Guilt Kills

Unresolved guilt and shame can kill. It can also bring down a great civilization.

Author Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a Somali Muslim turned atheist observes that the Western intellectual is actively rejecting his own traditions – perhaps a twisted form of atonement:

• Liberals in Western politics have the strange habit of blaming themselves for the ills of the world, while seeing the rest of the world as victims. To them, victims are to be pitied, and they lump together all pitiable and suppressed people, such as Muslims, and consider them good people who should be cherished and supported so that they can overcome their disadvantages. The adherents to the gospel of multiculturalism refuse to criticize people whom they see as victims. Some Western critics disapprove of United States policies and attitudes but do not criticize the Islamic world, just as, in the first part of the twentieth century, Western socialist apologists did not dare criticize the Soviet labor camps. Along the same lines, some Western intellectuals criticize Israel, but they will not criticize Palestine because Israel belongs to the West, which they consider fair game, but they feel sorry for the Palestinians, and for the Islamic world in general, which is not as powerful as the West. They are critical of the native white majority in Western countries but not of Islamic minorities. Criticism of the Islamic world, of Palestinians, and of Islamic minorities is regarded as Islamophobia and xenophobia.

Why are the Western liberals indulgent of certain groups at the expense of their own proven traditions? Does this self-deprecating posture help them deal with their unresolved guilt and shame? CatholicNewsAgency.com reported that in 2006:

• A significant number of Italian lawmakers, politicians and intellectuals, led by the president of the Italian Senate…has presented a manifesto in which they attribute the confusion and fear in Europe over Islamic fundamentalism and terrorism to “a moral and spiritual crisis” that prevents the continent from finding “the courage to react.”

Here’s what their manifesto concluded:

• The west is “under attack from the outside by Islamic fundamentalism and terrorism” and is “incapable of responding to the challenge.”  “We feel guilty for our well-being, we are ashamed of our traditions, and we think terrorism is a reaction to our mistakes…“Europe is sick…The birth rate continues to fall, as well as [Europe’s] competitiveness, unity and action on the world scene.  It hides and denies its own identity and thus fails to provide itself a legitimate constitution of its citizens.  It determines relations with the United States are broken and makes anti-Americanism its flag.”

Self-atonement! Why do “we feel guilty for our well-being?” Certainly, we have a God-given responsibility to share with those in need, but this shouldn’t preclude our own well-being! Why then does the unresolved guilt continue?

If your fuel-line is clogged, it will not help you to sample every gas pump in town  You have a deeper problem.

The Western intellectual is running around to every gas pump in town in order to be as multi-cultural and self-denying as he possibly can be. However, the guilt is never resolved. Its source is deeper.

King David realized that, fundamentally, sin is an affront to God, above all else:

• Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. Against you…have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight. (Psalm 51:1-5)

Until we address the source of our guilt and shame, we will find no rest.

Billy Graham and “Easy-Believism”

Billy Graham insists that a new life in Christ must be a changed life:

• As I approached my 95th birthday, I was burdened to write a book that addressed the epidemic of "easy believism." There is a mindset today that if people believe in God and do good works they are going to Heaven. But there are many questions that must be answered. There are two basic needs that all people have: the need for hope and the need for salvation. It should not be surprising if people believe easily in a God who makes no demands, but this is not the God of the Bible. Satan has cleverly misled people by whispering that they can believe in Jesus Christ without being changed, but this is the Devil's lie. To those who say you can have Christ without giving anything up, Satan is deceiving you.

The Christian life must be characterized by a changed life. It is not optional:

• The man who says, "I know him," but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him. (1 John 2:4)

• “You are my friends if you do what I command.” (John 15:14)

• “He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.” (John 15:2)

• "Then they [who didn’t visit me in prison] will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life." (Matthew 25:46; Also, many others - Matthew 5:20; Hebrews 12:14; James 2:18-24…)

However, many other verses assert that faith/belief is enough! Requiring any more than faith denies the central tenant of salvation – that it is a “free gift, not of works, lest any should boast” (Eph. 2:8-9)! But doesn’t this deny the various verses that insist that repentance – not just faith - is necessary to be saved:

·        "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” (Acts 2:38)

·        “Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord, and that he may send the Christ, who has been appointed for you--even Jesus.” (Acts 3:19-20)

• Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death. (2 Cor. 7:10)

While the great majority of verses assert that faith is the key for salvation, many other verses cite repentance. Is this a contradiction? Not if faith and repentance are essentially the same thing – opposite sides of the same coin! They certainly seem to be so! When we turn to God in faith, inherent in this same turn is a turn away from our former life (repentance). We cannot turn to God without turning from something. Embracing the new life in faith entails a rejection (repentance) of the old life of sin. They also both entail the very same change of heart.

Let’s try to illustrate the inseparability of faith and repentance in another way. If someone says to me:

• Pastor, I really believe in Jesus and want to be baptized. However, I am having an extra-marital affair and I refuse to repent of it.

I would have to answer:

• If you refuse to repent, then you don’t trust in Christ. If you did trust Christ, you would follow Him. Your faith is like the Devil’s faith. He too believes in Jesus, but His faith isn’t a saving faith (James 2:19). A saving faith is one that turns to Jesus, entrusting our lives into His hands. If I baptized you, extending to you the right hand of fellowship, I would then have to withdraw it to bring church disciplinary charges against you and eventually to expel you, if you still aren’t repentant. Don’t you see that a refusal to repent and faith are in contradiction to one another?

A real faith must entail a real willingness to follow Jesus! Of course, none of us come close to sinlessness in this life. However, this is not essential, because we can be in right standing with our Savior without sinlessness. He gives us the assurance that if we confess our sins – and of course this entails a willingness to repent – we are given the assurance that our Savior will forgive and cleanse us of all of our moral filth (1 John 1:9). However, forgiveness depends on confession/repentance – the very thing that this adulterer is unwilling to do!

The necessity of repentance is also taught by the verses that cite repentance as a prerequisite for salvation without any mention of faith:

·             He told them, "This is what is written: The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. (Luke 24:46-47)

·             Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord. (Acts 3:19)

·             In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. (Acts 17:30)

This suggests that faith and repentance are so inseparable that these terms can be used interchangeably! Other verses point to the equivalency of faith and repentance in another way. Both are given as a gift from God. This fact further suggests that they are merely opposite sides of the same coin:

·        Acts 5:31 God exalted him to his own right hand as Prince and Savior that he might give repentance and forgiveness of sins to Israel.

·        Acts 11:18 When they heard this, they had no further objections and praised God, saying, "So then, God has granted even the Gentiles repentance unto life."

·        And the Lord's servant must not quarrel; instead, he must be kind to everyone, able to teach, not resentful. Those who oppose him he must gently instruct, in the hope that God will grant them repentance leading them to a knowledge of the truth. (2 Tim. 2:24-25)

If repentance is a gift, then it is not a meritorious work and not a basis for boasting. This is supported by the distinction between repentance and the works that arise out of a changed, repentant heart. Paul made this distinction:

• “First to those in Damascus, then to those in Jerusalem and in all Judea, and to the Gentiles also, I preached that they should repent and turn to God and prove their repentance by their deeds.” (Acts 26:20)

“Deeds” and “repentance” are not synonymous. Instead, deeds are the result of repentance. In the same way, faith and deeds are also distinguishable. While faith and repentance represent a change of heart, deeds represent the fruit arising from this changed heart. Therefore, because faith/repentance are together a gift of a renewed heart, they should not become the basis for boasting and arrogance.

Consequently, when we expel the unrepentant from the church, we are warning them that, without repentance, their sins are still “bound” (Mat. 16:16-19; Mat 18: 17-18; John 20:21-23) – their salvation is, at best, in question. This is a graphic reminder that repentance must accompany a true faith. If it doesn’t, that “faith” becomes questionable.

Sex and Civilization

With the West massively committed to redefining sex, marriage and the family, it might be fruitful to see if any of these innovations have already been tried and what has been history’s verdict regarding them.

Brian Fitzpatrick suggests that the most “definitive work on the rise and fall of civilizations, was published in 1934 by Oxford anthropologist J.D. Unwin”:

• In Sex and Culture, Unwin studied 86 human civilizations ranging from tiny South Sea island principalities to mighty Rome. He found that a society’s destiny is linked inseparably to the limits it imposes on sexual expression and that those sexual constraints correlate directly to its theological sophistication and religious commitment.

• Unwin noted that the most primitive societies had only rudimentary spiritual beliefs and virtually no restrictions on sexual expression, whereas societies with more sophisticated theologies placed greater restrictions on sexual expression and achieved greater social development.

• In particular, cultures that adopt what Unwin dubbed “absolute monogamy” proved to be the most vigorous, economically productive, artistically creative, scientifically innovative, and geographically expansive societies on earth. Absolute monogamy is a very strict moral code. Under absolute monogamy, sex can occur only within one-man/ one-woman marriage. Premarital and extramarital sex are not tolerated and divorce is prohibited.

Why should sexual prohibitions cause social flourishing? Perhaps for the same reason that tobacco prohibitions might cause health to flourish! There are things that are pleasurable for a season, whose final bill might prove unaffordable.

There are other things or institutions that tend to tame the beast within. For one thing, there is nothing comparable to a committed and trusting relationship. Only within such an institution can a couple make the necessary sacrifices for the sake of family well-being.

I had worked for the New York City Department of Probation for 15 years. Countless times, I’ve had probationers tell me:

• Mr. Mann, I have a wife and child now. I really need to settle down and find a job!

They were committed to taming the beast within with a commitment to something more glorious. However, society is now telling these probationers:

• “Families” can take many different forms, and no one can say that one is better than another.

Perhaps he doesn’t need that job after all. However, In This Present Age, sociologist Robert Nisbet writes:

• “What sociologists are prone to call social disintegration is really nothing more than the spectacle of a rising number of individuals playing fast and loose with other individuals in relationships of trust and responsibility.”

Without trust, commitment cannot survive, and without commitment, we are left with nothing more than social disintegration and children who believe that life is just about taking care of #1!

Our behaviors can undermine our families and the future welfare of our children, and our ideas and beliefs will undermine our behaviors. If sexual freedom is pushed as a virtue or as a “human right,” it will become increasingly difficult to resist those momentary, powerful urges. And when our sexual conduct undermines the stability of our families, it also undermines society.

Fitzpatrick refers to the work of Harvard historian Carle Zimmerman:

• [He] concludes that “the creative periods in civilization have been based upon” the strongest form of family, which he terms the “domestic” type: “The domestic family affords a comparatively stable social structure and yet frees the individual sufficiently from family influence to perform the creative work necessary for a great civilization.” (Family and Civilization) 

• In other words, in an amoral, hedonistic society, you can’t trust the people you need to trust, not even your spouse. Moreover, if people can make and break relationships at will, with no legal repercussions or social stigma, they are much more likely to abandon their marriages—at their children’s expense—when the going gets tough. Husbands with roving eyes are much more likely to trade in their wives for new models. (Whistleblower, Nov. 2010, pp. 38f)

It is no surprise, therefore, that social commentator, Michael Novak, concludes:

• One unforgettable law has been learned through all the disasters and injustices of the last thousand years: If things go well with the family, life is worth living; when the family falters, life falls apart.

The new family configurations are not only a violation of traditional values; they are also a violation of our own nature. We are not made for sexual gluttony. While we can choose to live gluttonously, there is another part of our nature – a deeper core - that rebels against it.

Much of Israel had been settled by radical socialistic communities – kibbutzim. The ideal shared by many of these communities was to have everything in common. This included their clothing, sexual partners, and even their children. Anything else constituted ownership – a dirty word in their thinking.

However, over the years, they succumbed to the pull of their deepest human desires/needs. Consequently, each gravitated to a single mate, forming committed monogamous unions. Even though, in many instances, the children are still raised communally, they return to their own parents in the evenings, thereby proclaiming afresh that there is no place like home, and home is with one’s own committed parents.

Mathematical Verities are Mind Dependent

What is the number 1? It is a concept, an idea. We don’t find the number 1 in nature apart from our conceptualizations of it. It is therefore mind dependent, unlike the rain, which doesn’t depend on what I think about it!

If this is true about the number 1, it is also true about the numbers 2, 3, 4 …. And it must also be true about higher level mathematical constructs, like the Pythagorean Theorem, which depends on the number 1.

However, clearly, we didn’t create this Theorem; we discovered it! Although distinct from the material world, it seems to understand the material world and tell us so much about it, as if it has intimate knowledge of this world.

Likewise, the angles of every triangle contain exactly and invariably 180 degrees. If you were to add a fourth line or side to the triangle, this four-sided figure would contain angles equaling 180 + 180 = 360 degrees. If you would add a fifth line or side to this four-sided figure, it would contain angles equaling 180 + 360 = 540 degrees, ad infinitum.

How can we explain this uniformity, this elegance? Certainly, this isn’t an elegance that we created, but rather discovered. Besides, this uniformity seems to be immutable and universal – traits that transcend our individual, changing minds. However, if mathematics is conceptual and therefore, mind-dependent, but doesn’t depend on our minds, then there must be a universal and immutable Mind that it does depend upon.

To state this another way:

1. Mathematical truths are conceptual.
2. They therefore require minds.
3. Our human minds are not adequate to account for the uniformity, immutability, and elegance that we find in mathematical realities.

CONCLUSION: Therefore, a greater, immutable Mind must exist.

At the Core of the Gospel and Salvation: God’s Love

It is because God so loved the world that He sent His Son to die for us! If we fail to see this truth at the core of all His Being and doings, we will miss out!

One young man was missing out. Terrified at the prospect of going to hell, he took a radical step. He forfeited everything he had by becoming an Augustinian monk, convinced that this was the surest way to please God and to merit salvation. However, even after this radical move, he remained tortured by thoughts of hell, lacking any assurance of God’s love.

He subjected himself to the most extreme deprivations along with four hours of daily confessions, but nothing relieved him. Finally, his vicar advised him:

• Luther, all you need to do is to just love God!

To this, he bellowed back, “Love Him? I hate Him!” He later wrote that He couldn’t love God, if he couldn’t be sure that God loved him back and would receive him into heaven. However, years later, while preparing a lesson on the Epistle to the Romans, Luther encountered a verse that would change his life: “And the just shall live by faith” (Rom. 1:17). He suddenly realized that he didn’t have to earn God’s love. Instead, it was there waiting for him. He just needed to take it in faith.

Luther later wrote that it felt as if the gates of heaven had opened for him. He was now enabled to trust that God loved him. Let me guess what you’re now thinking:

·        This assurance of God’s love is miles away from me. Sometimes I wonder whether this assurance is even possible for someone like me who doubts and questions.

Certainly, there are many reasons to doubt and question. While the Bible gives us many assurances that God is love, there are also a number of verses that make it seem like His love is conditional and we have to fulfill a set of impossible conditions. Take, for instance, Hebrews 12:14:

·        Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord.

This verse, among others, is a doubt-producer. Here are some of the doubts it might produce:

·        How holy must I be? It doesn’t seem that any of my thoughts, motives or deeds are entirely holy. They are all sin-infested.

·        Is there a certain level of holiness that I must attain before I can be saved? This verse says that holiness is about me and my performance and not God’s gift to me. That’s why it says “make every effort!”

·        Isn’t the Bible therefore a collection of contradictions?

Can we truly be confident of the grace of God when these questions remain unanswered? Not entirely! Consequently, I think that we need to take a deeper look at Scripture.

Jesus’ actions didn’t often look like love. He continually criticized His own disciples. At times, it seemed that they couldn’t do anything right. He commended faith only twice in Scripture, and on both occasions it was the faith of Gentiles – the Canaanite woman (Matthew 15:28) and the Roman Centurion (Matthew 8:10) – never of His disciples. He never told them anything like this:

·        You men are really first class. Choosing you was the best thing that I had ever done. You’re such quick learners and, oh, so spiritual!

Jesus never encouraged them – not exactly the way to win and sustain a following! Rather than building their confidence in their heavenly destiny, many of Jesus’ teaching served to undermine their confidence. However, after His final discourse with His disciples, Jesus prayed to the Father. This prayer illuminates a different perspective, a heavenly one! And this is as it should be, because Jesus is no longer addressing His disciples but His Father:

·        "I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word. Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you. For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me.” (John 17:6-8)

Perhaps you’ve read these verses too often to notice their transcendent perspective. These words do not represent Jesus’ usual words of censure like “get behind me Satan” or “Could you men not keep watch with me for one hour?" (Matthew 26:40).

Instead, Jesus words are other-worldly. About His fumbling disciples Jesus prays, “they have obeyed your word…they accepted [the words You gave me]. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me.”

These words are astounding and perplexing. From our earthly perspective, they didn’t even understand His Word, let alone obey His Word! Just to illustrate this point, I will quote each one of their five preceding statements. All of these words demonstrate their lack of understanding:

·        Thomas said to him, "Lord, we don't know where you are going, so how can we know the way?" (John 14:5)

·        Philip said, "Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us" (John 14:8), unaware that they had already seen the Father in Jesus.

·        Then Judas (not Judas Iscariot) said, "But, Lord, why do you intend to show yourself to us and not to the world?" (John 14:22)

·        Some of his disciples said to one another, "What does he mean by saying, 'In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me,' and 'Because I am going to the Father'?" They kept asking, "What does he mean by 'a little while'? We don't understand what he is saying." (John 16:17-18)

·        Then Jesus' disciples said, "Now you are speaking clearly and without figures of speech. Now we can see that you know all things and that you do not even need to have anyone ask you questions. This makes us believe that you came from God" (John 16:29-30), but they were just about ready to disown their faith

These ignorant statements weren’t unusual for the Apostles. They often seemed clueless about their Master, and Jesus wasn’t hesitant to let them know this. However, when Jesus talked to His Father, we perceive a different perspective. From these heights, we are invited to view an entirely different landscape, one through which we learn that the disciples “have kept Your Word!” This is the gracious heavenly reality.

You might think that this distinction between the earthly message and the heavenly one is just a weird anomaly. However, this same distinction is found throughout Scripture. Let me just take a few examples.

The prophet-for-hire Balaam had also been granted a view from this same mountain-top. He had been hired by the King of Moab, Balak, to curse Israel. However, God had warned Balaam to say only what He would reveal to him. God had opened his eyes so that he could penetrate the haze and see reality from the perspective of God. And this is what he saw:

·        The oracle of one who hears the words of God, who sees a vision from the Almighty, who falls prostrate, and whose eyes are opened: "How beautiful are your tents, O Jacob, your dwelling places, O Israel!” (Numbers 24:4-5)

·        "He has not observed iniquity in Jacob, nor has He seen wickedness in Israel. The LORD his God is with him, and the shout of a King is among them.” (Numbers 23:21)

There was probably little that was “beautiful” about Jacob’s tents, especially after wandering 40 years in the desert. Balaam was beholding a transcendent reality. Clearly, there was gross “iniquity in Jacob” and no shortage of “wickedness in Israel,” but this is not what God was seeing! He sees a different reality, a transcendent one. He sees the end from the beginning. Jesus also saw His Apostles in their glory, a glory where we are already seated in “the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus” (Ephes. 2:6).

In the eyes of our Lord, our status is dramatically transformed when we repent of our sins. When we do so, we are transported into the kingdom of His beloved Son, where we sit “the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus.” We become His vessels of glory.

Job had made many rash indictments against God during his lengthy trial. However, God brought damning charges against Job’s three friends:

·        "I am angry with you and your two friends, because you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has. So now take seven bulls and seven rams and go to my servant Job and sacrifice a burnt offering for yourselves. My servant Job will pray for you, and I will accept his prayer and not deal with you according to your folly. You have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has." (Job 42:7-8)

This is peculiar for many reasons. For one thing, Job seemed to have talked far worse of God than had his three friends. Second of all, God, against the evidence to the contrary, said that Job had spoken correctly of Him! Clearly, this wasn’t accurate, or was it? From God’s heavenly perspective, Job had just repented twice of his rash words (Job 42:6; 40:4-5), and all had been forgiven. Job had also been cleansed of all his unrighteousness (1 John 1:9), and that made all the difference in the world!

There is the heavenly perspective that transcends the temporal – all of our this-worldly failures and sins. God does not see as we do. While He is not blind to the earthly, He sees a high and eternal reality, one in which everything is wiped clean, where love and righteousness remove from sight everything that makes us cringe in shame.

Lot lived in Sodom and willingly partook in its life. When the two angels showed up to investigate Sodom’s sinfulness, Lot hurriedly rushed them off to his home, hoping to dispatch them early in the morning, without consequence to his town.

Every step of his life had been soiled by compromise. He even got drunk and had sex with his two daughters. However, this isn’t the final word about Lot. In the New Testament, we find that, in God’s eyes, Lot was regarded in an entirely different light, as “a righteous man” (2 Peter 2:7).

The Bible speaks of two distinct realities. According to the first reality, we have fallen short of God’s standards (Rom. 3:23) and deserve condemnation (Rom. 6:23). However, there is another reality that trumps the first one. It is a reality where “Mercy triumphs over judgment!” according to James 2:13. It is a reality where we are new creations in Christ – children of the light, where any who call upon God shall be saved (Rom. 10:13)!

From a human perspective, Abraham had been a spiritual failure. He continually doubted God’s promises. Even after Yahweh appeared to him and promised that Sarah would give birth to the promised son in the following year, Abraham once again wimped out and passed off his beloved as his sister.

Consequently, the unknowing king grabbed Sarah for his harem. However, before he could have sex with her, God struck the entire nation of Gerar down with a disease. He then appeared to the king in a dream and instructed him to return Sarah to her husband Abraham.

The shocked king then confronted Abraham about his deception. Abraham admitted his cowardice:

·        "I said to myself, 'There is surely no fear of God in this place, and they will kill me because of my wife.' …And when God had me wander from my father's household, I said to her, 'This is how you can show your love to me: Everywhere we go, say of me, "He is my brother." ' " (Genesis 20:11-13)

Abraham’s unfaithfulness had a long history. In spite of this, when God had appeared to the king in his dream, He uttered some of the most profound words in all Scripture:

·        Now return the man's wife, for he is a prophet, and he will pray for you and you will live. But if you do not return her, you may be sure that you and all yours will die." (Genesis 20:7)

Even after Abraham had disgraced God so thoroughly, God remained faithful. Despite his failings, Abraham remained His “prophet!” Besides this, the cowardly failure Abraham would have to pray for the king!

The king might have thought, “What kind of God is this that chooses such low-life as prophets!” However, God’s love and protection for his failing prophet did not falter.

God does not see as we see. He sees us through gracious eyes. We often fear that we lack enough faith to be saved. However, Hebrews 11 – it’s know as the “hall of fame of faith” – gives us unbelievable portraits of exemplary faith. But if we read closely, we will be shocked at what we read.

Hebrews tells us that by faith “Abraham was enabled to become a father” (Heb. 11:11). However, it didn’t seem that he had much faith. We are also told that “By faith [Moses] left Egypt, not fearing the king's anger (Heb. 11:27). However, the original account tells us that Moses did fear!

My favorite example of faith regards the children of Israel:

·        By faith the people passed through the Red Sea as on dry land; but when the Egyptians tried to do so, they were drowned. (Hebrews 11:29)

This is incredible! Israel was anything but a model of faith. The original Exodus account tells us that they rebelled against Moses after they heard the Egyptian chariots approaching!

From an earthly perspective, Israel was a sorry mess, but not from God’s gracious perspective! Here’s a glimpse into His thinking:

·        But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him! For if, when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! (Romans 5:8-10)

God’s logic is both illuminating and persuasive. If He was willing to pay the supreme price for us, when we were yet sinners – His enemies – wouldn’t He protect His investment now that we have been made His friends!

Perhaps an analogy might help. If you go to the junk-yard and purchase a decrepit Model-T Ford for an exorbitant price, and then spend the next several years restoring it to its original form, would you then discard it? Certainly not! You would now treasure it and do whatever you could to preserve it!

Our Lord paid the price for all humanity. Consequently, any who come to Him, He will in no way cast out (John 6:37). He even pursues those who refuse Him.

He pursued David, His King. David deserved only the worst from God. God had given David everything, but this didn’t satisfy David. He saw a woman he wanted, and he took her, even though she was already married. If that wasn’t enough, he killed Bathsheba’s husband to cover up his sin.

However, God was not going to be mocked. Sin would require a price. Despite David’s many prayer God took Bathsheba’s newborn. However, she conceived again, and David named his child “Solomon,” in Hebrew, “Shlomo,” a form of “Shalom” meaning peace. It seems that David was hoping that this child would spell peace between him and God. But how could David expect anything good from such a sin-stained relationship. However God had another name in mind:

·        Then David comforted his wife Bathsheba, and he went to her and lay with her. She gave birth to a son, and they named him Solomon. The Lord loved him; and because the Lord loved him, he sent word through Nathan the prophet to name him Jedidiah. (2 Samuel 12:24-25)

David hadn’t been hopeful enough. Instead of Solomon being a peace child, he was “Jedidiah” (“beloved of God”) in God’s eyes. From an earthly perspective, David and his new wife didn’t deserve anything but punishment from God. However, He heard David’s prayer, forgave his sin, and cleansed the entire relationship. On top of this, out of all David’s sons, God chose Solomon to become the next king of Israel.

Paul, having hardened his heart, was even His persecutor. Not only did he kill Christians, but He also forced them to blaspheme Jesus. I cannot think of anything worse. However, Paul explained:

·        Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners--of whom I am the worst. But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe on him and receive eternal life. (1 Tim. 1:15-16)

Paul served as an example of God’s readiness to extend His forgiveness to anyone – to the worst of sinners. If God was willing to forgive Paul, He was willing to forgive anyone who would come to Him!

King Manasseh was a prime example of God’s mercy. He was the worst of the worst. He reigned for 55 years in Jerusalem and bathed the city with the blood of the righteous. Scripture informs us that he was worse than the Canaanites. However, even Manasseh found the mercy of God, when he repented of his sins (2 Chron. 33:10-13).

The meaning is clear. If God forgave and restored Manasseh, the worst of the worst, He would certainly respond favorably to any who would call upon His name!

Let me again guess what you are thinking:

·        Well, you make salvation seem as if it’s available to anyone who confesses their sins. But how about that verse you cited before which says “pursue holiness without which shall no one see God?”

Well, the Book of Hebrews illustrates what it means to pursue holiness through the example of Esau:

·        [See to it] lest there be any fornicator or profane person like Esau, who for one morsel of food sold his birthright. For you know that afterward, when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought it [the blessing] diligently with tears. (Hebrews 12:16-17; NKJV)

Esau wasn’t rejected because of his sins – we are all sinners. He was rejected because he was unwilling to repent that he had sold his birthright for a bowl of soup, demonstrating that he did not esteem the things of God. Although he wept over loosing his father’s blessing, the things of God were mere foolishness to him.

How does God regard us? We lack the superlatives to answer this question. Paul wrote of the love of God this way:

·        I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge--that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. (Ephes. 3:17-19)

God’s love for us is a love that “surpasses knowledge.” Why then can’t we see this? Why does our God obscure this glorious reality, causing us to walk in uncertainty? Perhaps we are not ready for the light. As Jesus told His disciples, there were certain truths that would not yet be good for them to see:

·        "I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear.” (John 16:12)

We too cannot bear to behold the beauty of the tents of Israel and certainly not our own glory. I think that it was C.S. Lewis who said that if we could see our glory, we’d worship each other.

However, sometimes He does open our eyes to glimpse this transcendent reality. For example, Paul claims that for those who are being saved, “we are…the [sweet] aroma of Christ” (2 Cor. 2:15). This is amazing to us! How can we, with all of our spiritual warts, manifest as the aroma of Christ!

However, we can’t handle this light in sustained doses. We lack the mental maturity to assimilate this light in a profitable way. In the midst of a life-threatening and bloody chain saw injury, I was lying in a pool of blood, thinking that this breath would be my last. Suddenly, I realized that I wasn’t alone. I was so overcome by the presence of God that I was in ecstasy. I knew that even if I died, God would be there with me, and that I was totally safe and loved by Him.

I was miraculously rescued and spent the next four days recuperating in the hospital. On the second day, my surgeon warned that I would have to exercise my half-cut-off wrist or lose its functionality. However, after my divine encounter, I was convinced that the God who had saved me was great enough to restore my hand without any exercises. Well, I didn’t exercise it, and it wasn’t restored as it might have been.

My theology – my understanding - did not measure up to what God had revealed to me. I had wrongly thought that since God is omnipotent, I didn’t have to do anything.  Now I understand that, although God is all-powerful, this doesn’t relieve me of my earthly responsibilities.

Perhaps even after imbibing all of these verses, you are still left with uncertainly about God’s love and your salvation. That’s certainly not unusual. Sometimes, even the knowledge of the Word will not take us everywhere we what to go, nor should it. God has not constructed our lives so that we would make ourselves self-sufficient though wisdom. Instead, we are always to depend upon lowly humble prayer – an acknowledgement that we and our wisdom are not enough. We need His intervention.

And He will intervene! When we ask our Lord for assurance about His love and our salvation, we ask according to His will and, therefore, can be confident that He will answer.     

The Demonic World and what to do about it

Contrary to the frivolity of the Halloween celebration, the demonic world exists! Its reality has been attested to by every major religion, and also by many occult practices that invite demonic activity.

At our family reunion, the adults prevailed upon my two young girl cousins to whip out their Ouiji board. They were reluctant, knowing that they had conjured up real spirits. Nevertheless, they agreed.

What we observed over the next hour was absolutely mind-staggering, especially for my agnostic/atheistic family. Blind-folded, my two young cousins spelled out adult words with breath-taking ease, putting together adult sentences choked full of adult facts.

Even to this days – 45 years later – my skeptical family has absolutely no naturalistic explanation for what they had observed. However, now I do! I became convinced that we had observed the work of demons, and that these demons do not have our best interests in mind. Instead, Jesus claimed that the Devil had been “a murderer from the beginning” (John 8:44).

Even so, the Devil casts a deceptive net of destruction, posing as a friend, lover, and spiritual guide, just like His workmen:

• For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, masquerading as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. It is not surprising, then, if his servants masquerade as servants of righteousness. (2 Cor. 11:13-15)

Consequently, we have been deceived about his workings and have many misconceptions about Satan. We assume that his allurements always appear very carnal and sinful. However, deception is the main tool of his craft. Consequently, his deceptive teachings have the appearance of goodness:

• The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron. They forbid people to marry and order them to abstain from certain foods. (1 Tim. 4:1-3)

Interestingly, demonic doctrines have the appearance of holiness. They often take the form of self-denial of the pleasures of life – marriage and food. Paul had warned that although this kind of self-denial has the appearance of righteousness, it is highly deceiving:

• See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ…Do not let anyone who delights in false humility and the worship of angels disqualify you for the prize. Such a person goes into great detail about what he has seen, and his unspiritual mind puffs him up with idle notions. He has lost connection with the Head, from whom the whole body, supported and held together by its ligaments and sinews, grows as God causes it to grow. Since you died with Christ to the basic principles of this world, why, as though you still belonged to it, do you submit to its rules: "Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!"? (Col. 2:8, 18-21)

Although self-denial has the appearance of righteousness, even humility, by placing our trust in commands like, "Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!" can take us “captive,” “disqualifying [us] for the prize.”

The Devil and his demonic following can also use brute power. They can bring disease (Luke 13:16; 2 Cor. 12:7; Acts 5:16). They even control the world (1 John 5:19; 2 Cor. 4:4; 2 Tim. 2:26). And yes, they even deceive the world into offering him worship (Deut. 32:17; Psalm 106:37; 1 Cor. 10:20; Rev. 9:20).

Demonic power is so great that whenever we have conflict with people, the cause is ultimately demonic powers and principalities (Eph. 6:12). However, they can do no more than God allows them to do (Job 1:12; 1 John 5:18; 2 Cor. 12:7; Luke 22:31).

How have the demonic forces been able to take control over the world? Through deception! The battle for souls is waged in the mind. As we are transformed through the renewal of our minds (Rom. 12:2), we are also enslaved by the perversion of our minds, undermining any meaningful thinking:

• Those who oppose him [God’s servant], he must gently instruct, in the hope that God will grant them repentance leading them to a knowledge of the truth, and that they will come to their senses and escape from the trap of the devil, who has taken them captive to do his will. (2 Tim. 2:25-26)

According to Paul, demonic deception has taken the world into captivity. The remedy is truth. However, God must enable the heart to savingly embrace the truth to free us from Satan’s clutches. Meanwhile, Satan has been able to blind people to the truth:

• The god of this age [Satan] has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. (2 Cor. 4:4)

What then is the answer? God applying the truth of His Gospel to our captive hearts:

• For we do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake. For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. (2 Cor. 4:5-6)

Are we then fare game for Satan until God decides to counteract his moves? Are we not responsible? Are we just pawns in a cosmic game? No! Instead, we play a pivotal role. We make ourselves vulnerable to Satan’s power through sin (1 Cor. 11:30-31; Eph. 4:27). Even when we fail to honor our wives, we sin and our prayer are not heard (1 Peter 3:7). This creates a window of opportunity for Satan. Therefore, Peter counsels that we can resist the Devil:

• Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings. (1 Peter 5:8-10; James 4:7)

However, prior to this, Peter makes it clear that we can’t resist him if we haven’t humbled ourselves to confess our sins.

Because we can resist the Devil, James warns us to take full responsibility for our sins:

• When tempted, no one should say, "God is tempting me" [in order to coerce me into sin]. For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. (James 1:13-14)

We sin when we give into our “own evil desire.” Therefore, we should not blame God, the Fall, our parents or even the Devil!

Some have been led to believe that their problems stem from the fact that they haven’t been exorcized of demons. Admittedly, demonic exorcism had been a great part of Jesus’ ministry. However, its importance has sometimes been over-stated. Jesus had warned that, at best, exorcism was only a partial and temporary answer:

• "When an evil spirit comes out of a man, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. Then it says, 'I will return to the house I left.' When it arrives, it finds the house unoccupied, swept clean and put in order. Then it goes and takes with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that man is worse than the first. That is how it will be with this wicked generation." (Matthew 12:43-45)

While it is important to clean our house, it is doubly important to fill the house with the right materials. What materials? The materials that protect us against deception - truths that enable Christ to dwell in our heart!

Nowhere in the Bible are we instructed to seek demonic deliverance ministry. Paul summarizes the equipment that we need to stand against the enemy without any mention of demonic deliverance:

• Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. (Ephes. 6:13-18)

Every part of our person requires protection. If we live righteously but don’t have faith, we will not be able to “extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.” How do we extinguish these arrows? By faith in the truth! For instance, I used to continually feel insecure and condemned. Even after becoming a Christian, I felt that God was condemning me. However, I grew to believe in God’s truth:

• Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. (Romans 8:1)

Consequently, I became able to extinguish the Devil’s accusations. Prior to this, I had attempted to do this on my own, trying to be as good as I could in order to ward off God’s condemnation of me. Believing this way, it was not possible for me to love God who I had perceived as condemning me. 

Furthermore, if I live in faith but without prayer, I will still remain vulnerable to Satan. Also, if my faith is not grounded in the “word of God,” I will not be able to stand my ground. Consequently, adorning “the full armor of God” is imperative.

Responding to the Devil’s attempt to break Him down with doubts, Jesus responded:

• "It is written: 'Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.'" (Matthew 4:4)

Even Jesus availed Himself of the “full armor” – “every word” of it. So must we!