Imago Divinus + Imago Data = Imago Dei

When we talk about God or even heaven, we are speaking of things that we have not seen with our own eyes. What did the Bible say? It says we are to have faith. It is by faith that we are saved. What does faith imply? Believing in something, sometimes in “something” that cannot always be directly observed. Sometimes we can only see portions of reality or the effects that these "somethings"have on the things that we can see. We can see the effects the Holy Spirit has on believers. We can see the more holy lives people lead after their conversion and regeneration. It is not always a pretty nor straightforward process but it is a visible process that shows visual progress forward over the long haul.

"Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. For by it the people of old received their commendation. By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible." ~Hebrews 11:1-3

Because we are finite and God is infinite we can never fully grasp God. Jesus refers directly to heaven (which isn’t even God) a few times (Matt 13:31, 33, 44 & Mark 4:26). He tells us heaven is, “like this”, “like a mustard seed”, “is like leaven”. When dealing only with heaven, not God He refers to the unseen in heaven comparatively to things we can grasp. The Bible tells us clearly:

“You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth.” ~Exodus 20:4

God is not like any of the things in earth or in heaven, He is infinitely more. How can the human mind even begin to comprehend these things? The truth is we cannot. We can only understand what He has revealed about Himself through His Son or the Bible and these are only pieces.

It is like trying to send a file through the Internet that exceed the bandwidth for the line that you are trying to send it through and is too big for the receiving computer's hard drive. The computer can accept parcels of information or small portions at one time but if the entire file is forced on the receiver...it crashes the computer. If downloaded in small parcels it is easier to store the information away for later use. In smaller parcels or packets it is more manageable.

The Lord was gracious enough to give knowledge of Himself to us in pieces, bits (or bytes) that we could understand. We are all like little limited capacity jump drives walking around but until we plug into the Master we are all just isolated islands or nodules of data/information (life) that have no meaning. Until we are filled with what we are meant to be filled with (Holy Spirit) we are essentially empty, not configured (sinners) and useless except when it comes to "common" tasks. If we do become loaded with bad data (sin) it can bog our systems down. Really hostile or bad sin can act as a virus and wipe out entire portions of our existence as if they had never existed. Having not flirted with or got involved with the sin…we could’ve avoided the spiritual virus all together.

In a worst-case scenario we need to empty out the corrupt data (sin) and reconfigure or wipe (save) the drive because it has become so corrupt it is unusable. Damaged goods people. You literally have to start over from a blank slate by rebuilding the drive from scratch. Because data (life) can continually become corrupt and fragmented (riddled with holes) the drive needs routine defragmentation (routine repentance) otherwise you end up back in a corrupt state that requires another massive defrag again.

The question for you is: What kind of storage are you? Will you retain things pure & uncorrupted that can be retrieved and be useful. Can you retain something corrupt that needs to be corrected (sanctified) or will you only build up fragmented data that will later need to be discarded altogether (condemned)? Will you be righteous and an image bearer of God the way you were intended to be or will you choose to be unrighteous and become a corrupted image of the Master useful to no one? A corrupted file is fit for judgment and relegated to a trash bin.

As they say in computer lingo: Junk In, Junk Out.

Personally, I prefer to contain retrievable data with integrity even though the mainframe occasionally overwhelms me with its file size. We are human drives that are a temple of the Holy Spirit. We are tools that have been partitioned and set aside for specific use. We work within the system but are not part of it. In this way we are sentient but aloof. Integral to the proper functioning of the overall system but we do not need the earthly system to survive. We only need the Master Programmer who is the God of our operating manual, the Bible. We all work together in a giant network called the Kingdom and when one part of the system is bogged down within the existing corrupted and broken world system there is another portion of the network that can take the load off the burdened portion and carry the majority of the load.

So I guess the only real question you need to ask yourself is: Who or What are you plugged into or linked up with?

Immutable Does Not Mean Uncaring

Some individuals have incorrectly concluded from Scripture that God is unchangeable in all senses of the word. When this is said of God, it is in reference to His character. There are some who would say that when it comes to real emotions like anger, and joy, and grief...they are impossible to God because these would involve variations within Him and we all know God is immutable. Yet we also saw Jesus weep at Lazarus’ tomb, didn’t we?

There are many theologians that the Biblical writers attributed human feelings to God in order that they might reveal Him to us. In this way they believer that man anthropomorphized God (gave Him human characteristics) so that we could grasp and understand Him. Many learned Bible readers would say that God is all seriousness and completely emotionless. It is said that a sinner places himself in the jurisdiction of God's wrath because God’s wrath is God's ageless attitude toward sin. These same people will say that the person who receives Jesus Christ places himself in the realm of God's love. We get an image of God as a stoical, humorless rigid Being. An acrylic bulletproof God.

This is just not the God described in the Bible. The Scriptures are clear that God is personal and no place is this better exemplified than in Jesus. Jesus who was the God who could be touched, He could be touched physically, emotionally and even spiritually. He knew our infirmities, our temptations, our sufferings….our death.

In Song of Solomon we see many verse but one stands out in Song of Solomon 4:9. Song of Solomon is a book pure poetry speaking of God’s love for the Church or believers or at least that is one of the ways it can be interpreted. Once someone has been able to decipher the poetic song, it will break a believer’s heart due to the disclosure of how much God truly loves us and longs for us to be with Him. Once we understand how greatly He loves is it is heart-rending to see how we have so lightly treated His excitement for our relationship with Him. It is a disgrace to see how we have tread carelessly and callously on His "heart".

Song of Solomon 4:9 ~ You have stolen my heart, my sister, my bride; you have stolen my heart with one glance of your eyes, with one jewel of your necklace.

The words in this verse are not words of a being that does not care or is an emotional stone. This is a loving relational God. The Hebrew word לִבַּבְתִּ֙ינִי֙ / libbaḇtini and comes from the root word levav. This word is in a Piel perfect form. There is a double Beth in use here also. The Beth represents the heart. Therefore, this double Beth in this context represents God’s heart and our hearts joined in a loving intimate relationship. It is a picture of two hearts opening up to each other and becoming equally as vulnerable. Two beings/people in love in the truest sense. 

God may be this immutable, impervious, unchanging and sovereign God of Scripture but He is simultaneously allowing Himself to be hurt by putting Himself in a relationship with a fickle and capricious being called man/woman. God purposely makes Himself vulnerable to believers by opening up His heart to us. He even allows Himself to have His heart betrayed when we turn away like a cheating spouse and we chase after idols on nearly a daily basis. God didn’t have to do this but He chooses to anyway. This should affect the way we behave as Christians at all times. We should be ashamed and mortified by our behavior.

This is also why God takes great joy and pleasure in mercy and grace. It is why he rejoices when one sinner repents and turns back to Him. It is why Jesus participated in our temptations and sorrows but overcame them. God’s call for us to repent are as zealous, jealous and true as they were in the days of Ezekiel when God called on His people to turn back to Him.

Ezekiel 33:11 ~ “Say to them, As I live, declares the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live; turn back, turn back from your evil ways, for why will you die, O house of Israel?

Shouldn't we at least try and reciprocate this intense burning love instead of spurning God? Immutable does not mean aloof and heartless. God's immutability should be a reassurance to us for our salvation, not a scary attribute of a brutish God. Not cold and distant, warm and imminent. This warm God is exactly what is described earlier in Ezekiel 8:2...

Ezekiel 8:2 ~ I looked, and I saw a figure like that of a man. From what appeared to be his waist down he was like fire, and from there up his appearance was as bright as glowing metal.

A glowing metal or aglow as in the color of amber/copper (literal). This figure like a man was aglow in a warm copper hue. What Ezekiel is probably seeing here is a feeling through his field of vision or a feeling that paints a warm image of God in a visible manner. We see what is a shadow or type of the episode with Jesus on Mount of Transfiguration. It should not then be surprising that the Transfiguration is actually a culmination of the Law and the Prophets promises in Jesus. God wishes to be reconciled to us and this is exactly what the Law and Prophets points us to...reconciliation in Jesus. He is even willing to abrogate our sin if we would only trust in His Son, His promises and repent by turning back to Him in faith.

Bentorah, Chaim (2013-07-24). Hebrew Word Study: A Hebrew Teacher Explores the Heart of God (Kindle Locations 163-167). WestBowPress. Kindle Edition.

Strange Cuisine II: Poor Man's Banquet

Matthew 3:4 ~ “Now John wore a garment of camel's hair and a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey. 

So here we see John the Baptist and his eclectic diet of bugs and honey. At once we are struck with the oddity of not only his sustenance in this passage but also his wardrobe too. He eats bugs and honey which comes from bugs (bees) and he dresses in robe or cloak made of camel hair and girded by a leather belt. Inquisitive minds will want to know…why the peculiarity and unconventional nature of his not-so-normal existence? It should be noted immediately that John wears the garb of the Old Testament prophet when it tells us he wears a camel’s hair garment and leather belt. Even Jesus tells us that John is indeed a prophet in the mold of the Old Testament. He will be the last, and he will be the greatest. Jesus speaking to the disciples says as much….

Matthew 11:9-11 ~ “What then did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. This is he of whom it is written, “‘Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way before you. ’Truly, I say to you, among those born of women there has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist. Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.”

What’s more is it stating this Jesus is recalling or quoting the prophet Malachi and the prophecy of the Messenger of the Covenant. Which is also a herald mentioned in Isaiah 40:3

Malachi 3:1 ~ “I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come,” says the Lord Almighty.

Isaiah 40:3 ~ “A voice cries:“In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God.

The Old Testament prophets not only told of the coming of the Messiah but they also foretold of the coming of the last of their kind in John, and Jesus confirms this (Luke 16:16). If we refer to the original Hebrew of Malachi 3, the Hebrew tells us the messenger is [mal’ak] “messenger-of-me/Me” or literally “a messenger; specifically, of God. Whomever this is that is coming …the one the messenger foretells of will be directly from God himself. This first messenger will also prepare the way for God or in this context/case Jesus Christ and as suddenly as this messenger will come, the Lord they are seeking will come to His temple. This verse is the Old Testament counterpart to Matthew 11:10, Mark 1:2 and Luke 7:27. It is also the Old Testament companion to Isaiah 40:3: “A voice of one calling: "In the desert prepare the way for the LORD make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God.

The Messenger is clearly John the Baptist.

Knowing this makes the identity of the One that will usher in the New Covenant and the One who will abrogate the Old Covenant obvious in hindsight. It is Jesus Christ or the One who will prove He is God by purifying His people like a “refiners fire” (v.2-3) and punishing sinners. So we have clearly connected John to the prophets of old here both through prophecy and Jesus’ own words.

So why the bugs and ascetic and frugal lifestyle?

Well, first we should note that John came preaching (v.1). Preaching what? The same things the prophets of Old had alluded to: A Gospel of repentance and an exhortation to turn back to God. This is what prophets do…they exhort people to return to God that have gone astray. Repentance or μετάνοια / metanoia literally means to turn one’s mind. Why? Because the Kingdom of God was at hand…literally Jesus was at hand and near. Kingdom is where the King is and Jesus was here! How could anyone turn their back on the Son of God? Well, easy…sin blinded them. The quintessential message of a prophet. A prophet like Elijah. Why is this important? The Gospel of Matthew is intent on showing that Jesus is the Messiah foretold of in the Old Testament and John plays directly into those foretelling being the predecessor of Jesus. What is even more important is that John, being a type of Old Testament prophet breaks a 450 year prophetic silence over the land of Israel. A silence that started at the time or Malachi…the exact prophet that foretold of John!

If we look closely at the emphatic pronoun αὐτὸς or “himself” in verse 4 we see Matthew as writer draws our attention to John and that fact that John’s manner of living in this verse was in accord with prophecy of the forerunner of the Messiah. John is literally depicted as a type of Elijah who wore the same wardrobe in 2 Kings 1:8.

2 Kings 1:8 ~ “They answered him, “He wore a garment of hair, with a belt of leather about his waist.” And he said, “It is Elijah the Tishbite.”

John’s personality and method of preaching is indeed exactly the same as his predecessor’s. No holds barred and in your face regardless of who you were. Elijah confronted and went head-to-head with Ahab and his disgusting wife and John went toe-to-toe with Herod and his disgusting wife. What is further ironic is that the evil women behind the kings in these stories did more to steer the bad behavior of the kings than the kings themselves. What we see here is God’s chosen going against those that apostatized from God. Jesus even makes the direct correlation between Elijah and John by name.

Matthew 11:13-14 ~ For all the Prophets and the Law prophesied until John, and if you are willing to accept it, he is Elijah who is to come. 

Matthew 17:12-13 ~ “But I tell you that Elijah has already come, and they did not recognize him, but did to him whatever they pleased. So also the Son of Man will certainly suffer at their hands.” Then the disciples understood that he was speaking to them of John the Baptist.”

The eating of the bugs though leave us puzzled. Couldn’t John have just killed a bird or some other animal and eaten somewhat normally? Well, we should probably without judging what John ate. Why? Because locusts are still eaten to this day in the Middle East. Although his diet sounds meager, it was actually nutritious and healthy considering how little he ate. I believe the term is nutrient dense. It was also the diet associated to the very poor. We see shades of the “last being first and the first being last here.” He is dressed in poor man’s clothes and eats poor man’s food but in terms of spiritual importance, there would be none greater than him other than Jesus Himself. Like Jesus we see a man that seemed to have, “no place to rest his head.” He lived in the wilderness and was essentially a wild-eyed prophet living at the fringes of society. A man that dresses ruggedly and eats even more harshly, like he lives in the desert wilderness somewhere between God and man but not firmly in either camp. Prophets…men ostracized by their calling and God’s will for them. Ostracized by the tone of their message and a world that rejects them because they don’t want to hear the message of the God behind it. They would rather dwell in their sins.

We should probably also mention that John’s diet eating of locusts is not only permitted in the Old Testament law, it is actually encouraged by God in Leviticus. Locusts and similar insects almost seem to be singled out as acceptable clean animals in the dietary laws.

Leviticus 11:20-23 ~ “All winged insects that go on all fours are detestable to you. Yet among the winged insects that go on all fours you may eat those that have jointed legs above their feet, with which to hop on the ground. Of them you may eat: the locust of any kind, the bald locust of any kind, the cricket of any kind, and the grasshopper of any kind. But all other winged insects that have four feet are detestable to you.

Also, just because the Bible says John ate locusts and honey does not mean that these are the only foods he ate. Again, these two culinary items are mentioned by Matthew to draw the parallel to Elijah which we have already alluded to earlier in this post.

So what we see in the end is not necessarily the physical human significance of John in this passage so much as the spiritual aspect that is being drawn out by Matthew. Yes, John is probably a wild-eyed man in the wilderness drawing people to him and pointing them towards the One he foretells of by his enigmatic behaviors and words…but it is what is at the heart of these words and actions that is the telling sign for Matthew. John is preaching a baptism of repentance and the parallels of wardrobe and diet are to align him spiritually to His predecessor Elijah and these dietary parallels are drawn to show the spiritual significance more than the physical. Matthew isn’t telling us John eats bugs to gross us out, he is doing it to show that the Old Testament spoke of him first and this is how you would know. That means the One whom John had spoken of…had come too!

Atheism: Intellectual Cowardice and Lazy Thinking

If life is to be meaningful ethically there needs to be justice and what amounts to a perfect judge after death. Without this judge inevitably, those that suffered unjustly in this life receive no justice and that is unethical. Without that judge, the moral sense of right and wrong and the internal ethic of man makes no sense. Why some would do ethical things even though it doesn't benefit them makes absolutely no sense. ~ Andy Pierson paraphrasing Immanuel Kant.

Therefore the assertion by Foydor Dostoyevsky would hold true: "If there is no God (judge), all things are permissible."

This would mean that ethics are only subjective preferences based only on human emotion, volition and sentiment. This would leave only (2) two viable explanations for human existence...

Theism or a belief in God

-or-

Non-theism or Atheism

People ask me why I get so impatient with middle-of-the-road agnostics and humanists that say that there probably is no God but humans are somehow more important or instilled with a dignity that animals don't have even though we are supposedly from nothing and returning to nothing after a momentary meaningless existence. They are not consistent in their argument and they don't even realize this most times. It is intellectual cowardice pure and simple. At least hardcore atheists are consistent in their militant consistency although their logic leaves much to be desired. The rest are just people that have not thought through their position correctly in a logical manner.

As for atheists themselves...

The principal and perhaps sole intellectual driving force behind the rise of the militant westernized atheistic jihad has been the false idea that concrete, testable data is the exclusive portal to reliable beliefs. This is false and irrational. Nonsense remains nonsense; even when it is uttered by world-renowned scientists and so-called "highly educated" people. Nonsense uttered by the likes of Richard Dawkins, Stephen Hawking and their ilk...or the murderous Sam Harris known for his religiously zealous comment:

“Some beliefs are so dangerous that it may be ethical to kill people for believing them.” Sam Harris-The End of Faith

If we look into the recent past we would've seen more rational, reasonable and logical statements from respected scientists like Max Plank... 

Plank, the patriarch of Quantum Theory wrote the following words: 

“Anybody who has seriously been engaged in scientific work of any kind realizes that over the entrance to the gates of the temple of science are written the words: Ye must have faith. It is a quality which the scientist cannot dispense with… Science cannot solve the ultimate mystery of nature. That is because, in the last analysis, we ourselves are a part of nature and therefore a part of the very mystery that we are trying to solve.” ~Max Plank

So, how is atheism inconsistent?

Throughout history it was believed that the highest form of knowledge, and indeed the highest form of science, is one that admits the yielding of the senses to human reasoning and creativity in a truly symbiotic harmony. In other words, we need all of our faculties for cognition in order to exercise our full intellectual capacities, not just one or the other by itself. By isolating and emphasizing one half of the equation as in being purely empirical and ignoring another such as spiritual or metaphysical - a person literally becomes rationally and mentally deficient. They literally become crazy or irrational. (Jinn 605-608)

So atheism at its core can be broken down into a concise syllogism showing its illogical flaw(s).

Thesis 1: Human understanding is at once rational, intuitive and empirical. 
Thesis  2: Science (the scientific method) is purely empirical. 
Thesis  3: Therefore, science alone is insufficient for human understanding, especially metaphysical. 
Thesis 4: Belief that science is sufficient for all human understanding is a fallacious epistemology. 
Thesis 5: Scientific atheism maintains that science is sufficient for human understanding. 

Conclusion: Therefore scientific atheism is based on a flawed epistemology that is not logical.

Science itself has admitted that it cannot even answer all questions posed to it. Nor is it even adequate or accurate enough at times as a tool for answering questions of the natural realm let alone the supernatural. Yet those in the scientific realm will have you believe they are an expert on metaphysical epistemology and physical/naturalism epistemology. This is why they tell you with certainty that God does not exist EVEN WHEN THEY HAVE NO EVIDENCE TO SUPPORT THEIR CLAIM! In other words, they are all bluster and no substance. The emperor has no clothes. All it really takes to silence the fallacious arguments is someone with a firm grasp of reason, speaking (rhetoric) and rationality to expose their pantomime for what it is. Illogical and religiously zealous unbelief. 

Religious zealotry...the very thing they abhor.

Even Charles Darwin himself (many atheist's beloved hero) ultimately denied atheism, and furthermore considered it absurd to doubt that a man might be an ardent theist and an evolutionist.

Jinn, Bo (2014-01-13). Illogical Atheism: A Comprehensive Response to the Contemporary Freethinker from a Lapsed Agnostic. Sattwa Publishing. Kindle Edition. 

Strange Cuisine I: Golden Water

In today’s world we often look at foods from other countries and cultures oddly. We look at them as if they should not be eaten. Sometimes we even turn our noses up to some of the dishes we in the west deem unpalatable. It is not uncommon to see consumption of canine meat in the Far East, Southeast Asia, West Africa, The Philippines and even parts of Europe. The Texans are known for eating Rattlesnake and the good folks in Cambodia have been known to eat Deep Fried Tarantula and spiders. What could seem more unusual than some of these dishes? Perhaps some of the strangest are found in the pages of Scripture.

We read in the pages of Exodus a rather bland “meal” fed to the children of Israel. It is immediately after God’s people have submitted to their sins and given in to the worship of idols. In this case, the golden calf.

Exodus 32:19-20 ~ When Moses approached the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, his anger burned and he threw the tablets out of his hands, breaking them to pieces at the foot of the mountain. And he took the calf the people had made and burned it in the fire; then he ground it to powder, scattered it on the water and made the Israelites drink it.”

It seems clear from this passage that the majority of the golden calf was wood or some other flammable substance overlaid with gold. The gold was contributed by many that were present. It is as if they merge and mold their sin into one giant affront to God. In this way they affirm and solidify their guilt in gold. The remnants of the statue were ground up and strewn in the water for the people to drink. In so doing Moses totally eradicated from sight the horrendous idol they had constructed for themselves. It also forced them to ingest or consume their own sin(s). Moses would then immediately return to Mt Sinai for another forty days and nights fasting and praying for his stiff-necked wicked people. In a symbolic way God also shows that He grinds His enemies to dust and totally annihilates them. When God is done with the wicked, there will be nothing left of them in this world.

God informed Moses that He would punish His people. Although God had passed judgment it appears he delays the execution of the due penalty. Regardless, as we see elsewhere in Scripture, sin leads to death whether the penalty be implemented immediately or later. The penalty would be that God would refuse to go before His people leading them into the Promised Land. What God didn’t not do is forsake His covenant promise. He just changed the way in which He would implement it and that change would be in response to His people’s rebellion. When this message is delivered to God’s people by Moses they mourn. In having given over to sin and then mourn, it appears they have learned to be repentant the hard way. Do we not do this ourselves at times? Do we always have to learn the hard way? We must never forget that sin costs us in the end. We always pay a price for it. The price isn’t just a slap on the wrist. It is death. It should deter is from our sin. Yet most times…it doesn’t.

Additionally, in grinding the idol to dust and forcing the people to essentially “eat dirt” of an idol it seems it is God’s way of repudiating the people’s assertion that it is this false God that led them out of bondage in Exodus 32:4’s, “These are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.” There is also a hint of Hosea and the unfaithful wife of Numbers 5 in the drinking of “bitter water” here. The book of Numbers clearly spells out that one of the punishments for an unfaithful wife (Israel’s relation to God) in Numbers 5:18-22 is to drink bitter water.

The other sad fact of this story is the smashing of the tablets. Many will see this as an impulsive irrational lashing out due to anger but this too would been a sin in reaction to a sin. This is not why Moses smashes the tablets. These are commands direct from the finger of God. By smashing the Law in this manner it appears as if Moses is symbolically undoing the Law for the people. In other words: If these people are this unprepared for obedience to the Law (which they were), they did not even deserve to have it to be able to obey it. They were indeed a condemned people. Although they could mimic the gold of the Ark of the Covenant and try to replace God with a flimsy idol, they completely understood that they could not duplicate the Law that had come down off the mountain and had been smashed at Moses feet. The shattering of the tablets parallels the shattering of the relationship between God and His rebellious people. Although they appear to have rejected the Law, they cannot escape its intent or the power instilled in it by God. In the end none will be able to outrun the power of the Law…except Christ. It is through Jesus’ ability to fulfill it that we have any ability to eventually escape the penalty of our own sins.

The last thing I should note about this scene is the guilty. They are all guilty including Aaron, Moses brother. Not some or most of them…all. They are guilty to varying degrees but all are held accountable. It seems as if the excessively guilty or the instigators are put to death nearly immediately by the Levites. The fact that the “less” guilty allowed the events to transpire without a hellacious fight bodes poorly for them also. By doing little they become accomplices. As the old saying goes, sometimes the only thing needed for evil to prevail is for good men to do nothing. So we have an immediate 3000 terminated. The remainder are punished at varying times and in assorted ways. Moses essentially attempts to atone for them by returning directly back to the mountain. To atone or attempt to cover them from the wrath of a jealous God who has been severely wronged by His own people.

This ubiquitous guilt will be revisited by a New Testament Apostle of Christ named…Paul. Paul will allude to this all-encompassing guilt in Romans 3 when he tells us believers now that all are unrighteous and all are guilty before God (Romans 3:9-20). All fall short of the glory of God…except His Son and this is the reason we must accept what His Son has done for us in dying on the cross for our sins. His atoning work is what stays the hand of God’s wrath that would doom us to eternal condemnation in Hell. This is why it is only through Jesus that we are saved. It is why He is the only way. He was the only one that could perfectly obey and fulfill God’s Law. It is only He that would be able to meet its demands and die on our death in our stead. It is because Jesus was able to fulfill the Law that lay smashed at the feet of Moses. The people (including us) had/have fallen so horribly short that it warranted smashing the tablets as they/we do not even deserve an attempt to meet its demand. Jesus on the other hand abrogates the Law with His obedience both active and passive (on the cross). 

Forgive Like A King, Love Like God

Going be brutally honest about myself. Just saying the following flirts with the utmost in hypocrisy as a Christian so please be forgiving of my sinful nature in lieu of the honesty given...

John 13:35 ~ “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

I am learning that absolute love is actually full forgiveness.  I cannot love fully and completely if I am at the very same time condemning another. I cannot love if I am continuing to keep a list of wrongs against someone. All the proof I need of this fact is in the Bible in the Gospel…in Christ’s ministry…at the Cross. The reason I cannot or do not love the way that I have been called to love by the Bible is because I do not forgive like Jesus did. So I hold vestiges of people’s failures in my memory. God doesn’t do this once He has forgiven, nor should I. I cannot love if I am hating and the only way to stop hating is to forgive. Again I stumble, again I fail over and over in this effort…and yet Jesus forgives my failings to not love Him or my neighbors the way I am called. He forgives my inability to forgive… if I acknowledge this fact remorsefully and turn to Him and seek forgiveness.

Unforgiveness binds us to our sin and hate. Forgiveness allows us to love and frees us. Forgiveness is unlocking a door to set someone free and finding out that the prisoner was actually me.

It therefore makes complete sense to me that God would state that the two greatest commandments revolve around love. First loving Him with all that is within me and then loving my neighbor the same way. When we truly love we truly forgive. The invisible God then becomes visible in our actions and glory is given to Him because we have been obedient to His command and because we manifest the truest nature of God in His holiness: Love. When we forgive and love properly we are not only preaching the Gospel, we are obeying it and living it simultaneously.

Unforgiveness was like drinking a poison and expecting someone else to die from it. To forgive frees you from a self-made prison.

Having said this I look back and observe my life and realize I have not loved the way I was called to love. When I have not been willing to forgive, to not itemize wrongs…I was not loving people. I realize then that I am not loving God the way that I should either. Thank goodness that God loves me first because He chooses to.

Don Henley was right in his song "The Heart of the Matter"...

"I've been tryin' to get down to the heart of the matter. But my will gets weak and my thoughts seem to scatter...but I think it's about forgiveness..." 

Even if others do not love me or will not forgive me the same I must always remember that God has.

Suffering Pays Eternity's Bills III: The Forge of Our Transformation

To conclude this trilogy on suffering I ask a simple question. What are, or what is the practical applications of suffering in the Christian life? Suffering that is literally a need or requirement of the Christian life? What will this suffering look like and how should it affect us? Let’s take a long painful look, shall we?

The enormous body of historical Christian literature points towards such things as persistence, patience, Christian character, holding to a vision, and other behaviors that are suggestive of mental and physical fortitude. One of the telltale factors involving those that suffered well in history is that it was a learned behavior over time. Few if any endure suffering with any grace or knew how to endure hardship initially. Hardship is learned. Without this backing in life most become disoriented, troubled or are consumed by the trials they face. Many crumple and give-in under the merciless pressure of suffering.

We cannot stop failures, disappointments, rejection, mistakes, persecution, and other painful events from happening in our lives...this is part and parcel of life. How we deal with and dress the wounds from these traumas and deal with the consistent pressures and pains of suffering determine the end that we will live with. Most that survived their sufferings and persevered until the end took a day-by-day approach and handled each individual day as it came. Always keeping the eternal in mind. This is especially true of Christ in His march to the Cross. He knew He would suffer but in the end it was God’s will and it was to lay down his life for sinners.

Suffering Christians need to look past a “bandage” approach. We cannot put a bandage on the suffering or injury given in this life pretending to hide it. We must confront the suffering and face it head on. Sometimes the shortest most painless way through a fire is to walk straight through it. Anything else is denial of reality and this is un-biblical. We must emphasize healing if only on the eternal level and dwell and think of the Gospel and what Jesus’ story tells us about life and suffering. There is joy after suffering, the sun will rise in the morning after the darkness of night.

When suffering is actively approached studied and placed at the core of our lives and ministry, the ministry we’ve been called to takes on a different meaning and becomes more dynamic, more dimensional...more alive. A person that understands the suffering and can better deal with it in a biblical manner will then lend a different focus to people when they have lost a loved one. It helps give a larger picture to why a friend will suffer through cancer. They will endure and hold up better under debilitating and crippling disease. In building others up with this knowledge we create greater resiliency to Satan's many methods against us.

One of the primary methods which Satan uses in suffering is to wear us down and get us to forsake God and His promises. Suffering has a tendency to make us look for God and His grace when in reality we are living in God’s grace while enduring the suffering. Pain makes us "loose our heads" so to speak and the Devil aids us in looking past the obvious in our distraction caused by the suffering towards nothing of value. God is indeed in the suffering most potently in the form of grace that allows us to persevere. The thing that allows us to “hold on” is faith and if we persevere…our faith will be strengthened. If we fail…we apostatize and fall away from the only one that can ease our pain. It is why we are so strongly encouraged to keep the faith and run the race in a way in which to win the crown or runners wreath.

A mind able to process suffering is a prerequisite for spiritual battle. We know for certain while putting on the full armor of God (Ephesians 6:10) that there is indeed a high probably or chance of pain, suffering or injury. Why else are we preparing to put on covering to protect ourselves? We are literally told to prepare? Why? Paul knows that there are casualties in battle and wars. People get hurt. People suffer mentally, physically and in the realm of the spirits, we suffer spiritually.

The truth is we need to stop seeing suffering so much as a negative as it is an instigator of forward spiritual movement towards God. The story of Job is not so much a story about suffering and trial as it is a story about Jobs spiritual growth and victory through trusting God in both His promises and His very character. This is the same underlying premise of the Gospel. It is not a story about Jesus’s death on the cross as a failure but that His suffering was ultimately a gain in glory and victory over death for sinners. The paradoxes of Scripture should never cease to amaze us. In God’s economy, the first will be last and the last will be first. Less is more. Pain is gain. Suffering leads to Heaven…both in Jesus’ life and ours.

Regardless, our fallen sinful minds don’t do well with these paradoxes and suffering still does not strike us as good news no more than the disciples initially saw Jesus’ scourging and crucifixion as the Good News (εὐαγγέλιον/euangelion) as we do today. What caused the shift?

Simple. The Blessing that came after the Crucifixion: The Resurrection itself and the understanding and acceptance of what it signified. There was indeed eternal life after death. It is in the pain and suffering of death that one escapes the sin that entraps us and holds us to that death. We slip the mortal coil so to speak since the curse is against us in this world, not the next. It is the Blessed Hope.

In other words, suffering is a blessing hard won (not that we earn the blessing, Christ won it for us in His suffering). Suffering shapes us more towards the holy. No one likes it (not even Jesus) but it is not until we are willing to run towards it that we forsake ourselves. No one in their right mind charges headlong into pain and suffering. Everything in us tells us to run the other way. It is God working through us that causes us to run towards the suffering. In this way He uses suffering to change us into the instrument He wants us to be. The crucible of suffering redefines what we are, not who we are. I will be made more holy but it will be what God wanted me to be, not what I wanted me to be. We could’ve never made that choice to run into the suffering fire unless we were demented by sin. It is God calling us…walking us towards the forge of our reshaping....we run recklessly in sin into the fire that causes our transformation. Suffering is a spiritual tool brought to bear upon us like heat to metal and chisel to stone. Suffering is God beating our sin out of us like a blacksmith's hammer working out the imperfections in a sword while simultaneously tempering or hardening the blade. Shaping us in a reluctant manner yet hardening us to the sinful things of this world.

Romans 8:30-32 ~ “And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified. What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? 

By losing it all here now, we gain all eternally in Jesus. Whoever finds their life here will lose it, and whoever loses their life here for Jesus’ sake will find it in the Kingdom which exists here and there spiritually. Therefore suffering in this life for a Christian…is the signpost for the next or at least should be viewed as a blinker or turn signal that we turned onto the right path. For wide is the road that leads to destruction but narrow is the path that leads to life and few will find it. I believe part of the reason few will find it is because many will vehemently avoid the path lined with suffering…and this will be to their detriment. Suffering here is temporary but suffering there (in Hell) is eternal. Suffering here is in love, suffering there is in wrath and punishment. The motives and purposes behind the two are completely different from God's point of view.

So what are the clearest evidences that we are persevering through suffering in a Biblical manner?

The first thing we need to see is that we have confidence in God’s grace. That it is sufficient and allows us to continue. Paul was clear…

2 Corinthians 12:7-10~ Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh,a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. ”Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Regardless of what we might feel or think, the Bible tells us that God really is for us. If we fail in our efforts and works…it does not matter. We believe in a God who sent His Son in our stead to justify us. It is clear from the Bible that repentance and turning to Him prevents us from being condemned.

We can have confidence in Christ’s work because it is all finished at the Cross. Because of this we have unparalleled strength and resource to persevere to the most trying and detrimental sufferings if we stay focused on Christ and His Gospel. If we closely examine Paul's ministry we will clearly see a chosen man (Apostle) of Christ beleaguered by many opportunities to give up. Shipwreck, repeated beatings, unjust arrests, rejection by his own people, harassment, ridicule and the threat of death. Let’s face it, most of us would have gone into full-time tent making and just abandoned the ministry altogether at the sight of any one of these hardships. Not Paul. He persevered until the end. So should we. Paul understood suffering was integral to his ministry for Jesus Christ…so should we. Through faith, through grace Paul completed the task set before him by the Lord even upon penalty of death…so should we.

Sometimes I believe God specifically gave us a heart of flesh and feeling just so we could hurt. Those that haven't been hurt rarely change. If we are intrinsically sinful and never change...then we will stay sinful. This is the very organ, the heart/mind referred to so often in the Bible which is the very thing we need to use to discern our spiritual condition and learn to change. In this way God shapes what we are while allowing us to stay exact what He has made us. He allows us to stay who we are while making us holy. 

So...the next time you lose your hope, ask yourself: What is the purpose in this suffering? Please recall what I have written here and it may help clarify the reason(s) for your suffering and grief. Most importantly, it will point you to another Suffering Servant who died for you…so that you could have the honor of suffering for Him in His namesake. The name above all names:

Jesus Christ who, by His obedience and suffering, was Resurrected thereby conquereing all suffering and death through the Gospel.

Suffering Pays Eternity’s Bills II: The Nexus to God

The praxis / practice of suffering as an act of love is the nexus to God. Although there are undoubtedly many aspects of the Christian life that are absolute joy and happiness, our daily ministry in a world hostile to us is a constant reminder that we don’t belong here. The world is enemy territory. Whenever and wherever the Gospel is preached, the Gospel and the one who proclaims it will be under threat. Sometimes, in America (even in our churches) it risks ridicule. In foreign nations it risks suffering, social stigmata and even death.

Due to the very real threat of harm, many will opt to not continue to suffer for the Gospel. They will not persevere. The visions to John in the Apocalypse to the seven churches are replete with the exhortation to persevere. Regardless, many will apostatize and fall away. The apostasy is not accidental, it is choice. It is an unwillingness to do what? Persevere through the suffering and pain for Jesus’ namesake. The Bible is clear…

2 Timothy 2:8-13 ~ “Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, the offspring of David, as preached in my gospel, for which I am suffering, bound with chains as a criminal. But the word of God is not bound! Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. The saying is trustworthy, for: If we have died with him, we will also live with him; if we endure, we will also reign with him; if we deny him, he also will deny us; if we are faithless, he remains faithful—for he cannot deny himself.

Unless a Christians is ready to renounce the easy path to pursue Jesus, they very well may not have the conviction to actually be true Christians. We must be willing to denounce and cut relationships if they will jeopardize the relationship with the Lord. We must be willing to lose property, dignity, or even our lives. Not just for ourselves but for others also. Specifically, others in the faith. We cannot serve two masters.

To truly be in the faith we must not only accept suffering and discomfort in this life, we must be able to embrace the suffering. Why? Because we are to be like Christ and Christ suffered. Sorry folks. No wiggle room here. We must embrace the word of God especially when it tells us that pain and discomfort in this life are necessary and there are many places in the Scripture were this principle is clearly spelled out.

The preaching of the word of God incites hearts. Sometimes in a positive manner, sometimes negatively. We need to deal with both outcomes. When we preach or explain the Gospel which is our responsibly as Christians (Matthew 28:19-20), the principles and demands of Scripture place demands or restraints on fallen sinful people. These people (even believers) are naturally wicked and rebellious. We should expect that it will have an antagonistic effect on people…even believers, even family members, even ourselves. This is why even we as individuals must measure ourselves against the standard of Scripture…or even we will go astray and walk wide of God.

Because of the difference between the way man was originally created (pre-Genesis 3) and the way we are now (post-Genesis 3), humanity puts the diss in dysfunctional. Broken is the name of the game. Evil and evildoers will slander, malign and even attack. Even our own sinful worldy mind will attack or ignore our conscience. The Satanic of this world will take special pleasure in derailing God’s plans but any detours will only be temporary because God is sovereign. The fact of this temporary derailing or detour must be firmly understood. Why? Because if God controls all as sovereign and He will eventually right the wrong as just judge…suffering for a believer will only be temporary in this life. It will end at some point based on the sovereign control and providential plans of a loving God. This inevitably should be tremendous reassurance for those now in pain or in the pits of despair. If God did not spare his Son the Cross but exalted Him in glory in the Resurrection…we can only stand to benefit from the suffering in the eternal scale of things.

Additionally, the εὐαγγέλιον or the proclamation of the Gospel that is intended to express the awesome and amazing grace of God will be scorned and blasphemed by those that are pitted against it or don’t understand it. Most will not “get it” or grasp the Gospel…including many in the church that claim Christianity as their own but show no signs of it. When only a handful of congregants in a church family truly get it there will be backlash from those in the church that don’t and there will be division. Division is not of God so one side of the debate will always be wrong. Unity in the Spirit prevents division. Sadly, this division is often glossed over to the detriment of the entire Body because in our modern society no one wants to be viewed as confrontational or divisive. No one wants to be viewed as intolerant. Sometimes the suffering required in the Christian life….is that conflict to purge the satanic element from the Body. It is often like the painful excising of a malignant demonic cancer infecting a body.

Jesus is in our suffering. How? Simple actually. We need to read Isaiah and the suffering servant of Isaiah 50.

Isaiah 50:5-8 ~ “The Lord God has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious; I turned not backward. I gave my back to those who strike, and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard; I hid not my face from disgrace and spitting. But the Lord God helps me; therefore I have not been disgraced; therefore I have set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be put to shame. He who vindicates me is near. Who will contend with me? Let us stand up together. Who is my adversary? Let him come near to me. Behold, the Lord God helps me; who will declare me guilty?

The words about Christ here written down by Isaiah under the inspiration of God are remarkable. How is it that Jesus while being appallingly sinned against can he say that He won’t be disgraced or shamed? The answer is simple to state but extraordinarily difficult to understand in our cloistered comfortable American lives. Jesus is focusing on something that keeps him grounded in his identity and purpose. He looks beyond the immediate to the long-range. He looks from temporal circumstance to the eternal zenith. The ends justifies the means…or more specifically, the magnitude of the eternal reward justifies (or explains) the suffering. Jesus’ confidence is in the will and purposes of the Father. He knows (as should we) that God will vindicate Him in the end because God is perfectly just and is a perfect Judge.

Jesus’ suffering and ours will not be in vain. In our suffering, we will accomplish God’s will and fulfill His plans for us. If there was no justice in the end or if the suffering was meaningless, it would be intolerable. If sin has the last laugh and sin wins the victory…our suffering becomes unbearable. We should be thankful that Jesus overcame the sin on the Cross…otherwise there is no justice and evil wins out. Evil does not win and that is what the Bible tells us. That is why Jesus (nor we) will be disgraced no matter how badly we suffer or are abused in this life. For Jesus to bear His suffering and humiliation in silence proved his confidence in God wasn't for nothing. As we all know God vindicated Christ and accomplished His good purpose: The salvation of His chosen people.

Our lives or recovery after suffering is much more beautiful than the original life before the suffering. There is a much greater appreciation for something we have toiled for rather than something easily acquired or handed to us. The repaired or restored person is much more beautiful than the old not because of the new creation's appearance is better but rather because the suffering has instilled a much greater appreciation for it…even if the repaired is less than the original. What do I mean? Let us look at the rebuilding of the Temple in the time of the return from Babylonian exile.

Israel’s relationship with God was so bad that Israel (Northern Kingdom) was destroyed and Judah was conquered and sent into exile. Jerusalem was conquered, summarily destroyed and the Temple was leveled. After seventy years of Babylonian exile God allowed a return from captivity and provided the means to rebuild his temple. Despite the best human efforts, the new temple paled in comparison with the first. The people had lost hope and wondered if there was any way to get back to former glory before their suffering. It is at this nexus that we see the purpose of the suffering and the reason that the second temple will be just as glorious as the first. We see the shadow that the first and second temple both are and what they portend or signify.

Haggai 2:3-9 ~ Who is left among you who saw this house in its former glory? How do you see it now? Is it not as nothing in your eyes? Yet now be strong, O Zerubbabel, declares the Lord. Be strong, O Joshua, son of Jehozadak, the high priest. Be strong, all you people of the land, declares the Lord. Work, for I am with you, declares the Lord of hosts, according to the covenant that I made with you when you came out of Egypt. My Spirit remains in your midst. Fear not. For thus says the Lord of hosts: Yet once more, in a little while, I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land. And I will shake all nations, so that the treasures of all nations shall come in, and I will fill this house with glory, says the Lord of hosts. The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, declares the Lord of hosts. The latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former, says the Lord of hosts. And in this place I will give peace, declares the Lord of hosts.’

God tells His people (and us): “Work, for I am with you…” The passage reaches its zenith with, “I will fill this house with glory…” and later, “the latter [or second] glory of this house shall be greater than the former…” The second temple will be greater because God’s glory will be in it after the suffering of the people in exile. It is God that gives the significance to the temple and the believer themselves. It is not we that give ourselves significance, it is He. Both Temples inevitably shadowed and pointed to Jesus who would usher in the new covenant through His suffering. A new covenant where God would dwell in man...the new temple for the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19). All individual believers would then be more glorious temples then the first two physical stone temples in Jerusalem combined.

A believer’s suffering will never be in vain. Why? Because God is the glory in the Temple. God is the glory in the suffering. In suffering the people in exile (and us now) learned repentance and turned to God…therefore bringing glory to God and themselves. It required that they learned repentance through their suffering. They learned their repentance which led to obedience through the things they suffered…just as Jesus had (Hebrews 5:8). Just as we must also.

[Concluded in Next Post]

[Synopsis for Part III: How all this applies to the Christian today.]