The Cross of Christ

As they went out, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name. They compelled this man to carry his cross. And when they came to a place called Golgotha (which means Place of a Skull), they offered him wine to drink, mixed with gall, but when he tasted it, he would not drink it. And when they had crucified him, they divided his garments among them by casting lots. Then they sat down and kept watch over him there. And over his head they put the charge against him, which read, “This is Jesus, the King of the Jews.” Then two robbers were crucified with him, one on the right and one on the left. And those who passed by derided him, wagging their heads and saying, “You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself! If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross.” So also the chief priests, with the scribes and elders, mocked him, saying, “He saved others; he cannot save himself. He is the King of Israel; let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. He trusts in God; let God deliver him now, if he desires him. For he said, ‘I am the Son of God.’” And the robbers who were crucified with him also reviled him in the same way.
Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour. And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” And some of the bystanders, hearing it, said, “This man is calling Elijah.” And one of them at once ran and took a sponge, filled it with sour wine, and put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink. But the others said, “Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to save him.” And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit.
And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split. The tombs also were opened. And many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised, and coming out of the tombs after his resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many. When the centurion and those who were with him, keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and what took place, they were filled with awe and said, “Truly this was the Son of God!”
There were also many women there, looking on from a distance, who had followed Jesus from Galilee, ministering to him, among whom were Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and Joseph and the mother of the sons of Zebedee.

(Matthew 27:32-56 ESV)

There was an old police show on television called Dragnet. One of the main characters was famous for always saying when questioning a witness or a suspect, “just the facts, please, just the facts.” Many people have the same approach to religion – they just want the facts. We want to know that the things we believe are true. Fairy tales are fun to read, but we don’t build our lives on something made up. And we would not base our hope for eternal life on an outright fabrication.

The Christian faith claims to be based on certain facts. Christianity is unique in that it is not just a philosophy or mysticism. The crucifixion is one of the central facts of the Faith.

But some facts still require explanation. Even when we know the facts we have to know what these things mean. What is the significance? The Cross is like that. Jesus’ death on the Cross is dark and mysterious without some explanation of its significance. Unfortunately, the Gospel writers give us only the facts and very little explanation.

When something especially horrible happens we are interested in finding the meaning behind the facts. We want to know why bad things happen because evil is an aberration – a departure from what is normal and expected. And so we have always struggled to explain evil so that it might make some sense – that which is otherwise unwelcome nonsense. The most troublesome question is why bad things seem to always happen to innocent people.

Jesus was innocent and did not deserve to die. Perhaps this is why the Cross doesn’t make sense to many people. Why did God let Jesus die in such a horrible manner? God could have sent a legion of angels to rescue Him! Here is another instance in which something really bad is happening and God seems to be passive and uninterested. But maybe Christians are so familiar with the Crucifixion that we are no longer shocked by it and we have stopped asking the hard questions. We even wear crosses for fashion statements! Why did the darkest moment in human history have to happen? Why did Jesus have to die like this?

There are many people who admire the teaching of Jesus but can’t explain the meaning of the Cross except that it was just another tragic injustice. We have never listened to the great moral teachers and have always persecuted the prophets. What is harder to explain is Jesus’ willingness to embrace the Cross and walk open-eyed into the Darkness alone.

We should not ignore the obviously evil and ugly nature of the crucifixion of Jesus. To make like life easier we often ignore the unpleasant things and live in denial. But the ugly reality of the Cross is the most important reality we must all face.

At the Cross we see the most evil side of human nature on display. The first thing we notice is that it is not enough for the enemies of Jesus to put Him on the Cross, they also had to mock Him as He suffered. It is the nature of human cruelty to abuse the weak and the vulnerable, to add insult to injury, and to kick the person who has fallen down. At His weakest and most vulnerable point, the enemies of Jesus surround Him like blood-thirsty animals and continue to bite and tear at Him. But Jesus remains silent before His tormentors.

There were evil men who wanted Jesus dead and these men were fully responsible for their evil plan. Of course, God knew about their plan and God used them to accomplish His own plan. But the fact that the Cross was a Divine plan in no way removes all human responsibility. There is no conflict between Divine sovereignty and human responsibility. But the evil of man cannot overcome the purpose of God.

The Cross shows us that evil aspect of human nature that would even get rid of God Himself. We do not want to submit to God. We want our way, even if we have to crucify the Son of God! The greatest evil in the world comes from a desire for power and control.

If the human race is basically good, then how do you explain the Cross?

Evil always looks uglier out there in the world, but evil is planted in the heart of every person. We find it easier to point out the evil in the world than to look at the evil in our own hearts. Then we would have to admit that we are part of the problem! The Apostle Paul said that the Cross is foolish and offensive to the world (See 1 Cor. 1.18ff). One reason for this offense must be that the Cross causes us to look at something about ourselves that we would rather avoid seeing. The Cross illustrates our inability to change the basic structure of the world, not to mention our hearts. The Cross is God’s answer to all the evil in the world. The Cross should be enough to prove that only God can overcome evil and apart from the Cross of Christ we have no hope of a better world or a better Self.

There is an old song that asks the penetrating question: “were you there when they crucified my Lord?” There is a sense in which we were all there at the Cross of Christ. Those who actually did the deed and had Jesus crucified or who pounded in the nails were not the only guilty ones. We continue to crucify the Son of God when we choose to do our own will instead of the will of God! The Cross was man’s foolish attempt to get rid of God and that wicked spirit is still alive and well in the world today. But the wicked intentions of man cannot overcome the purpose of God. While men were doing their best to get rid of Jesus, God was actually working out His own plan.

The crucial thing to see about the Cross is not what men were doing but what God was doing. It is hard to see what God is doing, especially when something evil is happening. When men are doing something evil we don’t see how God can be at work at the same time. We usually think that man’s evil stops or at least frustrates the work of God. But it doesn’t and the Cross proves it!

At the Cross God was using evil to defeat evil. Only God could figure out how to make this happen! The Cross is a demonstration of the wisdom of God. Evil was turned back on itself at the Cross, causing its own destruction. I am not saying evil will eventually turn into something good on its own, given enough time, or that good somehow needs evil to exist – that is the philosophy of Dualism. Evil was defeated at the Cross of Christ because God was there working out His eternal purpose – something God had planned before the foundations of the world were even laid. The Cross could have never happened apart from the will of God because no one could have killed the Son of God against His will. Jesus laid down His life willingly because He was doing the will of the Father. In the Garden of Gethsemane Jesus prayed “not my will but yours be done.” Jesus had previously asked His Father to find another way to accomplish His will, something that did not include the Cross, but there was no other way to accomplish God’s perfect will and eternal purpose. Evil is rebellion against God’s will. So Jesus defeated evil by submitting Himself completely to God’s will.

In his story “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe” C.S. Lewis illustrates how Jesus willingly offered Himself. The great lion, Aslan, the Creator of the land of Narnia, offers his own life in exchange for the life of the boy Edmund, who had become a traitor and served the White Witch. Aslan surrenders himself to the Witch and her dark forces, allowing himself to be tied down to the Stone Table, mocked by the Dark Powers, and his majestic mane shaved off in humiliation before being killed by the Witch’s cruel, stone knife. In the same way, no one could have arrested, bound, and killed the Lion of the Tribe of Judah if He had not offered Himself as a willing sacrifice. It is no wonder that in the book of Revelation Jesus is depicted as the Lion who became the Lamb!

From the highest perspective, Jesus went to the Cross for His Father, not just for us. Jesus was doing the will of God and that is why Jesus is the Lamb of God. God was offering His Son as a sacrificial lamb that would take away the sin of the world. The Cross was God’s work. You and I had nothing to do with the offering of Christ.

But why did God have to offer His Son as a sacrifice?

The Cross was a transaction between Jesus and His Father which is hard for us to grasp. It is hard to understand what happened behind the scenes in the spiritual realm when Jesus died. But the Gospel writers give us some clues that help us understand what really happened when Jesus died. First, there was three hours of darkness. Then there was Jesus’ piercing cry from the Cross: “My God! My God! Why have you forsaken me?” The darkness and the cry from the cross are both signs pointing to a single, terrible reality: when Jesus was dying on the cross He was bearing the guilt of our sin. The darkness was symbolic of the wrath and judgment of God. The piercing cry of Jesus was not just symbolic but was something that actually happened. Jesus was actually forsaken by God when He was on the cross bearing our sin. This is because Jesus was being judged by God for our sin.

Many people today are offended at the idea of God being angry at sin. We have chosen a God of love instead. But the Biblical God is both righteous AND loving and He is both of those things all the time. To say that God is ONLY loving is to have an unbalanced and unbiblical view of God, perhaps to even have invented a false god. The real question is how God can be righteous in dealing with sin and yet still be merciful to sinners and forgive their sin? The Cross is the answer to this dilemma!

The Cross is God graciously providing Atonement, or a covering, for sin. This was the only way for God to be both righteous and merciful (See Rom. 3.23ff). Jesus became a lightning rod for God’s wrath, taking the blow of God’s justice for us. So God can be merciful to us and forgive our sins through Christ because He had already paid the penalty and satisfied the righteousness of God. And so Jesus became the PROPITIATION for our sins, or that which turned aside the wrath of God. In one sense Jesus went through Hell – being separated from God – so that we would never have to experience this ourselves. God is now free to forgive or justify those who believe in Christ’s sacrifice.

The Cross was God’s way to demonstrate, or show forth, His character. The Cross was a demonstration of the righteousness of God. God cannot ignore sin. However, the Cross is also a demonstration of the love and mercy of God, because God is providing a way for sinners to be justified and forgiven. The Cross allows God to be everything God is without compromising any aspect of His character in our salvation!

We must now receive this Atonement. Even if you can’t quite understand how Atonement works, you can still believe that it does work. Jesus has taken sin away! When we do to the doctor we do not have to understand all of the complex science behind the medicine to be cured. The whole point of the Cross is not to have an abstract theory of the Atonement but for the blood of Christ to be applied to our lives. The Blood of Christ will only benefit those who apply it to their live through personal faith and receiving the Gift of God.

The Gospel writers tell us that when Jesus died the veil in the Temple was ripped in two. This also gives us a picture of what the Cross has accomplished for us. That veil in the Temple was a picture of our separation from God. The veil blocked access from the Holy of Holies, which was the Presence of God. But when Jesus died sin was removed and so the veil was also removed. This means there is nothing between us and God. There is nothing in the way, not even your sin, to keep you from coming to God through the blood of Christ. Jesus has made a way, in fact, He is the Way and there is no other. If there is something that is keeping you from coming to God, like a guilty conscience, the blood of Christ can give you confidence in the presence of God (See Heb. 10.19ff.). When we know the holiness and righteousness of God, we fear His wrath, becoming aware of our sin and unworthiness. Those who do not fear God either don’t know God or are not aware of their sinfulness. But when the blood of Christ is applied to our live through faith, or trusting in the efficacy of His atoning death, we are made clean and acceptable to God. We no longer have to fear God’s wrath. We have no confidence in our own righteousness. We trust completely in the blood of Christ to justify us before God.

From Fear to Faith (Matthew 28.1-10)

Now after the Sabbath, toward the dawn of the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb. And behold, there was a great earthquake, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow. And for fear of him the guards trembled and became like dead men. But the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here, for he has risen, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead, and behold, he is going before you to Galilee; there you will see him. See, I have told you.” So they departed quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples. And behold, Jesus met them and said, “Greetings!” And they came up and took hold of his feet and worshiped him. Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee, and there they will see me” (Matthew 28:1-10 ESV)

Introduction

One of the problems with fictional stories is that certain elements of these stories may be predictable and even cliché. There is the fairy tale where the handsome prince saves and marries the princess and they live happily ever after. There is the old western where the good guy wears a white hat and the bad guy a black one. The good guy always wins the final confrontation and saves the day. We have become so familiar with these plot-lines that we roll our eyes when we recognize them and a drama turns into a comedy. Of course we know that these stories are not only predictable but also unreal. Many of our familiar stories are idealized projections of human desires. We really want the prince and the princess to fall in love. We want the good guy to win. But in reality that is not what happens. In real life the prince divorces the princess to marry a younger princess and the bad guy gets out of prison on a legal loophole.

You have probably heard that truth is stranger than fiction. Truth is messier and less predictable than fiction. But fiction is quicker and cheaper, which is why fiction is often preferred to real life. If you really want the truth you must be prepared to accept whatever it is, even if it is something unexpected or unwanted. Truth is just the way things are and reality is unwilling to compromise with our personal opinions or desires. And so many people fear the truth.

These Gospel accounts of the Resurrection do not read like fiction. We see all of the strangeness of truth and the messiness of humanity. If the Resurrection was a made-up story then we would expect the disciples to be the good guys who do everything right, but they don’t. The disciples don’t have a clue about what is really going on and it seems that the last thing they expected was a resurrection, even though Jesus had told them ahead of time that He would rise from the dead. They just didn’t get it.

And so their first response to the empty tomb was fear, not joy, as we might expect. And their first response to the women’s report of the Resurrection was doubt, not faith. The Gospel writers are telling the truth, not weaving a fairy tale. The truth is that the disciples were not the heroes of the story, Jesus is the hero.

Don’t misunderstand me, the disciples really loved and followed Jesus. But they were also normal men and women who responded as people tend to respond to a shocking truth: they were afraid and they doubted it, at least at first. The Gospels record their movement from fear and doubt to faith and then to joy at the fact that Jesus was really alive.

So we should not be too hard on their initial fear and doubt because there is nothing easy about faith. God has given us some hard things to believe! But these are wonderful things.

By nature we tend towards fear and doubt, not faith. And like the first disciples who witnessed the resurrection of Christ, we must also move from our initial fear and doubt to faith in the risen Lord. And when we have moved from fear to faith we can then live with the joy of the resurrection.

I. Human life is dominated by fear and doubt because of the reality of death. 

1. Fear is a normal part of our lives.

Experiencing some kind of fear is such a common feeling we tend to remember those times when we were NOT afraid as a little vacation from the normal stress of life.This fear includes what we call anxiety or worry. When we are not occupied with being worried about something we are preoccupied with worrying about something that MIGHT happen but hasn’t actually happened yet. Or, we have angst about those things that are inevitable, like the death of a loved one or our own death.

All of us experience fear to some degree, though not always to the same degree, depending on your personality and living conditions. Some people just seem to be predisposed to worry. Others may live in difficult circumstances where there is fear that the basic necessities of life will not be available. Some of our brothers and sisters in other countries have anxieties we have not considered. We are concerned about eating too much and being overweight. They are concerned about going through the day with nothing to eat. We are concerned about getting a Sunday afternoon nap. Some of our brethren are concerned about a terrorist’s bomb on a daily basis.

But fear does not consist only of moments of extreme terror, which are relatively rare. The kind of fear that is most often experienced is the daily grind of ordinary life and all its concerns that creates a constant undercurrent of anxiety. In our society this undercurrent of anxiety shows itself in nervous breakdowns, depression, ulcers, drug use, and even suicide.

But all of our fear can be reduced to two basic categories or causes: 1. something we cannot control. 2. Something we do not understand. Fear sets in when human ability or wisdom ends.

And we soon find out that our ability to cope with life is more fragile than we like to admit. And so the self-help section of the bookstore keeps growing. The lines in front of the psychologist’s office get longer. It seems to me that people today are more willing to admit that they do need help than were folks of an older generation. Admitting you are afraid and that you need help is a step in the right direction. But where to go to actually find that help continues to be another problem for our culture.

2. Doubt dominates our minds because of all our fearful experiences.

Closely related to our fear is our natural tendency toward doubt, skepticism, and even cynicism. Again the degree of doubt does depend on personality and circumstances. Some people are optimists while others are dark and morose.

We tend to be afraid when we believe that the worst possible scenario is going to be what befalls us. Bad stuff has happened before and we just assume it will happen again. We think this way because we learn things through experience. Many of these experiences are unpleasant. We live in a world where tragedy, pain, sickness, violence, evil, and death are daily realities and it becomes almost impossible to rise above what we see in the news each day and expect something good to happen. Why don’t the news reporters focus only on the good things? Because that’s not how we think about life.

Human reasoning begins with experience, which is usually bad, and so we can’t bring ourselves to expect the world to suddenly change and give us only good things. So when something good does happen we celebrate that as an unusual and out-of-character event. But life also teaches us not to expect these good times to last. All good things must come to an end, even if we want them to last forever. The party ends and reality sets in. We must go out and face the real world again.

And so people may become so cynical that they refuse to believe any good thing that they may see. We would rather disbelieve than be disappointed all over again. Or, being skeptics, people will instantly demand some kind of proof that such an unusually good thing really could happen in a world like this.

I am aware of the fact that in spite of everything I have just said about human nature and the world around us there are still those starry-eyed dreamers and eternal optimists who talk about changing the world and making it a better place. While their intentions may be good, this is mostly just talk. The world doesn’t change.

3. Death is the underlying reality haunting all human life and experience.

And there is one life event that can always bring a fast end to all the boastful, humanistic talk in the world: a funeral. Death has a way of bursting our bubble and instantly bringing us back down to earth. No one is noisy at a funeral. Everyone is quiet, serious, and thoughtful. Death is that great silencer, leveler, and limiter of humanity. It is the reality of death that made Solomon say about human life that it is all vain and a chasing after the wind.

Death should cause us to stop and think about life instead of just tearing through it like a fox in a chicken coop. The trouble with our culture is that we avoid thinking of death, which means that we also fail to examine our living! The poet Henry David Thoreau famously said that “most men live lives of quiet desperation.” But Thoreau did not live to see the modern world. It was the American satirist James Thurber who corrected Thoreau’s observation and said that “nowadays men lead lives of noisy desperation.”

But remember that it was God Himself who blocked the way back to the Tree of Life. It was God Himself who subjected His good world to the bondage of corruption and death. God imposed a sentence of death on the world.

This sentence of death was imposed AFTER the parents of the human race had eaten from the forbidden tree. That knowledge of good and evil came at a high price. Now the man and the woman knew what it was like to be on their own and to do their own thing, making their own decisions. If man wants to live on his own and do his own thing apart from God, then man must also accept the limitation and the imposition of death.

We were not made to die, we were made to live. But we were made to live with God, not apart from Him. With God there is life. Without God there is nothing but death. That was the great lesson of Eden and the Fall of Man.

But God did not impose death on the creation because He just wanted to punish and hurt us. There are those who think that God is nothing but a cosmic killjoy who just wants to ruin all of our fun and enjoyment in life. It is one of the Devil’s oldest lies about God.

II. The resurrection proves the goodness of God and His plan. 

There would be a way back to the Tree of Life. But God Himself would have to make a way. We were not meant to live forever without God. That would be a kind of living death, which is exactly what Hell will be.

But God was going to overcome sin and death and He made a promise to the first man and woman. The seed of the woman would bruise the serpent’s head (Gen. 3.15). This was the first prophecy about the resurrection of Christ! God meant to undo what sin and death had done. He would do it through a member of the human race. Later God made another promise to a man named Abraham that the world would be blessed through his seed. Another veiled prophecy fulfilled in the resurrection of Christ. Abraham believed God’s good promise.

Fear and doubt ends and faith begins when we come to know the living God and hear His word. God always keeps His word and the empty tomb is the supreme illustration of this fact. All of the promises of God are fulfilled in the resurrection of Jesus. God did not abandon Jesus in the darkness of the tomb and so we are not abandoned to the slavery of fear and death. When Jesus was raised so was the whole human race!

The challenge now is for us to believe that fact, we who are so used to the finality and hopelessness of the Grave. But our belief in the empty tomb does not come first and it does not come by itself. Our faith must first be in the living God, the God of Abraham, who raised Jesus from the dead. When we come to know this God we come to understand that nothing is impossible, not even a resurrection.

This is the God who called the world into existence from nothing. Is anything too hard for Him? This is the God of Abraham, who brought life to a dead, barren womb so that Sarah conceived the Child of Promise and learned to laugh again. This is the God of Abraham, “who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist” (Romans 4:17 ESV). Is anything impossible with God? Our faith in the resurrection of Christ is based on our faith in this God.

The kind of faith that justifies us before God is believing that God raised Jesus from the dead. Christians believe in a bodily resurrection, which is why the tomb of Jesus was empty, and not just in a spiritual afterlife or the immortality of the soul. Christian faith is in the One whom God raised.

The women went to the tomb that first Easter morning to honor a dead Jesus. But that is not what we are doing on Easter Sunday! We don’t worship a dead martyr but a living Lord who was shown with power to be the Son of God by His resurrection (Rom. 1.4). The resurrection proves that Jesus is the Son of God.

We worship and honor the Son as we worship and honor the Father. Our hope of eternal life is in the One whom God raised from the dead. There is salvation is no one else because no one else has been raised from the dead!

III. The meaning of the resurrection is that Jesus is Lord.

It would be almost impossible for us to fully understand the meanings of the death and resurrection of Jesus without some kind of further explanation beyond what we find in the Gospels. The Gospels give us the facts, but not much else.

After His resurrection Jesus appeared to His disciples and begin to explain what had happened, because they still did not understand that Jesus had to rise from the dead to fulfill Scripture. The problem was that they did not understand the Scriptures concerning Jesus.

This shows that understanding these things concerning Jesus and the Kingdom of God are not as easy as we sometimes think it is and no one arrives at these conclusions unaided. But we don’t have the living Christ here to explain things. He has ascended into heaven. To fully understand the meaning of the Resurrection we must understand the meaning of the Ascension.

Historically speaking, the resurrection and the ascension are two different events. But theologically speaking these are one thing. The appearances of Jesus after the Resurrection are really just Jesus giving His disciples a fleeting glimpse of Himself as He moves upward from earth to heaven. Few Christians today seem to understand the significance of the ascension of Christ and its connection to the Resurrection. The Ascension finishes Christ’s earthly work and then takes it to a whole new dimension.

The problem seems to be in our lack of understanding of Heaven. Heaven is God’s space and it is separated from the earth, which was given to mankind. Heaven is God’s Throne because God rules the earth from heaven. So heaven is always up because God is over all. Heaven is not a part of this creation and could never be reached in a spaceship. But there are places where heaven and earth touch one another, as Jacob saw in his dream at Bethel of a ladder from earth to heaven, or in the Tabernacle over the Mercy Seat. But Heaven is always the superior place and is kind of like the control-room for earth, just like the cockpit of a jumbo jet or the bridge of a battleship.

Christ entering the heavenly control-room means that He went to rule on our behalf. Jesus is Lord, and that is the post-resurrection message of the Church. The Gospel does not declare that Jesus will reign sometime in the future but that He has entered heaven and has begun to reign. The book of Revelation reveals that He is sharing the Throne of God and there is no higher place.

Jesus’ coming again does not mean that He will have to become some kind of astronaut and travel down to earth, but that He will appear. We can’t see Him reigning now because He is in heaven. But He will be seen because at the end of time the veil of separation between earth and heaven will be taken down, just as the veil in the Temple was ripped apart when Jesus died. Then every eye will see Him and know that He is King of Kings and every knee will bow.

Conclusion

It is obvious to us now that every knee has not bowed. There are still enemies running loose in the world. They are under the control of the risen Christ, but they are still here in the world. The Devil is still here, though His head has been bruised. Death is still here, being the last enemy to be defeated. Meanwhile, the earth in which we live is like a city under siege, encircled by powerful enemies. But news has reached us that the war has been won by our King on a field of battle and it is just a matter of time before the enemies surrounding us must withdraw.

The Resurrection is a preview of things to come. Jesus’ Resurrection is the first-fruits of the New Creation. The first-fruits are the initial gleanings of the harvest that are a foretaste of more to come. The tomb of Jesus was really a womb from which a New Creation is being born.

We are groaning as in the pains of childbirth, along with the Creation, as we wait and long for this New Creation to come. When Jacob’s beloved wife, Rachael, was giving birth to her second son she had great pain because she was dying. With what was perhaps her last breath she named her newborn son “Ben-oni,” which is “Son of Sorrow.” But Jacob quickly changed his name to “Benjamin,” or “Son of my Right Hand.” When Jesus was on the Cross, He became the Son of Sorrow, dying for our sin so that we could be born again. But on that first Easter Sunday Jesus became the Son of God’s right hand!

When a woman gives birth she is in great pain, but it is usually not the sign of death but a sign that a new life and great joy is coming. The pain is real and it is excruciating, but it is a hopeful pain. Something good is on the way. That is the believer’s situation in the world. There is pain, but do not be afraid, not even of death. Something good is coming.

The Resurrection set us free from fear so that we can serve the Lord while we are in this world, until He comes. The Resurrection promises peace and joy, but only to those who believe. There is no peace for the wicked.

The Last Supper (Matthew 26.17-29)

Now on the first day of Unleavened Bread the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Where will you have us prepare for you to eat the Passover?” He said, “Go into the city to a certain man and say to him, ‘The Teacher says, My time is at hand. I will keep the Passover at your house with my disciples.’” And the disciples did as Jesus had directed them, and they prepared the Passover. When it was evening, he reclined at table with the twelve. And as they were eating, he said, “Truly, I say to you, one of you will betray me.” And they were very sorrowful and began to say to him one after another, “Is it I, Lord?” He answered, “He who has dipped his hand in the dish with me will betray me. The Son of Man goes as it is written of him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been better for that man if he had not been born.” Judas, who would betray him, answered, “Is it I, Rabbi?” He said to him, “You have said so.” Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is my body.” And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, “Drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. I tell you I will not drink again of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom.” (Matthew 26:17-29)

Change can be difficult to accept, especially for religious people. For religious people their traditions give them a sense of meaning and define their identity. But when something new comes and the old is suddenly obsolete, it can create a crisis. What was once familiar is not strange and the world does not make sense anymore. And so we naturally resist change and hang on to what is familiar and therefore coherent and brings comfort. What is new may not make sense and we are disturbed so we seek for something to bring back our sense of balance and security. We often revert back to the old ways because they are familiar and comforting, even if the new is something better. Change for the sake of change, or just trying to be hip and keep up with the latest trend, is not necessarily a better way it just may be different. If we are going to change then the new thing should be superior to the old or the change will be pointless and frustrating.

Jesus makes things new and this means that Jesus brings change.

What Christians call the Last Supper, which included the institution of the Lord’s Supper, is all about change. Over two-thousand years removed from this event it seems old to us and not new at all. But what Jesus did at the Last Supper was something new and even revolutionary. But because of all the history separating us from this event it does not seem revolutionary to us because it has become old and familiar, even a tradition. Christianity as a whole has become traditional instead of revolutionary. But if we fail to see the newness of what Jesus brought to the world and we settle for the dry husk of traditionalism, the fault is ours for failing to see and understand the true nature of the Kingdom of God.

Human nature always seems to be lagging behind the Divine purpose. But we must catch up to the new thing God is doing in the world through Christ or we will miss out on it entirely. The Kingdom of God will move on with or without us but we could be left on the outside of the door. God’s purpose will continue to advance in spite of human failure and unbelief, even in spite of efforts to reject or frustrate God’s plan. This principle is vividly illustrated in the events surrounding Jesus’ death. Not only does human obtuseness fail to stop the purpose of God, but God is even able to use human failure and rebellion to accomplish His will. And so one of the great lessons of the Gospel is that nothing God plans to do can be stopped! If we resist Him we will be the ones left behind in the dust of Divine history.

A vivid illustration of this truth is seen in the story of the Exodus, which lies directly beneath the account of the Last Supper.

The people of Israel had been slaves in Egypt for over four centuries. It seemed that the purpose of God, that had been revealed to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, had ground to a halt. God’s promise was the Abraham’s descendants would inherit the Promised Land of Canaan. But they are slaves in Egypt. So how can they inhabit Canaan? Egypt was a world power, being one of the great civilizations of the ancient world. Pharaoh had no intention of losing his free labor force. Was this situation going to frustrate the purpose of God? Could God overcome the will of Egypt and bring His people out of bondage and into the Promised Land?

We know the rest of that story.

The Exodus seems like ancient history to us. It is another old Bible story that gave birth to an old tradition called the Passover. So there is Jesus, preparing to eat the Passover with His disciples as every Jew did each year. The Passover was one of those traditions that stand like granite monuments along the highway of human history which cannot and should not be changed.

The Passover was that terrifying night when the Death Angel passed over Egypt to kill the firstborn. It was the final act in a drama of judgment. But that judgment on Egypt was Israel’s salvation. And they ate that first Passover meal in haste, making ready to leave Egypt for good. The Passover lamb was killed and the blood applied to the door-frames of Jewish homes, setting them apart from the Egyptians, and giving a sign to the Death Angel who would pass over each home marked with the blood of the lamb sparing that home from judgment and death. God told the Israelites to remember this event each year by preparing a meal just like the one they prepared that night so long ago in Egypt. So each year a Passover lamb was slain.

The people had to be ready to leave Egypt immediately, so there was no time for the bread they made for this special meal to rise. The bread had to be unleavened. So during the Passover no yeast could be found anywhere in their homes and all the bread they ate had to be unleavened. You have to learn to do without certain things when you are getting ready to leave!

The blood of a lamb and bread made without yeast are object lessons designed to teach us something. And we should be thankful God uses such concrete objects, like a lamb and some unleavened bread, instead of expecting us to learn spiritual things in the abstract. The blood of an innocent lamb and bread minus the yeast teach us about the need for sin to be covered and removed from our lives. Like the nation of Egypt, we are all under the black cloud of God’s judgment and death. Sin works its way through our lives like yeast growing in bread dough. Sin must be covered and removed or we will be judged and die in Egypt, never to enter God’s Promised Land.

I know that the word “sin” is old-fashioned and out of vogue today. But God has gone to great lengths to teach us about sin and its effects on our lives. Though many do not accept this assessment of the human race, the real problem is sin. And God wants us to be aware of the problem because He aims to provide the solution. We cannot cover our own sin. We must accept the covering, or the atonement, that God will provide for us.

The Passover was the prelude to Exodus, which is Salvation. The Exodus was in turn the prelude to Mount Sinai and the giving of the Law, which is Covenant.

God was bringing His people out of bondage so that they could be with Him. God’s people were not to be set free to be their own Master, but to serve the God who redeemed them from slavery. And so a covenant was made. Moses brought the people out of Egypt to the mountain of God where He would make a covenant with them. They would be His people and He would be their God. God had already made a covenant with Abraham, from whom came the nation of Israel while down in Egypt. And so God had already made certain promises or commitment, which were reaffirmed to Isaac and then to Jacob. God intended to keep these promises. A covenant is a promise made between two parties in which a binding agreement or commitment is made and a relationship is formally established. Marriage is a covenant and God often referred to the nation of Israel as His wife. God intended to make Israel His wife and that was why He brought them out of bondage in Egypt. God makes covenants because God wants an intimate partner, not just a passing relationship with His people. Most people are not prepared for a covenant relationship with God. The human race has always been spiritually promiscuous, preferring to worship idols and pursuing other loves besides God.

God’s desire to make a covenant tells us something about God’s nature. First, it tells us about God’s grace. He is in no way obligated to make covenants with us. God has condescended to bind Himself to us in a covenant relationship and He only does this because He wants to, not because He has to. God owes us nothing. We owe Him everything. Secondly, a covenant tells us about God’s consistency or faithfulness. God can be trusted. He never changes as men do and therefore God will always keep His promises. So we should always believe the Word of God. Thirdly, covenant tells us about the love of God for His people. The love of God is only understood correctly in the context of covenant. If we don’t understand covenant we will cheapen the love of God and even underestimate His love, as if God wants to be a casual friend instead of an intimate partner. Without understanding covenant the love of God may be reduced to tolerance, where God lets us go our own way to live our lives apart from Him. But God’s love is more passionate, fiercer, and even more jealous than we are often prepared to accept! God’s purpose in make a covenant was to have a people for Himself, a people He would love and who would love Him in return while forsaking all other lovers.

The covenant God had previously made with Abraham and the covenant God made with the people of Israel at Mount Sinai were not the same. But these covenants were made for the purpose of God taking a People for Himself. Why do we need to understand something about these covenants? Because at the Last Supper Jesus is bringing in a New Covenant, His very body and blood being the basis for this New Covenant. We call this covenant “new” but it is only new in its establishment not in its purpose or intention in the Divine will and plan. God had already promised this covenant in His original covenant promise to Abraham. God promised Abraham that “through you seed I will bless the world.” That “Seed” or descendant was Jesus Christ, through whom this New Covenant, which was actually the first and the original covenant, would be made. Law that was given through Moses at Mount Sinai was added to that original promise because of the problem of sin, says Paul in Galatians, until the time came for God to send His Son into the world. The Law taught us about sin so we would see our need for the Savior when He came!

A good meal, you see, takes some time to prepare. The finer the meal the longer the period or preparation. The Kingdom of God is compared to a feast and it has taken God a long time to prepare for it. But now the Table is set and we are all invited to come! It is actually a wedding feast. God is getting a Bride for His Son.

When Israel was told to remember what God had done for them they were given a meal to eat together. Eating has to do with fellowship, community, intimacy, and celebration. These things are all elements of entering a covenant relationship. Christians are never told to eat the Passover meal. This is not because the Passover is not important but because Jesus has brought something new and something better. Christ, our Passover Lamb, has been sacrificed! The Passover was the shadow and Christ is the reality. The reality is always superior to the shadow. So this Meal has been prepared and all that remains is for us to receive what God is giving us. What He wants to give us is Himself. If God has not withheld from us His only Son then there is nothing that God will not give to His beloved people!

When Christians come together to eat the Lord’s Supper we are looking back and remembering what God has done in the past, we are receiving His grace for our present need, and we are also looking forward with hope to the future. The writer of Hebrews captures all of the past, present, and the future in the three appearances of Christ:

“For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own, for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him” (Hebrews 9:24-28 ESV).

1. He appeared to do away with sin by the sacrifice of Himself.
2. He is appearing now in the presence of God in heaven as our High Priest.
3. He will appear again to bring full salvation to His people who are waiting for Him.

When Israel ate that first Passover meal they did so to make ready for their Exodus from Egypt. In the same way, Christians eat the Lord’s Supper in anticipation of our Exodus from this present, evil world and our introduction into the Promised Land of the new heavens and the new earth.

I Am Who I Am! Exodus 3.14

When we meet someone we don’t know we usually begin a new relationship by getting that person’s name. If you don’t know someone’s name there is a kind of distance, alienation, or strangeness. Just knowing a person’s name doesn’t mean you instantly know that person intimately, but at least knowing their name is the first step in a relationship by removing the mystery of complete anonymity. A nameless person is a stranger and a mystery, in the same way that being in a nameless place means you are probably lost. In grade school we learn that nouns are persons, places, and things. But nouns need names, or these persons, places, and things remain strange to us and what is unknown is potentially dangerous and not to be trusted. Being able to name things makes those things knowable, familiar, and even comforting.

So what is God’s name?

Many people have never thought about this question because God’s name is obviously just “God.” Right? But actually “God” is not a real name at all, it is a generic noun like “car” or “house” and tells us very little about the characteristics of the thing itself. Most people today have never asked for God’s name because our cultural context is not crowded with deities like the ancient world. If you enter a room full of strangers then knowing everyone’s name suddenly becomes very practical just so you can make distinctions between one face and another. The God of the Bible revealed Himself to the people of Israel in a polytheistic context which is why Moses anticipated that the people would ask the logical question “which god sent you?”

God’s answer to this question is the surprising and profoundly wonderful revelation “I am what I am.”

But that’s not actually a name. It is a description of God’s nature and it is a vague description that needs some explanation. God’s answer to Moses’ question is like meeting someone for the first time and asking for their name, to which they reply “I am just me.” You would think that they were intentionally being evasive and that they probably want to remain unknown. But God’s intention was exactly the opposite! This revelation of the Divine Name is so important in Scripture because it is really a revelation of the Divine Nature and it was also a revelation, if you understand the context, of the Divine Purpose.

God has revealed Himself as the absolute and unchanging bedrock on which everything else is built. This includes God’s solid, unchanging purpose to save and bless His covenant people. The revelation of God’s Name is given so that His people will trust Him absolutely, who is Himself the Absolute underneath all things. God is giving us a reason to have faith. We need a reason to believe or God would not have given this revelation of His Name.

This revelation of God’s Name is the basis for a covenantal relationship, not just a casual acquaintance or a one-time meeting. God is not into dating, He wants a partner, even a wife, if you will. So this knowledge of God’s name is not given so that we can be intellectual about the idea of God. It was given as the prelude to a marriage, to a covenant. Unfortunately, most people today was a casual, dating relationship with God because this has no obligation. And they want to be free to date other Lovers too! Folks think they want a God of love, but are not at all prepared for the implications of God really loving them. There is no question about the love of God. The real question is about our love for God.

We are not born in love with God. In fact, we are not born knowing God at all. Adam’s Race is in a state of alienation from the one, true, living God who created us and everything else. This alienation, or distance, which is caused by sin, implies ignorance. Just as we are ignorant of people we have never met, we are also ignorant of our Creator.

The trouble is that God is not a person we can walk across the room or across the street and meet. The most obvious problem is that God is spirit, which also means that God is invisible. God made the physical, visible world, but He is not a part of the world and that means He cannot be experienced with the five senses which is how we come to know about everything else around us.

Man can come to know certain things about the world around him by philosophical deduction and scientific investigation, but the world by its wisdom cannot know God. In other words, we cannot know about God unless God tells us something about Himself.

The Creation speaks of the existence of the Creator, and we are held responsible for this natural revelation, along with the logical implication that we ought to be seeking to know about the Creator. But the creation, which theologians also call Natural Revelation, only tells us that there is a God and gives us very little about what kind of God there is. Perhaps we could deduce from studying nature that the Creator must be wise and powerful. But if we are to understand that God is good, kind, or that He cares about us humans, these things must be revealed through some kind of special revelation because creation may not lead you to come to those conclusions about God. Creation’s voice is not silenced, but it has been frustrated. And we might conclude only by studying nature that God is cruel and uncaring. What kind of God makes a great, white shark, for example? What kind of Creator makes a python snake?

But the problem is more complex than just our ignorance of God or we would just require more information about God. The human race has already rejected the information God left behind in the Creation and we have chosen to worship the Creation itself rather than the Creator. Mankind has always been spiritually promiscuous, which is what the Bible calls idolatry. The ancient pantheon crowded with deities has been transformed into the modern, intellectual idolatry of pluralism and tolerance, but the result is exactly the same: mankind continues to reject the absolute truth of the one, true God.

People today don’t have a problem with the idea of a God, or a Higher Power, who may or may not exist, and who does not intrude into our lives and tell us how to live, making moral demands and holding us accountable. But people get very uncomfortable with a God who defines Himself, telling us that He is THIS and not THAT, and then expects us to do something in response to who and what He is.

God names Himself and we do not get to name God. God brought all the animals to Adam for him to name because God’s creation was originally given to man for him to rule over or manage in God’s behalf. But man does not rule over God and we are not allowed to name our own version of deity or create a god we would like to worship. God is who He is, and we must accept who He is, not make the god we would prefer to serve.

“I am what I am” is a statement about the absolute reality of God, standing there immovable like the Rock of Gibraltar or the very foundations of the earth. No wonder the Bible says that “there is no rock like our God!” You can build your life on this Rock or you can be shattered against it. But you cannot move it or change it!

The immutability of God means that God stands unaffected by change. Time, decay, and corruption cannot touch the Divine Nature. God is unmoved and unchanged by man’s changing views of theology, the latest progressive philosophy, or the shifting sands of cultural trends. Men value being progressive, which involves change and a movement from imperfection toward perfection or from ignorance toward enlightenment. Change implies imperfection, incompleteness, and weakness or vulnerability to some greater, more powerful force and influence. Given enough time, wind and rain can erode a mountain, which is a symbol of strength and stability. So even mountains are not immutable and can be changed over time. But God does not change!

All things in this created order are subject to change and decay, the creation itself being subjected to the bondage of corruption. And so the hymn-writer could say that “change and decay in all around I see. O Thou who changest not, abide with me.”

One of the outstanding lessons of the Old Covenant is the absolute separateness of God from everything we see in the world around us. This separateness of God is called holiness. God’s stands separate from the world that He made. He is outside of time and inhabits eternity, being unaffected by time, decay, and corruption. God’s separateness, or holiness, makes human beings uncomfortable because we fear what is not like us or what is unfamiliar. We greatly fear staring into the face of some alien life-form, utterly strange, yet vastly superior, with unknown intentions. It is no wonder that the ancient, superstitious fear of the gods has been replaced by the modern fear of science-fiction aliens invading from another planet! We fear holiness, which is the attribute of God most often mentioned in Scripture.

Holiness, not love, is the attribute of God mentioned the most in Scripture. The idea that a holy God could also love us is only understood within the context of covenant and God choosing to take a People for Himself. God is holy, but God also wants to be with His chosen people and He is willing to go to great lengths to make that relationship happen.

This revelation of God’s Name is made in the context of covenant where God actually speaks and makes certain promises to certain people, namely to Abraham and his descendants. The real revelation in “I am who I am” is the faithfulness of God to keep the promises He has made. God is absolutely holy and our response is to fear Him. But God is absolutely faithful and our response to that revelation is to trust Him. God will always be who He is, and that means God can be trusted. God makes promises and His people can trust Him to keep His word. How could we trust a God who is not absolute, but who might suddenly change and forsake His original purpose? We have trouble trust people because they just might change their minds and therefore their words are not reliable in every case. But “God is not a man that He should lie, nor the son of man that He should repent!” The only way to have a relationship is to have trust. To have a relationship with God we must be able to trust Him or we will only fear Him and run the other direction. But “the righteous shall live by faith.” We can live by faith because God says “I am who I am.” So our faith and hope are in the living God!

God not only reveals Himself as “I am who I am” but as “the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.” God wants to be remembered for what He said to the Patriarchs, the promises He made to them, and the faith that they had in His word. If the Divine nature is wrapped up in the revelation “I am who I am” then the Divine purpose is wrapped up in the covenant promises God made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God had not forgotten His promises and that is why He was speaking to Moses. The great “I am” does not forget and that means that His people are never forsaken! God made a promise to bless the world through Abraham’s family and that was still God’s purpose when He spoke to Moses in the burning bush. The nature and purpose of God burns like an eternal fire that cannot be extinguished. God’s original promise to Abraham, which is God’s unchanging purpose, was to bless the world through Abraham’s seed, which Paul reminds us is in the singular and not the plural. God said “seed” not “seeds.” That “seed” of Abraham is Jesus Christ! All the promises of God are fulfilled in Christ.

But in his letter to the Galatian Churches, Paul also said that the covenant of Law was necessary before the promise to Abraham could be fulfilled. The Law was added because of transgression. Jesus would come to save us from our sins and reconcile us to a holy, unchanging God. But we would know nothing about holiness, sin, or reconciliation without the teaching of the Law of Moses. Before God could bring His Son into the world to save us from our sins, God had to send Moses to save the Israelites from Egypt. God was going to demonstrate what salvation was all about by bringing Israel out of slavery in Egypt. Everything about the Exodus, which only the great “I am” could have orchestrated, were teaching us about salvation. God sent the Deliverer, judged the King of Egypt, provided the covering of the Passover Lamb, made a covenant with the people, and would then bring them into the Promised Land. These were shadows of an even greater Exodus that is to come.

Our Passover Lamb has been sacrificed and the blood of the New Covenant has been applied. Our great High Priest has gone into Holy of Holies. Now we wait for our Deliverer to appear again, judge this present, evil world, and take His people out into the Promised Land of the New Creation.

But while we are still in this world we are the People of God. God’s purpose was to have a People for Himself, who are in covenant with Him, like a husband and a wife are in covenant with one another. Do we really understand what it means to be the People of God? To be in covenant with God means that He is the center of our lives. Our first desire is to please God in everything we do. This is not a burden for us because we love God and we know He loves us. If we are living to please God then we are not going to be concerned with pleasing people. How can having the praise of mortal man be compared to the praise of the eternal God?  Being the People of God means we worship God in reverent fear. This is not a cringing fear that hides from God because we fear His wrath and punishment. We serve God as holy priests with access and confidence through the blood of Christ. We are getting ready to leave Egypt behind for good and so we have already cut our affections for it in our hearts. So we choose to obey the Word of God instead of the culture of Egypt. To belong to a Holy God means we must be like Him. We must be separate from the World. While we are still in this world we have nothing to fear because the great “I am” is for us! And if God be for us, who can be against us?

Broken and Poured Out (Matthew 26.6-13)

Now when Jesus was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, a woman came up to him with an alabaster flask of very expensive ointment, and she poured it on his head as he reclined at table. And when the disciples saw it, they were indignant, saying, “Why this waste? For this could have been sold for a large sum and given to the poor.” But Jesus, aware of this, said to them, “Why do you trouble the woman? For she has done a beautiful thing to me. For you always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me. In pouring this ointment on my body, she has done it to prepare me for burial. Truly, I say to you, wherever this gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will also be told in memory of her” (Matthew 26:6-13 ESV).

The woman in this account provides something that would have been absent from the narrative and its context: she is the only one who seems to be giving honor and showing devotion to Jesus. We would not expect the Religious leaders to honor Jesus, they are busily conspiring how to kill him and will very soon find an accomplice in Judas. We would expect the disciples to honor Jesus, but they seem clueless about what is really going on. So clueless are they that they actually object to this woman’s act of devotion on the grounds that it was too extravagant. Jesus is not worth such a costly display of affection.

Only Jesus knows what is really going on here. Only Jesus fully understood that He was going to die, something He had previously told His disciples explicitly, which they either could not or would not understand. It made perfect sense to honor Jesus while He was still there with them. They should not have taken His physical presence for granted because He would not be with them much longer. So there was more meaning in this act of devotion than even the woman herself understood. Only Jesus knew what it really meant. The Jews often used perfumes to prepare a body for burial, but only after the person was already dead. Jesus was not dead yet, but this woman’s act was sort of like a silent prophecy foretelling Jesus’ death. It is interesting that it was the women disciples who were then determined to honor Jesus, even when His body was in the sealed tomb, by anointing Him again. But their plans were interrupted unexpectedly by the resurrection! These female disciples are held up in the Gospels as examples of love and devotion to Jesus. They continued to follow Him even into the darkness of the Cross and the Tomb. What is discipleship if not love and devotion like this?

In our text, the Gospel writer is intentionally making a contrast between the woman’s beautiful, loving devotion to Jesus and the ugliness of the religious leaders, not to mention the insensitivity of the disciples. In John’s version of this account it was Judas who voiced the objection to this woman’s act, not because he cared about the poor, but because he wanted to embezzle the money. Judas was devoted to Judas.

The woman who remains anonymous in Matthew is identified in John as Mary, the sister of Martha and Lazarus. This was the Mary who was described by Luke as sitting devotedly at Jesus’ feet listening to His teaching while her sister Martha fretted over the preparations. Mary was devoted to Jesus even though it seemed to get her in trouble! But Mary is the only one getting it right. Jesus is more important than anything else. This woman only cared about Jesus and what He thought of her.

She brought something precious and costly and she broke the vessel and poured out her gift, keeping nothing for herself. This act of devotion is a rebuke perhaps to us who may have lost our first love, like that Church in Revelation. This woman is a reminder that being a disciple of Jesus means having the singular kind of love and devotion that holds nothing back but pours itself out, in spite of what other people might say or do to oppose it.

Does it surprise you that this woman had her critics? How could anyone oppose such an act of love? Perhaps even more surprising is that her critics were the other disciples, who all probably chimed in with Judas. Anyone who wants to be a disciple of Jesus will soon discover that there are forces of opposition.

First, we must look inside ourselves. There is a natural self-centeredness that gets in the way of true devotion to Jesus. Don’t make the mistake of blaming something or someone else for your shortcomings! That is the oldest tendency in human nature, going all the way back to Eden. “It was the woman you gave me.” And the classic line “the Devil made me do it.”

We don’t like to admit that there are some things we do just for ourselves, because we want something really bad, and we aren’t thinking about anything or anyone else at that moment. We don’t like to admit that there is a little Judas in all of us, waiting to get out and express himself. That is what the New Testament calls the Flesh, which is that thing that we must crucify if we are to follow Jesus. There are no exceptions! Everyone must take up his or her cross, dying to self, in order to follow Jesus. This must be done first, at the beginning of our spiritual lives, or no further progress will ever be made.

Something else that can severely hinder our pure devotion to Christ is our lack of understanding. If we don’t really understand who Jesus is and what He came to do then we can never really enter fully into the Christian life. Jesus is not trying to hide the truth or fool us. Our spiritual obtuseness is not due to a lack of information or revelation. The dullness of the disciples was not due to a lack of clarity from Jesus, who had told them plainly on several occasions that He would be crucified when they got to Jerusalem. But the very idea of the Christ suffering and dying simply did not fit into their preconceived framework about the Kingdom of God. How could the Kingdom come if Jesus were to actually die? Perhaps He was speaking metaphorically, as He often did? We often think that God should conform to our own plans, ideas, and expectations. But when God breaks out of our little box we have put Him in, we become confused. What is God up to? It is crucial that we learn that following Jesus does not mean that He conforms to us, but that we must conform to Him and His agenda. When we do decide to actually follow Him, instead of trying to convince Him to follow us, we find that things begin to get clear.

Another powerful source of opposition to following Jesus is our desire to please others and win their approval. I am not a big fan of secular psychology. But even psychologists can see that our desire for approval drives much of what we do in life. And this tendency can be destructive, causing us to make the wrong choices for the wrong reasons. Secular counselors tell us we should just please ourselves instead of pleasing others, but that is not at all the mission of a disciple of Jesus. A disciple lives to please the Lord, not himself or herself.

But if we become overly concerned with what other people think about us, this concern will eventually collide with what Jesus wants. Your loyalty and devotion to Christ will eventually be tested by your desire to please others. And this test will determine the strength of your faith in Christ just as the weight of traffic will test the design of a suspension bridge. What do you really want? Do you want the praise of God or the approval of your peers? You won’t be able to have the best of both worlds, you will eventually have to make a choice.

Surprisingly, you won’t even be able to always win the praise of other Christians, not to mention the pagan world. It is the unbelieving world that will constantly be telling us that we are wasting our time following Jesus. “Why waste your life being religious instead of just enjoying life? Why don’t you ever do something just for yourself?” One of the big critiques of Christianity these days is that you can’t be a Christian and enjoy life. You can’t have any fun as a Christian because there are all those rules. How can you be happy if you have restrictions? You can only be happy if you say “yes” to all of life’s experiences. And remember that life is so short! So “carpe diem!” The world firmly believes that you only go around once, this life is all there is, so don’t waste your life serving some silent and ungrateful deity.

So there is perhaps still a lingering fear in our hearts that the Lord will not appreciate our devotion but will ignore us. Nothing is worse than pouring yourself out in a relationship with a partner who couldn’t care less and never reciprocates. Does the Lord even care about the things we do for Him? What has Jesus done for all the poor souls who have given their lives, perhaps even in literal martyrdom, while the world just sits around drinking pink champagne and laughing at these Christian fools? Maybe you have to be a fool to follow Jesus.

What this woman did to honor Jesus might look foolish, but Jesus did not think so. In the final analysis it is what Jesus thinks about us that really counts, not the opinions of our peers. The Lord highly valued the devotion of this woman, who was even willing to expose herself to abuse and criticism in showing that devotion. She cared more about the Lord than about the opinions of everyone else in that room. The rest of the people in that room did not value Jesus like that woman. Instead of congratulating her and following her example, they rebuked her. What people tend to value is what they think will make them look and feel good. I have my doubts about the sincerity of the disciple’s desire to help the poor. We know Judas didn’t mean it! It is very easy to say what we think people want to hear without caring one iota about the real issue. People do this in groups all the time. When speaking about teens we call it peer pressure. But adults experience the same thing.

There is nothing wrong with helping the poor, but this was the wrong time. When Jesus is in the room the thing to do is honor Him. What is more important than Jesus? Let’s get our priorities straight! No amount of good works or religiosity can replace a pure devotion to Jesus. It is possible to do good works and to even be religious without really being devoted to Jesus or doing what you do for Him. These people might impress other people, but the Lord will not be impressed.

What really impresses Jesus is sincerity or honesty. The Lord will not accept pretense or hypocrisy. In fact, there is probably nothing the Lord hates more than a religious actor putting on a performance for all to see. Jesus once watched the people putting their offerings in the Temple treasuries. There were many who put in large amounts with much fanfare. Then a woman, who was also a widow, put in two small pennies, worth almost nothing, yet all she had to live on. Like the woman who anointed Jesus, that woman gave everything she had, holding nothing back. The woman in our text gave a costly gift, worth much more than the widow’s coins. But that is not the point.

The gift was received in both cases because of the devoted hearts of the givers, not the actual value or size of the gifts. The Lord is concerned about our hearts, not just the offering we bring. Even the right offering is wrong if offered to God in pretense. Cain’s offering is always rejected because Cain is rejected. And even the plowing of the wicked is sin. Whatever is not done in faith is sinful. God does not accept bribes and payoffs. And if we want the praise of men, we can have that, but nothing more from the Lord.

The person the Lord honors is the person who seeks only the Lord’s approval. The approval of other people can easily become an idol – a replacement for the approval of the living God. We seek the approval of others because we want instant gratification. The people we seek to please we can see right there in front of us. But how do we get the approval we crave from a God we can’t see? The woman in this account had an opportunity we don’t have. She had Jesus right there in front of her! We like to think that if we had been there we would have done what she did, or something like it.

But would we have had her faith? She still had to exercise faith in Jesus, even though He was physically present. She had to believe the words of Jesus just like we do today. We must live by faith, even when that means waiting for our devotion to be rewarded. The true reward of faith will never be given in this world. Can you wait on the Lord? The approval of the Lord, and hearing those glorious words “well done, good and faithful servant,” will come at the End, on that great Day of Judgment, and not before. But if the Lord’s approval is what we want, then it is worth waiting for, even at the expense of this present world and its pleasures.

Perhaps the idea of standing before the Lord on the Day of Judgment is intimidating. How could anyone hope for His approval? Don’t we rather fear His scrutiny? Won’t He manage to find some fault in us, something that displeases Him? We have all known someone who could not be pleased, but was always finding fault. This might have even been someone close to us, someone from whom we desired nothing more than approval, but from whom we only got rejection. Many people view God like that. God is impossible to please and will always find something in us to condemn. But Jesus as not harsh and critical of this woman. He did not come to condemn the world, but to save it. God is not looking for a reason to condemn us. We know that He could find reason if He wanted to! But your judge is also your redeemer. I am not saying that Jesus is soft on sin. But He is never harsh with sinners who are turning to Him in repentance. The Prodigal Son is always received when he comes home, without any fault-finding or punishment. It is grace that justifies, not Law.

And that’s why grace is the most beautiful thing in the world. Not only is God’s grace beautiful, it makes us beautiful too. Grace is much more than just getting sins forgiven. Grace has power to transform the structure of our hearts. What this woman did for Jesus was beautiful because knowing the grace of Jesus had made her beautiful. This woman’s beauty is a stark contrast to the ugliness of the religious leaders and Judas.
Selfishness makes people ugly.

A medieval Italian artist made a painting of the arrest of Jesus in the Garden. Judas is leading the mob through the darkness to give that fateful kiss. The artist paints Judas with a dark and deformed face, almost animal-like, while the face of Jesus is beautiful and surrounded by light. The ugliness of Judas is contrasted visually with the beauty of Christ and His sacrificial love. Sacrificial love is beautiful. A self-centered life is ugly and it makes us uglier and uglier. Each day we have the ability to form beauty or ugliness.

In his novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde tells about a young man who has his portrait painted. Dorian Gray is a handsome, vain man and his portrait captures the essence of his character in a surprising way. As Dorian begins to live an increasingly reckless, selfish, and wicked life, the portrait begins to change, accurately reflecting and capturing the essence of the man’s character. While Dorian outwardly appears the same, his portrait deteriorates, like his character, until the image is hideous and monstrous.

Imagine looking at a picture of yourself so that the reflection was that of the condition, the true condition, of your own soul! Would that be horrifying? C.S. Lewis said that the final and absolute horror is being horrified at one’s own self.

The beauty of this woman in our text is actually a reflection of the beauty of Christ Himself. Just as this woman poured out her precious perfume on the body of Jesus, the blood that was in that body would be poured out unto death. Under the Law of Moses there were certain offerings that were to be poured out upon the altar of sacrifice. The offering being poured out is given completely to God. It only makes sense to pour out our lives for the One who poured out His life for us. We live for Him because He died for us. This woman’s act of breaking and then pouring out her precious gift calls us to do the same with our very lives, holding nothing back from the Lord. Nothing can be raised unless it dies first. This woman anointed Jesus’ body for death and burial. We must be prepared to die with Christ, our old life of sin buried and forsaken, so that we can then share in the power of His resurrection.

We may look like fools now, pouring ourselves out for Jesus, while the world and its pleasures offer instant satisfaction. Just remember that the World passes away, along with its lusts. Only what is done for Christ will last. Jesus said that what that woman did would be told and remembered. What she did for Jesus would live forever because Jesus lives forever. A life poured out for Jesus is never wasted.

But I am afraid there are people who think this kind of devotion to Jesus is only for the spiritually elite, or perhaps someone who has been dramatically saved from an immoral life. Normal Christians, regular Church members, are exempt from such extreme acts of devotion. Pastors and missionaries pour out their lives for Jesus, but is every Christian expected to do so? So most Christians are pretty casual about their faith in Jesus. We don’t want to go overboard, to become religious fanatics. After all, what would people think of us?

The Carnal Corruption of the Church (1 Corinthians 3.1-4)

The Church at Corinth was probably the most troubled of the congregations started by the Apostle Paul. After having such a good start by the most significant Apostle of the Lord, you would think that this Church should have been a stellar example of what the Church ought to be. But Corinth was a mess. Corinth is the example in the New Testament of a corrupt Church. The Bible is filled with bad examples as well as good ones so that we can learn not only what we should do but what we should also avoid. Every Church should make it their goal to avoid becoming like Corinth.

We can see an inventory of Corinth’s internal issues and problems just by reading through Paul’s first letter to this Church. The main issue seems to be that the Church was deeply divided. This issues comes up more than once and it also comes up first, so I am concluding that this was perhaps the most serious issue Paul wants to address. They had neglected the Gospel and accepted worldly wisdom, which was probably the source of all their problems. They were carnal and unspiritual, yet also proud. In this condition they were unable to grasp spiritual truth and had therefore remained infantile in their understanding. Sexual sin had broken out in the Church and they also seemed ignorant about the Lord’s will for marriage. They were taking each other to court and disputing with each other over trivial matters in front of unbelievers. Some of them had questions about idolatry and apparently did not know that there was only one God. Their divisions were especially apparent when they attempted to have the Lord’s Supper. They were trying to exercise spiritual gifts, but their assemblies were chaotic and probably competitive. And some of them did not believe in the resurrection of the body.

So it is important to notice when you read this epistle that Paul is writing to correct all of these issues. Paul is not writing to give advanced, doctrinal instruction to stable believers. He is writing to correct carnal, immature people. Unfortunately, what happened at Corinth can easily happen in any Church. It is always possible for the Flesh to creep into any Church and Corinth was certainly not the only Church to experience an outbreak of carnality. What corrupted the Church at Corinth is still with us today in spite of all of our cultural differences and technological advancements. Human nature has not changed.

When Paul uses the term “flesh” or “carnal” he is really talking about human nature. This is something that does not disappear from Christian people and remains a liability until we are separated from our bodies and this world in death. The Flesh is always a weakness, a liability, and a constant struggle for Christians. It is something that we must all continually fight to keep in subjection or it will begin again to dominate our individual lives and even our Church fellowship, as was the case in Corinth.

If the Flesh is dominating the Church this condition is always inappropriate and unacceptable. The manifestation of the Flesh must be recognized, clearly identified, and corrected immediately. It might even mean that certain members of the Church must be disciplined so that they repent, which is a course of action Paul outlines for the Church at Corinth. Those who are spiritual must recognize and identify the intrusion of the Flesh. Those who are in the Flesh must be humbled and accept correction. But what we must understand is that Paul is in no way giving the Church a license to be carnal or to tolerate the Flesh in any way. Something must be done and something can be done so that the Flesh does not continue to dominate the Church.

While there are certainly individual applications here we are primarily speaking of the Body. Each individual member adds something to the Body as a whole and we must take care to add something beneficial and not harmful to the Body of Christ. All Christians are members of the Body and we do not have the option of separating ourselves from the rest of the Body. So when there is trouble in the Body, everyone is potentially harmed by it and that makes this a serious matter.

Keeping the Flesh in check is a challenge for every believer and for every Church. All Church problems can be traced back to an outbreak of Flesh. I believe that Paul was summarizing all of the problems in the Church at Corinth when he said “for you are still of the flesh.” It is usually a mistake to try to address all of the symptoms of the Flesh without tracing these things back to the source. You cannot treat the symptoms only or you may make everything worse by ignoring the source of the problem.

When you go to the doctor you want him to find and treat the source of your illness or injury, you don’t simply want him to medicate you into a half-conscious state and then send you home declaring you to be healed. Yet this is exactly what many religious professionals do with the problems in the Church. Keeping with this medical metaphor, we must first recognize that we have an illness before we will seek healing. One of the most disturbing aspects of the Flesh is that many people seem to be unable or unwilling to come to terms with it and recognize what it is.

I have noticed that people will often put off seeking medical treatment because they do not want to face the reality of a serious illness. We are the same way with our spiritual sickness – actually even more so.

We must come to terms with the fact that Flesh is unacceptable to God. There is NOTHING good in our Flesh and God is not in any way tolerant of it. The Flesh profits nothing! But most people continue to believe that God will accept or tolerate Flesh because He is so loving and gracious. Doesn’t God forgive sins? So He will forgive us for being in the Flesh, right?

The modern Church has come to tolerate the Flesh and justify its continued expression and dominance. This means that many Church people are basically like everyone else in the world. To keep the Church institution together they try to mitigate the symptoms of the Flesh – much like the United Nations attempts to do with the nations of the world so they will not destroy each other. So some semblance of peace is kept. But the Flesh remains the same. And so the Churches today are filled with people who are in the Flesh but who have simply added religion to a life they deem is already acceptable to God.

And if the Flesh does break out in the Church, as in Corinth, people today will simply say, “well we are only human after all.” But that state of being “only human” is the fatal flaw. Those who are only human aren’t acceptable to God. We must be born again or we cannot enter the Kingdom.

A Church that is dominated by the Flesh and by people in the Flesh is a complete misrepresentation of what God is doing in salvation.

The Flesh is human nature. Human nature is corrupted because of sin. Flesh can be traced back to Adam and to Adam’s sin. We know that everything that can be traced back to Adam has been rejected by God and cannot enter into the Kingdom. Anyone who does not understand this has missed what is perhaps the central teaching of the Bible regarding sin and salvation.

If what is connected to Adam is somehow acceptable to God, then there is no need for salvation at all and the whole Biblical record falls to the ground and becomes meaningless.

From what is Jesus saving us? That is the crucial question. If God loves us just as we are then why did Jesus have to come into the world? I believe that I am touching on one of the biggest false doctrines that is being taught everywhere in the Church today. The false Gospel that is being preached is that you are basically acceptable to God as you are and that Jesus coming into the world and dying was simply to show you or to prove to you that God really does love you so very much. All that remains is for people to simply accept the fact that God loves them.

In this model of salvation there is really no change required in us at all. If there is anything objectionable in us, then God simply forgives and wipes the slate clean again. Of course an infinitely loving God would be willing to do that. Perhaps we underestimate what a radical departure this is from the teaching of the Bible about human nature, the nature of God, and the nature of salvation. Those who believe and propagate this teaching have an unbiblical view of humanity, of God, and of salvation. And those three doctrines are the very essence of the message of the Bible. Get those things wrong and you are completely out in left field!

C.S. Lewis said that theology is like a roadmap to get us to the right destination. If you have the wrong map or no map at all you will get lost. No one reads a map for its own sake. No one should study theology or teach doctrine just to be intellectual or to be right. The whole point is to get to the right destination. A person who does not understand the basics of the nature of man, the nature of God, and the purpose of salvation through Christ is off the edges of the map and wondering in the wilderness!

Jesus did not come into the world to prove that we were already acceptable to God. Jesus came to make a way for us to BE acceptable to God because in our natural state in the Flesh we were not acceptable. Jesus came to be the second Adam – the progenitor of a race of people who are acceptable to God. I remember Brother Seth Wilson saying that in order to become Christians we must first resign from the human race!

Christians are people no longer dominated by the Flesh. This does not mean that Christians can’t have relapses. But to make excuses for the continued expression of the Flesh and to justify its dominion over our lives and our Church is to oppose everything God is doing in salvation.

Paul’s letter to Corinth is an inspired assessment of that particular congregation. We understand that Scripture is never just the thoughts and opinions of a man. This Divine assessment of the Corinthian Church is coming through the Apostle Paul, but what we are really reading in this epistle is the Divine perspective. Paul was not pleased with Corinth because the Lord was not pleased with Corinth. We must become familiar with the fact that God can be displeased even with His own people, or at least with those who claim to be His people.

Most of the Old Testament Scriptures chronicle God’s displeasure with the people of Israel. Simply being the descendants of Abraham in no way shielded the nation of Israel from Divine scrutiny and wrath. Simply wearing the name of Christ or calling ourselves a Church in no way provides us with an automatic shield from the watchful eyes of the Lord. In fact, in identifying ourselves with the Lord we are actually inviting His scrutiny. A relationship with the living God is never something to be taken casually.

God is holy. This was perhaps the most important theological revelation of the Old Covenant dispensation. The Law was nothing more than an extended lesson about the holiness of God. But the lesson was not just theoretical or philosophical. There was a practical concern. God’s desire was to dwell among His people. But how can a holy God dwell among unholy people? This was the central problem or question addressed under the Law. If God is going to dwell with His people that means God’s people must be holy. God’s people must be like God. God will not compromise His holiness and dwell in the midst of unholy people. If the people are not holy, then God’s presence will depart. If the people are not like God then the holiness of God will break out against them – which is what is called wrath.

There came a certain point in the history of Israel where the presence of God departed from the Temple – something the people had thought could never happen. Jeremiah the prophet warned the people not to think that having the Temple there in Jerusalem would shield them from God’s wrath. “Do not trust in these deceptive words: ‘This is the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD” (Jeremiah 7:1-4). Later it was the prophet Ezekiel who actually saw a vision of the glory of the Lord departing from the Temple (See Ezekiel 10). Unfortunately, religious people tend to think that their religious exercises will protect them from the wrath of God and guarantee His blessing and presence.

God is not interested only in religious ceremony but in spiritual worshipers (See John 4.21-24). God’s people must be in harmony with His nature. God is spirit. God’s people must worship God spiritually. God does not receive carnal religion. Worship that is not spiritual and that is offered by carnal people is just mechanical and amounts to nothing at all! Flesh is willing to be religious. But carnal religion only furthers our alienation from God.

God does not change. He will not compromise His nature in order to accommodate us and our Flesh. We must change in order to be in agreement with Him and His holiness. Salvation is all about God making us fit for His presence, not about God somehow learning to tolerate our Flesh. There is no change in God now that we live in New Testament times. God’s intolerance for the Flesh is just as strong as it was. That’s why this outbreak of Flesh in the Church at Corinth was so serious.

The Church is the Temple of God. This Temple has to be holy just as the Tabernacle and then the Temple had to be holy for God’s presence to dwell there. If the Church is not holy God’s presence cannot dwell there and the Church will be subject to the wrath of God just like Israel.

This principle is vividly illustrated for us in the letters to the seven Churches of Asia in the book of Revelation. The Lord Jesus Himself addressed those congregations. Most of them had to be rebuked and the Lord promised them that He would fight against them and even take away their lamp stand – or shut down their church – unless they repented. The modern Church has failed to take these warnings seriously, just as Israel failed to listen to the prophets God sent them to warn them about His wrath. There persists a sense of false security among religious people. They just don’t believe that God will be displeased with them. They believe that their religion covers their carnality.

But we know that those who are in the Flesh, even the religious, cannot please God (Romans 8.8). There seems to be this widespread belief that because of Jesus God can now tolerate things He could not previously tolerate. In the Old Testament God was always getting angry. But now that Jesus has come God is only loving and merciful, which most people interpret as tolerant.

But this reasoning is deeply flawed. God does not change. And if Jesus has revealed even more to us about the nature of God then that means there is even less of an excuse for our carnality! In other words, instead of concluding that God is now more tolerant of the Flesh than He was before Jesus came, we should reason that He would be even less tolerant and more sensitive to the expression of the Flesh among His people because so much more has been given to us than to Israel. “To whom much is given, much will be required.” To be a carnal Church we must sin against a lot of light!

The Corinthians were being carnal and the apostle Paul rebukes them for it. This has to mean that they did not have to be carnal. They were acting out of character. Yet, this letter to the Corinthians is used today to justify carnality in the Church. We have heard about people who are called “carnal Christians” and the Church has recently even been described as a “beautiful mess.” The implication is that these contradictions are somehow acceptable, perhaps even normal. We might as well talk about a righteous sin or a good demon! If the people claiming to be Christians are carnal, and no different from anyone else in the world, then how do we even know who the real Christians are? Is there even any difference between a Christian and a non-Christian? If not, then what is salvation good for? If Christians can be carnal with impunity then the grace of God is a license to sin. So let us sin so that grace may increase! This carnal Christianity is built on a cheap and powerless grace that is a reproach to the true grace of God.

But Paul said that the Corinthians were behaving in a human way. Well, what’s wrong with that? Were the Corinthians not human? Were they members of an alien race? Actually, yes! In Christ we become more than human. This is because in Christ we are made new creatures who are born of the Spirit of God. So while normal people can say “well, we are only human,” a Christian cannot say that.

What we must remember, however, is that the human nature is not obliterated when we are born again. This is why it is still possible for Christians to sin and to lapse back into the Flesh, which is exactly what happened at Corinth and still happens in the Church today. But the point Paul is making is that this does not have to happen and it should not happen.

Paul gives them no justification for this condition. We should never justify our carnality. The Flesh must be ruthlessly crucified over and over again. An old Puritan theologian named John Owens said “be killing sin or it will be killing you.” The good news is that believers actually have the ability to do this!

It is not done by law, disciple, or willpower, but through the power of the indwelling Spirit. The Holy Spirit is stronger than the Flesh. If we live under the control of the Holy Spirit then we will not be dominated by the Flesh. “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh” (Galatians 5:16). This is a promise! You cannot be in the Flesh if you are in the Spirit – these two principles are opposed to one another.

Now if you find that you are operating in the Flesh the thing to do is to be honest about this and confess your sins. We need honest confession, not excuses, for the expression of the Flesh.

So if a Christian is operating in the Flesh it is because he or she is not walking in the Spirit. We need to acknowledge this fact instead of running to the counselor or a recovery program. No Christian should have a defeatist attitude toward the Flesh and give up or give in to the Flesh. To just allow the Flesh to dominate is to deny the work of the Holy Spirit, which is really quenching or even grieving the Holy Spirit.

If the key to keeping the Flesh in check is walking according to the Holy Spirit, or being under the control of the Spirit, then we must conclude that sin cannot be dislodged from our lives or from the Church by a principle of law, discipline, or willpower. This is why all man-made recovery programs can never really work. At best a recovery program can only deal with the symptoms. Most Churches attempt to deal with the expression of the Flesh through either a recovery program with a series of steps or disciplines or the Church may employ a principle of law.

A principle of law seems more Biblical because the commandments are there in Scripture. If we threaten people with the wrath of the Almighty and hold them over the fires of Hell then this will surely curtail the expression of the Flesh, right? The fear of the Lord IS the beginning of wisdom and we should certainly cultivate an awareness of God. But we should also remember that Israel made a golden calf at the very foot of Mount Sinai! Flesh will find a way to break through even when the commandments have thundered forth from the mountain of God. Please understand that I am not saying that the Law of God should be ignored. The Flesh needs to hear the commandments. But even after the Flesh has heard the commandments it will still be the Flesh. Flesh cannot be changed, even by a commandment. “The Flesh gives birth to Flesh.” Our escape from the dominance of the Flesh cannot come through discipline that we impose on ourselves or even through the knowledge of a Divine law.

The Law will actually stir up the Flesh and its desires – a principle illustrated by John Bunyan with a woman sweeping a dirty room and filling the air with dust. What is needed to really clean the room, as Bunyan continues his wonderful metaphor, is to apply the water of grace. To put this principle in Scriptural terms, it is grace that teaches us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts (Titus 2.11-14).

Grace must be applied to the Flesh. The only thing that can dislodge the Flesh is a more powerful principle. Perhaps the term principle is too impersonal. What we need to dislodge the dominance of the Flesh is a more powerful affection or desire. Only the grace of Christ in the Gospel can dislodge our love of self, sin, and the World.

This is why a false Gospel always leads in some way to the expression or justification of the Flesh. The Corinthians were carnal and spiritual infants because they had neglected the Gospel and listened to the World’s wisdom. If the Gospel is not being preached in the Church, we can be sure that the World’s wisdom will be preached. The World is constantly preaching at the Church. Paul had to preach the Gospel all over again to the Corinthians. Their carnality had made them spiritual infants. You cannot grow if you are in the Flesh.

Christians never outgrow the Gospel. The Gospel is actually the environment or the soil in which we grow into Christlikeness. If the Gospel is neglected and not preached then carnality and immaturity will dominate. But do not mistake the mortification of the Flesh for spiritual growth itself. Crucifying the Flesh is not what makes you a spiritual giant. Overthrowing the dominion of the Flesh just brings you back to zero and puts you in the race – the prize being the eternal glory of being like Jesus. So if we have kept the Flesh in check we should not boast in that. Now the real work of being conformed to the image of Christ can begin!

From Slavery to Worship (Exodus 19.1-6)

Israel went from slavery into a covenant with God. The people had been slaves in Egypt for over 400 years! This generation of people had only known slavery and had never been free. It would be a very ambitious goal of making a group of people who had only known slavery into a nation. But Israel was not going to be just any nation. They were to be a nation that belonged to God.

It is important to understand that while God had already made a covenant with Abraham – a promise that was repeated to Isaac and Jacob – God made another covenant with the people of Israel after bringing them out of slavery in Egypt. It is very important to see this distinction between the covenant with Abraham, which was really a Divine promise, and the covenant God then made with the people after the Exodus from Egypt. The covenant of Law made through Moses was not like the promise God has previously made with Abraham, though both covenants were part of the Divine purpose. Israel was going to enter a covenant based on Law. The covenant God made with Abraham was based on a promise.

Like Israel we were once in slavery and we have been set free to be in covenant with God. However, the covenant we have entered into is not the covenant God made with Israel through Moses. We are the children of the Promise. What God promised Abraham has been fulfilled in Christ. Israel came out of slavery to enter a covenant of law. We have come out of slavery to sin to be sons of God through faith in Jesus Christ.

They were set free from slavery to worship and serve God. God made this very clear to Israel. Israel was delivered from Egypt by God to be used by God for His own purposes. Israel was not set free from Egypt to do whatever they wanted to do. Israel’s election was for Divine service, which included great responsibility.

Israel was free from slavery, but this freedom was not for Israel to chart their own course in the world. God has a specific purpose and work for the nation of Israel and they had no right to do anything else since they belonged to God. Israel belonged to God because it was God who had redeemed them from slavery in Egypt. God had purchased Israel for Himself. Israel already belonged to God. But God had purchased Israel again when He brought them out of Egypt. God’s claim on Israel was based on redemption.

Suppose there was a person in great, mortal danger who was rescued by someone else’s intervention. In some way the person who had been rescued would owe his or her life to the one who provided their deliverance. How could you repay someone who had actually saved your life? You would probably be willing to do anything for them if they asked!

In the same way we have been redeemed, or purchased by God, through the blood of Christ. Jesus gave His life to save our lives. And this means that Jesus now has a claim on our lives, in an even deeper sense than God had a claim on the people of Israel after bringing them out of Egypt. Jesus did not save us so we could go on our way and live our own lives as we desire. Redemption means that we now belong to the Redeemer to do His will and live for Him.

They built the Tabernacle so that God could dwell with them. A large portion of the book of Exodus contains the detailed plans for this portable Tent of Meeting. It was called the Tent of Meeting because that is where God would meet with the people. God’s presence would be localized there in the Tabernacle. This Tent of Meeting would literally be the center of the Israelite community as they were even commanded to arrange their own camp around the Tabernacle. Moses was told repeatedly to make the Tabernacle exactly like the pattern he was given. We now know that this Tabernacle was a kind of earthly copy of heaven itself. The Tabernacle was arranged to show what it would take to come into the presence of God, which was no small matter!

The whole Tabernacle was an illustration of the holiness of God and all of the elaborate preparations that had to be made if a holy God was to dwell with the people. In the prologue to his Gospel, the Apostle John writes “the Word became Flesh and dwelt among us.” The original word “dwelt” literally means “to pitch a tent” and this was a direct reference to the Tabernacle. In other words, just as the glory of God once dwelt in the Tabernacle, the glory of God dwelt in the person of Jesus Christ. Jesus is the real Tabernacle – the place where God came to dwell with men – of which the Tabernacle built by Moses was merely a foreshadowing. God’s purpose has always been to make a people for Himself with whom He can dwell. So in the New Creation it is said “now the dwelling of God is with men.”

The whole point of the Tabernacle was the Most Holy Place where the Mercy Seat was located. The Tabernacle was really an object lesson about approaching the presence of God. It was not a simple or easy thing to come into the presence of God. Sin has caused alienation between God and men and something must be done about sin before God can receive men. God really cannot receive us as we are and the Tabernacle illustrates this principle.

The first object lesson was the basin for washing. In order to come into the presence of God you must first be washed and cleansed.

The second object lesson was the altar of sacrifice. In order for us to come into the presence of God, blood had to first be shed to atone, or cover, our sins.

We should remember that the people could not all come into the Tabernacle. There was a special class of people who represented the people of Israel before God. The priests from the tribe of Levi were to care for the Tabernacle and all of its services. This illustrates for us our need for a mediator before God. Someone must go in before us to represent us in the presence of God. In the Most Holy Place was the Ark of the Covenant over which there was the Mercy Seat, which represented the very Throne of God in heaven. Access to the presence of God was restricted as long as that Tabernacle stood.

The entire message of the Tabernacle was the fact that God and men were separated by sin. The priests and all of the sacrifices of the Tabernacle were just reminders of the people’s sin in the presence of a holy God. But God was making a way for His presence to be there and the people to not be consumed. The full remedy for sin was not provided in the Tabernacle.

There was a veil that separated the people from the presence of God. Only the High Priest, and only once per year of the Day of Atonement, could enter behind the veil into the Most Holy Place. And the High Priest had to take blood for the sins of the people, as well as for his own sin. This veil between the Holy Place and the Most Holy Place was symbolic of the separation between God and the people as long as the Tabernacle was standing.

This veil continued to separate men from the presence of God until the day Jesus died. We are told in the Gospels that when Jesus breathed His last, the veil in the Temple was ripped in two from the top to the bottom. When Christ had offered Himself for sin there was no longer any need for this veil to separate God from men. The way into the very presence of God has at last been opened and we can enter in to the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus!

And so the writer of Hebrews tells us to draw near to God because this is our right in Christ Jesus.

“Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water” (Hebrews 10:19-22).