Category Archives: Heaven

Atonement, Eternal Life, Heaven, Jesus, Peter, Repentance, Satisfaction, Sin

Justice, Not Love

Posted by admin on June 4, 2010 at 3:16 pm.

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:8-10).

                Sometimes changing a word in a familiar passage of Scripture awakens our minds to the truth that is really there. I had a professor in seminary that used to intentionally misquote I John 1:9 for just that point. He would say, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and LOVING to forgive us our sins…”

                My professor’s misquotation highlighted the common misunderstanding in our hearts concerning the basis for our forgiveness. We imagine that God as the compassionate Heavenly Father feels so lovingly toward us when we confess our sins that He chooses to forgive. After all, that always seemed to be the basis for our parents’ forgiveness when we offended them. I know a woman who recalls that at the age of 5 she figured that she would crawl up in God’s lap and He would be so moved by her that He would forgive whatever wrong she had done. After all, it had worked with her earthly father!

                But God does not forgive because He feels sorry for us. If He did He would not be a perfectly holy God. He forgives us because Jesus’ death satisfied His wrath against our sin. Lest I am misunderstood, let me say that He does love us, and He does have compassion for us, and He is moved by our repentance and brokenness. But that is not the basis for His forgiveness.

                Romans 3:26 points out that the purpose of Christ’s atoning sacrifice was that God might “be just (in His character) and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.” If He, like the Islamic god, Allah, simply forgave sin capriciously, according to His mood when we happened to arrive at His judgment seat, He would not be just at all – He would actually be UNjust.

                No other religious system in the world offers a way to forgive sin without detracting from the holy character of God. Christianity is exclusive. And that is why Peter could say in Acts 4:12, “Salvation is found in no one else for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.” Apart form Jesus, there is no forgiveness.

Church Today, Heaven, Repentance, Scripture, Sin, Worship

Sinful Sin

Posted by admin on May 4, 2010 at 4:43 pm.

Did that which is good, then, become death to me? By no means! But in order that sin might be recognized as sin, it [the Law] produced death in me through what was good, so that through the commandment sin might become utterly sinful (Rom 7:13).

                When I get to heaven, I intend to look up my dear friend Willie. When I was in my 20’s Willie was in his 80’s, and has since met Jesus face to face. Willie used to pray that God would make “sin exceedingly sinful.” I confess that I really didn’t understand what he meant at the time; I thought this phrase was just a quaint phrase that he had heard way back when from some preacher. I was right, but the preacher was the Apostle Paul!

                I think I understand a bit more about Willie’s prayer today. I have observed that sin isn’t particularly sinful to most of the American Church. We harbor sensuous, lascivious thoughts, but don’t consider them sin because we don’t act on them. We ignore the promptings of the Holy Spirit to meet with Him in prayer and study, but feel no guilt. We spend all that God has entrusted to us (and often more!) on ourselves, so that we have nothing to give, and then we work overtime to pay for our indulgence and use our “fatigue” to justify our failure to spend time with Him.

                One of the evidences of this pervasive attitude in the American Church is that there is a disconnect in the minds of many attendees between their willingness to lift their hands to worship Him, but their unwillingness to rid their lives of known sin. How people can sing of God’s holiness while defiling their marriage bed is beyond me. How they can sing of His grace to them while they let lost friends and family die and go to hell doesn’t make sense except that sin isn’t particularly sinful to them.

                And it isn’t just the attendees…Hotel chains that service business meetings and conferences have observed that the number of pay-per-view movies usually RISES if the meeting is connected to a church! I hope that this is not true when my denomination comes to town, but I am afraid to ask. Sin is not particularly sinful, even to church leaders.

                I wish that I could say that sin is utterly sinful to me. It’s not the case yet, but it’s my prayer for myself. Willie used to say that he wanted to be so holy in this life that when he got to heaven the shock wouldn’t be too great. I hope that our tribe will increase.

Eternal Life, Eternal Son of God, Heaven, Jesus, Passover

Celebrating Passover with Jesus

Posted by admin on March 7, 2010 at 9:07 pm.

When the hour came, Jesus and his apostles reclined at the table. And he said to them, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I tell you, I will not eat it again until it finds fulfillment in the kingdom of God.” Luke 22:14-16

Some might dispute my statement that the central celebration in the Jewish calendar was intended to be Passover and the Feast of the Unleavened Bread. By this statement I am not trying to diminish God’s many deliverances of the Jewish people that are celebrated throughout their calendar year. But I am suggesting that the Passover is central to them all. Before He suffered and died, Jesus celebrated it with His disciples.

There was a sense among the ancient Jewish and Hebrew commentators that somehow Messiah would deliver the nation on the anniversary of their deliverance from Egypt which happened the day after Passover. This sense was correct for Jesus died the day after the Passover. Messiah did indeed deliver His people on this day.

Christian theology teaches that the inaugural event of heaven will be the “Marriage Supper of the Lamb.” I can’t quite figure out how it can be an inaugural event in a world without time, but I will leave that dilemma to God. But that event would appear to be comparable, if not identical, to the Passover feast on this side of eternity, and Jesus says in the passage above that He will “eat it again.”

Over the years, as our church has celebrated Passover by pointing to its fulfillment in Christ, we have recognized how completely this event melds the Old and New Testaments together into a single unit. The Exodus was central to the deliverance of the nation of Israel from the taskmasters of Egypt; Christ’s death was central to the deliverance of all mankind from the harsher taskmaster of sin. It is wonderful to celebrate not only with music and message, but to see how even the traditional food and ceremony point to the truth of Jesus’ deliverance of men.

It is even more thrilling to know that what we do each year is just a rehearsal for heaven where Jesus Himself will be physically present!

AB Simpson, Heaven, Miracles, Resurrection, Scripture, Suffering

The Rich Man and Lazarus

Posted by admin on March 1, 2010 at 3:33 pm.

“He answered, ‘Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my father’s house, for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.’ “Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.’ “‘No, father Abraham,’ he said, ‘but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’ “He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’” (Luke 16:27-31)

The text here comes from the story about the rich man and Lazarus. (Traditionally, the rich man’s name has been “Divies” because it is the term used in the Vulgate, the Latin Bible, for the rich man, but the name is not in Scripture.) Lazarus was a poor beggar who often would sit at the gate of the rich man’s home and beg. But he believed (apparently) and was rewarded with heaven while the rich man suffered in Hades. Jewish legend suggested that when a believer died he would go to Abraham’s bosom, so Jesus was using this idea to make His point, not necessarily condoning any truth to the legend.

The rich man, while in agony, called upon Father Abraham to soothe his agony by sending Lazarus and when that was not possible, he asked him to send Lazarus back to his family that was still living so that they could be warned. Abraham explained that they had the Scriptures, but the rich man thought that someone coming back to life would more clearly convince them. But Jesus put the main point of His story in the words of Abraham, “If they don’t listen to Moses and the Prophets, they won’t be convinced if someone rises from the dead.”

There is a specific and a general application to this. The specific application is that the skeptical religious leaders would not be convinced when Jesus Himself rose from the dead. This is, at least in part, because to believe in Him would likely doom their careers within the Jewish Sanhedrin. These positions were acquired at great cost of time and effort. We might compare them to political careers in our day. Very few men are willing to risk their careers to believe in Jesus – then or now. Truth just isn’t that important to most men in our day.

The general application is that no matter how many or how stupendous the miracles, they will not convince the skeptic, unless they are convinced by the Scriptures. If a person will believe it will be because he chooses to listen to “Moses and the Prophets” (aka, the Scripture).

This principle is really a major factor in the decline of the Church in our day. People have things backward – they want the miracles rather than the Scripture. It’s too hard and time-consuming for many to dig into the Scripture; we’d rather just have a quick, easy miracle, or some other “feel-good” entertainment. And there are always churches that will try to accommodate them. But Dr. A.B. Simpson had it right when he penned the verse, “Once it was the blessing, Now it is the Lord; Once it was the feeling, Now it is His Word; Once the gift I wanted, Now the Giver own; Once I sought for healing, Now Himself alone.”