091. What’s happening in the USA? An American analysis of the 2012 Election race

Posted on September 7, 2012 by Jim Holbeck

There used to be a saying that whatever happened in the USA would eventually (in ten years or so)  trickle out here to Australia. However we live in a different world where we see and hear the Presidential candidates talking at their respective Conferences at the same time those present at those conferences are seeing and hearing them as well. What happens in America has inevitable consequences for Australia.  Much sooner these days! So the elections and the Presidential race are of tremendous interest and concern for us in Australia too. Decisions made in America influence decisions made on the other side of the world. Often wonderful decisions, but sometimes some decisions are not so helpful for us in Australia.

It is not easy to get analyses from a Christian perspective of what is happening in the USA and in other parts of the world. That is why I have found one particular writer a great help in giving a theological perspective of events in the USA and in the wider world. He is Dr. R. Albert Mohler Jr. who is the president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, one of the largest Seminaries in America.  He has helpfully compared, in the following article, the platforms of the two main parties. It helps us to be more informed as we pray for our brothers and sisters in Christ in the USA. I trust you find it as useful as I did. http://www.albertmohler.com/2012/09/06/the-great-american-worldview-exercise-the-2012-election/

His other writings on the Bible, theology and a wide variety of social issues are really very helpful as well. They are always well considered and certainly non vitriolic.

Blog No.091. Jim Holbeck. Posted on Friday 7th September 2012 

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090. Boak Jobbins. (1947–2012). Former Dean of Sydney. A Tribute From A Former Colleague

Posted on September 3, 2012 by Jim Holbeck

As one who worked alongside Boak in the Cathedral for his entire tenure there, I was privileged to see first-hand one of those “unforgettable characters” whom you seldom find in life. Many found great pleasure listening to his deep resonant voice as he preached. Others were deeply impressed at his wonderful grasp on language. His colourful language at times! But it was his ability to preach familiar truths in rich metaphors. Christmas services were the occasion to hear the incarnation of Jesus described as “God with skin on!” He had many other sayings that made you think more deeply than you had ever done before on familiar passages. He had that rare ability to make complex truths simple to understand, while at the same time putting simple truths in such majestic language that you thought about his words for weeks afterwards.

The word “charm” was spelt “B.O.A.K!” He could charm people without realising how charming he could be. As one woman put it, “When he talked to you as an individual, he made you feel that you were really someone very special.” It was genuine. When the late Lawrence Bartlett of Australian Hymn Book and Australian Prayer Books fame worked with us on the Cathedral staff, it was like living between the covers of the Encyclopaedia Britannica such was the depth of their combined knowledge and their individual mastery of the complexities of the English language.

Boak will always be remembered for his dedication regarding the multi-million dollar Cathedral restorations in the year 2000. On countless occasions he would don his hard safety helmet and disappear into the dimly lit Cathedral to investigate the progress of the work. Perhaps no other person had the ability to raise the awareness and support for the financing of the whole project. It brought a crumbling building in some aspects into a modern, clean, beautiful edifice which was a pleasure in which to minister. But it took its toll on him as he spent so much of his time and energy on the project.

On those occasions when there were formal services in the Cathedral it was obvious that Boak was “the man” for the occasion. It was obvious who was running the show even when the congregation included many of Australia’s leading personalities. He ran a “splendid” show. “Splendid” was a word you heard frequently from his lips. He and his wife Di made a glamorous “splendid” couple who were a wonderful advertisement for the Cathedral. When I farewelled them from the Cathedral at a Staff luncheon I referred to them as “a class act”.  They were. They were wonderful ambassadors for the Cathedral, but more importantly for the Lord they served. Boak will be missed by many, many people whose lives he touched for the Lord. Many people! Deeply!

My wife Carole and I join with hundreds of others around the world in assuring Di and their children, Lachlan, Ben and Sarah of our prayers for them at this very sad time for them in their unexpected loss.

Jim Holbeck. Leader of the Healing Ministry at St Andrew’s Cathedral, Sydney from 1988 to 2006. (Presently Acting Rector, Anglican parish of Maclean, Northern NSW)

Blog No.090.  Jim Holbeck. Posted on Monday 3rd September 2012

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089. Humans. Basically Good? Or Prone To Evil? Mark 7:20-23

Posted on September 2, 2012 by Jim Holbeck

Someone once said to me, “I don’t think the description of the Fall of humankind in Genesis 3 is relevant for today. Humans are basically good.” I felt like saying, “Brother, what planet have you come from? It’s certainly not planet Earth!” When you have had to deal (as I have done in full-time ministry for almost 45 years) with all the messes humans get into, there can be no other explanation than the truths in Genesis 3. Humans are wired to do bad stuff. It needs the power of God to stop them going more deeply into even more evil.  So the question is, “Are humans basically good or are they prone to evil?” It’s not just a theoretical question for philosophers to discuss ad nauseam. It hits us in the face every day as we drive our cars. I saw just last week someone driving irresponsibly and if I had not braked to let his speeding car into a narrow space  in front of me there may have been a serious head-on collision on a narrow two direction two lane road at a combined speed of close on 200km/h. How selfish can you get to want to be seen as a skilful driver (or having a FAST vehicle) passing car after car, but at the same time endangering the lives of many people?

The dilemma we face. Should I trust people or not? Are they basically good or could they do evil?  The dilemma for one person might be, “Can I leave my child with that man or woman? They seem to be nice. But can I really trust them?” The decision is made to do so. Another child is sexually abused.  Or “Should I go into business with that person? They seem trustworthy enough.” Another business is liquidated as the new partner skips off with the money. Or as one woman told me, “I married this lovely fellow and we went on our honeymoon. He said he would just go down stairs for a drink before we retired. He took some time. Later I discovered that he had met a young woman in the bar and had gone back to her room and had sex with her.” She almost screamed at me as she painfully said, “ON OUR WEDDING NIGHT!” But that was the first of many similar occurrences during her marriage. Apparently a “nice” man in the view of most people who knew him but with a fatal flaw that brought so much hurt and pain to his wife.

Are we humans basically good or basically evil?  We need to know in terms of whether we can implicitly trust people. Jesus didn’t always trust people. We read in The Message version of John 2:23-25, … many people noticed the signs he was displaying and, seeing they pointed straight to God, entrusted their lives to him. (24)  But Jesus didn’t entrust his life to them. He knew them inside and out, knew how untrustworthy they were. (25)  He didn’t need any help in seeing right through them. We may not have the same depth of perception He had. But we do need to have the same caution about relationships, knowing what people are capable of doing.

 Jesus Has The Answer For Our Dilemma. Mark 7:20-23.  In this passage Jesus said that it was not what went into a person that made them unclean. It was what came out of them. He continued, Mar 7:20 And he said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him.(21)  For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, (a word meaning inner dialogues or reasonings or deliberations, planning what to do. ) He then spoke about the form those evil thoughts took in the actions that followed.

  1. Sexual immorality. Sexual sins or immoral acts both within and outside of the marriage.
  2. Theft.  Taking or using unlawfully something that belongs to someone else.
  3. Murder.  Begin with thoughts in the mind. The actions stem from the thoughts. Jesus went deeper and said that to have hatred in one’s heart towards someone was to be guilty of murder.
  4. Adultery.  Where a spouse is unfaithful to his or her partner. I tried once to get a man to face up to the fact that he was committing adultery with a friend’s wife.  I said to him, “You didn’t just wake up and suddenly find yourselves in bed together, did you? You thought about it (which was wrong) and made a decision to go further in the relationship. You are accountable for what you have done. It wasn’t accidental.”  Again as Jesus said, for a man to look lustfully at another man’s wife is to make him guilty of adultery even though the action hasn’t happened.  This leads on to the next wrong way of thinking that leads to actions. Coveting.
  5. Coveting.  This is mentioned in the Ten Commandments in Deuteronomy 5:21  “‘And you shall not covet your neighbour’s wife. And you shall not desire your neighbour’s house, his field, or his male servant, or his female servant, his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbour’s.’” Coveting often leads to further action to take hold, for oneself, of the thing or person coveted.
  6. Wickedness.  All sorts of evil. A similar word is used of the devil as the wicked one. These are the sorts of bad things the devil would deceive us into doing to other people.

Then Jesus added a number of evil attitudes

  1. Deceit. It’s outwards expression in speaking or acting out what is false.
  2. Sensuality.  Lacking self-control in sexual matters.
  3. Envy.  Wanting what is not ours. Not grateful to God for what we have.
  4. Slander.   The word is blasphemy. Evil speaking = speaking evil of others.
  5. Pride.   Self-focussed attitudes looking down on others.  Thinking and acting as though others were inferior to oneself. Eg., the scribes and the Pharisees.
  6. Foolishness. Sums up all the previous evil attitudes.

Jesus concluded, (23)  All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”

No wonder King David as a man after God’s own heart cried out to God after he had sinned against God in his sin with Bathsheba, Psalm 51:10  Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. He saw that his heart needed to be recreated lest he do the same again.  He had discovered how capable he was of deliberately doing evil and of trying to conceal it.

What do Anglicans believe?  Anglican belief is found in the 39 Articles of Religion to be found in the back of most Prayer Books. Article 9 is titled, “Of original or Birth sin”.  It has these words. Man … is of his own nature inclined to evil. … This infection of nature doth remain in those who are regenerate (born again). In other words this proneness to do evil is characteristic of all people. All born-again people still possess this old nature with its bias towards evil and can give way to it unless they are careful. That’s why they are to sow to the Spirit and not to the flesh (the old nature). Gal 6:8  For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.

A question to consider regarding this. Have you ever wondered why many men and women who have been in active service in wartime hardly ever speak of their experiences? There is one obvious reason. Because they saw man’s inhumanity to their fellow humans in war. They saw and heard despicable things. It had a terrible effect on them. They don’t want to recall the memories. But there may be another far deeper reason for some of them. I discovered this when counselling many men over the years. Many of them have opened up enough to say that during active service they thought about and did some terrible things themselves. Now they find it almost impossible to talk about them.  They were horrified at their thoughts at that time. They were even more horrified at some of the things they did.  They never dreamed they would ever think or do such things in all their lifetime.  They discovered that they were just as evil sometimes as they imagined the enemy to be. That may be why many such men and women who used to be church-goers never came back to church again. They detested the evil they saw in others. They detested even more the evil they saw in themselves. They felt there was no place for them back among the “good people”. I’m sure that there is a whole lot of healing that needs to happen for such men and women. But they need to find people who won’t be shocked at what they hear about the experiences of those veterans.

William Golding. The challenge of the book and the film “The Lord of the Flies”.   The story is of “innocent” schoolboys alone on an island without any adult supervision or presence. Golding shows that the increasing violence in the boys came from within them. It was not due to some external factor. He portrays the characters in the film to show that there is innate evil in humans. He is correct in what he portrayed. Human experience confirms it. The Bible has always taught it. Philosophers and theologians ignore it at their peril. There is no other satisfactory answer to why the world is as it is. God knew what He was doing in giving such a simple explanation in Genesis 3 for why humans function (or malfunction) as they do. As has been said before, We are not sinners because we sin. We sin because by nature we are sinners.

It means then for Christians that they need to change their prayers from praying that nice people become even nicer, to something much deeper than that. They need to pray for people that they get soundly converted; that they get switched on to the Lord; that they are turned around by repenting of all evil and turning to God for forgiveness and His wisdom and strength. They need to be born again of the Spirit of God so that they become new creatures in Christ. People need it. The world needs it. Every individual needs it.

A New Beginning. A New Creation. A New Humanity. A New Way Of Thinking. A New Way Of Living. St Paul had known a radical change in his life. He saw himself as a new creature in Christ. He saw that other people could know the radical change he had experienced. He expressed that in 2 Corinthians 5:17  Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. New creatures could become new in character due to the indwelling Spirit who came upon those who believed in Jesus. They would be given a new nature through the presence of the Holy Spirit in their lives. In fact he described this new nature in Galatians 5 as the spirit nature being opposed to the old nature (flesh) which they had from birth.

That contrast is spelt out in this chapter in the difference between the “works of the flesh” and the “fruit of the Spirit”. The “works of the flesh” are those characteristics that come to all people because they are like that in a fallen world.  It affects every area of life. It is in the area of sex, (19)  Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality. It is in the area of religion, (20)  idolatry, sorcery.  It is in the area of social sins such as enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions,(21)  envy. It is in the area of drinking, drunkenness, orgies. It is in everything associated with these things,  and things like these. That pretty well covers most of life’s experiences. The problem with this life-style is that it is self-defeating. It misses out on life with God in heaven, I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

The new life in Christ. It is full of opposite characteristics. It is not “works” (frenzied activity) but “fruit” (the quiet outward expression of the life within), the expression of the life of the Holy Spirit within each believer. It is seen to be operative in the area of one’s attitude to God who shares His love, joy and peace with us. (Jesus spoke of His followers are having His love, His joy, His peace.) It is in the area of relationships with others in society, possessing patience, kindness, goodness. They are nice thoughtful people to have around! It is in the area of one’s relation to oneself, faithfulness, (23) gentleness, self-control.  They are honourable and trustworthy people.  While they are living according to the Spirit that is!  Paul wrote in Gal 5:25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. If the Spirit had brought people new life then they had an obligation to continue to live life being continually guided and empowered by the Holy Spirit.

 If it is true that all humans have a bias towards evil (in St Paul’s terms, a flesh nature) then that explains why there is so much evil in the world. People who are out of touch with God are doing what comes “naturally” to them. In various degrees. How can that change? They need to know and to experience God’s power in their lives.

This is how I sometimes pray for everyone I know, those who are my friends and the same prayer for those who aren’t interested in being my friend.

“Lord, I ask that you might work in (so and so’s) life to bring them to yourself. Open their eyes to see that they need You and may turn to You to receive forgiveness for all their sins and to receive a new life in Jesus. Set them free from the power of the evil one who had blinded their eyes and who holds them captive to do his will. I pray that they may be born again of Your Spirit and be released to be the people of God You want them to be. Fill them with Your Spirit so that they might know and experience Your wisdom and Your power to live in Your way. May they show forth the fruit of the Spirit in their lives day by day. Please protect them and bless them that they might be a blessing in the lives of other people. AMEN

Your prayer for people doesn’t have to be the same. But it does have to take into account that what is required for people is that they become new creatures in Christ and not become just  slightly nicer people in the world.

Blog No.089. Jim Holbeck. Posted on Sunday 2nd September 2012

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088. Galatians 3. Jesus Is God’s Only Way To Himself

Posted on September 1, 2012 by Jim Holbeck

Introduction: In this chapter Paul is showing the contrast between the works of the law (trying to obey them) and faith in Jesus Christ. The natural way of thinking was that one had to do something to get right with God. The Jews thought it was through obeying the Law (the Law of Moses or the first 5 books of the Old Testament). They thought that in this way they could be pleasing to God.

However we see in this chapter that the purpose of the Law was not to point to itself as the way for acceptance with God. Rather the law was meant to point people away from itself to Jesus as the One in whom acceptance could be found with God, Therefore the law was our disciplinarian until Christ came, so that we might be justified by faith.  So chapter 3 is all about the inadequacy of the law. It was good but had no power of itself to help people become “good” in the sight of God.  It is also about the sufficiency of what God has done for us in Christ to enable humans to be right in His sight (to be saved in and through Him.)

 3:1-5.  Questions Paul Asked Of The Galatians To Illustrate Their Foolishness. They had turned back to rely on good works

Question 1).     “How come you are being foolish in turning away from God?  Are you under some hypnotic spell? The truth is that Jesus Christ died on a cross to save you. The law can’t save you!”  (1)  O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. (They were trusting in having the law, and in trying to obey the commands God had given them. But they were not continuing to trust in Jesus who had fulfilled those words for ever.)

Question 2).     “How did you receive the Holy Spirit? Was it while you were trying to obey the law or was it when you heard the gospel message and put your trust in Jesus Christ for salvation?” (2)  Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? They knew the answer. It was when they heard the gospel message and trusted in Christ that they received the gift of the Holy Spirit. Paul was saying loudly to them in this epistle, “Wake up! Remember how you began your faith-journey!”

Question 3).     “Why are you continuing to be so foolish?  You began a new life when you believed the gospel message and the Spirit of God came into your lives. Are you forgetting all about that and trying to go back to obeying the law in order to be right with God?”  (3)  Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? What they were now doing made no sense. (The Spirit had brought them life. Why would they go back to relying on their own efforts and reject the efforts of Christ for them on the cross?)

Question 4).     “You initially suffered persecution when you first became believers, so why turn away from your faith in Christ now? Surely your stand for Christ will not be in vain!” (4)  Did you suffer so many things in vain–if indeed it was in vain? (Suffering for one’s faith in Christ can either be seen as a pain or a privilege! The Galatians needed to be reminded of the privilege of belonging to Christ even if it brought them pain.)

Question 5).     “Here’s another question for you to answer. When you heard the gospel message about Jesus and trusted in Him, God poured out His Spirit on you. He did miraculous signs among you by the power of the Holy Spirit. Did God do that in your midst because you were trying to obey the law, or was it that you put your trust in Christ.” It was the latter obviously! (5)  Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law, or by hearing with faith–  

The questions were asked to get the Galatians to reconsider what Christ had done for them through His sacrificial death on their behalf. It was also to get them to reconsider what He had continued to do in their midst as a community of faith. Answering the questions correctly should bring them back to being a people with a living faith in Christ and not revert to doing dead works apart from Christ. That was Paul’s purpose in writing to them.

 3:6-10.   Illustrations To Show That Getting Right With God Comes Through Faith In Christ. It was not by trying to obey the works of the law

1).        The example of Abraham.  He trusted God. (Seen in his ongoing trust in God and also in his willingness to offer his son Isaac as a sacrifice.) (6)  just as Abraham “believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”?

2).        The example of the sons of Abraham.These were present-day believers in Galatia who were sons of Abraham in the sense that they had faith in God like their father in the faith, Abraham did. (7)  Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham.

3).        The Scriptures predicted that the Gentiles could receive the blessing God promised to Abraham. The blessing was the gift of the Holy Spirit they received when they believed. (8)  And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “In you shall all the nations be blessed.”(9)  So then, those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith. Jews and Gentiles come the same way to God, through faith in Jesus. God had predicted that blessing for the Gentiles in His dealings with Abraham. The Gentile believers in Galatia had been the recipients of a promise from God.

4).        Trying to obey the law to get right with God doesn’t help one little bit. Instead of bringing blessing from God it places one under a curse. The curse is the penalty pronounced by the law itself. Some friend! The penalty is that arising from the failure to obey the law perfectly. No one can obey the “all things” perfectly. (10)  For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, “Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them.” There was another way that brought a blessing and not a curse. His name was Jesus!

 3:11-16. The Short-Comings Of The Law Compared With Christ

1).        The law can save no one. Christ can. You can only be righteous in the sight of God by putting your trust in Christ and not through trying to obey the law. Then you have to live by faith in Him. (11)  Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for “The righteous shall live by faith.”

2).        The law curses those who don’t obey it perfectly. (12)  But the law is not of faith, rather “The one who does them shall live by them.” (As James wrote, to fail in one point of the law is to be guilty of breaking the whole law, to become a law-breaker.)

3).        Christ set us free from the curse by bearing the curse for us.  (The curse we brought on ourselves by trying to obey the law perfectly and failing to do so.) (13)  Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us–for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”— (Jesus bore the curse for us.)

4).        It is Christ who brings the promise of Abraham to those who trust in Him. The promise of the gift of the Holy Spirit to those who believe. (14)  so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith. (Jew and Gentile believers receive the same promise of God, the gift of the Spirit through faith in Christ).

5).        The law couldn’t bring the promises of the covenant to people. Only Christ could do so as the promised “offspring” of Abraham. (15)  To give a human example, brothers: even with a man-made covenant, no one annuls it or adds to it once it has been ratified.(16)  Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say, “And to offsprings,” referring to many, but referring to one, “And to your offspring,” who is Christ. (The promise is in Him alone.)

3:17-29. THE POSITIVE PURPOSE OF THE LAW. Why God gave it!

The law God gave is not bad! It told people how they needed to behave in a way that was glorifying to their Creator God and also beneficial to their fellow humans. But it had a deficiency.

  • The law pointed out the way to live but gave people no help in doing it. If they tried to obey the “good” law, it condemned them for not obeying it perfectly. (21)  Is the law then contrary to the promises of God? Certainly not! For if a law had been given that could give life, then righteousness would indeed be by the law.
  • Well why did God give a law to obey if He knew we were incapable of obeying it? It was to make us realise that our attempts to obey the law would always fail, so we had to look for another way of getting right with God. (22)  But the Scripture imprisoned everything under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. (When humans fail to obey the holy law of God in any part it highlights the sinfulness of human sin. It shows that one is imprisoned in sin as a sinner. The promise however comes to those who put their trust in Christ.)
  • That’s where the gospel message about Jesus comes in. He is that other way to which the law pointed. The real way. The only way. He came as the sinless Son of God and fulfilled the requirements of the law in two ways.
    • i). He fulfilled what the law required by obeying it perfectly in the life He lived.  The law had now been fulfilled by a human. It meant that no other human needed to live a perfect life as a means of getting right with God. They couldn’t anyway! 22)  But the Scripture imprisoned everything under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. 23)  Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. 24)  So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith.
    • ii). He fulfilled the requirements of the law by bearing the curse for every failure of the human race throughout eternity to do what the law required. In other words He died to take away the sin of the world and bear in Himself the penalty those sins had incurred. 13)  Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us— (Redemption is secured when a satisfactory death takes place to release those who are bound. That’s what Jesus did for all sinners by His death.)
  • Now people could get right with God through receiving the gift God had given them. The gift of His Son. In receiving Christ by believing in Him, they also received the promised Holy Spirit. In doing so they were receiving the blessing God had promised Abraham, that through his seed [singular, meaning Jesus] all the nations of the world would be blessed. We know that was initially fulfilled on the day of Pentecost as the promised Holy Spirit fell on those from many nations.  The falling of the Holy Spirit on the Gentiles who believed continued throughout Acts and will continue for ever for those who believe.
  • Those who have faith in Christ are united as one in Him. They are the children of Abraham, heirs of the promise [of the Holy Spirit]. (26)  for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. 27)  For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. 28)  There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. (They are one in the Spirit. The same Spirit indwells them).
  • The final verse sums it all up. No one can get right with God by trying to obey the law of God. It needs a perfect score! It is impossible. But God gave a promise to Abraham that all the nations of the world would be blessed. It would be through Abraham’s seed [singular]. Jesus was that seed. The blessing came as they put their trust in Jesus, the seed of Abraham, and received the new life by the Holy Spirit of God. In so doing they became fellow heirs in the family of God. 29)  And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise. Jesus the Saviour for all who believe!

Blog No.088.  Jim Holbeck. Posted on Saturday 01September 2012

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087. How Did The World Come To Be In Such A Mess? Is there an answer?

Posted on August 30, 2012 by Jim Holbeck

Well it’s pretty clear really! We’ve turned our back on God. When you turn your back on God you can get into a hell of a mess (literally). God has shown us in His book (the Bible) how we are meant to live but we have ignored what He said. What we did know, we didn’t act on anyway! But how about people who don’t have Bibles? How do they know how they are meant to live? A good question! But there is an answer. God showed a lot about Himself in the world He made. For example the more you study the world the more you realise that you didn’t make it. Neither did your wonderful parents or grandparents! It shows such intricate design and order that it is obvious that no human could ever have designed it or created it. Some supernatural being must have done it. A being who is above nature, who made it all.

We can paint beautiful life-like flowers on canvas but we can’t make them live. We can harness the wind to derive energy, but we can’t produce the wind ourselves, (well some blowhards do better than the rest of us but it is infinitesimal in the grand scale of things.) We use some explosives to do a bit of damage but a violent tornado or earthquake does far more damage in a matter of moments. We marvel at the food chains in the world and marvel that it is all so coordinated, as though someone planned it that way. It is indeed a short-sighted person who says that there is not a supernatural being who made it all. Seeing the order and the power in creation is meant to lead everyone to know more about this being. The creation does bear witness to the existence of a Creator whom people are meant to “search out” in whatever way they can.

However the Bible says that instead of searching out more about this Creator God, humans refused to acknowledge His existence. They refused to thank Him for the privilege of living in the wonderful world He had made.  By taking their focus off Him as creator they began to think silly thoughts about God and to live as though He didn’t exist. This led to more foolish thinking. In fact what happened was this. They made their own gods. They did this in three ways.

I). Firstly they tossed aside the evidence that the creator God had shown in His creation. In its place they made images to be their gods. Some looked like humans. Others looked like birds or animals or even (shudder, shudder!) nasty looking reptiles. Fancy thinking that lifeless images could compare to the creator God!

II). Secondly they rejected the truth about God that He had revealed about Himself. They began to live a lie. They realised that they had strong feelings. But instead of expressing those feelings appropriately in the way the Creator God wanted, they did their “own thing” independently of God.   Their focus went from being on the Creator God to being focussed on the creation itself. It’s as though they were saying, “We don’t need you Creator, if you exist that is. We can manage this world. We are sufficient of ourselves to run the show. We don’t need you even if you do exist!”   

So God did something very significant. It’s as though He said, “Well if you want to run your own show, I’ll let you do it. I gave you free-will in the hope you chose to worship and follow me. But I’m now handing you over to do what you want to do”. What happened? They did what they wanted to do.

III).  Thirdly, they rejected God in rejecting His order in creation. Some women, for whatever reason, felt an attraction towards other women. So they acted on it and formed same-sex relationships. It was not what God wanted (Genesis 2:24). It was contrary to the purpose for which God had created the world and the people in it. Some men also, for whatever reason, gave up the way God had made the world composed of males and females. They turned their backs on women and focussed their consuming passion on other men. And expressed their passions inappropriately from God’s point of view. He saw it as shameless. He saw it as an error on their part. He saw their actions as coming from a debased mind. But you can’t act contrary to what God wants and not expect consequences.  One of the consequences was that God continued to hand them over to do what they wanted. What they continued to do was not what He wanted for them. But He gave them a chance to turn to Him to act in the ways He wanted them to act. They refused His help to become the people He wanted them to become.

Was God just picking on those who were involved in same-sex activity? No, of course not!  He is against everything that is harmful for His creatures. The following are some of the things that earn the displeasure of God when people turn away from Him. It is not only anti-social behaviour, but anti-God behaviour as well.

Other signs of rebellion against God in His world

People who lose their focus on God to whom they are accountable, wrongly focus on other people. They can become nasty to them. Instead of being righteous people they can become filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They can be filled with many anti-social attitudes and actions. Their envy may lead them to destroy others by harbouring murderous thoughts towards them, creating strife, being deceitful and being malicious. They continue on this downward spiral by gossiping about people, by slandering them, by being insolent to them.  They maintain haughty, boastful attitudes and fail to have due respect to those who brought them into the world. They may even try to work out how they might inflict even more damage on those they don’t like. As those who have given up on God they have nothing to offer in relationships. In short they are the “less than they might be people”, senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless.

There is a very, very sad thing that happens. The people who are guilty of any or all of the things mentioned above in their rebellion against God, also encourage other people to do the very same things. They actually applaud those people when they do the things that are anti-God and thus anti-social, Rom 1:32  Although they know full well God’s just sentence–that those who practice such things deserve to die–they not only do them, but even applaud others who practice them.

The very sobering thought behind all this is that when people turn away from God and act in rebellion against Him, as seen above, He takes them seriously. He purposely hands them over to do what they want to do apart from Him.  Freedom to rebel. Freedom to run their own lives. Freedom to ruin the lives of others through inappropriate speech and behaviour which is repugnant to God.

So there is the answer. The world is in a hell of a mess because the powers of darkness run rampant in a society which has turned its back on God. People unknowingly become the puppets of evil powers even while they think they are running their own lives.  St Paul once wrote to Timothy a church leader who had to deal with people who were false teachers. He advised Timothy how to behave, 2Ti 2:24-26  The Lord’s slave must not quarrel, but must be gentle to everyone, able to teach, and patient, (25)  instructing his opponents with gentleness. Perhaps God will grant them repentance to know the truth. (26)  Then they may come to their senses and escape the Devil’s trap, having been captured by him to do his will. How scary to realise that when you think you are running your own life, that it is the Devil who is “calling the shots”.

Is there any hope? Yes, amazing hope through amazing grace. The transforming power of God is available to make new creatures out of those who turn from their rebellion against God. To those who have focussed on creation, to now turn to focus on a relationship with God through Christ. As ‘The Message’ puts the words of 2 Corinthians 5:14-19, (14)  Christ’s love has moved me to such extremes. His love has the first and last word in everything we do. Our firm decision is to work from this focused centre: One man died for everyone. That puts everyone in the same boat.(15)  He included everyone in his death so that everyone could also be included in his life, a resurrection life, a far better life than people ever lived on their own.(16)  Because of this decision we don’t evaluate people by what they have or how they look. We looked at the Messiah that way once and got it all wrong, as you know. We certainly don’t look at him that way anymore.(17)  Now we look inside, and what we see is that anyone united with the Messiah gets a fresh start, is created new. The old life is gone; a new life burgeons! Look at it!(18)  All this comes from the God who settled the relationship between us and him, and then called us to settle our relationships with each other. (19)  God put the world square with himself through the Messiah, giving the world a fresh start by offering forgiveness of sins.

Do you want to get out of the mess you have gotten into in life? As ‘the journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step’, so the change in your life can begin with a simple prayer to God.

Prayer:- “ Lord, I am sorry for running my own life apart from You. I’m sorry for all the hurt and pain I caused others as I lived that way. Please forgive all my sins and transform my life so that I can become more like Jesus in all I say and do. I ask this in Jesus’ name. AMEN.

(PS. The words in the article above are really an extended paraphrase of the words in Romans chapter 1:18-31. I will write in more detail on this passage in future articles. But read the passage now and get blessed!)

Blog No.087. Jim Holbeck.   Posted on Thursday 30th August 2012.

 

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086. Jesus and Sexuality and Marriage

Posted on August 24, 2012 by Jim Holbeck

We are often told today that Jesus would have approved of homosexual or same-sex marriage. Because He emphasised “love” in His teachings. So we need to see if that is really so.  In the previous article we saw that in the Old Testament, God is seen to be opposed to homosexual acts. It raised the question as to whether Jesus or the New Testament writers took a softer approach. We now look at how Jesus would have looked at the issue. In an earlier article I looked at the question “Would Jesus Be In Favour Of Gay Marriage? What Does The Bible Say?” The conclusion in the article was that Jesus would not have been in favour of gay or same-sex marriages. However it may help to look at the New Testament material in another form. We look first of all at the text in Matthew 19 to see more clearly what Jesus had to say about sex, marriage and divorce.

In the left hand column I have put the text outlining the events and how Jesus responded to questions. In the right hand column I have made comments on each passage.

What Jesus said The implications of His teaching
Matthew 19.  The Pharisees question Jesus regarding divorce (3)  And Pharisees came up to him and tested him by asking, “Is it lawful to divorce one’s wife for any cause?”  Jesus’ answer. (4)  He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female,(5)  and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’?(6)  So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.” Jesus went back to the Genesis creation story. God made two sexes, male and female.Marriage takes place when a man (a male) leaves his God-given pattern of family (a male father and a female mother) and holds fast to his wife (a female) and they become one flesh in a sexual union.  (The beginning of a new family with the possibility of reproduction).No other person is meant to enter into that relationship. So marriage is between a male and a female who become one flesh in an inseparable union.
The second question from the Pharisees.(7)  They said to him, “Why then did Moses command one to give a certificate of divorce and to send her away?”  Jesus’ answer.(8)  He said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so.(9)  And I say to you: whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery.” Divorce was allowed because of the hardness of Israelite hearts. But Jesus again took his hearers back to the creation ordinance (from the beginning it was not so). The inseparable union of marriage could only be dissolved if the wife had committed adultery against her husband. She had severed the marriage relationship by involving another person. The husband could divorce his wife in that case. However to divorce his wife on any other grounds and to marry another woman would be seen to be adultery.
The question from the disciples about the benefit of marriage.(10)  The disciples said to him, “If such is the case of a man with his wife, it is better not to marry.”       Jesus’ answer.(11)  But he said to them, “Not everyone can receive this saying, but only those to whom it is given.(12)  For there are eunuchs who have been so from birth, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by men, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Let the one who is able to receive this receive it.” Jesus spelt out the possibilities for males.   i). There were eunuchs who were so from birth. They were not physically equipped to enter into a one flesh relationship in marriage.  ii). There were those who had been made eunuchs by men. They too were not equipped to enter into the one flesh relationship of marriage, possibly due to castration.   iii). The remainder had a choice whether to enter into a marriage relationship or not.Jesus recognised that there were going to be some men who would choose not to enter into a married relationship for some legitimate reason (such as wanting to serve God in helping advance the kingdom of God.) Such males would remain celibate unless they later chose to be married.

We can see by looking at the table above that there is no ground for saying that Jesus would have approved of homosexual relationships or homosexual activity. In fact it shows just the opposite.  We can see why that is so when we look at Jesus’ attitude to the Old Testament scriptures and especially to the Law.

 JESUS AND THE LAW OF GOD

Jesus didn’t abolish the commandments in the Law.  It is obvious from the above that Jesus had the highest regard for God’s revelation of Himself and His will through the Old Testament writings. His attitude is seen in Matthew 5 where He spoke about His own teaching as a fulfilment (not an abolition) of the Law and the Prophets, the two major parts of the Old Testament Scriptures. Mat 5:17  “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfil them.”

Jesus didn’t cancel any of the commandments or prohibitions in the Law.  Not only that but all the commandments, instructions and teaching in the Law are applicable until Jesus has fulfilled them. Mat 5:18 For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. That included all the laws and commandments and prohibitions. It included the prohibitions found in Leviticus chapters 18 and 20 prohibiting males lying with males (or homosexual activity). These words were for eternity as they came from the eternal God’s revelation of Himself and His purposes in the Law or Pentateuch, the five books of Moses. He is the God who is unchanging and His values never change throughout the generations.

Jesus warned against encouraging others to relax the Law.  Jesus spoke of the danger of tampering with God’s revelation in the Law. The commands could not be watered down. The prohibitions could not be relaxed. Mat 5:19  Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. There is in these verses mention of the danger of encouraging others to relax the laws, commandments and prohibitions God gave us.

Jesus linked the Two Great commandments He taught with the Law and Prophets.  Loving God with all one is and all one has, and loving one’s neighbour as oneself were not commandments Jesus just plucked out of the air. They were a summary of the Law and the Prophets, not a replacement or substitute for them.  Mat 22:37And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38  This is the great and first commandment. 39  And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbour as yourself. 40  On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”  Loving one’s neighbour means not doing anything to a neighbour (or suggesting  to a neighbour) what would be contrary to what God has declared in His word.

Jesus lived by obedience to the Law.  Jesus’ teaching was largely based on the Law and the Prophets.  He accepted them as the word of God to His people.  He lived by them as we see in the temptation narratives in Matthew 4.  When he was tempted by the devil to turn stones into bread, He replied, (4)  “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ (Quoted from Deuteronomy 8:3). When He was tempted to throw Himself down from the pinnacle of the temple and to allow angels to catch Him, He replied, (7) , “Again it is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.” (Quoted from Deut 6:16). When He was tempted to fall down and worship the devil, He replied, “Be gone, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.'”  (Quoted from Deut 6:16).

If Jesus patterned His life according to God’s revelation of Himself and His will in the Law and Prophets, it is most unlikely that He would ignore the declaration of God in His attitude to homosexual practice in the same Law in Leviticus chapters 18 and 20.

He also lived with the recognition He was fulfilling the words of the Prophets. For example His justification for cleansing the Temple was seen in His words from Isaiah 56:7 “… for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.”  He saw what was happening in His ministry as more and more people came to Him, as a fulfilment of the Prophets, John 6:45 It is written in the Prophets, ‘And they will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me–. He saw His coming death as a fulfilment of the words of the prophets, The Son of Man goes as it is written of him Mat 26:24 , perhaps the Messiah passages in Isaiah 53. When He spoke to His disciples after His rising from the dead He pointed them to the Law and Prophets to have them understand the significance of His death and resurrection in fulfilment of the Law and Prophets, Luke 24:44, Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.”(45) Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, (46) and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead. His disciples had to take seriously the Scriptures as he had done throughout His life.  Even as the Risen Christ He was still pointing His disciples to the authoritative Scriptures in the Law, the Prophets and the Writings =the Psalms).

Jesus was a “Bible man”. He accepted the authority of the Old Testament Law and Prophets  as determinative for His life and teaching.  He expected His followers to have the same commitment to His Father’s revealed will in the Scriptures. There was no way that Jesus would ever contradict what His Father had expressed about homosexual activity in Leviticus.

Thus to say as some have said that we need to accept to accept homosexual practice as an expression of loving one’s neighbour as oneself, is quite contrary to what the Law expressed and Jesus taught.  Christian love never acts contrary to the expressed will of God.

Putting all this together we have to say the following:-.

  • The Old Testament forbids homosexual activity.
  • Jesus by His teaching showed His reliance on the Old Testament scriptures as the word of God and saw marriage as the one flesh relationship between one male and one female according to the Creation ordinance.

Well how about the New Testament writers? Did they have the same attitude to homosexual behaviour as seen in Leviticus 18 and 20 and in Jesus’ teaching? Or did they see the need to relax the commandments and lessen the prohibitions to make their teaching more acceptable to those who did not have the same view of Scripture. Did they seen the necessity to adapt their teaching to fit in with the prevailing culture of the day?  We will look at that in future articles.

Blog No.086.   Jim Holbeck..  Posted on Friday 24th August 2012  

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085. Sodom. Any Relevance For Sexuality Today?

Posted on August 23, 2012 by Jim Holbeck

Paul was very upset. He had begun to share some aspects of his life with me as his minister.  He was a handsome young man but shy and a bit of a loner. What he shared with me gave me an initial reaction of disgust. It seems that when he was in his late teens he was walking at night through a deserted part of the country town where he lived. As he did so he was attacked from behind by a small group of youths. They held him down and some anally raped him. Homosexual gang or pack-rape is perhaps the term to describe this horrible crime. It certainly had affected him greatly. He didn’t feel free to initiate any close relationship with any woman because he felt he was a “defiled” person, “damaged goods”.  I prayed with him that he might be healed of the damage done through that unexpected and unwanted encounter.  Young men burning with lust forced themselves on an unsuspecting victim, in this case a male.

Perhaps that occurrence is similar to the scene we read about in the story in Genesis 19. In that chapter Lot offered hospitality to two angelic beings. However they must have seemed in appearance to be like young men. Soon after, the men of Sodom of all ages surrounded the house, and called out to Lot, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us, that we may know them.” What did they mean by saying that they wanted to “know them?”

 The word for “know” is (yada). It has many meanings but it can mean knowing a person sexually such as in Gen 4:1 Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, “I have gotten a man with the help of the LORD.” It is also used in the same way in 1Kings 1:4, where David’s servants try to keep David warm by selecting a young woman to lie in his arms. Abishag was found and brought to the king. Even though she was very beautiful and attended to the king, he “knew” her not. In other words he did not know her sexually. Another reference to (yada) being used to describe sexual relations is in the story of Rebekah where she is described as a virgin in these words, Gen 24:16  The young woman was very attractive in appearance, a maiden whom no man had known.

In the story in Genesis 19:8 Lot knew what the men were after, namely sexual relations with his guests. He offers his virgin daughters (who have not known [yada] any man) to the men so that the men of Sodom might do to them as they pleased. Rather a despicable attitude but he wanted to save face with his guests at the cost of his daughters’ well-being. However the men of Sodom lusted for the men and would not accept the offer of the daughters. Judgment followed upon those men.

Many modern versions of the Bible spell out the meaning of “know” referring to sexual relations. For example the Holman Christian Study Bible puts it, Gen 19:5  They called out to Lot and said, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Send them out to us so we can have sex with them!” Lot’s offer of his daughters is translated as, Gen 19:8  Look, I’ve got two daughters who haven’t had sexual relations with a man. I’ll bring them out to you, and you can do whatever you want to them. The NET Bible also puts it starkly, “Bring them out to us so we can have sex with them!” The daughters are described in this version as those, who have never had sexual relations with a man.

It is obvious why the term “sodomy” came into use. It described the sexual activity between males as seen in the city of Sodom. At the very least then, homosexual gang or pack-rape is repugnant to God. But how about homosexual relations between consenting males. Is that wrong too?

Homosexual practice forbidden in Leviticus 18. (See my previous article on this chapter here).

The context in Lev 18:1-30 is the Lord addressing Moses and instructing him to charge His people not to adopt the customs of the nations around them, or the customs of the nations through whose land they would travel. Rather they were to follow God’s rules and statutes and walk in them. Thus many things were forbidden. Among the instructions was this command, (22) You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination. This would obviously include homosexual gang or pack rape which is always wrong in any context. But the words are more general than that. It seems to include consensual male homosexuality.

The seriousness of the charge God gave to Moses is seen in the words that follow in verses 24 to 30, “Do not make yourselves unclean by any of these things, for by all these the nations I am driving out before you have become unclean, (25)  and the land became unclean, so that I punished its iniquity, and the land vomited out its inhabitants. (26)  But you shall keep my statutes and my rules and do none of these abominations, either the native or the stranger who sojourns among you (27)  (for the people of the land, who were before you, did all of these abominations, so that the land became unclean), (28)  lest the land vomit you out when you make it unclean, as it vomited out the nation that was before you. (29)  For everyone who does any of these abominations, the persons who do them shall be cut off from among their people. (30)  So keep my charge never to practice any of these abominable customs that were practiced before you, and never to make yourselves unclean by them: I am the LORD your God.”

 We notice in this passage the references to God’s people not doing “any”, or “all” of the things forbidden. There was also the charge for His people to do “none of the abominations” mentioned in the passage. That would include the situation of a man “lying with another male.” At first sight it seems that in this passage that any form of male homosexual practice is forbidden by God. We therefore need to look more closely at the passage. The term to “ lie” is (shakab). It is often used in the Old Testament to denote sexual intercourse. For example, in addition to the passage in Genesis 19, it is used in Numbers 5:13, if a man lies with her sexually and in 5:19, ‘If no man has lain with you.  Another reference is the rape of Tamar by Amnon in 2 Samuel 13:14, But he would not listen to her, and being stronger than she, he violated her and lay with her.

 There is no doubt that homosexual practice, a man lying with another male (sexual intercourse) is forbidden in this passage. In fact the verse adds the comment that such practice is an abomination to God. “Abomination” is (toebah) meaning something repugnant to God or detestable in His sight. It is used 5 times in this chapter to express God’s abhorrence at any of the practices mentioned. The chapter closes with an expression of God’s hatred  towards such practices, Lev 18:30  ‘So keep my charge never to practice any of these abominable customs that were practised before you, and never to make yourselves unclean by them: I am the LORD your God.”.

Homosexual practice forbidden in Leviticus 20

The context again is God charging His people not to be like the surrounding nations. He told them, consecrate yourselves, therefore, and be holy, for I am the LORD your God. 8 Keep my statutes and do them; I am the LORD who sanctifies you. Lev 20:7, 8. In consecrating themselves to God it meant that they could not follow the customs in the surrounding nations. Homosexual practice was forbidden among God’s people, Lev 20:13  If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall surely be put to death; their blood is upon them. The word for “lies” here is the same word (shakab) which as we have seen above refers to sexual intercourse.

This verse is even stronger in tone than the corresponding verse in Lev 18:22. The additional words are, they shall surely be put to death; their blood is upon them. In chapter 18 it is the act which is seen as an abomination to God. In chapter 20, the people are seen as guilty before Him for disobeying His commandments to them and rebelling against His rightful rule over them. The act is said to be repugnant to God. The people involved in the act are totally accountable to Him for their behaviour.  It sounds pretty tough until you remember that this is God’s world. He sets the rules. He judges  by His own standard, not ours. He is the Creator  and we are the creatures and He is not accountable to us in any way. To do what the Creator commanded us not to do is really an act of rebellion by creatures against their Creator.

Our predicament

Well that leaves us in a predicament. There are so many folk around the world saying that that homosexual activity is to be accepted and approved of.  Perhaps even suggesting that there could be same-sex marriages which have the same status as heterosexual marriages. Perhaps even inferring that those in such same-sex relationships are to be seen to be in a “family” relationship. Perhaps suggesting that those who don’t agree with homosexual activity or homosexual marriage are homophobic and guilty of hate towards them. Of course the great majority of people are not but the accusation is still being made. As I have written previously (see here)  it is really surprising who is guilty of homophobia and who is not.

But if God has revealed to His people in the Old Testament that He sees homosexual activity as an abomination in His sight, then that puts a different slant on accepting it. Perhaps Jesus had a softer, more up to date,  a more “with it” thinking? Or did He have the same attitude to these things that God the Father had? We leave the Old Testament with the knowledge that God has declared His opinion in the Old Testament on homosexual practice. His opinion is obviously vastly different from the opinions of many people in our world today.  What light might Jesus and the New Testament shed on this issue? We will look at that in future articles.

Blog No.085. Jim Holbeck. Posted on Thursday 23rd August 2012 

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084. Galatians 2. Paul’s Message Of Salvation Through Faith In Christ Alone

Posted on August 21, 2012 by Jim Holbeck

In Chapter 2 Paul continues his attempt to show that He was a true apostle raised up by God to preach His gospel, and that his message was authentic.  He uses 2 incidents to demonstrate that.

i). 2:1-10.  Paul’s trip to Jerusalem to see the other apostles. The conclusion will be that Paul is recognised as an authentic apostle sent from God. Also Paul’s message (gospel) is seen as authentic as well.

ii). 2:11-14. Paul’s correction of the wrong action of Peter when he came to Antioch.

Paul concludes the chapter by writing of his own experience of the Gospel. 2:15-21

(I sometimes find it helpful in trying to understand passages of the Bible to begin with the text and look at how it all fits together. Sometimes a table seems to be the best way of classifying the information. I found this helpful in looking at Galatians 2 with its accumulation of facts. On the left side of the table is normally the narrative detailing the action of the characters in the passage. In this case on the right hand side I looked at the result of some action, or the reason for the action or the purpose of the action. It seemed to be easier for me to understand the overall message of the passage in that way. It certainly helped in teaching from it yesterday as I tried to share the message with others. My comments are in blue print for convenience)

ACTIONS OF THE PEOPLE IN GALATIANS 2

 THE RESULT, REASON OR PURPOSE

PAUL GOES TO JERUSALEM TO SEE PETER AND OTHERS 2:1-10
Gal 2:1  Then after fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus along with me. Reason. 2:2  I went up because of a revelation  (The revelation was that this was the time for Paul to connect with the other apostles) 
2:2  (I went up because of a revelation) and set before them (though privately before those who seemed influential) the gospel that I proclaim among the Gentiles Purpose.  in order to make sure I was not running or had not run in vain. (We see the humility of Paul. He knew his message was authentic but was humble enough to have his message tested out by others.) 
2:3  But even Titus, who was with me, Result. was not forced to be circumcised, though he was a Greek. (This meant that the wider church did not see the necessity of circumcision for acceptance with God. Faith in Christ was sufficient. The false teachers were indeed wrong.) 
2:4  Yet because of false brothers secretly brought in–who slipped in to spy out our freedom that we have in Christ Jesus, Reason. so that they might bring us into slavery–. (Faith in Christ brings freedom. To impose anything else as necessary for salvation brings people into bondage to error.)
2:5  to them we did not yield in submission even for a moment, Purpose. so that the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you. (That is why Paul rebuked Peter later in this passage for yielding to the temptation to please the false teachers by withdrawing from the Gentile believers. It was hypocrisy). 
2:6  And from those who seemed to be influential (what they were makes no difference to me; God shows no partiality)–those, I say, who seemed influential Result. added nothing to me.  (The authenticity of Paul as a messenger and the authencity of Paul’s message had now been publicly established. He was the “real deal”.) 
2:7  On the contrary, when they saw that I had been entrusted with the gospel to the uncircumcised, just as Peter had been entrusted with the gospel to the circumcised  (Same gospel message about Jesus as Saviour but to different audiences.)
2:8  (for he who worked through Peter for his apostolic ministry to the circumcised worked also through me for mine to the Gentiles), (God at work through His messengers by His Spirit) 

 

 

2:9  and when James and Cephas and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given to me,
Result. they gave the right hand of fellowship to Barnabas and me,     
Purpose. that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised. (Paul described his ministry as from God, Rom 15:18 For I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me to bring the Gentiles to obedience–by word and deed)
 
Result. They agreed that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the Jews. (This showed that the other apostles recognised the legitimacy of Paul’s message as coming from God.)
2:10  Only, they asked us to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do.  

PETER (CEPHAS) COMES TO SEE PAUL IN ANTIOCH
2:11  But when Cephas came to Antioch, Result. I opposed him to his face, Reason. because he stood condemned.
2:12  For before certain men came from James, he was eating with the Gentiles Result. but when they came he drew back and separated himself, (A hypocritical action)Reason. fearing the circumcision party. (Men-pleasing rather than God-pleasing)
2:13  And the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with him, Result. so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy. (Our hypocrisy can cause others to stumble. Sin always has consequences.)
2:14  But when I saw that their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel Result. I said to Cephas before them all, “If you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you force the Gentiles to live like Jews?”

PAUL’S GOSPEL. HUMANS ARE MADE RIGHT WITH GOD BY FAITH and not by works of the law
2:15  We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners;
2:16  yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus Purpose.  in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, Reason. because by works of the law no one will be justified.
2:17  But if, in our endeavour to be justified in Christ, we too were found to be sinners, is Christ then a servant of sin? Certainly not!
2:18  For if I rebuild what I tore down, I prove myself to be a transgressor.
2:19  For through the law I died to the law, Result. so that I might live to God. (Paul had ceased to rely on observance of the law as a means of getting right with God. He died to the law in that sense as He entered into a living relationship with a living Saviour).
2:20  I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. Result. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (Total commitment means we make Jesus to be the Lord of our lives.)
2:21  I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, Result would be. then Christ died for no purpose. (The law could not save anyone. Jesus did in His grace). 

The phrase “with Christ” in Galatians 2:20 is significant.  (Hopefully there may be time in future articles to deal with this more closely.) However for the present  we look at how many of the verses using the term “with Christ” show the identification of the believer with Christ in His death, resurrection, ascension, sitting at the right hand of God etc.  The following do not include similar concepts like “with Him” or “in Him” or “in Christ”.

Dying and living with Christ. Rom_6:8  Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.

Fellow heirs with Christ and having to suffer with Him. Rom_8:17  and if children, then heirs–heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.

In this passage in Galatians 2, our identification with Christ in His death and in His risen life. Gal_2:20  I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

Being made alive with Christ.Eph_2:5  even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ–by grace you have been saved–

Death opening the way to a deeper life with Christ. Php_1:23  I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better.

We died with Christ in His death.  Col_2:20  If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations–

We were raised with Christ in His resurrection. Col_3:1  If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.

Our lives were linked to Christ in His death and resurrected life. Col_3:3  For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

Saints will reign with Him in glory. Rev_20:4  Then I saw thrones, and seated on them were those to whom the authority to judge was committed. Also I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of God, and those who had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.

 Paul could not see his life apart from Christ. God had revealed Him to Paul. Paul had responded to Him with a total commitment that involved every aspect of his life. It was as though his old life ended with Christ in His death. He came alive with Christ as a new creature. He would live for him for ever. His words in 2:20 are challenging to us today. To what extent have our old lives come to an end? To what extent have we come alive to Christ so that He has full access in and through our lives?  Worth pondering as we come to the end of chapter 2.

Blog No.084.  Jim Holbeck. Posted on Wednesday 21st August 2012

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083. Galatians 1. It Can Never Be “Christ AND” For Salvation

Posted on August 20, 2012 by Jim Holbeck

“God is good! You are being very, very silly!” That could be a very quick summary of the early part of Paul’s letter to the Galatians. He wrote in verse 4 that Jesus in His love had given Himself over to suffer death to release the people in Galatia from the present evil age. They had responded to His love by listening to the words of false teachers and rejecting Him in their sin, rebellion and stupidity. Unlike most of the other epistles where Paul praised his readers for their faith and love, in this epistle he does not do so. Rather He gets straight to the point in saying, (6) I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel–.

The Galatians has been seduced by false teachers who had come into the church. They brought with them false teaching which insisted that believers had to become real Jews first before they could be seen as true Christian believers. That meant that they had to undergo circumcision, observe Jewish rites and ceremonies and also observe various seasons. Paul saw that as a desertion of Christ. The false teachers were insisting on “Christ AND” by adding the necessity of observing aspects of the Jewish religion. Paul saw that Christ alone (who He was and what He had done) was sufficient for the salvation of any person who put their trust in Him.

These false teachers tried to lead the people away from Paul and from the gospel message he had brought to them. Thus in this first chapter Paul affirms his God-given authority as the apostle to the Gentiles (non-Jews) and also affirms that the message he preached to the Galatians was the message God Himself gave him to preach to them.

We could summarise Chapter 1 in the following way:-

1).        THERE IS ONLY ONE AUTHENTIC GOSPEL MESSAGE

It was the message Paul had already brought them.

  • Paul could not change it. Nor could any supposed angel from heaven. Verse 8.
  • To change it would bring a curse from God. Verses 8 and 9.
  • The gospel Paul preached came directly from a revelation from Christ Himself. Verses 10 to 12.

2).        PAUL WAS AN AUTHENTIC MESSENGER OF THE GOSPEL MESSAGE

i).         The Persecutor Had Become The Preacher.

  • He had persecuted the church and tried to destroy it. Verse 13.
  • He had been extremely zealous in his quest to advance in Judaism. Verse 14.
  • But something happened. (On the road to Damascus when he met the risen Christ). Verse 15,  But when he who had set me apart before I was born, and who called me by his grace, (16)  was pleased to reveal his Son to me, in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles,

 ii).        The Preacher Had To Get His Message First–Hand From God And Not Second Hand From Others.  I did not immediately consult with anyone;

  • He didn’t immediately confer with the apostles. Verse 17.
  • He spent time with God in Arabia and Damascus. Verse 17.
  • He eventually went to Jerusalem but spent time only with Peter and James the Lord’s brother. Verse 18-19.
  • He went into the regions of Syria and Cilicia. Verse 21.
  • He remained unknown to the churches of Judea. Verse 22.

iii).       The Persecutor Now Become A Preacher Was Recognised As A True Messenger Of The Gospel  By The Churches In Judea. (23)  They only were hearing it said, “He who used to persecute us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy.” (24)  And they glorified God because of me.

We will see in later chapters that Paul continued to stress his credentials as an apostle and as a messenger from God. But we leave that for future studies.

What we do note however is that Paul’s words are relevant for today. There is always a tendency among humans to fail to grasp the meaning of grace (God’s unmerited favour towards His creatures). Many try to add some other condition necessary for people to become “real” Christians”.

For some, anyone who does not speak in tongues has not been baptised with the Holy Spirit and therefore is not a real Christian. So for them it is Christ AND tongues. For others it is necessary to have the correct form of baptism. This it becomes Christ AND believer’s baptism with total immersion, or some other form of baptism.

For a small group it is Christ AND using the right translation of the Bible such as the King James Authorised Version which some adherents assure us was the Bible used by St Paul. (Pity though that Paul died around 67-68AD and the King James AV was put together in 1661!)

There are numerous other conditions that people try to place on folk so that they can become “real” Christians, such as having the right brand of theology or following a particular teacher. But as Paul showed here in this chapter, if one’s religion becomes “Christ AND” anyone or anything else, it ceases to be Christian. He is the one and only Saviour and His death made salvation, forgiveness and eternal life available for the people of God in every generation. Paul will go on to emphasise that in the later chapters of Galatians. As one hymn puts it in describing the person and work of Jesus, “Halleluiah, what a Saviour!”

Blog No.083. Posted on Monday 20th August 2012

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082. John 6:35-58 Could Be John 3:16 Writ Large!

Posted on August 15, 2012 by Jim Holbeck

The passage from John 6:35-58 has been called “John 3:16 Writ Large!” Who called it that? Well no recognised Bible Scholar has ever called it that to my knowledge. I just made up the term at this moment having preached on this passage in the last few days. In John 3:16, which has been called “the Gospel in a nutshell”, John records Jesus’ words in this verse which make 3 basic points. i). There is God’s loving initiative towards His people, For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son.  ii). There is a response of people towards God’s love, that whoever believes in Him.  iii). There is the result of their responding to God’s love, might not perish but have eternal life.

 The more involved I got in trying to understand (and then preach on) the difficult passage in John 6:35-58 the more it seemed that John was stating the same basic message of the Gospel seen in John 3:16 in different words. There is the description of God’s loving initiative in several verses. Then there is the response from the people as they respond Him in faith. Then there are the blessings resulting from their response to His love. I tried to represent these truths in the table below to see if it made it easier for folk to understand.  Because some kindly said it helped, I share it with you now.

God’s Loving Initiative Towards Us
Our Human Response To God’s Love And The Results That Follow
Jn 6:35)  Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life;
whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.
(37)  All that the Father gives me will come to me,
(37)  ….  whoever comes to me I will never cast out.
(39)  And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day.
(40)  For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”
44  No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.
And I will raise him up on the last day.
 
(45)  It is written in the Prophets, ‘And they will all be taught by God.
(45)  … Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me–
(47)
He who believes has eternal life
(50)  This is the bread that comes down from heaven,
so that one may eat of it and not die.
(51)  I am the living bread that came down from heaven.
If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever.
(53)  unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood      
you have no life in you. (Meaning that if you do eat and drink you will not have life)
 
 (54)  Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.
 
(56)  Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him.
(57)  As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father,
so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me.
(58)  This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like the bread the fathers ate and died.
Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.”
 

I tried to sum up the passage in a shorter summary. It could be expressed like this.

Our Human Response To God’s Love
The Results That Follow
v.35. Coming to Jesus and believing in Him 
= spiritual hunger and thirst satisfied
(37)  ….  whoever comes to me 
= God will never cast us out.
(40)  everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him
= has eternal life (also v 47), and will be raised upon the last day.” (Also v 44)
(50)  so that one may eat of it (the bread from heaven)
= and not die. (Also v 51)
(51) if anyone eats of this bread
= he will live for ever
(53)  unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood
=  you have no life in you. (Meaning that if you do eat and drink you will have life)
(54)  Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood
= has eternal life and will be raised up on the last day.
 (56)  Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood
= abides in me, and I in him.
(57) so whoever feeds on me
= he also will live because of me.
(58) Whoever feeds on this bread
= will live forever.”

It becomes apparent that many of the terms Jesus used are synonymous.

  • “Coming” to Jesus is coming to Him in faith and thus believing in Him. He and He alone brings spiritual satisfaction. Not only that but there is an assurance of salvation because Jesus said that God will never cast out those who come to Him.
  • To “look on the Son” is obviously to look on Him with the eyes of faith. The word for “look” is (theōreō) which means to look intently, to focus on. It is a similar concept to that in John 3:14, 15  And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 3:15  that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. In the story of the bronze serpent in Numbers 21: 8, the people are told to look at the bronze serpent on the pole if they were bitten by serpents. 21:9 says, So Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would” look” at the bronze serpent and live. “Look” in this verse in the Hebrew is (nabat) meaning to gaze upon and the Old Testament Greek word is (epiblepō) which has much the same meaning. The hymn “Turn your eyes upon Jesus” gives the true meaning, There’s light for a look at the Savior, And life more abundant and free.  There is the gift of eternal life for the present and the future, and the promise of being raised on the day of Resurrection on the last day.
  • The references in these verses to eating of Jesus’ flesh and drinking of His blood  are not here referring to receiving the elements at Holy Communion. They refer to coming to Jesus in faith and appropriating into one’s being, all that He is and all He offers in Himself, such as forgiveness, eternal life (see Ephesians 1:7) etc. Of course the best way of having people understand Jesus as the Bread of life is to use the analogy of eating and drinking in appropriating what God offers us in Him. Through this appropriation believers learn to abide in Him and to allow Him to abide in them by His indwelling presence.
  • What we do in receiving the elements of bread and wine at Holy Communion is to focus not on the elements themselves but on what the elements point to. The focus is not on the bread and wine but on the living Jesus and on what He accomplished for believers on the cross.  At the Last Supper Jesus said as He took the bread, “Take, eat; this is my body.”  As He took the cup He added, “Drink of it, all of you.” He explained His actions by saying, Mat 26:28  for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. He was referring to His death as he shed His blood so that forgiveness might become available for the people of God through Him. His death though would not be the end. As He added, Mat 26:29  I tell you I will not drink again of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.” He would rise from the dead.
  • St Paul in his discussion of the Lord’s Supper in1Corinthians 11, also showed that the death of Jesus was paramount in every observance of the Lord’s Supper, 1Cor 11:26  For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes. “Proclaim”is (kataggellō). It can also mean to announce, to set forth, to point to Jesus’s death with a view to focussing on its significance. The words and actions of the Lord’s Supper point away from themselves to instead highlight the victory of Christ over evil as He hung on the cross. They also highlight His victorious resurrection from the dead. There is the reminder in this verse that He will be coming again. Death has not conquered Him. He is alive, a Living Saviour..

The passage John 6:35-58 is not an easy passage to understand. It is even harder for a preacher to preach on these verses. How could one shorten the passage to just one sentence? We could pretty well sum up the whole passage in John 6:35-58 by saying, ”For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. John 6:35-58 is John 3:16 writ large!

Blog No.082.  Jim Holbeck. Posted on Wednesday 15th August 2012

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