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More than Conquerors

10/31/2016

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I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world. John 16:33
I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world. John 16:33
Recently in church, my friend and pastor Jim Barringer challenged me with his thought that he for one couldn’t wholly comprehend the phrase “we are more than conquerors.” He asked the congregation if any of us really understood it. I decided I would come to understand it as much as possible, not with Christianese sayings like “victorious life” but with truth from the Scriptures and God’s Holy Spirit. Understanding that God’s Word is a treasure more precious than the most beautiful and perfect diamond, multifaceted, and offering something deeper each time we peer into it, I can only offer a small peek. The Word of God is alive, it is active, and it breathes life through the Holy Spirit as He helps us understand it (Hebrews 4:12). So let’s get ready to bring this phrase alive and live as more than conquerors.
I know I don’t spend most of my time living as a conqueror. The times I am not living as a conqueror, I live either fighting tooth and nail or wallowing in defeat. But Believer, that is not what our Lord means for us!
First, I needed to look at the phrase in context. Romans 8:31-39 reads,
What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? 33 Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? 36 As it is written,
“For your sake we are being killed all the day long;
    we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”

37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
According to this passage we are more than conquerors, in tribulation, that is troubles and suffering, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, danger, and sword.
Let’s now take a moment to define the word conqueror. Other words for conqueror are defeater, vanquisher, subjugator, captor or victor. To conquer means to gain or acquire by force of arms :  subjugate  to overcome by force of arms :  vanquish  >  to gain mastery over or win by overcoming obstacles or opposition :  to overcome by mental or moral power :  surmount and: to be victorious
There is one Greek word, used only this once for the entire phrase “more than conquerors.” That word is hupernikaó the first part of that word huper means beyond or exceedingly, the second part of the word nikáō is conqueror, or outstanding best conqueror. The phrase is then to be someone who conquers exceedingly and completely. Strong’s Greek Lexicon puts it this way:
being "more than a conqueror," i.e. "super-conqueror" who is "completely and overwhelmingly victorious" 5245 (hypernikáō) is used only in Romans 8:37.
[The intensive prefix (hyper) adds the idea, "surpassing victory" (i.e. of a pre-eminent conqueror).
But how are we more than conquerors? First let’s look a little further back in Romans 8. The chapter begins with this beautiful and awe-inspiring truth about believers. Romans 8:1-4 reads,
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. 3 For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
 
Because of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection, in fulfilling the law (what we cannot do), forgiving and taking away sin, and overcoming death to give us life, we cannot be accused of sin or condemned by it. Our sin is gone and we have become the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. 2 Corinthians 5:17-21 says it like this,
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. 18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. 20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. 21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
When we face the tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, danger, and sword spoken about in Romans 8:35 we as believers do not face it alone or in the same way the world does. We have a different outlook on those sufferings. First, we are indwelled with God’s Holy Spirit, God in us! We have God’s nature living within us and He makes a difference. 1 John 4:1-7 reads,
Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3 and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already. 4 Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.5 They are from the world; therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them. 6 We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error.
7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.
Read verse 4 again,
Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.
We have overcome the lying spirits, the false prophets, the slaves of the enemy who want to bring us down and make us ineffectual and otherwise defeat us. He (God) is in us and He is greater than Satan.
We understand that all the bad stuff, the suffering, and the evil in this world is here because of sin. We understand that God is sovereign and though He will not take away people’s free will to stop them from sinning, He does use it all for our benefit. Romans 8:28-30 says,
 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. 29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30 And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.
 
You and I, Believer love God and we are called according to His purpose! He works it all out for our benefit. Yes, we will suffer, we will be hated and persecuted, and tragedy will happen but God uses it for our good, to make us more like Jesus, to conform us to His image. Earlier in Romans, Paul described the way believers endure suffering. He said that we can rejoice or celebrate our suffering! That is insane and foolish to the world. But for us, it makes sense because we have the truth, we know the good result even in the depth of agony. Romans 5:1-5 reads,
Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. 10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.
We are perfected in God’s profound everlasting and steadfast love. 1 John 4:7-12 reads,
Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. 10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.
One day, in the twinkling of an eye, we will be transformed completely, glorified perfectly to spend eternity in perfect communion with the LORD. That future glory is as good as done. Holding onto that hope through faith is one way we endure suffering differently than the world. Paul said it like this in Romans 8:18-21,
For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. 19 For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. 20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.
We can consider it finished, we are justified, we are glorified, and we are perfected. These words are all past tense even though the glory and perfection will happen in the future.  They are present tense for us because as we go through suffering they are being done. They are past tense for us because we have faith that God’s Word is true and He described our victory already. It is done even though for us, it has not yet manifested.  The Bible tells us a great deal about The Day of the Lord. Revelation 21 is a chapter we can read and read again when we are feeling defeated, tired of fighting, or overcome by circumstances. It is an emboldening truth and it is where our hope and faith rest, the future glory Paul speaks about in Romans. Revelation 21:1-7 reads,
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people] and God himself will be with them as their God. 4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”
5 And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”6 And he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. 7 The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son.
Isn’t that beautiful? Believer, will you conquer? Yes! Remember you are more than a conqueror! But not everyone will conquer, the world is filled with people who reject Christ, who will not believe, or have never heard the truth. The end of their story is not victory and life but defeat and death. It is described in detail throughout the Bible. The Day of the Lord has two sides, the conquering side and the defeated side. Revelation 21:8 reads,
But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.
In Mark 9:48 Jesus described Hell “where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.”
It is not only the lost who will be thrown into the lake of fire, it is Satan and His minions. He will not be happily ruling, he’ll be tortured and burning, and gnashing his teeth right along with all the rest. He will be completely conquered. Revelation 20:7-10 describes it this way,
And when the thousand years are ended, Satan will be released from his prison8 and will come out to deceive the nations that are at the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them for battle; their number is like the sand of the sea. 9 And they marched up over the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city, but fire came down from heaven and consumed them, 10 and the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.
 
So Brothers and Sisters, what does it mean to live as more than a conqueror? It means to go through this life believing the truth, Satan is captured, Sin and Death are destroyed, Suffering is ended, and we are completed and living eternally in perfect communion with Jesus Christ. It means walking in faith. Jim Barringer defines faith as the persistent refusal to accept what appears to be reality. In other words trusting God instead of the our own work, circumstances of our lives, and the appearance that we are losing to Satan. The Bible defines faith in Hebrews 11:1-3.
Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. 2 For by it the people of old received their commendation. 3 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.
​
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Acceptance: Why You Might Be In Bondage To It (And Not Even Know)

11/5/2015

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I think that the genuine, sincere desire to be liked is responsible for some of the worst behaviors that humanity can produce.
 
In the closing words of Galatians 5, immediately after describing the Fruit of the Spirit, Paul cautions his readers, "Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another."  No sooner has he taught them the importance of love than he has to turn around and caution them: "Look, if you start excelling in this fruit of the Spirit stuff, don't get a big head about it; don't start strutting around like you're something special.  Don't go rubbing it in if the Spirit is working in you more than in other people - and, likewise, don't get jealous if the Spirit seems to be working in someone else more than in you."  This great and liberating truth, this Fruit of the Spirit that changes lives, also has the potential to become a divisive distraction, if it's allowed to become the ruler by which we measure our spiritual potency against someone else's.
 
Bottom line, we all want acceptance and approval, and we're all willing to do pretty much anything to get it.  This makes sense, if you think about it.  Way back in Genesis 1 and 2, Adam and Eve walked face to face with God, basking in his glory and enjoying his love and approval in a way none of us have ever known.  Their relationship was flawless, unstained by sin, just the sheer joy of God's children knowing beyond any shadow of a doubt that they were loved by their daddy.  But in a moment, sin shattered all of that.  God's approval was smudged by the shadow of sin, and we as a species have spent thousands of years trying to plug that God-shaped hole inside us with everything in the universe other than God.  That's what makes approval from other people such an appealing option: since humans are made in the image of God, approval from others is the next-closest thing we can get to approval from God.  It doesn't make the pain go away, but it does ease the burn a little bit.
 
I find, in my ongoing research into sociology and social science, that the need for approval is one of the fundamental things that drives all human nature.  Among the age group I focus on the most, many of the worst behaviors are not the result of bad kids or even bad parenting, necessarily, but simply from the child's compulsive need for affirmation.  When teens arrested for gang violence are asked why they joined gangs, the leading response is that they were looking for someplace to belong.  Among teenage girls who engage in sexually promiscuous behavior, a statistically significant number come from fatherless homes.  They're not looking to get pregnant, not looking to become floozies; they're just looking for the acceptance and affirmation they never got from any other male in their lives.  The class clown isn't out to ruin the teacher's classroom; he just wants other people to approve of him, and that's the only way he can think of to get it.  I could go on for far longer than your patience would last, but I think the point has been proven.
 
My ten-year high school reunion is this weekend, and during high school I was one of a large number of kids who loudly claimed not to care what anyone else thought of me.  The only thing that enabled me to say that, though, was that I had a small but important core of people who did think highly of me.  The sole reason I didn't feel compelled to seek the affirmation of a larger group is that I had the affirmation of a small one already.  I talked a big game, but I wonder how what would have happened if I had truly not enjoyed the affirmation of anyone else.  Actually, I don't have to wonder, because I reached a point during college where I had no close friends (by my own choice, because I was a very broken person then and unwilling to trust anyone), and because of that my life felt so insignificant that I was driven to the point of suicide.  French sociologist Emile Zola concluded that a person's susceptibility to suicide was directly related to how many friends they had; that's how much approval and affirmation matter to us on a soul-deep level.
 
None of this, as I've described it, is inherently good or bad; it simply is.  It's exactly what you would expect to see if a God who is relationship (Father + Son + Spirit in tri-unity) created relational human beings to share life with each other because "It is not good for man to be alone" (Genesis 2:18).   The need for acceptance will draw us to anyone or anything which promises the thing we need, which can be disastrous if we find ourselves chasing something other than an eternal and timeless truth.
 
It gets more disturbing.  Early in my sociological studies, I watched a videotape of an experiment, which I believe was done at Stanford.  The test subject was put into a room with about 20 other people, all of whom were in on the experiment; the subject was the only person who didn't know what was going on.  The room was shown three lines and were simply asked to say which one was the longest.  At first all 20 of the conspirators answered correctly, as did the one test subject, but over time a few of the conspirators slowly began intentionally saying wrong answers.  Then half of them said wrong answers.  Then all of them said wrong answers, leaving the bewildered test subject as the only person saying the right answer.  I'll never forget the haunted and dejected look on his face as the peer pressure finally got to him, and, slumped in his seat with his face toward the ground, he began repeating the group's wrong answers.  His need for acceptance, even from this group of strangers, was so strong that it left him unable to even make a simple statement if his answer was not going to match everyone else's.
 
I doubt the man even knew what was causing him to do what he did; he was driven by a primal, soul-deep need for acceptance, but it's a need which runs so deep that most of us aren't even aware how enslaved we are to it.  That's why I subtitled this essay "Why you might be in bondage to it (and not even know)."  As Paul told the Galatians, most of us will stoop to whatever lengths we can to snatch an ounce of acceptance from anybody, even if we're the people who best embody all the fruit of the Spirit, so I'm thinking it's a safe bet we're all guilty of this kind of acceptance-whoring he's talking about.
 
The only cure for this is humility.  Obviously I don't think that a single essay can magically cure your soul-deep problem in one easy step, but I hope I've at least served to demonstrate to you how deep and insidious the problem runs in every human with a pulse.  Now consider this experiment with me to help illustrate the problem and perhaps help you begin to overcome it.  For the next week, I want you to be anonymous.
 
If you come up with a great and witty saying, don't take credit for it.  Donate money to help somebody and stay anonymous.  If you help out at church, take a week off.  If you're known for offering great advice, stop it for a while.  If people think you're hilarious, stop telling jokes.  If you write go on a seven-day sabbatical.  Basically, I want you to stop doing the things that cause people to approve of you.  You will be able to see for yourself just how strongly your flesh rebels - especially if you take me seriously when I suggest taking a week off of church ministry, which opens you up to all manner of "Why should I stop doing the Lord's work?!"  Look, the church got along fine for 2000 years before you showed up; it won't all come crashing to a halt if you take a week off.  In a way, that proves my point, because you can see the lengths to which your heart and mind will demand that you stay in those settings where you can bask in others' approval, and in the feeling of being needed, which is like approval raised to the tenth power.
 
How does it make you feel to know that you aren't needed, that the church will hold together without you?  How does it make you feel to know that your friends will have a fine week if you're not there entertaining them and listening to their problems?  How does it make you feel when other people aren't constantly feeding you praise or appreciation?  If it feels just a slight bit empty, you might be in bondage to acceptance, and not even know it.  What you see is pride and arrogance masquerading as a desire to serve God, because many times a person's satisfaction comes not from serving God at all, but from having a reputation as a person who serves God.
 
You were wired to get your approval and acceptance from God, and if you allow it to come from anything else in the world, you're selling yourself short.  It might feel great to have people applauding you and calling your name, but that's nothing compared with the feeling of knowing for a fact that God loves you and is thrilled to have you as his child, even if nobody on earth appreciates what you do or knows you exist.  Learning how to live in his approval is a lifelong journey; like I said, it's not something I can fix with a single essay.  My only purpose is to raise the question of whether you, my dear reader, might be in acceptance to bondage without even knowing it.  Any one of us might be that person Paul wrote about, who excels in love and joy and peace but is so obsessed by that identity that we slide into conceit and strutting.  It's not about what we do, and it's not even about who we are; it's about the God we follow.  Any glory that we take for ourselves diminishes what is given to him, and stealing his glory is not something he tends to be joyful about.
 
One side note: if you've been reading this and thinking, "I know exactly who needs to read this article," the person who needs it most is probably you.  Scripture is a double-edged sword, which means if you're not using it against yourself as much as you're using it against others, you're doing it wrong.
 
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Salvation: What About Children And Those Who Can't Understand?

10/23/2015

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By Jim Barringer
​

What happens to a very young child who dies before having the chance to hear, understand, or accept the gospel?  Based on what we know about the character of God (merciful and just), most of us would find it impossible to believe that God would send such a child to hell.  However, based on what we know about sin and salvation, specifically that there is only one name through which we must be saved, we're led to an answer we don't particularly want to accept.  So how do we reconcile what we think the Bible says and what we think God must be like?  Is it possible that the Bible speaks to this issue more clearly than we realize?
 
First, I would like to show that God, in his sovereignty, chooses to overlook the guilt of those who are not capable of understanding right from wrong.  Based on my reading of the text, I would conclude that this extends not just to infants, but also to children (up until they can understand the gospel message) and also to anyone with a sufficiently strong mental handicap.  John 9 tells the story of Jesus healing a man who had been born blind, which leads to a confrontation between Jesus and the Pharisees.  At the end of the conversation, he drops this nugget on them: "If you were truly blind, you would have no guilt; but now that you say 'We see,' your guilt remains" (9:41).  In the Greek, it actually says "you would have no sin."  The person who is truly blind, who is genuinely unable to see spiritual truths, has no sin or guilt.  Guilt only arrives at the moment that a person becomes able to comprehend the truth, and refuses to acknowledge it.
 
You'll note here that the "age of accountability," as this concept is commonly called, is not really an accurate way to describe what Jesus is talking about.  I say that because he's not talking about an "age," per se, but a state of mind at which a person understands and has the ability to say, "I see."  I see right from wrong; I see that I'm a sinner; I see that sometimes I do things that hurt other people.  A child who can understand that can probably understand the gospel message too.  Once a child understands the gospel message - once he has "ears to hear," to borrow another phrase from Jesus - that's when he's responsible for what he does with the knowledge.  Before that time, he's blind, and "if you were truly blind, you would have no sin."
 
How do I know this is the right way to interpret Jesus' words?  Because it's identical to what Paul writes in Romans 7:9-10.  "I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died."  What was the time in Paul's life when he was alive without the law?  It was the time when he was truly spiritually blind, before he had the ability to understand right from wrong.  And he says the same thing that Jesus does: "When the commandment came" - when he gained the ability to say "I see" - "sin came alive and I died."  Sin and guilt were born in him once he could understand the law, but before that happened, he was alive apart from the law.  The word "alive" here is very important because in Paul's writings it always refers to the state of being saved - compare with Ephesians 2:1-5 and Colossians 2:13.
 
Again, Paul reiterates this idea that knowledge of right and wrong are what cause sin and guilt to come into our lives.  In Romans 4:15, he writes, "For the law brings wrath, but where there is no law, there is no transgression" - no sin and no guilt.  Now, Paul doesn't mean that people who have never heard of the Bible get a free pass.  He explains earlier in his book that anyone who tries to be a good person is showing that they understand right and wrong and that they have a functioning conscience.  He's talking only about a situation in which no law, not even a conscience, exists inside a person's head.  For those people, there is no transgression.
 
In the very next chapter, Paul teaches the same idea with more emphatic wording.  "Sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law" (Romans 5:13).  Did you catch what he said?  In situations where there is no law in a person's life, where there is true spiritual blindness that prevents understanding of the law, God sovereignly chooses not to count sin as sin.  He has a special grace and mercy for people who are blind and unable to know true right from wrong, in that he doesn't count their sins against them.
 
In the chapter after this, Paul explains, "The wages of sin is death" (Romans 6:23), and thus any soul which is guilty of sin is deserving of eternal punishment.  Yet the entire point of Paul's teaching on the law, and of Jesus' teaching on blindness, is that blindness and guilt cannot coincide with each other.  Simply put, a soul which is blind cannot ever be guilty of sin, because "if you were blind, you would have no guilt."  Only the arrival of knowledge of right and wrong, and the mental faculties to comprehend such, lead to true guilt.  As a general rule of thumb, if a child is unable to understand the gospel, he's probably still under blindness and thus not guilty before God, according to what Paul and Jesus have written.
 
But wait a minute.  Doesn't the Bible teach that the only way to be saved is to go through Jesus?  How could a child possibly make it to heaven without professing saving faith in Jesus?
 
Let me reframe the question.  Check out Ezekiel 18:4, where God says, "Behold, all souls are mine; the soul of the father as well as the soul of the son is mine: the soul who sins shall die."  This tells us two crucially important things.  First, all souls are the default property of God.  They only have to be redeemed from darkness after a person sins, but before that, they belong to God - "all souls are mine."  Secondly, note that God does not hold any child guilty for his ancestor's sins, not his father's and not Adam's - "the soul who sins shall die."  This becomes really obvious if you read the rest of the chapter in context.  So no, children are not born guilty of Adam's sin, or guilty of any sin at all.  They're born with a sin nature, which will drive them to sin as soon as they understand right from wrong (which was Paul's lament in Romans 7), but before that point, as long as blindness persists, "sin is not counted where there is no law."  And if "the soul who sins shall die," then the soul which is not counted guilty of any sin...must live.
 
That is the bulk of the detailed Biblical exposition on the matter.  The case seems airtight, drawn from both testaments and from the words of Jesus himself.  Consider also Jesus' words in Luke 18:15-17: "Now they were bringing children, even infants, to him, that he might touch them...but Jesus told them, 'To such belongs the Kingdom of God.'"  This often gets paraphrased as "Let the children come to me," but the "children" he was speaking of were infants, and Jesus said, "This is who the Kingdom belongs to."  It's not as ironclad a proof text as Paul's writings from Romans, but it sure does make you think, doesn't it?
 
Now I want you to do some math with me.  Planet earth is now (as of last week) home to seven billion people, of whom approximately 1.5 billion are Christians.  That's a mere 21.4% of the world's population.  If heaven and hell are in a race for souls, it sure seems like hell is winning.  I don't know what I think about an eternity where hell outnumbers heaven by more than 3 to 1.  But this teaching about children changes everything.  If we truly believe that life begins at the moment of conception (Psalm 139), what does it do to our numbers if God gets every fertilized egg that didn't implant, every miscarriage, every stillborn child, every infant, every toddler who ever lived?  It makes heaven a whole lot more full, that's what.  After all, the Kingdom belongs to them anyway.
 
That's the essence of the argument, and I've forced brevity upon myself.  What I'm getting at is this: every human life is the property of God (Ezekiel 18) until it sins and requires ransoming.  A child is "alive apart from the law" (Romans 7) because "if you were truly blind, you would have no guilt" (John 9) and "sin is not counted where there is no law" (Romans 5).  God sovereignly chooses to excuse any and all sin as long as a child exists in a state of true spiritual blindness.  But "now that you say, 'I see,' your guilt remains" (John 9) because "when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died" (Romans 7).  Prior to that, though, "To such belongs the Kingdom of God."  I hope that I've given you much to think about.
 
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The Beatitudes: Kingdom Perspective Versus Worldly Wisdom

10/18/2015

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​Everyone loves the Beatitudes of Matthew 5:1-12, because they're very practical and down-to-earth teaching about the attitudes and behaviors that every Christian should be trying to live out.  Imagine the difficult task that Jesus faced, coming down out of heaven, from a Trinity that enjoys perfect love and community within itself, from a place where everyone finds their own glory in glorifying God, and coming into a world that is so backward, so broken.  The Beatitudes are his attempt to illustrate the differences between his way of thinking and our way of thinking.
 
Jesus says: "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."
The world says: "Blessed are the rich in material wealth, because they pull all the strings and have all the nice things."
 
Jesus says: "Blessed are those who mourn, because they will be comforted."
The world says: "Blessed are those who put on a stiff upper lip and pretend they aren't hurting, because vulnerability is weakness."
 
Jesus says: "Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth."
The world says: "Blessed are the aggressive, because nice guys finish last."
 
Jesus says: "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, because they will be satisfied."
The world says: "Blessed are those who have low expectations, because they will never be disappointed."
 
Jesus says: "Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy."
The world says: "Blessed are the merciless, for they will become CEOs."
 
Jesus says: "Blessed are the pure in heart, because they will see God."
The world says: "Blessed are the people who only care about morality when it's convenient, because they will have a much easier life."
 
Jesus says: "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God."
The world says: "Blessed are the winners, because everyone who's not a winner is a loser."
 
Jesus says: "Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."
The world says: "Blessed are those who don't take a hard stand for anything, because persecution isn't fun or easy."
 
Jesus says: "Blessed are you when others revile you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account."
The world says: "Blessed are the tolerant and politically correct, because they're way more open-minded and progressive than those miserable moralistic Christians."
 
 
You can perhaps see why living a truly counter-cultural Christianity is so difficult: it flies directly opposite to the conventional wisdom of our society and our age.  Living by Jesus' standards and attitudes instead of the world's will cost you something.  It will cost you income and promotions if you prioritize your family instead of work.  It will cost you opportunities if you insist on behaving ethically when you could make a quick buck by cheating.  It will cost you the lifestyle you dream of when you realize there are better things for you to spend your money on than nice things for yourself.  It may even cost you friends who don't share your willingness to be "persecuted for righteousness' sake."
 
Are you living the world's attitudes, or Jesus' attitudes?
 
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Striving to Enter God’s Rest

10/16/2015

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for whoever has entered God's rest has also rested from his works as God did from his. Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience. Hebrews 4:10-11
for whoever has entered God's rest has also rested from his works as God did from his. Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience. Hebrews 4:10-11
​By Jim Barringer
We as Christians live in the Sabbath every day.  The writer of Hebrews employs the term "Sabbath rest" to describe our lives in the kingdom of God, and adds, "Whoever has entered God's rest has also rested from his works as God did from his." (Hebrews 4:10).
 
In Philippians 4:3-7, the apostle Paul says that he, as a Pharisee, was blameless according to the law - he never consciously committed a single sin, and so, as far as the law was concerned, he was morally perfect.  Yet Jesus, in Matthew 5:17-20, taught, "Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven."  I can only imagine the crickets chirping when he said that.  How do you exceed - not just match, but surpass - the righteousness of someone who had never consciously sinned?  How do you be more perfect than someone who is perfect?
 
The answer, obviously, is: "You don't."  There is simply no way you can do it.  Whatever it is that gets you into the kingdom of heaven, it can't be something that you do for yourself; it has to be something that is done to you and for you.  This is the doctrine of salvation by grace when you believe.  Essentially, you get saved when you recognize that all your good deeds wouldn't be good enough to get you into heaven, so you stop trying, and trust Jesus' righteousness instead.  This is a beautiful doctrine of free salvation that is utterly alien to all other religions of the world that stress human effort and exertion.
 
So why does the writer of Hebrews, in 4:11, say, "Let us therefore strive to enter that rest"?  I thought you didn't enter the kingdom of God by striving?
 I repeat: you don't.  But think about what it means to grow up in the United States in 2014.  You are bombarded - literally - by messages from television and movies, people hawking worldviews, trying to tell you what to believe, what will make you happy, what couples do to each other's bodies outside the confines of marriage.  You are assaulted by messages in popular music telling you that nothing in life matters as much as having a good time with your friends, possibly with the aid of huge quantities of alcohol, possibly culminating in a trip under the covers with a woman or three.  And all of this happens within a culture that believes you can get to heaven by being "good," that believes different people can have different ideas about right and wrong and still all be correct somehow, and that laughs in scorn at the idea that Jesus is the only way to heaven.  Many people can't understand why anyone would trust such an old book; many others believe that science has made it impossible to trust the Bible; many others simply don't care about living a good life as long as they're enjoying themselves; many others aren't interested in any rules except the ones they make for themselves.
 
And this is in one of the most "Christian" countries on planet earth.
 
You can see pretty clearly that you don't enter the kingdom of God by striving to do good works, but embracing the message of grace means cutting through years or decades of static and false claims made by the society around you.  It means consciously rejecting the worldviews and priorities that everyone else around you holds sacred.  It means understanding that you will be forever viewed as weird, if you are even making the slightest attempt to live the way Jesus lived, because people in this culture are not used to seeing that kind of lifestyle.  You will be mocked by some, misunderstood by others, labeled, stereotyped, rejected, pigeonholed, and ignored.  Wrapping your mind around all of that certainly counts as "striving."  Intentionally making up your mind to be different and weird certainly counts as "striving."  Rejecting all the lies you've been told, even if you're the only one believing the truth, certainly counts as "striving."
This is why the writer says, "Strive to enter that rest."  Don't be content to believe what the culture is hawking.  Don't be content to aimlessly drift through life.  Don't just believe what celebrities tell you to believe, wear what celebrities tell you to wear, sing what celebrities tell you to sing.  Seek truth.  Ask the hard questions.  Find out whether life really has meaning or whether we're all just hanging on till the next weekend of partying.  All of that searching is hard work - but if you do it, you will find the restful and relaxing message that, once you find the kingdom, your work is done, and all that remains is to believe.
 
Jesus said it himself.  People asked him, "What must we do, to be doing the works of God?"  He answered, "This is the work of God: that you believe in him whom he has sent" (John 6:28-29).  The people of his day faced a similar dilemma.  The Pharisees told them that righteousness meant following the law, the same law that Paul said he never broke before he stopped trying and started following Jesus instead.  Embracing Jesus' message, for the Jews of his day, meant not only rejecting what they had always been taught, but also risking the wrath of these religious leaders who also had powerful political support.  Their lives, and their families' lives, might be in danger.  They would be cut off from their entire support system, since their society was built around religion and the temple.  It is in no way out of line to say that they had to strive to enter the kingdom - not striving by doing good works, but striving to believe the truth of free grace.
 
Ultimately salvation by grace is revolutionary.  No other religion on earth teaches that God himself wants to be in a relationship with you so much that he himself came down here to make it happen and that he demands nothing out of you except that you have faith in what he did when he was here.  Yet it is hard work, of a sort, to wrap your head around the simplicity of that idea, especially in a culture that wants you to believe everything except the truth.  You can see how accepting Jesus' promise of rest and ease, even though it is welcome, still takes a certain measure of striving, of consciously rejecting other ideas and worldviews, before we can reach the point of being able to accept it.
 
 
Jim is a Pastor at The Church of Life in Orlando, Florida, an author, teacher, and blogger.
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