Christian Freedom part I

Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath.  These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.  – Colossians 2:16, 17

A big misconception within the Christian community is the idea of Christian freedom.  Christ did set us free, and what He has set free is free indeed.  However, the problem is in how we exercise that freedom.  What exactly does Christian freedom mean?  I would like to explore this concept for a couple of days.  In order to get to the heart of the matter, we need a little history lesson.

One of the biggest problems the early church faced is what to do with Gentile (non-Jewish) believers.  It’s no secret that Christianity first started among the Jews.  In fact, it wasn’t until Peter had a vision and received the command to visit Cornelius that the idea that Gentiles could be saved (Acts 10).

There was a great controversy as to what should happen to these new Gentile believers.  The question was, “should the Gentiles become like the Jews before coming to Christ, or is that all really necessary?”

This even caused a problem between Paul and Peter (Galatians 2).  Looking at the scripture that makes up the Bible, I would have to say that Paul was correct in stance that Gentiles did not have to become like Jews and submit to the law to be saved.

From Scripture, it is a safe guess to say that Gentile believers do not need to be circumcised, heed to the dietary laws, and even adhere to the festivals and Sabbaths that Jews do.  Paul makes this very clear in his letter to the church at Colossae.  Why is that?  Because the dietary laws, festivals, and the Sabbaths point to Jesus.  Jesus declared all food clean (Mark 7:19, Acts 10:15).  The festivals all have a purpose that point to Jesus, for example the Day of Atonement is when Jews symbolically repent of their sins and asks for forgiveness.  The day of Jesus’ crucifixion is our Day of Atonement.  And as far as the Sabbath goes, Jesus is the Lord of the Sabbath (Matthew 12) and in Him we have rest (Matthew 11:28) which is the purpose of the Sabbath.

We, as Christians have no need to go back to the law, we are free from that burden.

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.  For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.  For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, - Romans 8:1-3

God Will Lift You Up

 In the same way, you who are younger, submit yourselves to your elders. All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because,

“God opposes the proud
    but shows favor to the humble.”

Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time.   Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.  1 Peter 5:5-7

One of the biggest problems in America today is the spirit of rebellion.  The second is one like it, the one of independence.  Rebellion and independence are not virtues in the Kingdom of Heaven.  Heaven is not a Democracy; we don’t get to elect our Savior.

God placed all positions of authority and we should submit to them.  It does not mean that we must agree with every word that someone in authority says.  There is a respectful way to disagree with those in authority while remaining in submission to their authority.  Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego did not agree with King Nebuchadnezzar when the king made the subjects bow down to his statue.  The trio did not flip the bird to the king, but rather they addressed King Nebuchadnezzar properly.

So submission to elders does not mean that we follow their every word and command.  It does mean that we should respect their authority and listen to what the elders say.  We must not rebel against them, for they are elders in the church for a reason.

The next command is for everyone; clothe yourself in humility toward one another.  We cannot think of ourselves as greater than another.  Jesus said that the greatest in heaven was the one who served his brothers.  Even Jesus, God in the Flesh, humbled Himself for us; how much more should we humble ourselves to serve our brothers and sisters in Christ?

God does not merely dislike the proud, He opposes them.  The word oppose is not a passive verb.  A football team does stand by to let their opponents score a touchdown.  No, they resist the opposing team’s effort to score a goal.  In the same way, God will oppose the proud.

God shows favor to the humble.  There is no greater example of this in Scripture than the opening of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount (the beatitudes).

Read the words of Paul in Romans 4:3: “For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you.”

We are under God’s mighty hand (the one that measured off the universe, by the way).  He is so great, and we are so small compared to Him.  That’s a humbling thought and we should remember that.

It’s true, God wants the best for us.  He wants us to do well and succeed; however, His idea of success is far different than the worlds.  We must learn to be content with were we are and listen to God’s voice.

God’s timing is different than what we would like.  Joseph spent two years in prison before God caused the cup bearer to remember Joseph.  But when the time was right, Joseph was lifted up and promoted to the second highest position in all of Egypt.  When the time is right, God will lift us up and promote us.

Remember, God, the Creator of the Universe cares for you.  Whatever your situation is, wherever you’re at, God cares for you.  There’s no reason to be anxious.  We should take all of our prayers and petitions to Him and give our anxieties to Him.  If God can create the entire universe in seven days from absolutely nothing, how hard is it for God to provide exactly what we need at the appropriate time?

When you pray, He will answer.  You may not get what you pray for right away or God might have something better planned for you.  Only God knows, so do not be anxious.

Toward Spiritual Maturity part II

Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, and of instruction about washings, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment.  And this we will do if God permits. -  Hebrews 6:1-3

While Jesus commands us to become like a child, He does not want us to remain like a child.  We are to grow up spiritually.  As Paul said, when he was a child, he spoke like a child, he thought like a child, he reasoned like a child.  But after he became a man, he gave up the childish ways (1 Corinthians 13:11).

In the same way, we are supposed to mature in the faith.  A child starts in kindergarten learning the basics and each year they are promoted to a higher level.  The child starts out learning addition and subtraction, later multiplication and division, later fractions and decimals, and maybe they will learn trigonometry or algebra.  The child first learns the basics, but learns to build upon them.

In the same way, the writer of Hebrews is encouraging people to move into higher levels of spiritual learning.  The elementary doctrines of Christ are wonderful and we should know them, but we cannot stay there.  We should know repentance, but once we have repented from dead works there is no more reason for us to repent.  The more we learn to depend on God the greater our faith in Him.

The washings that the writer of Hebrews is talking about is not baptism, but probably more like what we find in James 1:27 about keeping oneself unstained from the world.  This is something that we need to be practicing rather than merely learning about.  Rather than merely learning about laying hands on those in need of prayer, we should be practicing that as well.

While we will be resurrected from the dead and spared from eternal judgment, our focus must be on intimacy with Christ rather than having fire insurance.

My mother-in-law is a good example of the importance of spiritual maturity.  She went to a church that taught the Bible, but the church remained teaching the elementary doctrines of Christ.  The people in that church would live like the devil Monday through Saturday then go to church on Sunday to hear a fire and brimstone sermon and would repent.  The cycle would continue every week; live like the devil and then repent on Sunday.

Rather than grow into spiritual maturity, the congregation were kept as children always learning about the elementary doctrines of Christ but never enough to impact their lives outside of the church.  To them, going to church was more like getting a ticket to heaven rather than getting to know Christ more and getting equipped for life between Sundays.

Fortunately my mother-in-law moved and through her patient husband, she learned that God wasn’t waiting to crush her for something wrong that she did, she learned that God actually loved her.  She learned what it means to live for Christ, so now she has no need to constantly repent for dead works.  She has grown from an elementary student in the faith to someone who is teaching and leading a small group.

Spiritual maturity helps us to go from hearers of the Word to becoming doers of the Word.  But we can only do this with the help of God.  Our growth must be in cooperation with God’s power and with His wisdom.

Toward Spiritual Maturity

And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them and said, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.  Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.  – Matthew 18:2-4

Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation

- 1 Peter 2:2

For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child.  But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.  – Hebrews 5:12-14

We are called to be born again by Jesus.  Jesus said that if we do not become like a child, we will never enter the kingdom of heaven.  But, what happens after that, after we become like a child?  Do we continue being like a child or do we grow into spiritual maturity?

To get to the heart of this, I think it is appropriate to discuss why Jesus said that we must become like a child.  Children are fully dependent on their parents or caregivers for food, no child came out cooking like Paula Deen.  We must learn to be fully dependent upon God to meet all of our needs.  On top of that, children are fully trusting that their needs will get met.  We, too, must fully learn to trust in God for our needs to get met.  Also, children don’t put up a façade to mask their personalities as adults do.

And that’s why it’s so important to become like a child before God.  Those are very important lessons to learn and we need to grow up in them.

Peter said that we should crave pure spiritual milk like newborn infants.  The purpose is that we may grow up into salvation, not stay as infants.

The writer of Hebrews is speaking directly to people who remain spiritually immature.  Why is it so important to grow up?  Children can tend to get a sense that the world revolves around them.  Children can be very ignorant and stubborn.  If a child does not get what they want, sometimes they throw a tantrum.

These are the things that we must grow up from.  The world does not revolve around us, it revolves around God.  We must not be ignorant or stubborn but always seeking the wisdom of God.  God does meet our needs; He does not always meet our needs in the way that we would like.

There must come a time in our spiritual lives that we wean ourselves from spiritual milk to eating solid food.  There comes a time where we should be able to teach and disciple others about what it means to be a Christian.  We should become skilled in the Word of Righteousness to help others grow in their walk.

How do we grow in spiritual maturity?  First, we need to recognize that which is good from that which is evil and practice this.  Second, we need to read into the next chapter of Hebrews, and this dear readers, we shall do tomorrow.

Treasure

“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.

Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it.”  – Matthew 13:44-46

Here’s a question for you, what is being saved worth to you?  I mean, really, do you value being saved?

Is being saved worth spending at least a few minutes a day talking to God?  Is it worth a few hours on Sunday?  Is it worth a gift in the offering basket at church?  If you were given the choice to either renounce your faith in Christ or be tortured and killed, which would you choose?

It’s hard for most Americans to understand that there are people right now being persecuted, tortured, and even killed for their faith in Christ.  Right now, there is a pastor in Iran who will likely face the death penalty for nothing more than his faith.  Christians are persecuted in Laos, Vietnam, Indonesia, Iran, and many other countries.  I urge you to visit the Voice of the Martyrs website: www.persecution.com to see what is going on in those countries, but also to see how the Christian’s faith is strengthened through their persecution.

When I was a youth leader in a church in Minnesota, our youth put together a short drama comparing the lives of two teenage boys, one Christian and the other Muslim.  The Christian teen wouldn’t even get out of bed to go to church while the Muslim teen was willing to sacrifice his life for Allah.

I have to admire the Muslims for their extreme devotion to their faith.  Their daily schedules are built completely around their prayer life and there are many who are unafraid to end their own lives for their faith.  Now, I don’t agree with their beliefs, but if Christians in America were to latch onto even a fraction of this devotion this nation would be an entirely different place.

The parables of Jesus about the treasure in the field and the pearl of great value speak to a sold out kind of devotion that is rare in America these days.  Jesus likened the Kingdom of Heaven (being saved) to a guy who found a treasure in a field.  The guy sold everything he had so that he could purchase the field.

Or the merchant of fine pearls, once he found the most valuable pearl, he sold everything that he had to buy it.

Why did they sell everything they had?  The answer is because the treasure was worth that much to them.

Jesus isn’t telling us that we have to sell all of our earthly possessions otherwise we won’t be saved.  What He is telling us, though, is that we should value our salvation so much that we would be willing to give everything we have, every part of our life to Him.

Do you value the work of salvation that Jesus did on the cross for you that you would give your entire life for Him?

Royalty

Behold, a king will reign in righteousness,
    and princes will rule in justice.  Isaiah 32:1

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.  Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.  1 Peter 2:9, 10

One of my favorite things is to see how Old Testament prophecy was fulfilled in Jesus.  The prophecy located in Isaiah 32 points to a King who will reign in righteousness.  Today, we can see that Jesus is that King.  No other king on earth has ever matched the righteousness of King Jesus.

So, if Jesus is the prophesied King who will reign in righteousness, the second part must also be true.  Indeed, it is true.  Peter declared that we are a royal priesthood.  Paul’s letters to the Romans, Galatians, and the Ephesians all declare that believers are heirs with Jesus.  If we are believers are royal and heirs of the King, then the believers are princes and princesses, only stands to reason.

My favorite books are the Chronicles of Narnia series by C.S. Lewis.  The reason they are my favorite is because they remind me about the fact that I am of royalty.  I love how Aslan (the lion who represents Jesus) addresses the heroes; Peter, Lucy, Edmund, and Susan as royalty.  There are points where Aslan reminds them of their royal destinies.  I think God used C.S. Lewis to remind us of our position.  Every time I read the books or watch the movies, it reminds me of who I am in Christ.

We need that reminder that we are royalty, we need to step into that calling, and the world needs us to step into that calling.  Why?  Read the rest of Isaiah 32.  We will become like a shelter in the storm.  The fool will no longer be called noble (just watch reality TV, lot of people getting paid millions to act foolish).  The scoundrel will no longer be called honorable (the scoundrels are those who prey off the poor).

We are to be the princes and princesses who rule in justice.  I believe that we are seeing today (the over sexualization in the media, the rampant violence, the people who take advantage of the poor) because the Church at large has forgot its royal destiny. We must, I repeat, we must remember that we, each one of us, are a royal priesthood.

The world is hurting and people are dying without Jesus.  We cannot afford to sit around and wait for someone else to do the work.  First we need to listen to God’s voice calling us.  Second, we need to act in obedience to God’s word.  Third we must pray for more harvesters (Matthew 9:38; Luke 10:2).  Lastly we must take a stand.

I will close with Isaiah 32:8  But he who is noble plans noble things, and on noble things he stands.

Tent Cities IV

From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh.  Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer.  Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.  The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.  All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.  Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.  For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.  -  2 Corinthians 5:16-21

I have been talking about how we are living in a temporary dwelling place waiting for our permanent residence in the Kingdom of Heaven.

Since we are living in a temporary dwelling place waiting for entrance into the Kingdom of Heaven, not because of anything that we have done, but because Jesus paid the price for our entrance into our permanent dwelling we should think differently.  We need to think differently, because we are different.  We were full of guilt from sin, but now we are justified by grace through faith.  We were fatherless, but God has called us by children through adoption.  We were on the path to eternal death, but now we have been given eternal and abundant life.
 
We need to start looking at people as spiritual beings, not just bodies.  Our lives seem so long, but we’re just a breath of time.  Our bodies will expire, but our spirits will remain in eternity.  Our spirits are either destined for an eternity with God in heaven or eternal separation from God.  There are only two options.  Jesus is the perfect example of this, He made Himself flesh, but is ascended into heaven after His resurrection.

If we are indeed in Christ, we become a new creation.  For example, have you ever heard the term, “cuss like a sailor?”  In the Marines, I spent months on a ship and developed quite a potty mouth.  I also used to drink quite a bit.  The refrigerator in my apartment and a good amount of cabinet space was dedicated to the storage of various bottles of alcohols.  After I dedicated my life to Christ, these things did not have power over me anymore.  The grace God gave me empowered me to overcome these things because I am a new creation.

Of course, things don’t always happen overnight like that.  But you are a new creation.  You were destined for death, but now life is in you.  You were powerless to sin, but now you have power to overcome.  You were defeated, but now you’re victorious.  You are new.

This is the empowering gift of grace from God.  Jesus died for you, that you might be reconciled to God.  When sin covered you, that you could not approach the Most Holy God, you have been now covered by the cleansing blood of Jesus.  You are now able to approach the throne of God in boldness, because Jesus reconciled you to God.

Because you have been reconciled to God, you now have the duty and responsibility to reconcile other people to God.  You are now a minister!  Many people believe that they need some sort of title to serve in the church.  Well, you now have your title, minister of reconciliation.  Jesus has entrusted us with the message of reconciliation, entrusted.  Remember the parable of the talents?  The two wise servants invested what was entrusted to them.  The foolish servant hid what was entrusted to him.  You have been entrusted with the message of reconciliation, what are you going to do with it?

 We are no longer citizens of this world.  We are now citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven; we’re immigrants in the world.  Not only are we immigrants, we are ambassadors.  We represent the Kingdom of Heaven and the King.  An ambassador must live up to a very high standard because the ambassador represents his country.  If the ambassador acts foolishly, the actions of the ambassador become a direct reflection of the country he represents.

One of the biggest turn-offs to the younger generation is hypocrisy.  Whether you like it or not, you are being watched by the world.  Your actions speak for the Kingdom of Heaven.  By accepting Jesus as Savior, you have been given the responsibility of representing His Kingdom as an ambassador.  We must hold ourselves to a higher standard.

 While drinking an alcoholic beverage is not a specific sin, many have fallen by the wayside because of an addiction to alcohol.  I would rather abstain from alcohol than to have someone see me, as an ambassador of Jesus, consume an alcoholic beverage and perhaps stumble.  I would rather be out of the loop by skipping a popular movie that contains gratuitous sinful behavior than to be seen walking out of the theater and be viewed as a hypocrite.  I do not want to condone sinful behavior.

 A wise philosopher said once said, “Actions speak louder than words.”  St. Francis of Assisi wrote, “Preach the Gospel at all times – when necessary use words.”  The world is watching our actions.  If indeed, we are truly changed by the grace of God, our behaviors will change.  People will see that we live up to a higher standard.  They will want what we have.  We will have no need to desire what the world desires.  God is making His appeal through us.

Be reconciled to God.  Jesus paid the ultimate price, He who knew no sin, became sin for us.  Why?  So that we might live our lives the way we want to?  So that we can watch whatever movie we want, regardless of sinful content?  So that we can come to church on Sunday, but live like the devil the rest of the week?  No, I think not!  Jesus, the one who knew no sin, but became sin for us did this so that we might become the righteousness of God!

Please read the very first verse of the next chapter carefully: “Working together with him, then, we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain.”