 3:1ff.), amazing though this is. The problem is that this awareness is often weakened, and God’s children may even find themselves doubting their gracious status and privileges. What Paul is saying, however, is that even in the darkest hour there is a co-operative and affirmative testimony given by the Spirit. It is found in the very fact that, although he may be broken and bruised, tossed about with fears and doubts, the child of God nevertheless in his need cries out, ‘Father!’ as instinctively as a child who has fallen and been hurt calls out in similar language, ‘Daddy, help me!’ Assurance of sonship is not reserved for the highly sanctified Christian; it is the birthright of even the weakest and most oppressed believer. This is its glory.”
Our, Father.
This is the bedrock of all true prayer. Children coming to the one they know loves them best, who cannot err in judgement, who binds up all their wounds, who gave His own Son to die in their place that He might purchase them back from their slavery to sin, whose compassion and patience and love are beyond all knowing.
Just sit and meditate on those two words for a minute or two before seeking Him for anything else, and see if your heart is not melted, and if you are not assured that He already knows you deepest cares and concerns – and has designed to meet them with infallible wisdom and in perfect time.
If, as a true believer, the only thing you can gasp out is “Our Father” – you have prayed well, in that you have looked to Him and trusted Him with all, in true relationship – because of Christ.
The Lord’s Prayer. It is no mere side-note that Jesus includes this section in His “sermon on the mount.” The entire sermon is built around the essentials, the foundations of The Kingdom. We could outline it one way like this:
1 – 5:1-12 / The Citizens of the Kingdom – Blessed
2 – 5:13-16 / The Role of the Citizens of the Kingdom in this present age – Salt and Light
3 – 5:17-48 / The Character of the Kingdom and its Citizens – The Righteousness of God (not their own)
4 – 6:1-24 / The Life of Service in the Kingdom – Living unto the Father, not men
Alms / Fasting / Prayer / Treasure in Heaven
5 – 6:25-34 / The Sufficiency of the Kingdom – Delivered from the anxiety of this present age
6 – 7: 1-5 / The Humility of the Kingdom – Uncritically, Brother with brother
7 – 7:6 / The Otherness of the Kingdom – Preciousness and Contrariness
8 – 7:7-12 / The Privilege of the Kingdom – Access to the Father
9 – 7:13, 14 / The Entrance to the Kingdom – The Narrow Way & Gate – Christ
10 – 7:15-27 / The Integrity of the Kingdom – Doers and Hearers
Prayer then is an integral and necessary part of living the Christian life as unto God – while in the World. We are to be people of compassion regarding the needs of those around us (alms); seeking the Lord in our being burdened over sin’s destructive impact, and exercising the self-control of The Spirit (fasting); and bringing the whole of our hearts and minds into harmony with the purposes and plans of God – prayer.
And in fleshing out a fully orbed prayer life, we consider the greatest of cosmic needs – the restoration of the Father’s name and dignity; the desire for His rule and reign in Christ over all to be manifest; His will to be done as the sweetest of all possible outcomes; utter dependency upon Him; continual cleansing from the defilements of sin so as to maintain the closest, unimpeded fellowship with Him and others in our own forgiveness; and seeking to be led only in paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.
It is this last petition we consider today: “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.”
While some have read this as a guard against the possibility that He might lead us into sin if we do not pray so – that is certainly not the thought here. We know this due to passages like James 1:13 “Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one.”
What then is this petition about? It is about mistrust of self. Of recognizing that we are weak, and that we stumble so easily into sin, that we need His constant watchfulness and deliverance, or we will be given over to our sins in a moment. For as Proverbs 21:2 reminds us – “Every way of a man is right in his own eyes.”
Even Believers tend to trust our own impulses and judgments. We seldom are very thoughtful in examining our own motives and perspectives. We tend to always give ourselves the benefit of the doubt. The benefit we tend to deny others.
Unfortunately, in present day American Evangelicalism, the “God wants you to achieve your dreams” mentality has crept in so that He has almost become an assistant to us, and not we His servants. If I have a dream, a desire, an aspiration, it is automatically baptized as good and right, and it is only fitting that God should help me get there. Whether or not that dream is best for me, more – best for His Kingdom, plans and purposes – seems at best, incidental. What it might have to do with conforming me to the image of Christ is not even considered.
But here, at the end of this majestic and glorious way of praying, Christ enjoins us to stop and consider our weaknesses, shortsightedness and sin-impacted reasoning. To submit all to Him that we might walk only in what is in perfect harmony with His own righteousness. To come again to the foot of the Cross, boasting in nothing but His mercy and grace, and recognizing the tendency so aptly put in the 3rd stanza of Come Thou Fount:
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it;
Prone to leave the God I love:
Take my heart, oh, take and seal it
With Thy Spirit from above.
Rescued thus from sin and danger,
Purchased by the Savior’s blood,
May I walk on earth a stranger,
As a son and heir of God.
For we are never more in tune with our God, than when we live in the reality of: “Nothing in my hands I bring; simply to thy cross I cling.”
From: Matthew 6:12 “and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.” and 6:14–15 “For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.”
Forgiveness isn’t a simple matter.
No one who has ever been truly hurt by another or betrayed knows this well. Hurts remain. Sometimes they are but bruises which heal in time, and sometimes they are deep wounds which leave big, ugly scars. How do we forgive the unrepentant? DO we forgive the unrepentant? What do either of those look like? Does forgiveness remove all personal responsibility? Does forgiveness mean we just ignore the past? Does forgiveness mean we extend unexamined trust in the future?
Like I said, forgiveness isn’t a simple matter.
All that needs to be said about forgiveness isn’t unpacked in these few verses either. But what is here, we need to consider carefully. Because as Jesus’ words indicate, for the Believer, our experiences of forgiveness and of being forgiven are tied together in some capacity.
Let’s consider some of the implications laid out for us here.
1 – Note first in context, that this need for forgiveness of others is directly connected to being led out of temptation.
The petition to be spared from temptation in vs. 13 comes directly on the heels of asking for forgiveness. That’s not an accident.
I don’t know about you, but if there is any place where I am weak and fall so easily into temptation, it is in the area of letting offenses go – of forgiving others.
If the truth be told, many of us like to hold on to our grievances. We want to stay hurt – and to hold something against those who sin against us. In our twisted sinfulness, it gives us a perverse sense of power over the other. They hurt us and we had no power to defend ourselves – so we’ll hang on to their guilt and not let them off the hook for anything.
It makes no sense. Our lack of forgiving them doesn’t actually hurt them back. It doesn’t even the score. It just makes us miserable and bitter. But it deceives us into thinking we have some sort of power over those who injured us. It is a lie.
And what comes along with our unforgiveness is this: Nothing kills the true spirit of prayer more than a hard heart toward others while we are seeking God’s tenderheartedness toward us. Such is the heart of hypocrisy.
As J.C. Ryle noted so rightly on this point: “The plain object of it is, to remind us that we must not expect our prayers for forgiveness to be heard, if we pray with malice and spite in our hearts towards others. To pray in such a frame of mind is mere formality and hypocrisy. It is even worse than hypocrisy. It is as much as saying, “Do not forgive me at all.” Our prayer is nothing without charity. We must not expect to be forgiven, if we cannot forgive.” (Ryle’s Expository Thoughts on Matthew, 6:9-15)
How often, we’d rather hang on to our hurt than be disabused of our hypocrisy. We’d rather muse on their sins against us, than wonder at the glory of our sins forgiven in Christ. We’d rather lick our wounds, than feast at the table of His abundant grace.
Stupid. But then, sin always is.
2 – Second, law cannot forgive, law can only mete out justice.
At times the law may pardon, but it cannot forgive, because forgiveness is personal. Jesus is calling us to forgiveness, not just pardon.
In a pardon, the perpetrator walks free, but there is no concern for personal reconciliation. You go your way and I’ll go mine, and never the twain shall meet.
Now don’t get me wrong, sometimes true reconciliation can’t be accomplished. Rom. 9 calls us to live at peace with others, as much as it depends upon us. But some do not want to live at peace with us. So be it. We’re not responsible for how others respond. But there is always a desire in the heart of the Believer that a true peace between us can be reached, even if there are extenuating circumstances which will not allow for things to go back the way they were. An abandoning spouse who goes and marries another, can never return to the one they left at first. But there can be peace between them.
3 – Forgiveness is not forgetfulness.
This is so often misconstrued by absolutizing a verse like Isaiah 43:25 ““I, I am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins” – as though God is possessed of some form of divine amnesia.
We know that isn’t what the passage is saying, when we consider that it is part of a pronouncement where God is recounting Israel’s sins! The sins of many of the saints fill the pages of Scripture.
The idea here is that in reconciliation, He no longer remembers our past sins against us. That He remits His right of recompense. For He was recompensed for our sins, fully, in Jesus.
Two parties may pardon one another but still not be reconciled. But in forgiveness, personal reconciliation is the goal. And in absolute justice, a declaration of innocence is indispensable.
In Christ, all of these are met. He takes our sin and we His righteousness. The Father personally forgives. In His sovereign authority He pardons. And in grace He imputes righteousness that we may be rewarded.
3 – Third, we must be aware that God does not forgive at the expense of justice, and thus He does not require us to do more than that and forgive without regard to justice either. When He forgives, He does so on the basis of the atonement made in Christ where justice is meted out in full.
So it is, when we forgive, we give up our right to prosecute the matter on our own behalf, surrendering the justice needed into the hands of the Father. We do not deny justice altogether but willingly suffer a particular loss in treating the individual as no longer an offender, while committing justice into the Father’s hands.
Yet, while forgiving sets aside any personal vengeance, it does not ignore what might be needed in loving our neighbors as ourselves and protecting them, and, if needed, getting the authorities involved.
Forgiveness only has reference to my right and requirement to be made whole in the aftermath of being sinned against. But I cannot forgive for others. I have no right to leave my neighbor in danger if the perpetrator I’ve forgiven is still at large and still poses a danger to them. My love for my neighbor requires I act in their best interest.
4 – Fourth, note too as above, that some offenses are purely personal – and others have several dimensions to to them.
Some offenses cross over into crimes and are sins against the State or others as well. I have no right to usurp the State’s, nor anyone else’s authority and forgive on either’s behalf. The offender may well still need to face that reality beyond my sphere of forgiveness.
Overstating forgiveness is as dangerous as understating it.
I must forgive when it is in my power and within my sphere, but I cannot and must not usurp that issue on behalf of any other entity. I can only forgive for myself alone. And I do so, committing it all to the Father’s just disposal.
On the cross, Jesus can forgive His tormentors for Himself, but note how He prays that the Father would forgive them. For He cannot overstep in the issue of His Father’s offense. This, He appeals to the Father for. And when we forgive, we do well to follow suit. We too can pray – “Father, lay nothing to the charge of their account on my behalf.” How He may deal otherwise is up to Him.
5 – Fifth, note too how Jesus cannot and will not usurp the Spirit’s own sphere and pretend to forgive blasphemy against Him.
The unpardonable sin as it is called – is against the Holy Spirit. And Jesus simply says it will not be forgiven. Ever. He does not say it cannot, but that it will not. God refuses.
6 – Lastly, note how there is a difference between forgiveness in restoring relationship, vs. simple offenses from strangers where there is no relationship to restore. And how it is Christ does all of this in regard to our sins against Him. For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
We must always remember that Believers forgive out of the boundless ocean of the forgiveness we have received in Christ.
Ps. 103:8-14 “The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. He will not always chide, nor will he keep his anger forever. He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us. As a father shows compassion to his children, so the LORD shows compassion to those who fear him. For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust.”
ResponsiveReiding 