I have been preaching through Mark and recently spent two weeks on the institution of the Lord's Table. Among other things, it is Jesus entering into covenant with those gathered, complete with bloody sacrifice and ratification ceremony (Cf. for example Genesis 15, Exodus 24). As in all the covenants (in truth, they all add up to one) God makes with humans, it is something he thinks up, sets the terms for, and then carries out and upholds despite all the failings of his “partners” in the agreement.
This consistent dynamic is played out in the upper room on that Passover night. Jesus enters into covenant with those gathered, promising them protection from God's wrath (typified and foreshadowed in the Passover). Yet, within hours they had all abandoned him, even denying they ever knew him. Despite the disciples' unfaithfulness, does Jesus withhold his mercy? Does he not carry through on his promise? Does he not pour out the Holy Spirit on these same faithless men so that they, these fallen, wretched sinners, could be his witnesses? The only exception is the one who had been ordained from the beginning to betray him (Acts 1:16; 2:23).
What did they bring to that covenant ceremony that Passover night? They brought nothing but their depravity and its attendant frailty.
When Martin Luther teaches on justification by faith in his famous Treatise on Christian Liberty (or Freedom of a Christian), he utilizes the concept of covenant, expressed in marriage, to demonstrate just how impoverished in righteousness are we and how rich in mercy is God. The “partnership” is all one sided:
“The . . . grace of faith is this: that it unites the soul to Christ, as the wife to the husband, by which mystery, as the Apostle teaches, Christ and the soul are made one flesh. Now if they are one flesh, and if a true marriage--nay, by far the most perfect of all marriages--is accomplished between them (for human marriages are but feeble types of this one great marriage), then it follows that all they have becomes theirs in common, as well good things as evil things; so that whatsoever Christ possesses, that the believing soul may take to itself and boast of as its own, and whatever belongs to the soul, that Christ claims as His.
“If we compare these possessions, we shall see how inestimable is the gain. Christ is full of grace, life, and salvation; the soul is full of sin, death, and condemnation. Let faith step in, and then sin, death, and hell will belong to Christ, and grace, life, and salvation to the soul. For, if He is a Husband, He must needs take to Himself that which is His wife's, and at the same time, impart to His wife that which is His. For, in giving her His own body and Himself, how can He but give her all that is His? And, in taking to Himself the body of His wife, how can He but take to Himself all that is hers?”
Each time we celebrate the Supper we reiterate our faith in a covenant making and covenant keeping God. We express our gratitude that we are saved “by grace . . . through faith. And this is not [of our] own doing; it is the gift of God” (Ephesians 2:8).
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Friday, July 25, 2008
How Do Walls Come Down?
“Quotation of the Day” in the email notice for the New York Times, July 25, 2008
“‘The walls between old allies on either side of the Atlantic cannot stand. The walls between the countries with the most and those with the least cannot stand. The walls between races and tribes, natives and immigrants, Christian and Muslim and Jew cannot stand. These now are the walls we must tear down.’
- SENATOR BARACK OBAMA, speaking in Berlin”
I am sure Mr. Obabma has in mind the putting away of ancient and contemporary animosities that keep disparate groups from working together (at best) or killing each other (at worst). I assume he makes these comments when he does because of where he is, the city that was once divided by a wall.
The wall that once stood in Berlin was built by ideology. The wall came down, however, not as a result of compromise, a shifting of position by both sides, as Mr. Obama’s admonition above seems to suggest. Rather it was the steadfast, even aggressive, posture of the West, and in particular the US, that brought it down.
Lumping all of the entities in tension into the same list raises questions. For instance, what is the wall that separates “Christian and Muslim and Jew”? If those who stand on either side of the wall do so because of their theological commitments, how does the candidate envision the wall being torn down? Does it come down by asserting that there is little to no difference between them (which relegates the truth claims of each to something less than truth claims), or conversion? In a sense, it was conversion that brought down the wall in Berlin.
“‘The walls between old allies on either side of the Atlantic cannot stand. The walls between the countries with the most and those with the least cannot stand. The walls between races and tribes, natives and immigrants, Christian and Muslim and Jew cannot stand. These now are the walls we must tear down.’
- SENATOR BARACK OBAMA, speaking in Berlin”
I am sure Mr. Obabma has in mind the putting away of ancient and contemporary animosities that keep disparate groups from working together (at best) or killing each other (at worst). I assume he makes these comments when he does because of where he is, the city that was once divided by a wall.
The wall that once stood in Berlin was built by ideology. The wall came down, however, not as a result of compromise, a shifting of position by both sides, as Mr. Obama’s admonition above seems to suggest. Rather it was the steadfast, even aggressive, posture of the West, and in particular the US, that brought it down.
Lumping all of the entities in tension into the same list raises questions. For instance, what is the wall that separates “Christian and Muslim and Jew”? If those who stand on either side of the wall do so because of their theological commitments, how does the candidate envision the wall being torn down? Does it come down by asserting that there is little to no difference between them (which relegates the truth claims of each to something less than truth claims), or conversion? In a sense, it was conversion that brought down the wall in Berlin.
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
Re-humanizing Our Enemies
We need to re-humanize our enemies if we are going to serve them.
Consider Jonah’s stated reason for fleeing away from Nineveh. God had called Jonah to preach to the people of that city: “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me” (Jonah 1:2). Yet Jonah refused because he knew that God was “a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger and abundant in loving-kindness, one who relents from doing harm" (Jonah 4:2). He sensed from the beginning that the Lord’s intent in sending him was to bring the people of Nineveh to repentance and God’s mercy was not at all what Jonah wanted for the Ninevites. He wished for their destruction, not their preservation. Why would Jonah possess such a hard heart toward the Ninevites? Because they had harried and provoked Jonah’s people and were their sworn enemies. His hatred of the Ninevites allowed him to dehumanize them, which, in turn, caused him to not balk at the thought of their demise.
How do we know that he had dehumanized them? In the closing verses of the book, Jonah exhibits more compassion for a plant than he does for the inhabitants of Nineveh. God calls him on this and in so doing re-humanizes the Ninevites: “ . . . the Lord said, ‘You pity the plant, for which you did not labor, nor did you make it grow, which came into being in a night and perished in a night. And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?’” (Jonah 4:10,11). With this provocative question, the Lord indicates that even these who did not recognize Yahweh as the one, true, living God, and were the agents of much harm and destruction in the life of God’s people, were deserving of more respect and compassion than Jonah had a mind to give.
This rebuke of God runs very close to the heart attitude that Jesus demands of us as regards our enemies: “. . . I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust” (Matthew 5:44,45). We need to remember that Jesus embodied his prayer when he "made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross" (Philippians 2:7,8). Jesus looked upon his enemies with compassion and served them, even to the point of death, in order that his enemies might receive of the grace, mercy, and abundant loving-kindness of God. In this taking on of our existence we could say that Jesus re-humanized us, we who had fallen so far from the humanness that was ours in Eden.
The truth is, we all have Ninevites upon whom we would love to see the righteous wrath of God poured out. If we are going to be faithful to the Lord’s call, however, we must learn the lesson that the he sought to teach Jonah: “love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven.” If we will pray for our enemies in this manner we will better resist our tendency to dehumanize them making it more difficult for us to feel justified in our hatred them.
Consider Jonah’s stated reason for fleeing away from Nineveh. God had called Jonah to preach to the people of that city: “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me” (Jonah 1:2). Yet Jonah refused because he knew that God was “a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger and abundant in loving-kindness, one who relents from doing harm" (Jonah 4:2). He sensed from the beginning that the Lord’s intent in sending him was to bring the people of Nineveh to repentance and God’s mercy was not at all what Jonah wanted for the Ninevites. He wished for their destruction, not their preservation. Why would Jonah possess such a hard heart toward the Ninevites? Because they had harried and provoked Jonah’s people and were their sworn enemies. His hatred of the Ninevites allowed him to dehumanize them, which, in turn, caused him to not balk at the thought of their demise.
How do we know that he had dehumanized them? In the closing verses of the book, Jonah exhibits more compassion for a plant than he does for the inhabitants of Nineveh. God calls him on this and in so doing re-humanizes the Ninevites: “ . . . the Lord said, ‘You pity the plant, for which you did not labor, nor did you make it grow, which came into being in a night and perished in a night. And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?’” (Jonah 4:10,11). With this provocative question, the Lord indicates that even these who did not recognize Yahweh as the one, true, living God, and were the agents of much harm and destruction in the life of God’s people, were deserving of more respect and compassion than Jonah had a mind to give.
This rebuke of God runs very close to the heart attitude that Jesus demands of us as regards our enemies: “. . . I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust” (Matthew 5:44,45). We need to remember that Jesus embodied his prayer when he "made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross" (Philippians 2:7,8). Jesus looked upon his enemies with compassion and served them, even to the point of death, in order that his enemies might receive of the grace, mercy, and abundant loving-kindness of God. In this taking on of our existence we could say that Jesus re-humanized us, we who had fallen so far from the humanness that was ours in Eden.
The truth is, we all have Ninevites upon whom we would love to see the righteous wrath of God poured out. If we are going to be faithful to the Lord’s call, however, we must learn the lesson that the he sought to teach Jonah: “love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven.” If we will pray for our enemies in this manner we will better resist our tendency to dehumanize them making it more difficult for us to feel justified in our hatred them.
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Led Anyone to Christ?
As the Area Representative for the CCCC I am occasionally called upon to do an interview with a prospective candidate who is seeking to be credentialed for ministry within the conference. One of the questions I am supposed to ask the interviewee is whether or not he has ever “led anyone to Christ.” The question slightly rankles my Calvinist sensibilities for it raises other questions about how someone is saved and who is doing the saving. But I am not criticizing the question. It is intended to find out if the candidate is willing and able to share the Good News with someone else. One who is seeking to enter into the ministry of the Word should be willing and able to share the faith. But someone recently offered an insight to me and I pass it along to you. When such a question is asked of him his response is, “Every day.” What does he mean? He is suggesting that leading someone to Christ is not a particular kind of activity, such as getting someone to pray the “sinner’s prayer.” Rather, he realizes that every day he is either leading someone to or away from Christ. This he is doing by his words and actions.
The woman who was healed of the hemorrhage of blood (Mark 5:25-34) was emboldened to seek out Jesus and touch the hem of his garment because “she had heard the reports about Jesus” (v. 27). Clearly, what she had learned about Jesus was compelling. Note that this being exposed to Jesus by secondary means (i.e., she did not see him personally prior to her going out to find him) was sufficient to birth faith within her heart. That faith was motivating enough to cause her to leave her law-imposed isolation and risk embarrassment and rejection in order to receive the life that was in Jesus.
This reporting and receiving of the truth of Jesus is the lifeblood of the church. We see in Paul’s teaching from Romans 10, if a soul is to be saved from death by the life that is in Christ they must have faith in him. And yet, for someone to believe in Christ they must learn who he is; and, for one to learn who he is another must tell him. This is the process summed up by the words, “faith comes through hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ” (Romans 10:17).
But what the fellow was suggesting to me when he acknowledged the daily responsibility of leading people to Christ is that we should not think that our preaching is done only with our mouths. What we say and what we do are inextricably linked. The emphasis that James makes in his letter is to the point: “someone will say, ‘You have faith and I have works.’ Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works” (James 2:18).
For the woman, faith was engendered in her soul and she was led to the savior through her learning about what Jesus had been teaching and doing. What report do we offer to those around us who are as burdened down by their circumstances as she? Let us ask God for the grace to lead them to Christ.
The woman who was healed of the hemorrhage of blood (Mark 5:25-34) was emboldened to seek out Jesus and touch the hem of his garment because “she had heard the reports about Jesus” (v. 27). Clearly, what she had learned about Jesus was compelling. Note that this being exposed to Jesus by secondary means (i.e., she did not see him personally prior to her going out to find him) was sufficient to birth faith within her heart. That faith was motivating enough to cause her to leave her law-imposed isolation and risk embarrassment and rejection in order to receive the life that was in Jesus.
This reporting and receiving of the truth of Jesus is the lifeblood of the church. We see in Paul’s teaching from Romans 10, if a soul is to be saved from death by the life that is in Christ they must have faith in him. And yet, for someone to believe in Christ they must learn who he is; and, for one to learn who he is another must tell him. This is the process summed up by the words, “faith comes through hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ” (Romans 10:17).
But what the fellow was suggesting to me when he acknowledged the daily responsibility of leading people to Christ is that we should not think that our preaching is done only with our mouths. What we say and what we do are inextricably linked. The emphasis that James makes in his letter is to the point: “someone will say, ‘You have faith and I have works.’ Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works” (James 2:18).
For the woman, faith was engendered in her soul and she was led to the savior through her learning about what Jesus had been teaching and doing. What report do we offer to those around us who are as burdened down by their circumstances as she? Let us ask God for the grace to lead them to Christ.
Thursday, June 12, 2008
Self-Salting
In the closing words of Mark 9 , Jesus exhorts, "Have salt in yourselves." In its context I believe this is a call to purifying self-examination. We are to actively purify ourselves by examining our motives and actions in the light of Jesus' call to humble service in his kingdom. If his followers would do this then pride (the source of contention among his disciples, Mark 9:34) would be tempered and we will "be at peace with one another."
I came across the following from this morning's entry of Spurgeon's "Morning and Evening." He gives a helpful and humbling means by which we might do this:
"June 12 | Morning | 'Thou art weighed in the balances and art found wanting.' - Daniel 5:27
It is well to frequently weigh ourselves in the scale of God’s Word. You will find it a holy exercise to read some psalm of David, and, as you meditate upon each verse, to ask yourself, 'Can I say this? Have I felt as David felt? Has my heart ever been broken on account of sin, as his was when he penned his penitential psalms? Has my soul been full of true confidence
in the hour of difficulty as his was when he sang of God’s mercies in the cave of Adullam, or in the holds of Engedi? Do I take the cup of salvation and call upon the name of the Lord?' Then turn to the life of Christ, and as you read, ask yourselves how far you are conformed to his likeness. Endeavor to discover whether you have the meekness, the humility, the lovely spirit which he constantly inculcated and displayed. Take, then, the epistles, and see whether you can go with the apostle in what he said of his experience. Have you ever cried out as he did-'O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?' Have you ever felt his self-abasement? Have you seemed to yourself the chief of sinners, and less than the least of all saints? Have you known anything of his devotion? Could you join with him and say, 'For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain'? If we thus read God’s Word as a test of our spiritual condition, we shall have good reason to stop many a time and say, 'Lord, I feel I have never yet been here, O bring me here! give me true penitence, such as this I read of. Give me real faith; give me warmer zeal; inflame me with more fervent love; grant me the grace of meekness; make me more like Jesus. Let me no longer be "found wanting," when weighed in the balances of the sanctuary, lest I be found wanting in the scales of judgment.' 'Judge yourselves that ye be not judged.'”
In other words, "have salt in yourselves."
I came across the following from this morning's entry of Spurgeon's "Morning and Evening." He gives a helpful and humbling means by which we might do this:
"June 12 | Morning | 'Thou art weighed in the balances and art found wanting.' - Daniel 5:27
It is well to frequently weigh ourselves in the scale of God’s Word. You will find it a holy exercise to read some psalm of David, and, as you meditate upon each verse, to ask yourself, 'Can I say this? Have I felt as David felt? Has my heart ever been broken on account of sin, as his was when he penned his penitential psalms? Has my soul been full of true confidence
in the hour of difficulty as his was when he sang of God’s mercies in the cave of Adullam, or in the holds of Engedi? Do I take the cup of salvation and call upon the name of the Lord?' Then turn to the life of Christ, and as you read, ask yourselves how far you are conformed to his likeness. Endeavor to discover whether you have the meekness, the humility, the lovely spirit which he constantly inculcated and displayed. Take, then, the epistles, and see whether you can go with the apostle in what he said of his experience. Have you ever cried out as he did-'O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?' Have you ever felt his self-abasement? Have you seemed to yourself the chief of sinners, and less than the least of all saints? Have you known anything of his devotion? Could you join with him and say, 'For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain'? If we thus read God’s Word as a test of our spiritual condition, we shall have good reason to stop many a time and say, 'Lord, I feel I have never yet been here, O bring me here! give me true penitence, such as this I read of. Give me real faith; give me warmer zeal; inflame me with more fervent love; grant me the grace of meekness; make me more like Jesus. Let me no longer be "found wanting," when weighed in the balances of the sanctuary, lest I be found wanting in the scales of judgment.' 'Judge yourselves that ye be not judged.'”
In other words, "have salt in yourselves."
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Free Will?
What is the relationship between our will and God’s will? Just how “free” are we to act contrary to the will of God? The subject of the human will and how it functions in a universe that is governed by a sovereign God has been well treated by greater minds than mine (if you want to explore the subject more fully I would encourage you to pick up a copy of Martin Luther’s Bondage of the Will and Jonathan Edward’s Freedom of the Will). However, let me offer a few frail observations using the book of Jonah offers a helpful starting place to examine this complex subject.
Firstly, in this brief book we discover that human beings are very capable of making decisions that are contrary to the will of God. In the story, Jonah determines to go in the opposite direction than the one directed by God. At another point, mariners, with Jonah on board, struggle to row their boat back to shore in the face of the threatening storm though they had been told that the way to save their lives was to toss Jonah over the side. Both of these incidents demonstrate that human beings are capable of using their will in ways that are contrary to the will of God. This is important to keep in mind when we assert the sovereignty of God. We should not think that because he is governing all things to his good end that this turns humans into robots. The book of Jonah illustrates otherwise.
But does this mean that man’s will is “free”? In the two instances I related above, the best we can say is that humans can act against but not overcome the will of God. Both Jonah and the mariners are eventually brought to the place intended for them by God. Clearly, their will is not truly free. Though they try, they are not able to accomplish what they want to accomplish. In Jonah, God is the superintending agent who is bringing his will to pass no matter how hard anyone tries to prevent it.
There is another way in which the story of Jonah demonstrates that human will is not completely free. When Jonah exercises his will in a manner contrary God’s he becomes subject to other forces that are in place. Try this exercise to get a sense of what I mean. Hold a book aloft in your hand. As soon you remove your hand, what happens? The book falls to the ground. Why is that? Because the book is subject to the law of gravity and only your hand causes it to be anywhere else than where it is destined to be, on the floor.
In a similar manner, the Bible describes the world, and every human being in it, as being corrupted by sin. As we push off from the safe harbor of God’s will, like Jonah, we are inevitably battered about by the winds of sin that are resident with our heart. This is to say that our will is not some neutral, independent force within us. Like gravity working on the book, our will responds to our desires. When God’s desires are not our desires then we will use our ability to act in ways that our innate sin drives us to act.
Lastly, we see in Jonah, that even though we are capable of conceiving and acting upon choices as individuals we are not free to act as independent agents, operating within our own private sphere. As we exercise our will we must be mindful that our choices, though we might make them as individuals, are not solitary. They are felt by others and seen by God. This is inescapable for this is the way we are made. Being made in the “image of God” we reflect the one in whose image we are made. The God who has made us, and given us his will to obey, dwells in relationship as three-in-one.
So, in the end we would have to say that our free will is not so free. It is certainly not free enough to evade God’s will. The one who sits in the heavens and laughs at the futile schemes of men (Psalm 2) will have his way.
Firstly, in this brief book we discover that human beings are very capable of making decisions that are contrary to the will of God. In the story, Jonah determines to go in the opposite direction than the one directed by God. At another point, mariners, with Jonah on board, struggle to row their boat back to shore in the face of the threatening storm though they had been told that the way to save their lives was to toss Jonah over the side. Both of these incidents demonstrate that human beings are capable of using their will in ways that are contrary to the will of God. This is important to keep in mind when we assert the sovereignty of God. We should not think that because he is governing all things to his good end that this turns humans into robots. The book of Jonah illustrates otherwise.
But does this mean that man’s will is “free”? In the two instances I related above, the best we can say is that humans can act against but not overcome the will of God. Both Jonah and the mariners are eventually brought to the place intended for them by God. Clearly, their will is not truly free. Though they try, they are not able to accomplish what they want to accomplish. In Jonah, God is the superintending agent who is bringing his will to pass no matter how hard anyone tries to prevent it.
There is another way in which the story of Jonah demonstrates that human will is not completely free. When Jonah exercises his will in a manner contrary God’s he becomes subject to other forces that are in place. Try this exercise to get a sense of what I mean. Hold a book aloft in your hand. As soon you remove your hand, what happens? The book falls to the ground. Why is that? Because the book is subject to the law of gravity and only your hand causes it to be anywhere else than where it is destined to be, on the floor.
In a similar manner, the Bible describes the world, and every human being in it, as being corrupted by sin. As we push off from the safe harbor of God’s will, like Jonah, we are inevitably battered about by the winds of sin that are resident with our heart. This is to say that our will is not some neutral, independent force within us. Like gravity working on the book, our will responds to our desires. When God’s desires are not our desires then we will use our ability to act in ways that our innate sin drives us to act.
Lastly, we see in Jonah, that even though we are capable of conceiving and acting upon choices as individuals we are not free to act as independent agents, operating within our own private sphere. As we exercise our will we must be mindful that our choices, though we might make them as individuals, are not solitary. They are felt by others and seen by God. This is inescapable for this is the way we are made. Being made in the “image of God” we reflect the one in whose image we are made. The God who has made us, and given us his will to obey, dwells in relationship as three-in-one.
So, in the end we would have to say that our free will is not so free. It is certainly not free enough to evade God’s will. The one who sits in the heavens and laughs at the futile schemes of men (Psalm 2) will have his way.
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Our Best Defense
The Apostle Peter warns of the devil’s prowling around as a roaring lion (1 Peter 5:8). It is not a pleasant thing to think of. I suspect the first response for most of us is, “I hope he doesn’t sniff me out and decide to pounce on me.” Between this verse and the picture of the devil in Job 1 and 2 where he reports that he has been going to and fro in the earth, it would appear that the devil doesn’t rest much in his pursuit of the righteous.
What is it that allows us to resist the devil, as we are told to do in Peter’s warning, and remain “steadfast in the faith”(v. 9)? I would suggest that solid doctrine is our strongest weapon. When the “father of lies” (John 8:44) tries to discourage, intimidate, sow doubt, or harm, it appears to be with the intent of getting us to curse or deny God. But it is just here that our knowledge of the truth as revealed in God’s word is what will allow us to “quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one” (Ephesians 6:12).
The Bible teaches us that the devil has no rightful claim upon any of God’s elect. It is true that we “once walked according to the prince of the power of the air” but now, by God’s grace, that is no longer the case (Ephesians 2:1-2). Or, as Paul says elsewhere, “Who can bring a charge against God’s elect?” for it is God who has justified us and Christ who has redeemed us (Romans 8:33-34). No matter what may come our way, or who may be behind it, we are to be assured with the apostle that nothing “shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38).
Peter knew this first hand. When he issued his admonition he spoke from experience. Jesus had warned him, “Simon, Simon! Indeed, Satan has asked for you, that he may sift you as wheat” (Luke 22:31). And sift him he did. Soon after Jesus issued this statement our Lord was arrested and Peter was denying he ever knew him (Luke 22:47-62). But Jesus also said that he had prayed for Peter and so directed him “. . . when you have returned to Me, strengthen your brethren." Peter did return and was restored in the love and mercy of Christ (John 21:15-19). He personally experienced what Paul was talking about. He learned that nothing could separate him from the love of God, not even a determined devil who sought to sift him like wheat. From this place of tested and proven truth he did what Jesus asked of him, he wrote his epistle in order to strengthen his brethren in the face of their struggles against the prowling lion.
God’s Word and what it reveals about our election in Christ (or to put it another way, the gospel, or, the faith), is what strengthens us to stand against the lies of the devil when he connives to get us to believe that God has forgotten and forsaken us. Resist him steadfast in the faith.
What is it that allows us to resist the devil, as we are told to do in Peter’s warning, and remain “steadfast in the faith”(v. 9)? I would suggest that solid doctrine is our strongest weapon. When the “father of lies” (John 8:44) tries to discourage, intimidate, sow doubt, or harm, it appears to be with the intent of getting us to curse or deny God. But it is just here that our knowledge of the truth as revealed in God’s word is what will allow us to “quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one” (Ephesians 6:12).
The Bible teaches us that the devil has no rightful claim upon any of God’s elect. It is true that we “once walked according to the prince of the power of the air” but now, by God’s grace, that is no longer the case (Ephesians 2:1-2). Or, as Paul says elsewhere, “Who can bring a charge against God’s elect?” for it is God who has justified us and Christ who has redeemed us (Romans 8:33-34). No matter what may come our way, or who may be behind it, we are to be assured with the apostle that nothing “shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38).
Peter knew this first hand. When he issued his admonition he spoke from experience. Jesus had warned him, “Simon, Simon! Indeed, Satan has asked for you, that he may sift you as wheat” (Luke 22:31). And sift him he did. Soon after Jesus issued this statement our Lord was arrested and Peter was denying he ever knew him (Luke 22:47-62). But Jesus also said that he had prayed for Peter and so directed him “. . . when you have returned to Me, strengthen your brethren." Peter did return and was restored in the love and mercy of Christ (John 21:15-19). He personally experienced what Paul was talking about. He learned that nothing could separate him from the love of God, not even a determined devil who sought to sift him like wheat. From this place of tested and proven truth he did what Jesus asked of him, he wrote his epistle in order to strengthen his brethren in the face of their struggles against the prowling lion.
God’s Word and what it reveals about our election in Christ (or to put it another way, the gospel, or, the faith), is what strengthens us to stand against the lies of the devil when he connives to get us to believe that God has forgotten and forsaken us. Resist him steadfast in the faith.
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