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Meanings Have Words

August 13, 2024

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile. For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.” (Romans 1:16-17 NIV)

I readily admit that I tend to think, speak, write and interact with people, mostly from the left side of my brain.  Therefore, I tend to be very analytical, logical and linear in my thinking and perspective.  As an engineer, I was educated and taught how to solve problems by analyzing what was known and what was unknown, and then to begin to eliminate the unknowns to eventually find a solution.  I say all this to express that my normal left-brain thinking, does not leave much room for accepting or living with unknowns, or things, that cannot be verified using my five bodily senses. This way of thinking is somewhat expressed in the following quote from The Princess and Curdie by George Mac Dondald:

There is this difference between the growth of some human beings and that of others: in the one case it is a continuous dying, in the other a continuous resurrection. One of the latter sort comes at length to know at once whether a thing is true the moment it comes before him; one of the former class grows more and more afraid of being taken in, so afraid of it that he takes himself in altogether, and comes at length to believe in nothing but his dinner: to be sure of a thing with him is to have it between his teeth.

I was created by God our Father with a right brain as well as a left brain, and I see the need to learn how to embrace the God given purpose of me having both.  Part of that journey has been to hang out with people who are more balanced or even mostly right brained in their thinking. This also includes reading the works of authors such as George MacDonald (1824–1905), who wrote prolifically in the 19th century, in multiple genres including, poetry, theological works, fantasies and realistic fictional works.  In all of his writings, he weaves in the nature of God our Father, and His desire for us to know Him. A good friend gave me a book of a collection of some of MacDonald’s works titled, The Heart of George MacDonald, way back in 1994.  However, at that time I had little success in understanding him and laid it aside until 2020. 

Due to the COVID lockdowns, and major heart surgery in the summer of 2020, I was spending a lot of time reading, and eventually exhausted the books we had that interested me.  Then a relative gave me a copy of one of George McDonald’s realistic fiction books.  Reading that book somehow opened up my mind and heart, to be able to understand his writings.  He is now my favorite and most read author, and I have discovered great theological truths about the nature of God from his writings.  Expanding upon a quote from C.S. Lewis about his fantasy writings, a friend commented about my personal experience saying, “a good story has a way of sneaking past the watchful dragons of our minds to reach our hearts with profound truth”.

Being mostly left-brained, I am a student of words and their meanings.  I have discovered that the meaning of words often varies with context, culture, and the time in history that a word is used.  In conversation, especially concerning scriptures, I have often said that words have meanings, and it is important to understand what is meant by the words we speak, or others speak.  I recently made such a statement, in the presence of one of my mostly right-brained friends, who responded with “yes, but meanings have words”.  That comment has led to many discussions since then and often pondering how we use words to try to convey what we are thinking and feeling.

Of all of the creatures God has made, only humans, who are made in God’s image, have been given the ability to think, and then to form those thoughts into breath sounds, that can form words to express what we are thinking and feeling.  This is a form of creativity that is given to us by God who created the heavens and earth and all that is within it.  That creativity also includes art, music, literature, poetry, etc.  The creative process should involve both the left and right brains, but many of us tend towards one or the other.  A left-brained person will tend towards making something useful, whereas a right-brained person tends towards making it look good.  An engineer is most concerned about how a design will produce a functional item or system, an interior decorator is most concerned about how an item will look, and architects try to include both.  Which is more important, form or function?  The answer depends upon a person’s perspective.  The difference in perspective can cause significant friction in a marriage, when a husband and wife are discussing such things, as home improvements, a new car purchase, or furniture for their home. 

A person’s efforts to create something, regardless of the medium for their creativity/artistic work, is trying to find a way, to express what they are thinking, and feeling within their hearts.  In a very real way, they are letting others know them in an intimate way.  Therefore, if someone misunderstands the meaning of their creative/artistic work, it can be very hurtful to them, because it is a misunderstanding of themselves by the other person.

As I previously stated, I am a student of words and their meanings, especially those that are associated with scriptures and our understanding of the nature of God.  I am not naturally artistic, when it comes to drawing, sketching, painting, writing music, poetry, etc.  But, I have learned to use words, as a paint brush to paint mental pictures in my imagination, or the imagination of someone I am talking to, to convey what I am thinking and feeling. That is what Jesus did when teaching people through the parables (stories) he told.  It is even more powerful when the meaning of the story is demonstrated in a way that effects all our senses…. not just what we hear, but also see, smell, taste, and touch.

My desire in writing this article, is to attempt to paint mental pictures, about the meaning of some of the commonly used words from scripture, to sneak past the watchful theological dragons that we all have, that result in a perspective about the nature of God our Father, that hinders intimacy with Him. 

So, let’s get started with some scriptures from the Gospel of John.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. There was a man sent from God whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light. The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God. The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John testified concerning him. He cried out, saying, “This is the one I spoke about when I said, ‘He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.'”) Out of his fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father (KJV – in the bosom of the Father), has made him known. (John 1:1-18 NIV)

  • “to those who believed in his name”
    • Believed – The English words believe, faith and trust all are translated from a family of Greek words which are derived from the root word peíthō (Strong’s G3982).  The basic meaning being “to be persuaded”.  The breakthrough for my understanding of this family of words, was when I realized that the word “trust”, could be used wherever any of these words occur in the New Testament, or in the Greek Septuagint translation of the Hebrew scriptures (Old Testament).  Most of us have some form of religious “watchful dragons”, when it comes to our understanding of the words believe, and faith, but not so much the word trust.  It seems to me that we have used the words believe and faith so much that we have lost their meaning.  Examples include hearing someone say, “just believe it is true”, or “have faith even though you see no evidence”.  Sometimes this is referred to as taking a blind leap of faith.  However, trust is not a blind leap of faith, it is based on our personal experience, in relationships with people and things, in this creation.  The word trust conveys a more concrete word picture.  We only trust what we have consistently seen truth(reality) revealed in. Let’s look at an example from scripture of Peter walking on the water to Jesus.
      • Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowd. After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. Later that night, he was there alone, and the boat was already a considerable distance from land, buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it. Shortly before dawn Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. “It’s a ghost,” they said, and cried out in fear. But Jesus immediately said to them: “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.” “Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.” “Come,” he said. Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!” Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?” And when they climbed into the boat, the wind died down. Then those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.” (Matthew 14:22-33 NIV)
  • Remember, that the family of words that includes belief, faith and trust means to be persuaded.  What was the relational process involved, that resulted in Peter overcoming his fear, when he thought Jesus was a ghost walking on the stormy waters of the sea?  Peter and the other disciples had been living with Jesus for many days watching Him in the everyday activities of life.  He demonstrated a life of dependance upon God our Father, and in the process, they saw things happen that were impossible in the natural realm of creation.  Things such as water being turned into wine, multiple occurrences of people being healed, people being raised from the dead, and demonic spirits being cast out of people.  When Jesus saw the fear on the faces of his disciples in the boat during the storm,  he spoke, “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.”  Their response of “being persuaded” was not based just upon Him saying, “Don’t be afraid”.  It was based upon their relationship with Him, in situations where they were witnessing the nature of God our Father, being demonstrated through Jesus, the only begotten Son of God, who is one with His Father and only does what He sees His Father doing.  I think we often make a mistake, when we expect people to have faith in what the Bible says, to be persuaded that it is true, without any relational basis.  Based on his experience with Jesus, Peter was persuaded that he could also walk on the water like Jesus, because Jesus said, “come” to Peter’s request to “Lord, if it’s you, tell me to come on the water to you”.  It was not a “blind leap of faith”, that led Peter to step out of the boat onto the stormy waters and to begin to walk towards Jesus.  It was because he knew from his personal experience, that he could trust the very weight of his being upon what Jesus told him.  For now, we will wait to discuss what happened when Peter looked at the waves and began to sink into the sea.
    • Name – In western culture, personal names of people are not seen as making a statement about the person, it is just their name to distinguish them from another person.  However, that is not true in ancient cultures and some non-western modern cultures.  The Greek word translated as name, is ónoma (Strong’s G3686).  A person’s name is intended to convey or reveal the truth of their character. In ancient cultures, when a name was given before or at the time of birth of a person, it was intended as a prophetic statement about the person, what they are destined to become.  Every time their name was spoken it was a declaration of a prophetic statement.  Speaking about the one who is the Only Begotten Son of God, Luke 1:28-31 states, “The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.” Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus.”   The name Jesus, is the English transliteration of the Hebrew name Yehoshua, which means, “Yahweh saves”, or “Yahweh is salvation”.  To believe (trust) in His name, is to trust the weight of my very being upon the reality of His name.  However, remember that trust is a relational word, we learn to trust what we see truth revealed in consistently over time.  Jesus’s disciples learned to trust Him by living with Him and witnessing His relationship with God our Father.
  • We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth

What is the gift that God our Father, desires to give us, in His act of grace in His embrace?  Quite simply it is life, that we might share in His life, His divine nature!  At the very core of His being God is love, therefore the life that He is, the life He desires to give us, is expressed as love!  Love can only exist in a relationship.  The love that God is, and always will be, is forever and always being shared between God our Father, Jesus His only Begotten Son, and the Holy Spirit.  We were created to participate in that life, that love, that God is!  Let’s look at some scriptures that speak to this reality.

  • Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. We love because he first loved us. Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister. (1 John 4:7-21 NIV)
  • Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails; but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away. (1 Corinthians 13:4-8 NASB)
  • In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. (John 1:1-4 NIV)
  • For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. (John 3:16-18 NIV)
  • Jesus gave them this answer: “Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does. Yes, and he will show him even greater works than these, so that you will be amazed. For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son gives life to whom he is pleased to give it. Moreover, the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son, that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father, who sent him. “Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life. Very truly I tell you, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live. For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself. And he has given him authority to judge because he is the Son of Man. “Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice (John 5:19-28 NIV)
  • You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life. (John 5:39-40 NIV)
  • “Very truly I tell you Pharisees, anyone who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber. The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice.” Jesus used this figure of speech, but the Pharisees did not understand what he was telling them. Therefore Jesus said again, “Very truly I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. All who have come before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep have not listened to them. I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out, and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired hand is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me— just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd. The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father.”  (John 10:1-18 NIV)
  • “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going.” Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?” Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.” Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.” Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves. Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. (John 14:1-13 NIV)
  • After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed: “Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. (John 17:1-3 NIV)
  • As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. But 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. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. (Ephesians 2:1-10 NIV)

Jesus masterfully told many parables (stories) to get the truth, of the nature of God our Father, as being love, and full of grace and truth, past the “watchful dragons” of the Pharisees, and teachers of the law, and us.  They were experts in the Hebrew scriptures (Old Testament), yet they were very critical of Jesus, because of their wrong perspective of the nature of God, and did not see how Jesus could show grace to (or embrace) “sinners”.  Three of those stories are recorded in Luke 15 as he told them about a lost sheep, a lost coin, and a lost son.  I encourage you to stop and read all of Luke 15 before you read my thoughts below about these parables.

  • What does it mean to be lost?
    • The Greek word translated as lost is apóllymi (Strong’s G622).  Before I give you the definition as you will find it in various Bible concordances and/or dictionaries, I want to give you some thoughts to ponder.

First, something cannot be lost unless it has a home….. it belongs to someone. If it is lost, the owner only searches for it because it is of value to them. 

  • In the case of people, who do they belong to and where is their home?  Psalm 24:1-2 states, “The earth is the LORD’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it; for he founded it on the seas and established it on the waters.”   John 1:10-11 states, “He (Jesus) was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.”   When Jesus tells the story about a lost sheep He says, “And when he (the shepherd who owns the sheep) finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’” (Luke 15:5-6 NIV) When Jesus tells the story of a woman who lost a coin, He says of her, “And when she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost coin.’” (Luke 15:9 NIV) Speaking about the lost son, Jesus says that the father of the son said, “For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate.” (Luke 15:24 NIV)

Second, apóllymi(Strong’s G622) is also translated as perish.  Let’s look at a few examples.

  • When He got into the boat, His disciples followed Him. And behold, there arose a great storm on the sea, so that the boat was being covered with the waves; but Jesus Himself was asleep. And they came to Him and woke Him, saying, “Save us, Lord; we are perishing!” He said to them, “Why are you afraid, you men of little faith?” Then He got up and rebuked the winds and the sea, and it became perfectly calm. The men were amazed, and said, “What kind of a man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey Him?” (Matthew 8:23-27 NASB)
    • “See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven. “What do you think? If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off? And if he finds it, truly I tell you, he is happier about that one sheep than about the ninety-nine that did not wander off. In the same way your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should perish. (Matthew 18:10-14 NIV)
    • Now there were some present at that time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. Jesus answered, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish. Or those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them—do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.” (Luke 13:1-5 NIV)
    • For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. (John 3:16-18 NIV) Jesus answered, “I did tell you, but you do not believe. The works I do in my Father’s name testify about me, but you do not believe because you are not my sheep. My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.” (John 10:25-30 NIV)
    • For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel—not with wisdom and eloquence, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power. For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. (1 Corinthians 1:17-18 NIV)
    • I want you to recall the words spoken in the past by the holy prophets and the command given by our Lord and Savior through your apostles. Above all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. They will say, “Where is this ‘coming’ he promised? Ever since our ancestors died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.” But they deliberately forget that long ago by God’s word the heavens came into being and the earth was formed out of water and by water. By these waters also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed. By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly. But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare. Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming. That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat. But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness dwells. (2 Peter 3:2-13 NIV)

Third, I find it helpful to look at some of the writings of the early church fathers.  However, even though many people may claim to teach or believe, what the “early church fathers”, wrote and believed, in my limited experience, there is no such thing as a dogmatic statement of belief, about what all “the early church fathers” believed, about a particular doctrine.  It just depends upon who you count as an “early church father” and whether we truly understand what they were writing or saying.  With that disclaimer, I will quote St. Athanasius, the Archbishop of Alexandria (c.296-c.373) who was a significant contributor to what is called the Nicene Creed.  The quote is from his treatise titled, On the Incarnation, in chapter 2 titled, The Divine Dilemma and its Solution in the Incarnation.

  •  We saw in the last chapter that, because death and corruption were gaining ever firmer hold on them, the human race was in process of destruction. Man, who was created in God’s image and in his possession of reason reflected the very Word Himself, was disappearing, and the work of God was being undone. The law of death, which followed from the Transgression, prevailed upon us, and from it there was no escape. The thing that was happening was in truth both monstrous and unfitting. It would, of course, have been unthinkable that God should go back upon His word and that man, having transgressed, should not die; but it was equally monstrous that beings which once had shared the nature of the Word should perish and turn back again into non-existence through corruption. It was unworthy of the goodness of God that creatures made by Him should be brought to nothing through the deceit wrought upon man by the devil; and it was supremely unfitting that the work of God in mankind should disappear, either through their own negligence or through the deceit of evil spirits. As, then, the creatures whom He had created reasonable, like the Word, were in fact perishing, and such noble works were on the road to ruin, what then was God, being Good, to do? Was He to let corruption and death have their way with them? In that case, what was the use of having made them in the beginning? Surely it would have been better never to have been created at all than, having been created, to be neglected and perish; and, besides that, such indifference to the ruin of His own work before His very eyes would argue not goodness in God but limitation, and that far more than if He had never created men at all. It was impossible, therefore, that God should leave man to be carried off by corruption, because it would be unfitting and unworthy of Himself.If you are not familiar with this work, I highly recommend you read it and see what Athanasius gives as the answer to his question, “As, then, the creatures whom He had created reasonable, like the Word, were in fact perishing, and such noble works were on the road to ruin, what then was God, being Good, to do?”
  • Without having looked at the above scriptures about “being lost” or “perish”, we can easily misunderstand their meaning and have a perspective other than the perspective of God our Father, as revealed to us in Christ Jesus, who came to seek and save the lost that they might not perish.  Let’s now look at the definition of lost/perish from the Greek word  apóllymi (Strong’s G622) as you will find it in various Bible concordances and/or dictionaries.  The definition below is from Biblehub.com.
  • From apó, “away from,” which intensifies ollymi, “to destroy”– properly, fully destroy, cutting off entirely, “violently/completely perish”, implies permanent (absolute) destruction, i.e. to cancel out (remove); “to die, with the implication of ruin and destruction” (L & N, 1, 23.106); cause to be lost (utterly perish) by experiencing a miserable end.  Before I say more about the meaning of the words lost or perish, I need to have a good picture to look at, to understand what sin is, and what repentance looks like.  To do that, let’s look at the parable of the lost son in Luke 15.  In the text below I have highlighted a few phrases so we can ask some questions.

Jesus continued: “There was a man who had two sons. The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them. “Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything. “When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.’ So he got up and went to his father. “But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him. “The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ “But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate. “Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. ‘Your brother has come,’ he replied, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’ “The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’ “‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.‘” (Luke 15:11-32 NIV)

  • “How did it occur that the younger son came to be considered as lost by his father?”  The short answer is, because he decided to think, and live as if he had no father.  In Deuteronomy 32:18 Moses told the children of Israel, “You deserted the Rock, who fathered you; you forgot the God who gave you birth.”  Moses was speaking to the children of the generation of descendants of Jacob (Israel), that God delivered mightily from the misery and oppression of slavery in Egypt.  Their ancestors, who were delivered from slavery, all died (perished) over a 40-year period of time because they did not trust God our Father to be faithful in providing for His children.  They did not do as their ancestor Abraham did when, “Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead—since he was about a hundred years old—and that Sarah’s womb was also dead. Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised.” (Romans 4:19-21 NIV)

When the younger son in the parable said, ”Father, give me my share of the estate”,   he essentially told his father, “I am not willing to continue to have a father-son relationship with you, give me my share of your estate”, which included physical possessions and money, “that I am due upon your death, and I will consider you as dead, and you shall consider me as dead, and we shall never see or speak to each other again”.  This statement is the best definition of sin that I can paint for you.  The Greek word that is translated as sin is hamartía (Strong’s G266).  You will often hear it said that sin means to miss the mark, like an arrow launched by an archer, that misses the intended target.  This is not incorrect, but it leaves me wondering, “What was the intended target?” 

The Apostle Paul gives us a little bit of help in answering the question, “What was the intended target?” when he addresses some problems that existed between some of the disciples of Jesus in Rome.  The problem was their disagreement as to whether it was sin to eat certain foods, such as meat sacrificed to pagan idols.  Paul’s answer was, “So whatever you believe about these things keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the one who does not condemn himself by what he approves. But whoever has doubts is condemned if they eat, because their eating is not from faith; and everything that does not come from faith is sin.” (Romans 14:22-23 NIV) The intended target is, that we were created to live in the embrace of God our Father, to trust Him that He is good and that His love for the entire cosmos endures forever, from generation to generation.  To sin is to think, and act like this is not true, just like the younger son viewed his father in the parable.  Someone once said that to live this way is to live like we are orphans without a father in this world.  Orphans learn that they cannot trust anyone except themselves, therefore they must lean upon their own understanding, take their life into their own hands and make their own way. 

Now that we have a clearer picture of the meaning of sin, let us return to the story (parable) that Jesus is telling, in trying to “sneak past the watchful dragons” that we, His listeners have, that hinder our seeing a true picture of the nature of God our Father. After the lost son came to his senses, in the  midst of coming to ruin (being lost), he remembered he still had a father, he really was not the orphan he had declared himself to be.  But he did not think his father would receive him as a son any longer, because of his sin (he had declared his father to be dead), but he might receive him as a servant in his household.  His reception by his father is not what he expected. Listen to what Jesus says that the father did, and remember this is a picture of God our Father!

“But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.”…. “the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate”.

What might that celebration look like?  We get a clue from the rest of the story when Jesus tells his hearers about the older son.

“Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. ‘Your brother has come,’ he replied, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’

The celebration involved having a feast of the finest food they could provide, plus singing and dancing.  I grew up in a religious culture where it was said, “that dancing was of the devil”.  I will not speculate as to what the dancing that Jesus spoke of looked like, but He told the story to help us understand the nature of God our Father.  The devil cannot create anything, he can only present twisted counterfeit versions of what is real.  Everything that is good and perfect, that which comes from the Father of Heavenly Lights, also has a counterfeit that Satan uses to try to deceive us.  Do not misunderstand me, there is a form of dancing that is of the devil, but we must not reject what is the true dance, the celebration hosted and led by God our Father, that He invites us into sharing with Him, Jesus and the Holy Spirit.  Jesus put it this way in Luke 15:10 when he said, “In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”   Our participation in that dance begins in the embrace of God our Father just as it did for the returning lost son. “When he (the son) was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.”   The father’s embrace happened before his son could even confess his sin against “heaven and against you”.   This dance is initiated by the father, the son’s role is to either receive his father’s embrace, and kisses and be restored as a son, or to pull away because he thinks he is unworthy of such lavish love, and ask to be treated as one of his father’s servants. The son chose the latter, and while still in his father’s embrace and kisses, says, “I am no longer worthy to be called your son.”  But, his father would not accept his son’s wrong perspective, and declared “to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’” 

Remember, Jesus is telling this story to get past the wrong perspective His hearers have about the nature of God our Father.  With that reminder, don’t fail to notice that the father in the story fully embraced his son just as he was, likely wearing rags for clothing, still with the stains and the smell of the pigs and their feces upon his clothing and body.  This is another example of Jesus telling the story to try to “sneak past the watchful dragons” of the religious leaders, to get to their hearts that they might begin to see the true nature of God our Father!  We are made righteous, holy and spotless when we submit to God our Father’s embrace, and He takes upon Himself all of our sin, our filth and consumes it in the all-consuming fire of the love that He is, and gives us His very life.  Some of this transformation takes place instantaneously, and some over the rest of our lives as we learn to trust Him and abide in His embrace and dance with Him.  I will go so far as to say, that the process of transformation, may continue through all of eternity as we experience more and more of what Paul called, “the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” (Colossians 1:27 NIV) 

I need to clarify that when I speak of the embrace of God our Father, I am coming from the perspective of Jesus when He said, the Father and I are one.  The embrace, the dance, is with the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit for they are inseparably one by their eternal mutual embrace of each other.  This is expressed by Paul in 2 Corinthians 5:17-19 (NASB), “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation.”

Now let’s look closely at the reaction of the older son to the news of the celebration of the younger son’s coming home.

“The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’ “‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.'”

With different words, and maybe a different motivation, the older son makes a similar declaration, as the younger son did, when he asked for his share of his father’s estate.  Notice, he sees his relationship with his father not as a father-son relationship, but as a slave.  He views obedience of his father’s commands as burdensome, toilsome labor, which is the definition of the Greek word ponéros (Strong’s G4190), which is translated as evil elsewhere in the scriptures (such as Matthew 12:33-37).  He does not see obedience as being part of the dance, as being done in the embrace of his father, as a fellowship of sharing of mutual love. 

Jesus speaks to the wrong perspective of obedience in Matthew 11:27-30 when He said, “All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” 

A yoke is an instrument made to perform work.  In the natural world, if a person or animal remains in that kind of yoke, they will eventually grow weary and have to lay down the yoke.  That is what happens when we see obedience to God’s commands, as a means to win his favor.  “Maybe if I do enough, by obeying His commands, He will then embrace me and love me”, rather than seeing His embrace as being the only place from which obedience can take place.  John the evangelist gives even more clarity to what Jesus means when in 1 John 5:2-3 he said, “This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands. In fact, this is love for God: to keep his commands. And his commands are not burdensome.”   Hmm…. His commands are not burdensome?  Then why do so many of us grow weary in obeying His commands?  Maybe it is not the yoke of Jesus we have taken upon us.  Remember, there is always a counterfeit of what is real…..what is real is that which comes from our Father. 

Again, Jesus said, “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me”.  What does that look like? Why does Jesus have a yoke, what does it look like?  Let’s look at some scriptures to help answer these questions.

  • So, because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jewish leaders began to persecute him. In his defense Jesus said to them, “My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working.” For this reason they tried all the more to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God. Jesus gave them this answer: “Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does. Yes, and he will show him even greater works than these, so that you will be amazed. (John 5:16-20 NIV)
  •  Then came the Festival of Dedication at Jerusalem. It was winter, and Jesus was in the temple courts walking in Solomon’s Colonnade. The Jews who were there gathered around him, saying, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.” Jesus answered, “I did tell you, but you do not believe. The works I do in my Father’s name testify about me, but you do not believe because you are not my sheep. My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.” Again his Jewish opponents picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus said to them, “I have shown you many good works from the Father. For which of these do you stone me?” “We are not stoning you for any good work,” they replied, “but for blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be God.” Jesus answered them, “Is it not written in your Law, ‘I have said you are “gods”‘? If he called them ‘gods,’ to whom the word of God came—and Scripture cannot be set aside— what about the one whom the Father set apart as his very own and sent into the world? Why then do you accuse me of blasphemy because I said, ‘I am God’s Son’? Do not believe me unless I do the works of my Father. But if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me, and I in the Father.” (John 10:22-38 NIV)
  • “Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” (John 15:4-5 NIV)
  • “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going.” Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?” Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.” Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.” Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves. Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it. “If you love me, keep my commands. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.” Then Judas (not Judas Iscariot) said, “But, Lord, why do you intend to show yourself to us and not to the world?” Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me. “All this I have spoken while still with you. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. “You heard me say, ‘I am going away and I am coming back to you.’ If you loved me, you would be glad that I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. I have told you now before it happens, so that when it does happen you will believe. I will not say much more to you, for the prince of this world is coming. He has no hold over me, but he comes so that the world may learn that I love the Father and do exactly what my Father has commanded me. “Come now; let us leave. (John 14:1-31 NIV)

What am I to conclude from all of these scriptures?  The yoke that Jesus is offering us, is the same yoke He shares with His Father.   The yoke of trusting and abiding in the embrace of God our Father, who is love, who is good, whose love endures forever, who will never leave us or forsake us!  Any other yoke will eventually result in us being mentally, emotionally, spiritually, and physically exhausted, and possibly suffering from some sort of mental disorder.

I previously quoted Deuteronomy 32:18 which says, “You deserted the Rock, who fathered you; you forgot the God who gave you birth.”  The Hebrew word translated as the phrase “gave you birth”, is chuwl (Strong’s H2342).  It has a dual meaning.  One is the picture of a person writhing while in intense pain, such as a seriously wounded person or a woman in childbirth.  The second meaning is to whirl about or to dance.  Two seemingly opposite and contrasting meanings.  One is a picture of excruciating pain, the other a picture of exuberant joy.  After God created the cosmos and mankind through His Only Begotten Son (John 1:1-3), He declared it all to be very good (Genesis 1:31).  May I be so bold, as to say that God gave birth to the cosmos, through pain followed by great joy as He looked over all that He had made, and called it very good?  This is at least hinted at in Proverbs 8 when it speaks of wisdom, as a personification of Jesus, who is the Only Begotten Son of God.  Proverbs 8:22-31 states,

 “The LORD brought me forth as the first of his works, before his deeds of old; I was formed long ages ago, at the very beginning, when the world came to be. When there were no watery depths, I was given birth, when there were no springs overflowing with water; before the mountains were settled in place, before the hills, I was given birth, before he made the world or its fields or any of the dust of the earth. I was there when he set the heavens in place, when he marked out the horizon on the face of the deep, when he established the clouds above and fixed securely the fountains of the deep, when he gave the sea its boundary so the waters would not overstep his command, and when he marked out the foundations of the earth. Then I was constantly at his side. I was filled with delight day after day, rejoicing always in his presence, rejoicing in his whole world and delighting in mankind.”

Ultimately, I think the contrast between excruciating pain, and exuberant joy, conveyed by the Hebrew word chuwl, is a picture of the cross, upon which Jesus was crucified.  Hebrews 12:1-2 says, “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”  However, the excruciating pain that Jesus endured, was not because of the wrath of God, being poured out upon Him, as punishment for our sin, as is commonly taught and believed.  God our Father did not abandon, or turn His face away from Jesus, His Only Begotten Son, on the cross! Jesus, who is the Word of God, knew all of the words of Psalm 22, not just the words that He spoke from the cross when He said, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:45-46 NIV)  Psalm 22:24  says,  “For he has not despised or scorned the suffering of the afflicted one; he has not hidden his face from him but has listened to his cry for help.”  Jesus knew this perfectly well, from His life experience, of being one with His Father, even though he felt all of the pain, and the emotions of being abandoned during His crucifixion.  Jesus stated the He did nothing, but what He saw His Father doing.  Paul makes this truth very clear in the following verses.

Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade men, but we are made manifest to God; and I hope that we are made manifest also in your consciences. We are not again commending ourselves to you but are giving you an occasion to be proud of us, so that you will have an answer for those who take pride in appearance and not in heart. For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God; if we are of sound mind, it is for you. For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died; and He died for all, so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf. Therefore from now on we recognize no one according to the flesh; even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him in this way no longer. Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. (2 Corinthians 5:11-20 NASB)

Where was God the Father, when Jesus was in excruciating pain in His crucifixion, and He cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”  He “was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself”, embracing Jesus and experiencing everything He experienced!  Jesus and Our Father, together experienced all of the wrath and anger of mankind, from them not knowing that God is love, bearing it all in the body of Jesus as He said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”

(Luke 23:34 NIV) and “It is finished.” With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. (John 19:30 NIV)

The death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus, is the fulfillment of the parables that He told, about the lost sheep, the lost coin and the lost son.  The fulfillment of the story of the lost son is beautifully told by the Apostle Paul in his letter to the church at Ephesus.

As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. But 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. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.  (Ephesians 2:1-10 NIV)

This has been a rather long article, and it is very likely that anyone who reads it, may not remember some of the word pictures that I have tried to paint, to give us a better understanding of some words, that we commonly use within the Christian community.  Therefore, I am summarizing them below.

  • Believe, faith, trust – All of these words mean to be persuaded, but the English word, trust, gives a clearer picture of what it means to be persuaded.  We should only trust what we have consistently seen truth expressed in.  This makes it a relational word.  It has no context except in our relationship with God, people, even the entire creation.
  • Grace – This word carries the idea of a person who is favorably inclined toward someone; therefore, they lean towards them with open arms, with the desire to embrace that person, that they may impart to them a gift that will be good for them.  Jesus came from our Father full of grace and truth.  He and our Father embrace us, in the middle of our mess, of our own making, that they may share their life with us, that we might not perish.
  • Lost, perish – Something cannot be lost unless it has a home, and it belongs to someone. If it is lost, the owner only searches for it because it is of value to them.  Jesus came to seek and save the lost, and to bring us home to our Father.
  • Sin – The base meaning is, “to not have a share in”, and “to miss an intended target”.  With respect to God our Father, the intended target, is that we trust Him, that He is good, that His love endures forever, that never will He leave us or forsake us, and that His desire is that we have a share in His life, by participating in His divine nature, to dance with him.  Therefore, sin is any thought, and action on our part that causes us to not trust Him.

I will bring this article to a close, by taking the liberty, of using the word pictures above, to paraphrase Ephesians 2:1-10.  I previously referenced these scriptures, with the comment that I see it, as a beautiful fulfillment of the story, that Jesus told about the lost son.

As for you, you were dead because you did not trust God Our Father, and lived as if He did not exist, or if He did exist, He was distant and a hard taskmaster.   You used to live this way when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who do not trust God our Father. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. But 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 His embrace of us, while we were still covered with the pig feces of our mess, as we lived like an orphan, that 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 embrace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by His embrace, that you have been saved, through trusting Him—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to dance with Him, to do the good works, which God prepared in advance, for us to do with Him, in His embrace. 

Blessings,

Kevin

God’s Love and Christ’s Perseverance

June 30, 2024

As for other matters, brothers and sisters, pray for us that the message of the Lord may spread rapidly and be honored, just as it was with you. And pray that we may be delivered from wicked and evil people, for not everyone has faith. But the Lord is faithful, and he will strengthen you and protect you from the evil one. We have confidence in the Lord that you are doing and will continue to do the things we command. May the Lord direct your hearts into God’s love and Christ’s perseverance. (2 Thessalonians 3:1-5 NIV)

I readily confess that for the last several months I have been in a time of wrestling with my thoughts, emotions and anxiety about the widespread turmoil, chaos and even war amongst the people of our world. Several scriptures have come to my mind during these months that have been very helpful, but I cannot seem to consistently shake off the troubling thoughts and my heart be at rest.  Listed below are a few of the scriptures that have come to my mind with some of my own thoughts that came from pondering those scriptures.

  • “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33) Jesus spoke these words to His disciples after their shared Passover meal when He began to make it clear that He would be killed in just a few hours.  He tells them that they will encounter trouble, tribulation, persecution and even death….but to “take heart, I have overcome the world”.  As I pondered this, several thoughts came to my mind.
    • What were the “things” that He told them about, so that in Him they might have peace?  The discourse that Jesus had with His disciples, that John writes of, begins in John chapter 13.  In this discourse Jesus says many “things”, including
      • “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Before long, the world will not see Me anymore, but you will see Me. Because I live, you also will live. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in Me, and I am in you.” (John 14:18-20)
      • “All this I have spoken while still with you. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; My peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” (John 14:25-27)
    • What or who is Jesus speaking of when He speaks about the world?  The English words, world or worldly, are used many times in the New Testament scriptures.  The Greek word, that is translated as world, is kósmos (Strongs G2889).  It means, something ordered or an ordered system such as the universe, creation (including mankind), or the world we live in.  By implication, it can mean the culture, the mindset, the philosophy or environment of human society that we live in.  The scriptures below and my associated thoughts are helpful to me in my trying to understand what Jesus means when He speaks of the world(kósmos).
      • With respect to the creation, John 1:1-10, speaking about Jesus, the Word of God, who is the only begotten Son of God, says “….Through Him all things were made; without Him nothing was made that has been made…….He was in the world, and though the world was made through Him, the world did not recognize Him.”
      • For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him. Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. (John 3:16-18     )
        • What does it mean to believe in the name of God’s one and only Son?  The word translated from the Greek as the English word believe, is pisteúō (Strongs G4100).  It is part of a family of words that are all different forms of the Greek word peíthō(Strongs 3982).  This family of words includes the words translated as the English words believe, faith, trust and entrust.  The Greek word peíthō, has the basic meaning of, to be persuaded about something.  It helped me to grasp the meaning of this family of words when I noticed that the Complete Jewish Bible translation consistently uses the word “trust” to translate the whole family of Greek words.  We can only trust that in which we have consistently seen truth revealed over time.  The absolute truth in which we can entrust the weight of our very being is, that God our Father is love, that He is good, that His love endures forever, and that He will never leave us or forsake us. This means that to have faith in God is to trust the source of the love of God that we have encountered. 
        • What does the love that God is, look like? The short answer, it looks exactly like Jesus.  Jesus said, “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:9). Further, 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 puts some flesh and bones to what this means.  It states that, “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.” Faith is not a blind leap based on what someone tells us is true, it comes from an encounter with God who is love Himself.  The encounter with the love that God is that we learn to trust, may come directly by His speaking to our heart, through the words of scripture that the Holy Spirit makes alive in our heart when we read them or hear them, through acts of kindness or words through other people, through nature, art, music or literature or countless other ways He uses to show His love for us. 
        • The name of God’s one and only Son is Jesus, which means, God is Savior.  He has come to seek and save the lost and to bring us home to His Father, who is also our Father.  Something cannot be lost unless it belongs to someone who considers it valuable, and it has a home.  To better see this, please go read the parables of the lost sheep, the lost coin and the lost son that is recorded in Luke 15 and picture yourself and every other person in the world(kósmos) as being that which was lost and belongs to God our Father.  When Jesus told those parables, He said that all the angels in heaven rejoice when the lost item is back in its home which is the very heart of God our Father.
          • The earth is the LORD’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it; for he founded it on the seas and established it on the waters. (Psalms 24:1-2)
          • “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’ I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent. (Luke 15:4-7)
          • “Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Doesn’t she light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it? And when she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost coin.’ In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” (Luke 15:8-10)
          • “‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.'” (Luke 15:31-32)
      • Whatever, any person may think about the world(kósmos), it has its origin in the heart and mind of God, and it was spoken into existence by Jesus.  God our Father has called it very good (Genesis 1:31), and He loves it regardless of its past, present or future condition!
    • Since I was born many years after the death of Jesus, it would seem to be logical to think that Jesus was speaking about overcoming the world through His imminent crucifixion, burial, and resurrection.  But then I realized that He spoke in the past tense when He said, “I have overcome the world”, not that he will overcome.  How and when did He overcome the world and what was it about the world that He had overcome?  I cannot say that I absolutely know the answer to these questions, but I offer some thoughts that I have for others to ponder. 
      • The Greek word that is translated to the English word “overcome” is “nenikēka” (Strongs G3528),which is a verb in the perfect tense. The perfect tense in Greek is used to describe a completed action which produced results which are still in effect all the way up to the present.  “Nenikēka” means to conquer and overcome an enemy or circumstance, to carry off the victory, to come off victorious by some action in the past, the effect of which continues to the present.   In the case of Jesus, this effect continues into every moment in the future, for he is Lord of heaven and earth.
      • Love, by its very nature is relational.  Love cannot exist if there is only one being, it must be manifested towards another being.  1 John 4:8 says, “Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.”   Since this is true, then God cannot be love if He is alone.  Therefore, if there was ever a time that God was not love, then it was because He was alone, or He has never been alone and therefore has always been love.
        • Genesis 1:1 says, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”   The Hebrew word that is translated as God is “’ĕlōhîm” (Strongs H430).  The Hebrew word is a plural noun which is a starting point for understanding what the early church called the Trinity, in their efforts to explain the nature of God as they had experienced Him— as Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  Evidence for the Trinity, is further seen in Genesis1:2 which says, “Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God (‘ĕlōhîm) was hovering over the waters.”  Genesis 1:3 says, “And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.” The means, by which God did this, was through His Only Begotten Son, which is spoken of in John 1:1-3 which says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.”
        • 1 John 4:12 says, “No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.”
      • I want to be careful about making dogmatic statements about the nature of God with respect to His being and nature before the creation of the world(kósmos), but I can draw some very sound conclusions based on what the scriptures tell us about Jesus.  Jesus is God’s Only Begotten Son, the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being (Hebrews 1:3), and the image(eikon) of the invisible God (Col 1:15).
        • Many children, who have been taught about God, in their innocence eventually ask the question, “If in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, then who made God?”  I do not think Jesus would have ignored such a question from a child, for Matthew 19:14 quotes Jesus saying, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”
        • When teaching those who came to hear him, Jesus often used the phrase, “I am………”.  Examples include, “I am the bread of life” (John 6:35), “I am the light of the world” (John 8:12), ” I am the gate for the sheep” (John 10:7), “I am the good shepherd” (John 10:11 ), “I am the resurrection and the life” (John 11:25), and “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.” (John 14:6-7)
          • The phrase, I am, in the Greek is ego eimi. This is the same phrase used in the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures, of Exodus 3:13-15 when God answered Moses’ question, “Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what shall I tell them?”  God’s answer was, “I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I AM has sent me to you.'” God also said to Moses, “Say to the Israelites, ‘The LORD, the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob—has sent me to you.’ “This is my name forever, the name you shall call me from generation to generation.”
          • The Hebrew phrase translated as I AM WHO I AM, is Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh, it means I am/will be what I am/will be (Complete Jewish Study Bible). Jesus used this phrase in a dialog with the Pharisees, which is recorded in John 8:56-58 which says, “Your father Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day; he saw it and was glad.”  “You are not yet fifty years old,” they said to him, “and you have seen Abraham!”  “Very truly I tell you,” Jesus answered, “before Abraham was born, I am!” At this, they picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus hid himself, slipping away from the temple grounds.”
        • Multiple times, the scriptures record that Jesus said that He and His Father are one, that He only spoke what He heard from His Father, and only did what He saw His Father doing.  One example is from John 5:19 which states, “Jesus gave them this answer: “Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.”  Whatever Jesus meant by His statement, “I have overcome the world(kosmos)”, He did it because He saw His Father doing it and did it by the same means or way that His Father has done it.
        • The scriptures declare with great clarity that God our Father is love.  Based on that immutable truth, I am going to make a statement about God our Father, that I am not positive that I can prove from the scriptures, but I am rather sure it cannot be disproved from the scriptures.  That statement is that God our Father, who calls Himself “THE I AM THAT I AM”, is who He is, by His eternal choice to be love.  When He chose to create the world(kosmos), which includes His choosing to make mankind in His image, He likewise gave us freewill such as He Himself has.  With that freewill, we could either choose to trust Him as a loving Father and have fellowship with Him in all things or we could choose to believe that He does not love us and decide to try to live independent of the only One who is Life.  Choosing not to trust Him, to live as if we are orphans without a Father who loves us, and therefore try to make our own way in life, is the definition of sin.  This is the mindset of the world, the world that God our Father loves so much that He sent His Only Begotten Son, to not condemn that world but to save it.  He made the choice before the creation of the world that He would forever be a loving Father to His children whom He gave freewill knowing that they could reject Him.  He would show His love to them all their days and pursue them into the deepest and darkest sin to call them back to Himself and save them from self-destruction.  The love that He is, suffers long and is kind; does not envy; does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things and never fails! (1 Corinthians 13:4-8 NKJV)
        • After all my pondering of these scriptures, what is my conclusion as to my previously stated question, “How and when did He overcome the world and what was it about the world that He had overcome?”
          • How had He overcome?  In the same way God our Father has overcome, that He would forever choose to be Love and would trust His Father no matter what might come, even if mankind, who is made in His image, should become deceived and not trust that God our Father is love.
          • When did He overcome?  Before the creation of the heavens and the earth.
          • What did He overcome?  Our not trusting God our Father and choosing to try to live apart from the only one who is Life.  He entered our world to save it, not to condemn it.  All who trust in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.
    • How can we experience and participate in Jesus’ having overcome the world? 1 John 5:1-5 states, “Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well. This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands. In fact, this is love for God: to keep his commands. And his commands are not burdensome, for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world? Only the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.”
      • Stated very simply, we can experience and participate in Jesus’ overcoming the world(kósmos) by trusting in the love of God our Father for the whole world(kósmos) and obeying his commands by trusting in His mercy and grace for us that we may also love the world(kósmos). 
        • Jesus said, “So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets. (Matthew 7:12) and “’Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” (Matthew 22:37-40)
        • John the Beloved added, “And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us. The one who keeps God’s commands lives in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us. (1 John 3:23-24)
    • If you have read this note all the way to this point, then you likely do not remember the scriptures I included in the very first paragraph, because I have not directly mentioned them.  Those scriptures are a prayer by the Apostle Paul for himself, the church in Thessalonica and us as well.  Listen to his prayer, “…..pray for us that the message of the Lord may spread rapidly and be honored, just as it was with you. And pray that we may be delivered from wicked and evil people, for not everyone has faith. But the Lord is faithful, and he will strengthen you and protect you from the evil one. We have confidence in the Lord that you are doing and will continue to do the things we command. May the Lord direct your hearts into God’s love and Christ’s perseverance.”(2 Thessalonians 3:1-5)
      • Can you hear the echo of Jesus words, “in this world you will have trouble but take heart for I have overcome the world”? Paul is praying, that in the midst of our experiencing trouble in this world, that the Lord may direct us into His eternal nature of being Love and into Christ’s absolute perseverance in trusting in the Love of God our Father for the whole world(kósmos), no matter what may come because of mankind’s freewill causing the trouble.  Romans 5:1-5 goes on to say, “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us”. (Romans 5:1-5)

I bring my troubling thoughts about the trouble of this world, to this conclusion and invite you to join me with receiving the encouragement for us from the writer of Hebrews:

  • “See to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called “Today,” so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness. We have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original conviction firmly to the very end.” (Hebrews 3:12-14)
  • Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. (Hebrews 4:14-16)
  • “Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.” (Hebrews 10:19-25)

Blessings in the Name of The Father, The Son and the Holy Spirit—- for He is good and His love endures forever, never will He leave us or forsake us!

Kevin

Does God Love His Enemies?

January 6, 2024

“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect. (Matthew 5:43-48 NIV)

I will readily confess that I sometimes ask what may seem to be ridiculous questions, when I am reading and pondering scriptures.  An example is, “When did God become holy?”  Again, this seems to be a ridiculous question, but asking this question, several years ago with a teachable heart, led to some precious insight about the nature of God our Father.  However, that question is not what this article is about.  Rather, it is the question, “Does God love His enemies?” or stated another way, “Does God hate His enemies?”  This question came to my mind recently when reading Genesis 18, which tells the story of when the LORD came to visit Abraham and revealed to Abraham what He planned to do about “the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah that is so great and their sin so grievous”. (Genesis 18:20 NIV) For reference I have included that section of Genesis 18.

Genesis 18:16-32 NIV  When the men got up to leave, they looked down toward Sodom, and Abraham walked along with them to see them on their way.  (17)  Then the LORD said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do?  (18)  Abraham will surely become a great and powerful nation, and all nations on earth will be blessed through him.  (19)  For I have chosen him, so that he will direct his children and his household after him to keep the way of the LORD by doing what is right and just, so that the LORD will bring about for Abraham what He has promised him.”  (20)  Then the LORD said, “The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sin so grievous  (21)  that I will go down and see if what they have done is as bad as the outcry that has reached me. If not, I will know.”  (22)  The men turned away and went toward Sodom, but Abraham remained standing before the LORD.  (23)  Then Abraham approached Him and said: “Will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked?  (24)  What if there are fifty righteous people in the city? Will you really sweep it away and not spare the place for the sake of the fifty righteous people in it?  (25)  Far be it from you to do such a thing—to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike. Far be it from you! Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?”  (26)  The LORD said, “If I find fifty righteous people in the city of Sodom, I will spare the whole place for their sake.”  (27)  Then Abraham spoke up again: “Now that I have been so bold as to speak to the Lord, though I am nothing but dust and ashes,  (28)  what if the number of the righteous is five less than fifty? Will you destroy the whole city for lack of five people?” “If I find forty-five there,” He said, “I will not destroy it.”  (29)  Once again he spoke to Him, “What if only forty are found there?” He said, “For the sake of forty, I will not do it.”  (30)  Then he said, “May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak. What if only thirty can be found there?” He answered, “I will not do it if I find thirty there.”  (31)  Abraham said, “Now that I have been so bold as to speak to the Lord, what if only twenty can be found there?” He said, “For the sake of twenty, I will not destroy it.”  (32)  Then he said, “May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak just once more. What if only ten can be found there?” He answered, “For the sake of ten, I will not destroy it.”

As I pondered these scriptures it led me to ask the following questions and to make the following observations:

  • Who is the LORD speaking to when He said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do?”  This seems to be a conversation within what we call the Trinity — God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.  This is similar to the creation account of the origin of man in Genesis 1:26 (KJV), “God said, Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness”. Notice the plural pronouns that are in this scripture – us and our.  The Hebrew word Elohim, in this scripture, that is translated to the English word God, is a plural noun. 
  • The LORD seems to answer His own question of, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do?” when He says, “…..all nations on earth will be blessed through him….. I have chosen him, so that he will direct his children and his household after him to keep the way of the LORD by doing what is right and just, so that the LORD will bring about for Abraham what He has promised him.”  
  • What had the LORD promised Abraham? The LORD made several promises to Abraham, but the first one recorded in scripture is in Genesis 12:2-3 (NIV), which states,” I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” These scriptures give us some insight into the character, nature and will of God our Father.  Our Father desires to bless all the peoples of the earth and He chose Abraham to be part of the means by which He would do that.  Mankind was made in the image of God so that we might know Him, have fellowship with Him and choose to participate with Him in all that He desires. This is expressed in Ephesians 2:10 (NKJV) which says, “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.” 
  • This leads me to ask another question, “What good work did God prepare in advance for Abraham to do”?  A clue to the answer to this question is given by Jesus in His response to being asked, “What must we do to do the works God requires?” Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one He has sent.” (John 6:28-29 NIV) We gain even more insight from the story of Zacheus, a detestable tax collector in the eyes of the Jews, when Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” (Luke 19:9-10 NIV)
  • What does it mean to be lost?  Something cannot be lost unless it has a home, and it belongs to someone who values it and grieves that it is no longer in its home or proper place.  Jesus makes this clear in the parable of the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son in Luke 15. Speaking of the lost son, Jesus said, “But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.” 
  • Genesis 18:20 quotes the LORD saying, “The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sin so grievous.” The word translated as sin, in the Greek Septuagint translation of the Hebrew scriptures, is hamartia. The literal meaning of this word is “to be without a share in”.  This begs the question, “without a share in what?” God our Father was grieving that the people of Sodom and Gomorrah were living in a way that denied they were made in His image and were made to have a share of His life!  This is a version of the lie that Satan used to deceive Adam and Eve when he said, “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” (Genesis 3:5 NIV) Satan was accusing God their Father of withholding that which would “make them like God”. That lie is presented in various forms, but it is essentially, “God does not really love you!  He has a hidden agenda to harm you, not do good to you!  You better get away from Him and begin to live your life independent of Him and make your own way.”  Jesus addressed this lie when He came to reveal to us the true nature of God our Father.  This is stated in Hebrews 1:3 (NIV) which says, “The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of His being, sustaining all things by His powerful word. After He had provided purification for sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.”
  • The scriptures in Genesis 18 do not record specifically what God was about to do with respect to Sodom and Gomorrah other than saying, “The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sin so grievous that I will go down and see if what they have done is as bad as the outcry that has reached me. If not, I will know.”  One way or another, it seems that Abraham reasoned that God was about to destroy all who lived in Sodom and Gomorrah, including his nephew Lot and his family.  I can only speculate how this happened.  Maybe it was because of the stories that were passed down from generation to generation about Noah and the flood and the tower of Babel.  Abraham was ninety-nine years old (Genesis 17:1 ) at the time that this conversation with the LORD occurred.  He first began his journey of knowing and following the LORD when he was seventy-five (Genesis 12:4).  Over a twenty-four-year period Abraham had been growing in his understanding of the nature of God our Father and learning to trust Him as he walked with Him in daily life.  Abraham knew his own unbelief in the goodness of God during those twenty-four years and that God our Father had dealt with Him with mercy and compassion. He had begun to understand what was later spoken in Psalm 100, “A  psalm. For giving grateful praise. Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth. Worship the LORD with gladness; come before Him with joyful songs. Know that the LORD is God. It is He who made us, and we are His; we are His people, the sheep of His pasture. Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise; give thanks to Him and praise His name. For the LORD is good and His love endures forever; His faithfulness continues through all generations.” (Psalms 100:1-5 NIV)
  • How are we to understand Abraham’s conversation with God that is recorded in Genesis 18:23-32 which starts with Abraham asking God, “Will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked”? I do not believe that Abraham was more compassionate or merciful than the Father of all compassion (2 Corinthians 1:3-4) and therefore was trying to change God’s mind and intentions towards the people of Sodom and Gomorrah.  I absolutely and unequivocally, believe that God our Father never asks us, to do something or not do something, that He himself does not already do or not do.  Therefore, when Jesus said, “Love your enemies…do good to your enemies…. bless those who curse you, etc. it was because that is what God our Father has done and will do with respect to His enemies.
  • I can only speculate, since the scriptures do not tell us what was in Abraham’s mind. Could it be, that Abraham had come to know that God was good and His love endures forever, but was not quite sure yet just how good He was?  This reminds me of the story Jesus told in Matthew 25:14-40 (NIV) about a man going on a journey, who called three of servants and entrusted his wealth to them.  He gave each a large amount of money, an amount to each according to their ability.  Two of the servants went at once and “put the money to work” in the marketplace and each doubled the amount of money because they trusted their master who had entrusted them with his wealth.  By sending them into the marketplace, he expected them to take some risks with his wealth.  However, the third servant who was given the least amount, went off and dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money. Let’s pick up the dialog at this point in the story.

“After a long time, the master of those servants returned and settled accounts with them. The man who had received five bags of gold brought the other five. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘you entrusted me with five bags of gold. See, I have gained five more.’ “His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’ “The man with two bags of gold also came. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘you entrusted me with two bags of gold; see, I have gained two more.’ “His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’ “Then the man who had received one bag of gold came. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed. So, I was afraid and went out and hid your gold in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you.’ “His master replied, ‘You wicked, lazy servant! So, you knew that I harvest where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed? Well then, you should have put my money on deposit with the bankers, so that when I returned, I would have received it back with interest. “‘So take the bag of gold from him and give it to the one who has ten bags. For whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them. And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’”

We are used to our deposits in a bank being insured against the failure of the bank.  However, for most of recorded history, there was no assurance that money entrusted to bankers would produce interest or that the investment itself would not be lost due to mismanagement of the bankers.  The third servant was considered to be lazy and wicked because he did nothing with the wealth entrusted to him, he took no risk with it!

  • Remember, Abraham was blessed by God so that all the peoples of the earth might be blessed.  Could it be that Abraham was taking a risk to see just how good God is?             

Then Abraham approached Him and said: “Will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked?  What if there are fifty righteous people in the city? Will you really sweep it away and not spare the place for the sake of the fifty righteous people in it?   Far be it from you to do such a thing—to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike. Far be it from you! Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?”   The LORD said, “If I find fifty righteous people in the city of Sodom, I will spare the whole place for their sake.” Then Abraham spoke up again: “Now that I have been so bold as to speak to the Lord, though I am nothing but dust and ashes, what if the number of the righteous is five less than fifty? Will you destroy the whole city for lack of five people?” “If I find forty-five there,” He said, “I will not destroy it.” Once again he spoke to Him, “What if only forty are found there?” He said, “For the sake of forty, I will not do it.” Then he said, “May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak. What if only thirty can be found there?” He answered, “I will not do it if I find thirty there.”  Abraham said, “Now that I have been so bold as to speak to the Lord, what if only twenty can be found there?” He said, “For the sake of twenty, I will not destroy it.”  Then he said, “May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak just once more. What if only ten can be found there?” He answered, “For the sake of ten, I will not destroy it.” (Genesis 18:23-24)

  • Remember that Lot’s nephew and family lived in Sodom.  1 Peter 2:8 says of Lot, he “was a righteous man, who was distressed by the depraved conduct of the lawless (for that righteous man, living among them day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard)”.  What would have been God’s response if Abraham had continued to test His goodness and ask, “What if only one can be found there?”  I do not know other than to listen to the words of Jesus.
  • Please go back to the scripture at the very beginning of this article and read it again.  Jesus, who is one with His Father, never spoke or did anything other than what He heard and saw from His Father.  Therefore, Jesus speaks what He knows His Father’s will is— “love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven.” This is stated even more emphatically in Luke 6:27-36 (NIV),”But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn to them the other also. If someone takes your coat, do not withhold your shirt from them. Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. Do to others as you would have them do to you. If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do that. And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, expecting to be repaid in full. But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because He is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.”
  • This leads me to ask, “Who are God’s enemies?” and “Who are my enemies?”  In the New Testament, the Greek word exthrós is often translated as enemy.  This Greek word can be defined properly as, an enemy; someone openly hostile (at enmity), animated by deep-seated hatred. It implies irreconcilable hostility, proceeding out of a “personal” hatred bent on inflicting harm.   The New Oxford American Dictionary defines enemy as a person who is actively opposed or hostile to someone or something.   
  • Colossians 1:21 (NIV) says, “Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior.” Is it possible, because of my perspective, to consider someone as being my enemy who does not see me as their enemy?  I think this is illustrated in the story of how Adam and Eve responded to God after they believed the lie of Satan and disobeyed God and ate of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. 

Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as He was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden. But the LORD God called to the man, “Where are you?” He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.” And He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?” (Genesis 3:7-11 NIV)

  • Adam and Eve were deceived in their own minds, probably with the help of the Accuser of the Brethren, such that they could no longer conceive that God was their Father and would deal with their sin as a loving Father who would show them mercy and grace in their time of need (Hebrews 4:16). They now saw Him as their enemy and assumed that likewise God saw them as His enemies.  In Matthew 18:3 (NIV) Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.  This same verse in The Passion Translation (TPT), expresses more clearly what this means, “Learn this well: Unless you dramatically change your way of thinking and become teachable, and learn about heaven’s kingdom realm with the wide-eyed wonder of a child, you will never be able to enter in.”
  • What is the result of me having a wrong understanding of the nature of God our Father and my becoming “an enemy of God in my mind?” (Colossians 1:21) Let’s consider the story of James and John who were rebuked by Jesus because they had a wrong understanding of God our Father.

 Now it came to pass, when the time had come for Him to be received up, that He steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem, and sent messengers before His face. And as they went, they entered a village of the Samaritans, to prepare for Him. But they did not receive Him, because His face was set for the journey to Jerusalem. And when His disciples James and John saw this, they said, “Lord, do You want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them, just as Elijah did?” But He turned and rebuked them, and said, “You do not know what manner of spirit you are of. For the Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives but to save them.” And they went to another village. (Luke 9:51-56 NKJV)

Please take time to just sit quietly before our Lord and let Him speak to you from these scriptures.  When I think about anyone, and I make judgements about them, do I know by what spirit I am making those judgements?

  • There are six things the LORD hates, seven that are detestable to Him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil, a false witness who pours out lies and a person who stirs up conflict in the community. (Proverbs 6:16-19 NIV)
  • Since, then, we know what it is to fear the Lord, we try to persuade others. What we are is plain to God, and I hope it is also plain to your conscience. We are not trying to commend ourselves to you again, but are giving you an opportunity to take pride in us, so that you can answer those who take pride in what is seen rather than in what is in the heart. If we are “out of our mind,” as some say, it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And He died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for Him who died for them and was raised again. So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And He has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making His appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:11-21 NIV)

God our Father is inviting us into participating in his work of reconciling the entire cosmos to himself.  May we not shrink back in our role, for He is good, and his love endures forever.  He is better than we can imagine or ask for!  Never will He leave us or forsake us!

Blessings,

Kevin

Offering a Pleasing Sacrifice

July 25, 2023

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.  (Romans 12:1 NIV)

I recently was reading in Genesis 4 the account of Cain killing his brother Abel, when I discovered something that challenged most of what I can remember ever being taught and understood about this story as to why God did not accept Cain’s sacrifice.  For reference, here is a portion of the scriptures that tell this story:

In the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the LORD. And Abel also brought an offering—fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. The LORD looked with favor on Abel and his offering, but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor. So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast. Then the LORD said to Cain, “Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.” Now Cain said to his brother Abel, “Let’s go out to the field.” While they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him. Then the LORD said to Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?” “I don’t know,” he replied. “Am I my brother’s keeper?” The LORD said, “What have you done? Listen! Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground. (Genesis 4:3-10 NIV)

What I had been taught, was that the reason that God did not look with favor on Cain’s offering of the fruit of the soil that he tilled, was because he somehow knew that God would only accept the blood sacrifice of an animal.  However, I am not aware of where this is stated anywhere in the scriptures.  You can make a case that it is inferred based upon many other scriptures about animal sacrifices even before the establishment of the Levitical priesthood and its sacrifices regularly offered at the tabernacle in the wilderness and later at the temple in Jerusalem. 

It will be helpful for me to explain why I was reading Genesis.  There is much disagreement amongst Christians about how to read and understand the scriptures in the Bible.  These disagreements have often led to people who profess faith in Jesus, withdrawing from one another, condemning one another, and even killing and going to war with one another all in the name of Jesus.  These kinds of disagreements and their sad consequences are not limited to Christians. The same thing has happened between professing Jews, Muslims and other groups as well as between these groups and Christians.  All these people claim to be following the scriptures in their holy book and therefore they are pleasing to “God”.  The most learned people of the Hebrew scriptures (what we often call the Old Testament…. Jesus called them the scriptures) often were very critical of Jesus because he ate and drank with tax collectors and sinners.  From their perspective, there was no way that Jesus could be pleasing to God. At one point Jesus told them, “You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life.” (John 5:39-40 NIV)  

After Jesus’ resurrection, his own disciples still did not fully understand what he taught them or who he is.  Therefore, after his resurrection, “beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.” (Luke 24:27 NIV) This is the reason I was reading Genesis.  I wanted to read those scriptures from the perspective of Jesus being the way, the truth and the life and that he is the exact expression of God our Father.  

So back to the story of Cain killing Abel in Genesis 4.  In my quest to read the scriptures in the Emmaus way (see Matthew 24:13-35), and to ask Jesus to open up those scriptures to me in a new and fresh way, I decided to start with Genesis 1:1 which eventually led to Genesis 4.

I have learned to read the scriptures in multiple translations and to watch for significant differences between the versions.  Often, my pondering of those differences has led to something significant that I had not understood before.  In my recent reading Genesis, I have been comparing the wording in the KJV, NIV, Complete Jewish Bible and the Orthodox Study Bible.  The Complete Jewish Bible was translated into English from Hebrew manuscripts by a Rabbi who is a Messianic Jew (a Jewish follower of Jesus).  Therefore, he often brings out things that a non-Jew might not understand the way that a Jew would.  The Orthodox Study Bible is based upon a modern English translation of the Septuagint, which is a Greek translation of the Hebrew scriptures (Old Testament) that was widely in use among the faithful Jews who lived in cities of Greek culture at the time of Jesus’ appearing as the Son of God.  Please read and compare Genesis 4:3-13 from the three translations as noted below.  For reference, I have included the New American Standard Bible (NASB), of which the wording is similar to most English translations.  Look for the significant differences in the three translations other the spelling of names.  I have highlighted in bold the ones that got my attention.

Let’s look at these differences and ask some questions. 

In verse 5 and 6, the English words in the phrases very angry and extremely sorrowful are not synonymous.  The Hebrew word that is translated as angry is chârâh (H2787), which literally means to glow or grow warm and figuratively means to blaze up in anger.  The Greek word from the Septuagint that is translated as sorrowful is lypeō (G3076), which means cause grief, grieve, be in heaviness, be sorrowful and be sorry. 

As I pondered the significant difference between being angry and sorrowful, I thought of 2 Corinthians 7:10 (NASB) which says, “For the sorrow that is according to the will of God produces a repentance without regret, leading to salvation, but the sorrow of the world produces death.”  From my own personal experience, godly sorrow is when by the work of the Holy Spirit, I see the truth of the horror of what my thoughts and actions have done to harm another person physically, financially, emotionally, relationally, etc.  It leads to repentance, which means to change my thinking, so that I agree with the truth, which then leads to crying out to God for mercy, grace and forgiveness so that the wrong I have done can be made right.  All of this leads to salvation by the Holy Spirit, which literally means, to heal and make whole, both myself and the one that I have wronged.  However, worldly sorrow produces death!  Again, from my experience, worldly sorrow is when I have done something wrong and then got caught….I am only sorrowful for getting caught or exposed not because I myself am wrong.  I then respond in self-preservation by blame shifting, making excuses, anger, etc. to protect my reputation, status, etc.  Nothing is made right because of worldly sorrow!

In verse 7, the differences are more than one word. The quoted translations present an entirely different understanding of what God told Cain as to why he did not accept Cain’s sacrifice.  As I stated in the opening paragraph, what I had been taught, was that the reason that God did not look with favor on Cain’s offering of the fruit of the soil that he tilled, was because he somehow knew that God would only accept the blood sacrifice of an animal.  Go back and read verse 7 again in the Orthodox Study Bible.  It seems to be saying that the reason Cain’s sacrifice was not accepted was because there was some sort of conflict between Cain and Abel and that Cain was unwilling to admit his role in the conflict and to seek reconciliation with his brother.  It says that Cain brought it rightly but failed to divide it rightly… that was his sin, which made it unacceptable. 

What could the phrase, failed to divide it rightly, mean?  Genesis 1:29 gives the account of God telling Adam and Eve what their source of food was to be:  “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food.”  The scriptures do not state that God gave them animals for food.  Many years later, after the time of the flood, Genesis 9:3 quotes God saying, “Everything that lives and moves about will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything.”  My conclusion is that since Cain was a tiller of the soil and that Abel kept flocks of animals, that it was God’s intention that they be mutually dependent and submitted to each other.  Cain was to use his skills as a farmer to produce crops for food for himself and others who lived nearby.  Abel was likewise to use his skills as a shepherd to produce wool from his animals for use in making clothing for himself and others who lived near him.  This reminds me of the flowing scriptures.

Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. (Ephesians 5:21 NIV)

Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. (Philippians 2:3-4 NIV)

Could the phrase, failed to divide it rightly, mean that Cain did not share his crops with Abel because of some unresolved conflict between them? All of this reminds me of the following scriptures:

You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise. (Psalms 51:16-17 NIV)

“You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘You shall not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to a brother or sister, ‘Raca,’ is answerable to the court. And anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell. “Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to them; then come and offer your gift. (Matthew 5:21-24 NIV)

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.  (Romans 12:1 NIV)

Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom, because judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment. (James 2:12-13 NIV)

Another difference to ponder is in the latter half of verse 7.  The Orthodox Study Bible states, “Be still; his recourse shall be to you; and you shall rule over him.”  The phrase “be still” seems to be a parallel thought to do well and do what is good from the other two translations.  My experience has been that when my emotions are running high, due to someone having committed an offense towards me, whether it was an actual offense or my perception, that if I am not still till the emotion has fallen and I can hear and obey what the Holy Spirit is saying, then I will react in a way that will only cause further hurt and relational separation.

The phrase, his recourse shall be to you; and you shall rule over him, seems to be an expression of “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul and all your strength and love your neighbor as yourself.”  The English word recourse means, the use of someone or something as a source of help in a difficult situation.  The Greek word translated as rule is archō, which means to be a chief, to lead, to rule over.  This reminds me of Jesus’ words to his disciples when they were arguing and were offended with each other over the matter of who would sit at his right and left hand in the Kingdom of Heaven. 

Jesus called them together and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave— just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Matthew 20:25-28 NIV)

I think verse 9 is a key in understanding what Cain’s sin was.  In this verse, God, who knows everything about us (see Psalm 139), comes to Cain, after he had killed his brother Abel.  Cain’s actions were an act of passion, that resulted from him not listening to God telling him to be still when he was angry.

Then the LORD said to Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?” “I don’t know,” he replied. “Am I my brother’s keeper?” (Genesis 4:9 NIV)

Cain did not answer God’s question truthfully.  Both he and God knew where his brother Abel was.  Cain then reveals what was in his heart by adding, “Am I my brother’s keeper?”  I think this was the sin that made his offering not acceptable, that being that he did not love his brother as himself (See Mathew 5:21-24 quoted above) and was not willing to humble himself and do everything he could to be reconciled to his brother. 

Next, notice the difference between the three translations of verse 13.  The Orthodox Study Bible quotes Cain saying, “My guilt is too great to be forgiven” versus “My punishment is greater than I can bear” in the other two translations.  I think both statements are true from Cain’s perspective, but not from God’s perspective, which is the only true perspective.  Cain’s parents, Adam and Eve, likewise had a wrong perspective of the nature of God our Father, therefore they hid from him in fear, after they believed the lie of the Serpent who had deceived them. 

The true perspective of the nature of God our Father is stated in 1 John 4:18, “Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.”   However, we hear the English word love applied in so many ways that I need help in understanding what it means that God is love.  Paul the Apostle gave us additional words to help us understand what the love of God looks like.  He states in 1 Corinthians 13:4-8, “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails”.   

Since God is love and he is the source of all love, then I can confidently say, that the words that describe love in 1 Corinthians 13, are speaking of God our Father.  He is patient, kind, does not envy ………. He always protects, always trusts, always perseveres, he never fails!  This is further expressed in the following scriptures:

There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.  (1 John 4:18 NIV)

God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble (Psalms 46:1 NIV),

Trust in him at all times, you people; pour out your hearts to him, for God is our refuge. (Psalms 62:8 NIV)  

Cain’s response of “My guilt is too great to be forgiven” or alternately, “My punishment is greater than I can bear” is evidence that he did not know God our Father.  If I know that God is love, then will I not run into his arms and confess my sin “with the confidence that I will receive mercy and find grace to help me in my time of need”? (Hebrews 4:16 NIV).

So, what is my conclusion after looking at the story of Cain with a new perspective?  I want to heed Paul’s advice from 1 Corinthians 8:1-3, “Knowledge puffs up while love builds up. Those who think they know something do not yet know as they ought to know. But whoever loves God is known by God.”  Therefore, I will sit with the scriptures below and pray that I may take them into my heart and trust the Holy Spirit to produce his fruit in me.  In short to obey his leading.  Will you join me?

“See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure. Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness. But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin. No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him. Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. The one who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous. The one who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work. No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in them; they cannot go on sinning, because they have been born of God. This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not God’s child, nor is anyone who does not love their brother and sister. For this is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another. Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own actions were evil and his brother’s were righteous. Do not be surprised, my brothers and sisters, if the world hates you. We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love each other. Anyone who does not love remains in death. Anyone who hates a brother or sister is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing in him. This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth. This is how we know that we belong to the truth and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence: If our hearts condemn us, we know that God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God and receive from him anything we ask, because we keep his commands and do what pleases him. And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us. The one who keeps God’s commands lives in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us.”  (1 John 3:1-24 NIV)

Blessings,

Kevin

Run To the Embrace of Our Father

January 13, 2023

Attention: This is a rather long post, please read all the way to the end

Adaption of Trinitarian Cross – Painted by Isaac Callahan, December 2022

Meanwhile, as thousands in the crowd had congregated so that they were treading on one another, he began first to say to his disciples, “Guard yourselves from the yeast of the Pharisees, which is dissemblance.  There is nothing thoroughly veiled that will not be unveiled or hidden that will not be known.”  Luke 12:1-3 (David Bentley Hart New Testament)

I recently read Luke 12 in several translations including the David Bentley Hart version of the New Testament.  In this reading, I noticed two things that got my attention.  The first being his translating the 3Greek word hypokrisis in verse 1, as dissemblance, and charlatans in verse 56, rather than hypocrisy/hypocrite which is the word used by most English translations. The second thing that I noticed is that all of Luke 12 is shown as one paragraph rather than multiple paragraphs like most other translations.  This led me to think that he considers all of the seemingly unconnected thoughts, expressed by Jesus in chapter 12, to be related to Jesus’s warning about being on guard against the hypocrisy of the Pharisees.  This was reinforced when I noticed that Jesus ended the discourse by again warning against hypocrisy in verse 56. 

As I pondered the possibility of the verses in Luke 12 all being related to a warning against hypocrisy, I looked in the post-script of the translation where Hart gave the basis for why he translated certain Greek words differently than most other translations.  He stated that the modern English meaning of hypocrisy is not the same as what was meant by the Greek word hypokrisis in the first century.  The modern meaning of hypocrisy, in various English dictionaries includes, “the practice of claiming to have moral standards or beliefs to which one’s own behavior does not conform; pretense”.  However, Hart indicates that the Greek word hypokrisis was used to describe play acting by an actor on a stage or putting on a performance to impress or beguile others.  In Luke 12:1 he used the English word dissemblance.  The New Oxford American Dictionary defines dissemblance as “concealing one’s true motives, feelings or beliefs”.   I think this meaning, is what ties all of what Jesus spoke in Luke 12 to his warning about hypocrisy.

A common example of dissemblance is when we greet people we know, and they ask us “How are you doing?” and we answer, “fine” or “good”, when in fact this is not the truth.  Why would we not be honest?  There can be multiple reasons, but I think the main reason is that I want them to think well of me, that I do not want them to think I do not have it all together.  It seems that the origin of such dissemblance goes all the way back to the account of what is often called the fall of mankind in Genesis.

In the Genesis account of creation, it quotes God saying, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground” (Genesis 1:26 NIV). What does it mean that mankind is made in the image of God?  God is love (1 John 4:18), he is light, in him there is no darkness at all (1 John 1:5), he is good, and his love endures forever (Psalms 100:5). We could talk about what it means to be made in the image of God in several ways, but I think the most concise answer is the incarnation of Jesus.  He was conceived in the womb of the virgin Mary when the Holy Spirit came upon her and the power of the Most High overshadowed her, and she was told that he would be called the Son of God (See Luke 1:26-45). Hebrews 1:3 states, “The Son (Jesus) is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word.” No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known (John 1:18 NIV). Jesus was made like us, fully human in every way and he is not ashamed to call us his brothers and sisters (see Hebrews 2:5-18). Mankind was created in God’s image to be like him and to live, eat, drink, sleep, etc. in ongoing fellowship of love with and trusting dependance upon him, in the same way that Jesus did and still does.  Of all the creatures that God made, only mankind was created for this purpose. 

Jesus came to reveal the true nature of our Father and what it means to be made in his image.  However, we have inherited a religious vocabulary that many times is a hinderance to understanding the nature of God our Father, as revealed in Christ Jesus, and his relationship with his creation and mankind.    This includes the Greek word hamartia, which is translated into English as the word sin.  This word is often given the definition of missing the mark, such as an arrow that was shot that missed the intended target.  However, this leads to me asking the question, what was the intended mark or target when it comes to mankind, what was God’s purpose or intent when we were made in his image?  The literal meaning of the Greek word is the combination of the Greek word ha (not) and meros (portion or form), meaning without your allotted portion or without form, resulting in a disoriented and distorted identity (See notes on Romans 5:12 in the Mirror Study Bible by Francois du Toit).  Sin is to live out of any other means other than in fellowship of love with and in trusting dependance upon God our Father.  The opposite of hamartia (sin) is metamorphe which means with form.  Metamorphe is related to the word metamorphoo which means transformed after being with.  This is the root word of the English word metamorphosis.  Metamorphoo is the word translated as transfigured in Matthew 17:2 when Jesus was in the presence of Moses and Elijah on a high mountain and his appearance changed.  It is used in Romans 12:2 to describe the transformation that takes place in us when we renew our minds by getting rid of wrong thinking and replacing it with what God has spoken. It is also used in 2 Corinthians 3:18 to describe how we are transformed, with ever increasing glory, into the image of God when we look into the face of Jesus with unveiled faces.  Note that a veiled face would be the meaning of dissemblance (hypocrisy).

You may be wondering what all of this has to do with my thinking that all of what Jesus spoke in Luke 12 is related to his warning about hypocrisy (dissemblance).  Hypocrisy (dissemblance) is to live with a veil or mask over my face so that people will not know what I am thinking, feeling, and even doing when out of their sight or presence.  I am saying that we learn to do this because of the lie that Satan told Adam and Eve before they ate of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  That lie, is the same lie that he still uses, to make accusations against God our Father, of not being trustworthy to look after his children.  I can imagine Satan telling them,

“He doesn’t love and care for you!  If he did, why would he tell you not to eat of that tree when he knows that if you did, you would be like him, knowing good and evil.  I have known him longer than you, and I tell you that you cannot trust him!  He is not your Father, you are an orphan and you better start looking out for yourself.  You won’t die but be fully alive like me.  Come join with me and learn what it is to truly be a god, captain of your own ship.  To be independent of that tyrant who tells you he loves you but really has plans to dominate and control you for his own selfish purposes.”

Sadly, Adam and Eve, believed the lie and ate the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  Before I talk about the result of this action, I desire to state that I think that God our Father never asks his children, to do or not do something, that he also does not submit to the same doing or not doing.  This may sound a little strange or even heretical, so hear me out.  I have already quoted scriptures above about Jesus being just like God our Father in every way.  That you might being willing to believe, but what about him being completely human?  Hebrews 2 tells us that Jesus shared in our humanity (Heb 2:14), that he became like us in every way (Heb 2:17) and that he was tempted in every way as we are, yet without sin (Heb 4:15).  This must mean that he faced the same temptation, as did Adam and Eve, to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  Jesus, being God, cannot be tempted with evil nor tempts anyone with evil (James 1:13). Everything God created was declared by him to be very good (Genesis 1:31), therefore this must include the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

In my attempt to define what the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is, I will use the Septuagint/LXX (Greek Old Testament) scriptures, rather than the Hebrew scriptures, so that the meaning of the words can be tied to their use in the New Testament scriptures. 

The Greek word kalos is translated as the English word good.  It means attractively good, good that inspires others to embrace what is lovely, beautiful, or praiseworthy.   It is used by Jesus in reference to himself when he said, “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep” (John 10:11).  This is a very important statement because it also gets to what it means that God is love.  The love that God is, is self-sacrificial, a life of self for others. It is perfectly manifested in the life of Jesus who came to seek and save that which is lost (Luke 19:10).  For something to be lost it must belong to someone and have a home.  Jesus came to seek and save all of his Father’s children and to bring them home to his Father where they belong (See Luke 15).

The Greek word ponēros is translated as the English word evil. It means toilsome labor, pain-ridden with inevitable agonies that go with evil. I think Jesus shows the contrast between good and evil when he said, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened (toilsome labor), and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:28-30). We are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do (Ephesians 2:10), not by toilsome labor (evil), but by accepting the yoke of Jesus to be one with him in his Father’s love.  Toilsome labor is not just referring to physical tasks but also the weariness of soul that is produced from trying to live by our own effort, as if we do not have a father who loves us and desires to have fellowship with us, in the most mundane tasks of daily living (Matthew 11:28-30).  I think this is demonstrated in the story of Jesus coming to the home of Martha and her sister Mary told in Luke 10:38-42.  The scriptures state that “Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him (Jesus) and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!”  Note, that preparations had to be made, in order to show proper hospitality to Jesus and others who came to Martha’s home.  I think many good women who know the importance of hospitality and the work that is required, are often criticized because of what seems to be Jesus’ rebuke of Martha when he replied, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed—or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”  What might the better be that Mary had chosen?  I think the better, is whatever is done in fellowship with and dependance upon Jesus.  Jesus said in John 15, “If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing”.  Remember, preparations had to be made for a meal, what was missing was for Martha to ask Jesus to place his yoke, of being one with his Father in everything he did, upon her that she might experience his life and all he desired to teach her, as together they made the needed preparations for the meal.

So, what was the purpose of the tree of knowledge of good and evil?  For mankind to be made in the image of God, that meant that we had to have free will, to decide whether we would trust God or not.  Let’s see what we might learn by looking at the temptation of Jesus by the devil for forty days in the wilderness after his baptism (Luke 4:1-13).  He ate nothing during those forty days, and at the end of them he was hungry.  The scriptures do not give us any details about the nature of the temptation that occurred during the forty days when he was fasting but at the end of those days, he fully experienced being hungry as a man.  Jesus stated in several places in scripture, in various ways, that he and his Father are one (John 10:30) and that he did only what he saw his Father doing (John 5:19) and said only what he heard his Father saying (John 8:26-29).  As to the nature of temptation I will defer to and quote from George MacDonald’s The Temptation in the Wilderness from his Unspoken Sermons series.

“I do not believe that the Son of God, could be tempted with evil, but I do believe that he could be tempted with good— to yield to which temptation would have been evil in him—ruin to the universe.  But does not all evil come from good?  Yes; but it has come from it.  It is no longer good.  A good corrupted is no longer good.  Such could not tempt our Lord.”

“There is no sin in wishing to eat; no sin in procuring food honestly that one may eat.”…… Why then should he not eat?  Why should he not put forth the power that was in him that he might eat?  Because such power was his, not to take care of himself, but to work the work of him that sent him. …… “Because it was God’s business to take care of him, his to do what the Father told him to do.  To make that stone bread would be to take the care out of the Father’s hands and turn the divinest thing in the universe into the merest commonplace of self-preservation.”

Let’s now go back to the story of Adam and Eve having believed the lie of Satan against God our Father.  Before they ate of the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil, they were naked, and they felt no shame (Genesis 2:25).  But after they ate of the fruit the scriptures tell us

Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden. But the LORD God called to the man, “Where are you?” He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.” And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?” (Genesis 3:7-11 NIV)

How did they go from being naked and feeling no shame to being ashamed and hiding in fear from God our Father who is the very definition and source of Fatherhood and loving-kindness towards his children?  Satan is called the “accuser” for good reason.  It seems to me that after getting them to believe his accusations against God our Father, he then hit them with accusations of punishment for their disobedience.  I can imagine him saying to them, “Woe to you, you have done it now, you are naked, you are now God’s enemies, and he will pour out his wrath upon you and destroy you.”  Was this the truth?   The scriptures tell us, “I sought the LORD, and he answered me; he delivered me from all my fears. Those who look to him are radiant; their faces are never covered with shame. This poor man called, and the LORD heard him; he saved him out of all his troubles” (Psalms 34:4-6 NIV).

Shame is an emotion that we feel anytime the nakedness of our soul or body is revealed to others in a way that we think they will not like what they see and will use it against us to hurt us in some form or fashion.  Shame only occurs when someone is looking at my nakedness, or I think someone may see my nakedness.  Most people in our country take a bath or a shower several times each week.  To do so they remove all their clothes, and their body is completely naked.  Unless they have been deeply shamed about physical nakedness before, they will not feel any shame about their nakedness.  Why? Because no one is looking at their nakedness!  If someone, they did not trust to see them naked, suddenly opened the bathroom door they would immediately try to cover themselves to cope with the emotion of shame they feel.  Have you ever seen the horrible photographs of Jews who were stripped of all their clothing before being driven into what they were told were showers but were actually gas chambers.  Both men and women are seen trying to cover their physical nakedness with their hands!

Because of their shame and fear of punishment, Adam and Eve sewed fig leaves together to cover their physical nakedness as a coping mechanism to try to rid themselves of the emotion of shame.  But this could do nothing to cover the nakedness they felt in their souls when they realized they had been deceived.  So, they developed other coping mechanisms, such as blaming other people which causes a deluded state of altered reality.  By not believing the truth, our minds create an alternative reality which is not reality at all, i.e., that God our Father does not really love us for who we are and that we have to perform in some way to gain his approval and avoid the consequences of his disapproval.  We learn to put on a mask and pretend to be something we know that we are not and to hide the nakedness of our souls.  This is what Jesus warned us about when he said, “Guard yourselves from the yeast of the Pharisees, which is dissemblance.  There is nothing thoroughly veiled that will not be unveiled or hidden that will not be known.”  Luke 12:1-3 (David Bentley Hart New Testament)

I take great comfort in Psalm 139, which makes it abundantly clear, that nothing, not even my thoughts are hidden from God our Father and that he does not reject me or turn away in disgust because of what he knows about me!  Rather Jesus says come to me with all of your shame and brokenness and know the love of my Father.  God our Father is an all-consuming fire and, in his embrace, all of what is not of love in me is consumed in his love.  This great truth is told by Jesus in the parables that are recorded in Luke 15 about the lost sheep, the lost coin and the lost son. 

I cut my eye teeth of faith in Jesus in the NIV version of the Bible.  That is where he met me even though, like every other translation, it has some degree of translators’ bias that can obscure the truth of God our Father revealed in Christ Jesus.  That is why I have learned to read and compare multiple translations.  In doing so I have found some startling differences.  I recently discovered this when reading Hebrews 6:1 and Hebrews 9:14 where the NIV uses the phrase “acts that lead to death” when it is clearly stated in the Greek as “dead works”. 

Therefore let us move beyond the elementary teachings about Christ and be taken forward to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death, and of faith in God, Hebrews 6:1 NIV)

How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God! (Hebrews 9:14 NIV)

There is a huge difference between repentance from “acts that lead to death” and repentance from “dead works.”  The implication of this mistranslation makes me very sad.

So, back to Jesus’ warning, “Guard yourselves from the yeast of the Pharisees, which is dissemblance.  There is nothing thoroughly veiled that will not be unveiled or hidden that will not be known.”  Luke 12:1-3 (David Bentley Hart New Testament) Is there a connection between nakedness, shame, dissemblance and dead works?  What are dead works?  Simply stated, I think dead works are anything we do in a manner that is not done in fellowship with and dependance upon Jesus as our very way, truth and life.  Stated another way, dead works are the mechanisms/ways we have learned to cope with the nakedness of our souls, our “fig leaves” that may hide the nakedness from others but can never give us life!  Anytime this nakedness gets exposed we experience shame if we do not turn our faces to God our Father and enter into his embrace.  Jesus is the very real presence of all that God our Father is and he has come to us that we may have life, the real full life that he is, that he shares with his Father.

This has been a very long discussion, so I want to try to wrap it up by telling you about a dream I had a few days ago after having pondered all of this.  In the dream, I had somehow gotten mixed up with some people who were thieves.  One of those people knew that I wanted a lawn and garden tractor and had stolen one with the intent of selling it to me at a significantly lower price than what it was worth.  This was not done with my foreknowledge or consent.  When he told me about what he had done, my heart began to be filled with fear because of the possibility of being exposed as being a knowing benefactor of his criminal activity.  I began to think of ways of getting out of this situation and considered calling the police and asking them to be present whenever the thief came to me with the stolen goods.  However, I began to fear, that even that might not extricate me from this situation.  They might still charge me with a crime, or the thief might physically harm me or kill me.  In the middle of this fearful emotion, I woke up.  In the twilight of not being fully awake I was still processing the details of the dream when I very clearly had the thought of, “run to the embrace of your Father”.  The result of this dream is a greater awareness of when I turn to coping mechanisms to hide the nakedness of my soul when situations threaten to expose that nakedness.  When I see this happening, I am choosing to run to the embrace of my Father so that the blood of Jesus may cleanse my conscience from dead works, so that I may serve the living God by accepting Jesus’ call to come to him and to take his yoke upon me, learn from him and find rest for my soul. There is no life apart from him!

One closing thought. I did not go into as much detail as I would like, to discuss what it means to run to the embrace of our Father.  However, the painting at the start of this article shows what I mean.  This painting was made by our grandson, Isaac Callahan, as a Christmas present for me recently.  It is his adaptation of what is called a Trinitarian Cross where it depicts that God our Father, Jesus the Son and the Holy Spirit were one in the crucifixion of Jesus.  Notice that it depicts the Father as embracing and supporting Jesus on the cross.  This is the embrace of the Father, who has said never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.  Maybe I can go into more detail about this thought at another time.

Blessings,

Kevin

Becoming Like Little Children

December 25, 2022

At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who, then, is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” He called a little child to him, and placed the child among them. And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me. “If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in me—to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea. (Matthew 18:1-6 NIV)

We normally attend Christmas Eve services at the church fellowship of which we are a part.  However, last night we went to be with some of our family at their church fellowship since one of our granddaughters was to play a Christmas carol on the piano.  After the service, people lingered about visiting with one another and several children were enjoying each other while their parents were visiting.  As I was watching people, I saw an amazing manifestation of the Incarnation of Jesus within a little child. 

In the scripture quoted above, Jesus states that the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven are the little children.  It also says that we shall not enter that kingdom unless we become like little children.  What does it mean to become like little children.  I think it can be summed up in believing that God is our Father, that we can humble ourselves and come to him in any circumstance, at any time and that we will receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. (Hebrews 4:16) In short, that he will give us Himself in our time of need that we may live by his very life and have fellowship with him even in the most difficult of circumstances. 

So what was it that I saw?  I had been watching a little girl about four or five years old with beautiful curly blonde hair coming and going amongst the adults.  Then I saw her come up to a group of women while she was leading a younger little girl by the hand.  The women were talking when she tugged on one of the women, called her by her name and said, “She doesn’t know where her mommy is, can you help her find her mommy?”  The woman immediately picked up the lost child and continued visiting with the other women while the child was perfectly content to be in her arms.  In a very short time, a man came up to the woman and said to the child, “Where have you been, I have looking everywhere for you?”  He took her from the woman, and they left.

Why do I say this was an example of the Incarnation of Jesus?   Jesus said that he came to seek and save the lost. (Luke 19:10)  Being lost implies that whatever is lost belongs to someone and that it has a home.  Jesus came to seek and bring home his brothers and sisters to his Father.  The older of the two girls had compassion upon her younger friend and took her to a woman she trusted to help her friend find her way home.  I would go so far as to say that Jesus, alive in the older girl, took the younger girl to the heart of God our Father that she herself at some point had experienced through the woman.  Is the very nature of woman, not from God our Father himself?

Witnessing this manifestation of the Incarnation of Jesus, on Christmas Eve at a gathering to celebrate that incarnation, was like a gift from my Father to persevere in every circumstance believing that he is good and that his love endures forever.  It also reminded me of a quote from one of my favorite authors.

“For when is the child the ideal child in our eyes and in our hearts?  Is it not when with gentle hand he takes his father by the beard, and turns that father’s face up to his brothers and sisters to kiss?  (Quote from The Child in the Midst in the Unspoken Sermons Series by George MacDonald.)

Blessings,

Kevin

Finding Mercy & Grace in Our Time of Need

September 17, 2022

“Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” (Hebrews 4:14-16 NIV)

“Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom, because judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment.” (James 2:12-13 NIV)

Today is the 14th anniversary of when my eldest son was killed in an accidental shooting.  For several weeks before his death, I was continually having the thought of “God is good, and his love endures forever”.  When family friends came to tell me about his death, the very words I had been meditating upon, came from my mouth.  The absolute truth of these words, and giving thanks in all circumstances, is what has carried me day after day through times of great loss and times of great joy.

The phrase “God is good, and his love endures forever” appears in many scriptures including Psalm 100 which states, “Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth. Worship the LORD with gladness; come before him with joyful songs. Know that the LORD is God. It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. For the LORD is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.” 

The Hebrew word translated as love in Psalm 100 is chêsêd, which is also translated as mercy, loving-kindness and steadfast love in other translations or scriptures.  The Septuagint, which is the Greek translation of the Hebrew scriptures, uses eleos which is typically translated as mercy in the New Testament. 

An example of mercy is when Jesus told the parable of the good Samaritan in Luke 10:25-37.  The word translated as mercy is used to describe the actions the Samaritan man took when he found a man who had been beaten, robbed, and left for dead on the side of the road.  The action he took was the same as Jesus took whenever he encountered people who were suffering because of the sickness of sin that is in this world.  The scriptures indicate that he was moved with compassion to make right whatever was wrong in people.  He forgave sin, he fed the hungry, he cleansed lepers, cast out oppressive demons and healed all manner of sickness.

All of this leads me to asking, “What is meant by mercy?”  In general, I think we equate mercy with being the opposite of whatever we mean by grace.  With this line of thinking I would understand Hebrews 4:14-16, which is quoted at the start of this article, that because of Jesus, I can come to God my Father and not receive what I deserve (mercy) and receive what I do not deserve (grace).  However, I can no longer agree with this understanding.  Psalm 62:11-12 states, “One thing God has spoken, two things I have heard: “Power belongs to you, God, and with you, Lord, is unfailing love (mercy)”; and, “You reward everyone according to what they have done.” 

The meaning of grace is for a person to lean towards someone with open arms to embrace them to impart to them something that is for their good.  Jesus came from the Father full of grace and truth and from that fullness we have received grace upon grace. I define mercy as God our Father, who is love, doing whatever is necessary to enter into the suffering of humanity, which is due to our sin and brokenness, and making right whatever is wrong.  That is why Jesus entered into our humanity.  He came to seek and save the lost and to bring us all home to our Father, for we like sheep have all gone astray, there is no one who does good.  That beautiful story is told in Luke 15 in the parable of the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son.  The earth is the Lord’s and everything in it (Psalm 24).  Calling something as lost means it has a home and it is an injustice for it not to be restored to its rightful owner.  But for us to be restored to our Father we must allow Jesus to pick us up as a lost sheep (grace), and carry us home to our Father.

We tend to think that justice is served whenever a law breaker receives the due penalty ascribed by the law.  Even though I deserve the punishment ascribed by law, my receiving the punishment does not equate to justice having been served.  Justice occurs only when what is wrong is made right.  Punishment and suffering may lead me to seeing the horror of my crime and my crying out to God our Father for mercy so that what is wrong in me to be made right. However, punishment and suffering by itself, for my breaking the law, must not be confused with justice.  There is no justice that is not merciful and no mercy that is not just.  God cannot be mocked, I will reap what I sow.  There is no hope in praying for a crop failure from what I have sown, but there is great comfort in knowing that Jesus will be with me, giving me mercy and grace, as I reap what I have sown.  For he has promised to never leave me or forsake me, even when I am reaping what I have sown. 

You may be wondering what all of this has to do with the anniversary of my son’s death. It is simply this, I long for justice to be done for the death of my son.  I picture that as looking like my embracing him after I leave this life and him telling me, “Daddy all is well, Jesus has healed me of all that was ever wrong in me or done to me.  How I have longed for your embrace that you may know all is well with me.”  And then some day in eternity, to see my son do likewise when the one who accidentally caused his death, receives the same welcome from my son and we all go hand in hand, led by Jesus to God our Father, who one day will be all in all and all be made right, and all will be well.  That is justice.  Our God is an all-consuming fire and the fire of his love, in his embrace, will burn up whatever in me is not of love.  Come Lord Jesus and bring us home to our Father.

Blessings,

Kevin

Am I Distracted?

September 5, 2021

As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!” “Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed—or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”  (Luke 10:38-42 NIV)

I cannot remember how long ago it was, but before the start of the last presidential election campaigning cycle began, the Lord impressed upon me “to not get distracted”.  Any thought or word from God our Father is good even if we do not fully understand what he means.  Such was the case with “do not get distracted”.  I was very familiar with the consequences from being distracted even from an early age in addition to all of the safety procedures that I learned in my 41-year career in the electric utility industry, but I realized that I still needed to be on guard about being distracted.

One of those distraction lessons was from my early teenage years when I was driving a tractor on the farm to run a cultivator plow across a cotton field.  I became distracted by looking behind me too long and soon discovered that the tractor was no longer following in the furrows. The sad result was my plowing up a short section of six rows of otherwise healthy cotton. 

An even worse event happened before I was old enough to have a driver’s license.  Growing up in a small farming community it was very common for people to be driving a vehicle well before they were old enough to have a license.  I was driving my brother’s old Willys jeep when I spotted some young people in their front yard.  Among them was a young lady whom I wanted to impress, but yet show disdain for the young men with her.  I was staring at them as I drove by, i.e. my eyes were not on the road.  When I finally looked up it was too late!  The vehicle had drifted towards a parked pickup truck.  I quickly pulled the steering wheel towards the curb to miss hitting the pickup.  However, I was already too close to the pickup and the driver’s side door of the jeep hit the left rear corner of the pickup as the jeep bounced over the curb into the yard.  I steered the vehicle back into the street and in a panic drove quickly home as I concocted a story to tell my parents as to how the jeep came to be damaged.  As I got out of the jeep, I then realized that my knee was bleeding from a wound that occurred during the wreck.  My parents took me to the local hospital in a nearby town to seek medical help with my injured knee. While I was in the emergency room two Department of Public Safety officers walked in looking for me!  It was time to “come clean Maybelline and tell the truth Baby Ruth”, to quote someone in my hometown when he described his own scrape with the law. 

So, back to the Lord impressing upon me to not get distracted.  This leads to the logical question of “distracted from what”, what is it I was to keep my attention focused upon?  Since that time there has certainly been many events that could become distractions in our country and our world as a whole.  The “Sunday School” answer, as a friend often says, is always Jesus.  But what does that mean?  What does it look like in everyday life to keep my attention focused on Jesus?  There is much I could say about this and how I have failed many times since then to do so. However, I will limit this to a more recent impression the Lord gave me recently as to what this means practically.

I was praying after reading some scriptures and listening for anything Jesus wanted to show me.  I saw a brief image that I then pondered to see what he was showing me.  In this case I saw a woman asleep in a bed.  I had the impression that she was in a very satisfying sleep that was directly related to a true intimate experience with her husband.  An intimacy of deeply knowing her husband’s heart and being known by him in the same way. As I pondered this further, I thought about two stories from the Gospels.  One is the story of Jesus in the home of Mary, Martha and Lazarus in Luke 10: 38-42.  The other story is from Matthew 11:25-30 where Jesus says, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” 

In the first story, “Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made”, to show hospitality to Jesus and his disciples who had come to her home for a visit.  Note that the scriptures state the preparations “had to be made”.  Jesus perfectly shared in our humanity which included the need to eat, drink and rest.  These preparations likely required quite a lot of work to obtain the proper supplies and then to prepare a meal to set before her guests. This may have taken several hours.  In the meantime, her sister Mary, “sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said” rather than helping her sister with all the preparations that had to be made. At some point Martha came to Jesus and said, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!”  Jesus responded by saying, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed—or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”  This seems like a rebuke of Martha and this scripture has been used too many times to accuse women who have the gift of hospitality of being busy rather than sitting at Jesus’ feet.  However, I disagree with this simple assessment of what Jesus was saying to Martha, everyone else in the house and to us. 

Remember, the preparations had to be made just like when Jesus sent two of his disciples to prepare the traditional Passover meal for he and the rest of his closest disciples to eat.  Somebody had to make the preparations!  I think the problem was that Martha “was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made”.  Distracted from what?  I think the answer is found in the other story mentioned above where Jesus invites us to come to him in the weariness of daily necessary activities and to “take his yoke upon us and learn from him”.  In Matthew 11:27, which is the verse just before his invitation to come to him, Jesus said, “All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.”  I believe that Jesus is inviting us to come to him and learn from him how to have fellowship and intimacy with him and his Father in the activities of everyday life. This will result in us having the very satisfying rest that I saw in the image of the sleeping woman that I mentioned above. Jesus said he only did and said what he saw his Father doing and saying.  I firmly believe that Jesus was inviting Martha to invite him into teaching her about the Father even as she worked on “all the preparations that had to be made”.  Building a deep relationship and sharing intimacy was more important that accomplishing the work, but it occurs as the work is done in dependance upon Jesus.  His yoke is easy and his burden is light.

There is so much more I could say about this subject, but this article is already rather long.  I will sum it up with John 14:20 where Jesus said, “On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.”  This is my refuge in this stage of my life and during these troubling times because Jesus is not limited in any way, therefore I am not lacking in anything that is needed because he desires to share his life with me in everything that I encounter.  Therefore, come what may, all is well with my soul when I believe him and rest in fellowship with him.

Will you join me in praying, “Abba Father, please show me the many things that I am worried and troubled about that I may repent and come to you, Jesus, and take up your yoke and learn from you how to walk in fellowship with you in the very troubling times that we live in.”

Blessings,

Kevin

Is There Something Missing in the Parable of the Lost Son?

July 1, 2021

I have come to dearly love the parables Jesus told in Luke 15 about a lost sheep, a lost coin and a lost son because it reveals the heart of God our Father with respect to all of humanity and the entire cosmos.  In the words of Athanasius (296-373 A.D.), the bishop of Alexandria, “God being good what was he to do when his entire creation (cosmos) was on the road to ruin?”  Athanasius answered his own question when he wrote a booklet titled “On the Incarnation” about the Eternal Son of God, becoming flesh. 

In the words of John the Apostle, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. (John 1:1-5) He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God. The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John testified concerning him. He cried out, saying, “This is the one I spoke about when I said, ‘He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.'”) Out of his fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.” (John 1:10-18)

I was pondering all of this today and it occurred to me that there is something missing in the parable of the lost son mentioned above.  I do not mean to imply that Jesus left something out but rather he left it up to us to recognize the missing part that his very life demonstrated and for us to fill in the missing part.  Jesus told the parables in response to the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttering, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.” (Luke 15:2 NIV) They were completely blind to seeing that Jesus was one with God his Father and did and spoke only what he saw his Father doing and saying!  Therefore, they were criticizing the very God they claimed to know and worship!

So, what is the part of the parables that I think is missing?  Jesus said, “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”  (Luke 19:10 NIV) This eternal truth is told in the parable of the lost sheep and the lost coin, but why is it missing in the parable of the lost son, seeing as Jesus told all three in response to those who were criticizing him for welcoming sinners.  The missing part is that the elder brother of the lost son did not go looking for his younger brother!  The elder brother represents the very people who were criticizing Jesus for going after his Father’s lost children. 

Jesus is the one and only true elder brother of all of God our Father’s children, the only one who truly knows him, and always does what his Father desires (see John 1:18).   One of the most damaging lies of false Christianity is that God the Father cannot look upon or embrace someone who is in sin.  How can we believe such a lie when Jesus only did what he saw his Father doing?  Jesus associated with, ate with, healed, and set free those who lives were broken due to sin.  That is why the religious leaders hated him. In the parable of the lost son, the Father, who represents God our Father, openly welcomed his lost son when he returned.  I will go far as to say that the son still had pig feces on him from his time of living in the far country.  This image would be very repulsive to the religious leaders.  The part that is missing in the story, is that Jesus, the eternal elder brother, will go to and enter whatever situation, his Father’s children have turned to, that is not consistent with the character and nature of our Father.  He will go into the pig pen with us to show us the true nature of our Father.

Yes, the lost son remembered he had a father and decided to return to him because he had lost everything and longed to fill his belly with the food of the pigs he was feeding.  But, in the real case, we only know the true nature of God our Father because Jesus clearly demonstrates the true nature of our Father.  We cannot come to the one we do not know!  He takes us to our Father!

I have experienced this in my own life.  You may not accept what I am about to tell you, but I know in my heart it is true.  Several years ago, I was having a real struggle with anxiety and probably mild depression.  I finally sought out the help of a Christian counselor who helped me see and hear what God my Father wanted me to see.  In each counseling session, memory after memory of past days came to my mind creating a trail to whatever God my Father wanted to speak to me about.  In this instance, the memory was of me as a young man engaging in a act of sexual immorality.  The counselor asked me to ask Jesus where he was during that event.  Even though I could not clearly see him, I could tell he was present.  He came to seek and save his lost younger brother!  “Come my little brother, let us arise and go to our Father who will embrace us with mercy and grace in your time of need”. This event taught me that Jesus had been pursuing me all the days of my life but sadly it was a long time before I went with him to be embraced in the love of my Father and turn from my sinful ways and be healed.  I am forever thankful he did not give up on me.

God our Father is good, and his love endures forever.  Never will he leave us or forsake us.  Those who look to him are radiant and their faces are never covered with shame. “Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” (Hebrews 4:16 NIV)

Blessings,

Kevin

Finally, The Opportune Time Came

April 6, 2021

When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left him until an opportune time. (Luke 4:13 NIV)

What is an opportune time?  This phrase got my attention as I was reading Mark 6:14-29 this morning.  This section of scripture gives the account of how and why Herod the Tetrarch had John the Baptist executed.  John had confronted Herod about the fact that he had enticed his brother’s wife, Herodias, to leave him and to marry Herod.  Herodias nursed a grudge against John and wanted to kill him, but Herod knew John was a righteous man and protected him.  But finally, the opportune time came.

Again, I ask what is an opportune time?  The Greek word that is translated as “opportune time” is eukairos.  The word means well timed, or an opportunity that is presented at just the right time.  Whether the opportunity is presented for good or evil depends upon the source of the opportunity.  1 Peter 5:8 states, “Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.”  Satan – the devil, hates God and people, because they are made in the image of God.  He is constantly looking for the opportune time to do his work which always is to kill, steal and destroy.  Sadly, he will often use other people as the instruments to carry out his work.

This is what happened with Herod.  During a great party to celebrate his birthday, Herodias’ daughter danced for Herod and his guests.  The scripture does not tell us the nature of the dance, but the response of Herod and his guests leads me to think it was meant to be sexually enticing.  Herod was so pleased with her dancing, that he offered to give her almost anything she would ask for.  The opportune time, present by Satan himself, came when the daughter went to ask her mother’s advice, on what to ask Herod for, as her reward for pleasing him and his guests.  Herodias told her to ask for the head of John the Baptist.  This request greatly distressed Herod, but to save face in front of his guests, he gave orders for John to be executed.  This story ends with the gruesome scene of Herodias’ daughter proudly presenting John’s head to her mother.

This Greek word, eukarios, translated as opportune time, is used only two times in the New Testament.  The first instance is the story of the death of John the Baptist and the second instance is about Jesus.  Hebrews 4:14-16 states, “Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”   The phrase “time of need” is the second instance of the use of eukarios.  In other words, Jesus creates an opportune time for us to receive mercy and grace, whenever we are faced with a temptation from Satan.

Sadly, I can remember many times in my life when I was presented with an opportune time of temptation but did not understand or care that Jesus was offering me his own opportune time of mercy and grace as a way of escape.  I know that I am forgiven, but I still grieve over what I did and the damage it did to my own soul and to others.  Remember, the opportune times presented by Satan are always to accomplish his work to kill, steal and destroy.  The opportune time offered by Jesus is so that we can receive his life in our time of need.

Please join with me in confidently approaching God’s throne of grace at the opportune time, that he is always offering, so that we may receive mercy and grace whenever and wherever we are presented with Satan’s opportune time of temptation.

Blessings,

Kevin