Archive for March, 2024

Easter; The Easter Cross & The Death Of The Human Will

March 27, 2024

Today I ask the question Why is Easter important?  I want to start off with an object lesson.  In my student days I was once given an inked wood cut poster of Marin Luther.   Martin Luther alongside Erasmus were somehow involved in the initiation of the Reformation.   I really like this old fashioned picture painter by Edward Matthew Ward.  Yes, books used to be chained in the reading room. In this particular case the chains are thicker than normal and there is an hourglass on the other side of the table and the sand has run out. On the Museum and Gallery org site (from  museumandgallery.org ) He says that these chains are a symbols of the inner turmoil going on inside the heart and soul of Luther.

He then quotes a passage from somewhere:

“Night and day I pondered until I saw the connection between the justice of God and the statement ’the just shall live by his faith.’ Then I grasped that the justice of God is that righteousness by which, through grace and sheer mercy, God justifies us through faith. There upon I felt myself to be reborn and to have gone through open doors into paradise. The whole of Scripture took on new meaning, and whereas before ’the justice of God’ had filled me with hate, now it became to me inexpressibly sweet in greater love. This passage of Paul became to me the gate of heaven.” (From Here I stand by Bainton as well as the above web site.)

Anyhow my view at this point follows Luther and John Calvin.  The following blog is my understanding of the Fall.  I will finish off the blog with some  discussion on the question of justification of Faith with the help of Herman Bavinck in the Reformed Dogmatics

Easter is the great festival of Christianity and the culmination of God’s word to humanity (In Scripture) and by the Word of God (in our Lord Jesus being fully God and fully man, the Mystery of mysteries.) This is very personal as Bavinck reminded me that all we were as far as being alive to God; we were dead twigs.  Something that is dead cannot make decisions.  God the Unmoved Mover by the Holy Spirit breathed life into me so that by faith and by grace I could follow the way of Christ.  A car without an ignition cannot move so a human being without the Holy Spirit cannot be spiritually alive in terms of salvation.  The third Person of the Trinity is our ignition and life Creator.

But while we were dead in our trespasses and sins Christ, The Son of God, willingly died for my sin and your sin.  It is now possible by faith, by grace for a human being to enter God’s Kingdom.  This fact that Jesus died on Calvary and his resurrection are not any ordinary events.   These events are the crucial events for the whole of the human race.  This is not another Hegel or Pannenberg thesis, antithesis and synthesis of an event, as though one event modifies another event in the making history. No, my friends, there is no modification of history here as Christianity remembers the deeds of the past.  We look back to the cross and the resurrection which is the crucial and the centre of the cross, Where the two beams meet, where our roads cross, This  is indeed the Divine Will for the human race. 

Why do I take this view as a Christian.  Scripture tells us in Genesis that Adam and Eve sinned… You may say; Do you take this seriously?

Yes, I do.

Let me reason with you. 

  • If one takes the story of the fall literally, it is true.
  • If one takes the story of the Fall generically (Adam and Eve as symbols) it is true
  • If one takes the story of the Fall as a myth, it is true.
  • If one takes the story of the Fall as legend, it is true.
  • If you reject the story of the Fall in the name of science, it is still true.

We all sometimes in our human life do wrong.  We all have our selfish ways.  Even our good deeds somehow are tainted with, “What’s in it for me?”.  Even if we wanted todo the right thing, God already knew that we could never save ourselves.

This is human nature, and this is the effect of the fall and even if you reject this theological, historical Fall; You still sin! The Bible says that if you sin your dead.  Even reflecting on our own human nature shows that we are dead towards God as God and sin cannot live together.

Something special needed to happen in human history for us to be able to come closer to a true and living relationship with God.  As far as sin in our lives are concerned there are many books to try to help us but they fail.

  • Self-help books to make us healthier.
  • How to be the next millionaire
  • Brain train

The list could go on.  I’m not saying these books are bad but what I am saying they are trying to fill that spiritual void.  Then there are various belief systems;

  • Buddhism, A practical religion that rains your mind to make you a more compassionate human being.
  • Zen that this world you see is not the real one.
  • Humanism to make better human beings through our own helps.

It gets a little bit more complicated after a while.   I am not trashing these ideas as there is some grain of truth in all of them but in the end, they will never satisfy the human soul completely.  This to me is a good enough reason to look at the Easter story in a little more depth.   Each human being is different too and the way of reading Scripture will a lot of the time be influenced by our own bent on the Truth. But even here with the various types of humans:

  • The scientific human
  • The introspective human
  • The willing human
  • The doubting human
  • The busy human
  • The rich human
  • The power-crazy human
  • The sports human
  • The party orientated human

Lets look at a couple of examples:

The Scientific objective human

This person believes that science has all the answers, and they spend their lives looking for the possibility to cheat death.  They need hard evidence from the laboratory to come to a conclusion about the afterlife. Possibly if they looked at the papyri and early documents of the Bible then they could start to believe in the power of the Scriptures.

The Feelingful introspective Human

This person goes out looking to fill their emotional needs.  They may dabble in drugs and alcohol to make themselves feel better but in the end, they lose all hope.  Actually, our Lord taught that it is only when we realize we cannot do anything in our own wisdom to please God, that God starts to work in our lives.  So, some drug addicts and experiential searchers can get into heaven too. 

When we think about peoples’ circumstances and our own circumstances, we realize how lost we are.  All human beings’ sometimes have sinned or have been hurt because of sin and wrongdoing.  We have all missed the mark we have all done wrong.  Never mind not being able to reach God’s standards, we cannot even reach our own standards.  Our consciences (the voice of God) speak to us and condemns us.

This then is a real conundrum and even if speak in non-religious terms we can see how serious the human condition is.   Which ever way we look at it by our own means such as:

  • Self-help.
  • Psychological therapy.
  • Get rich.
  • Work out (sports).
  • Party all night get drunk and have sleep overs.
  • Join a political party and fight for a cause.

I’m sure the list could go on that by using our intellect that we could possibly find happiness!  Outside of religion every avenue open to us will fail.  I’ve painted a grim picture of a humanist future.  The governments can possibly make life a little bit more comfortable or uncomfortable with who is in power. 

In a way every government is capricious, and they change their minds all the time.  My answer to this dilemma is that there is indeed a God, there is indeed a Creator.  For the Christian there is indeed the Trinity.   In the past Pagan’s were on to something when they realized that there is a season for everything.  Farmers used to mark the new year possibly on the full moon or equinoxes.  They looked to the signs for the future harvest that they would have enough food to eat and survive. 

There is truth to this, but it points to a greater truth that there is a higher intelligence that we do not understand. People can live because there is food to eat. People can live because they have clean drinking water et al.   Theologically this is known as common grace, God’s love and His gift to the whole of the human race.

Even this cannot make us happy as we look at what the human race has done to our theatre of living on this planet earth. Woe betide that we will go to other planets and cause serious harm to them too.  Should we even go to other planets if we cannot even take care of planet earth?  Even with all of the resources on planet earth we cannot even take care of the poor and sick of where we live.

These are very serious questions.

The Trinitarian answer is the Easter Story.  The Easter Story is God’s answer to the human condition.  God’s answer to the human condition, your condition and my condition are found at the foot of the cross.  The story of the Incarnation, the story of God becoming an ordinary life, living a life of submission to the will of God has been brought to this point.  The point above all points, the reason above all reasons.  Here, this particular moment that as far as the human condition is concerned, God in Christ was nailed to a wooden cross and hung there. Our Lord had a spear stuck into his side and blood and water gushed out. 

What was our Lord’s answer while he was hanging there between the sky and the ground;

  • The first answer was “Father forgive them for they know not what they do”. Luke 23: 34
  • The second answer was the resurrection! 18 ​… and I  was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and of Hades. Revelation 1:18

People do not have power to save themselves But in Christ God comes into your life and the Holy Spirit is able to make you a new creation. 

In simple terms God’s law was broken. 

The Gospel is pretty straight forward:

…that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; 10 for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. (Taken from biblegateway.com, Romans 10. 9-10)

In both aspects God is moving towards the sinner and the sinner is reciprocating God’s gift of salvation.  It is never the other way around.  No matter what a person does in their own strength, it is never possible to become a Christian. The human will of choice is dead to sin and it can never make decisions that can bring salvation in its own power.  Having said that even though you are spiritually dead to the things of God, God is love and by the work of the Holy Spirit you can be brought into salvation through what Jesus did for you so that by faith you too can become a new creation with a new heart that seeks after God. Different Christians depending on their disposition come to follow Christ from different premises.

  • Perhaps you have been praying and you feel Jesus is close to you. You say a prayer of repentance, that you are sorry for what you did, and you want to serve Jesus…
  • Perhaps you had a dream and Jesus came to you in the dream and our Lord Convinced you that he is the Truth.
  • Perhaps you have been looking at all the historical evidence of Jesus and his life and you have become convinced that Jesus is Lord.
  • You have been brought up in a Christian Family and you have come to faith without realizing the point when you were a child of the world and then a child of the kingdom of heaven!

There is no one ‘right way’ a person can become a Christian as our Trinitarian God works in mysterious ways.

Reflection

Up to this point I have been writing for the casual reader.  If you are a casual reader that is OK and you can stop reading and I hope you enjoyed the blog.  Up to this point we learned that the human heart is very sinful and very deceitful and there is no way spiritually a person can get to heaven in their own strength.  The road here however is wide open for everyone and by repentance and confession one can indeed become a follower of Christ.  It may be that you have decided to become a Christian then my advice is read John’s Gospel, pray, and seek out mature Christians you can trust and ask them to help you. 

The next section is more theological and if you like a challenge and want to think a little deeper about Justification by faith, its history and so on then feel free to continue reading.

Justification by faith and its relationship to good works in the thinking of Martin Luther or the forensic and effective aspects of justification by faith.

Martin Luther in the early days of the Reformation did not separate the forensic and effective aspects of Justification by faith.  After Luther this kernel of truth got lost in the history of the times.

Bavinck starts to explain Luthers Position:

Faith, therefore, includes two things: believing that we are sinners and believing that out of grace God justifies us for Christ’s sake. We also have to accept the first [that we are sinners], not because we experience it ourselves, but because God says so.

 (Taken from Reformed Dogmatics; page 191, Herman Bavinck, edited by John Bolt)

Bavinck makes it plain:

  • We need to accept that we are sinners because (God has told us that)
  • Because of Christ God can make us holy in his Son

Bavinck then quotes Martin Luther to show this:

“Even if we do not recognize any sin in ourselves, we must nevertheless believe that we are sinners. Hence the apostle says: “I am not aware of anything against myself, but I am not thereby justified” (1 Cor. 4:4). For just as the righteousness of God is alive in me by faith, so by the same faith sin is alive in me; i.e., by faith alone we must believe that we are sinners, because it is not obvious to us. If truth be told, most of the time we do not seem to be conscious of ourselves [as sinners]. Therefore, we must stand by God’s judgment and believe the words by which he tells us that we are unjust, because he cannot tell a falsehood. “

(Taken fromLut/Jer’x Works, 25:215 (“CIA 56:231; Ficker, I, 69); cf. Luther’s ”67365, 25:239 (W’A 56:252; Ficker, 11, 89)) (This image was taken from wikimedia)

To this justification Bavinck shows the active and passive aspects of Luther’s’ theology of justification:

“Contrition, accordingly, precedes the faith that embraces the righteousness of God in Christ. Now if people thus believe God at his word that there is no righteousness in themselves but only in Christ, they justify God, and that is passive justification. “To justify God in his words” is “for him to be made just and true in his speech, or, alternatively, for his speech to be made just and true. This happens, moreover, by believing and accepting [those works] and by holding them to be true and just.” But this passive justification by which we on our part justify God “coincides with God’s justification of us actively, because he regards as righteousness the faith that justifies his words.” ‘The two coincide: “When he is justified he justifies, and when he justifies he is justified.” Indeed: “God’s passive and active justification and faith or belief in him are the same. The fact that we justify his speech is his own gift, and on account of that very gift he regards us as just, that is, justifies us.”

Passive justification is:

  • Contrition, repentance precedes faith.
  • Believe God at his word that He is just (you confess that you are a sinner)
  • Holding to God’s works being holy and true

Active justification coincides with:

  • God regards the faith as in Christ our justification

Thus; “When he is justified, he justifies, and when he justifies, he is justified.” Thus the effects of this justification has its correlate good works in Christ: “The death of Christ is the death ofsin and his resurrection is the life of righteousness, because by his death he made satisfaction for sin and by his resurrection he brought about righteousness for us. His death, therefore, does not just signify, but also effects the forgiveness of sins. And his resurrection is not only “a sacrament of our righteousness but also effects it in us.”  “All our good exists outside us in Christ, because that good is Christ,” but all of this also exists in us by faith and hope in him.19 In the same way Luther can say that our sin is covered by Christ’s dwelling in us, that God justifies believers because they confess their sins and seek their righteousness in him.  (From ibid Bavinck)

Thus Bavinck saw Luther’s’ correlation of ‘forensic’ and ‘effects’ over half a century and more before Tuomo Mannermaa  did, but Tuomo did well to see this.  If this indeed is the situation on justification by faith, then what has been taught from the time of Melancthon through the German theologians is a theology that is not true to its Lutheran roots (Luther’s teaching). Bavinck reminds us in volume four that some of Luthers writings were lost until 1899!   This has indeed affected ethics in the Finnish Lutheran Church with too much emphasis on mercy and forgiveness and not enough emphasis on contrition, repentance and so on.   Obviously, this is indeed a serious situation as it allows ‘sin’ to grow in the Church and defame God’s name.

Reflection

God loves you as much as he loves me.  God loves us so much that he had a plan to save us.  God became a man and for a moment an instant at the cross, God the Father could not even look at his Son, as he took on the sins of the World.  If we confess with a contrite heart that we are sinners (God’s gift) and if we believe in our heart Jesus as Lord, we will be saved.

We have come a long way in this blog and it is only as a child of faith that we have any hope of coming to God’s throne of grace. 

We have also at the end touched on the fact that the Lutheran Church through some of its scholars got derailed from the rails of Luther’s teachings.  Sin has crept into the Finnish Church thus repentance is needed and in Christ holiness to fill the Church again. 

I have also learned from this blog that I need to return to the doctrine of justification again and ask God in Christ to teach me more to help the Church to grow again by faith in Christ.

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Lent 6: Palm Sunday; Are you a Slave or a Master?

March 21, 2024

‘Service’ is something a lot of people nowadays do not understand.  We live in a time of world history where each person thinks; “What will I get out of it for myself?” I suppose it is human nature to think about one self but it is also human nature to think about others.  This Week we will be looking at Palm Sunday and if the Gospels were made into a play this event would be the last act, last part of the story of the incarnation of Christ.  Usually in a country, any country the mark of the ascendancy to the throne of anyone would be a great celebration.  Only the so called most important people in society would be invited to the festival.  It is interesting that our Lord Jesus also was hailed as king.  The king of the Jews and the gentiles.  There were no important people at our Lord’s Coronation of Coronations.  Sometimes there are people who really decided to serve:

“I declare before you all that my whole life whether it be long or short shall be devoted to your service and the service of our great imperial family to which we all belong.”   (Taken from; royal.uk/21st-birthday-speech-21-april-1947)

This is what the late Elizabeth 2nd Said on here 21st Birthday.  She said she would ‘serve the people’.  A lot of people focus on how wealthy she was, but few realize that she made a promise.  This promise in effect made her a servant.  As a human being she made mistakes a long the way, but she loved the Lord Jesus.  Wealth was not the driving force. 

What is the driving force in your life and have you ever thought about it?

We now turn to the story of Palm Sunday.  A good place to start is to read it.

Photo by Leon Woods on Pexels.com

The Triumphal Entry
​1 ​When they had approached Jerusalem and had come to Bethphage, at the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, 2 ​saying to them, “Go into the village opposite you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied there and a colt with her; untie them and bring them to Me. 3 ​If anyone says anything to you, you shall say, ‘The Lord has need of them,’ and immediately he will send them.” 4 ​This took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet:
5 ​“SAY TO THE DAUGHTER OF ZION,
‘BEHOLD YOUR KING IS COMING TO YOU,
GENTLE, AND MOUNTED ON A DONKEY,
EVEN ON A COLT, THE FOAL OF A BEAST OF BURDEN.’”
6 ​The disciples went and did just as Jesus had instructed them, 7 ​and brought the donkey and the colt, and laid their coats on them; and He sat on the coats. 8 ​Most of the crowd spread their coats in the road, and others were cutting branches from the trees and spreading them in the road. 9 ​The crowds going ahead of Him, and those who followed, were shouting,
“Hosanna to the Son of David;
BLESSED IS HE WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD;
Hosanna in the highest!”
10 ​When He had entered Jerusalem, all the city was stirred, saying, “Who is this?” 11 ​And the crowds were saying, “This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth in Galilee.” Matthew 21:1-11 NASB

Background Information

According to William Barclay there were over two and a half million people getting ready for the Passover.   It is very interesting that our Lord chose to ride into Jerusalem this way.  Our Lord was not the first Royal person to ride into Jerusalem this way.  In the Apocrypha before the Roman era we read that the Temple was desecrated by Greek soldiers.  Antiochus Epiphanes about 175 B.C had sacrificed pigs on the Holy alter in the Temple.  The Greeks were eventually overthrown and the people celebrated. 

Barclay writes about this event:

“Therefore, they bare branches, and fair boughs, and palms also, and sang psalms unto Him that had given them good success in cleansing His place.” On that day the people carried the palm branches and sung their psalms; it is an almost exact description of the actions of the crowd who welcomed Jesus into Jerusalem.” (From dannychesnut.com/Bible)

This is kind of interesting and also the fact that Barclay mentions Judgement starts at the sanctuary Ezekiel 9:6. 

When reading the story of Palm Sunday I also think we need to keep it in it’s theological context Philippians 2. 1-11 fits the bill but we will look at this later.

For now, we can say that our Lord Came into Jerusalem on the back of two animals.  John Calvin says that this signified that our Lord was sending the message that he was king over the whole world.  King over both the Jews and the Gentiles.  Matthew is very precise to the prophecy:

5 ​“SAY TO THE DAUGHTER OF ZION,
‘BEHOLD YOUR KING IS COMING TO YOU,
GENTLE, AND MOUNTED ON A DONKEY,
EVEN ON A COLT, THE FOAL OF A BEAST OF BURDEN.’” Matthew 21:5

The other two Gospels only mention the colt.  It is also very interesting that our Lord was not riding a Stallion or some powerful horse of war.  A colt by definition is only between one year and four years of age.  This prophecy shows that our Lord did not come as a warrior into Jerusalem as a king that was to wage war against literal physical armies.

The crowds all two and a half million of them would have been quite a site for the High Festival of the Jewish nation as our Lord rode into Jerusalem having coats and palm branches laid in front of him as he entered the Holy City.  Matthew goes on to write:

9 ​The crowds going ahead of Him, and those who followed, were shouting,
“Hosanna to the Son of David;
BLESSED IS HE WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD;
Hosanna in the highest!” Matthew 21:9 NASB

The crowds new they needed help from God.  For the crowds that day our Lord was their saviour, their Messiah, their King! A few days later they would be chanting ‘crucify Him’. 

The crowd were on fire, they were excited about their Messiah:

“​When He had entered Jerusalem, all the city was stirred, saying, “Who is this?” Matthew 21:10 NASB

They knew who Jesus was:

“And the crowds were saying, “This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth in Galilee.” Matthew 21:11

Perhaps William Barclay was right that perhaps the people of Israel looking at their history remembered their earlier deliverance from the Greeks.  Perhaps this is one reason they had an image of our Lord defeating the Romans.

The means by which Jesus entered Jerusalem was as a king of peace. Riding a donkey and a colt which ever way represented peace to the Jews and the Gentiles.  The crowds must have seen something odd about our Lord not riding a royal war horse.

Calvin also mentions a little bit more about this story from:

38 ​shouting:
“BLESSED IS THE KING WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD;
Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” Luke 19:38 NASB

“Luke adds a few words, Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest; in which there would be no obscurity, were it not that they do not correspond to the song of the angels, (Luke 2:14;) for there the angels ascribe to God glory in heaven, and to men peace on earth; while here both peace and glory are ascribed to God. But there is no contradiction in the meaning; for, though the angels state more distinctly the reason why we ought to sing, Glory to God ― namely, because through his mercy men enjoy peace in this world ― yet the meaning is the same with what is now declared by the multitude, that there is peace in heaven; for we know that there is no other way in which wretched souls find rest in the world, than by God reconciling himself to them out of heaven. Matthew 21:9”

The whole tenor of this story shows that our Lord was about bringing peace to humanity from heaven.  The rationale and the summing up of what has been said about the incarnation life of Christ is found in Philippians 2. 1-11.

Be Like Christ
​​Therefore if there is any encouragement in Christ, if there is any consolation of love, if there is any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and compassion, 2 ​make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose. 3 ​Do nothing from  selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; 4 ​do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.

5 ​Have this attitude in yourselves, which was also in Christ Jesus,

6 ​who, although He existed in the form of God,

did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped,

7 ​but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant,

and being made in the likeness of men. 8 ​Being found in appearance as a man,

He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death,

even death on a cross.

 9 ​For this reason also, God highly exalted Him,

and bestowed on Him the name, which is above every name,

 10 ​so that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW,

of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth,

11 ​and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Philippians 2:1-11

Reflection

Queen Elizabeth certainly understood the ramifications of Kingship.  It is a life of service. Palm Sunday was about our Lord being the servant of God.  The one who would serve the  people.  A service that also mean that a few days later he would be crucified.  The people did not understand the relationship of peace and war.  What is your understanding of service?

Are you in a position of authority for yourself or are you there because you feel that this is your duty.  Is your view of Jesus as a great conqueror who will walk all over the nations or is it that In Christ the barrier that separated us from a relationship with God has been broken and peace has been established.

As our Lord taught us in the Beatitudes we need to do some soul searching and start to put others needs in front of our own selfish needs, and ambitions.

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Lent 5: The Tangent of Tangents; When Heaven Touches Earth

March 13, 2024

The Infinite God breaks into our space and time in Jesus; God becomes a man and lives a life completely devoted to God, to the point that the command of God would lead our Saviour to a Cross and to die on it.  Three days later he takes his life back, according to the will of God the Father and our Saviour lives now and for ever as Fully God and Fully man.  The Trinitarian mystery that promises that at the resurrection real human life continuation in the fulfillment of the divine epochs known as the Eschaton (end times).  This is really interesting stuff, but I want to start from our mundane understanding of time.

Time is a serious subject and it impacts our lives on a daily basis.  When I think about time, I have come to the conclusion that 70 years is really a very short period to be alive.  What can be achieved in 70 years. Not a lot but as a general rule of thumb which doesn’t fit everyone’s experience:

  • We are born and grow up
  • We get a job
  • We may get married
  • We raise children
  • We become grandparents
  • We die.

These movements are known as the stages of life and it doesn’t make much of a difference where we live.  Although there are worldly sweet spots such as Japan in which you might even make it to a 100 years of age. 

In human innovation great strides have been made in measuring what we call time.  The world has its time zones and it is now possible to know what time it is anywhere in the world.  We can even radio carbon objects to know when they were created.  So then in human culture we can say that there is time.   In human culture or science I suppose that time has to have a beginning and an end. 

What do you think time is?

Do you agree with what I said?

Or have you got your own ideas about time?

Your point of view is also important as it may in someways differ to my ideas of time. 

Whatever the case might be, I’m moving on this premise that time has a beginning and an end.  Theological time takes this into account but we now need to think in terms of timelessness.  To think about a time when there was no time and there will be time with no end.  These are important questions and I know that theses have been written on this.  I’m not going down that road, but I am going down a road.  The road of faith. 

The Time of Lent

The time of lent is a good time to remember that God loves you.  God is your Creator and if you are from a Faith Tradition such as a Christian, Muslim, Jew, Hindu Sikh, Zoroastrian et al, then you know that life is a gift.  From this universal standpoint I can see the image of God in every human being and in John’s Gospel it says:

​“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. John 3:16

This fact fits perfectly with the account of the creation of Man and Woman at the beginning of out time on earth.  Although Man and Woman had a good start, we know that a little bit later into the story, evil, corruption, sin, pride, lust also enters into Man.  God’s perfect world was not perfect anymore and we all find ourselves with the effects of selfish greed in which Man fell into temptation and wanted to be ‘like God’.  Adam was already like God and without sin.  The problem was that he wanted to be ‘The Man’. The Man in control of his own destiny without God.  From reliance to independence. 

This is why God had a plan.  Man was his own worst enemy and he became a slave of his own incompetence.  Many people value material things, fast cars, a nice partner or partners, money, wealth, power over others.  They become worse than rats in the rat race and will walk over anyone to get their way.  The truth is that such people are not independent, but they are slaves of sin.  They are trapped in these 70 -100 years of life before death takes them.  As billionaires they cannot take their billions with them, and I too will one day die and not blog anymore. 

We now turn to Karl Barth. Karl Barth wrote his Church Dogmatics and I think there are over one and a half million words.  When I looked at the Index of the Church Dogmatics, he had given the faithful preacher tools for preaching at Lent time and the following section will my reflection of what he said about time, so please continue reading and I hope you find it uplifting and challenging.  The Bottom line is that God loves His Church.  Whether you are in a church or not makes no difference to me as there many Christians who cannot go to a church because it cam be dangerous.  Perhaps you are from a part of the world where you could lose your life, or that you could end up in prison for your faith in Jesus:

Karl Barth Chose to quote John 8. 46 – 59.  This section is basically about Revelation and the Identity of Jesus.  He was accused of being demon possessed and all sorts of things.   There certainly is a dimension of theological time here:

46 ​Which one of you convicts Me of sin? If I speak truth, why do you not believe Me? 47 ​He who is of God hears the words of God; for this reason you do not hear them, because you are not of God.”
48 ​The Jews answered and said to Him, “Do we not say rightly that You are a Samaritan and have a demon?” 49 ​Jesus answered, “I do not have a demon; but I honor My Father, and you dishonor Me. 50 ​But I do not seek My glory; there is One who seeks and judges. 51 ​Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps My word he will never see death.” 52 ​The Jews said to Him, “Now we know that You have a demon. Abraham died, and the prophets also; and You say, ‘If anyone keeps My word, he will never taste of death.’ 53 ​Surely You are not greater than our father Abraham, who died? The prophets died too; whom do You make Yourself out to be?” 54 ​Jesus answered, “If I glorify Myself, My glory is nothing; it is My Father who glorifies Me, of whom you say, ‘He is our God’; 55 ​and you have not come to know Him, but I know Him; and if I say that I do not know Him, I will be a liar like you, but I do know Him and keep His word. 56 ​Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad.” 57 ​So the Jews said to Him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have You seen Abraham?” 58 ​Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am.” 59 ​Therefore they picked up stones to throw at Him, but Jesus  hid Himself and went out of the temple. John 8:46-59

“As Karl Barth says Irenaeus had no problem of seeing Christ in the Old Testament:

Irenaeus' writings on papyrus

One of the most outspoken representatives of recognition of the identity of the Old Testament and the New Testament, i.e., of the revelation of Jesus Christ in the Old Testament also, is Irenaeus, who especially in the fourth book of his chief work is never tired of speaking as follows . . . From the beginning there were those who recognised God and prophesied the coming of Christ, and if they did so, it was because they received revelation from the Son Himself (C.o.h. 7, 2) . . . Abraham’s rejoicing (v. 56), so to speak, descended to his posterity, who really saw Christ and believed in Him—but again the rejoicing ascended to Abraham, who once desired tosee the day of Christ (7, I). (I, 2, p. 74 f. The Time of Revelation.)”  (Taken from CD, INDEX, page 363, (Irenaeus fragments of Payrus, All photos taken from wikipeadia)

All I am trying at this point is to show you that in the Christian tradition, prophecy in the Old Testament was taken very seriously.  When it came to Christ; He is the Centre and the Reason of Revelation.  Our Lord Jesus Christ is pre- temporal as Barth would say.  Before the creation of the world there was no human time.  We did not exist.  A lot of decisions were made in God’s  Trinitarian infinite timeless time.

Barth Continues to say:

“God is pre—temporal . . . It may sound trivial to say that God was before we were, and before all the presuppositions and conditions of our existence. Yet in its unqualified, literal sense it is profound and decisive. God was in the beginning which precedes all other beginnings. He was in the beginning in which we and all things did not yet exist. He was in the beginning which does not look back on any other beginning presupposed by this beginning itself . . . We are not from eternity, and neither is our world. There was a time when we and the world did not exist. This was the “ pre-time,” the eternity of God In this time God wrote His decrees and books, in which everything is marked down that is to be and occur, including every name and the great and small events of the bearer of every name . . . This pre-time is the pure time of the Father and the Son in the fellowship of the Holy Spirit . . . If we understand eternity as pre-time—and we must understand it in this way too—we have to recognise that eternity itself bears the name of Jesus Christ (v. 58; Eph. I“; I Pet. 11“). Note how in all these and similar passages the eternal presence of God over and in time is established by reference to a pre-time in which time, and with it the existence of man and its renewal, is foreseen and determined. What is to be said about time and its relation to eternity derives from the fact that eternity is also before time. (II, 1, pp. 621—623. The Eternity and Glory of God.) (Taken from CD, IBID, continued)

Reflection

So my friends ‘we have traveled a long way in time(no pun intended’ 😊).  As I said at the beginning our Timeless God in the Person of Jesus Christ came into the world, into our space and time to set us free from sin and death.  In this 5th Sunday of Lent let us meditate on God’s time that Jesus died on the cross to save you and me and to bring us into fellowship with himself.  We do not become gods but we find the joys of heaven touch our circle of life.

If you are not a Christian, the door is always open for you.  In prayer by faith ask Our lord to come into your life.  It means putting the old life away and taking on the new life by the Holy Spirit and with the Holy Spirits guidance we can grow in the beautiful knowledge of our Saviour Jesus Christ.

If you are a Christian, I hope and pray that you reflect on the timelessness of our Trinitarian God and you are brought into a deeper knowledge of what it means to follow Christ.

If you are from another religion, then I can say God loves you as he created you in his own image.  I hope and pray that at least even if you do not agree with Christianity that you could be more sympathetic to Christians.  That even despite the times Christians do not show the love they ought to do.    The golden rule is found in all religions in some form God has called the human race to love one another.  War, murder in all its forms is a betrayal of this. 

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Lent 4: Where is the Centre and Focus of Our reliance?

March 10, 2024

All good things come to us through the gift of our Creator and we ought to remember and be thankful for what he has done for us.  On the one level as human beings we rely on God to make the crops to grow and for the water that we drink.  These are basic necessities.  Our Lord Jesus spoke to us through the basic necessities to look beyond the literal food we eat and to come closer to the Giver of life.  Upto this point Muslims Jews and Christians would agree with the goodness of God for his creation. 

The differences start to come when we look at the identity of Jesus.  Many Jews but not all Jews would want to disown Jesus as their Messiah and Muslims see him only as a Prophet.  Christians on the other hand see in Christ’s identity that he is Fully God and Fully man , the second Person of the Holy Trinity.  This last view is my view.   Intellectually everyone in the world must make their minds up of who Jesus is.  Muslim, Jew, Christian, Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh, Atheist, Agnostic, Communist, Democrat, Republican et al. 

This story that we start with is the Feeding of the Five thousand not including women and children who were probably there too.  This story is a sign, it is a road sign to something very significant.  The people who were fed saw Jesus as the Messiah and the King of Israel.  Questions are however raised:

What kind of King would Jesus be?

Ultimately where should our reliance for life be put?

Five Thousand Fed
​1 ​After these things Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea of Galilee (or Tiberias). 2 ​A large crowd followed Him, because they saw the signs which He was performing on those who were sick. 3 ​Then Jesus went up on the mountain, and there He sat down with His disciples. 4 ​Now the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was near. 5 ​Therefore Jesus, lifting up His eyes and seeing that a large crowd was coming to Him, *said to Philip, “Where are we to buy bread, so that these may eat?” 6 ​This He was saying to test him, for He Himself knew what He was intending to do. 7 ​Philip answered Him, “Two hundred denarii worth of bread is not sufficient for them, for everyone to receive a little.” 8 ​One of His disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, *said to Him, 9 ​“There is a lad here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are these for so many people?”

10 ​Jesus said, “Have the people sit down.” Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, in number about five thousand. 11 ​Jesus then took the loaves, and having given thanks, He distributed to those who were seated; likewise, also of the fish as much as they wanted. 12 ​When they were filled, He *said to His disciples, “Gather up the leftover fragments so that nothing will be lost.” 13 ​So they gathered them up, and filled twelve baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves which were left over by those who had eaten. 14 ​Therefore when the people saw the sign which He had performed, they said, “This is truly the Prophet who is to come into the world.”
Jesus Walks on the Water
15 ​So Jesus, perceiving that they were intending to come and take Him by force to make Him king, withdrew again to the mountain by Himself alone. NASB John 6:1-15

The feeding of the five thousand was close to the time of the Passover.  There were many who were sick and this crowd followed our Lord up the side of a mountain.  A sign was about to take place.  John prefers to use the word signs rather than miracle thus in these signs John has something very important to teach us about the Lord Jesus.  There are many lessons to be learned here. 

  • First of all, our Lord always had compassion for the sick even here at the nth hour of his incarnation with death about to face him around the corner.   
  • Then our Lord was teaching the disciples that the great provider is in heaven even in the most difficult situations.
  • Thirdly through this sign we see that Christ is indeed the King of Kings (But what kind of King would he be?)
  • Obviously, it wasn’t the kind of king that the people wanted as they had the intention of taking him prisoner to make him king.

What does Kingship really mean for the Christian?

John here shows us a sign that is amazing.  Our Lord fed thousands of people with some fish and bread.  Not every one can do this.  Only God can do this, as it necessitates creating something as in this case from something very small.  Different people interpreted this miracle in various ways:

  1. Our Lords intention
  2. The disciples trust.
  3. The people’s interpretation of Kingship.

Our Lords Intention

4 ​Now the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was near. 5 ​Therefore Jesus, lifting up His eyes and seeing that a large crowd was coming to Him, *said to Philip, “Where are we to buy bread, so that these may eat?” 6 ​This He was saying to test him, for He Himself knew what He was intending to do.

It doesn’t say but I think possibly our Lord felt compassion for the crowd and this was going to be a test to the disciples.  Our Lord says:

“Where are we to buy bread, so that these may eat?”

This was a loaded question as there are no shops on the top or side of a mountain!

The time was coming closer to the last Passover meal our Lord was going to eat and this was a precursor to this great event.  I sometimes wonder how these two events are linked.  One thing I do know is that feeding the fives thousand with a few loaves is an unsurmountable situation.  This event needs total reliance on our Lord. 

The disciples trust.

The Apostles had now been with our Lord for almost three years, and they had seen at firsthand what our Lord Jesus could do.  They followed through with his instructions. They showed complete trust here.  It does not mean that they still didn’t argue because they did.  Especially with Satan working in the heart of Judas Iscariot later on, in the passion narratives. 

Our Lord gave thanks for the food.  This is a very important lesson that all good things come from God.  All bad things don’t come from God.  Because of the Fall bad things can come from the world, from our own pride selfish desires or from Satanic influences. No Our Lord as the Second Person of the Trinity in his human form as a real human being thanked God the Father for what was about to take place.

The peoples interpretation of the sign of fish and bread

The people came to a correct assumption that our Lord was the Prophet, The Messiah. They became aware of Who he was. He is the Messiah the Son of God. They got excited but the crwds got the function of Kingship very wrong.  They saw in the Son of God someone who could liberate them from the Romans.  From a natural perspective as a human being I cannot really blame them.  The Romans used to crucify many Jews who fell out of favour with the authorities this includes simple things such as stealing.  The crowds could not see beyond their basic needs.  They missed the point that all good things come from God including our daily food physically and spiritually.  We need both to survive.

Anyhow they got our Lord’s identity correct, but they read into the situation that Jesus was to be an all-conquering King who would destroy the Romans. Our Lord did not come to destroy people because the fact is that God’s judgement already rested on every human being because of the Fall. No, our Lord came to set us free from sin.  They were going to force our Lord to be a king by force. This happened before with another king in Jewish history, King Saul. According to the story the people got what they wanted but this was not God’s choice.  Here in this story our Lord escaped because his kingdom is a kingdom of peace that sets people free from sin.

Karl Barth said in the preaching section of the Church Dogmatics index:

“ROMANs 51-11 (IIb)

“We have peace with God . . . ” (v. 1). Many serious and penetrating things result from this peace, as emerges in Rom. 5—8. But they result from the fact that we have this peace. Only half-serious and superficially penetrating things can result from a lack of peace with God, or from a supposed peace that we have or think we have in some other way than “ through our Lord Jesus Christ. ” The Christmas message is: “ Peace on earth to men of (God’s) goodwill. ” And what is meant is the peace with God which is included for all the children of men in the child who was born there and then. (IV, 2, p. 273. The Direction of the Son.)

Jesus Christ fought His enemies, the enemies of God—as we all are (v. IO; Col. 121)—no, He loved His enemies, by identifying Himself with them. Compared with that, what is the bit of forebearance or patience or humour or readiness to help or even intercession that we are willing and ready to bring and offer by way of loving our enemies? But obviously when we look at what Jesus Christ became and was for us, we cannot leave out some little love for our enemies as a sign of our recognition and understanding that this is how He treated us His enemies. It is indeed a very clear commandment of God which points us in this direction from the cross of shame. (IV, I, p. 244. The Judge Judged in Our Place.)

It is God first Who is for man, and then and for that reason man is for God. God precedes therefore and sets man in the movement in which he follows. He says Yes to him when man says No, and thus silences the No of man and lays a Yes in his heart and on his lips. He loves man even though he is an enemy (v. 10) and thus makes him the friend who loves Him in return. (IV, 2, p. 580. The Awakening to Conversion.)” (Taken from the Church Dogmaics, Index, page 361, 1988 version, Karl Barth)

Barth is correct here in his estimation that it is God who made the first move to save us from the clutches of evil.   We talk about ‘free will’ but my view is that without the Holy Spirit breathing life into us spiritually somehow, we would continue to walk around ‘thinking we are free’.  Human beings tend to put money, career, fame, fortune and power et al, as the more desirable things.  We then forget our Creator, our family, other human beings, animals, nature and so on.

Reflection

Complete reliance on God entails obedience. This is only possible through our Economic Trinitarian God; The Trinity is a mystery no one actually understands fully but by faith we can confess Jesus as our lord. By believing in our hearts by the work of the Holy Spirit, that Jesus died for us on the cross, and relying on His victory over death, we too as sinful human beings, in Christ can be brought before the throne of God in the New Jerusalem, the City of Our God.

God is indeed for us, and we need to start taking stock of our souls of what is important and not important.  Our Lord gives us freedom and this freedom comes through complete reliance on Him by the Holy Spirit.  If you put money, career, fame, fortune and power et al, as the most important things, I can prophecy that at the end of ones life, can be full of regret.

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Lent 3:  The New Covenant and the Hope of Christ’s Second coming in Glory

March 2, 2024

The Lord’s Supper Instituted

This Weeks reading is about the First Holy Communion, the first Eucharistic meal instituted, For Roman Catholics the First Mass Instituted. Different Churches understand this in various ways, but this blog isn’t about finding fault or to try to put any other tradition down.  I am only interested in saying that Christ loves his Church.  He loved his Church so much that he died for us and through his resurrection by faith we too can have eternal life and the forgiveness of our sins.  Our Lord in the Christmas story was born by humble means, and this was the beginning of all the things he would do in His Incarnation.  Then at the Easter story in the closing scene of the Incarnation, he paid our dept to God the Father so that we could in Christ come boldly before the throne of Grace.   Within the story of the Last Supper, we also have a glimpse of the future when Christ will come back as the king of Kings:

The scene in the book of Revelations show Christ as the king of Glory.  Christ in Matthew 26:28 is speaking about this day:

How Jesus as King is described in Revelations

12 ​Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking with me. And having turned I saw seven golden lampstands; 13 ​and in the middle of the lampstands I saw one like a son of man, clothed in a robe reaching to the feet, and girded across His chest with a golden sash. 14 ​His head and His hair were white like white wool, like snow; and His eyes were like a flame of fire. 15 ​His feet were like burnished bronze, when it has been made to glow in a furnace, and His voice was like the sound of many waters. 16 ​In His right hand He held seven stars, and out of His mouth came a sharp two-edged sword; and His face was like the sun shining in its strength.

Our lord Jesus, The Son of God shows John the Apostle His power over everything:


17 ​When I saw Him, I fell at His feet like a dead man. And He placed His right hand on me, saying, “Do not be afraid; I am the first and the last, 18 ​and the living One; and I  was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and of Hades. 19 ​Therefore write the things which you have seen, and the things which are, and the things which will take place after these things. 20 ​As for the mystery of the seven stars which you saw in My right hand, and the seven golden lampstands: the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches. Revelation 1:12-20

From our point of view Holy Communion points to that great day of hope. As finite beings we have an infinite future in Christ.  John the Apostle however is taken into Heaven itself and he sees this beautiful picture of Christ out Lord. 

Let us now look at what Matthew 26. 26-28 teaches us

26 ​While they were eating, Jesus took some bread, and after a blessing, He broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is My body.” Matthew 26:26

My translation would be:

While they were eating, Jesus took bread and having blessed it, He broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is My body.” Matthew 26:26

I am not using ‘some’ because it only became ‘some’ when our Lord broke it.  As believers we all belong to the same loaf, the same Church.  The Lord commanded by saying ‘Take eat!’.  In the Greek both ‘take’ and ‘eat’ are in the imperative mood.  It is a command. I would assume because this is a Passover meal that the bread would be broken rather than torn. Unleavened bread is brittle therefore it would be broken.  The text does not say Jesus tore some bread and gave it.  In the original story of the Passover the people were in a rush hence they took it within the range of fastest cooking.   When we also read this story of the Passion of Christ things happened very rapidly.  The betrayal happened, the Apostles were going to be scattered, Christ was going to be killed.  The events are speeding up. Yet this Passover meal was given the fulfillment of the meaning.  The Church has seen this story as Christ being the fulfillment of the Passover Lamb.  The book of Hebrews spells this out. 

Verse 27

​And when He had taken a cup and given thanks, He gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you; 28 ​for this is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for forgiveness of sins.

Matthew 26:28

So, on the eve of our Lord’s sacrifice, Christ gives us the second part of this institution.  In the original context of the Passover, God’s people painted blood on the door of their houses so that the Angel of Death would Passover the house, so that no harm would befall that particular house.  This Exodus was prophetically pointing to the Christ, the Lamb of God who takes the sins of the world away.  When God the Father sees his Son’s blood, the Angel of Death would Passover us and we would not see this spiritual death of being separated from God for all eternity.   

Here in verse 27 Christ gives a command ‘Drink it’.  Christ the who came as a servant will not drink this again before he comes again in the End Times (the Eschaton).  However the next time he comes, he will not come as a servant or slave but as the King of Kings.  In his second coming every knee will bow to him willingly or unwillingly such as we find in the book of Revelations.

Verse 28

In verse 28 we can see the details of what this cup actually means.  As I already said this cup which reminds us of the shedding of Christ’s  blood is a reminder that the second and greater covenant is for the forgiveness of sins.

This is then the last time that our Lord would drink this cup of wine on earth as a servant.  Next time Our Lord drinks this cup will be as the King of Kings, The Second Person of the Holy Trinity.

Verse 29

29 ​But I say to you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father’s kingdom.” Matthew 26:29

Reflection

Christ loved us so much that he came from heaven to save us.  By the gift of faith and with our promised Helper the Third Persons of the Holy Trinity a way has been made for the Church by which we can enter heaven itself by Christ as an eternal gift to God the Father. Forever sharing in the love of the Eternal Trinity.   It is a mystery and I do not understand all the details but this is our hope and inheritance in Christ Jesus through faith and obedience. So then let us bow our knee and hearts to Christ who is the author and perfecter of our faith. Let us follow his example of obedience which we learned in his Incarnation and let us wipe our tears of sorrow away in the expectation of His second coming.  Glory and Honour belongs to the Trinity from Generation to generation amen:

​Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus,

who, although He existed in the form of God,

did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped,

​but  emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant,

and being made in the likeness of men.

Being found in appearance as a man,

He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death,

even death on a cross.

For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him

 the name which is above every name,

so that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW,

of those who are in heaven

and on earth and under the earth, ​and that every tongue will confess

that Jesus Christ is Lord,

to the glory of God the Father.

Philippians 2:5-11

Notes

Verse 26

‘While they were eating’  (present active participle )

‘Jesus’  (Our Lord with his name in the Greek has a nominative definite article)

He took (2nd aorist participle masculine singular)

After is not in the Greek

Blessed has been used for ‘Having given thanks ’ (Verb, Aorist, Active, Participle, Nominative, Singular, Masculine  ) But that is in the Textus reseptus  A K W Γ Δ Matthew 26:26

Blessed εὐλογέω (aor act ptcp nom sg masc)   Blessed has stronger witnesses txt 𝔓45 א‎ B C D L Z Θ Matthew 26:26

For ‘having given thanks Alexandrinus is 5th century’ and then later centuries

For ‘having blessed ’  P45 is 3rd century  then 4th century, 5th century and so on.

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