God's Opinion of You

One of the reasons we get confused about spiritual matters is because of the way we misunderstand and misapply words we use all the time. For instance, consider the word, "glory." In Hebrews 1:3, the Bible says Jesus is the radiance of God's glory. What does the writer mean by that? Does He mean that Jesus shines as brightly as the Father in His splendor? Perhaps, but I think the verse is much richer than that.

The word "radiance" is the Greek word apaugasma, which means "out-raying." Jesus is the expression of God's glory just as the rays of light that come from the sun express its essence. But what about this "glory" that Jesus perfectly expresses?

The word, "glory" is the word doxa. Here's the link to the Greek Lexicon so that you can see the word for yourself: http://www.biblestudytools.com/lexicons/greek/nas/doxa.html Look at the first definition given there: "opinion, judgment, view." It's not until we come to the third definition in the list that we find anything having to do with brightness or splendor.

The first definition is the best definition in understanding what Hebrews 1:3 means when it tells us that Jesus is the radiance of God's glory. To be literal the verse could read this way, "Jesus is the out-raying of God's opinion." The verse goes on to elaborate by saying that He is the "exact representation of His nature."

Jesus exactly represents the nature of God and perfectly expresses the Father's opinion. The question arises, "Jesus expresses the Father's opinion of what or of whom?" The answer is, "you!" Why would I suggest that is the answer? It's simple. Jesus came to show us the heart of the Father toward us. One of the last things He did was to pray for us to know just how much we are loved. He even compared the perichoretic love shared in heaven with the love He wanted us to know. (See John 17)

The opinion of the Father toward us isn't one of condemnation. Sin has done enough of that to us already. His heart toward us is to love us and then love us and, having done that, He then will love us. If you want to see God's attitude toward you, look at how Jesus acted toward those who had sinned. All love, all the time. The only people you ever see the ire of Jesus directed toward were the self-righteous who loved themselves so much that there was no room in their lives for God's love.

So, when you read about the glory of God, think about the Father's opinion of you. Know that He loves and adores you, as Jesus made clear. Don't see yourself through the eyes of others who, at the least, love you less than perfectly. Don't see yourself through your own eyes, blurred by legalistic self-judgment and self-righteous scrutiny. See yourself as His beloved, in whom He is well pleased.

God is Love. That's the starting point for our properly understanding Him and it's the all inclusive framework through which we must see ourselves if we are to live healthy lives.

For God so loved you that He gave His only begotten Son so that you might see and believe how much He loves you and so that sin wouldn't have its natural outcome in your life by causing you to perish away but instead Agape will see to it that you have everlasting Life, abundant life, His life.

Stop depending on other people, yourself, your church background, your misbehavior, or even the way you have misread your Bible to give you your image of yourself. God has an opinion of you. Jesus has made it clear what that opinion is. He adores you. So don't insult Him by disputing His opinion of you. By faith, own it. Whether you feel it or not, own it. Whether you see it or not, own it. That's how faith works and as you exercise your faith in Him and His love, you will find healing and wholeness increase exponentially in your life.

Two Covenants, Not One

For the past three weeks, I've been sharing a three-part series of teachings on the "Sunday Preaching" broadcast called, "Two Covenants, Not One." For many years, I stayed confused when I read the Bible because I didn't understand this simple aspect of understanding the Scripture. The Old and New Covenant are very different from each other in many ways. God told those in the old covenant that a day was going to come when He would make a new covenant with His people and it would not be like the covenant He had made with them through their Fathers. (See Jeremiah 31:31-32) Through Jesus Christ, that day came to us so that now the covenant He has made is totally different - not at all the same. It's new and, according to Hebrews 8:13, the old one is "obsolete." It has passed away. It's gone, expired, finished, over!

This fact is a sticking point in many people's minds. "Isn't the Old Testament God's Word?" they will ask? Of course the Old Testament is as much a part of the Bible as the New Testament, but here's a key that will help us immeasurably when we understand it. The Old Testament was not written to us! It was written for us, but not to us. (See Romans 15:4) There's a big difference. That's why the Apostle Paul cautioned Timothy to take great care to ensure that he would "rightly divide the word of truth" when he taught the Bible. (See 2 Timothy 2:15) All kind of trouble is created in our minds and lives when we don't do that.

First of all, the Law was never even given to the Gentiles. It was given to Israel. Consider these texts:

These are the statutes, the ordinances, and the laws that the Lord gave between Himself and the children of Israel on Mount Sinai, by the hand of Moses” (Leviticus 26:46).

He tells His words to Jacob, His statutes and His judgments to Israel. He did not do so to any nation … (Psalm 147:19-20).

For when Gentiles who do not have the Law do instinctively the things of the Law, these, not having the Law, are a law to themselves. . . (Romans 2:14).
Christians today put themselves in a confusing cycle of condemnation when they try to apply an Old Covenant mentality to understanding the Bible. The New and the Old don’t mix!

Example: Do you believe your heart is desperately wicked and deceitful above all things? If you do, its' because you've failed to "rightly divide the word." God had Jeremiah tell the people that “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked" (Jeremiah 17:9) but in Romans 5:5 Paul said that "the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts." Which is true? They both are! It was true when Jeremiah said it to those to whom He spoke in the Old Covenant and Paul's words are true for we who live under the New Covenant! Do you see the confusion that happens when we fail to make the distinction between the covenants? There are many biblical texts like that. When we read the Bible, we need to ask ourselves, "Who is speaking? To whom is he speaking? When is He speaking?" These are basic questions that will settle a lot of confusion in reading the Bible.

Remember this: The new covenant doesn't start at Matthew 1:1. It starts at the death of Jesus. The importance of this fact can't be overstated. Hebrews 9:16 says, " For where a testament is, there must of necessity be the death of him that made it." In other words, a Last Will & Testament means nothing until the person who wrote it dies. That's important even when we read the New Testament pages.

For instance, you'll get yourself into a world of confusion if you try to apply the Sermon on the Mount to yourself. Remember that Jesus hadn't died when He spoke those words. He was talking to them, not you. They were a group of people who thought they could gain righteousness by their moral living so Jesus showed them just how impossible that is. He said things like, "If you lust, gouge your eye out. If you steal, cut your hand off." So here's the question: Do you really believe that's what you're supposed to do? "Of course not!" a critic might respond, "It was obvious He didn't really mean that!" Wait, a minute. If you claim that we're supposed to do everything Jesus said, you can't take that cop-out. The Bible isn't a menu you can choose from.

The fact is that if we don't rightly divide the covenants, we will end up treating the Bible like a buffet where we take the things we like but leave the things we don't like. That's no way to treat the Scripture. Better to respect the Scripture enough to accurately interpret it instead. No, Jesus wasn't telling you to pluck your eye out. He wasn't even talking to you.

One more example: Jesus said that if we don't forgive people who have offended us, then God won't forgive those who don't forgive. (See Matthew 6:14-15) Do you really think that's for you??? Do you honestly believe that it's possible that you've trusted Jesus Christ as your Savior, walked with Him, known and loved Him, trusted in His finished work on the cross and now, if it should happen that somebody offends you and you die before you've forgiven them that you won't be forgiven??? Anybody who even slightly uses common sense knows that can't be right!

What's the answer? The answer is that Jesus spoke those words before the cross - before the inauguration of the New Covenant. Notice how everything changed after the cross.

Ephesians 4:32 Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you. Notice here that we forgive because we have already been forgiven, not so we can get it.

What does Colossians 3:13 teach is our motivation to forgive others? "... bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you."

See how everything changes with the end of the Old Covenant and the beginning of the New?

Let's get our covenants separated. That simple step will make a world of difference in understanding our Bibles.

If you want to hear the whole teaching, check out www.gracewalkresources.com in a few days. The whole series will be available there. In the meantime, watch the last installment on www.gracewalk.org. It's part three in this series, called "Two Covenants, Not One."

Anger or Agape?

For years I saw the cross as the place where God the Father poured out His anger on the Son in order to satisfy His justice. (That view is a very distorted view of what justice really means. I'll write about that subject another time.) Author Brad Jersak does a good job explaining the way many of us have seen God's involvement at the cross and the way it really is.

"God need not say, "I just can't get over my children's sin. I am so incensed with them. They are repulsive to me and trigger my wrath and need for vengeance. My hand is armed for their destruction. Somebody must pay me and it has to be with punishment; with blood.

But what if, alternatively, we imagine him saying, "I can't get over over my children. I'm so in love. I need to save them - even if it kills me." And so the wounds of Christ represent something far better than the satisfied wrath of an offended God. They speak of the power of God's great mercy and love for us." (Brad Jersak, Stricken By God?)

Which scenario describes your view of God? That choice will permeate how you see everything else in life.

A Story of An Accepting Father

A GPS And A Humming Driver

I'm in Arcadia, California tonight after a long day of travel. I love the state of California. I've sometimes said that if it weren't for family and friends in the South, I could be happy living here. It's a beautiful state with great weather.

When I landed at LAX today and picked up my rental car, they asked me, "Do you want the GPS?" Those who know me have heard me describe myself as "directionally challenged," to put it mildly. I know up and down. Beyond that, the whole world becomes a Bermuda Triangle for me. So accepting the GPS offer didn't take a split second to decide.

As I made the almost hour long drive from the airport to Arcadia, it was a pleasant drive despite the traffic. I didn't know where I was going, but the nice lady inside the Garmin (GPS) did. She politely told me every turn to take, even warning me in advance of approaching turns and giving me plenty of time to get into the correct lane for the turn.

I remember the first time I came to California. There was no such thing as a GPS then. Melanie and I came here many years ago to celebrate our anniversary. We flew into San Francisco and, after spending a night at Fisherman's Wharf, drove a big loop covering John Muir Woods, Yosemite National Park, Reno, Lake Tahoe, Sacramento, Napa Valley and ending up in San Fran again. I did enjoy the trip a lot, but I do clearly remember the constant stress I felt trying to figure out where I was at and where I was supposed to be going at any given moment. In the midst of immensely enjoying the sites were plenty of Rolaids to help deal with the stress of my directional disability.

It's not that way at all when I drive anywhere these days. I was thinking about it as I drove here today and the thought popped into my mind: "I wish I trusted the Holy Spirit in me as much as I trust this GPS." With the GPS, I didn't give a second thought to whether or not I would reach my destination. I was able to simply relax and hum along with the radio while I followed the instructions the nice voice was giving me as I drove.

I'm a little embarrassed to admit that I'm not so relaxed about my life journey sometimes. I know in my head that the Spirit of Christ inside me will guide me, but my feelings sometimes don't believe it. I find myself at times feeling anxious about the future even though I know better. I imagine immediate circumstances not unfolding the way I expect and want and foresee some long-term scenarios not having a pleasant outcome either. But the truth is the truth and that Truth is that He is in me and will most certainly guide me to the destination He has planned.

Do you find yourself feeling anxious about the future at times? Maybe it's tomorrow. Maybe it's years from now. Somebody said that worry is imagining the future without God in it. I think I heard the Holy Spirit speak to me today through the voice coming out of that GPS. He said, "You can trust Me. I know where we're going and I promise I will see to it that you safely arrive there."

Okay, Lord. If you'll keep teaching me, I'll just make the journey with you and maybe at times even hum along the way.

Taking The Plunge

Imagine that you are standing on a diving board on a hot day. It's a high dive. You look down and see fog beneath you. A reliable person who you know is trustworthy tells you that a refreshing pool of water is below. He assures you that you will enjoy the water tremendously if you jump into it.

You jump and you hit the water. It was just as you had been told. Wonderful.

Think about that scenario a moment. Was it your decision to jump that caused the water to be real? Did it come into being when you jumped? The fact is that the water was there whether you jumped or not. You didn't make it materialize by believing it was there and by throwing yourself off the diving board. Your action only allowed you to experience it. The water was real all along, but it became real to you when you jumped into it.

Here's the comparison: What Jesus Christ did for humanity is real. It isn't a person's faith that makes it become real. It was real before you and I believed and would have been real if we had never believed. Believing enables us to experience the reality of His finished work. It doesn't make His work real.

Existential thought in the Christian world suggests that our sins are forgiven when we believe; that we are reconciled to God when we believe; that all the things associated with our salvation happen because we believe. The problem is that this view puts the cart before the horse. We believe because it is already true. It doesn't become true when we believe! Our faith simply allows us to experience a reality that already exists.

With all our talk about the centrality of the cross, the way we often teach the gospel suggests that what is really central in our understanding is our profession of faith. The truth is that it all happened at the cross. When Jesus said, "It is finished," He meant it. He didn't mean He was waiting for us to finish it by anything we do.

Don't misunderstand what I'm saying. Until we jump we won't ever get wet. But the water is there. We don't create by our faith. We just get to enjoy it when we take the plunge.

The Pure Gospel

Leave it to Malcolm Smith to say in less than four minutes what it took me seventeen weeks of Sunday Preaching to say :)

Melody In F - The Story of the Prodigal Son

Just for fun....

Feeling footloose and frisky, a featherbrained fellow
forced his fond father to fork over his farthings. He flew
far to foreign fields and frittered his fortune, feasting
fabulously with faithless friends.

Finally facing famine and fleeced by his fellows-in-folly,
he found himself a feed flinger in a filthy farmyard.
Fairly famished, he fain would have filled his frame with
foraged food from the fodder fragments.

"Fooey, my father's flunkies fare far fancier," the
frazzled fugitive fumed feverishly, frankly facing facts.
Frustrated by failure and filled with foreboding, he fled
forthwith to his family. Falling at his father's feet, he
floundered forlornly, "Father, I have flunked and
fruitlessly forfeited family favor."

But the faithful father, forestalling further flinching,
frantically flagged the flunkies to fetch forth the finest
fatling and fix a feast.

The fugitive's fraternal faultfinder frowned on the fickle
forgiveness of former failure. His fury flashed, but
fussing was futile.

The farsighted father figured, "Such filial fidelity is
fine, but what forbids fervent festivity for the fugitive
is found. Unfurl the flags with flaring, let fun and
frolic freely flow. Former failure is forgotten, folly
forsaken. Forgiveness forms the foundation for future
fortune."

(My apologies to the writer of this piece for not being able to cite the source. It was in a textbook in a homiletics class I took many, many years ago. The book is gone and the autor's name has disappeared from my notes, but this is still in my file.)

The Apple of His Eye

There are times in life when it seems that our Father is nowhere to be found. Times when we feel like we really need to see Him but we can't. Have you ever felt like God checked out of your circumstances and didn't bother to tell you that He was leaving? Well, the good news is that your feelings were just that - feelings. When we feel like God doesn't see our needs, the truth is very different from our feelings.

Our loving Father never even glances away from us, even for a moment. Psalm 139:3 says, "You scrutinize my path and my lying down, and are intimately acquainted with all my ways" (NAS). Look at the picture I've posted with this blog. That child can see only one thing - himself. He's so close to the eye that he can't even see the eye. He can only see his own reflection in the pupil of the eye.

Your Father is watching you. In Zechariah 2:8, our Father called His people, "the apple" of His eye. The word literally means "the pupil." Not only are you in your Father's sight. He is focused on you. He "scrutinizes" your lifestyle. That word means "to fan or to winnow." It's the picture of an ancient harvester throwing the wheat and chaff into the air to let the wind separate them so that the wheat could be harvested.

The winds of trouble may blow in, but your Father is watching you. He is using everything that comes into your life to produce a harvest in you and for you. In the midst of our trials, our Father is not far from us. To the contrary, He is often closer than we think. Look at that picture above again. Then relax. It's all good. That's a guarantee.