“If you are the Son of man, come down from the cross” (Matthew 27:40).

After all the people who had experienced and seen Jesus do, they yelled, “If you are the son of God….” Jesus gave sight to the blind. He healed all sicknesses, cast out demons, and even raised the dead. How short the people’s memory was when it came to remembering all he did for them. So they yelled, “Come down from the cross” as though that would be the definitive proof he was the son of God. Raising the dead did not lead them to consider the truth, but coming down from the cross would? This verse demonstrates how blind the human heart is when overcome by sin. The people were blind to Jesus’ true identity, despite his teachings and miracles. They were blind to God’s true ways, not knowing who God really is. They were also blind to the Word of God, not understanding that the Scriptures foretold that the Messiah must suffer and die. And they were blind to the love of God, not realizing he was dying for them. No, the Son of Man did not come down from the cross precisely because he was the Son of God.

“…For the dark places of the land are full of violence” (Psalm 74:20).

The psalmist retells how the enemy of God’s people destroyed the sanctuary “Where God met with us.” There was great violence in the land. The invaders had no regard for God’s sacred things. But what is not told is why the enemy came in the first place. God’s people had deep darkness in their hearts long before the enemy destroyed the sanctuary. And in the place where they met God, they themselves had no regard for the things of God. Through their idolatry and sin, they brought spiritual darkness into God’s house. In response, God sent the enemy, so they could see just how dark their darkness was. The violence they experienced at the hands of their enemy was proportional to the violence they brought into God’s house through their idolatry. And when the darkness came to light, they felt the violence of it and longed for the light of God’s presence.

Going to the house of God does not mean we are walking in the light of God’s countenance, nor that we are truly seeking Him. God sees what is in our hearts and responds to what is truly there. And, for our own sake, He will expose what is in our hearts. God wants to meet with His people. And, He wants to bless His people. But he cannot respond to what is not there. If what is in our heart is different than what is on our lips, then God’s response will be to jar us into seeing our real spiritual condition – even if He must hand us over to what we truly long for (see Romans 1:18-32). The people didn’t know that the idolatry they practiced and loved was the same sin that drove their enemy to so great a violence against them. Their sin was one and the same. The outward violence of their enemy was proportional to the inward darkness in their own heart. So, the Psalmist gives the warning: “For the dark places of the land are full of violence.” When we allow the darkness in, violence is all that is left for us. So, Jesus said, “If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!” (Matthew 6:23).

However, Jesus came so that we may be delivered from the darkness. And He will deliver us, even when we call from its depths.

I have come to the pinnacle of success in business. In the eyes of others, my life has been the symbol of success.
However, apart from work, I have little joy. – The last words of Steve Jobs

Self. It’s the world’s number one killer today. It destroys marriages. It rips communities apart. It leaves children orphans. It threatens social stability at every level. It damages lives. It leaves people bereft of friends and loved ones. It is the source of wars and fights. And it is the real reason we must tragically open graves on a daily basis.

When Adam and Eve first sinned, they didn’t just break a simple rule. They effectively opened the door of Pandora’s Box, unleashing hell. Man was created in God’s image. It’s something we don’t reflect upon often enough. There are many things that mean, but one consequence of this wonderful truth is that being made in God’s image means we were given great creative skills and abilities – abilities that far surpass those of the animal kingdom. Man’s ability to cultivate, build, think, imagine, and create is vast. But man was created to do these things in a way that reflects the creator back into the creation. But because of Satan’s lie, man’s abilities were hijacked. We were created to serve God. After God created Adam, he told him to tend and keep the garden God had created. The words in the original language are the language of worship. Adam and Eve were to bend all their ingenuity in the service of their God. But when they accepted the lie of Satan, all those abilities were now placed in the service of self. Focusing those abilities on oneself has become the source of much evil in the world.

This is not to suggest that good things aren’t accomplished today or that people always and only do things that are inherently evil. It does mean, though, that most things in life are not done for God. Most people engage in the various activities of life with themselves in mind. Daily, we go through life pursuing our ambitions and dreams. We think about our future, our jobs, our daily objectives, our next big score, our likes, our dislikes, etc. etc., etc. … but rare is the person who thinks about these things in relation to God, and rarer still

So I just finished a debate – if you can call it that – with a man who forcefully argues for a hyper-Calvinist position on the atonement. We sat down for coffee a couple of weeks ago and somehow got into a debate over Romans 9. Let me say upfront that there are many good Christians who are hyper-Calvinists, and there are many good Christians who are not. I belong to the latter category. I assume the conclusion of the story, based on his comments on FB, is that he has broken fellowship with me. In our discussion of Romans 9, I presented a reading of the text that differed from his. On FB, without articulating what I actually said about Romans nine, he told anyone reading that I vehemently oppose God’s sovereignty in salvation, that I dishonor God, and that I despise the sovereignty of God. When I called him a Calvinist, he said I was disparaging him and that he does not accept such titles – he even said I was disparaging Calvin. I thought I was being accurate based on his argument. He thought I was being divisive. One of the things I took away from his comments, in which he accuses me of dishonoring God, is that because I disagree with him, I am therefore dishonoring God. To dishonor God is a serious thing. It is to be living in sin and rebellion against God. To accuse someone of dishonoring God because of theological differences is a scary place to be. You might as well make the claim “To disagree with me is to disagree with God.” Where did we ever get the idea that disagreement over theological arguments is A. equivalent to attacking God; and B. grounds for accusing a brother in Christ of being in sin; and C. grounds for breaking fellowship? Friends, this is not Christianity. This is insanity.

As far as my reading of Romans nine, in a nut-shell I believe Paul is explaining why God’s promises to the Jews have not failed. It seems that the point of contention comes from the verse that reads, “Jacob I loved but Esau I hated” (Rom 9:13). Hyper-Calvinists insists that this means God chooses who gets saved, and conversely, God chooses who goes to hell. I think that is a misreading of the text. That verse is a quote from Malachi 1:2. It is my contention

Jesus is the good shepherd who came to give us life, and to give it to us in abundance. Life is precious. Of course, you wouldn’t know that by listening to modern political theory that encourages abortion and teaches that life is to be seen through a utilitarian lens, or by watching the majority of television shows where violent death is seen as a form of entertainment, and certainly not by playing one of the many video games kids now entertain themselves with. Such things only cheapen the value of life. But the reality is that those things exist because sin exists. The Bible says that the wages of sin is death. In the presence of life sin is like a corrosive acid that eats away at the value of life, producing only death.

But one of the awesome truths of our existence is that we were created to live forever with God. We were created immortal, if you will. However, because of sin our lives were stripped from us; and what we experience as life, outside of God, is but a shadow of what we were created to experience. Sin is the reality that severs us from God’s life giving power.

In the world we can find things to Continue reading →