Why “Closure” Requires A Christian Worldview

By J. Warner Wallace 8/15/2014

     Yesterday the jury came back with a Guilty verdictin my most recent cold-case homicide investigation. As I began to read the press clippings and reports related to the case and the verdict, I noticed several reporters wrote about “closure”. One article cited a police official who said, “We sincerely hope that this verdict brings a moment of comfort and closure to Lynne’s family as they continue to cope with the loss of their loved one (emphasis mine).” The families of the victims in my cases often start off hoping they will experience “closure” of some sort, only to find this sense of resolution elusive. As a result, I usually try to prepare the families I work with to be cautious in their expectations. Even if we are able to convict the killer, it’s likely these families will never experience “closure”. This expression is typically defined in the following way:

     clo-sure [kloh-zher] – NOUN:
     1. The act of closing; the state of being closed.
     2. A bringing to an end; conclusion.

     Victim families think they will achieve an end to their suffering; a conclusion to their pain. This simply doesn’t happen. Victim families may find justice, but they probably won’t experience closure. As I reflected on this reality last night, reading through the dozens of news report related to the case, I realized the sense of closure these families are seeking is available to them if they are Christians. The Christian worldview offers all of us the kind of closure we are seeking.

     If atheism is true, we are purely material beings. We are only “molecules in motion”; strictly physical beings whose lives are nothing more than a fleeting, temporal series of causes and events. We are born, we live a certain number of years, and then we die. Stuff happens to us; we like some of this stuff and we dislike some of it. Nothing is transcendently good or bad, right or wrong. Some of us live a long time, some shorter. Some die naturally, some die criminally. Sometimes criminals are brought to justice and sometimes they aren’t. Nothing more can really be said (or needs to be said) about this; it’s just the way it is. In a world like this, “closure” (as we typically think about it) is often impossible to achieve. The guilty verdict cannot bring back Lynne Knight (the victim in my most recent case). It cannot end the sense of loss her family continues to experience. While the case is now closed, the family may still find “closure” difficult to achieve.

     But if the Christian worldview is true, a day is coming when all the evil committed in this world will be reversed. All losses will be returned. All pain will be abolished. For those of us who have accepted the pardon offered by God through Jesus Christ, we will someday be reunited with those we miss today. The heavenly realm of God lacks pain, suffering, regret, or frustration. The justice and mercy of God reign in perfect balance: all wrongs are righted, all questions are answered, all doubt is removed, and all joy is returned. If Christianity is true, this often painful mortal experience will draw to a close, once and for all. We will experience justice and closure.

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James "Jim" Warner Wallace (born June 16, 1961) is an American homicide detective and Christian apologist. Wallace is a Senior Fellow at the Colson Center for Christian Worldview and an Adjunct Professor of Apologetics at Biola University in La Mirada, California. He has authored several books, including Cold-Case Christianity, God’s Crime Scene, and Forensic Faith, in which he applies principles of cold case homicide investigation to apologetic concerns such as the existence of God and the reliability of the Gospels.

• Cold-Case Christianity: A Homicide Detective Investigates the Claims of the Gospels

• God's Crime Scene: A Cold-Case Detective Examines the Evidence for a Divinely Created Universe

• Alive: A Cold-Case Approach to the Resurrection

• Cold-Case Christianity for Kids: Investigate Jesus with a Real Detective

• Keeping Your Kids on God's Side: 40 Conversations to Help Them Build a Lasting Faith

• Forensic Faith: A Homicide Detective Makes the Case for a More Reasonable, Evidential Christian Faith

Are you the king of the Jews?

By Lydia McGrew

     When John describes the transfer of Jesus as a prisoner from the custody of the Jewish leaders to Pilate, he paints a vivid scene. The Jewish leaders take Jesus to the Praetorium early in the morning and rouse Pilate to judge his case. They refuse to enter the Praetorium lest they be ceremonially defiled, so Pilate (no doubt annoyed by being awakened to deal with a disturbance from his difficult subjects) goes out to them. He asks them what accusation they bring against Jesus, and they answer unhelpfully, “If this man were not doing evil, we would not have delivered him over to you.” (John 18.30) Pilate urges them to judge Jesus according to their own law, since (he suspects) the matter concerns only some violation of Jewish law. They reply, in a frankly bloodthirsty manner, that they are not authorized to put anyone to death, whereupon Pilate reluctantly re-enters the Praetorium and questions Jesus. 13 Not a word is said in the account John gives of an accusation of sedition or any other political accusation against Jesus. But when Pilate confronts Jesus, the first thing he asks is, “Are you the king of the Jews?” (v 33) Why does Pilate ask this, if John’s account tells us all that the Jewish leaders have said against Jesus? Why would Pilate even think that Jesus claimed to be the king of the Jews?

(Jn 18:30-33) 30 They answered him, “If this man were not doing evil, we would not have delivered him over to you.” 31 Pilate said to them, “Take him yourselves and judge him by your own law.” The Jews said to him, “It is not lawful for us to put anyone to death.” 32 This was to fulfill the word that Jesus had spoken to show by what kind of death he was going to die. 33 So Pilate entered his headquarters again and called Jesus and said to him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” ESV

     Luke alone among the Gospels answers this question. 14 Luke tells of the original accusation like this:

(Lk 23:1–3) 23:1 Then the whole company of them arose and brought him before Pilate. 2 And they began to accuse him, saying, “We found this man misleading our nation and forbidding us to give tribute to Caesar, and saying that he himself is Christ, a king.” 3 And Pilate asked him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” And he answered him, “You have said so.” ESV

     So Luke’s sources evidently indicated that the Jewish leaders made an accusation of sedition against Jesus, forcing Pilate to intervene in the case. 15 It is worth emphasizing the uniqueness of Luke in this respect, since both Matthew and Mark do have a generally similar scene in which Jesus is turned over to Pilate and Pilate asks Jesus whether he is the king of the Jews (Mark 15.1– 3, Matt 27.11– 12). They do not, however, record that the Jewish leaders accused Jesus of sedition when they brought him to Pilate. They merely mention unspecified charges and accusations. Luke is therefore adding details to this part of the story in some way independently of the earlier Gospels, even if we consider him to have been relying in some measure on Mark and/ or Matthew. Luke is reporting independently, moreover, not only in whole passages that are unique but even in passages that cover the same events and contain similar wording.

     (Mk 15:1–3) 1 And as soon as it was morning, the chief priests held a consultation with the elders and scribes and the whole council. And they bound Jesus and led him away and delivered him over to Pilate. 2 And Pilate asked him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” And he answered him, “You have said so.” 3 And the chief priests accused him of many things.ESV

     (Mt 27:11–12) 11 Now Jesus stood before the governor, and the governor asked him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” Jesus said, “You have said so.” 12 But when he was accused by the chief priests and elders, he gave no answer.ESV

     A skeptic might try to say that John’s and Luke’s accounts are in contradiction to one another, but there is no reason to think so unless one insists on taking them both to be complete accounts of everything that was said between Pilate and Jesus’ accusers. But why should we think that? Witnesses do not always give complete accounts. Rather, they often give accounts of what struck them or what they consider most interesting to mention at the time. It is entirely possible that the accusers said both what John gives and what Luke gives— that at first they grumbled to Pilate that they would not have brought Jesus if he were not an evildoer but that, upon Pilate’s trying to refuse the case and give it back to them to judge according to Jewish law, they made the incendiary accusation of sedition, which would bring a sentence of death from the Roman authorities if upheld. The fact that Luke does not tell about the initial slight insouciance toward Pilate and that John does not tell about the accusation of sedition shows the independence of the accounts from each other. The fact that the accounts fit together, with Luke explaining John, is both evidence of the truthfulness of the accounts and evidence that the sources of the accounts were very close to the facts.

Don’t Waste Your Cancer: An Interview with Matt Chandler

By Matt Chandler 7/1/2011

     Tabletalk: By way of offering a brief introduction of yourself and your family, when was God’s call to serve His people confirmed for you?

     Matt Chandler: I think my story is a bit strange in that my awareness of God’s call on my life to serve His people was a bit lost in me serving His people. I’ll try and explain that. I was very frustrated with my church experiences heading into college. I loved sharing the gospel and loved the God of the Bible, but it appeared to me (probably my immaturity) that my church and I were seeing different things in the Scriptures. I saw atonement and the fear of the Lord, and at church they were teaching us not to drink beer and not to have sex. To be truthful, I wasn’t drinking beer or having sex, and could see that drunkenness was sinful and that God had a plan for sex in marriage. Yet it appeared to me that those were secondary issues that should be addressed after the atoning work of Christ was communicated and understood. I started teaching at an ecumenical gathering while I was in college and assumed I would finish school, become a good lawyer, and teach Sunday school at the local Baptist church wherever I settled (I was hoping for the West Coast). The Bible study blew up numerically, and we were running around one thousand to fifteen hundred students every week. A young woman from that study asked me when I received the “call of ministry.” I was honestly confused by her question. I thought she was asking if the Baptists had literally called me on the phone and let me teach the Bible study. She clarified her question, and it sent all my dreams and plans into another direction altogether. It was at this time that I came to understand that I wouldn’t be spending my life doing law and teaching Sunday school but rather teaching and leading God’s people into maturity by the Spirit’s power and by the proclamation of the Word.

     TT: What counsel would you give to a believer on the day he or she is diagnosed with cancer? How about six months after the diagnosis?

     MC: One of God’s big mercies in all of this has been allowing me to pastor a young church. I have done multiple funerals every year I have been here, and only one has been for a person over the age of fifty. I learned very early that people need to have a good grasp of God’s goodness and God’s sovereignty. On the day that a person is diagnosed, I try to encourage them in God’s knowledge — that this hasn’t surprised Him or caught Him off guard. I want to remind them that this isn’t punitive, but rather that God is on the move and He can be trusted. Six months after the diagnosis is harder to answer because cancer can go one of two ways. If the man or woman is still in a real fight, I want to draw his or her attention to Hebrews 11 or the story of Abraham being promised a son or even David being anointed king and then running from Saul for all those years before sitting on the throne. I think it’s important to remind people after the initial shock of diagnosis wears off and the wear and tear of treatment settles in that victory for those who are children of God is guaranteed, although difficulty, pain, and waiting might all be very present.

     TT: In what ways has your cancer sanctified you?

     MC: It’s made me look long and hard at my motives and has drawn me deeply into God in prayer. I am an excellent studier and researcher, and before all this began, I would say a decent man of prayer; but I learned after they told me I only had two to three years left that I knew much more about God than I actually knew Him. The bulk of my sanctification through this ordeal has been the birth of a deep desire for intimacy with our great God and King.

     TT: How do you counsel christians to face death and disease (both those who are personally facing such crises and those who are currently enjoying robust health)?

     MC: I simply have tried to point out that we shouldn’t be surprised by death and disease because the Bible is filled with it. As I stated above, an understanding of God’s goodness and His sovereign power are necessary to cope with life in a fallen world. I want to teach people that life is extremely fragile and that there isn’t a person in our sanctuary or listening to a podcast who can’t have his or her whole world change with a phone call or, as in my case, getting up one morning and getting a cup of coffee. Those are heavy truths, and I know they don’t make for feel-good sermons, but it’s better to know these truths than to pretend it’s not reality.

     TT: You’ve written that if you had not heard John Piper’s answer to the question “For whom did Christ die?” at the 1997 Passion conference, you would not have had ground to stand on years later when you heard the words “brain cancer.” How did your understanding of the atonement help you deal with such a devastating diagnosis?

     MC: Actually, I think my wife, Lauren, said that in a blog she wrote after my prognosis was given to us. That sermon was significant for both of us because up until that point, I’m not sure we grasped the size and holiness of God. That sermon changed the trajectory of both our lives in that it shifted how we saw God and understood Him.

     TT: You’ve also written that there were moments last year when you felt you were “punched in the soul” but that you were reminded nevertheless that the disease with which you’re dealing “isn’t punitive but somehow redemptive.” Could you unpack that a little?

     MC: I have been very blessed by God in my life. My cancer has honestly been one of the more difficult things to deal with. Lauren and I have tried to trust the Lord in everything, and when we’ve stepped out in faith He has been beyond gracious to us. People come to hear; they give generously to the church, and almost every “idea” we’ve had God has blessed and grown. I can honestly say that ministry and life were pretty easy for us up until Thanksgiving 2009. After I had the seizure and they found the tumor, I thought it would be like everything else had been — easy and would end well. When I first met my neurosurgeon on the Tuesday after Thanksgiving, I was ignorantly and maybe even arrogantly thinking that nothing would come of it and that we would just need to watch this thing and see.

     I was caught completely off guard when Dr. Barnett told me that it didn’t look good and that we needed to do surgery immediately. That was one of the first times in my life, if not the first time, that things went “worst-case scenario” on me. The Holy Spirit was quick to remind me of great passages on God’s sovereignty and goodness in difficulty. I thought of Romans 8, Hebrews 11, and several others. I wasn’t being punished with brain cancer because I didn’t tell that guy at the gym about Jesus or because I hadn’t read Piper’s latest book, but rather God was at work. He was doing something, and I could be sure that He loved me and in the end I would have increased joy and He would be glorified. Here we are over a year later and that’s exactly what’s happened.

     TT: How has dealing with your disease affected your view of God’s sovereignty (or, how has your view of God’s sovereignty affected how you view your disease)?

     MC: I believe the Scriptures teach that God is aware of every act at every level of the universe. From a star exploding to the rate at which our planet spins to a cell dividing, He knows. I don’t believe in the end that God gave me cancer, but He certainly could have stopped it and didn’t. So I have to believe like Joseph, John the Baptist, and Paul had to believe when they were in prison — that God is working, and what the enemy means for evil, He will turn to good. There have been multiple occasions when God has used this tremendously. The Associated Press let me preach the gospel in an article that ran worldwide. The story has caught the imagination of the media here in Dallas, and we’ve been able to talk about the atoning work of Christ on TV as well as in newspaper articles. That has led to a ton of men and women surrendering their lives to Christ after wanting to talk with me through their own sufferings. If my life gets “cut short” but we get to see new births in the kingdom, then I don’t feel slighted or robbed in the least.

     TT: In the late summer/early fall of 2010, you went to Sudan. How did that trip impact your life?

     MC: I was deeply moved by my trip to Sudan. I’ve traveled quite a bit internationally but have never seen anything like it. It isn’t even a Third World country. That’s what they want to be. We are connected with some extremely godly men there, and the opportunities for the advancement of a Christ-centered, biblically-strong faith growing in southern Sudan are very real. On a side note, if I had not been diagnosed with cancer, I would not have been able to make the trip. The original diagnosis had us clear my external speaking schedule and opened that time frame for us to go.

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     Matt Chandler serves as lead pastor of the Village Church in Flower Mound, Texas. He has become a leader in the evangelical world through his ministry at the Village Church, his involvement in the Acts 29 Church Planting Network, his teaching at multiple conferences, and most recently through his faithful witness to Jesus Christ while battling a malignant brain tumor.

• 1     The Mingling of Souls: God's Design for Love, Marriage, Sex, and Redemption
• 2     Take Heart
• 3     The Explicit Gospel (Paperback Edition)
• 4     To Live Is Christ to Die Is Gain
• 5     Creature of the Word: The Jesus-Centered Church
• 6     Am I Called?: The Summons to Pastoral Ministry
• 7     God's Design for Love, Marriage, Sex, and Redemption The Mingling of Souls
• 8     Gospel Deeps: Reveling in the Excellencies of Jesus
• 9     Recovering Redemption - Member Book

He Loves Me, He Really Loves Me

By Tim Challies 8/1/2011

     I have had the privilege of attending a series of Ligonier Ministries National Conferences, and along the way I have noticed a little phenomenon or tradition that takes place at the beginning of these events. For many of the people who attend, these conferences mark an annual opportunity to connect with friends. Many people have attended the conference year after year, and along the way they have met new friends or have reconnected with old friends. The conference offers a once-per-year opportunity to spend a little time together and to catch up on the year that has gone by.

     I remember a time when people carried printed photos in their wallets or small photo albums in their purses. Today, though, people carry photos on their cell phones or on their iPods. So often, when I see people meet after the passing of yet another year, I see them embracing and then immediately digging out their phones or their iPods to show off the pictures of their children or grandchildren. And it is interesting to hear them talk, to hear them share proudly about the children they’ve already begun to miss even after only one or two days apart. As you listen to these parents tell about their children, you notice that they dwell on the things that make them proud. “Brian is nine. He loves basketball and leads his team in scoring. He’s getting so tall. His head comes up to my chest now, and he eats like there’s no tomorrow. And here’s Rebecca. She is fourteen. You can see she looks just like her mom. She loves cameras and says she wants to be a photographer… .”

     You know, of course, that the last year has not been free of conflict. You know that Mom and Dad are probably working hard to maintain boundaries around Rebecca, who is already acting out as a rebellious teenager, and that they are working hard to make Brian respect authority. It may well be that on the night before he left, Dad had to invoke some discipline, and he left the house only after making Rebecca promise that she would obey the person who is watching her while her parents are away. But when Dad gets together with his friends, these things are not at the front of his mind. He loves his children, he is proud of his children, and he wants to tell others about them.

     I thought about this a short time ago when I was considering how God feels about us, how He feels about me, and how He feels about all of His children. I often go through life thinking that God is generally displeased with me. I see my sin, I see my failings, and I see my heart. At the same time, I see from Scripture God’s majesty, His holiness, and His perfection. When I put these together, I believe that God must be looking at me with at least some level of disgust.

     He must regard me as I regard myself so much of the time — as a person who may try to do what’s right but as a person who so often fails when it comes to holiness. Though I do love Him, and truly I do, I still have some love for sin. There is still some of the traitor in me. I pledge allegiance to Him but too often prove allegiance to myself. What could there be for Him to love here?

     I’ve had this all wrong. As I study God’s Word day by day in the quiet of my home and week by week in my local church, and as I learn about who God is, I see that He is a proud Father who is lavish with His love. Maybe it was my studies in the parable of the prodigal son. Maybe it was my reading through the prophets, seeing how God hates sin but remains committed to His people. Maybe it was reading Hebrews 11, the Hall of Heroes, and seeing all of those great saints commended instead of condemned. Somehow along the way, I began to see that God hates my sin and commands me to mortify it, but that He loves me. God despises the evil that lurks within me but is extravagant in His grace. He actually, really, truly loves me. He doesn’t love me for who He wishes I could be but for who I am in Christ.

     Maybe in that way God isn’t so different from the proud parents I see at conferences. Maybe in that way they are a reflection of their Creator. He loves us. He loves me. More than that, He’s proud of me. He isn’t petty, filling His mind with all those things I’ve done wrong, but rather He is gracious, seeing all those evidences of His grace in my life. Somehow I had lost sight of the fact that God truly does regard me as a child, His child, a child He not only loves but one He genuinely likes. And there’s a difference between the two, isn’t there?

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Godly Boasting

By John Piper 8/1/2011

     God loves it when man boasts in God, and God hates it when man boasts in man. “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord” (2 Cor. 10:17). “Far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Gal. 6:14). “The haughty looks of man shall be brought low, and the lofty pride of men shall be humbled, and the LORD alone will be exalted in that day. For the LORD of hosts has a day against all that is proud and lofty, against all that is lifted up” (Isa. 2:11–12).

     There are two reasons (at least) why God hates for man to boast in man:

     1) Boasting in man deflects man’s attention from the fountain of his joy and ruins his life. It tricks man into replacing magnificence with a mirror. Man was not made to admire man. He was made to admire God. The joy of admiration is prostituted and ruined when man tries to find galaxy-size glory in the glow of his own reflection. God does not like the damage done by boasting in man.

     2) The other reason God hates for man to boast in man is this: It conveys the conviction that man is more admirable than God. Now that is, of course, untrue. But we would miss the point if we said, “God hates lying and therefore God hates boasting in man because it conveys a lie.” No.

     That’s not quite right. What God hates is the dishonoring of God. Lying happens to be one way that he is dishonored as the God of truth. So the real problem with man’s boasting in man is that it belittles God.

     Boasting in God, on the other hand, does the double opposite: it honors God and gives man the joy for which he was made: admiring the infinitely admirable.

     Mercifully, therefore, God has doubly excluded boasting by the way He saves sinners.

     First, boasting is excluded by faith. As Paul explains in his epistle to the Romans: “Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith” (3:27). Why does faith exclude boasting? The reason is not merely because faith is a gift of God, which it is. All the fruits of the Spirit are gifts. Yet they do not all exclude boasting in the same way. Faith is unique among all the acts of the soul. It is the weakest, most helpless, and most empty-handed act of the soul. It is all-dependence on Another. In a sense, it is an acted non-act.

     Let me explain. I mean it is an inclination of the soul to seek help with no expectation that any inclination of the soul is good enough to obtain help, not even the inclination of faith. It is unique among all the acts of the soul. Since it is empty- handed, it is not like a virtue. It looks to the virtue of another. It looks to the strength of another. It looks to the wisdom of another. It is entirely other-directed and other-dependent. Therefore, it can’t boast in itself, for it can’t even look at itself. It is the kind of thing that in a sense has no “self.” As soon as the unique act of the soul exists, it is attached to another from whom it gets all its reality.

     Second, boasting is excluded by election: “God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God” (1 Cor. 1:27–29).

     God’s election is designed to remove boasting. The point is that God does not choose people with a view to any feature in us that would allow us to boast. In fact, Romans 9:11 makes it clear that God’s election is designed to make God’s saving purpose rest finally on God alone, not any act of the human soul: “Though [Jacob and Esau] were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad — in order that God’s purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of him who calls [God chose Jacob not Esau]”. The contrast with works here is not faith but “him who calls.” The choice of God rests finally on God alone. He decides who will believe and who will be saved undeservingly.

     Therefore, let us look away from ourselves and all human help. Let all boasting in man and man’s accomplishments cease, and let us boast in the Lord.

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Clement Of Rome (Intro)

Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson, and A. Cleveland Coxe, eds., The Apostolic Fathers with Justin Martyr and Irenaeus, vol. 1, The Ante-Nicene Fathers (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Company, 1885).

The First Epistle Of Clement To The Corinthians Intro

     [A.D. 100–200.] THE APOSTOLIC FATHERS are here understood as filling up the second century of our era. Irenæus, it is true, is rather of the sub-apostolic period; but, as the disciple of Polycarp, he ought not to be dissociated from that Father’s company. We thus find ourselves conducted, by this goodly fellowship of witnesses, from the times of the apostles to those of Tertullian, from the martyrs of the second persecution to those of the sixth. Those were times of heroism, not of words; an age, not of writers, but of soldiers; not of talkers, but of sufferers. Curiosity is baffled, but faith and love are fed by these scanty relics of primitive antiquity. Yet may we well be grateful for what we have. These writings come down to us as the earliest response of converted nations to the testimony of Jesus. They are primary evidences of the Canon and the credibility of the New Testament. Disappointment may be the first emotion of the student who comes down from the mount where he has dwelt in the tabernacles of evangelists and apostles: for these disciples are confessedly inferior to the masters; they speak with the voices of infirm and fallible men, and not like the New Testament writers, with the fiery tongues of the Holy Ghost. Yet the thoughtful and loving spirit soon learns their exceeding value. For who does not close the records of St. Luke with longings; to get at least a glimpse of the further history of the progress of the Gospel? What of the Church when its founders were fallen asleep? Was the Good Shepherd “always” with His little flock, according to His promise? Was the Blessed Comforter felt in His presence amid the fires of persecution? Was the Spirit of Truth really able to guide the faithful into all truth, and to keep them in the truth?

     And what had become of the disciples who were the first-fruits of the apostolic ministry? St. Paul had said, “The same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also.” How was this injunction realized? St. Peter’s touching words come to mind, “I will endeavour that ye may be able after my decease to have these things always in remembrance.” Was this endeavour successfully carried out? To these natural and pious inquiries, the Apostolic Fathers, though we have a few specimens only of their fidelity, give an emphatic reply. If the cold-hearted and critical find no charm in the simple, childlike faith which they exhibit, ennobled though it be by heroic devotion to the Master, we need not marvel. Such would probably object: “They teach me nothing; I do not relish their multiplied citations from Scripture.” The answer is, “If you are familiar with Scripture, you owe it largely to these primitive witnesses to its Canon and its spirit. By their testimony we detect what is spurious, and we identify what is real. Is it nothing to find that your Bible is their Bible, your faith their faith, your Saviour their Saviour, your God their God?” Let us reflect also, that, when copies of the entire Scriptures were rare and costly, these citations were “words fitly spoken, —apples of gold in pictures of silver.” We are taught by them also that they obeyed the apostle’s precept, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing,” etc. Thus they reflect the apostolic care that men should be raised up able to teach others also.

     Their very mistakes enable us to attach a higher value to the superiority of inspired writers. They were not wiser than the naturalists of their day who taught them the history of the Phœnix and other fables; but nothing of this sort is found in Scripture. The Fathers are inferior in kind as well as in degree; yet their words are lingering echoes of those whose words were spoken “as the Spirit gave them utterance.” They are monuments of the power of the Gospel. They were made out of such material as St. Paul describes when he says, “Such were some of you.” But for Christ, they would have been worshippers of personified Lust and Hate, and of every crime. They would have lived for “bread and circus-shows.” Yet to the contemporaries of a Juvenal they taught the Decalogue and the Sermon on the Mount. Among such beasts in human form they reared the sacred home; they created the Christian family; they gave new and holy meanings to the names of wife and mother; they imparted ideas unknown before of the dignity of man as man; they infused an atmosphere of benevolence and love; they bestowed the elements of liberty chastened by law; they sanctified human society by proclaiming the universal brotherhood of redeemed man. As we read the Apostolic Fathers, we comprehend, in short, the meaning of St. Paul when he said prophetically, what men were slow to believe, “The foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men.… But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; and base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are.” --- December 1884

Clement Of Rome (Introductory Note to the First Epistle Of Clement To The Corinthians)

     [A.D. 30–100.] Clement was probably a Gentile and a Roman. He seems to have been at Philippi with St. Paul (A.D. 57) when that first-born of the Western churches was passing through great trials of faith. There, with holy women and others, he ministered to the apostle and to the saints. As this city was a Roman colony, we need not inquire how a Roman happened to be there. He was possibly in some public service, and it is not improbable that he had visited Corinth in those days. From the apostle, and his companion, St. Luke, he had no doubt learned the use of the Septuagint, in which his knowledge of the Greek tongue soon rendered him an adept. His copy of that version, however, does not always agree with the Received Text, as the reader will perceive.

     A co-presbyter with Linus and Cletus, he succeeded them in the government of the Roman Church. I have reluctantly adopted the opinion that his Epistle was written near the close of his life, and not just after the persecution of Nero. It is not improbable that Linus and Cletus both perished in that fiery trial, and that Clement’s immediate succession to their work and place occasions the chronological difficulties of the period. After the death of the apostles, for the Roman imprisonment and martyrdom of St. Peter seem historical, Clement was the natural representative of St. Paul, and even of his companion, the “apostle of the circumcision;” and naturally he wrote the Epistle in the name of the local church, when brethren looked to them for advice. St. John, no doubt, was still surviving at Patmos or in Ephesus; but the Philippians, whose intercourse with Rome is attested by the visit of Epaphroditus, looked naturally to the surviving friends of their great founder; nor was the aged apostle in the East equally accessible. All roads pointed towards the Imperial City, and started from its Milliarium Aureum. But, though Clement doubtless wrote the letter, he conceals his own name, and puts forth the brethren, who seem to have met in council, and sent a brotherly delegation (Chap. lix.). The entire absence of the spirit of Diotrephes (St. John, Ep. 3. 9),

3 John 9 (NASB95) I wrote something to the church; but Diotrephes, who loves to be first among them, does not accept what we say.

and the close accordance of the Epistle, in humility and meekness, with that of St. Peter (Ep. 1, 5:1–5), are noteworthy features. The whole will be found animated with the loving and faithful spirit of St. Paul’s dear Philippians, among whom the writer had learned the Gospel.

1 Peter 5:1–5 (NASB95) 1 Therefore, I exhort the elders among you, as your fellow elder and witness of the sufferings of Christ, and a partaker also of the glory that is to be revealed,
2 shepherd the flock of God among you, exercising oversight not under compulsion, but voluntarily, according to the will of God; and not for sordid gain, but with eagerness;
3 nor yet as lording it over those allotted to your charge, but proving to be examples to the flock.
4 And when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory.
5 You younger men, likewise, be subject to your elders; and all of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, for GOD IS OPPOSED TO THE PROUD, BUT GIVES GRACE TO THE HUMBLE.

     Clement fell asleep, probably soon after he despatched his letter. It is the legacy of one who reflects the apostolic age in all the beauty and evangelical truth which were the first-fruits of the Spirit’s presence with the Church. He shares with others the aureole of glory attributed by St. Paul (Phil. 4:3), “His name is in the Book of Life.”

Philippians 4:3 (NASB95) Indeed, true companion, I ask you also to help these women who have shared my struggle in the cause of the gospel, together with Clement also and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life.

     The plan of this publication does not permit the restoration, in this volume, of the recently discovered portions of his work. It is the purpose of the editor to present this, however, with other recently discovered relics of primitive antiquity, in a supplementary volume, should the undertaking meet with sufficient encouragement. The so-called second Epistle of Clement is now known to be the work of another, and has been relegated to another place in this series.

     The following is the INTRODUCTORY NOTICE of the original editors and translators, Drs. Roberts and Donaldson:—

     THE first Epistle, bearing the name of Clement, has been preserved to us in a single manuscript only. Though very frequently referred to by ancient Christian writers, it remained unknown to the scholars of Western Europe until happily discovered in the Alexandrian manuscript. This MS. of the Sacred Scriptures (known and generally referred to as Codex A) was presented in 1628 by Cyril, Patriarch of Constantinople, to Charles I., and is now preserved in the British Museum. Subjoined to the books of the New Testament contained in it, there are two writings described as the Epistles of one Clement. Of these, that now before us is the first. It is tolerably perfect, but there are many slight lacunæ, or gaps, in the MS., and one whole leaf is supposed to have been lost towards the close. These lacunæ, however, so numerous in some chapters, do not generally extend beyond a word or syllable, and can for the most part be easily supplied.

     Who the Clement was to whom these writings are ascribed, cannot with absolute certainty be determined. The general opinion is, that he is the same as the person of that name referred to by St. Paul (Phil. 4:3). The writings themselves contain no statement as to their author. The first, and by far the longer of them, simply purports to have been written in the name of the Church at Rome to the Church at Corinth. But in the catalogue of contents prefixed to the MS. they are both plainly attributed to one Clement; and the judgment of most scholars is, that, in regard to the first Epistle at least, this statement is correct, and that it is to be regarded as an authentic production of the friend and fellow-worker of St. Paul. This belief may be traced to an early period in the history of the Church. It is found in the writings of Eusebius (Hist. Eccl., iii. 15), of Origen (Comm. in Joan., i. 29), and others. The internal evidence also tends to support this opinion. The doctrine, style, and manner of thought are all in accordance with it; so that, although, as has been said, positive certainty cannot be reached on the subject, we may with great probability conclude that we have in this Epistle a composition of that Clement who is known to us from Scripture as having been an associate of the great apostle.

     The date of this Epistle has been the subject of considerable controversy. It is clear from the writing itself that it was composed soon after some persecution (chap. i.) which the Roman Church had endured; and the only question is, whether we are to fix upon the persecution under Nero or Domitian. If the former, the date will be about the year 68; if the latter, we must place it towards the close of the first century or the beginning of the second. We possess no external aid to the settlement of this question. The lists of early Roman bishops are in hopeless confusion, some making Clement the immediate successor of St. Peter, others placing Linus, and others still Linus and Anacletus, between him and the apostle. The internal evidence, again, leaves the matter doubtful, though it has been strongly pressed on both sides. The probability seems, on the whole, to be in favour of the Domitian period, so that the Epistle may be dated about A.D. 97.

     This Epistle was held in very great esteem by the early Church. The account given of it by Eusebius (Hist. Eccl., iii. 16) is as follows: “There is one acknowledged Epistle of this Clement (whom he has just identified with the friend of St. Paul), great and admirable, which he wrote in the name of the Church of Rome to the Church at Corinth, sedition having then arisen in the latter Church. We are aware that this Epistle has been publicly read in very many churches both in old times, and also in our own day.” The Epistle before us thus appears to have been read in numerous churches, as being almost on a level with the canonical writings. And its place in the Alexandrian MS., immediately after the inspired books, is in harmony with the position thus assigned it in the primitive Church. There does indeed appear a great difference between it and the inspired writings in many respects, such as the fanciful use sometimes made of Old-Testament statements, the fabulous stories which are accepted by its author, and the general diffuseness and feebleness of style by which it is distinguished. But the high tone of evangelical truth which pervades it, the simple and earnest appeals which it makes to the heart and conscience, and the anxiety which its writer so constantly shows to promote the best interests of the Church of Christ, still impart an undying charm to this precious relic of later apostolic times.

     [N.B.—A sufficient guide to the recent literature of the Clementine MSS. and discoveries may be found in The Princeton Review, 1877, p. 325, also in Bishop Wordsworth’s succinct but learned Church History to the Council of Nicæa, p. 84. The invaluable edition of the Patres Apostolici, by Jacobson (Oxford, 1840), with a critical text and rich prolegomena and annotations, cannot be dispensed with by any Patristic inquirer. A. C. C.]

Read The Psalms In "1" Year

Psalm 83

9 Do to them as you did to Midian,
as to Sisera and Jabin at the river Kishon,
10 who were destroyed at En-dor,
who became dung for the ground.
11 Make their nobles like Oreb and Zeeb,
all their princes like Zebah and Zalmunna,
12 who said, “Let us take possession for ourselves
of the pastures of God.”

13 O my God, make them like whirling dust,
like chaff before the wind.
14 As fire consumes the forest,
as the flame sets the mountains ablaze,
15 so may you pursue them with your tempest
and terrify them with your hurricane!
16 Fill their faces with shame,
that they may seek your name, O LORD.
17 Let them be put to shame and dismayed forever;
let them perish in disgrace,
18 that they may know that you alone,
whose name is the LORD,
are the Most High over all the earth.

By John Walvoord

Prophecy against Gog (continued)

     Ezekiel 38:10–13. The invaders are quoted as saying, “I will invade a land of unwalled villages; I will attack a peaceful and unsuspecting people — all of them living without walls and without gates and bars” (v.  11 ).

     The scene described is a modern scene where walls are no longer necessary to protect a village, confirming the idea that it is an unexpected attack. The people of Israel in the land are described as “a peaceful and unsuspecting people — all of them living without walls and without gates and bars” (v.  11 ). The people of Israel are described as living in “the resettled ruins” (v.  12 ), and they are described as “gathered from the nations, rich in livestock and goods, living at the center of the land” (v.  12 ).

     Sheba, Dedan, and the merchants of Tarshish ask the question whether they have come to seize plunder (v.  13 ). Sheba probably refers to the kingdom from which the queen of Sheba had come to see Solomon ( 1 Kings 10:1–13; 2 Chron. 9:1–12 ). It was located in southwestern Arabia, mentioned by Isaiah ( Isa. 21:13 ), Jeremiah ( Jer. 25:23; 49:8 ), and Ezekiel ( Ezek. 25:13; 27:15, 20; 38:13 ), and probably referred to a tribe that had intermarried with the Cushite people. Tarshish was probably related to an area where oil was collected in Spain, though some identify it also at a location in southern Arabia where ore was also smelted. In a word, these were merchants who were acquainted with the wealth of Israel.

     Ezekiel 38:14–16. Ezekiel was instructed to prophesy that this event would take place. Israel is described as “living in safety” (v.  14 ), and their safety is mentioned also in verse  8 and  39:6. This reference should make clear that it is not describing Israel today, which is an armed camp and living in fear of its neighbors. The nature of the attack is summarized by God: “You will come from your place in the far north, you and many nations with you, all of them riding on horses, a great horde, a mighty army. You will advance against my people Israel like a cloud that covers the land. In days to come, O Gog, I will bring you against my lands, so that the nations may know me when I show myself holy through you before their eyes” ( 38:15–16 ).

     These verses summarize what was said earlier in the chapter that the attack will come when Israel will be living in safety, that the invaders will come from the far north, that they will be riding on horses, that they will be numerous like a cloud, and that God will bring them against the people of Israel so that by their destruction He can show His own holiness and power.

     Ezekiel 38:17–23. God reminded the invaders of what was predicted “in former days by [His] servants the prophets of Israel” (v.  17 ). The specifics of this prophecy had not been previously mentioned, but many chapters in the prophets deal with the nations around Israel and God bringing judgment upon them. Accordingly, what was about to be revealed is in keeping with God’s previous prophecies.

     God declared His reaction to the attack against Israel: “When Gog attacks the land of Israel, my hot anger will be aroused, declares the Sovereign LORD. In my zeal and fiery wrath I declared that at that time there shall be a great earthquake in the land of Israel” (vv.  18–19 ).

     The remarkable aspect of this prophecy is that the Scriptures do not reveal any opposing army attacking the invaders. Rather, it will be a time when God Himself by supernatural actions destroys the army. The first step will be a great earthquake in the land of Israel. The effect of this earthquake will be felt by all of God’s creatures on earth, “the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, the beasts of the field, every creature that moves along the ground, and all the people on the face of the earth will tremble at my presence. The mountains will be overturned, the cliffs will crumble and every wall will fall to the ground” (v.  20 ).

     The second great judgment that God will bring on the invaders will be that they will fight among themselves: “I will summon a sword against Gog on all my mountains, declares the Sovereign LORD. Every man’s sword will be against his brother” (v.  21 ). Because of the disruption brought about by the earthquake and the fact that the army will be composed of various peoples coming from various nations, it is easy to understand how through misunderstanding they can start fighting among themselves, thinking that the others are a defending people.

     The next form of judgment will be by plague and bloodshed (v.  22 ). In addition to their being destroyed by the sword, they will experience a plague, a means God has often used to attack the enemies of Israel (cf.  Isa. 37:36 ).

     The following judgment speaks of “torrents of rain, hailstones and burning sulfur on him and on his troops and on the many nations with him” ( Ezek. 38:22 ). The floods caused by torrents of rain would obviously hinder an invading army and cause more confusion in communications, which would properly account for the fact that they will be fighting one another. The hailstones also being supernatural may be destructive of human life. The burning sulfur that will fall on them will be a reminder of how God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. The nature of these judgments demonstrates to all that God will fight the invading army and pour His judgment on them. This is brought out in the closing verse of the chapter: “And so I will show my greatness and my holiness, and I will make myself known in the sight of many nations. Then they will know that I am the LORD” (v.  23 ).

     Ezekiel 39:1–6. In repeating aspects of the prophecy of invaders’ destruction, God noted again that the invasion of the land will be caused by His bringing them into this conflict: “I will turn you around and drag you along. I will bring you from the far north and send you against the mountains of Israel” (v.  2 ). The geographic origination of the invasion is again said to be “the far north” (v.  2 ).

     God further declared, “Then I will strike your bow from your left hand and make your arrows drop from your right hand” (v.  3 ). Earlier He had mentioned other weapons, but this passage for the first time mentions bows and arrows, which were standard weapons in the time Ezekiel lived. Though bows and arrows are usually characterized as primitive weapons, they actually have played a part in modern warfare and were used extensively, for instance, in the war in Vietnam. Because an arrow going through the air does not give away the location of the one who shot the arrow, it therefore was good for use in jungle situations. No final answer can be given why primitive weapons are specified. Though the outcome of the battle was clearly prophesied, Scripture does not offer any explanation why the weapons described are primitive.

     Because of the various judgments of God mentioned earlier, He declared that the invading army will fall on the mountains of Israel (v.  4 ). God stated, “I will give you as food to all kinds of carrion birds and to the wild animals. You will fall in the open field, for I have spoken, declares the Sovereign LORD” (vv.  4–5 ). From these Scriptures, it is clear that the entire invading army will be wiped out. In the King James Version,  Ezekiel 39:2 was translated, “And I will turn thee back, and leave but the sixth part of thee.” This translation is inaccurate, and from the New International Version, it is clear that the entire invading force will be wiped out as indicated in the expression, “All your troops and the nations with you” (v.  4 ).

     In addition to wiping out the army that will invade Israel, a judgment of fire will also be inflicted on Magog and “those who live in safety in the coastlands” (v.  6 ), indicating that a special judgment will be visited also on the land from which the Russian army troops come.

     Ezekiel 39:7–8. The purpose of the destruction of the armies will be to give notice to the nations that they will no longer be able to profane the holy name of the Lord (v.  7 ). God reaffirms the certainty and literalness of this event, declaring, “It is coming! It will surely take place” (v.  8 ).

     Ezekiel 39:9–10. The extent of the destruction is indicated by the amount of weapons that will be accumulated from the victory over the invading army. They will be used for fuel and include “the small and large shields, the bows and arrows, the war clubs and spears. For seven years they will use them for fuel. They will not need to gather wood from the fields or cut it from the forests, because they will use the weapons for fuel. And they will plunder those who plundered them and loot those who looted them,’ declares the Sovereign LORD” (vv.  9–10 ).

     The theory that these weapons are simply figurative and not representing real weapons of wood is countered by the fact that they will be used for fuel, indicating that the weapons will actually be as described. Also, the fuel will be of such a large amount that they will be able to fuel their fires for seven years.

     The figure of seven years introduces some problems as it affects the location of this war in the end-time events, because it pictures Israel at peace and in safety ( 38:8; 39:6 ). The burning of the fuel is not a prophetic event but only a statement of the amount of debris. A number of expositors have located this war in the first half of the last seven years leading up to the second coming. The first half of the seven years will be a period of peace because of the covenant entered into between Israel and the Gentile ruler of that period ( Dan. 9:27 ). The problem of the fuel lasting seven years, however, is not a real prophetic problem, because even after the Lord returns, they will still need fuel for fires in the millennial kingdom as life goes on. Accordingly, the seven-year figure should not be considered an obstacle to placing the war somewhere in the middle of the last seven years with the possibility that it may occur earlier in the seven-year period and justify the approximate figure of seven years.

     Ezekiel 39:11–16. The thousands of soldiers killed in the war are described as requiring seven months to bury them in order to cleanse the land (vv.  11–13 ). After the seven months there still will be other bodies located, and according to the prophecy some people will be permanently employed to search out the dead and bury them (vv.  14–16 ).

     Ezekiel 39:17–20. Immediately after the battle, before the burial takes place, God will invite the birds and wild animals to feast on the dead bodies. God pointed out how the dead will include riders, some of whom were important people, and also their horses (vv.  17–20 ).

     Ezekiel 39:21–24. The judgment on the invaders is designed to display the power of God (v.  21 ). God had previously judged the people of Israel because of their unfaithfulness and many of them had died (vv.  23–24 ).

          __________________________________________________________________

Every Prophecy of the Bible: Clear Explanations for Uncertain Times

The Continual Burnt Offering (John 4:24)

By H.A. Ironside - 1941

August 6

Father, we Thy children, bless Thee
For Thy love on us bestowed;
Source of blessing, we confess Thee
Now, our Father and our God.
Wondrous was Thy love in giving
Jesus for our sins to die!
Wondrous was His grace in leaving,
For our sakes, the heavens on high!
--- Samuel P. Tregelles

Christian Hypocrisy Undermines Reasonability of Christian Faith

By Josh McDowell and Sean McDowell

Christian hypocrisy has done massive damage to the Christian faith. According to Guinness, the challenge of hypocrisy is second only to the problem of suffering and evil, and is one of the main reasons people duck the challenge of the gospel. (Fool's Talk: Recovering the Art of Christian Persuasion, 190) Hypocrisy is such a massive challenge, says Guinness, because Christians are called to be God’s witnesses to the world (Isa. 43:10; John 3:28): “In other words, before we are asked to preach, proclaim or try to persuade people of the claims of Jesus and his Father, we are asked simply to be witnesses for him—to provide an honest and factual account of what we have seen and heard objectively, and what we ourselves have experienced (‘Once I was blind, but now I can see’)—and to live lives that support what we say.” (Fool's Talk: Recovering the Art of Christian Persuasion, 188)

     It is tempting for Christians to respond by pointing out the hypocrisy in other people and worldviews. For instance, the voices of tolerance and inclusiveness are often remarkably intolerant and noninclusive of people with traditional values. Such hypocrisy should be rightly pointed out. But this doesn’t get Christians off the hook. After all, James said, “Be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves” (James 1:22). Christians are called to a higher standard. Whether we like it or not, people will judge the truthfulness of Christianity by the lives of its adherents.

     As with the charge that the church has caused injustice in the world, Christians should first look inside and see if there is any merit to this claim. Have we been hypocritical in any way? Have our lives betrayed our principles? Have we contributed to this narrative? Rather than blame others, we need to take an honest look inside, identify our own hypocrisy, repent of it, and then admit our shortcomings.

     As for the claim itself, it is an example of a “genetic fallacy,” which is a claim that is dismissed because of some perceived fault in its origin (its genesis). Guinness explains,

There is an important difference between the source of a truth claim and the standard by which it should be assessed. It is therefore wrong to reject a claim just because of the character and condition of its source. . . . The issue is always truth, and truth is not a matter of where someone is “coming from” or how oddly or shabbily they have behaved in the past before making the claim. . . . If the Christian faith is true, it would still be true even if no one believed it, or if all who did were hypocrites; and if it is false, would still be false even if everyone believed it and there was no apparent hypocrisy in their behavior. (Fool's Talk: Recovering the Art of Christian Persuasion, 196)

     If you are upset about hypocrisy in the church, then you are in good company — Jesus felt the same way. Jesus criticized the Pharisees for their religious hypocrisy, calling them blind guides, snakes, and even killers of the prophets (Matt. 23). He condemned them for not practicing what they preached. If hypocrisy troubles you, then you’re on the side of Jesus.

     What does hypocrisy tell us about Christianity? Scholars and teachers Clinton Arnold and Jeff Arnold explain:

When we go to church or spend time with Christians, many of us go in with the expectation that we won’t find anything we don’t like, including hypocrites. These people have been fixed by Jesus already, right? It doesn’t take long to become disappointed if that’s what we expect. But maybe this expectation is off. If you walked into a hospital, would you be surprised if you found sick people everywhere? What if some of them were really sick? This is much closer to how we should approach the church and Christians in general. We are not perfect; in fact, we’re all still very sick. But we are getting better. It’s easy to forget that we all came to the church at different points in life; many people come from broken lives that are now in the process of healing, and most of us are more sick than we realize. We should not be surprised to find people in different states of mending. It would make more sense to compare a person to how they were before they became a Christian than to compare them to perfection. The church is not a place for perfect people, it’s a place for broken people slowly being made whole by Jesus. If we find ourselves surprised when we see sin in the church, we should rethink our expectations. (Short Answers to Big Questions about God, the Bible, and Christianity, 101–102)

     Joslin "Josh" McDowell (born August 17, 1939) is an evangelical apologist and evangelist. He is the author or co-author of over 150 books. His book Evidence That Demands a Verdict was ranked 13th in Christianity Today's list of most influential evangelical books published after World War II. Other well-known titles are More Than a Carpenter, A Ready Defense and Right from Wrong.

Christlikeness

By Robert Jeffress 2023

     Is there a more daunting word in the Christian vocabulary than Christlikeness? Can you imagine a more ambitious goal? Think about it: at a young boy’s first peewee basketball practice, the coach doesn’t hand him a ball and say, “Let’s see some Jordanlikeness.” The first time a young girl steps onto a tennis court, the instructor doesn’t hand her a racket and say, “From now on, when people look at you, they should see Serena Williams.” An elementary school teacher doesn’t hand back a student’s very first essay and say, “I expected more Twainlikeness out of you.”

     Yet what happens when we put our faith in Christ? We’re told that Jesus is the only Son of God. He came to earth to do what we could not do for ourselves. He lived a sinless life. He never once gave in to temptation. He dedicated Himself completely to God’s will. He used Scripture to drive away Satan. He demonstrated sacrificial love, the likes of which have never been seen before or since. His was the most important life in human history. Oh, and by the way, when people look at you, they should see Him.

     What does that mean? As we study this tenth core belief of Christianity, we’ll discover that Christlikeness is intimately tied to our relationship with God, the work of the Holy Spirit, and the way we view the world. We’ll also discover that Christlikeness is not as far beyond our reach as it may seem. In fact, with God’s help, it’s well within our grasp.

Pursuing God’s Will

     What is God’s will for our lives? The answer to that question is the holy grail, so to speak, of our existence. After all, once we know God’s definitive will for us, we’ll be able to spot every signpost and every trail marker on our walk with Christ. We’ll be able to march confidently through this life, fairly certain of where we’re going. Or so the thinking goes. So we pray fervently for God to reveal His will to us and wait for His grand revelation. If we’re not careful, we may become frozen in place, afraid to make the wrong move, while we wait for His yellow-brick road to become apparent to us.

     However, God has already revealed His will for us. It’s there, for the whole world to see, in Romans 8:28–29.

Romans 8:28–29 (NASB95) 28 And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.
29 For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren;

     Let’s start with verse 28: “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good.” Those thirteen words are an optimist’s delight. They seem to imply that no matter how horrible something is that happens in your life, somewhere there’s something good in it. And if you just look hard enough or wait long enough, you’ll see the silver lining in the cloud.

     What’s more, these words seem to offer an insurance policy for believers. If God causes all things to work together for good, then surely that means that if we take the wrong road in life, God will turn it into an incredible journey. Or if we bungle an attempt to witness to someone or to model our faith, God will turn our clumsiness into something special. As long as there’s a modicum of effort involved, whatever we do will turn out for the best.

     If, in fact, that’s what Paul meant by those thirteen words. But it’s not.

     There are some things that happen to us that are so tragic, so scarring, that to suggest good can come from them almost minimizes our suffering and our efforts to heal. That’s not what Paul was promising in Romans 8:28. To get to the heart of the matter, we have to examine the verse in its entirety: “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.”

     Paul’s point was that God is using everything that happens to you — the good, the bad, and the ugly — to accomplish His purpose in your life. And what is that purpose? This is going to surprise some of you. God’s purpose for your life is not that you have a satisfying marriage. God’s purpose for your life is not that you have a successful career or an impressive bank account. God’s purpose for your life is not that you be healed from every physical disease. No. God’s purpose for your life is found in verse 29: “For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren.”

     God loved Jesus so much that He said, in so many words, “I don’t want to have just one Son. I’d love to have many children — men and women who resemble the Son I love in the things they love, the way they act, and the thoughts they have.”

     God’s plan for you is not just to save you, to rescue your soul from hell, but to transform you, to chisel in you the perfect image of His Son. And Paul was saying that everything in your life is working together for that one purpose: to make you just like Jesus. To make you love the things Jesus loved, to do the things Jesus did, to act the way Jesus acted in every situation. Every success as well as every sadness, every triumph as well as every tragedy, is working together for that one purpose.

     In my own life, I’ve found it’s not the easy things that tend to make me more like Jesus. It’s those hard things, those sad things, those things that defy our human understanding that God uses to chisel away anything un-Christlike in my life.

     The process by which God conforms us to the image of His Son is known as sanctification, and it’s a lifetime work. Your relationship with God doesn’t reach its full potential the moment you’re saved. God saved you to begin the sanctification process in you. Paul described it this way: “He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus” (Phil. 1:6).

     The question that arises is this: Is sanctification, our becoming like Jesus, God’s responsibility or our responsibility? Some people embrace the “Let go and let God” view of the process. They say, “Just as you can’t become a Christian through human effort, you can’t live as a Christian through human effort. So just let go and let God take care of it.” However, certain passages of Scripture seem to contradict that thinking. And they all come from the letters of Paul.

     In Galatians 5:16, he said, “Walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.” In Ephesians 4:22–24, he said, “In reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.” And in Colossians 3:8, he said, “But now you also, put them all aside: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive speech from your mouth.”

     Look at his message in these passages. You are the one who must lay aside your old nature. You are the one who must lay aside anger, malice, and wrath. You are the one who’s responsible for walking in the Spirit. You are the one who’s responsible for putting on the new self. In other words, don’t wait for God to do these things for you.

     Other people embrace the “If it’s going to be, it’s up to me” approach to sanctification. This is the pull - yourself - up - by - your - own - spiritual - bootstraps mindset that says if you just read your Bible and pray enough, you’ll eventually become like Jesus Christ. But that approach won’t work either. Jesus Himself said so in John 15:5: “Apart from Me you can do nothing.”

     That leaves only the middle ground. Sanctification, the process of becoming like Jesus, is a cooperative effort between God and us. God supplies the power; we supply the effort. Without God, we cannot. Without us, God will not.

     The apostle Peter described this joint effort in 2 Peter 1:3: “His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence.” God has given us everything we need to be Christlike. And we access that power through His Holy Spirit.

Working with the Holy Spirit

     In our study of God the Holy Spirit, we learned that the Holy Spirit dwells in every believer. The purpose of His indwelling is to transform us — to make us like Christ. And given the opportunity, that’s exactly what He does. But He will not do it independently of us or against our will.

     The Holy Spirit dwells in us, but He occupies only those areas that we surrender to His control. That act of surrendering is the key to Christlikeness. The more of our lives we choose to give over to the Holy Spirit’s control, the more people will see Christ in us.

     However, we must understand that while surrender is a choice, it’s not a once - and - for - all decision. Every day we face dozens of situations in which we must decide whether we will surrender to the Holy Spirit or grab the reins of our lives.

     For example, let’s say you’re browsing online when an ad for an adult website pops up. The images in the ad catch your eye, as they’re intended to do. At that moment, you have a choice. Your curiosity is telling you to click on the ad and look at what you know you shouldn’t. But the Spirit is saying, Shut it down right now. Get up and walk away. In that split second, you have a decision to make. Are you going to be controlled by your lust, or are you going to be controlled by the Holy Spirit?

     Shortly after you’ve made that decision, you’ll undoubtedly be faced with another. The process of surrendering, of working toward Christlikeness, never ends. And we won’t always make the decision to surrender. The apostle Paul, the greatest missionary the world has ever known, testified to that fact. Look at his words in Romans 7:18–19: “For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want.”

     We can all identify with Paul’s conundrum. We want to do the right thing, yet we find ourselves unable to do so. We say, “I’ll never do that again,” only to find ourselves doing it thirty minutes later. The only day we’ll ever be completely free from our struggle with sin will be the day of our death.

     The good news is that the struggle gets easier the more often we choose to be controlled by the Holy Spirit. Think of it as a habit we develop. The more often we say yes to the Spirit and no to sin, the easier it becomes the next time to say yes to the Spirit and no to sin.

What Does the Holy Spirit Do in Our Lives?

     People who develop the habit of walking with the Spirit find that there are four things the Holy Spirit gives us when He has control of our lives.

Power in Times of Temptation

     First, the Holy Spirit gives us power in times of temptation. He helps us understand that because we’ve been freed from the power of sin, we need to act accordingly.

     According to 1 Peter 3:18, the Holy Spirit has made us alive in Christ. The same power of God that reached down and lifted Jesus Christ out of the grave is working in our lives right now to free us from the power of sin. To claim that power, we need to present our bodies to God every day.

     That’s what Paul was talking about in Romans 6:12–13: “Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.” In other words, don’t let sin have the final say in your life. Considering this new power you have in Christ, start acting in a way that’s consistent with that truth.

     Stop filling your eyes with pornographic images from movies and internet sites. Instead, start filling your eyes with the truth that comes from God’s Word.

     Stop using your tongue to criticize and tear down other people. Instead, start using your words to encourage and build up others.

     Stop allowing your feet to take you places you know you shouldn’t go. Instead, present your feet to God to take you to share the gospel with people.

     Stop allowing your mind to be controlled by anger and fear. Instead, allow it to be filled with the peace that comes from the Holy Spirit.