So Easy To Drift Away

CNN reports that salvage of the Costa Concordia has begun. The question: Will the ship stay in one piece during the righting. Giant hollow boxes have been attached to the side of the ship, seen in this CNN photo of May 27, 2013. The plan is to eventually haul the vessel upright and then attempt to re-float it with the aid of the compart-ments pictured here. As you may recall, the giant cruise ship ran aground and tipped over in January, 2012, killing 32 of the 4,200 people on board.

In July, 2013 five members of the ship's crew were convicted of multiple manslaughter and causing personal injury. The ship's captain, Francesco Schettino, is being tried separately on charges of multiple manslaughter in the wreck and abandoning of his ship. The charges are that the captain deviated from the ship's computer-programmed route, claiming that he was familiar with the local seabed. When the ship hit a reef, causing the engine room to be flooded, he did nothing to contact the nearby harbour for help but tried to resume the original course, before a U-turn back to Giglio. Why did he not pay attention? Why did he deviate from what he knew was the correct route? These questions will be argued  before the court.

A similar question is raised by the Hebrews writer in light of what he wrote in the first chapter about God's revelation in Christ. He has spoken clearly, unequivocally. Therefore . . .

we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it. For since the message declared by angels proved to be reliable, and every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution, how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? It was declared at first by the Lord, and it was attested to us by those who heard, while God also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will. - Hebrews 2:1-4 ESV 

What was this "message declared by angels" that proved to be reliable? Paul writes about the law given to Moses on Mt. Sinai (Exodus 20:1-26, etc.),

Why then the law? It was added because of transgressions, until the offspring should come to whom the promise had been made, and it was put in place through angels by an intermediary. - Gal 3:19 ESV 

Stephen makes the same point in his indictment of the Jews. Of them he says,

"You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you. Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who announced beforehand the coming of the Righteous One, whom you have now betrayed and murdered, you who received the law as delivered by angels and did not keep it." - Acts 7:51-53 ESV 

 Do you see the points Paul and Stephen are making? In previous times God gave to Israel the law, summarized in the ten commandments. The purpose was to demonstrate to them how they failed to keep covenant with Him, even though they claimed to be children of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (whose new name was Israel). In turn the law was given to Moses on the mount by God's angels or messengers. Moses then delivered it to Israel in the wilderness after God had rescued them from slavery in Egypt. But they ignored it, disobeyed and failed to trust in God and in His promises. Consequently they learned that God's commands must be obeyed or you will have to suffer the consequences. That first generation led by Moses perished in the desert. They did not enter the promised land. They ignored God's Word. They let it slip away. They did not obey. Their bones were all left in the wilderness. They never came to the Promised Land.

Other prophets tried again and again to call later generations back to God. They spoke about the coming of the Messiah who would accept responsibility for their sins, bearing the sin of many and making intercession for the transgressors (Isaiah 53:1-12). But, says Stephen, you persecuted the prophets and now you have betrayed and murdered the Righteous One promised by the prophets, the One sent to be your Savior.

Hebrews makes the same points. Jesus has come as God's Word in these last days. God has spoken again, but not through prophets or angels this time. He has rather spoken directly, decisively and clearly through His Son. Jesus is God's Son. He completed His work on the cross, rose on the third day and now rules over all things at the Father's right hand.

Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it (Hebrews 2:1 ESV). 

It is oh so easy to drift away, as did the captain of the Costa Concordia. Reports indicate that he was talking on the telephone to an old friend when the disaster occurred. It is oh so easy to let things slip, to turn your attention to many, many other things, to neglect what is given. As a result you and those who look to you as a model or leader will do the same. And ultimately both you and they will lose this great salvation.

More on this next time.

Why Only Jesus Can Solve The Dilemma Of Death

I ended yesterday's post with these words about our troubled world: "Everything is in confusion. It was never to be this way. God did not want it this way, but what could He do about it?" We pick up our discussion, based upon a book written by Athanasius of Alexandria on the Incarnation of Jesus Christ.

The law of death prevails upon the entire human race despite our best efforts. In earlier posts of this blog I outlined how some believe they will soon be able to reduce our individual human personhood to a computer program that can be stored and retrieved when repairs to one's body or mind are needed. Cf. blogs about The Singularity. At that point, they say, humans will become immortal. Death will be conquered—at least for those with access to such cloud-based computers.

We all share a desire to live. And we Christians know with certainty that you cannot reduce human life to a computer program, regardless of its complexity. But how then will death be conquered? Here is our dilemma. It is quite unthinkable that God should go back on His Word that we children of Adam and Eve must die because of disobedience, our sin. He cannot falsify Himself. On the other hand it is equally unworthy of God's goodness that we who are created in His image be brought to nothing both by our sinfulness and by the deceit of the devil and those rebel spirits that follow him.

Like so many of us, I distinctly recall thinking in my youth about this issue. What's the point of living if it all leads to death? Surely it would have been better for the Creator never to have created us than to be thrown away and die. Is God so helpless that he cannot do something about this horror? To leave us to corruption and death is unfitting and unworthy of a loving and all-powerful God.

To solve this dilemma some suggest that instead of relying upon computer programming and other forms of science, we need to repent, that is change our way of thinking and acting. By openly admitting our guilt and promising to change we should be able to reverse the situation, right? Wrong! It might sound good, but repentance doesn't change human nature. Granted, the witness of Scripture is that the Lord GOD has no pleasure in the death of anyone (Ezekiel 18:32). We may accept and rejoice in that truth, but it still changes nothing. To be honest not a single one of us even comes close to keeping God's commands to love Him and to love one another. No one is righteous, no not one (Rom. 2:10-18; Psa. 14:1-3).  And God cannot change His Word that pronounces death upon sinners. The dilemma remains.

This is why the Word of God had to do it for us. In the beginning He called forth all things out of nothing (in today's language: the Big Bang). Consequently He is the only one who can reverse the situation and maintain the heavenly Father's consistency. Jesus Christ, God's Son, is God's Word by which all was made and without whom nothing was both created and made (John 1:1-3). He was, is and ever will be above and outside creation. One must rightly describe Him as immaterial. He is not created. He is "God of the substance of the Father, begotten before the worlds" (see Athanasian Creed:31). He is eternally one with His Father (John 10:30; 17:11, 21). As God's Word He fills all things. Everything exists by Him. In Him we live and move and have our being (Acts 17:28).

The Word Was Made Flesh

Since He alone can deal with our dilemma, the Word of God came down to our level to do just that. He who occupies and has created all dimensions of this creation confined Himself to the four of our existence. He became a man, borne of the Virgin Mary. He did it out of compassion for us. He was unwilling that death should remain our master. Out of sheer love He lived a life of complete and total obedience to His Father—for us. Out of sheer love He surrendered His body to death—for us. In this manner He robbed death of its power. Death disappeared as utterly as straw from fire (1 Cor 15:55-57). With His death the Lord Jesus became the Victor over death. We who have been born anew of God share in that victory (1 John 5:4).

The writer to the Hebrews puts it this way:

But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone. For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering. - Hebrews 2:9-10 ESV

By His suffering and death He completed the work He set out to accomplish. By the sacrifice of His own body He did two things:

• He put an end to the law of death that barred our way to the eternal presence of God

• He made a new beginning of life for us, giving us the certain hope of resurrection.

Paul puts it this way:

But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. - 1 Cor 15:20-22 ESV

We still die, but no longer as men and women condemned. Death for us is now a part of the process of putting away sin and death in order to rise again in the general resurrection that will be openly displayed at the time appointed (1 Tim. 6:13-16).

This, then, is the first reason of our Savior's becoming Man. There are other things, however. We will consider them in the next blog post.

Salvation for Special-Needs Children

Life With Trig: Sarah Palin on Raising a Special-Needs Child - The Daily Beast:

When I discovered early in my pregnancy that my baby would be born with an extra chromosome, the diagnosis of Down syndrome frightened me so much that I dared not discuss my pregnancy for many months. All I could seem to muster was a calling out to God to prepare my heart for what was ahead. My prayers were answered beyond my shallow understanding of what true joy could be. Yes, raising a child with special needs is a unique challenge, and there’s still fear about my son Trig’s future because of health and social challenges; and certainly some days are much more difficult than if I had a “normal” child.

My parents didn't have a special-needs child, but I grew up with one such in our home. His name was Eddie. He was a teenager when he came to our farm to work for my Dad. He could read at about the third grade level. In a sense, he was always my little brother. He was a ward of the state and remained as my parents' ward until he died in his middle fifties.

Eddie is the source for Orville, one of my favorite characters in the three novels I've written. I touched on this in an earlier Blog: Caring For Mentally Challenged People. You can also read there a brief article about mental retardation and Bethesda Lutheran Homes and Services, now known as Bethesda Lutheran Communities.

In searching for what others have written about the mentally retarded—better 'special-needs'—I came across a most tragic answer to a parent's question about her 20-year old son, with spastic quadriplegia cerebral palsy with cortical blindness, epilepsy and mental retardation. Since he is cognitively less than a year old, she worries he cannot make a decision for Jesus. So she asks, "Will he go to be with the Lord forever?"

The author responds, "Perhaps one of the most damaging doctrines to parents is the one that says children are sinful from birth. The scriptures seem to teach otherwise."

He continues,

Our sons (the author also has a mentally retarded child of 26 years), incapable of understanding right from wrong, are not guilty of sin, and will not be excluded from heaven. Someone once phrased it that they are "not saved, but safe" . . .You do not need to say the 'sinner's prayer' for Elijah (her son). If he needed salvation, which he does not, it would have to be his own decision; you couldn't do it for him. 

How sad. What an incomplete and non-biblical answer to a very critical question. This is the blind alley down which one must go if you are caught up in a theology that makes salvation in Jesus dependent upon your decision!

What will you do with Bible verses like the following?

For God shows no partiality. For all who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law. - Rom 2:11-12 ESV

Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins. - Ecc 7:20 ESV

I suppose you might say, as did the author quoted above, that the challenged are not men, that they are not capable of making decisions to sin. But you still have the problem with other teachings such as,

Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. - Psa 51:5 ESV 

The wicked are estranged from the womb; they go astray from birth, speaking lies. - Psa 58:3 ESV  

Jesus answered, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. - Jhn 3:5-6 ESV

All the fears and doubts about our mentally challenged, special needs children go away when you understand that salvation is a pure gift of God's grace. It does not and it never has needed anyone's decision, be they young, old, brilliant, retarded, challenged, difficult or anything else. The Apostle, following our Lord's comments above to Nicodemus, writes,

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. - Eph 2:8-9 ESV

That includes, by the way, the work of making a decision. The challenged share their parents' sinful nature, as do we all. We cannot be separated one from the other. We are all children of Adam and Eve. By Adam's sin we all died (1 Cor. 15:22). But the blessed good news is that in Christ we shall all be made alive. In truth, all who are buried with Christ in baptism already share in His life. When the waters of Holy Baptism are poured upon us we have His Word that He has taken us with Him into death and from death to life. If this is so, then we, including the special-needs, will certainly be united with him in his resurrection (Romans 6:3-5).

If you are a Christian, born anew by the power and blessing of the Holy Spirit, and are troubled about your retarded or special-needs child's salvation, fear no longer. Bring her or him to the waters of Holy Baptism. Let Jesus speak to you and to your child the comforting words of the Gospel. Listen as Jesus joins your child to His baptism. There are not many, many baptisms! There is no such thing as making a decision to be baptized! There is but one baptism, the baptism of Jesus.

There is but one Lord, one Faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. - Eph 4:5-6 ESV 

And rejoice. You and your baptized child will be with Jesus forever. You have His Word! 

 

Incomplete Healing

For the past couple weeks I've been meditating on the ministry of reconciliation and focusing especially on the guidance the Apostle James gives,

"Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise. ¹⁴Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. ¹⁵And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. ¹⁶Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working" (James 5:13-16).

 I pick up today's meditations at v. 15, "the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick. . ."


Obviously prayer of any sort cannot save anyone. Our eternal salvation rests forever upon our Lord's sacrificial life and death (Acts 4:12). James certainly knew that. What then did he mean to say? The word save is part of our problem. We are talking about sickness, most especially sickness of heart and soul. This is far more important than the physical illnesses any of us may suffer. At stake is our eternal destiny. Should we lose our faith in Jesus, we have nothing to offer in payment for our sins—nothing. Our salvation rests completely upon our trust and faith in Jesus (Romans 3:21-25). So James speaks about the prayer of one who believes in the one and only Savior. In Jesus that believer finds forgiveness. In Jesus he receives renewed life and an outpouring of Christ's Spirit. His prayers for mercy and forgiveness turn into praise and thanksgiving.

James continues, "and the Lord will raise him up." 


Jesus can and does raise us up from our sickness, just as he gave the paralyzed man renewed strength to rise from his bed and go home (Matthew 9:5-7). For that we do indeed pray, but Jesus gives us an even greater gift when we throw ourselves upon His mercy. That more significant life is received when we die with Jesus in baptism and rise with him to a life that will never end (Romans 6:4-9; 8:11). That dying and rising happens each time we confess our sins and receive forgiveness. Healed by the presence and power of Jesus, our physical being is often restored and raised up. Yet even if the Lord allows our faith to be tested by continued illness, we find peace and hope in our hearts because our sins are fully and completely forgiven and we are the Lord's.


"and if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven." 


When faith has been weakened by idolatry, lust, slander, shame, fear, doubt, the loss of vocation and on and on, the believer needs to hear Jesus speak to him/her individually, "Your sins are forgiven. Go in peace." It is not enough to hear some general absolution spoken in Sunday worship. The forgiveness longed for must be spoken to the specific sinner and to his or her specific sins. And then joy comes. And with that joy comes renewed strength for the next task. Listen to James.

"Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed." 


As I said in my previous blog, more often than not further work remains. The sins confessed have broken and destroyed relationships and lives. Before moving forward the pastor knows he must be reconciled with those who slandered and maligned him. The adulterous husband longs for forgiveness and peace between himself and his estranged wife and children. The schemer who has bilked clients out of thousands of dollars wants more than to pay off his debts. This is the healing James speaks about and it takes hundreds of different shapes and forms, but healing can and does happen when we open our lives to Jesus. He is the healer of all our diseases (1 Peter 2:24).

Yet all too often the pastor who has been driven to despair by conflicts with congregation members, accepts a Call to another congregation. His sickness has not been healed. Wounded and only partially healed of his heart illness, that pastor may carry his disease into his new congregation. Wounded and damaged by their conflict with that pastor, those same former congregation members no longer trust any pastor. When a new pastor arrives in their midst the same conflicts break out and the illness continues.

The wife offended, hurt and severely damaged by her husband's unfaithfulness, sues for a divorce. She wants nothing less than never to see him again. The pain and suffering in her heart continue. Her husband, in turn, continues to carry guilt and shame for what he has done, even though he has confessed his sins and received forgiveness. The healing for the relationship and the family is certainly incomplete.

The schemer who tricked fellow Christians out of their life savings may have repaid his debts, but he has not and cannot heal the soul sickness that he has caused. Much work remains.

Only when sinners confess their sins to one another and learn to pray for one another, can there be healing, the healing that comes only from the Great Physician. He said, "I came that you may have life and have it abundantly" (John 10:10).

I will discuss this process in more detail next time.

Seven Resurrection Promises

Numerous churches across the United States are preparing for the celebration of the first and greatest of all Christian festivals, the Feast of the Resurrection, commonly known as Easter. Early Christians used the term pascha, from the Hebrew pesach (Passover), because of the intimate connection this Feast has with the Passover Feast. Of course, Christians consider every Sunday, the first day of the week, a continual celebration of the Resurrection Feast.

As we move toward that day I commend to your meditation Psalm 91:14-16. We who hold fast to the LORD Jesus (Philippians 2:1-11) in love have the following promises:

1. I will deliver him—Ungodly enemies may come at us, but in the end we are confident. He will deliver us. We will slip away and be safe forever.
2. I will protect him, because he knows my name—The name of the LORD is a strong tower, a fortress; the righteous man runs into it and is safe (Proverbs 18:10).
3. I will answer him when he calls—Come, he urges. You who are burdened and weighed down, come. I will give you rest (Matthew 11:28).
4. I will be with him in trouble—The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear him, and delivers them (Psalm 34:6-6).
5. I will rescue and honor him—We will share in His glory and honor. He has rescued us from eternal death and judgment. We boast now in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ (Galatians 6:14).
6. I will satisfy him with long life—We who are in Christ have been reborn into a life that will never cease. Nothing can now separate us from Him who is our life (Romans 8:35-39).
7. I will show him my salvation—Yeshua means salvation. The Lord Jesus, Yoshua, He is my salvation. I see Him and know Him. I will no longer be concerned about tomorrow. I am content (1 Timothy 6:6-9).

In these promises we now rest secure. We can trust His promises. The LORD promised to send us a Savior from sin, death and judgment. He did. His name, the name above all names—Philippians 2:1-11—is Jesus, the name that means God the LORD is my salvation. This One completed His work on the cross and on the Eighth Day rose victorious. In Him is now a new creation, a renewed humanity and the fullness of time.