Epistle for May 26, 2024 Trinity Sunday

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
Romans 8:12-17
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

This passage explores the dynamic nature of God in relationship with human beings.

Paul begins with a reminder of human nature — that:

For if you live after the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

This conflict between flesh and Spirit requires some unpacking.

The flesh is the corrupt and corruptible aspect of human character.  Paul is not a dualist who believes that the material world is by nature evil and the spiritual realm alone is good. Rather, the flesh is the craving, selfish heart turned in upon itself.  Just a few sentences prior to our passage, Paul writes that:

 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.  For the mind of the flesh is death, but the mind of the Spirit is life and peace (Romans 8:5-6).

So what he’s exploring here is how the Spirit moves the believer from death to life; from slaves of their fleshly nature to children of God.  The answer, he believes, is to:

 put to death the deeds of the body.

The dilemma is that the sinner cannot do that for him/herself.  The execution of sin can only be accomplished vicariously through Christ:

For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus made me free from the law of sin and of death. For what the law couldn’t do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God did, sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh; that the ordinance of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit (Romans 8:2-4).

And how do human beings appropriate what God has done for them by Christ’s vicarious death on their behalf?  This is where the entire dynamic nature of God is revealed in relationship within God and with human beings.

God’s Spirit testifies with the spirits of those who have been adopted by God for the sake of his Son, and the Spirit declares that they are no longer slaves of sin and death, but now are children of God.  Now these children of God can also declare that God is their Father — their Abba.  Some scholars believe that this Aramaic word is intended to express an intimacy between Father and child, like the child calling God “Daddy!”

So, once these children of God are “adopted” into the family of God, they now enjoy all of the privileges of an heir.  In fact, they are co-heirs with Christ:

The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God; and if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ; if indeed we suffer with him, that we may also be glorified with him.

APPLY:  

These few verses pack a huge wallop!  They tell us about our status as children of God and much, much more — that God is for us in ways that we can’t even begin to comprehend.

What becomes increasingly clear is that the doctrine of the Trinity is far more than a theological construct, or an abstract notion.  The Triune God certainly exists within a unity that is experienced as diversity, One God in Three Persons.  But it is also very true that each Person of the Triune God is dynamically involved in the salvation and restoration not only of human beings but of creation itself!

God the Father sends forth his only begotten Son, the Second Person of the Trinity, as the perfect Man who lives the perfect, sin-free life. This God-Man condescends to our level as humbly as is possible — being made man, and even becoming sin on the cross for our sake (2 Corinthians 5:21); and then re-ascends to the very highest place, even at the right hand of the Father.  And because he has identified with our fleshly nature, he has restored God’s image in us and raised us up with him.  We are adopted as his own brothers and sisters, and therefore become heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ. 

That means that whatever Christ inherits, we inherit.  This is also illustrated in Ephesians 2:4-7:

But God, being rich in mercy, for his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with him, and made us to sit with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,  that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

In other words, whatever Christ inherits we inherit — eternal life, a throne alongside him, and the incomparable riches of grace!  Incredible!

And how is all of this activated?  Obviously, we are taught deeply by Paul, again and again:

for by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God (Ephesians 2:8).

But we know this because of the Spirit of God, the Third Person of the Trinity:

• The Holy Spirit puts to death the sinful nature in us, which we experience through repentance.
• The Holy Spirit breathes the gift of faith.
• The Holy Spirit enables us to be adopted as children of God.
• The Holy Spirit whispers in our spirits that we are children of God and are made bold enough to cry out “Abba, Father.”

The one thing that may give us pause is that one phrase included in this passage:

if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ; if indeed we suffer with him, that we may also be glorified with him.

We certainly like the first part!  But the second part, about sharing in his sufferings?  Ouch.  Not so much.

Maybe Dietrich Bonhoeffer can help us understand this a little better:

To endure the cross is not a tragedy; it is the suffering which is the fruit of an exclusive allegiance to Jesus Christ . . . The cross means sharing the suffering of Christ to the last and to the fullest. Only a man (or woman) totally committed to discipleship can experience the meaning of the cross. . . Jesus says that every Christian has his (or her) own cross waiting for him, a cross destined and appointed by God. Each must endure his allotted share of suffering and rejection. But each has a different share: some God deems worthy of the highest form of suffering, and gives them the grace of martyrdom, while others he does not allow to be tempted above what they are able to bear.   But it is one and the same cross in every case (The Cost of Discipleship, pp. 78,79).

When we identify so fully with the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ our Lord by placing our faith in him completely, then we vicariously suffer with him and are raised with him.  As Paul says in Galatians 2:20

I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I that live, but Christ living in me. That life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself up for me.

And only God can accomplish that in us!

RESPOND: 

Years ago, I happened to preach on this doctrine that all Christians are adopted into the family of God because of our faith in Jesus Christ.  Jesus is the only “natural” child of the Father, based on our understanding of the Trinity.  He is the “only begotten Son of the Father.”

But because of what he has done in his life, death and resurrection, Jesus has introduced us to the Father as his adopted brothers and sisters.  Whatever he gets from the Father, we also will get, because the Father shows no partiality between his children.

After I had finished the sermon, and said the benediction, a woman who was visiting the church that Sunday made a bee-line to me.  At first I thought I was in trouble.  But she told me that she was visiting with a family member, and she had her two adopted daughters with her.

These girls, as adopted children sometimes do, had been going through an identity crisis.  They wondered about their biological parents, and why they hadn’t been kept by them.  And somehow the sermon had spoken right to their feelings.

Some years later, I came across a testimonial from a retired pastor who said that he and his wife had a few kids of their own by birth, and a few by adoption, “but we can’t remember which is which.”

Father, I thank you that I have been adopted into your holy family for the sake of Jesus your Son.  For all that he has endured for me in order to accomplish this, I am truly humbled and amazed; empower me, through your Holy Spirit, to live as your child in this world.  Amen. 

 PHOTOS:
“Hold me Daddy” by Matthew Miller is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic license.
Matthew Miller says this about his pencil drawing “Hold me Daddy”:
“This picture was inspired by a little girl being held by her dad in front of me at church. She just looked so content and safe in her daddy's arms that began thinking of my heavenly Father.”

Epistle for May 5, 2024

Unlike Spock’s Prime Directive — our Prime Directive as Christians is to intervene in the world with faith and love.

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
1 John 5:1-6
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

John continues his fugue-like exploration of various concepts. He explores the following relationships between:

• The Father and Jesus.
• Jesus and the believer.
• Love and knowledge.
• Love and law.
• The new birth and victory over the world, and the victory of faith.

There is a kind of chain of cause and effect in this passage that builds to a clear and dynamic climax.

He begins with the central faith of the Christian:

Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God. Whoever loves the Father also loves the child who is born of him.

This is a reminder of the unique relationship between the Father and Jesus as the only-begotten Son of God.  But because of faith, the Christian also is born of God, because he/she believes that Jesus is the Christ.  John is not leaving open any room for denying the Godhead of Christ.

The next link in the chain of this cause and effect is the vertical relationship between the believer and the children of God:

 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep his commandments.

And if we’ve learned anything from 1 John, the primary command of God is love:

God is love, and he who remains in love remains in God, and God remains in him. (1 John 4:16).

The third link is that the command isn’t burdensome:

For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world: your faith.

Again, we return to the fugue — faith is reintroduced as the “means of grace” for those who are born of God.

And by faith the child of God has overcome the world, which is a reminder of the language of Jesus in John 16:33:

 I have told you these things, that in me you may have peace. In the world you have oppression; but cheer up! I have overcome the world.

The world that must be overcome is the current culture of sin and defiance against God, the darkness of this present age.  This was a common understanding of the early church, that the world was in rebellion against God and that Christians were in some sense at war with the world — not violently, but through love and faith.  They are called to be spiritual warriors.

Paul uses the same kind of language when he describes the Christian as a non-conformist, and Christians as a people who are “strangers” in this world. See Romans 12:2:

Don’t be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what is the good, well-pleasing, and perfect will of God.

And also see Ephesians 6:12:

 For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world’s rulers of the darkness of this age, and against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.

The faith that overcomes the world has a clearly defined substance and content.  John makes this clear when he answers his own question:

Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

Finally, John confirms yet again the divine origin of Jesus, and alludes to the work of the Spirit that is also such a key part of the Gospel of John, especially from chapters 14 to 16.  Here he says:

It is the Spirit who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth.

But what exactly does John mean when he says, just before his reference to the testimony of the Spirit:

This is he who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ; not with the water only, but with the water and the blood.

The blood seems an obvious reference to Christ’s death on the cross — but the water?  Is he referring there to the water of baptism, or, as some commentators suggest, to the waters of biological life and procreation?  Or is it a reference to the moment recorded only in John’s Gospel when:

 one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out (John 19:34).

I confess I’m not sure of the answer.

What is clear is that for 1 John, Jesus’ identity as Son of God, and the faith of those who confess that Jesus is the Son of God, results in love, knowledge of God, and victory over the entrapments of this world.

APPLY:  

The rather lengthy Observe (above), can be easily applied to our lives.  If we believe that Jesus is the Son of God, then we are born of God and we are given the power to love the children of God and to overcome the temptations and trials of our current culture.

Ah, but there’s the rub!  How do we know that we are the children of God who are born from above?

By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep his commandments.

Faith and love and obedience to God’s commands are all interwoven with one another.

There is a positive and a negative aspect to this.  The positive is the energy that is given to us from God to love as he loves.  The negative of this is the frank admission that this world is corrupt and corrupting, and is something to be overcome.  And we overcome through faith and love.

RESPOND: 

I remember watching Star Trek years ago when the star travelers on the USS Enterprise spoke of the “Prime Directive.”  It was simple — don’t interfere with the alien life that may be encountered, but allow that life to develop as naturally as possible without outside contamination.

Well, we Christians have a “prime directive,” but not at all like that.  We are to interfere with the culture in which we find ourselves, and overcome it in our own lives through faith and love.  And we are also commanded to invade it, to subvert it, to overcome it by making disciples of all nations.

My own efforts in more than 38 years of ministry have been paltry, meager and insufficient.  But if the Gospel is true, at least I’ve been on the right side! The side that will ultimately prevail over the powers of this dark world.

Our Lord, renew my faith and remind me that through Christ I am born again from above.  Through your Spirit, empower me to overcome the world through faith and love.  Amen. 

PHOTOS:
“Spock – The Last Voyage”  by Daniel Arrhakis is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Generic license.

Epistle for April 14, 2024

 

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
1 John 3:1-7
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

There are two key words that continue to appear in the lovely epistle of First John — love and knowledge.

Love appears in 1 John 27 times, second in the New Testament only to the Gospel of John (39). No surprise there, since we are pretty sure the same Apostle John wrote both documents.

Know appears 32 times, which is only behind two other New Testament epistles (1 Corinthians has 37; Romans has 34). Although the usage of the word know is in close company with Matthew (33) and Luke (39), all of them trail behind the Gospel of John (83) and Acts (50).

This quick, superficial and non-scholarly overview is intended to illustrate the central themes in 1 John:

• Love is the essence of God’s character, and therefore the Christian character.
• A relationship with God is grounded in a sense of assurance (i.e., knowledge).

The knowledge of which John writes is not the “secret knowledge” of the Gnostics, nor is it a knowledge reserved only for the intellectual.  This knowledge ultimately comes from love as well!

So what does this love do?  Because of the Father’s love, Christians are called children of God.  This is a terrific honor.  John’s Gospel makes clear that Jesus is uniquely related to God the Father:

The Word became flesh, and lived among us. We saw his glory, such glory as of the one and only Son of the Father, full of grace and truth (emphasis added).

Moreover, God’s children will be transformed into the likeness of Christ when he appears at the end of the age. This is a gift that results from the love that the Father lavishes on them. And when Christ appears, God’s children will know him fully and be transformed into his likeness:

But we know that, when he is revealed, we will be like him; for we will see him just as he is.

Along with this promise comes a moral demand:

Everyone who has this hope set on him purifies himself, even as he is pure.

In other words, the child of God is to be purified as Christ himself is inherently pure.

Note that this purification is not the prerequisite to the Father’s love, it is the result of that love.  That is a significant difference.

John stays with this ethical concern for a moment, touching on the issue of sin.  He offers his diagnosis that sin is the violation of a known law.  However, he also offers the antidote to sin. He says that Christ:

was revealed to take away our sins, and in him is no sin.

John also corroborates both Paul and the writer of Hebrews in describing the sinless character of Jesus:

in him is no sin.

We should note that this is radically different from the character of every other human being.  John has made that clear in 1 John 1:8:

If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

Jesus is uniquely without sin by his very nature; all other human beings have sinned, and are delivered from their sin by him.

This is where the mind begins to reel a bit, when John makes the audacious claim:

Whoever remains in him doesn’t sin. Whoever sins hasn’t seen him and doesn’t know him.

John further warns his readers not to be led astray:

Little children, let no one lead you astray. He who does righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous.

APPLY:  

This excerpt from 1 John begins with great comfort, and then ends with great challenge!

We are reminded that God’s love is lavished on us, and because of that love expressed through Christ we have become children of God.  This is in keeping with Paul’s doctrine in Romans 8:14-17 and Galatians 4:4-5.

But when the fullness of the time came, God sent out his Son, born to a woman, born under the law, that he might redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of children.

But then, as the old timers used to say, John quits preachin’ and goes to meddlin’.  Not only are we now God’s children, but we are also being transformed into the likeness of Christ!  In some traditions this is called sanctification.

And John is very clear that we are to purify ourselves as Christ is pure. Now, let me be very careful here, and reiterate what I said above — we do not purify ourselves in order to become children of God.  God’s love, expressed in Christ and received by faith, is what makes us children of God and then purifies us.

Nevertheless, it is presupposed that if we are children of God we no longer live as sinners. Like the church marquee that I’ve recently cited, “Holiness is not the way to Jesus.  Jesus is the way to holiness.” And also one of my favorites, “God loves you just the way you are, but he loves you too much to let you stay that way.”

Most Christians would agree that if we are pardoned from sin then in some sense we must also be delivered from the power of sin.  The rub comes with our human experience, doesn’t it?  We want to be free from those things that we know estrange us from God, but we find ourselves drawn back to them like a bug to a bug zapper! Lust, covetousness, pride, anger, just to mention a few.

How do we reconcile our experience with this radical demand for holiness?  Only by first recognizing our constant dependence on God’s grace.  That’s when we must refer ourselves back to what John has already taught us: 

If we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in the darkness, we lie, and don’t tell the truth (1 John 1:6).

In other words, we are called to walk the paths of light, which means the paths of holiness and righteousness.  However, John also realizes our dilemma:

If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us (1 John 1:8).

Nevertheless, he has given us the remedy — we begin by acknowledging our sin, and submitting it to God; and God is the one who forgives and gets the sin out of our lives:

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us the sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9).

Salvation is not mere “fire insurance” or “cheap grace” that “gets us into heaven” with a minimum of cost.  It cost Jesus his blood and life.  And his goal is to save us to the uttermost, to renew us and to make us like himself.

This transformation may take a lifetime, but it doesn’t come with any kind of card that we might have gotten in a Monopoly game, that says “Pass Go and collect $200.”

But while we are called to purity and to a sin-free life, we are also aware that this is the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit.  Our part is to obey and to repent when we become aware of sin in our lives.  And keep on walking in the light!

RESPOND: 

I knew a man one time who got himself into a pickle.  He had mismanaged some funds that had been entrusted to him, and faced possible criminal charges.  When I visited him, he acknowledged that he’d done wrong.

He had been raised in church, so he knew that the standard of the Gospel didn’t allow for cheap grace.  And he made the statement, “I’ve been relying on the verse ‘If we confess our sins God will forgive our sins,’ but I’ve neglected the rest of it: ‘and will cleanse us from all unrighteousness.'”

I fear sometimes that this is the case with many of us, at least those of us who are Western Christians. I include myself in this indictment.  We know we have been justified by faith.  And sometimes we seem to act as though that means we can live as we choose, without paying much attention to the moral and ethical demands of the Gospel.

If we love God as his children, then it follows that as we mature in him we will want to live as his children, holy and full of love.

We are reminded that God does hate the sin but loves the sinner; and he hates the sin not because it hurts him, but because it hurts us.  So our love for God means we will obey his commands through his power, and grow into his likeness.

What a profound challenge and reproach this is to me, Lord!  It makes me keenly aware of how grateful I am for your grace; but also how I still fall far short of “Christ-likeness.”  Please finish what you’ve started in me.  Make me reliant on your grace and love, and not dependent on those silly things that this world offers that won’t be mine a second longer than I draw breath!  Amen. 

Epistle for July 23, 2023

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
Romans 8:12-25
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

The Apostle Paul continues his line of thinking concerning the new life of those who are in Christ Jesus and walk according to the Spirit.

He returns to language he has used earlier, contrasting the life of the flesh to the life of the Spirit.  He declares that those who live according to the Spirit are not indebted to the flesh, nor required to live according to its demands.  This is a financial metaphor that suggests the cancellation of any obligation to the flesh.  We are reminded that Paul’s definition of the flesh includes those affections, attachments and cravings that lead one away from God and toward sin and death:

For the mind of the flesh is death, but the mind of the Spirit is life and peace; because the mind of the flesh is hostile towards God; for it is not subject to God’s law, neither indeed can it be.  Those who are in the flesh can’t please God (Romans 8:6-8).

He then articulates a rhetorical paradox:

For if you live after the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

To ‘live’ after the flesh is to die; to die to the flesh (which means repudiating a lifestyle of moral corruption and decay that leads to death) brings life!  The paradox couldn’t be more radical — living after the flesh brings death; dying through the Spirit brings life.  This has been foreshadowed in Romans 6 when Paul speaks of being baptized into Jesus’ death:

We were buried therefore with him through baptism to death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life (Romans 6:4).

Having established this principle, that dying to the flesh through Christ and being raised with him through the power of the Spirit brings new life, Paul introduces another mind-blowing concept — that those who belong to the Spirit are no longer in bondage, but are children of God!

For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are children of God.  For you didn’t receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry, “Abba!  Father!”

Note the important statement Paul makes.  The Christian is no longer in bondage, but is adopted as a child of God.  We must be quite clear — though we were all created by God and loved by God, even while we were yet sinners (cf. Romans 5:8), it is through the witness of the Spirit that we become God’s adopted children.  It might be said that God has only one begotten Son, who is Jesus (cf. John 1:14, 18; 3:16); all the rest who are his children are adopted for the sake of Jesus and his sacrificial fulfillment of the law, and claimed as family through the testimony of the Spirit.

This new family relationship is strongly emphasized by the permission granted to these new children that they may call God “Abba!  Father!”

Modern scholars debate the Aramaic title Abba — whether it means Daddy or more formally, Father. In any case, it does seem to denote an intimate, even affectionate, relationship between a father and child.  Jesus uses this term one time that we are aware of — when he is praying to his Father in the Garden of Gethsemane (the night of his arrest, which leads to his death).  Mark’s Gospel describes the scene:

He went forward a little, and fell on the ground, and prayed that, if it were possible, the hour might pass away from him.  He said, “Abba, Father, all things are possible to you. Please remove this cup from me. However, not what I desire, but what you desire.” (Mark 14:35-36)

Paul uses the term Abba again in a passage from his letter to the Galatians that closely parallels Romans 8:14-17:

But when the fullness of the time came, God sent out his Son, born to a woman, born under the law, that he might redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of children. And because you are children, God sent out the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, “Abba, Father!” So you are no longer a bondservant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ (Galatians 4:4-7).

The point is, those who are now in Christ are adopted as children of God in a new and intimate relationship. In fact, this last claim is what Paul says in the next few verses:

The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God; and if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ; if indeed we suffer with him, that we may also be glorified with him.

The Christian knows that he or she belongs to God because the Spirit has told them so in their own spirit.  And as joint heirs with Christ, the Christian inherits whatever Christ inherits as the only Son of God — the believer is made brother and sister with Christ himself!

Paul does have one caveat, however.  There is an if involved with this adoption:

if indeed we suffer with him, that we may also be glorified with him.

Paul’s understanding of baptism and faith is not that baptism is a mere “symbol” and faith merely “belief” that certain facts are true. To become a Christian through baptism and faith is to be identified with Christ and his sufferings.  Paul says this very clearly earlier in this letter:

For if we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, we will also be part of his resurrection; knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be in bondage to sin (Romans 6:5-6).

We must bear in mind that there is the symbolic identification with the death of Christ in baptism — but suffering with Christ in order to be glorified with him may in Paul’s mind be quite literal.  He writes to a persecuted church, which knew what it was to experience discrimination, insult, and even violence.  (Those of us in the Western church may not be able to appreciate this in quite the same way as those in the parts of the contemporary church throughout the world where suffering with Christ is no figure of speech).

However, Paul also declares that any suffering experienced in this life is more than transcended by God’s promises to his children:

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which will be revealed toward us.

Here is another dramatic contrast — between the sufferings of the present, and the glories of the Kingdom of God that is to come.  There is no comparison.

Still, there is a provisional nature to the Christian’s life in the present — the “not yet” of one’s life in Christ.

Paul expands his focus concerning the present and the future.  He claims that even creation itself is anticipating the eschatological age to come:

 For the creation waits with eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed.

Paul personifies creation as a being with emotions — it is subjected to vanity, the bondage to decay, and even groans and travails in pain.  Although Paul doesn’t spell it out, he appears to be basing his creation theology on the concept that creation itself has been infected by the same sin and evil with which humans have been infected.  We can’t help but think of the language of Genesis when Adam and Eve experience the consequences of their disobedience — even the earth is cursed!

…the ground is cursed for your sake.
You will eat from it with much labor all the days of your life.
It will yield thorns and thistles to you (Genesis 3:17-18).

Creation is not to blame for this curse — humanity is.  Nevertheless, God will use this curse in order to bring good out of evil:

For the creation was subjected to vanity, not of its own will, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of decay into the liberty of the glory of the children of God.

Therefore, the wonderful promise of the coming age is that not only will the children of God be delivered from the bondage to sin and death, creation itself will be delivered from decay and liberated to become what God intended at the beginning!

Creation groans because of its bondage to decay as it leans hopefully toward the coming age, and so do those who belong to Christ:

Not only so, but ourselves also, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for adoption, the redemption of our body.

Note that Paul is decidedly speaking of the “not yet” aspect of the coming of the end.

There are the first fruits of the Spirit that have already been given “now” to the believer.  Paul doesn’t spell out exactly what those first fruits are in this passage.  Sometimes he uses this phrase to describe Christ’s own resurrection, that has already taken place:

But now Christ has been raised from the dead. He became the first fruits of those who are asleep (1 Corinthians 15:20).

The concept of first fruits is grounded in the Mosaic law governing gifts offered to God (cf. Exodus 23:16, 19) from the agricultural yields of the fields and the flocks.  These were the first tokens, symbolizing the giving of the best to God. And secondly, the first fruits were offered as a reminder that all things ultimately belong to God.

But the first fruits in our passage no doubt are related to the foretaste given to the believer through the Spirit, as suggested elsewhere:

Now he who establishes us with you in Christ, and anointed us, is God; who also sealed us, and gave us the down payment of the Spirit in our hearts (2 Corinthians 1:21-22).

And Paul may also have in mind those qualities of character that are bestowed by the Spirit even now:

the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23).

However, they are still awaiting the fullness of salvation that comes at the end of the age. In fact, as he has said, believers have been adopted as children of God ­— and yet that adoption is not yet fully complete until the end of the age. And though believers have been redeemed by Christ’s blood, the full redemption of their bodies from the decay of this life isn’t completed until the end of the age either.

So Paul is obliged to speak of hope, not as something which has been completely fulfilled, but what is yet to be:

For we were saved in hope, but hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for that which he sees?  But if we hope for that which we don’t see, we wait for it with patience.

APPLY:  

This excerpt from Romans 8 has far-reaching implications — some might even say cosmic implications!

First, though, the impact of this passage is deeply personal and intimate.  Those who have been in bondage to the flesh and to fear are set free through the Spirit of God.

But wait (as they say in the advertising world), there’s more!  The unimaginable has been made possible — through the Spirit of God, we are adopted as children of God.  This is made possible by what Christ has done for us, as Paul explains in Galatians:

But when the fullness of the time came, God sent out his Son, born to a woman, born under the law, that he might redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of children (Galatians 4:4-5).

Our adoption as children of God is clearly grounded in the incarnation event of Christ and fulfilled in his death and resurrection.

And it is the Holy Spirit who completes this “contract” of adoption by witnessing inwardly to our spirits that we are children of God.  To be adopted into this family is to have all that Jesus has in his relationship with the Father!  We are on such intimate terms with God that we can talk to him as Abba — Daddy. 

And if Jesus inherits a new, resurrection body, so do we!  If Jesus inherits eternal life, so do we! If Jesus inherits the right to sit in the heavenly places with the Father, so do we (cf. Ephesians 2:6).  According to Paul’s words, that we are joint heirs with Christ, we receive what Christ receives!

However, there is also the sense that, as the old cliche said, “If you can’t bear the cross, then you can’t wear the crown.”  We also are to suffer with him.  Obviously, Jesus has borne the cross on our behalf — we aren’t crucified for our own sins.  Jesus has paid that penalty for us.  Still, we are to identify with Jesus through our baptism, self-denial, and service.  As Paul writes in Galatians:

 I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I that live, but Christ living in me. That life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself up for me (Galatians 2:20).

And there is a second, cosmic implication of this passage.  Paul begins with comforting words about suffering.  I have thought and said these words many times in dealing with faithful Christians who are facing intense suffering and sorrow:

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which will be revealed toward us.

However, Paul also addresses the bigger picture.  Salvation is not merely about personal, individual salvation — salvation also applies to all creation!  Creation suffered because of the fall of humanity — nature itself was subjected to the bondage of decay.  And, like a woman groaning in childbirth, nature itself groans and travails in pain.

When Jesus speaks of the tribulations and travails that prepare the way for the coming of the end of the age, he speaks of wars and rumors of wars and famines, plagues, and earthquakes (cf. Matthew 24:6-7) — and he cautions that these are not the signs of the end. And he says:

But all these things are the beginning of birth pains (Matthew 24:8).

In many ways, the argument that all creation has been subjected to the bondage to decay is a helpful understanding of theodicy, which addresses the theological problems of God’s omnipotence and goodness in the face of the existence of evil.  This view provides a possible explanation of the existence of evil in creation — natural catastrophes, diseases, etc.  They are not “permanent” aspects of creation — rather, like the birth pangs of a mother, they are temporary and transient and will be forgotten when the birth of the Kingdom of God is completed.

This also has implications for our Christian understanding of the natural environment and ecology.  Creation is suffering, and also causes suffering — but creation itself is eager to see the fulfillment of God’s plan for all things:

For the creation waits with eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to vanity, not of its own will, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of decay into the liberty of the glory of the children of God.

God’s salvation is systemic.  God saves and restores not only individuals but all creation as well.

RESPOND: 

When we sing the old hymn “Blessed Assurance” by the blind composer Fanny Crosby (1801-1900), we are singing the theology of Romans 8:14-17 and Galatians 4:4-7 — the witness of the Spirit with our spirits that we are children of God:

Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine!
O what a foretaste of glory divine!
Heir of salvation, purchase of God,
Born of His Spirit, washed in His blood.

This experience is common to those who have made a decision to follow Jesus — people like John Wesley, who testified to a “heart strangely warmed” at a religious meeting on Aldersgate Street on May 24, 1738.

And people like Blaise Pascal, the French philosopher and mathematician whose heart was flooded with the light of Christ after a traumatic event in his life, on November 23, 1654.  He sewed a piece of parchment into the lining of his coat from that time on with these words:

God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob, not of the philosophers and scholars… Joy, joy, joy, tears of joy… ‘This is life eternal that they might know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.’ Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ… May I not fall from him forever… I will not forget your word. Amen.

That we can be adopted as children of God for the sake of Jesus Christ is amazing.  That the Spirit of God whispers to our spirits that we are his children, and that we are entitled to call God Abba, Father is incredibly comforting.  The entire Godhead of the Trinity is involved in bringing us into relationship with God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Lord, thank you that we are adopted as your children, and that you have made us your heirs.  And most of all that we are able to cry out to you “Abba! Father!”  Amen. 

PHOTOS:

"Hold me Daddy" by Matthew Miller is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic license.

Epistle for March 26, 2023

Note from Celeste:

Before we look at today’s lectionary reading, I’d like to draw your attention to my Holy Week Bible Study book.

Go and Find a Donkey is the latest installment of the Choose This Day Multiple Choice Bible Studies series.

The daily devotionals take 10-15 minutes and include:

• Scripture passage (World English Bible)
• Fun, entertaining multiple choice questions focused directly on the Scripture passage
• Short meditation that can be used as a discussion starter.

Use them on the suggested dates, or skip around.  Designed to be used during Holy Week, this nine-day Bible study takes you from Palm Sunday through Easter Monday.

Use this book personally during a coffee break or with the family in the car or at the breakfast table.

Order Go and Find a Donkey  today to prepare your family for this year’s Easter season!
CLICK HERE for Amazon’s Kindle book of Go and Find a Donkey.
CLICK HERE for Amazon’s Paperback of Go and Find a Donkey.

AND NOW, BACK TO TODAY’S LECTIONARY READING:

For the mind of the flesh is death, but the mind of the Spirit is life and peace.
(Romans 8:6 World English Bible)
This marble figure of Death from a monument in the church of St Peter in Chains in Rome was photographed by Fr. Lawrence Lew, O.P.

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
Romans 8:6-11
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

Paul explores another set of contrasts in this passage.  Here, the contrast is between the flesh and the Spirit, and between death and life:

For the mind of the flesh is death, but the mind of the Spirit is life and peace.

These terms require some “unpacking.”  By flesh Paul isn’t speaking of the skin and physical attributes of the body.  Flesh is a term he uses to describe the sinful heart of human beings “turned in upon themselves.”  The flesh is devoted to selfish pursuits and sinful passions.  Its vision is limited only to this transient world, not the transcendent and timeless world of the Spirit. Moreover:

the mind of the flesh is hostile towards God; for it is not subject to God’s law, neither indeed can it be.

Consequently, because of the inherent selfishness and sinfulness of the goals and objectives of the mind of the flesh:

Those who are in the flesh can’t please God.

Those in the flesh can’t obey God’s laws nor can they serve God because they are simply not living in the same realm.

Those who are in the Spirit have a different starting-point:

But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if it is so that the Spirit of God dwells in you.

The Spirit is not merely some disembodied ghost, or the Force, as in the Star Wars theology.  The Spirit is God himself, the Third Person of the Trinity.  Jesus says:

God is Spirit (John 4:24).

And to complete this Trinitarian trifecta, Paul speaks here of the Spirit of Christ.

The Spirit is the Person whose power and presence and energy and influence and love have been poured out on the church (Acts 2); revealed in the unity and gifts of the church (1 Corinthians 12); manifested through the character of believers (Galatians 5:22-23).  And the decisive mark of a believer is that the Spirit of God is not merely an external force, but dwells within the souls of those who believe.

This becomes the either/or of the person of flesh or the person of the Spirit: 

But if any man doesn’t have the Spirit of Christ, he is not his.

If the Spirit doesn’t dwell in a person, they do not belong to Christ at all.

However, for the Christian there are marks, or signs, of the presence of the Spirit — we have already alluded to the gifts and the fruits of the Spirit above (1 Corinthians 12; Galatians 5:22-23).  And a quick read of the entire chapter of Romans 8 will give the reader an overview of the depth and breadth of the work and presence of the Spirit in the life of the believer.

Here, however, Paul continues to explore the contrast of flesh and spirit, based on the consequences:

If Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the spirit is alive because of righteousness.

The result of the life of the flesh is the deathly reality of sin.  Even believers suffer the consequences of death.  However, the righteousness of Christ is imputed and imparted to those who believe:

For Christ is the fulfillment of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes (Romans 10:4).

Therefore, those who truly believe and set their mind on the Spirit have been delivered from the death of sin, beginning now and continuing into the resurrection:

 But if the Spirit of him who raised up Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised up Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.

This truly describes the “now” and the “not yet” of faith.  The Spirit dwells in those who have received Christ by faith now; but this same Spirit, at work along with the Father and the Son at creation, also will participate in raising up those who die in the age to come.

APPLY:  

Romans 8, sometimes called the “Mt. Everest” of the epistle to the Romans, reveals great sweeping vistas of theological vision.  Even in the mere six verses included in our lectionary passage for this week’s Epistle, we catch glimpses of the doctrine of the Trinity, human anthropology, and the Christian’s nature and destiny.

Long before the First Ecumenical Church Council of Nicea in 325 A.D., Paul was already formulating a doctrine of the Trinity, without ever using the word.  He calls the Spirit the Spirit of God and the Spirit of Christ, indicating that the Holy Spirit is of the same substance as the Father and the Son.  And in verse 11, he describes the entire Trinity involved in the salvation and resurrection of human beings:

if the Spirit of him who raised up Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised up Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.

But there is also a radical — and astounding — claim on our behalf as Christian human beings.  This is the claim that everyone who truly belongs to God are filled with the Spirit of God:

But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if it is so that the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if any man doesn’t have the Spirit of Christ, he is not his.

We know that Jesus is uniquely both fully God and fully human — as defined by the Council of Chalcedon in 451 A.D.  Jesus is the only begotten Son of God (John 1:18) and is by nature God.  However, St. Athanasius (296-373 A.D.) clearly saw the implications of Paul’s doctrine that the Holy Spirit comes to dwell in us:

By Grace we become what God is by nature.

We are not little gods.  That’s not what this is saying.  Instead, it is a bold claim that God’s Spirit can dwell in us, restore us to righteousness, give us life and peace, and ultimately raise us up from the dead.  Only God is God — One God revealed in Three Persons.  And yet God has made it his mission to restore in us that image of God that was distorted and damaged by sin and the flesh:

But we all, with unveiled face seeing the glory of the Lord as in a mirror, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord, the Spirit. (2 Corinthians 3:18. See also especially Colossians 3:5-11).

God’s desire is to save us to the uttermost, until we reflect his glory like little mirrors!

RESPOND: 

I am inspired by great passages like this — that promise that I can be transformed from the flesh to the Spirit, from death to life, from hostility towards God to reconciliation with God.  And that if I belong to God through faith in Christ, the Spirit dwells in me.

I believe that this is so.  But I am reminded of the old joke about the town drunk who used to go from church to church whenever there was a revival service going on in any of the churches.  He would always respond to the invitation at the end of the sermon by going forward and crying out “Fill me, Lord! Fill me!”

But the next week would find him back at the tavern, drunk again.

Finally, at one church revival, he followed the same pattern. He went forward and knelt and cried out “Fill me, Lord, fill me!”  And one church lady had had just about enough.  She cried out, “Don’t do it Lord! He leaks!”

Without making any judgment on our presumably fictional alcoholic friend and his sincerity, I confess that I can identify with the syndrome.  I know I have faith in Christ.  I believe in the promises of Scripture.  I have the assurance that my sins are forgiven.  I believe that I am growing in grace (although my wife might offer a second opinion!).  But I also suspect that even though I have been filled with the Spirit, “I leak.”

This is one reason I believe that this Christian life is a process.  When we are born again from above, the Holy Spirit enters our lives.  We begin to grow in grace and knowledge of God. As we continue to give him more of ourselves, God continues to give more of himself to us.  We receive the gifts of the Spirit that he wants us to have as well as the fruits of the Spirit.

However, because of our free will, sometimes we do leak.  We slip and fall.  We go off on detours on the path.  This is why I see the Christian life as a journey. I rather like the translation of Ephesians 5:18 which renders be filled with the Holy Spirit as present tense rather than past tense.  This suggests that when we are filled with the Holy Spirit it is not completed in the past, but is an ongoing experience.

As the Apostle John described this experience, there is the “now and the not yet;” this Christian life is a process of transformation:

Beloved, now we are children of God, and it is not yet revealed what we will be. But we know that, when he is revealed, we will be like him; for we will see him just as he is (1 John 3:2).

We are God’s children now because we have been born again through the power of the Holy Spirit.  And we are also growing up to become like God through the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit in us.

Lord, you have delivered me from the works of the flesh and from spiritual and final death, and have come to dwell in me through your Spirit.  However, I confess that sometimes I leak.  Continue to fill me with your Spirit so that I may become more and more like you.  Amen. 

PHOTOS:

"Mors!" by Fr. Lawrence Lew, O.P. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic license.

Gospel for March 5, 2023

Note from Celeste:

Before we look at today’s lectionary reading, I’d like to draw your attention to my Holy Week Bible Study book.

Go and Find a Donkey is the latest installment of the Choose This Day Multiple Choice Bible Studies series.

The daily devotionals take 10-15 minutes and include:

• Scripture passage (World English Bible)
• Fun, entertaining multiple choice questions focused directly on the Scripture passage
• Short meditation that can be used as a discussion starter.

Use them on the suggested dates, or skip around.  Designed to be used during Holy Week, this nine-day Bible study takes you from Palm Sunday through Easter Monday.

Use this book personally during a coffee break or with the family in the car or at the breakfast table.

Order Go and Find a Donkey  today to prepare your family for this year’s Easter season!
CLICK HERE for Amazon’s Kindle book of Go and Find a Donkey.
CLICK HERE for Amazon’s Paperback of Go and Find a Donkey.

AND NOW, BACK TO TODAY’S LECTIONARY READING:

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
John 3:1-17
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

These seventeen verses are packed with profound truth for Christian disciples.  Writing anything less than a volume scarcely can do them justice.  Elsewhere, I have written about their implications for our doctrine of the Trinity (Click here to read my post for the Gospel Lectionary Reading for May 27, 2018).  Here, however, I will focus on Jesus’ radical doctrine of the New Birth in verses 1-10, and the key to the whole Gospel of Jesus Christ in verses 11-17.

This episode in the life of Jesus begins at night. Darkness and light are a persistent motif of contrasts in the Gospel of John.  Nicodemus, a Pharisee, has sought Jesus out in secret, it would seem.  We know from the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke) that the Pharisees were hostile to Jesus nearly from the very beginning of his ministry.  We also have seen the beginning of their hostility in John 1:24, and when Jesus rousts out the temple moneychangers in John 2:14-19.

This is curious because Jesus agreed with the Pharisees about some things — the belief in a Messiah, angels, and the resurrection of the dead at the last judgment. But the Pharisees came to view Jesus’ claims as blasphemous, and his attitude toward the law to be less exacting than their own.

The fact that Nicodemus comes at night suggests that he doesn’t want his colleagues to know that he has sought a private audience with Jesus.  He has much to lose.  He is a ruler of the Jews.

Nicodemus begins with flattery, recognizing that Jesus must be a teacher sent by God, as verified by his signs.  But the response of Jesus seems abrupt, even a little rude.  Instead of warming to Nicodemus’ kind words, he gets right to the point:

 Most certainly, I tell you, unless one is born anew, he can’t see God’s Kingdom.

Jesus seems to have no time, nor patience, for sugary words and verbal games.  What ensues is a fascinating dialogue.  This exchange is a classic example of the dialectical method of teaching and debate Jesus uses in the Gospel of John.

Nicodemus seems to pretend to naivete — he intentionally misses the point that Jesus is using a metaphor, and says:

How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb, and be born?

Of course that’s not what Jesus is advocating.  The second birth he is advocating is a spiritual rebirth:

Most certainly I tell you, unless one is born of water and spirit, he can’t enter into God’s Kingdom!   That which is born of the flesh is flesh. That which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

Some interpreters take water to mean baptism, which is certainly consistent with his teaching elsewhere in the Gospels.  And some commentators suggest that he is referring to one’s original birth, from the waters of one’s mother.

What is clear is that without a spiritual renewal from the Spirit, no one can enter the Kingdom of God.  This is not accomplished by human effort, but by the Spirit of God.

He uses an analogy.

The wind blows where it wants to, and you hear its sound, but don’t know where it comes from and where it is going. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.

The Greek word for wind is pneuma, (which also means breath), and is the same word used for Spirit here.  Jesus uses the analogy of wind to describe the work of the Holy Spirit.  It is the Holy Spirit that takes the initiative in conceiving and bringing to birth this new life.  We are reminded of these earlier words in John’s Gospel:

But as many as received him (i.e., The Word, meaning Jesus), to them he gave the right to become God’s children, to those who believe in his name:  who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God (John 1:12-13).

This new birth from above means that one has become a true child of God.  This is not because of birthright or genetics or human desire and effort.  It is a gift of God that, as we will see, is received by faith.

Nicodemus is still incredulous about this experience:

Nicodemus answered him, “How can these things be?”

Now it is Jesus’ turn to marvel at Nicodemus’ lack of understanding.  Jesus points out that Nicodemus is a teacher of Israel, and yet he is slow to understand.  Jesus is revealing these things to Nicodemus, and yet the Pharisee won’t receive them.  Jesus seems frustrated:

If I told you earthly things and you don’t believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?

In other words, Jesus has used earthly analogies to describe the work of the Holy Spirit in the new birth.  If Nicodemus can’t follow that, how will he understand the heavenly truths of Jesus?

He asserts his divine nature as the source of these heavenly things: 

No one has ascended into heaven, but he who descended out of heaven, the Son of Man, who is in heaven.

Now, Jesus transitions to a new theme in his teaching.  He has been talking about the work of the Spirit; now he speaks of his own unique work, to be accomplished on the cross:

As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.

Here Jesus uses a rabbinic technique called a midrash — a commentary on an Old Testament passage — to connect to something Nicodemus knows as a student of the Torah.  He cites the story of Moses and the people of Israel during their wanderings in the Sinai wilderness.  Although the Israelites had been delivered from slavery in Egypt and God had provided manna and quail and water from the rock, they were still whiny about what they imagined they didn’t have.  So, Yahweh sends fiery serpents among them — things could be worse! (cf Numbers 21:4-9).

When they cry out for deliverance, Yahweh instructs Moses:

“Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a pole. It shall happen, that everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.”  Moses made a serpent of brass, and set it on the pole. If a serpent had bitten any man, when he looked at the serpent of brass, he lived (Numbers 21:8-9).

Jesus adopts the method of typology — he sees the brass serpent on the pole as a type that anticipates the cross.  He is the antitype that looks back to the symbol used by Moses — he is to be lifted up on the cross so that all who look to him in faith might have eternal life.

Then comes the verse known to everyone who has ever attended Sunday School.  John 3:16 has been called the Gospel in Miniature, because it sums up the message of and about Christ:

For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.

The first half of the message is positive and proactive.  It describes God’s intention toward the world, his gift, the appropriate human response, and the subsequent results, in one simple sentence:

• God’s intention toward the world is love. The root of the word for love used here is the famous agape, which has been described as unselfish love — we will see how unselfish as we continue.
• The object of God’s love is the world. The word used for world is the Greek kosmos, from which modern English derives the word cosmic.  This word suggests more than the mere human world — kosmos implies the entire world order, all of creation.  We see a similar theme when we read the Apostle Paul, who says that when the glory of God is revealed:

the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of decay into the liberty of the glory of the children of God (Romans 8:21).

• The gift, and the means of salvation, is God’s one and only Son. Some translations say only-begotten Son, implying the unique relationship of Jesus with the Father. We note that this passage uses two designations for Jesus — the Son of Man and the Son of God.  Jesus unites his human nature and his divine nature in himself in order to effect salvation. Jesus has already explained how this salvation will be revealed — he will be lifted up on the cross.   And God’s love for the world is extremely costly — it costs the death of Jesus.
• The proper human response to this love and this gift is faith — not merely the Latin credo, which means to assert that certain things are true. The word used in John’s Gospel for believe is from the Greek pistis, which has a deeper meaning implying trust.   To believe in Jesus is to have a trusting relationship with him.
• And the consequence of this relationship with Jesus is eternal life. As Jesus is the source of abundant life here and now (John 10:10), his abundant life transcends this life and continues into eternity.

We also learn the negative aspect of this saving work — not only what Jesus has done, but also what he hasn’t done:

For God didn’t send his Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world should be saved through him.

This may describe the ministry of Jesus in those few years he was on earth.  He came not to judge but to save.  His was solely a redemptive message and ministry, for those who had ears to hear.  However, we are told later in John’s Gospel that:

the Father judges no one, but he has given all judgment to the Son, that all may honor the Son, even as they honor the Father (John 5:22-23).

Jesus has come into the world as Savior and Redeemer, but that doesn’t mean that there is no judgment.  If we continue to read beyond John 3:17, we find this:

He who believes in him is not judged. He who doesn’t believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the one and only Son of God. This is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light; for their works were evil (John 3:18-19).

In other words, judgment doesn’t originate when God rejects human beings, but when human beings reject the light.  We know from John 3:16 that God’s intention toward the world is love.  Therefore judgment is the logical consequence when love is rejected.  As someone has said: “We are not punished for our sins, we are punished by our sins.”  That is, we loved the darkness rather than the light.

To summarize — Jesus reveals to Nicodemus that in order to enter God’s Kingdom, he must be born again from above.  This new birth is possible not through human effort but through the work of the Spirit.  Jesus declares that he has also descended from heaven in order to be raised up on the cross.  And a succinct summary of the Gospel of Jesus Christ has been provided in John 3:16.

So, just out of curiosity, how does Nicodemus respond to this remarkable dialogue with Jesus?  The man who came to see Jesus at night has heard the warning that those who prefer darkness to light stand condemned already.

Nicodemus disappears without making a notable commitment of any kind to Jesus — until much later.  When the Pharisees begin to murmur against Jesus, John’s Gospel says:

Nicodemus (he who came to him by night, being one of them) said to them, “Does our law judge a man, unless it first hears from him personally and knows what he does?” (John 7:50-51).

Nicodemus now publicly speaks out for Jesus’ right to defend himself.

And then, after Jesus is executed, Nicodemus assisted Joseph of Arimathaea, tenderly anointing the corpse of Jesus with myrrh and aloes, and wrapping him for burial.  Nicodemus had come a long way.

APPLY:  

The new birth is not merely an important theme in the teaching of Jesus — it is vital to our understanding of the Christian experience of salvation.  What else but a new birth can explain the transition from sinner to saint in the lives of the Apostle Paul, St. Augustine, John Newton (the former slave trader), or the countless lives of Christians who can proclaim, “I once was lost, but now am found; was blind, but now I see”?

I haven’t the time or space to explore all of the implications of the new birth.  I will simply sum it up in this way — the new birth describes the change that the Holy Spirit can work in the souls of those who turn to Christ in faith.  The new birth describes that moment in which the Holy Spirit bears witness with our spirits that we are adopted as children of God (Galatians 4:6).  The new birth is the beginning of that process by which we begin to grow into the likeness of Christ (1 Peter 2:1-4; 1 John 3:2).  The new birth reveals to us that we are co-heirs with Christ (Romans 8:16-17).

And this process of new birth and spiritual growth occurs because the Holy Spirit communicates with our spirits the profound truth of John 3:16:

For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.

The entire Godhead of the Trinity — Father, Son and Holy Spirit, one God in three persons — has made it his singular purpose to express the Father’s love through the Son’s phenomenal gift, received by us through faith breathed into us by the Holy Spirit.

I would venture to say that if all of the Bibles in the world were destroyed, and all that was left was one page from the third chapter of the Gospel of John, it might be possible to reconstruct the entire Christian faith!

RESPOND: 

I have read many of the great books of the Western Tradition of literature and philosophy, and a few from the Eastern Tradition as well.  Nothing that I’ve read exceeds the dialectical brilliance of Jesus, especially as revealed in the Gospel of John.  Jesus engages Nicodemus, his disciples, the Samaritan woman at the well, the Pharisees, and even Pontius Pilate in dialogue, and reveals heavenly truths.

When it comes to the doctrine of the new birth, Jesus reveals one of the central truths of the Gospel.  The new birth is the entrance into the Christian life.

As a friend of mine once said,

“The phrase ‘born again Christian’ is a redundancy.  The only Christian possible is one who has been born again through the power of the Holy Spirit.” 

Jesus says it this way:

Most certainly, I tell you, unless one is born anew, he can’t see God’s Kingdom.

Lord, I thank you for your gift of the new birth.  Your Fatherly love, expressed through the gift of your only begotten Son, received through the witness of your Holy Spirit, has been given to me and to all who believe. Empower me to live as your child, and grow into your likeness.  Amen. 

PHOTO:
“Gospel acrostic in John 3:16” by Martin LaBar is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Generic license.

Gospel for December 25, 2022

 

START WITH SCRIPTURE:

John 1:1-14

CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

The Prologue to John’s Gospel is one of the great theological masterpieces of all Scripture, not to mention all literature.  It sets the theological tone for the Gospel of John in demonstrating the true identity of Jesus as “the Word made flesh.”

The concept of the Word is not easily accessible to us today, but a readership that was somewhat literate in Greek philosophical terms might have understood it.  Philo, the Jewish philosopher roughly contemporary with the time of Jesus, wrote of the Word, or Logos.

For the philosopher, the concept of the Word was rich with meaning. The Logos was a shorthand for the Mind or the intellectual principle of the Creator.  So, in the first five verses, John makes it clear that the Word, or Mind, preexists all creation, but that the Word was an agent through which creation came to be.  In fact, he makes the clear claim that the Word is God.

Not only is the Word identical with God, the Word is the source of life, and as such is the true light of all mankind.  The contest between light and darkness is the cosmic struggle of good and evil; but John makes it clear that darkness is not equal with the light, and will not overcome the light.

John then makes a curious detour, and begins to speak of John the Baptist in verses 6-8. Some scholars believe that John the Baptist’s followers were still around at the time of the writing of the Gospel of John (not the same John, of course).  In fact, we see evidence of their influence in Acts 19:14, when the Apostle Paul encounters some folks in Ephesus who have received John’s baptism of repentance, but not baptism in the name of Jesus whereby the Holy Spirit was imparted.

So the writer of John’s Gospel is making clear the distinction — that John was a witness to the light, but not the light itself. Jesus claims that distinction when he says clearly in John 8:12:

“I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

John also makes clear that despite the divine origin of the Word, even his own creation did not welcome him, which foreshadows his rejection and the cross.  But all who receive him by faith were given power to become children of God, which foreshadows the doctrine of the new birth lifted up in John 3:1-16.

And John makes it quite clear that these were to be:

children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.  

In other words, becoming a child of God is God’s initiative, not human inheritance or human will.

The pinnacle of this passage is the summary in verse 14.  The identity of the Word is made plain:

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.  

John has made clear already that the Word is God, the agent of creation, and now he makes clear that he has become a human being.

When John says that the Word made his dwelling among us, some biblical scholars point out there is a play on words here.  Dwelling in Greek is skene, which means “tent.”  The Word “tented” among us.  This may be an allusion to the tabernacle, or Tent of Meeting, in the Old Testament Torah.  The “tent” was the dwelling of God among his people:  

As Moses went into the tent, the pillar of cloud would come down and stay at the entrance, while the Lord spoke with Moses.  Whenever the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance to the tent, they all stood and worshiped, each at the entrance to their tent. The Lord would speak to Moses face to face, as one speaks to a friend (Exodus 33:9-11)

In other words, the “tent” is an allusion to the very presence of God in their midst — now veiled in human flesh.

Finally, John gives a personal witness, an eyewitness testimony:

We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. 

John is bearing witness to an historic reality — that the disciples knew Jesus, spent time with him, from his baptism to his resurrection.  When they claim that he is full of the Father’s grace and truth, they know what they are claiming.  And they also know from empirical experience that Jesus will prove these extraordinary claims to be true.  That’s what the rest of the Gospel of John will demonstrate!

APPLY:  

The first thing we must do is simply revel in the revelation of John’s Prologue.  The very Mind of God, the only begotten Son of God, present with the Father from the beginning, and an agent of creation — has become one of us! God has been made man!

This reminds us that God has become one of us in order to restore the damaged image of God in us.  As one of the early church Fathers, Athanasius, put it:

God became man that man might become God.   

He wasn’t suggesting that we are by nature divine — but that God’s nature in us is renewed.

Jesus is the only begotten Son of God; but by our faith in him we become children of God as well!  As Romans 8:29 has it:

For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.

For Jesus, this is by divine right. He is the Second Person of the Trinity, of one substance with the Father though a distinct person within the Trinity.  But for us to be called children of God we must be born again by faith.

Only by faith do we recognize God the Son as our divine/human brother, and God the Father becomes our Heavenly Father.

RESPOND: 

By all rights I should remain speechless before so great a mystery as this — that the Second Person of the Trinity, God the Son, has become a human being in order to lift me up to heaven!  How can that be described?  My response to so great a salvation is faith.  Faith that through Christ I can be called a child of God!

The greatest miracle of the Christmas season for me is not that you are born of a Virgin, though I certainly believe that.  The greatest miracle is that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.  That the divine condescended and became human so that you might live among us, be tempted yet without sin, and exchange my sin for your righteousness! May I receive you by faith, and be born anew as your child, and live the life that you have called upon me to live.  Amen. 

PHOTOS:

“The Word became flesh” by ned the head is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic license.

Epistle for June 5, 2022 Pentecost Sunday

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
Romans 8:12-17
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

Note from Celeste: Even though the Lectionary selection for Pentecost the 7th Sunday after Easter Year C begins with verse 14, Tom started with verse 12. This is a copy of his post for May 15, 2016 (Pentecost the 7th Sunday after Easter Year C).

OBSERVE:

This passage explores the dynamic nature of God in relationship with human beings.

Paul begins with a reminder of human nature — that:

 if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live.

This conflict between flesh and Spirit requires some unpacking.

The flesh is the corrupt and corruptible aspect of human character.  Paul is not a dualist who believes that the material world is by nature evil and the spiritual realm alone is good. Rather, the flesh is the craving, selfish heart turned in upon itself.  Just a few sentences prior to our passage, Paul writes that:

Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires.  The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace (Romans 8:5-6).

So what he’s exploring here is how the Spirit moves the believer from death to life; from slaves of their fleshly nature to children of God.  The answer, he believes, is to:

 put to death the misdeeds of the body.

Except that the sinner cannot do that for him/herself.  The execution of sin can only be accomplished vicariously through Christ:

through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit (Romans 8:2-4)

And how do human beings appropriate what God has done for them by Christ’s vicarious death on their behalf?  This is where the entire dynamic nature of God is revealed in relationship within God and with human beings.

God’s Spirit testifies with the spirits of those who have been adopted by God for the sake of his Son, and the Spirit declares that they are no longer slaves of sin and death, but now are children of God.  Now these children of God can also declare that God is their Father — their Abba.  Some scholars believe that this Aramaic word is intended to express an intimacy between Father and child, like the child calling God “Daddy!”

So, once these children of God are “adopted” into the family of God, they now enjoy all of the privileges of an heir.  In fact, they are co-heirs with Christ:

Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.

APPLY:  

These few verses pack a huge wallop!  They tell us about our status as children of God and much, much more — that God is for us in ways that we can’t even begin to comprehend.

What becomes increasingly clear is that the doctrine of the Trinity is far more than a theological construct, or an abstract notion.  The Triune God certainly exists within a unity that is experienced as diversity, One God in Three Persons.  But it is also very true that each Person of the Triune God is dynamically involved in the salvation and restoration not only of human beings but of creation itself!

God the Father sends forth his only begotten Son, the Second Person of the Trinity, as the perfect Man who lives the perfect, sin-free life. This God-Man condescends to our level as humbly as is possible — even becoming sin on the cross for our sake; and then re-ascends to the very highest place, even at the right hand of the Father.  And because he has identified with our fleshly nature, he has restored God’s image in us and raised us up with him.  We are adopted as his own brothers and sisters, and therefore become heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ. 

That means that whatever Christ inherits, we inherit.  This is made even more clear in Ephesians 2:4-7:

because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy,  made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus,  in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.

In other words, whatever Christ inherits we inherit — eternal life, a throne alongside him, and the incomparable riches of grace!  Incredible!

And how is all of this activated?  Obviously, we are taught deeply by Paul, again and again:

that it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— (Ephesians 2:8).

But we know this because of the Spirit of God, the Third Person of the Trinity.  The Holy Spirit puts to death the sinful nature in us, which we receive by repentance; the Holy Spirit breathes the gift of faith; the Holy Spirit enables us to be adopted as children of God; the Holy Spirit whispers in our spirits that we are children of God and are made bold enough to cry out “Abba, Father.”

The one thing that may give us pause is that one phrase included in this passage:

Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.

We certainly like the first part!  But the second part, about sharing in his sufferings?  Ouch.  Not so much.

Maybe Dietrich Bonhoeffer can help us understand this a little better:

To endure the cross is not a tragedy; it is the suffering which is the fruit of an exclusive allegiance to Jesus Christ . . . The cross means sharing the suffering of Christ to the last and to the fullest. Only a man (or woman) totally committed to discipleship can experience the meaning of the cross. . . Jesus says that every Christian has his(or her) own cross waiting for him, a cross destined and appointed by God. Each must endure his allotted share of suffering and rejection. But each has a different share: some God deems worthy of the highest form of suffering, and gives them the grace of martyrdom, while others he does not allow to be tempted above what they are able to bear.   But it is one and the same cross in every case (The Cost of Discipleship, pp. 78,79).

And maybe, just maybe, when we identify so fully with the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ our Lord by placing our faith in him completely, then we vicariously suffer with him and are raised with him.  As Paul says in Galatians 2:20  

I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

And only God can accomplish that in us!

RESPOND: 

Years ago,  I happened to preach on this doctrine that all Christians are adopted into the family of God because of our faith in Jesus Christ.  Jesus is the only “natural” child of the Father, based on our understanding of the Trinity.  He is the “only begotten Son of the Father.”

But because of what he has done in his life, death and resurrection, Jesus has introduced us to the Father as his adopted brothers and sisters.  Whatever he  gets from the Father, we also will get, because the Father shows no partiality between his children.

After I had finished the sermon, and said the benediction, a woman who was visiting the church that Sunday made a bee-line to me.  At first I thought I was in trouble.  But she told me that she was visiting with a family member, and she had her two adopted daughters with her.

These girls, as adopted children sometimes do, had been going through an identity crisis.  They wondered about their biological parents, and why they hadn’t been kept by them.  And somehow the sermon had spoken right to their feelings.

Some years later, I came across a testimonial from a retired pastor who said that he and his wife had a few kids of their own by birth, and a few by adoption, “but we can’t remember which is which.”

Father, I thank you that I have been adopted into your holy family for the sake of Jesus your Son.  For all that he has endured for me in order to accomplish this, I am truly humbled and amazed; empower me, through your Holy Spirit, to live as your child in this world.  Amen. 

 PHOTOS:
“Hold me Daddy” by Matthew Miller is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic license.
Matthew Miller says this about his pencil drawing “Hold me Daddy”:
“This picture was inspired by a little girl being held by her dad in front of me at church. She just looked so content and safe in her daddy's arms that began thinking of my heavenly Father.”

Epistle for May 30, 2021 Trinity Sunday

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
Romans 8:12-17
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

This passage explores the dynamic nature of God in relationship with human beings.

Paul begins with a reminder of human nature — that:

For if you live after the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

This conflict between flesh and Spirit requires some unpacking.

The flesh is the corrupt and corruptible aspect of human character.  Paul is not a dualist who believes that the material world is by nature evil and the spiritual realm alone is good. Rather, the flesh is the craving, selfish heart turned in upon itself.  Just a few sentences prior to our passage, Paul writes that:

 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.  For the mind of the flesh is death, but the mind of the Spirit is life and peace (Romans 8:5-6).

So what he’s exploring here is how the Spirit moves the believer from death to life; from slaves of their fleshly nature to children of God.  The answer, he believes, is to:

 put to death the deeds of the body.

The dilemma is that the sinner cannot do that for him/herself.  The execution of sin can only be accomplished vicariously through Christ:

For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus made me free from the law of sin and of death. For what the law couldn’t do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God did, sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh; that the ordinance of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit (Romans 8:2-4).

And how do human beings appropriate what God has done for them by Christ’s vicarious death on their behalf?  This is where the entire dynamic nature of God is revealed in relationship within God and with human beings.

God’s Spirit testifies with the spirits of those who have been adopted by God for the sake of his Son, and the Spirit declares that they are no longer slaves of sin and death, but now are children of God.  Now these children of God can also declare that God is their Father — their Abba.  Some scholars believe that this Aramaic word is intended to express an intimacy between Father and child, like the child calling God “Daddy!”

So, once these children of God are “adopted” into the family of God, they now enjoy all of the privileges of an heir.  In fact, they are co-heirs with Christ:

The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God;  and if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ; if indeed we suffer with him, that we may also be glorified with him.

APPLY:  

These few verses pack a huge wallop!  They tell us about our status as children of God and much, much more — that God is for us in ways that we can’t even begin to comprehend.

What becomes increasingly clear is that the doctrine of the Trinity is far more than a theological construct, or an abstract notion.  The Triune God certainly exists within a unity that is experienced as diversity, One God in Three Persons.  But it is also very true that each Person of the Triune God is dynamically involved in the salvation and restoration not only of human beings but of creation itself!

God the Father sends forth his only begotten Son, the Second Person of the Trinity, as the perfect Man who lives the perfect, sin-free life. This God-Man condescends to our level as humbly as is possible — being made man, and even becoming sin on the cross for our sake (2 Corinthians 5:21); and then re-ascends to the very highest place, even at the right hand of the Father.  And because he has identified with our fleshly nature, he has restored God’s image in us and raised us up with him.  We are adopted as his own brothers and sisters, and therefore become heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ. 

That means that whatever Christ inherits, we inherit.  This is also illustrated in Ephesians 2:4-7:

But God, being rich in mercy, for his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with him, and made us to sit with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,  that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

In other words, whatever Christ inherits we inherit — eternal life, a throne alongside him, and the incomparable riches of grace!  Incredible!

And how is all of this activated?  Obviously, we are taught deeply by Paul, again and again:

for by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God (Ephesians 2:8).

But we know this because of the Spirit of God, the Third Person of the Trinity:

• The Holy Spirit puts to death the sinful nature in us, which we experience through repentance.
• The Holy Spirit breathes the gift of faith.
• The Holy Spirit enables us to be adopted as children of God.
• The Holy Spirit whispers in our spirits that we are children of God and are made bold enough to cry out “Abba, Father.”

The one thing that may give us pause is that one phrase included in this passage:

if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ; if indeed we suffer with him, that we may also be glorified with him.

We certainly like the first part!  But the second part, about sharing in his sufferings?  Ouch.  Not so much.

Maybe Dietrich Bonhoeffer can help us understand this a little better:

To endure the cross is not a tragedy; it is the suffering which is the fruit of an exclusive allegiance to Jesus Christ . . . The cross means sharing the suffering of Christ to the last and to the fullest. Only a man (or woman) totally committed to discipleship can experience the meaning of the cross. . . Jesus says that every Christian has his (or her) own cross waiting for him, a cross destined and appointed by God. Each must endure his allotted share of suffering and rejection. But each has a different share: some God deems worthy of the highest form of suffering, and gives them the grace of martyrdom, while others he does not allow to be tempted above what they are able to bear.   But it is one and the same cross in every case (The Cost of Discipleship, pp. 78,79).

When we identify so fully with the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ our Lord by placing our faith in him completely, then we vicariously suffer with him and are raised with him.  As Paul says in Galatians 2:20

I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I that live, but Christ living in me. That life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself up for me.

And only God can accomplish that in us!

RESPOND: 

Years ago,  I happened to preach on this doctrine that all Christians are adopted into the family of God because of our faith in Jesus Christ.  Jesus is the only “natural” child of the Father, based on our understanding of the Trinity.  He is the “only begotten Son of the Father.”

But because of what he has done in his life, death and resurrection, Jesus has introduced us to the Father as his adopted brothers and sisters.  Whatever he gets from the Father, we also will get, because the Father shows no partiality between his children.

After I had finished the sermon, and said the benediction, a woman who was visiting the church that Sunday made a bee-line to me.  At first I thought I was in trouble.  But she told me that she was visiting with a family member, and she had her two adopted daughters with her.

These girls, as adopted children sometimes do, had been going through an identity crisis.  They wondered about their biological parents, and why they hadn’t been kept by them.  And somehow the sermon had spoken right to their feelings.

Some years later, I came across a testimonial from a retired pastor who said that he and his wife had a few kids of their own by birth, and a few by adoption, “but we can’t remember which is which.”

Father, I thank you that I have been adopted into your holy family for the sake of Jesus your Son.  For all that he has endured for me in order to accomplish this, I am truly humbled and amazed; empower me, through your Holy Spirit, to live as your child in this world.  Amen. 

 PHOTOS:
“Hold me Daddy” by Matthew Miller is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic license.
Matthew Miller says this about his pencil drawing “Hold me Daddy”:
“This picture was inspired by a little girl being held by her dad in front of me at church. She just looked so content and safe in her daddy's arms that began thinking of my heavenly Father.”

Epistle for May 9, 2021

Unlike Spock’s Prime Directive — our Prime Directive as Christians is to intervene in the world with faith and love.

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
1 John 5:1-6
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

John continues his fugue-like exploration of various concepts. He explores the following relationships between:

• The Father and Jesus.
• Jesus and the believer.
• Love and knowledge.
• Love and law.
• The new birth and victory over the world, and the victory of faith.

There is a kind of chain of cause and effect in this passage that builds to a clear and dynamic climax.

He begins with the central faith of the Christian:

Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God. Whoever loves the Father also loves the child who is born of him.

This is a reminder of the unique relationship between the Father and Jesus as the only-begotten Son of God.  But because of faith, the Christian also is born of God, because he/she believes that Jesus is the Christ.  John is not leaving open any room for denying the Godhead of Christ.

The next link in the chain of this cause and effect is the vertical relationship between the believer and the children of God:

 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep his commandments.

And if we’ve learned anything from 1 John, the primary command of God is love:

God is love, and he who remains in love remains in God, and God remains in him. (1 John 4:16).

The third link is that the command isn’t burdensome:

For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world: your faith.

Again, we return to the fugue — faith is reintroduced as the “means of grace” for those who are born of God.

And by faith the child of God has overcome the world, which is a reminder of the language of Jesus in John 16:33:

 I have told you these things, that in me you may have peace. In the world you have oppression; but cheer up! I have overcome the world.

The world that must be overcome is the current culture of sin and defiance against God, the darkness of this present age.  This was a common understanding of the early church, that the world was in rebellion against God and that Christians were in some sense at war with the world — not violently, but through love and faith.  They are called to be spiritual warriors.

Paul uses the same kind of language when he describes the Christian as a non-conformist, and Christians as a people who are “strangers” in this world. See Romans 12:2:

Don’t be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what is the good, well-pleasing, and perfect will of God.

And also see Ephesians 6:12:

 For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world’s rulers of the darkness of this age, and against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.

The faith that overcomes the world has a clearly defined substance and content.  John makes this clear when he answers his own question:

Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

Finally, John confirms yet again the divine origin of Jesus, and alludes to the work of the Spirit that is also such a key part of the Gospel of John, especially from chapters 14 to 16.  Here he says:

It is the Spirit who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth.

But what exactly does John mean when he says, just before his reference to the testimony of the Spirit:

This is he who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ; not with the water only, but with the water and the blood.

The blood seems an obvious reference to Christ’s death on the cross — but the water?  Is he referring there to the water of baptism, or, as some commentators suggest, to the waters of biological life and procreation?  Or is it a reference to the moment recorded only in John’s Gospel when:

 one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out (John 19:34).

I confess I’m not sure of the answer.

What is clear is that for 1 John, Jesus’ identity as Son of God, and the faith of those who confess that Jesus is the Son of God, results in love, knowledge of God, and victory over the entrapments of this world.

APPLY:  

The rather lengthy Observe (above), can be easily applied to our lives.  If we believe that Jesus is the Son of God, then we are born of God and we are given the power to love the children of God and to overcome the temptations and trials of our current culture.

Ah, but there’s the rub!  How do we know that we are the children of God who are born from above?

By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep his commandments.

Faith and love and obedience to God’s commands are all interwoven with one another.

There is a positive and a negative aspect to this.  The positive is the energy that is given to us from God to love as he loves.  The negative of this is the frank admission that this world is corrupt and corrupting, and is something to be overcome.  And we overcome through faith and love.

RESPOND: 

I remember watching Star Trek  years ago when the star travelers on the USS Enterprise spoke of the “Prime Directive.”  It was simple — don’t interfere with the alien life that may be encountered, but allow that life to develop as naturally as possible without outside contamination.

Well, we Christians have a “prime directive,” but not at all like that.  We are to interfere with the culture in which we find ourselves, and overcome it in our own lives through faith and love.  And we are also commanded to invade it, to subvert it, to overcome it by making disciples of all nations.

My own efforts in more than 38 years of ministry have been paltry, meager and insufficient.  But if the Gospel is true, at least I’ve been on the right side! The side that will ultimately prevail over the powers of this dark world.

Our Lord, renew my faith and remind me that through Christ I am born again from above.  Through your Spirit, empower me to overcome the world through faith and love.  Amen. 

PHOTOS:
“Spock – The Last Voyage”  by Daniel Arrhakis is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Generic license.