A Supernatural,Practical, Doctrinal Christianity - P2

Yesterday we explored the practical and doctrinal elements of the Christian life.  Today we want to explore that third element: The Supernatural side. 

Picture a 3-legged stool
When I think of the Christian walk, I picture a three-legged stool.  The Christian life is all at one time a supernaturally practical, doctrinal lifestyle.  It includes all three, not just two of the three or one of the three.  All believers will gravitate to at least one of the legs more than the other two.  Some are very practically minded, others love the intellectual challenges of deep doctrine and still others are more mystical in their Christianity.  Peter is challenging us to be equally balanced in all three.

The Christian Walk is Supernatural
Peter writes in 2 Peter 1:4 "For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust."  The Christian life certainly includes the practical and doctrinal  aspects that I wrote about yesterday - but it is so much more than that.  It is indeed supernatural.

What does it mean to "partake of the Divine nature"?
This terms used by Peter is remarkable.  In the original language it could be translated: "To draw one's common identity from the Divine life of God".  How is it that our finite, creaturely existence can truly know and be known by the infinite God of glory?  Colossians 2:9 uses the same word as Peter uses here in our text translated "Divine".  Paul writes: "For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form".  That "Him" in the Colossians passage is Jesus Christ.

So it is in relationship and fellowship with Jesus Christ that I fellowship, have in common, the ability to know and interract with God.  Without Jesus Christ, believers could never have any interraction with the Lord.

It must be recalled the God the Son partook of our human nature
In order for truly fellowship between God and believers to be a reality, God had to make the first move.  Hebrews 2:14-15 states: "Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, ¹⁵ and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives."  That word there for "partook" is the same word used by Peter here in 2 Peter 1:4 - i.e "fellowship, have in common". 

To partake simply means to have a common, shared experience with one another
Now take these two passages together, 2 Peter 1:4 and Hebrews 2:14-15, and you will see two incredible, supernatural truths emerge about you own Christian identity:

1. Just as Christ entered into the human experience by partaking of a human nature, as a believer, I can, through Christ, enter into experiencing life with God Himself by partaking of the Divine nature.

2. Just as Christ got to experience the limitations of human life without ever ceasing to be God, I get the chance, through Christ, to experience the unlimited joy and love going on in the Trinity while still remaining human.

A Christian is a supernatural human being
I heard one preacher describe all that we have talking about in this way: "The day I became a Christian, natural me, by faith, stepped into supernatural Jesus, and Supernatural Jesus stepped into natural me, thus making me supernatural."  This is why the supernatural aspect of the Christian life is not confined only to the realm of the five senses. 

I believe for instance that when I pray, what I pray for here can affect someone across town.  How is that?  I'm localized, still a creature.  Yet Christ in me is living His life out through me.  The Holy Spirit residing in my human spirit can sense nuances of situations and life that otherwise would be closed off from my eyes and ears.

Or how about in a church service when the Bible is preached.  How is it that you can get insight into a situation from hearing the preaching of a given text, and yet your neighbor walks away with another insight?  How is it that it seems that preacher made that sermon for you, and the hundreds of others in that service?  It wasn't the preacher reading your mail that day - it was the Holy Spirit of God who authored the Bible that you're reading.

These are common examples of everyday, supernatural Christianity.  In its doctrinal, practical and supernatural aspects, the Christian life is indeed remarkable.

A Supernatural, Practical, Doctrinal Christianity - P1

2 Peter 1:3-4 seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. ⁴ For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.

One of Jesus' twelve disciples, Peter, penned the above words as the Holy Spirit guided him by divine inspiration over 2,000 years ago.  In them contain a glorious summary of the Christian life.  In today's blog I want to explore the essence of this entire blog site, with the thought of laying out the Christian life in its three aspects: Supernatural, Practical and Doctrinal elements.

The Christian Life is Practical
Peter writes: "seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness".  This one verse covers all the bases.  We see how God has given to the Christian everything needed for the everyday demands of Christian living in the 21st century.  Now what do those demands entail?  Peter states that this "everything" pertains to two overlapping realms: "life" and "godliness".  For the believer, you can't have life without godliness, nor can you have godliness with no life.  Life without godliness leads you into the ditch of worldliness and compromise.  On the same token, godliness without life leads you into the ditch of legalism and religion.  The practical Christian walk is both "life" and "godliness". 

The Christian Life is Doctrinal
Peter goes onward by saying next: "through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. ⁴ For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises".  Is it possible to be effective in the practical Christian life without doctrine?  From the pen of the great Apostle, the answer is obvious - it is impossible. How I live hinges on what I believe.  What is "true knowledge"?  How do I know the difference?  The answer is doctrine.  The Bible of course is the source book to which I go in search of "The true Knowledge", and doctrine is the vocabulary I use in placing the Bible's teaching into my mind, my heart and my life.  

It is evident that what Peter is aiming at is not merely the "message" of the scriptures, but the very "words".  How do we know this?  Peter mentions the the term "promises".  Over 30,000 promises exist in the Bible.  When I study the scripture, I need to be answering some basic questions: Is there a command to obey?  A Principle to Apply?  An example to follow?  A promise to claim?  A sin to avoid?  An attribute of God to delight in?  It is in the realm of questions like these that I begin to mine the caverans of the Bible for gold, silver and precious stone.  Doctrine is the pearl necklace that is worn by the church and the saints of God. (Please compare Titus 2:10)

With these first two thoughts, we are well underway into establishing a better understanding of the Christian life.  Tomorrow we will look into that third aspect fo the Christian life - the supernatural. 

Hell and the question of fairness

Yesterday we began looking at the difficult doctrine of hell - with particular focus upon Jesus' account of the Rich man and Lazarus in Luke 16.  We noted how this chapter in Luke helps us to understand this difficult, but nonetheless true teaching of scripture.  Today we want to deal with an even more difficult issue: the fairness of hell.  Below is a continuation of yesterday's discussion.

IS HELL TOO SEVERE OF A PUNISHMENT?            
When we see the attitudes and words of this rich man, we can say that he got what he deserved.  But now we ask: is the punishment too severe? 

1. Consider the Nature of the Offended
To deny the fairness of hell as punishment, as well as its eternal duration, is to not grasp the nature of the sinner's offense against God.    God is an infinite being.  When we look at the concept of justice and punishment, the punishment of the offender always fits the nature of the offense committed against the offended. 

2. The nature of the offended party determines the nature of the punishment
If the offended party is a finite creature, then a finite punishment would be warranted.  However, God is not finite, but infinite.  To do violence to His reputation in any form is sin.  Being that His reputation (His glory) is without limit, then any attack against Him is regarded an infinite attack.              

3. God is Just and Loving
Romans 9:22-23 reveals that it will take eternity to put on display the glory of God's justice and mercy.  Heaven was created for the redeemed, since God through them will be displaying the glory of His mercy.  Hell was created for the devil and his angels, and by default, all those who follow the enemy and die without Christ.  Thus God will be displaying the glory of His justice for all eternity. 

So when we consider those three points above, we can only conclude that in light of the attack that sin is on God's inifinite Holy character, Hell, sadly but truly, is not an unfair punishment. 
IF THERE WAS NO HELL, WE WOULD NEVER KNOW IF GOD WAS A GOD OF JUSTICE             When Christ suffered on the cross, He suffered God's wrath in the place of all who would ever believe on Him.  He also suffered in the place of the rest of humanity to give them space and time for repentance.  Even though Christ's death in the historical sense was for all men, yet in the eternal sense His death was to be applied to all who would ever believe.  Thus God displayed His justice and grace in the cross.  For those who die rejecting Christ, they will suffer in hell because they never took advantage of the grace poured out at the cross.  Thus as difficult as the doctrine of hell is, without it we could never say God is Just and fair.  In order for God to be a good God, He has to be a Just and Loving God.

The Difficult Doctrine of Hell

Today we begin delving into the difficult doctrine of Hell.  Jesus states why it was originally created: for the Devil and his angels (Matthew 25:41).  Today we are going to look at the fairness of hell as it pertains to the destiny of those who die without Christ.  Now when we speak of the "fairness of hell", we are referring to the Justice of God.  We must also hasten to add that in speaking of hell's fairness, we do not take away from the sorrow and horror of hell, nor do we grieve any less over those who die without Christ.

          In Luke 16 we see the clearest explanation on the place where unbeliever's go who die without Christ.  Despite what some may teach, Luke 16:19-31 is a literal account of an actual event that Jesus is using to teach on hell. 

WHY DO UNBELIEVERS WHO DIE GO TO HELL IF HELL WAS MADE FOR THE DEVIL AND HIS ANGELS?              Those who are born into this world are under the dominion and authority of Satan (2 Corinthians 4:4; 1 John 3:10).  Jesus referred to the Pharisees as having as their father "satan" in John 8:44.  When we explore Genesis 3:15, we discover the term "seed" as referring to that portion of humanity who refuse to believe on the "Seed" of Eve - Jesus Christ.  Ephesians 2:1-3 also reminds us that all human beings are "children of wrath" and "children of disobedience".  Thus the destiny of unbelievers who die without Christ is the same as satan because they are alligned in their mindset and their wills with his program.  Their hatred of God, their disregard for the law of God all reveal the nature of their heart (please compare Romans 3:13-23).

WHY HELL IS FAIR          When we look at Luke 16, we can note the attitudes and words of this rich man who went to hell:
1. There is no repentance in hell.  (Luke 16:24)           If this rich man would had been crying out to God, acknowledging His wrongdoing and betrayal of God's Holy character, then we could say hell is unfair.  However when you look at what the rich man is saying here, he is more concerned with his own comfort than anything else.  Whatever characterized him in his time on earth will be magnified in hell.  The reality of the flames and pain of torment also show us that Hell is a real place.
2. There is remembrance in hell. (Luke 16:27-28)        This rich man was very conscious of the fact that his brothers were still alive on earth.  Again, despite the fact he wants them to be warned of avoiding his fate, the message is not centered on repentance, or getting right with God through the shed blood. 

3. There is no regard for the authority of God's word (Luke 16:30)           The rich man viewed his opinion as carrying more weight than the law of God.  He thought that by sending Lazarus back from the dead, perhaps the brothers would repent.  True self righteousness will attempt to do God's will apart from the cross and apart from the word.  People in hell will never acknowledge nor agree with the verdict of God's word in the realm of salvation.  They will still insist on their way.  This rich man still wanted Lazarus to do his bidding.  The last thing he would ever acknowledge is the uniqueness of God's word to warn and convict sinners. 

The cross - the lone solution to the problem of evil

WHY CHRISTIANITY ALONE CAN ADDRESS GOD'S SOVEREIGNTY AND THE PROBLEM OF EVIL            We have been exploring the problem of evil and the Sovereignty of God in these past few blogs.  Though no one has a comprehensive answer as to how evil could arise when God is both infinitely good and powerful enough to have prevented it, yet Christianity alone can effectively explain why God uses it for His purposes.  Unlike all other worldviews, Christianity has the one event where evil was effectively dealt with - the cross.  The cross reminds us that God did do something about the problem of evil.  Whenever people question the goodness and power of God, I take them to the cross.  Whenever the problem of evil becomes overwhelming, I point people to the cross.  Only at the cross did the most unimaginable evil get addressed by the infinite depths of Divine love.

           Since we have looked at this issue as it played out in the angelic realm, we now can consider how this issue impacts the human realm. The one thing we must remember about the problem of evil is that no one can ultimately and completely understand how all of this fits together. All we can really do is say what took place, second, that all good is from God and all evil is done by creatures and thirdly, this all works together to accomplish God's good purposes.

JUDAS CHOSE TO BETRAY CHRIST           Case in point, Judas was predicted to be the betrayer of Christ (Psalm 69:25). Clearly God willed it to happen, since nothing occurs outside his will. We also know that Judas was responsible for his actions. We have these two truths of scripture. We also know that if Judas had not betrayed Christ, the events leading to the cross would had never taken place, thus no salvation, thus no glory to God.

WE CANNOT HARMONIZE GOD'S SOVEREIGNTY AND HUMAN RESPONSIBILITY, SINCE BOTH ARE TAUGHT          Acts 2:23 says on the one hand that Christ was delivered up by the determined will of God, yet in the same verse we read He was crucified by wicked men. Which is it? The answer, both. All we can say is this:
1. God willed evil (that is, in His permissive will)
2. God also created creatures with moral responsibility
3. God wills the means (activity of creatures, both good and bad) as well as the ends (His glory) to bring about whatsoever comes to pass (Ephesians 1:11; Romans 11:36).

ILLUSTRATING WHAT I HAVE SAID ON THE PROBLEM OF EVIL AND GOD'S SOVEREIGN WILL: DIAMOND RINGS AND DARK CLOTHES    When I was getting ready to ask Debi to be my wife, I went to the Jeweler to look at engagement rings. The Jeweler brought out a dark piece of cloth. Now did I want the cloth? No. Then the Jeweler brought out some rings. Now they did shine, but was I able to see their beauty completely? Well, no not really. The cloth and the diamond are two completely different things. The diamond is a diamond, whether I see it or not. The dark cloth is completely useless and undesired by me. However, the Jeweler took the ring and placed it on the cloth. Wow! Did that ring ever pop out!              

    Romans 3:5-6 states - If our unrighteousness commend the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God unrighteous who taketh vengence (I speak as a man) 3:6 "God forbid: For then how shall God judge the world?" How is it that someone came up with idea of putting together a dark cloth and a diamond ring as a means of making the diamond more desireable to the onlooker? I don't know. Likewise, how is it that God could will evil and suffering in His plan to offset His unending glory? There again, I don't know. All I know is that a dark cloth in the background of a diamond ring worked and made me desire the ring. 

Only when we come to the cross can the problem of evil begin to make sense as a part of God's overall Sovereign plan.  I pray these series of blogs have proven helpful to you, dear reader.  As always, I welcome any comments.  May God richly bless you as you aim to grow in the grace of Christ.   

The Problem of Evil - The Invisible realm Part 2

As we continue in this series on the problem of evil and suffering, we will again explore how this issue is understood as it pertains to the existence of the demonic realm.  The scripture gives us clear answers as to why God permits such beings to exist.  Thankfully, we have a good and all powerful God who is Sovereign. 

The demonic realm, despite being that 1/3 number who followed Lucifer in the Satanic rebellion, are still by nature angelic - albeit "fallen angels".  In Colossians 1:16-18 and Ephesians 6:1-11 we read of Satan and powers and principalities and rulers.  In the book of Daniel we see a glimpse of prince demons assigned over pagan nations such as Persia.  Deuteronomy 32 tells us that Israel is the only nation in the world that has God directly excercising rule over its affairs, assigning Michael the good angel as its angelic representative.  Jude 6 tells us that there were some demons that were reserved in chains in the blackest parts, reserved for judgment.  Obviously there are other demonic spirits who were allowed to roam our visible world, since Christ and the apostles had to deal with them. 

The power of the demonic realm was broken at the cross, however the persuasive devices of the demonic realm is left for the church to defeatColossians 2:14-15 states - "Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross;  ¹⁵And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it."  The cross is the objective event in time and eternity that God ordained to break the power fo the demonic realm.  When God the Son came from eternity into time to become a man, He did something that had never occured: He excorcised and subjected demons to His control.  At the cross, he asserted His supremacy over them.

With the Sovereignty of Christ established at the cross and demonstrated by His resurrection, the Church of Jesus Christ has the responsibility to spread the gospel.  By the word of God Christians are to take ground for the Kingdom.  The demonic realm still assaults the church.  However the Christian does not have to be bound by these beings.  We as Christians must remember the following things about the demonic realm:

1. There are more good angels than fallen angels. 
2. Christian are positionally seated with Christ.  Thus we have delegated authority
3. The scriptures, prayer and the preaching of the word are the God appointed means by which the church asserts its victory won by Christ at the cross
4. God permits demons and the kingdom of darkness to exist for the church to experience victory that was already won at the event of the cross
5. Greater is the Lord who is in the Christian than the enemy and his minions who are in the world (1 John 4:4)

Problem of Evil - The Invisible realm Part 1

Revelation 12:3-4  ³And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads.  ⁴And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born.

All the angels were created goodWhen God created the heavens and earth, He stated seven times that all He had made was good.  By the end of the creation week in Genesis 1 and 2, we see a completed creation.  When we add in Psalm 33 and Psalm 104, we observe that in the invisible realm, all was good.  We have also noted in this blog series that God is not the author of evil, however in His permissive will he did permit evil to come into the heart of Satan to achieve Satan's prideful lust for his own exaltation. 

Some of the Angels chose to rebel, following Lucifer
Was Satan alone in his rebellion?  Though scripture gives us a faint sketch of what took place in the heavenly realms following the creation week of Genesis 1-2, we do know that the Satanic rebellion took place very shortly thereafter.  In Genesis 3 we see Satan in the Garden of Eden, posturing himself to tempt the man and the woman.  In the passage above we are given the clearest summary of the scope and nature of this rebellion that took place between Genesis 2 and 3. 

As Lucifer turned into satan, 1/3 of the angelic host became the demonic realmThe Bible tells us that the angelic host is ultimately more numerous than we can count (Hebrews 12:22).  Around the throne of God alone is over 100 trillion angels (Revelation 4 and 5).  Yet we do know that the number of angels is not infinite, since Revelation 12:3-4 gives us the number of 1/3.  These angels were swayed by Lucifer.  According to the profile we read in Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28, Lucifer most likely was the choir leader of heaven, the chief over the Cherubim - the guardians of God's very presence.  When he rebelled, it was undoubtedly the last thing any angel would had expected.  As a result, 1/3 of the angelic hosts, of all different kinds and ranks, followed Lucifer, and were cast out of heaven. 

Different types and ranks of angels and demonsThe angelic realm is noted for the fact that it was created in orderly ranks.  There is Michael the archangel (Daniel 10, Revelation 12:3-4), there are angels that worship God, called "seraphim" (Isaiah 6) and there are four angels committed to the throne of God called "cherubim" (Revelation 4 and 5).  There are angels that will be assigned to execute God's judgment, as well as messenger angels and guardian angels (Matthew 18).  There are even angels assigned to cover children and illuminate their way prior to their reaching the age of accountability (Matthew 18).  The sheer number of angels could number way above the trillions.

In tomorrow's blog we will look more into the issue of the problem of evil as it relates to the invisible realm.