God's Call And The Response Of Faith

The Hebrews letter's author guides us next to Abraham, one of the most famous of all Biblical personages. Abraham's name occurs 233 times in 220 verses in the ESV. Abram, his original name, occurs 55 times in 47 verses. Abram means exalted father. He was the founder and father of the nation of Israel, the son of Terah, born in Mesopotamia. When called by God, he left and spent the remainder of his life in the land of Canaan with his flocks (cf. Genesis 12-25). Hebrews refers to this journey. There is much to learn from the life of Abraham (father of a multitude). We have room only for a very few thoughts.

By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God. - Hebrews 11:8-10 ESV

What is the Call of God? And how do I know that I am hearing God call me?

The Greek word is the same as ours, but with slightly different letters—kaleō. So we read that both Mary and Joseph called their son Jesus as they had been so instructed by the angelic revelation (Matt. 1:21-25.) Later Matthew tells us that Jesus was called a Nazarene in fulfillment of prophecy (Matt. 2:23). The same use of the verb is found in Jesus' Sermon on the Mount when he says that the peacemakers shall be called sons of God and those who relax even one of the least of the commandments and so teaches will be called least in the kingdom of heaven. From these and other examples we conclude that the verb refers first to giving someone a name and then with that name a description of their destiny and blessing or curse. 

So it was with Abraham. Paul writes of how he received a new name and a new destiny. In some detail in his letter to the Romans Paul says that Abraham, the prime example of a man of faith, received circumcision as a seal—not as a result—of the righteousness he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. Paul's huge point is that faith is the critical factor, not circumcision as an act of obedience. Thus Abraham was pronounced and declared righteous as a gift of God's grace (Gen. 15:6) before and without circumcision. So he is 

. . . the father of the circumcised who are not merely circumcised but who also walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised. - Rom 4:12 ESV

God does the calling, the naming and declaring. He called or declared Abraham righteous in His sight. God counted Abraham's faith as righteousness. Abraham believed the vision the LORD gave that the He would fulfill His promises to make Abraham's descendants as numerous as the stars above (Gen. 15:5). Abraham believed that the land of Canaan on which he sojourned would be the land in which those descendants would dwell. He believed all this even though he, Abraham, had no children and was already an old man. As such his name was still Ab-ram (exalted father). He was not yet named Ab-raham (father of a multitude).  But his name was indeed changed and with that name change came the promise.

Then Abram fell on his face. And God said to him, "Behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations. No longer shall your name be called Ab-ram, but your name shall be Ab-raham, for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations. I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make you into nations, and kings shall come from you. And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you. And I will give to you and to your offspring after you the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God." - Gen 17:3-8 ESV

And the lesson for us? 

The LORD called you to faith if you believe in Jesus as the Christ and your Savior. This is the call He spoke in your baptism when He called you by name and declared you to be His child. In that call He declared you to be pure, clean and without sin. He declared you to have suffered the consequences of your sinning with His Son upon the cross of Calvary. He declared you forsaken and rejected along with Christ. He declared you dead. And then He declared you to be alive, risen with Christ. He declared that your life is already hidden with Christ in heaven. He declared that you will not die, but live and be given a new and eternal body. All this is yours when He called you His own in Baptism.

 

Consider what the Apostle writes to the Romans and to others about being baptized into Christ.

Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. - Rom 6:3-5 ESV

This does not exhaust the meaning of God's Call. But let it be sufficient for today. Consider your Call and rejoice. In my next posting I'll consider the LORD's Call as God directing and guiding our lives.

Righteous By Faith Alone

I have often pointed to two basic principles in the teaching about spiritual matters and faith in God.

1. The Formal Principle— the only source of my knowledge about all things spiritual is the Bible, God's revealed Word.
2. The Material Principle—the central teaching of the Bible is that Jesus Christ is the eternal Son of God who became man and offered His precious life as the complete sacrifice for the sins of all mankind.

Both principles were at risk as Luther began his attempts to reform the medieval European church early in the sixteenth century. Church councils and traditions guarded and taught by the church's bishops and the Roman Pope had distorted God's Word. As a result, the central teaching of the Bible, that a man is declared just and righteous only by God declaring him so for the sake of Jesus Christ, was also distorted. To assist my readers to understand what this means I return again to the Apostle Paul in Romans 10.

But the righteousness based on faith says, "Do not say in your heart, 'Who will ascend into heaven?'" (that is, to bring Christ down) or "'Who will descend into the abyss?'" (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). But what does it say? "The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart" (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. For the Scripture says, "Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame." - Rom 10:6-11 ESV

Consider righteousness itself. What is it and why does the Apostle use such a complex word? Paul's Greek word dikaiosynay is rooted in the widely used O.T. Hebrew word zedek. So we read in the psalms:

Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous; for the LORD knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish. - Psa 1:5-6 ESV

For you bless the righteous, O LORD; you cover him with favor as with a shield. - Psa 5:12 ESV

The righteous man loves the LORD and walks in His ways. He seeks to know God's will and way for his life and obeys Him. He is righteous. But is he? Is there any man on earth who may correctly claim to be righteous or just (zedek) in God's eyes by virtue of the pious life he lives? No, not one, says King David in his psalms:

The fool says in his heart, "There is no God." They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds, there is none who does good. The LORD looks down from heaven on the children of man, to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God. They have all turned aside; together they have become corrupt; there is none who does good, not even one. - Psa 14:1-3 ESV and Psa 53:1-3 ESV

Yet in Jesus' day many Jewish teachers believed they had attained to diakaiosynay, the state of perfection. They even believed they lived above and beyond God's demands. In this they took great pride. Yet of them our Lord Jesus says in his Sermon on the Mount,

For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. - Mat 5:20 ESV

For this reason the Apostle Paul insists that the state of being declared righteous in God's eyes is only possible when you put your faith and trust in Jesus, the same LORD who came down once on Mt. Sinai (Rom. 10:9; Phil. 2:11; 1 John 4:2) to speak to Moses and lead Israel to the promised land. He is the Son of God, very God of very God, who offered his life as the single all-atoning sacrifice for all men's sins. To confirm this the heavenly Father raised him up on the third day. If then you believe in your heart and confess the same with your lips you are saved. In the words of the ancient prophet Joel,

And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved. For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be those who escape, as the LORD has said, and among the survivors shall be those whom the LORD calls. - Joel 2:32 ESV. (cf. also Hab. 2:4)

This was the challenge of the Reformation. The false teaching of the Jewish scribes and pharisees had crept back into the church. Men were being taught that they could obtain righteousness by purchasing indulgences. Luther was an ordained and certified doctor of the church. He was called to teach God's Word. He was under the command of God and compelled by his conscience. He had no choice but to insist that men are righteous and just before God only by faith!

Sadly, the Roman Catholic church still clings to indulgences and the so-called treasury of merit she believes she controls despite everything that has been taught from God's Word over the course of the past five centuries.

Spiritual Armor—truth and righteouess

This is a continuation of my study of Ephesians 6:10-24 and preparations I'm making for a paper to be presented to a local pastoral conference the first part of next year. In earlier blogs we noted that the wrestling a believer endures is always personal, in fact a one on one contest requiring training. A wrestler/soldier struggles both with God and with the evil one, particularly the demon or demons in his or her life. Such demons are under the control and authority of the devil, the prince of this world. Having noted that, the apostle continues by detailing the whole armor of God that the believer is to take up (see also Romans 13:12-14). He describes it in terms that would apply to a Roman foot soldier's armament. We'll focus not upon the armor itself, but upon the metaphorical implications Paul makes as he reviews the soldier's armor.

Before we go there, a brief comment about spiritual warfare is in order. Writing to young pastor Timothy, Paul notes that his work will always involve battle. With this in mind he writes,

Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him.  (2 Timothy 2:3-4)

He writes, of course, to a man "enlisted" by Christ as a pastor, a public spokesman of the Word of God. Such a person will always find himself on the front lines of the fighting. This is why his focus must be on the real battle, the fight with the spiritual forces behind flesh and blood. The fact of spiritual warfare is, however, part of every Christian's life, regardless of his calling. So Paul provides instructions in Ephesians about the required armor. Let's look at his list:

• truth
• righteousness
• the gospel of peace
• faith
• salvation
• the word of God

We won't have time today to look in detail at every piece of this armor. For now let's focus upon truth and righteousness. What are they?  What is truth? What is righteousness?

Truth in the Greek language is a complex word (aletheia) from a verb that means to hide and the negative letter 'a'. So it means simply what is not hidden, but revealed. This is why our Lord Jesus calls Himself the Truth (John 14:6) and declares that to know Him in a personal manner is to become free (John 8:32). This is where it all starts. This is what holds the believer together. Just as a belt holds and supports the soldier's equipment, so Jesus Himself dwells within one's heart to confirm that the believer is a forgiven son or daughter of God. This truth has been clearly and decisively revealed by Jesus' cross and resurrection. God's love is for the entire fallen world. And the believer hears in his heart that Jesus loves me!

For his breastplate the believer wears righteousness. There are those yet even among Christians who believe they can live righteous lives before God and thus gain His forgiveness and blessing. Jesus encountered them among the pious scribes and Pharisees and warned that one cannot enter the kingdom of heaven unless his righteousness exceeds theirs (Matthew 5:20). Paul, himself once a Pharisee, knew this was hopeless. That's why he wrote about Christ as the One who came to show God's righteousness and forbearance toward sinners (Romans 3:21-26). In spite of our sin, we are declared righteous and holy in His sight—all for Christ's sake.

He who believes that and has a personal relationship with Jesus, seeks now to respond to Him who has accomplished such great things. He seeks to live a righteous life. He seeks to serve as a good soldier in Christ's kingdom. He constantly asks his Commander for orders and makes it his aim in life to carry them out—all because his Commander loves him and has rescued him from the powers of death and darkness and put him into the kingdom of heaven, life and light. This righteousness serves as the protection for the believer's heart and soul. He is righteous in God's eyes.

More on armor the next time. 

You Did It For Me

It is a bit uncommon for me to fill a pulpit on any given Sunday morning. That is my own choice, I suppose. Some classmates and friends are interim or vacancy pastors, still preaching every Sunday morning. Be that as it is, I am privileged to preach this Sunday, the final in the traditional church year. My sermon to the small congregation in Livingston, TX. is based upon the Gospel lesson from Matthew 25:31-46, the final separation of the righteous from the unrighteous. What struck me again about that lesson is the vision our LORD has for Christian community. Upon commending the righteous for their lives, He says,

"I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me."

They protest, indicating they didn't see Him. But He responds, "I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me."

All of their deeds of kindness, care and concern were in reality done to Him. In other words, the believer's entire life is one of response to the love we receive from Him. We love Him because He first loved us. "If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen" (1 John 4:18-20).

Note that the word 'brother' is used both by Jesus and by the Apostle John. John says that the brother in need is visible enough, even though God remains physically invisible. So if I love God who first loved me in Christ, the immediate way to love God is to love my brother. Earlier in the same chapter of his letter John writes, "if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us."

This points to that strange mystery about the church, the mystical body of Christ in the world. We are His body, hands, feet, eyes and ears. His Spirit lives in us. It is through us that He continues to teach, heal, serve and care. Consequently it is quite unthinkable that we do not love one another.

The word 'love' is, of course, the tricky word here. English speakers are bound to use the word love in all directions, whereas the Greeks of Jesus' day had four words available: agape, or spiritual love; storge, or familial love; philia, the love between friends; and the familiar eros, sexual love.

C.S. Lewis took all this apart in his well known work, The Four Loves, published by Harcourt in 1971. In it he points to the many ways by which familial, 'philial' and sexual love can be twisted from the purposes for which they were created. Yet all this changes when the 'agapic' love of Christ takes hold of one's life. Then you begin to love as you have been loved and in those very acts you are changed. As John wrote, "His love is made complete in us."

As we approach a national day of Thanks Giving, I give thanks that I have been called into this love of God so clearly seen in Christ Jesus. Consequently I have been and continue to be loved by my brothers and sisters in the great family of God. In turn I have family members all around who need and welcome my love. What a wonder. What a reason to give thanks indeed.

My Grandson's Wedding

I am about to receive one of the greatest blessings of my life. This weekend I will preside at the wedding of my eldest  grandson Shawn. He and Marian will exchange vows of faithfulness in a church in south Texas. Needless to say, along with the rest of the family, I am very pleased and excited. 

The young couple has asked me to help them to meditate upon Matthew 7:24-27:

"Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash."

One of the things often forgotten is that public ministers or pastors did not preside at Christian weddings for several hundreds of years. Marriage for long centuries was understood to be a contract between families. Often couples were not even acquainted with one another. That depended, of course, on the economic level of the families and where they lived. In any event the concept of marriage as one of the so-called seven sacraments did not arise until later in the history of the church. The Council of Trent in the sixteenth century counter-reformation declared that for Roman Catholics a marriage is a sacrament to be administered by the church through the witness and blessing of an ordained priest. The same Council insisted that the couple must exchange rings, a custom that earlier was optional. 

As a Christian pastor committed to the Lutheran confessions, I cannot accept marriage as a sacrament offering special grace to enable the couple to live the Christian life together. We Lutherans reserve the use of the word 'sacrament' to the Lord's Supper and Holy Baptism (and sometimes also penance). That is a topic for much longer discussion at another time.

Instead, I turn to the Word of the Lord Jesus that Shawn and Marian have asked be read and considered at the time of their wedding. Through his Word our Lord promises to strengthen them with His Spirit. His Word is the rock foundation upon which they must build their new house--their common life and the life of their family. As they build upon that Word they will find all they need to face the storms that inevitably will come crashing in upon them like the hurricanes that sweep off the Gulf of Mexico. 

I am very happy that Shawn and Marian have chosen to build their household, their family upon that foundation. In Psalm 103 King David reminds us that our days are like grass. The dry wind comes along to blow over it and it is gone and forgotten. However, the love of our Lord Jesus is eternal and ever lasting with those who hold him in reverent faith and honor. He has made a covenant with us upon the cross, a covenant in which he pronounces forgiveness and mercy. In Christ we are now seen by the heavenly Father as righteous and without sin. We are his sons and daughters. 

Shawn and Marian believe that. They share the same faith as do I and the rest of the family. So, as David says, "The Lord's love is with those who fear him and his righteousness with their children's children" (v. 17). So they need nothing more. They have the love and blessing of Jesus. They are not only part of our family, they are part of the great and eternal family of God. He will guide, protect and defend them until we all dwell together in the Father's house in the new creation. 

Should I be happy about that? Should we have a family celebration this weekend? As we used to say up in Minnesota where I grew up, "Yah sure, ya betcha!" Yes, ya betcha again and again a thousand times over. And we will. I might even post a photo or two the next time I post. Keep looking.