Category: Theology

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Bible Study Theology

The importance of meditating on Christ’s return

Recently I was involved in a special prayer meeting for a church in Asia that is being persecuted.  As we prayed together, the Spirit brought to my mind the following passage from 1 Thessalonians, and the importance of actively maintaining in the forefront of our minds the hope of Christ’s return.  Frequent meditation on Christ’s return will encourage and strengthen us as we face persecution and difficulty in this world.  

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18

But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope.  14 For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep.  15 For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep.  16 For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God.  And the dead in Christ will rise first.  17 Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.  18 Therefore encourage one another with these words.

When we fail to meditate on these details of Christ’s return, we are missing out on a very important source of encouragement that God has designed for us.  Paul says that we are to “encourage one another with these words.”  

In the next chapter, he says the same thing:  “Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing” (I Thessalonians 5:11).  This second reminder to encourage one another, just like the first, follows a description of the details that will surround Christ’s return to earth.  

I Thessalonians 5:1-10

“Now concerning the times and the seasons, brothers, you have no need to have anything written to you.  2 For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.  3 While people are saying, ‘There is peace and security’, then sudden destruction will come upon them as labour pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.  4 But you are not in darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief.  5 For you are all children of light, children of the day.  We are not of the night or of the darkness. 6 So then let us not sleep, as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober.  7 For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, are drunk at night.  8 But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation.  9 For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, 10 who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with him.  11 Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.

Consider the tremendous power these truths have to encourage us as God’s people.  When we face persecution and difficulty during our lives, even if that difficulty is for an extended period of time (perhaps even for our whole lives), meditating on the truth that Jesus is coming back and will eternally reign as king over a perfect and sinless new earth will give us a different perspective on our circumstances.  What is a year of suffering? or ten years?  or a lifetime? in comparison to what Jesus has prepared for us in eternity?

Or taken from another perspective, meditating on Christ’s return will encourage us not to be slothful and lazy during those times when we are not facing difficulty or persecution.  As verse 6 says, “let us not sleep, as others do, but let us keep awake and sober.”  What regret we will experience at the return of Christ if we have not busied ourselves with the Lord’s work as we wait for him to come.  We will be like the servant who had nothing to show for the talent that had been entrusted to him in his master’s absence.  (For a sobering thought, read the consequences this servant suffered in Matthew 25:30)

So given the power that these truths have to encourage us, over the next several days, I want to meditate on what the Scriptures teach about the return of Christ.

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Bible Study Theology Uncategorized

The cross’ power to sanctify

The thought came to me today that perhaps the primary way that Jesus’ cross saves us from the power of indwelling sin is that the cross releases from our fruitless attempts to establish our own righteousness.

When we have sinned, our natural, sinful, tendency is to seek to “do better next time.”  We want to put our failure behind us and show that we can do better.  And we may actually do better to some degree, but we are still bound by sin because it is impossible for us to do better to the infinite degree that is required by God’s absolute holiness.  Only when we come to the cross of Jesus for forgiveness of our sin and receive the free gift of his righteousness can we receive the absolute and infinte righteousness that God requires of us.  

I Corinthians 15:56 says that “the power of sin is the law.”  When we are set free from the attempt to justify ourselves by keeping the law, we are set free from the power of sin.

Romans 8:1-4 says the same thing:

There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, for the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.  For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do.  By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

By the cross of Jesus we are set free in a way that the law could not set us free.  The righteous requirement of the law is fulfilled in us through our union with Christ in his death and resurrection by the Holy Spirit.  When we seek to establish our own righteousness, we are only confirming ourselves in our sin, but when we turn from our own self-righteousness to Jesus and his righteousness, we are set free from the vicious, fruitless cycle of trying to “do better next time”.  

Interestingly, just after having this thought in my devotional time, I read the following quote from www.firstimportance.org:  

“The only people who get better are people who know that, if they never get better, God will love them anyway.”

—Steve Brown, A Scandalous Freedom (West Monroe, LA: Howard Books, 2004), 68-69

The quote doesn’t state the basis of the assertion, but the basis is the cross of Jesus.  God loves us because of the cross of Jesus and his imputed righteousness.  

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Bible Study Theology

James 1:12-15 The Nature of Temptation

Here’s a difficult question that’s worth thinking about:   What is the difference between the temptation that Jesus experienced and the temptation that we experience?  A good answer to this question will help us deal with the temptation that we experience.  Here are some of the biblical texts that we must consider in order to think this through:

Hebrews 4:14-16

14 Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. 15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. 16 Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

Matthew 4:1-11

Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2 And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. 3 And the tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” 4 But he answered, “It is written,

“‘Man shall not live by bread alone,
but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”

5 Then the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple 6 and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written,

“‘He will command his angels concerning you,’

and

“‘On their hands they will bear you up,
lest you strike your foot against a stone.’”

7 Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’” 8 Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. 9 And he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” 10 Then Jesus said to him, “Be gone, Satan! For it is written,

“‘You shall worship the Lord your God
and him only shall you serve.’”

11 Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and were ministering to him.

James 1:12-15

12 Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him. 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. 14 But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire.  15 Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.

Here are some of the questions that make this issue difficult.  

1) Jesus was clearly tempted by Satan, and it was a real temptation.  The Hebrews passage makes this crystal clear.   But Jesus is God and the James passage says that God cannot be tempted by evil.  How can those two passages be reconciled?

2) The James passage says that each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Some versions, like the NIV and KJV translate “desire” with “evil desire” or “lust” (respectively).  The word in Greek is epithymia and almost always refers to evil desires, so these translations are accurate.  But Jesus, being sinless, would have had no evil, lustful desires luring him and enticing him.  Does James then point at a kind of temptation that affects us, but that did not affect Christ.  If so, how can this be reconciled with the Hebrews passage that says that Jesus was tempted in every respect… as we are?

Please note that I am not trying to pit any one scripture against the other.   I am trying to look at what God is telling us in these diverse passages to get at a more complete understanding of what temptation is and how Jesus, our great high priest, is able to help us with it.

I have some thoughts on this that I want to share in a future post, but I thought it would be interesting to pose the question first to see if anyone who may come across this blog would have some thoughts.  Feel free to leave comments.  Note that I must approve the comments before they will appear.  Our family is currently in the middle of a big move, so I may not get back to this right away.