A SAFE PLACE IN JESUS

 

 

I have no problem telling the unsaved that God loves them. However, there is also a place for stronger medicine. In the first two evangelistic sermons in the Book of Acts, Peter went right to the sin issue:

• "Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know— this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.” (Acts 2:22-23)

• “The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, the God of our fathers, glorified his servant Jesus, whom you delivered over and denied in the presence of Pilate, when he had decided to release him. But you denied the Holy and Righteous One, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, and you killed the Author of life.” (Acts 3:13)

In both cases, Peter called upon them to repent. He didn’t have to mention faith because faith and repentance are inseparable, opposite but complementary sides of the same coin. Both are the product of a regenerated heart. However, Peter’s focus on repentance zeroed in on the central issue.

This illustrates an important but often neglected principle. Good preaching and evangelism should usually be accompanied by the conviction of sin. In letters to five of the seven churches of the Book of Revelation, Jesus convicted them of their sins and commanded that they repent.

The preaching of many churches often lacks this key element. It is often replaced by unbiblical concepts of “niceness” and “love,” which equates preaching sin with judgmentalness or even self-righteousness. However, this is the very thing that the Church is commanded to preach:

• Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. (2 Timothy 4:2)

Paul had warned that sin was like yeast. Just a little dab could transform the entire loaf (Galatians 5:9) and also the church. This is particularly the case regarding the Church’s unwillingness to preach against sexual sin. I asked several church leaders regarding the presence of homosexual couples and the transgendered in their church. I was told that instead of preaching against it, “We just want to love them into the Kingdom by providing a safe place for them.”

However, the real safe place for the unrepentant sinner is the place that confronts him with his sin in hope that this will produce repentance and lead him to the only true hope in Christ.

UNDERSTANDING GOD’S WORKINGS BRINGS CONFIDENCE

When understood wrongly, many verses can undermine our confidence that God will hear our prayers. Take this one, for example:

·       “And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.” (Matthew 6:5; ESV)

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus taught that if we pray in order to get man’s praise, we will get just that and not God’s praise and provisions. However, this teaching can provoke self-despair and uncertainty about our Lord responding to our prayers.

Why? Because we care deeply about what people think about us! We care about whether they like, admire, respect us, or think that we are spiritual? Have we then already received our reward in the form of the esteem of others?

Not at all! There is a big difference between having exclusively fleshly motives and having a dual nature – one sinful (fleshly) and one spiritual, as we now have:

·       But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. (Galatians 5:16-17)

We are in the uncomfortable state of having two antagonistically opposed natures. For us, life is a continual battle between the two. Consequently, in our spirit, we want to please God, but in the flesh, we crave the approval of men. Paul illuminated this painful struggle in which we find ourselves, even after we come to our Savior:

·       So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin. (Romans 7:21-25)

Even in Jesus the struggle between the flesh and our redeemed mind continues. This raises an important question: “Who is the real me before God – the flesh or the redeemed spirit?” In God’s mind, we are a new creation (2 Cor. 5:17) and a royal priesthood (1 Peter 2:4-9). Even those of the contentious Corinthian Church are characterized in this manner:

·       Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. (1 Corinthians 6:9-11)

Even though, in many regards, they were sinning, in God’s sight, they “were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified.” This new identity took precedence over the way that they had been and even over the fact that they were still sinning.

We struggle against sin daily. Why? Because our Lord has merely created a beachhead in our lives! Meanwhile, we are still awaiting our final redemption and even adoption:

·       And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. (Romans 8:23)

Therefore, it shouldn’t surprise us that we still struggle mightily against the temptations of the flesh. And this will continue until our Lord returns for us (1 John 3:2; Philippians 3:12-14). Meanwhile, are we disqualified from receiving anything from the Lord, when we temporarily surrender to the fleshly desires?

Once, seeing an elderly woman fall down in the middle of a busy intersection, I spontaneously ran to her rescue. However, as soon I began to help her to safety on the other side of the street, I began to look around to see how many saw my “heroism.”

The fleshly desires will always be present. They do not sleep once we come to Christ. Sometimes, we will even succumb to them. However, our Savior knows about our weaknesses and has made provision for us:

·       If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:8-9)

We therefore can trust that when we confess our sins, we are not only forgiven but cleansed of all of our past sins and their defiling effects. Meanwhile, the Spirit is bringing forth many fruits through this painful struggle. In order to trust in God, we have to first learn to despair of ourselves and our own righteousness. Even Paul had to learn this lesson by despairing of life:

·       For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. (2 Corinthians 1:8-9)

We cannot learn to trust God until we learn that we cannot trust in ourselves. We can only learn such a lesson as we struggle against our sinful temptations. Paul also learned that he could not hope in his own worthiness, which he came to see as filthy rags:

·       But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— (Philippians 3:7-9)

As we grow in Christ, the Spirit shows us our utter unworthiness but also Christ’s worthiness. Therefore, do not despair when you see the ugly sin within. This is part of His design. We need to see that He is our only hope, and we will only see this when we learn that we cannot hope in ourselves. And when we see this, we will adore Him all the more!

A PHILOSOPHY OF SUFFERING

The late British philosopher C.S. Lewis declared that he believed in Christianity for the same reason he believed in the sun. It was not merely because he could see the sun, but, by the sun, he could see everything else.

Does the Bible enable us to see and understand everything else? I will confine myself to one instance of this principle. The Bible enables us to understand and embrace suffering and to live meaningfully within its unavoidable embrace. In contrast to this, secularism regards suffering as a useless encumbrance. Consequently, when the secularist suffers, he experiences a double whammy – a virtual knockout punch:

1. The suffering itself and
2. …the debilitating understanding that suffering is a negative, meaningless and costly burden, lacking any redemptive value.

Secularism deprives suffering of its meaning. This doesn’t mean that secularists don’t talk about meaning. The philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche did:

·       “He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how.” 

Although this is very true, it is not adequate to simply create our own “why.” We have to know that meaning is intrinsic to reality itself and connects us to something higher than merely our changing feelings.

The late American novelist Norman Mailer was cognizant of this problem:

·       “We are healthier if we think there is some importance in what we’re doing…When it seems like my life is meaningless, I feel closer to despair.”

It seems that Mailer realized that he could not merely create his own meaning. Instead, it has to be discovered within the fabric of objective reality.

Without meaning, we shrivel and die in the face of suffering. The late psychiatrist Victor Frankl observed, during his internment in a National Socialist death camp, that:

·       “The prisoner who had lost faith in the future…was doomed.”

Even worse, secularism slams the door on meaning, according to sociologist David Karp:

·       “Cosmopolitan medicine banishes that knowledge [of the necessary purpose for suffering] by insisting that suffering is without meaning and unnecessary… [Suffering is] secularized as mechanical mishaps, and so stripped of their stories, the spiritual ramifications and missing pieces of history that make meaning." (Speaking of Sadness, pg. 191) 

Nevertheless, secularists do find meaning in suffering. They recognize that suffering can aid in producing character and virtue. However, are these observations enough to overcome the pain of suffering, disease, victimization, and death? Hardly! It is little comfort to one who has lost his family to a murderer to think that, maybe, his ordeal might be improving his character.

Faith in the meaning of suffering and of life itself is essential. It is precisely this meaning that the Bible enables us to see and embrace!

We trust in the Bible’s wisdom that in order to become like Christ, we must suffer like Christ (2 Corinthians 4:10-11, 16-18). Besides, knowing that this will last only for a little while enables us to persevere as did Jesus:

·       Looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:2; ESV)

We need a worldview that serves as a good roadmap, getting us to where we need to go. The Bible’s teachings on suffering enable us to navigate the most horrendous roads.

This same principle pertains to the other teachings of the Bible. The Bible unmasks the detrimental effects of sin. I was never able to put two and two together to see the negative effects of sugar until it was pointed out to me. Now I have become aware of how sugar makes me feel and limit my intake.

Now that I have been made aware of the deleterious impact of sin upon me, I can begin to see its costs, deceptiveness, and how it coerces me to justify and defend it – how it was able to take control of my thinking in a more profound way than any drug could ever do. Now, with my eyes widened by the teachings of Scripture, I can begin to oppose it and not fall prey to its corrupting influences.

Admittedly, I daily struggle against sin. However, when it does take hold, I confess it to my Savior, and He forgives and cleanses me of all of its filth (1 John 1:9).

In the next chapter, I will further try to illustrate how the teachings of the Bible are best able to address the question of “mental health.”

IS ABORTION REALLY DESIGNATED A SIN IN THE BIBLE?

Although there is no verse that explicitly mentions “abortion,” there are many that would designate it a sin. Of course, there is the general injunction against taking the life of a human:

•                “Whoever sheds human blood, by humans shall their blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made mankind. (Genesis. 9:6)

The Bible makes no distinction between the human pre-born and the human post-born. A human is a human and not an animal. There is therefore no reason why this prohibition wouldn’t also apply to humans in the womb:

•                "Do not pollute the land where you are. Bloodshed pollutes the land, and atonement cannot be made for the land on which blood has been shed, except by the blood of the one who shed it.” (Numbers 35:33; Gen. 1:26-27)

The next verse identifies what happens when a pre-born is killed:

•                "If men who are fighting hit a pregnant woman and she gives birth prematurely but there is no serious injury [to the fetus], the offender must be fined whatever the woman's husband demands and the court allows. But if there is serious injury [to the fetus], you are to take life for life.” (Exodus 21:22-23)

If there is serious injury to the fetus, the penalties seem to be the same as the penalties for injury to a post-born. If the pre-born dies, there is to be a life for a life. Clearly, the pre-born is regarded as a human life in the same way the post-born is.

We also observe that God has profound interest in the fetus, as He does with any human:

•                For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. (Psalm 139:13-14)

God tells his Prophet Jeremiah that even in the womb, he was a “you” not an “it”:

•                "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations." (Jeremiah 1:5)

Even in the womb, the pre-born is considered a “baby”:

•                As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. (Luke 1:44)

The baby is God’s workmanship:

•                “Did not he who made me in the womb make them? Did not the same one form us both within our mothers?” (Job 31:15)

Abortion was explicitly condemned by the early church:

•                “Love your neighbor as yourself…You shall not murder a child by abortion nor shall you kill a newborn.” (Didache)

•                “You shall love your neighbor more than your own life. You shall not murder a child by abortion nor shall you kill a newborn.” (Barnabus)

•                [In a vision of Hell] “I saw…women…who produced children out of wedlock and who procured abortions.” (Apocalypse of Peter)

In fact, there exists no Biblical evidence that we should not regard the fetus as a human being created in the image of God.

If you have had an abortion, confess your sin to the Lord, and He will forgive and cleanse you of your sins (1 John 1:9) that you might find the healing you will never find by trying to convince yourself that you did what was right.