Where is the Peace on Earth?

The announcement of the birth of Jesus the Messiah included the promise of peace on earth. When the angels appeared to the shepherds and announced the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem they also declared: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased” (Luke 2:14)! The prophet Isaiah gave a prophecy that the Messiah would be called “Prince of Peace” (Isaiah 9.6).

In a world often torn apart by strife and violence the coming of this Prince of Peace would be good news indeed! One of the great tragedies of human history has been the hatred and violence between people and nations. Men and women long for peace, but this peace continues to elude us.

In the twentieth century the world endured two international conflicts on a scale never before seen in human history. The second world war ended with the invention of a weapon that has the potential of wiping out life on this planet.

At the center of these two world wars were the nations who had for centuries been known as Christendom – the representation of Christ’s Kingdom on earth. Christendom had failed to bring peace on earth. And so an institution known as the United Nations was created to avoid an even greater destruction. But this institution has also failed to bring an end to the strife among the nations of the world.

And even today the world always seems to hang on the very edge of chaos.

As the centuries of time have passed since Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem, it would seem that this promise of peace has not been fulfilled. Where is this promised peace on earth? Have Christ and Christianity failed?

There are many who have concluded that religion, particularly the religion that bears the name of Christ, has indeed been a colossal failure. The enemies of the Christian Faith are often quick to point out that religion has actually brought more strife and conflict to the world. We are often reminded of the Crusades of the Middle Ages and Christendom’s wars against Islam in the Holy Land. If Christ came to bring peace on earth then how can Christ’s people go marching off to war in His name?

Secularists point out that religion causes more division than it does unity in the world. And division often leads to hatred and then to violence. And so we are told that the only way to have peace on earth is to do away with religion and have a completely secular society.

Since the end of the world wars this secularization has intensified, particularly in Western nations that were once considered Christendom. Christendom is all but dead now, being viewed as a failure by the cultural elites in the West. If we will have peace on earth it seems it must come from earth and not from heaven.

However, we must understand that the peace on earth promised through Christ was first peace with God. The things that separate and alienate men and nations from each are symptoms of a greater alienation of man from his Creator. The primary relationship is not the relationship of men to men, but of men to God. This relationship must be restored first. Unless men are in a right relationship with the Creator, nothing else will be right. Sin has broken the relationship of men with God. And sin also has then impacted everything else in human life, including our relationships with each other.

This is seen graphically in the very first family in human history. Cain killed his brother Abel and at the heart of this conflict was a religious matter (See Genesis 4). From the very beginning we see a division in the human race between those who are righteous like Abel and those who are wicked like Cain. This righteousness and wickedness had to do with Cain and Abel’s relationship with God. Abel was a man of God who brought an acceptable offering of worship to God. But Cain’s worship was only in pretense. Rather than repent and turn from his selfish way, Cain chose to get rid of his brother Abel whom Cain viewed as competition. Abel’s righteousness made Cain look bad. In the same way the religious leaders of the Jews were jealous of Jesus and sought to murder the Son of God. The true source of men’s hatred for each other is man’s enmity toward God.

When we are reconciled to God through Jesus Christ, we are also reconciled with one another. Jesus came to bring peace between men and their Creator. This means that Jesus was not a sociopolitical Savior who was sent to fix earthly relationships. Jesus was sent to bring us back to God. So if peace on earth means nothing more to us than an earthly utopia we will soon discover that Jesus has a different agenda. Our perspective is earthly. Jesus had a much higher goal. Jesus came preaching the Kingdom of God. Jesus was not interested in the political agendas and petty kingdoms of men in the earth. Jesus was bringing the Kingdom of Heaven to earth. Jesus was a king, but His Kingdom was not of this world. That is, the Kingdom Jesus was bringing to earth was of a different order and was not like any of the kingdoms established by men of the world. The Gospel was the preaching of this good news – that God’s Kingdom was coming to earth.

The first order of business was for men to accept this Kingdom and submit to its rule. The Divine agenda is preeminent and it is man’s duty to bow the knee to this heavenly rule and order. Jesus came as God’s representative to announce and to establish God’s Kingdom rule in the earth. All who receive King Jesus have also received the Kingdom of God and its agenda for themselves.

When men submit to the rule of Christ they also find that they are now involved in the same work and are no longer in competition with each other. As long as we keep striving to establish our own little kingdoms we will continue to be in competition with each other.

The peace that Jesus made with God must be received. There will be no peace on earth among men until men submit to the rule of God’s Kingdom and God’s King – Jesus Christ. When we receive Christ as Lord, we are reconciled to God. When we are all reconciled to God, we will then be reconciled to each other, having the same Lord and the same agenda. As long as men refuse to submit to God’s rule and seek to rule themselves there will always be strife and competition.

Unfortunately, this is exactly the situation in the earth and among the nations of the world today. The nations of the world are raging against God and His chosen King (See Psalm 2).

That religious and political entity known as Christendom, though it wore the name of Christ, was actually just another of the kingdoms of men. This false, institutional form of Christianity that has been the driving religious force behind Western culture has failed to bring peace on earth because it was itself not in submission to the authority of Christ.

It is time for men to seek the real Christ and His Kingdom and submit to it. Jesus is the Prince of Peace and the world will have no peace until it bows its knee to Him. The Day is coming when every knee will bow and every tongue will have to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord (See Phil. 2.10-11).

The Lord Jesus will eventually put down all competing kingdoms. In the World to Come Christ will reign openly and visibly, without any to oppose Him, and then the redeemed nations of the world will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks and study war no more.

Beyond the Manger

The celebration of Christmas has become a cultural tradition as well as a religious observance in Western societies. When something religious becomes merged with culture, the original purpose and reason for the observance can easily become lost.

Many people who lament the secularization of Western culture often become especially irate during the holidays if any of the cultural symbols of Christmas are removed. At this time of year there are always fights between cultural conservatives and their liberal and more secular antagonists about the public displays of traditional Christmas symbols such as the Nativity Scene. The age-old discussion of the appropriate division of Church and State gets rehashed in the media during the holiday season.

Western societies cannot deny the influence of the so-called Judeo-Christian world-view on our culture and its laws and traditions. Of course, that does not mean that everyone in Western societies is Christian. The civilization that was built on these Judeo-Christian values was one of the first in history to recognize the separation of the State from the Church and promise the freedom of religion to its citizens.

But not everyone finds it easy to check their religious and cultural traditions at the door when entering the public sphere. How to actually separate Church and State means different things to different people. Those who would put a Nativity Scene in the lawn of every county courthouse would be horrified to suddenly be told that Ramadan was made a national holiday!

Originally the celebration of Christmas was the Western Church’s attempt to replace the pagan yuletide celebrations of the pagan barbarians that had invaded Europe. When the Roman Empire, which had already made Christianity its official religion, began to be overrun by Germanic hordes the Church sought to evangelize these pagan tribes. As the modern map of Europe began to take shape, most of the former barbarians had become at least nominally Christian. It was the Church’s goal to make sure these converted pagans did not return to their old habits.

In Christendom, as Christian Europe came to be called by historians, there was nothing like the modern notion of the separation of Church and State. Religious observance, like Christmas, simply became merged with the culture and soon calcified into tradition. And we know that tradition often takes on a life of its own, is almost impossible to kill, and can begin to blur the original meaning of the observance.

Christmas was meant to replace paganism. There is certainly nothing pagan about celebrating the birth of Christ, if that is all Christmas were about.

Unfortunately, we do not know from Scripture when Christ was born and there is nothing mentioned in the New Testament about celebrating the birth of Christ on a regular basis. In other words, Christmas is a human invention and not a Divine mandate. And all human inventions are subject to corruption.

Only two of the four Gospels include details about Christ’s birth and infancy. The rest of the New Testament is completely silent about these details. The burden of teaching in the New Testament has to do with what Jesus did during His earthly ministry, especially His death and resurrection. For the Gospel writers it was the Cross and the empty tomb that really revealed the identity of Jesus as the Christ.

There were some significant revelations when Jesus was born in Bethlehem, but these were only given to a select few. The birth of a baby is not usually anything special for the simple reason that a baby has not done anything except be born, which is nothing special and happens in the world every minute of every day.

Now Jesus’ birth was far from ordinary. We would not expect the Son of God to come into the world just like everyone else. However, Jesus was still born a helpless infant and could not even care for Himself. He did not save the world by being born in Bethlehem! If the Mary and Joseph had not received angelic announcements to explain to them what God was doing it is certain they would not have figured it out on their own. The virgin birth certainly needed some explanation!

The point I am trying to make is that the birth of Jesus was not the central event of His life as no man becomes famous just because he was born.

Most of the New Testament was written by the Apostle Paul, who did not witness any of Jesus’s earthly life and ministry, and who wrote absolutely nothing about the significance of the historical details of Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem. These events were simply not what the Church was founded upon. When Paul and the other Apostles preached the Gospel for the first time publicly, as recorded in the book of Acts, there was nothing mentioned about Jesus’ birth. The Apostles always began the Story with the ministry of John the Baptist, not with the Nativity Scene in Bethlehem.

What has become the biggest Christian holiday celebration is actually based on the most insignificant details of Christ’s life. The baby Jesus could not save us just by being born. Christ’s work of redemption required His atoning death, resurrection, and glorification.

John’s Gospel gives us the theological meaning of Christ’s birth, which is incarnation: God became flesh (See John 1.1-18). The most important truth to be celebrated at Christmas was that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us so that we could know the true God. The claim of the New Testament writers that Jesus was God in human flesh has become one of the most hotly contested aspects of Christian doctrine. I daresay that most of the cultural conservatives who argue for the traditional observance of Christmas usually say precious little about the significance of the incarnation. When we start talking about such things, we have departed from the sentimentality of a cultural holiday and have passed directly into the realm of Theology, which is not so sentimental!

When the Apostles proclaimed that Jesus was Lord, or the King, they were preaching what was also announced at Christ’s birth. But when they preached Jesus as Lord, the Apostles always pointed to the resurrection for proof, not to Jesus’s birth. Even the virgin birth is given no significant doctrinal treatment or emphasis outside of Matthew and Luke. Now I will defend the truth of the virgin birth with all my might because I believe it is integral to our understanding of Jesus. But I also believe that the virgin birth is not the linchpin of the Christian faith.

We must move beyond the manger to Calvary and the empty tomb to really understand the essence of the Gospel message.

Our celebration of Christmas today involves more sentimentality than actual faith in the Son of God.

I am not moving that we strike down Christmas! I have heard people say that Christmas is really a pagan holiday, which is a serious oversimplification of the history of the holiday. Of course there are Christmas traditions that have almost no connection to anything Christian. Plenty of secular additions have been made to the celebration of Christmas. Whether or not this makes Christmas a pagan holiday must in some measure be left up to personal opinion and conscience. I do not think that putting up a tree, hanging stockings over the fireplace, or roasting chestnuts over an open fire have anything to do with the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem. But neither do these things strike me as anything seriously connected to paganism!

If there is anything pagan at Christmas it would have to be, in my humble opinion, the gross materialism and commercialism of our celebration. For most people in Western culture the real meaning of Christmas has to do with getting more stuff. And this makes perfect sense because anyone who knows anything about Western culture in the twenty-first century must be aware of the fact that our true religion is not that of Christ but of silver and gold.

The Gifts of the Magi

Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, saying, “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him” (Matthew 2:1-2)

There is a sharp contrast between these wise men and the people of Jerusalem. The wise men are not Jews, yet they are seeking the King of the Jews. The people of Jerusalem did not seem at all interested in seeking and finding out the meaning of these things. The Jews had special revelation about the birth of their King in David’s City (See Micah 5.2). Yet, they were not as interested in finding out if the prophecy had been fulfilled as these foreigners were who had been willing to travel great distance. The wise men did not have special revelation in Scripture and were only guided by a star.

This shows that God has revealed certain things to all people, not just to the Jews or those who have the Scriptures. The wise men had what we call natural revelation. The Jews had special revelation – the inspired Scriptures. However, the Jews were not responding to this special revelation while the wise men were responding to what God had revealed to them.

The wise men are also called magi which are also mentioned in the book of Daniel. These were pagan men who were experts in spiritual mysteries and specialized in astrology. This was the ancient belief that the stars and planets controlled events on the earth. God does not approve of astrology, yet He spoke to these men using something that they understood. And when the wise men saw this sign, they paid careful attention to its meaning and significance. Unfortunately, not everyone is so spiritually sensitive, even though we have much more from God today than a star.

The wise men represent the inclusion of the Gentiles in God’s plan. We are not certain about the national origin of these wise men. Most scholars believe they came from Persia or the region that was once ancient Babylon. There were hints in the Prophets that God would eventually include the Gentiles in His Kingdom and that the nations would come to Jerusalem (See Isa. 11.10; 49.6; Micah 4.2). These wise men serve as a kind of foreshadowing of the first Gentile believers. The Jews had a difficult time believing that God would accept Gentiles. Even the first Jewish Christians took some time before fully accepting the Gentiles and this was a point of great controversy in the early Church. This may have been why the Jewish religious leaders did not show any interest in checking on this baby born in Bethlehem. What do these Gentiles know about such things?

But God is no respecter of persons. God accepts anyone from any nation who seeks Him with a true heart. This in no way minimizes the importance of the Jewish people in God’s plan. However, many of the Jews rejected what God was doing in their midst. It is clear that God accepts those who believe and not just those who are of the family of Abraham. Even Gentiles can be children of Abraham if they manifest Abraham’s faith. These wise men, though they did not have a complete knowledge of these things, are examples of what faith does. All the wise men knew was that the King had been born in Israel.

Jesus was born to be the King and is therefore a threat to all opposing Kingdoms. It was commonly believed in ancient times that the birth of a powerful ruler was accompanied by signs in the heavens. This is why the wise men were quick to recognize this star, which was probably a special sign prepared by God for them to see and follow.

The wise men were right in their assertion that the King of the Jews had been born. They did not know that he had been born in Bethlehem and they first went to Jerusalem. The rulers in Jerusalem, both the religious and the secular, were surprised and somewhat disturbed by the birth of a king, should it prove to be true.

Herod the Great was ruling in Jerusalem and he was a usurper who had no rightful claim to rule. Herod was a paranoid maniac who would do anything to keep a rival from the throne. Herod was only interested in keeping his own kingdom and would have nothing to do with the Kingdom of God. Even the religious leaders of Israel, though they knew Micah’s prophecy that Bethlehem would be the place of the Messiah’s birth, showed no interest in these things spoken by the wise men. We know that the religious leaders were later jealous of Jesus and sought to kill Him to protect their own position of authority.

These reactions to Jesus are no different from how people respond to Him today. Most people would rather rule their own lives than submit to the authority of Jesus.

The wise men left the capital city of Jerusalem and were guided by the star to the little town of Bethlehem. This shows us that we come to Christ only through Divine revelation. There are some things that we can know only because they are revealed from heaven. The world by its wisdom cannot know God.

I suppose the wise men could have refused to follow this star, not believing that it meant anything significant. In the same way we can refuse to believe God’s revelation. No one would have known who Jesus was unless God had revealed it. God had sent an angel to both Mary and Joseph to reveal the birth of Christ. Angels also made a special announcement to some shepherds to come and see the Christ. And then these wise men came from a distant country, guided by a Divine revelation.

Later there were two older saints, Simeon and Anna, who recognized who the baby Jesus was when Mary and Joseph brought him to the Temple. Both of these saints were also given a special revelation from God. Only a few people were given these direct revelations of Christ when He was born. But now the whole world has been given this revelation about Christ and it is left to every man and woman to respond.

The only proper response to Christ is to worship Him. The wise men came to worship Christ. They recognized that He was a king and so they worshiped him as a king deserves. They presented Him with precious and costly gifts fit for a king.

Most people in western culture fail to understand what it means to worship a king. In the ancient world people would literally bow with their faces to the ground before a king to show humility and obedience. The original word that is translated in the New Testament as “worship” literally means “to kiss toward” and refers to this act of bowing and kissing the ground at the feet of a king.

Not only is this act something foreign to the experience of most modern people, it also seems inappropriate and even objectionable. Most modern people believe that they are free from having to blindly obey a ruler with absolute authority. This kind of authority is something we have mostly worked to eradicate and establish a democratic form of government. In other words, most modern people want to be free from authority. This freedom is one of the great values of Western society.

Yet the Scriptures call Jesus “Lord” without any apology or qualification. Coming to God means acknowledging the one whom He has appointed to rule and reign over this world and all the people in it. Eventually every knee will have to bow and every tongue will have to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord! To make this confession now leads to our salvation.

The Virgin Birth

“Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet:

“Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,

and they shall call his name Immanuel”

(which means, God with us). (Matthew 1:20-23)

And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?” And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God (Luke 1:34-35).

The virgin birth was something that came under attack from skeptics during the modern era. Those who have sought to reinterpret the Bible and the Christian faith according to modern presuppositions must do away with the virgin birth, just as they also do away with the resurrection of Christ and every other miraculous narrative in Scripture. It is not that the Bible is ambiguous about these things. But modernism refused to accept any supernatural explanations for events and this presupposition made the reinterpretation of the text of Scripture necessary.

The most popular explanation was that the story of the virgin birth came from pagan sources about mythological heroes who were virgin-born. So many modernists simply accepted that the Bible also reflected an ancient and superstitious mythology that had nothing to do with actual, historical events.

But the Gospel accounts do not read like a mythology. In fact, most scholars today would tell us that the Gospels do not read like any other ancient documents but have their own unique form. These same modernists who reject the account of the virgin birth and other miracles recorded in the Gospels want to keep the so-called ethical teaching of Jesus. And so these unbelievers tell us more about themselves and their agenda than about how to properly interpret Scripture.

The Scriptures tell us that Jesus was born of the virgin Mary and true believers throughout the ages have accepted this event as a crucial part of the Gospel.

We would expect the Son of God to be born in a special way. No other major religious figure in history was born like Jesus. God is clearly setting His Son apart from all other men. Jesus is absolutely unique. The way of salvation that Jesus brought is also unique and cannot be compared to any other philosophy or religion.

Christians are under no obligation to criticize other religions. The thing that has to be seen is the uniqueness of Christ. Even His birth points to who He really is. Jesus was not Joseph’s son, He is God’s Son. By saying that Jesus is the Son of God, the Scriptures are showing us His unique identity and relationship with God. Jesus has a relationship with God that no one else can rightfully claim.

To the ancient Jewish mind this kind of claim would amount to blasphemy against God. The Son would share the nature of the Father and be equal with God. This very claim of equality with God is made by other Gospel writers and by the Apostles in the rest of the New Testament Scripture.

Today we have perhaps heard Jesus called the Son of God so many times that it has lost its original power. If Jesus is the Son of God then that means God Himself has come down to us in human flesh (See John 1.1-18)!

The virgin birth was the fulfillment of a prophecy. Matthew connects the angelic announcement of the virgin birth to Isaiah’s prophecy (See Isaiah 7.14). We might even go further back to the prophecy that the seed of the woman would bruise the serpent’s head (See Gen. 3.15). The virgin birth shows us that Jesus was indeed the “seed of the woman” having been conceived without the help of a mortal man and his seed. In this way the identity of the Christ is made known without any ambiguity. If you want to know who the Savior is, you just have to look for the man who was born of a virgin. That narrows the field of possible candidates very quickly!

The early believers who were eyewitnesses of these things came to believe that Jesus was the Christ promised by the prophets. They began to see that everything in the Scriptures, which for them would have been what we now call the Old Testament, was really pointing to the coming of the Christ. The Gospel writers are quick to point out that Jesus is the fulfillment of the prophetic Scriptures and is the hope of Israel.

Today we can look back and see how God has made good on all of His promises, going all the way back to Abraham (See Gen. 12.3). These things help us to put our faith in God and His written word.

The source of our salvation is God alone. Obviously God had to be involved in a virgin birth, which is something not possible in nature. There must be no ambiguity when it comes to the source of our salvation. God Himself would provide for the salvation of the human race. If we could have provided our own salvation then there would have been no need for the Son of God to come into the world and no need for something like a virgin birth.

Though it was absolutely necessary for God Himself to provide this way of salvation, it is also equally important to see that this way of salvation had to be made by a human being. An angel could not save us. The bloody sacrifices of animals could not take away our sins. But there was no man who was able to save men. Every man is himself subject to weakness and sin. The only way to solve this problem is for God Himself to become a man. Jesus is the union of God and humanity and this may be the most important lesson to learn from the virgin birth.

Before He was placed in the womb of the virgin, Mary, the Son of God was the eternal Word of God who was equal with God (See John 1.1). The virgin birth was a thing of great humility for the Son of God (See Phil. 2.5-11). The humility of becoming human was something God the Son was willing to do for our salvation.

Nothing is impossible with God. This is one of the great lessons taught throughout the pages of holy Scripture. When the angel appeared to Mary, she wanted to know how she would conceive, being a virgin. This account makes it very clear that Mary herself understood that she would conceive without being intimate with a man. The angel said that the Spirit of God would work this miracle. Even Mary’s cousin Elizabeth, who was old and was barren her whole life, was enabled to conceive and would give birth to John the Baptist. And the angel reminded Mary that “nothing is impossible with God.”

These words were said many years before by an angel to Abraham and Sarah regarding the promise that Sarah would also bear a son in her old age. And so Sarah conceived and gave birth to Isaac, the child of promise, in her old age when the natural age for bearing children had passed. But nothing is impossible with God. God can make an old, barren woman conceive. And God can cause a virgin to conceive. Those who disbelieve the virgin birth are really disbelieving God Himself. With God in the picture a virgin birth is possible and so is the salvation of fallen sinners.

The Incarnation of the Son of God

“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14)

John does not cover the historical events of the birth of Christ but gives the theological perspective behind His coming into the world. The Gospel writers each have their own purpose and perspective. Matthew records the birth of Christ to show that all of those events were in fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies. Luke seems to emphasize the humility of Christ and that the humble circumstances of His birth serve to undermine the world’s power structures.

The differing perspectives of the Gospel writers combine to give us a well-rounded understanding of Jesus and why He came into the world. John’s Gospel is unique in its perspective sometimes being called the spiritual Gospel. John is especially interested in showing us who Jesus really is and why He is absolutely unique.

So John does not begin with Jesus’ birth but goes back even further, to the beginning of the world. The prologue of John’s Gospel reminds us of the very beginning of the Bible and the words of Genesis in the creation account. John wants us to see the connection of Jesus to the God who created everything in the beginning. Jesus is the Word (logos) of God, who is Himself divine, and was there in the beginning alongside the One who created everything else. The relationship of Jesus to God the Father is crucial.

It is impossible to understand what John is saying without some understanding of the doctrine of the Trinity. This particular doctrine of the Christian Faith is troublesome to many people. Many Christians themselves do not understand the doctrine. Many of the enemies of the Faith have rejected the doctrine of the Trinity while also failing to understand it, perhaps intentionally. Modern Jews as well as Muslims charge Christians with idolatry for worshiping more than one God.

Christians believe that there is only one God, but this God is actually three persons. These Divine persons are the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. All of these Divine personalities share the same nature or character and are in total harmony and unity.

When John speaks of the Word, who was God and was with God, there is clearly a distinction being made between two separate personalities who are both Divine and can be properly called “God.” John is showing us that the man we call Jesus is actually a Divine person – a member of the triune Godhead – who put on human flesh and came into the world. The Word was not a lesser Deity or a demigod but was actually equal with God. Jesus was not created by God but was God through whom all other things were created.

God the Word came in human flesh to make God known to the world.

The reason for the incarnation is so that God and His salvation could be revealed. We have to take the time to try to explain the doctrine of the Trinity, yet John’s purpose is to show us why God the Word had to be made flesh.

The purpose was for revelation. This revelation would be of God Himself – God’s glory being seen in Jesus Christ. The revelation of God would be personal and not just an abstract idea or philosophy. To make Himself known to the world, God Himself came into the world.

This was not the first time God’s glory had been seen by people in the world. God had revealed some of His glory when He gave the Law to Israel through Moses. There was a revelation of glory at Sinai, but no incarnation. And so the glory of God in Christ would be a greater glory and a greater revelation of God than what was revealed through the Law of Moses. Not only was the revelation of Christ greater than the revelation of the Law of Moses, but the content of that revelation was also fundamentally different. The revelation of the Law had mostly to do with God’s holiness and the subsequent alienation this created between God and man because of sin. The Law separated God and man.

But in Jesus this alienation is overcome and God and man are brought together. Furthermore, the revelation of God in Christ was not a message of sin, alienation and wrath, but a message of grace being offered to man. The great gulf between God and man had been successfully bridged in Jesus Christ!

The incarnation underscores the uniqueness of Christ and His revelation to the world. There is no one else like Jesus! He is the one and only Son who came from the bosom of the Father. There is no one else who has this close, intimate relationship to God.

Yet the Son of God came to bring us the intimate knowledge of God, which is the very essence of eternal life (See John 17.3).

Again we must see the comparison between the revelation of Christ and the revelation given to Moses. Until Christ came into the world, the Law of Moses, revealed and spoken by God at Mount Sinai, was the greatest revelation of God. Yet here was an even greater revelation of God – not another Law but God Himself in human form!

There have been many great moral and religious teachers in history. Yet none of them were believed to be God in human flesh. Yet this is exactly what John is claiming about Jesus. This is such an astounding claim because most religious people, especially the Jews, would consider such a claim to be blasphemy against God. Unless, of course, it was true! It would be blasphemy for any human being to claim to be God and also blasphemy for any human being to worship another human being as if he were God. But what if there was a human being who was actually God in the flesh? This is John’s claim about Jesus.

We can accept or reject this claim, but it is impossible not to understand that this is what John is saying about Jesus. Jesus is not just another moral teacher.  The human race already had been given a moral teacher in Moses. Jesus is God in human flesh.

God becoming flesh is the central event of history and of God’s purpose. It is amazing to think about the fact that the Creator became a part of creation. This may have been the main reason for the creation of the world in the first place – so that God could make Himself known in this way.

Almost every religion thinks of God as distant and detached. The Gospel says that God came near in Jesus Christ. He was not with us in a spiritual sense, but as a real, physical, historical person. Jesus really had a body! He was a real person and could eat, sleep, feel pain, and even suffer death. Here is a God who not only came near to us, but became one of us so as to experience everything humanity has experienced. He shares our humanity and has even experienced our suffering and death.

The ultimate purpose of incarnation was so that He could qualify to be our Savior and become the atoning sacrifice for our sins. God’s purpose was to reconcile the world through Christ. The only way for an alienated race to be reconciled was through a member of that race.

The race had fallen through Adam and would be redeemed through the Second Adam who is Jesus Christ.

Christ’s Humility

“And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn” (Luke 2:7).

“Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by 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 2:5-8).

The account of Christ’s birth is not meant to make us sentimental. Instead we are meant to marvel at the purpose of God and how He works everything together to serve His plan. We know that God is sovereign and was guiding all of the events, even the smallest details, surrounding the birth of His Son in Bethlehem. It had to be in Bethlehem, King David’s city, in order to fulfill a prophecy (See Micah 5.2). The journey of Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem, their inability to find a regular room at the inn in Bethlehem, and the exact timing of Christ’s birth, is more than a romantic drama. These events did not just happen but were set in motion and orchestrated by the God of Heaven. God does everything for a reason. And what God does is almost always in opposition to the thoughts and desires of man.

Jesus was born to be the King and to establish a Kingdom. But Jesus was not born like any of the kings of men. Born during a time when the powerful Roman Caesars ruled the civilized world, Caesar Augustus declaring himself to be the savior of the world, Jesus, the real ruler and savior of mankind, stands in sharp contrast to Caesar’s arrogant self-promotion.

The way Christ came into the world is meant to show us something about the nature of salvation. Mankind usually looks for salvation in the wrong places. Most of the people in the ancient world were looking to Rome to provide and maintain the famous Pax Romana, or Peace of Rome, that had united the civilized world at the time of Christ’s birth.

But no one, not even the Jews, paid any attention to the birth of a child to a peasant girl from an insignificant town. Neither Nazareth nor Bethlehem was to be compared to the city of Jerusalem, not to mention the glory of Rome. But Jesus was not born in Rome or even in Jerusalem.

The house and lineage of David had been relegated to relative obscurity. And Israel was a conquered and subjugated people and had been so for many years. Though they were known for their unique religion and laws, the Jews were not considered to be major players on the world’s stage. There was nothing from an earthly or human perspective that would prove or even suggest that Jesus was the Savior and Ruler of the world. And this is exactly how God planned the birth of Christ.

Salvation would come from God and not from Caesar.

The birth of Christ happened as it did to show that our salvation required the humility of the Son of God. Luke’s account of Christ’s birth shows us how humble He was. He was born in obscurity to poor parents who could not even find room in an inn. Mary had to make do with what she had, and so the Savior’s first bed was a feeding trough used for cattle! Lowly shepherds were the only people who got the birth announcement from heaven. The only gifts for the infant Jesus were brought later by some foreigners – Gentiles who followed a star. God did all of this for the purpose of showing the humility of His Son.

Perhaps no one saw it at that time, though Mary pondered it all in her heart. But later it was the Apostle Paul who captured the meaning behind Christ’s humble birth. The Savior had to humble Himself to save us – a fact made all the more amazing because He had been equal with God. But He let it all go, Paul tells us, emptying Himself of His former glory. The Apostle John also hints at Christ’s humility in His Gospel:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God (John 1:1-2).

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth (John 1:14).

The Son of God is not some lesser, inferior deity or demigod. The Son of God is the Word of God, eternally existing alongside God the Father. This makes His humility and incarnation an infinitely greater condescension that is unparalleled by anything in this world. The Son and eternal Word of God was born a helpless baby to a poor peasant girl and placed in a manger! This humility is what we call incarnation – God becoming one of us so that He could save us.

But Christ’s humble birth was just a prelude to His humiliating death. If Christ’s birth was not humble enough, Jesus would soon descend to an even lower level!

Christ’s birth is not what saved us. We often forget this when celebrating Christmas today. The baby Jesus laying in a manger could not save us simply by being here with us, even though He was “Emmanuel” – which means “God with us.” No, something else had to happen before Jesus could actually save us from our sins.

The angel told Joseph to name Him “Jesus” which is actually the Hebrew name “Joshua” and means “the Lord saves.” He was to have this name because He would save His people from their sins (See Matthew 1.21).

But when would He do this? It was not when He was born in Bethlehem, though this had to happen first. He had to be one of us in order to save us because He was going to become the atoning sacrifice for our sins.

He had already humbled Himself by becoming one of us. Now His humility would include dying a sacrificial death on the cross – substituting Himself for guilty sinners.

There has perhaps never been a more humiliating form of torturous death as crucifixion and this was the form of humiliating death chosen for the Son of God. A body was prepared for Him so that He could bear our sins in His body on the tree, hanging there exposed as one cursed of God. The blood running in His veins flowed down as He hung there because without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.

He did not die as a hero on the field of battle. He died as a criminal. Not only was there the wracking pain in His body, there was also the darkness in His own soul as He became sin for us and was subsequently forsaken by God the Father. There has never been greater humility than the death of the cross.

So now Christ’s humility judges all of our pride and self-exaltation. How can we be proud at the manger, not to mention at the foot of the cross? If He let go of heavenly glory, and equality with God, then what is there in ourselves that we cannot forsake and abandon? How can we exalt ourselves when He humbled Himself?

So we must come to God as He came to us – in humility. He had to come down because we could not get up to Him. And so every sinner who comes to God in Christ must come humbly confessing that he cannot save Himself. We do not meet God halfway. He came the entire way from heaven to earth because we could do nothing for ourselves.

Christ’s humble birth and even more humiliating death pours contempt on all our pride. If we could save ourselves then why did Jesus have to come down? If the power of Caesar and the glory of Rome could have been our salvation, then there would have been no need for a Bethlehem and certainly no need for a Calvary.

But Bethlehem and Calvary, with all of the dusty miles in-between, show us that our salvation had to come from God. And since we could not get to God, He came down for us.

A Form of Godliness that Denies the Power

2 Timothy 3:5

There was a time when the intelligentsia of Western culture predicted the end of the Church and all religion, having a vision of a utopia that was a completely secular society. Perhaps the most famous prediction was given by the French atheist Voltaire, who said in the year 1776 that within a century the Bible would just be another ancient relic. Voltaire’s prediction has not come true and the Bible is still the world’s bestseller. However, the spirit of Voltaire and other secularists like him have continued to influence the minds of people in Western societies. And this vision of a secular society is actually becoming a reality.

Even in the last couple of years there are those saying that organized religion, primarily Christian, is going to eventually be extinct in Western societies. The CNN news organization recently reported a study done by a group of mathematicians that predicts the end of organized religion in nine Western societies. The study was done based on the growing numbers of people who are not affiliated with any organized religious group. The fastest growing religious group in Western nations is those who are unaffiliated with any organized religious group. The group of mathematicians was not trying to come out against religion or Christianity, but were simply doing a mathematical and sociological study. The numbers are showing the gradual death of organized religion, especially Christianity, in the West.

What should we draw from these kinds of studies? First, these studies do not necessarily mean that people are becoming atheists. They are turning away from organized religion, but not belief in God. Secondly, people are still interested in spirituality even though they are ambivalent about religion.

But the deeper question is why are people turning away from religion, especially from Christianity? Could it be that religion, including the religion that wears the name of Christ, is viewed by many people in Western societies as a colossal failure? The Christian writer and philosopher G.K. Chesterton once said that “Christianity has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and not tried.” I agree with Chesterton. The trouble is not that Christianity has actually failed, even though that is the popular perception. The trouble is that the thing that has been called Christianity is not the real thing. People are right to abandon something that is false and powerless.

Some would even argue, with good reason, that religion has actually made the world worse. One of the popular arguments against Christianity is the terrible record of those who claim to be Christians. What should we say to those who raise such objections to the Christian faith? We cannot ignore the reality that most of what parades itself as Christianity does not measure up to what we find in the Scriptures.

Fortunately we do not have to be dismayed by this situation. The Scriptures warn us about this very situation and the spiritual condition that we see in the professed Church today. The Apostles of Christ actually predicted in their writings that these things would happen and that these difficult times would come to the world before the Lord Jesus comes again.

Difficult Times

We are truly living in the difficult times predicted by the Apostle Paul when he wrote to Timothy. But I do not think Paul was referring to some future period of time only, but to a general condition which had already begun to seize the Church even in the Apostolic Era. There would be no reason to warn Timothy about a future problem. Paul is warning Timothy about a situation that he would have to be prepared to navigate in his own ministry.

Many people have a romantic and unrealistic perception of the Church in the Apostolic era. The New Testament Church, as it is often called, is viewed as a pristine model of perfection. And there are those who claim to want to restore the New Testament Church while other Churches actually claim to be the only remaining example of the New Testament Church.

But this ignores the fact that many of the epistles were written to correct the Churches. When Jesus addresses the seven Churches in the book of Revelation He has to rebuke five out of the seven. The decline of the Church had already begun, even before the Apostolic era had ended.

Paul knew that this decline was taking place. When he left Ephesus he told the elders of the Church there that “after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things, to draw away the disciples after them” (Acts 20:29-30). The infiltration of the Church by false teachers had already begun. Paul is warning Timothy of this reality, which will be the case throughout the history of the Church.

Peter also warned of the rise of false teachers and heresy in the Church (2 Pet 2.1-3) as did Jude (See Jude v.4).

This situation that Paul describes to Timothy is a sign of the last days. We must understand that by the last days we are speaking of the period of time that began on the Day of Pentecost and will end when the Lord Jesus comes again. This period of time will be a difficult time.

We are not speaking of some future tribulation period, but of the times in which we live. We do not want to be disarmed by some doctrine of a future tribulation. We need to be aware of the times in which we live now. Whatever Paul said applied to Timothy and it will apply to us today and not just to some future period of history. No Word of God is irrelevant for our lives now.

The difficult times are not referring to life in the world but to a spiritual condition or climate that makes things difficult for the people of God. It would be difficult because of a decline in the Church. The decline Paul was speaking about would not be seen primarily in culture but in the Church. Paul was not concerned about politics, society, or culture. Paul is concerned about the Church. And we should be concerned about the Church too.

There are too many Christians who are more concerned about who is in the White House than about the condition of the Church. Since the Church is the “pillar and ground of the truth,” (1 Tim. 3.15) and if the Church is salt and light in the world (Matt. 5.13-16), then when there is a decline in the Church there will also be a corresponding decline in the world because the influence of the truth has been diminished. But the difficult times are not traced back to the condition of the unbelieving world. We expect the world to be corrupt. The difficult times are caused by corruption in the Church.

God’s people should be able to understand the times and know how to respond. It is simply unacceptable for God’s people to be like the ostrich and stick our heads in the sand. We should be awake and alert and able to discern the times.

Jesus actually criticized the leaders of the Jews because they were not able to recognize what was going on in their midst. Jesus said that “when it is evening, you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red.’ And in the morning, ‘It will be stormy today, for the sky is red and threatening.’ You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times” (Matthew 16:2-3). God was working in their midst and they were missing it! At the end of His ministry Jesus wept over Jerusalem, lamenting its impending judgment, because they did not recognize the time of their visitation (See Luke 19.44).

God’s people should be able to perceive what God is doing in our generation and also be able to recognize the spiritual climate in which we live. And we should be especially alert and sensitive to what is going on in the Church today. What is the spiritual climate in the Church? Many Church people do not take the time to assess their own Church, not to mention the rest of the Body of Christ. (Some even teach that we should not criticize the Church at all, even though there is a precedent for this in the Scripture and in Church history.)

I fear there are many people who are too wrapped up in worldly pursuits to be able to recognize the signs of the times and what is really going on around us.

Please understand that I am not speaking of just reading the news every day. You might read the news and not really understand the times. I am talking about a spiritual insight and understanding which enables you to interpret what is going on from a Kingdom-centered perspective. This is a rare gift today.

It was once said of the tribe of Issachar that they had “men who had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do” (1 Chron. 12.32). Notice the connection between understanding the times, and knowing what the people of God ought to do. How can we know what we ought to do unless we are able to correctly interpret the times in which we live?

The Reason for these Difficult Times

It is fairly easy to see that we are living in difficult times. You don’t have to even be a Christian to see this. And people will give you different reasons for why we are living in difficult times. Even in the Christian community I do not think everyone would define the difficulties of these times in the same way. Many Christians simply point to the moral decline that is so evident in our culture. And this is a very serious problem.

But this still does not tell us why the moral decay happened in the first place. There is a deeper problem that many even in the Christian community cannot or will not see. The problem is described by Paul in his letter to Timothy, and it is not a new problem.

According to the Apostle Paul, the greatest problem in these difficult times is that there are those who want an outward show of religiosity without the power of an inward transformation. This is “a form of godliness that denies the power.” This spiritual condition is at the heart of the difficult times in the last days of which Paul speaks in his letter to Timothy. And this very thing is all around us today. It is so common that we might actually miss it because we have become so accustomed to it.

A form of godliness that denies the power is a condition in which people are outwardly religious, even claiming to be Christian, yet inwardly they are unchanged and unaffected by the power of the truth. And so while they profess to be Christians and even do religious things, like go to Church services, it is all empty and vain. (I think this form of godliness that denies the power could also be applied to people who practice false religions and do not even claim to be Christians. But I don’t think that is what Paul had in mind. There is no reason for Paul to warn Timothy about pagan religions. But there is a reason to warn him about those infiltrating the Church, claiming to be Christians, who deny the power of the Faith.)

The people who have a form of godliness that denies the power are not those who have heard and then openly rejected the Gospel but those who at least outwardly have appeared to receive it. That is what produces a situation that is so difficult, and why Paul had to warn Timothy. These are people who are in the Church, claiming to be Christians. They seem to have received the Gospel, but actually this condition is an intentional rejection and refusal of the truth.

In other words, the people who have a form of godliness and deny the power actually rejected the truth even though they profess it.

We are not talking about those who are ignorant and just need more teaching. We are not talking about those who are weak or immature and need to grow. We are not talking about those who might have a misunderstanding of doctrine and just need correction. We may find people in these conditions of ignorance, immaturity, or even with a misunderstanding of the Faith and we cannot label them as having a form of godliness that denies the power.

No, we are not talking about sincere people at all. We are talking about people who are pretentious. They are pretending to be something they are not when they actually have no interest in the real thing.

Those who have a form of godliness that denies the power are hypocrites. This is a word we hear a lot these days even from worldly people who are not professed Christians. The world has been smart enough to figure this out! Professed Christians are often labeled by the world as hypocrites and we have to admit that this is often true.

Hypocrisy is putting on a show. The word used to refer to the actors in a Greek play who wore masks. A hypocrite is an actor, wearing a mask to hide his true identity, while he or she becomes someone else. A hypocrite is a pretender, a liar, and a deceiver.

Jesus called the religious leaders of the Jews hypocrites. He also called them whitewashed tombs filled with dead men’s bones, which I think is an excellent illustration of a form of godliness that denies the power. These are people who appear to be something that they are not. And if we consider Jesus’ words to the religious leaders of his day, we must conclude that there are few sins that make God angrier than hypocrisy.

The really disturbing thing is that this hypocrisy is often used as a cover for sin. Wickedness can be disguised in a religious cloak. The people Paul was describing to Timothy are outwardly religious, yet inwardly they are wicked people. These are people who have not repented of their sins but continue living in sin, while also practicing religion! These are people who think that their form of godliness is a license to continue in their wickedness.

We see this in the fact that professed Christians are often just as immoral, or maybe even more wicked, than those who make no profession of faith. We see it in those who want to be Christian yet openly homosexual. We see it in the terrible scandal in the Catholic Church and all of the predator, child-molesting priests. We see it in all of the greedy, worldly, mega-church pastors and TV preachers getting rich by pretending to be men of God. And we see it in the fact that the rate of sexual immorality, marital unfaithfulness, and divorce are just as common among professing Christians as in the world. All of this is evidence of a form of godliness that denies the power.

A Powerless Religion

Paul is warning Timothy about a spiritual condition or climate in the last days. This spiritual condition is that there will be people who have a form of godliness that denies the power. A form of godliness means that these people will outwardly appear to be religious, even wearing the name of Christ. Yet, they will deny the power of the truth. That is, they will actually reject the truth, yet still be professing to believe it. But what is this power that they will deny? I believe this is referring to the inward power of the truth of Christ that transforms the hearts and the lives of those who truly believe and receive it. To reject or deny this power means those who have a form of godliness must reject the source of this transforming power.

First, they reject the power of the Gospel. Those who have a form of godliness that denies the power have rejected the Gospel, which is the power of God unto salvation (Rom. 1.16). If the Gospel is rejected then there can be no Divine power at work because God only works through the Gospel. The Gospel must be preached and believed for the power of God to be at work.

We know that it is possible to accept a different Gospel (Gal. 1.6-7). This happened even in the churches Paul himself had started so we know it can happen today. And it has happened today. There have been entire denominations that have completely rejected the Gospel.

There are those, for example, who have questioned the doctrine of sacrificial atonement and called that concept a pagan idea. So they have said that God really does not have wrath against sin and that Christ did not die to bear the penalty for our sin. That position is a complete and total rejection of the Gospel.

There are those who have embraced the belief in universalism – that everyone will be saved even if they have no personal faith in Christ and even if they reject Christ and follow another religion. This is a complete rejection of the Gospel which commands all people who hear the message to repent and trust in Christ alone for salvation.

And there are many who have not rejected any part of the Gospel but have simply added to it. This was the trouble Paul addresses in the letter to the Galatians. There were teachers there who came preaching that they had to be circumcised and keep the Law of Moses to be saved. These Jewish teachers probably did not teach anything that was against Christ. They simply said that faith in Christ was not sufficient and that there is something else you must do. This is the error of legalism! Legalism does not take away from the Gospel it adds requirements to the Gospel, which makes the power of the Gospel void.

I would also say a word about those who have accepted a social Gospel. The social Gospel is still with us today, though it may come wrapped in a new package. The social Gospel says that Jesus came to help the poor and to bring social change, justice, and equality. Sin is redefined as social inequality and salvation is a just society where everyone has enough to eat. This is a different Gospel that denies the power of the true Gospel! Jesus Himself refused to become an earthly king who fulfilled the people’s earthly appetites with earthly bread (See John 6).

But you don’t have to accept these false Gospels to deny the power of the real Gospel. You can also simply ignore the Gospel, remain ignorant of what the Gospel is, emphasize something else besides the Gospel, and you will have denied the power of the Gospel. If the institutional Church is powerless today it is because it has rejected or neglected the power of the Gospel!

Secondly, those who deny the power also reject the power of the Holy Spirit. Just as the body without the soul is dead, Christianity without the power of the Holy Spirit is nothing but a form of godliness that denies the power.

Jesus told His disciples to wait for the power of the Spirit before they went out preaching the Gospel (Acts 1.8). The life and witness of the Church are empowered by the presence of the Spirit. Without the Spirit there is no Church. If the institutional Church is powerless in its witness it is because it has rejected the Holy Spirit.

All of the confusion and controversy about the work of the Spirit in the institutional Church today may be evidence that the Spirit Himself has been rejected and is absent. We have Churches who almost seem to have never even heard of the Holy Spirit and act as if they are afraid of Him. And then we have Churches who think the Holy Spirit makes you fall down senseless on the floor and speak in a meaningless, unintelligible babble.

What are the true work and power of the Spirit? Jesus said that the Spirit causes us to be born again (John 3.3-5). Without this spiritual rebirth we cannot see or enter the Kingdom of God. A form of godliness that denies the power of the Spirit is a religion without the New Birth. This means that the people have the dry, lifeless husk of religion and are going through the motions of ceremony and ritual without being born again. No amount of religious observance can replace being born of the Spirit. Paul is warning us in our text that a time will come when what is called the Church will be full of people who have never been born again.

The Spirit also gives us the power to overcome sin. It is by the Spirit that we mortify the sinful deeds of the body (Rom. 8.13). Those who have a form of godliness that denies the power have rejected the power to subdue sin. Are we then surprised by the worldliness, carnality, and lack of holiness in the institutional Church? The power to live a godly and holy life has been rejected.

Even worldly people know that a person who claims to be a Christian yet is still dominated by sin is a contradiction. Yet the Church has come up with all kinds of ways to excuse this condition and mitigate the embarrassing effects of Church members who are powerless against temptation.

The modern Church has built a theology that allows people to continue being dominated by sin, yet still be saved. This is a doctrine of salvation that teaches justification but not sanctification. That is because the power to be sanctified, the Holy Spirit, has been denied and rejected.

What kind of salvation would leave us powerless against the very thing we are being saved from? God cannot accept people who are in the Flesh (Rom. 8.8). But the institutional Church today is filled with those who have a form of godliness yet deny the power of the Spirit of God.

Responding to this Powerless Religion

What are we supposed to do when we encounter such people? We are to avoid them. This agrees with what Paul taught elsewhere in his letters. You remember that at the Church in Corinth there was a man who had his father’s wife. That is, he was having an affair with his stepmother. Paul’s instructions to the Church were to remove this man from the fellowship (See 1 Cor. 5.1-13). Furthermore, Paul instructed the believers to avoid anyone who claimed to a believer, yet was an immoral person. Avoid those who profess the name of Christ yet live ungodly lives in opposition to that profession. These are people who have a form of godliness that denies the power.

We should be able to recognize the people who have a form of godliness that denies the power. Sometimes this is rather easy to do. A person who is a professing Christian, yet lives in an unrepentant and consistently immoral lifestyle, is to be avoided. A person who is a Christian may sin, but then repent. They are not to be avoided if they repent but are to be restored to fellowship. But a person who is deep-diving enthusiastically into sin is to be avoided as one having a form of godliness that denies the power.

Remember that we can only judge what we see. There are sins of the flesh, which are usually very easily seen. And there is a sin of the spirit, which is much harder to see. These sins of the spirit may actually be more serious than the sins of the flesh! We do not want to be judgmental and engage in witch-hunts, trying to uncover every fault and flaw in people. But a tree is known by its fruit.

One of the problems with the modern Church is the fact that many Church attenders remain anonymous. People can attend Church services and yet remain unconnected and unaccountable. In the traditional Church it is hard to know what is really going on in people’s lives. And many Church members prefer it that way! People think they can come to Church and then leave and live however they want to live.

But what if a person is not openly and defiantly immoral? How can we recognize a form of godliness that denies the power if there are not obvious sins of the flesh that we can see? In our text Paul gives several characteristics of people in this state.

First, they love self, money and pleasure rather than God and what is good (2 Tim 2.2-4). These kinds of people may not appear to be immoral. But their preferences are for something other than God and His Kingdom. And if given enough time, these preferences will be made manifest. Those who love the world cannot love God (1 John 2.15-17; James 4.4).

Secondly, these may be educated and intellectually sophisticated people. Paul says they are always learning, yet never able to come to a knowledge of the truth (2 Tim. 2.7). That is, they have knowledge but not the knowledge of God. Worldly wisdom is actually opposed to God, who reveals Himself in the foolishness of the Gospel (See 1 Cor. 1.21). Those who have a form of godliness that denies the power will often be steeped in the wisdom of the world. So we should never be overly impressed just by someone’s education, knowledge, oratory, or intelligence – none of these things are indications of godliness.

Thirdly, they oppose the truth of God and the true people of God (2 Tim 2.8). Those who have a form of godliness that denies the power can be recognized by how they oppose those who have the real thing! The greatest opponents of the people of God have always been religious people. So the best way to expose those who have a form of godliness that denies the power is for the true people of God to boldly speak the truth of the Word of God! That is what Paul had told Timothy to do so that it will then be obvious who has a form of godliness that denies the power and who has the real thing. (We should make sure that we are really speaking the truth in love and that we are not simply offending people by being unclear or unkind.)

We are equipped by the Word of God to be able to understand the times and know what to do. We are not helpless and the situation is not hopeless. Paul is writing to Timothy so he will understand the times and know what to do. Paul’s instructions put the Word of God at the center of young Timothy’s life and ministry. The Scripture is the key to the people of God being able to respond to these difficult times:

“Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15).

“All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16-17)

“I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching” (2 Timothy 4:1-2).

If we know the Word of God and how to use it we will be able to respond appropriately to these difficult times. We cannot afford to be ignorant of the Word of God today! If we handle the Scriptures correctly then we will be preaching Christ, which is perhaps the greatest need in our difficult times.

Summary and Conclusion

The trouble with all false and empty religion, including that which wears the name of Christ, is that it does not have the power to change the hearts of the people. All religious institutions, traditions, and observances that do not receive the Gospel of Christ and the work of the Holy Spirit are nothing but forms of godliness that deny the power. Only the power of the Gospel and the work of the indwelling Spirit can transform the hearts of people. Unfortunately, an outward form of godliness that denies the power of an inward transformation is common in our time and it is to be avoided at all costs. That this spiritual condition exists in the Church is a sign of the last days and points to the imminent return of Christ.

It is unfortunate that the celebration of Christmas, the first advent of Christ, has actually become in our culture a form of godliness that denies the power. What I mean is that many people enjoy having a baby Jesus around – a Jesus lying helpless in a manger is not much of a threat to our plans. The Nativity Scene gives us a warm and sentimental feeling at Christmas. But a Jesus who is the exalted King of glory is disruptive to our little kingdoms! And so, there are many people who enjoy the Nativity of the infant Jesus will also deny what He was sent into the world to do and to be. But one of our favorite Christmas songs tells us the truth:

“Joy to the World , the Lord is come!
Let earth receive her King;
Let every heart prepare Him room . . .”

Let us never settle for an empty form of godliness that denies the power of Christ to reign in our hearts and over our lives as the King He was born to be!

Love Not the World

“Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever” (1 John 2:15-17).

As long as we are still in the world we can be tempted by it. This warning to not love the world is in the Scriptures to keep us alert. We dare not become overconfident and think that we are immune to the seduction of the world. The world is an arena of spiritual conflict where the children of God are opposed by many enemies. The world is one of these enemies, along with the Devil and our own sinful flesh that we still carry with us in the body. As long as we are in the body and in the world we have to be prepared for a struggle. The child of God must be suited up in the full armor of God (See Eph. 6.13-17). The world can tempt us in many different ways. Some of these temptations are subtle and may not appear at first to be a great danger. Sin often starts with a single, seemingly insignificant compromise. And the Devil has a way of disguising himself and his true intentions. Temptation always has an element of deception. Nobody would sin if they were not somehow deceived. The simple command to not love the world is designed to cut through any spiritual and moral fog in our minds.

The command to not love the world is backed by powerful incentives. The Word of God does not just give us commands that are to be obeyed without any explanation. God has a right to give us commands and He does not have to explain Himself. We are to obey without question even if we don’t fully understand the reasons. But God wants us to be mature and to be able to see the reasons for His commands. God always has our best interests in mind and He desires our ultimate good and blessing. The first incentive not to love the world is that we cannot love God if we also love the world. The world and God are opposed to each other and this makes it impossible for us to love both. We cannot serve two masters. Love for the world squeezes out love for God. Secondly, we should not love the world because the world is passing away. Why would we invest in a company that was going under? Why would we book passage on a sinking ship? Those who love the world will ultimately be in despair because they will lose all of the things they love. It is better to love and invest in what is eternal and cannot be taken from us. The final incentive not to love the world is so that we can live forever. Those who love the world will pass away with the world. Those who love God, and therefore obediently do His will, will inherit eternal life in the World to Come.

The world is all that is opposed to God. We are not speaking of the natural world or the created order. There is another world in view here. This is the world of sinful man in rebellion against God. Satan is the god of this world and he animates the world with the spirit of his cosmic rebellion against God. The world is actually opposed to God. This rebellious attitude of the world is expressed in the words of the second Psalm:

“Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD and against his Anointed, saying, “Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us” (Psalm 2:1-3).

The pagan nations of the world are raging against God and seeking to throw off the authority of God and the King that God has enthroned, which is Jesus. The child of God lives in a world that is hostile to God. This is why the world is also opposed to the people of God and persecutes them. Jesus warned His disciples that the world would not love them:

“If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you” (John 15:18-19).

To love the world is to be an enemy of God (James 4.4). Those who claim to be believers yet love the world are liars. Those who were once believers who have fallen in love with the world again have committed spiritual adultery.

Loving the world is defined as inordinate desires that ultimately lead to pride. There are two kinds of desires or lusts: 1. The desires or lusts of the flesh. This is a desire for physical pleasure. It is a desire for the things of the world that make us comfortable and make us feel good. It includes but is not limited to sexual pleasures. 2. The desires or lusts of the eyes. These are aesthetic pleasures – the things of the world that we like to look at. These are the things that sparkle and shine. So John is covering all kinds of desires: the baser and less dignified lusts as well as the more cultured kind of sins. These desires are for the things of the world that give us pleasure of some sort. These are the things that people want and spend their energies trying to obtain. Some people obtain more things of the world than others, but it is the inordinate affection for these things that is wrong and not just owning the possessions. A person may be poor and yet still full of lust for what he does not possess. What John is describing is really the sin of greed or materialism. This is a form of idolatry that dominates the world. When we obtain some of the things we lust for then we have the pride of life. We feel a sense of satisfaction and security in our things instead of basing our hope on the living God.

Our affection for the world can only be expelled by a stronger and higher affection. It is impossible to get a person to stop loving the world simply with a commandment. A person who does not know God and does not believe the Gospel really has nothing else to love except for the things of this world and it is not reasonable to expect him to do anything else. If we are to stop loving the world and convince others to do the same, we must replace that affection for the things of the world with another, more powerful affection. The only affection that can displace a love for the world is the love of God. When we love God, we will lose our affection for the world. But how do we come to love God? We cannot love God simply because we are commanded to do so. We come to love God when we understand His great love for us, which is demonstrated in the sacrifice of Christ for our sins. Only the Gospel has the power to change our hearts and cause us to love God. If you find that your heart is still in love with the things of this world then you need to have a better understanding of the Gospel of Christ. And when you see Christ you will love Him, even if that means losing the whole world!

Judging

“Judge not, that you be not judged.” (Matthew 7:1)

This verse is often quoted by people today, usually when there is some kind of moral issue or dilemma that is being discussed. It is a good way to not take a stand on a controversial issue and thus avoid criticism while also winning points for being patient and tolerant. Tolerance has become the highest good in our culture. The only thing that we will not tolerate is intolerance! Being judgmental is the opposite of being tolerant. Tolerance is almost always associated with love while being judgmental is associated with hatred and bigotry. It is assumed that at the root of all racism, sexism, homophobia and violence is the intolerance that comes from hatefully judging others. We of course must acknowledge that people do hate each other and that this hatred does often erupt in violence. Obviously there is a kind of judgment that is destructive and evil which is not tolerated by the Lord and therefore should not be tolerated by men. It is always wise to define our terms and know what we are talking about. And when we look more closely at what it means to judge something or someone, and why Jesus forbade a certain kind of judging of others, we are going to be in for a bit of a surprise.

The ability to make judgments is indispensable in life. The fact is that we make judgments on a daily basis. We must do this in order to survive and to make wise decisions. Whatever we might say about the evils of judging others, there are people out there that we would immediately judge and intentionally avoid. If someone appeared to be threatening and potentially harmful we would judge that person unsafe and avoid them at all costs. We spend a lot of time judging others to make sure that they are safe and trustworthy. Of course, our judgments can be wrong. We might mistakenly think that a person is harmful who might be quite friendly. We make these mistakes because we often make quick judgments that are based on feelings and perceptions rather than on facts. To make a true and right judgment we must have the facts. Even if we have the facts, we must be able to correctly interpret these facts. Some facts may be missing so that we do not have a full and clear picture of the truth. Before we make a judgment we should at least be willing to get as many facts as we can and not judge something or someone prematurely. That being said, we can never dispense with the need to make judgments about many things, particularly other people.

We can only judge what we can see. We cannot judge the heart or the motives. And we cannot see the end to be able to make the final judgment. If having the facts is necessary to making the right judgement, it should be obvious to us that when we judge others we are really judging what we hear and see. We judge actions and words. Of course, we may still misunderstand or misinterpret what someone does or says. We might hear someone say something and we judge it to be offensive, when the person actually had no malice toward us at all. On the other hand we can be deceived by soft and flattering words from someone who is actually plotting our demise! Therefore, we must not be hasty in our judgments of others. We need to wait until we see all the evidence before drawing conclusions. We should allow people to be innocent until proven guilty by their deeds. Of course, a person might change. This is why we can never make the final judgment of a person’s eternal destiny. As long as they are alive there is the possibility of change. Only God knows the end. Nothing is completely nailed down, at least from this side of eternity.

There are people who cannot and should not make judgments of others. And now we are coming closer to what the Lord Jesus meant in the Sermon on the Mount when He forbade us to judge others. The ones enthusiastically quoting the verses about not judging others usually have no idea about the context of these words. As someone has said, “a text without a context is just a pretext.” That is, we can make the Bible mean almost anything we want if we are not interested in what the author or speaker was actually intending. In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus also said: “Do not give dogs what is holy, and do not throw your pearls before pigs, lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you” (Matthew 7:6). This verse almost immediately follows the command not to judge. But this raises an important question: if we are not to judge others then how are we to tell who are the dogs and pigs? Jesus is not literally speaking of animals here, but of certain kinds of people. It sounds like a judgment to come to the conclusion that a person is a pig or a dog in their character! So Jesus must not have forbidden all judgments. What is Jesus saying? There is another clue in the surrounding verses. Jesus asks some penetrating questions:

Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye” (Matthew 7:3-5).

This seems to be the key to the entire discussion of making judgments of others. If you cannot see, you cannot judge! Our own sins cause spiritual blindness making it impossible for us to properly see and judge the character of other people. But notice that Jesus does not say that this means we can never judge others. We must first be able to see, which means dealing with our own faults first. And then the whole purpose of being able to see the faults of others is so that we can help them. In other words, our judging of others is to bring healing and not further hurt to their lives.

God is a judge, yet He is also merciful and seeks the salvation and ultimate good of all people. Jesus did not come to judge the world, but to save it. I am sure that Jesus was speaking a word against the Pharisees and the Teachers of the Law, those religious leaders of the Jews who had only an external appearance of righteousness. These religious leaders were not helping to heal the people but were only causing further harm. In speaking to His disciples in this Sermon on the Mount, Jesus expects a righteousness that goes beyond mere appearances. Jesus expects His disciples to make righteous judgments based on truth and with a view toward bringing healing and salvation to the world. If we are to be sons of God, we must be righteous. This means we must be able to discern the difference between what is good and what is evil. This is exactly what it means to judge. But unless our own eyes are open, being illuminated with the light and truth of God, we cannot judge anything correctly. When we are enlightened, we first repent and deal with our own sins. In other words, we judge ourselves! Those who are not willing to first become their own judge are simply not able to correctly judge anyone else and will eventually come under the final judgment of Divine scrutiny.

Loving the Praise of God

John 12.43

The Christian poet, John Donne, was absolutely correct when he wrote that

No man is an island,
Entire of itself,
Every man is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main.

We were created for community. It is natural for us to seek friendship and acceptance by others. But if this good thing is made into an ultimate thing, then it becomes an idol. The result is that we base a tremendous amount of our confidence and self-worth on what we think other people think about us. We feel great when people say good things to us and we are devastated when they criticize us. So we are basing our confidence on the acceptance of our chosen circle of friends, or constantly feeling insecure, distrustful, and isolated from others.

If people were honest, they would have to admit that this desire to be accepted by other people, often at any price, is really born of fear. Truth is, we are afraid that other people will reject us, cast us out, and speak evil about us. Perhaps the greatest fear is the fear of isolation and loneliness. Most people fear other people more than they fear the living God. The reason for this should be obvious: being accepted by others provides us with instant, tangible gratification. Being praised by an invisible God is not nearly as satisfying! So most people would choose the praise of their fellows over the silent applause of an invisible deity.

The applause of the crowd is to many people a kind of narcotic. It is a high they cannot live without. And this addiction to the praise of men is just as powerful in the religious world as it is in the secular world. In fact, the Babylonian Church has its rock stars and celebrities just like Hollywood! In Hollywood fame can be hard to get and even harder to keep. The praise of men is often short-lived: they might praise you one moment and reject you the next! Even if we were to gain the praise of the whole world, we would have nothing but dust in the wind. This world is passing away, along with its lusts.

People have a tendency to try to have the best of both Worlds – the favor of this World AND to somehow make it into the World to Come. It seems to me that this tendency is being addressed by John in his Gospel. You really can’t have the best of both Worlds because these two Worlds are in opposition to one another: being from two completely different sources, and having two different destinies. A choice must be made, and John wants to show us clearly the nature of this choice. In his writings John often uses these stark contrasts to teach us the nature of spiritual reality. Our culture wants to see everything in shades of grey. Maybe we won’t have to make a choice after all! John does not give us this option. For example, the contrast of light and darkness runs through this context:

“The light is among you for a little while longer. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you. The one who walks in the darkness does not know where he is going. While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light” (John 12:35-36).

“I have come into the world as light, so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness” (John 12:46).

The light is always associated with God. Darkness is to be in a state of alienation from God. Jesus said there are some who actually prefer the Darkness to the Light because of their evil deeds (John 3.19-21). In other words, they love their sin instead of loving God and they choose to remain in the darkness of alienation from God. The choice between Light and Darkness is a choice between God or anything else. Those who stay in the Darkness of alienation are choosing to do so because there is something else they want more than they want God.

Light and Darkness includes deeply moral definitions, having to do with how we live and the things that we do. This is not just a theological or philosophical abstraction. We live in the Light or we live in the Darkness in very real, concrete ways.

A concrete application of living either in Light or in Darkness is the choice between pursuing the praise of men or pursuing the praise of God. The implication is that those who pursue the praise of men are living in the Darkness. They are doing so because they love the praise of men more than the praise of God. This choice not to come to the Light is solidified by not believing in or following Jesus, who is the very personification of the Light. Our true attitude toward God is always manifested by our response to the Son of God. John’s Gospel teaches us that Jesus and the Father are one. We cannot reject the Son while honoring the Father. We cannot be in the Light while rejecting the very source of that Light.

The Jews thought they were in the Light because they claimed to know and serve God. But they were actually in the Darkness, even as they went about the practice of their religion! Religion does not give light. The practice of religion should not be confused with being in the Light. It is possible to hide from God while still being religious. The issue is not the practice of religion but what we do with Jesus. If we want to live in the Light we will come to Jesus. If we don’t come to Jesus then we are still in Darkness no matter what else we might do. So there is this choice between Light and Darkness. We must make a choice!

There is also the contrast of faith with unbelief. The choice can be Light and Darkness or faith and unbelief. Believing is to come into the Light. To disbelieve is to remain in the Darkness. Unfortunately, we have oversimplified what it means to believe in Jesus. Is the definition of believing in Jesus simply intellectual assent to certain facts? Are we believers simply because we believe in the historical Jesus? We have made belief a relatively easy thing.  Many people claim to believe in Jesus. What does this mean? Well, this is not a new problem but is addressed by the Scriptures.

In fact, John is addressing what it really means to believe in Jesus. This all comes to a burning focus as Jesus’ public ministry ends and the time of His glorification is at hand. Believing in Jesus can only be properly understood in connection with what John calls His glorification, or His death.

Jesus had performed many miraculous signs, including raising Lazarus from the dead. As you might expect, this caused Jesus’ popularity to increase. But as His popularity with the people increased, so did the hatred and jealousy of the religious leaders. I think the issue John is dealing with here is what all of these professed believers of Jesus will do when the authorities begin turning up the heat of opposition! Belief cannot be tested in the midst of success and popularity. What we really believe is proven in the fire of tribulation. There were those who jumped on the Jesus Bandwagon after the raising of Lazarus whose belief would be tested when the religious leaders began to go after Jesus. The belief of the people had no room for suffering, yet this was exactly what Jesus was preparing to endure Himself! There is something wrong with following a Suffering Savior and not being willing to suffer. Those who seek the praise of men over the praise of God have a deficient faith because they are not willing to suffer with Christ.

There are those who have a pretentious faith and will believe only if it is personally advantageous to them. But as soon as there is a cost, an inconvenience, or some pain, they are nowhere to be found. For these would-be disciples the World still holds their allegiance and love and so what the World thinks about them is the main thing.

Confessing Jesus only when it is personally convenient is really unbelief. I know it might seem confusing and contradictory for me to say this when the text says that there were some who believed, yet they would not confess Him publicly. Does it not say they believed, at least in some sense? Is this not at least an immature faith or maybe a weak faith, but still faith?

There is a kind of Divine footnote here. There is an explanation for this condition. It was because they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God. I hold that John is showing us that this is a sham faith.  It is not the real deal. And we are to learn from this that there are people who will make a profession of faith only when and if it is personally convenient for them and costs them nothing and that this kind of faith is an empty profession because it does not do what real faith does. In other words, saying you have faith does not make it a reality. Faith is known by its actions and its fruit. Faith without works is dead, or ineffectual, powerless, hollow, and hypocritical. To love the praise of men more than the praise of God is a condition that makes it impossible to have true faith. This kind of faith cannot save because it is not real faith. For a time, until the trouble comes, it may look like faith. But it will wither under the heat of opposition from the World.

The kind of faith in Jesus that does save, that is the real thing, is a faith that loves the praise of God more than the praise of man and is therefore willing to accept the rejection of the World and whatever tribulations may come as a result of following Jesus. Generally speaking, we are willing to endure certain hardships and inconveniences for the things or the people who have our hearts. But the things that I do not value are not worth any sacrifice, pain, or suffering. I can easily eliminate those things from my life that I do not value. But what I love I will hang on to and you will not be able to force it out of my hands! If I love the praise of God, then there is no price I will not pay to have it. So there is a connection between faith and love, between belief and values. We value what we believe. So faith is not purely intellectual, it is also in the heart.

What we believe in is measured by what we love. A person may say they believe in something, yet they have no real love and affection invested there. This would be like a person saying that he believes very strongly in the growth of a certain company on Wall Street, yet he refuses to buy any of their stock. I don’t think he really believes in that company because he is not investing something in it. Even so, a person might claim to believe in Jesus, yet there is no personal investment. That is not belief. That is just talk.

I am afraid there are many people who claim to be Christians who really just have some kind of intellectual assent to a doctrine and no real, personal investment in Christ Himself. They don’t love Jesus. He is not real to them. That is not faith that is philosophy. There are people who have a Christian philosophy of life, but they do not love Christ. These are the people who probably talk a lot about Christianity, the Church, and the need for world missions and evangelism. Beware of people who talk about Christianity more than they talk about Christ! This is similar to people who are always talking about marriage, but not about their spouses. At some point you have to stop talking about marriage as an abstract idea and just love your spouse! (There are many similarities between marriage and our relationship with God. We are the Bride of Christ!)

Faith also has to work its way down from your head to your heart and you have to start actually loving God. Faith in God is love for God. Loving God is also loving the praise of God. Here is the mark of a true believer and a true disciple of Jesus – their whole goal in life is to be praised by God because they love God more than anything else.

The praise of God is not the praise we give to God but the praise God will give to men. Men should praise God, but there is coming a time in the future when God will actually praise people! (Praise is the recognition and proclamation of the deeds or the virtues of a person. The opposite of praise would be to criticize and to pick someone apart and find their faults.) This will happen on the Day of Judgment that has been appointed by God and to which every person will be summoned. On that Day, and not before, everyone will be either praised by God, the result of which is eternal glory and joy, or criticized by God, the result of which is eternal sorrow and ruination.

God knows the truth of what is in the hearts of men and this will be fully revealed, though it is often hidden from us now. God is not just going to judge works, He is going to judge men’s hearts, or their motives, for doing what they did. In other words, what if outwardly you did certain good things, but you didn’t do it for God? Will you get praise from God for those things? I think not. It would not be right if you did because God’s praise was not what you really wanted anyway. I believe there will be some very moral and very religious people in Hell! God looks at the heart and judges the motive. The right thing done with the wrong motive does not count! We should not just be afraid of doing the wrong thing, we should be afraid of doing the right thing for the wrong reason! Having the outward appearance in order is not enough for God because God also looks at the heart. And so Paul says that

“a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter. His praise is not from man but from God” (Romans 2:29).

God cannot be fooled like men can be fooled. Men look only on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart. For God it all begins with what you love, which is what you really want. Jesus spoke extensively on this subject in the Sermon on the Mount:

“Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 6:1).

Jesus then goes on to give three examples of religious works: giving, praying and fasting. Jesus says we should do these things, but we should do them in secret, and not for the praise of men:

“Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you” (Matthew 6:2-4).

“And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you” (Matthew 6:5-6)

“And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you” (Matthew 6:16-18).

The whole point of the Sermon on the Mount is that external righteousness, like that of the Scribes and Pharisees, is not good enough. Sin is a heart problem and not just a behavior problem. True righteousness must therefore come from a renovated heart that loves God. Everything here must be viewed in a religious context. These are not people doing wicked things. These were people doing religious things, but doing them for the wrong reasons – for the praise of men rather than God. This is a temptation for every religious person and for every religious group – to do the right things only for other people to see rather than for God. Notice there is no out given so that we can simply stop doing religious things. We are to do these things, but for God, not for men! God will judge your heart, your motives, and He will reward you by giving you what you really want. Praise from God will be for those who love God, which was the motivation for everything they did, pursuing only the praise of their heavenly Father.

Having the praise of God is actually what the New Testament calls the hope of glory. Perhaps some people have trouble understanding what the Bible means when it promises believers eternal glory.

The kind of glory promised to believers is something similar to what happens in the world when a person has an unusual talent or who accomplishes something that is difficult or amazing. This person receives glory, praise, or fame. They are recognized and celebrated. What the Scripture is teaching us is that at some point in the future God is going to look at some people and give them glory, or praise. He is going to recognize them and He will actually take pleasure in what He sees! There are some people to whom God will say “well done, good and faithful servant!” And then these people will be celebrated for eternity, enjoying the pleasure of God forever, and being welcomed into His eternal Kingdom with great joy. (Some people have said we should not seek glory and praise for ourselves, that this leads to pride and is selfish. And they are right, if God is not the object of our affection. I can’t be proud if I humbly seek God’s approval and I can’t be selfish if I desire what God made me to desire. It can never be wrong to seek praise and glory from God, because He made us for Himself. To seek any other glory is idolatry.)

In his magnificent sermon called “The Weight of Glory” C.S. Lewis eloquently describes this glory or praise from God, as well as the horrible alternative:

“The sense that in this universe we are treated as strangers, the longing to be acknowledged, to meet with some response, to bridge some chasm that yawns between us and reality, is part of our inconsolable secret. And surely, from this point of view, the promise of glory, in the sense described, becomes highly relevant to our deep desire. For glory meant good report with God, acceptance by God, response, acknowledgment, and welcome into the heart of things. The door on which we have been knocking all our lives will open at last.”

“In some sense, as dark to the intellect as it is unendurable to the feelings, we can be both banished from the presence of Him who is present everywhere and erased from the knowledge of Him who knows all. We can be left utterly and absolutely outside—repelled, exiled, estranged, finally and unspeakably ignored. On the other hand, we can be called in, welcomed, received, acknowledged. We walk every day on the razor edge between these two incredible possibilities.”

The ultimate desire of every believer is to have this praise and glory from God. But we will have to wait for it. At some point in the future, we do not know when, our Creator will summon us to stand before Him and He will inspect us. Some will fail that inspection and be forever rejected. Some will pass the inspection, not because of anything they did on their own, but because of God’s grace. We are His workmanship. He is making us praiseworthy. Your job is to let Him do His work in you – preferring what He wants above every other temporal pleasure, so that you can be happy forever in His presence.