(October 2004 Edition)
The following is a list of this month's articles.
At the Lord's Table - We Must be Born Again as We are Dead
Editorial - Loving an Unlovely World: Upgrading Our Opinion of Lot
At the Lord's Table
We Must be Born Again as We are Dead
And you he made alive, who
were dead in trespasses and sins (Eph 2: 1).
Spiritually if we have not experienced the new birth in Christ Jesus,
we are among the walking dead: “For the wages of sin is death”
(Rom. 6:23).
As a result of man’s sin there are three aspects of death. In the
garden of Eden, death separated man from God spiritually; God said to
Adam and Eve; “but of the tree of the knowledge of good and
evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely
die” (Gen. 2: 17). As a result of sin, man was separated from
God, this is the spiritual death. In natural death, we die and have no
consciousness, no awareness, no capacity to do anything; this is physical
death. In the final death, we are separated from the mercy and grace of
God forever; this is eternal death.
Born in sin
We are born in sin, and in sin did our mother conceive us (Psa. 51: 5).
Therefore we must be born again. “Therefore, just as through
one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread
to all men, because all sinned” (Rom. 5:12). Remember what
Jesus told Nicodemus. “That which is born of flesh (human parents)
is flesh, and that which is born of Spirit (of God) is spirit”
(John 3:6).
Remember Jesus was born of a human parent; he was born of a woman named
Mary. He was then baptized and was born again of the spirit, for the spirit
of God descended upon him (Mark 1:10). Sin separates us from the spirit
of God but through the death of Christ Jesus, and his conquering of sin
and death, we can be born again to a new and vigorous spiritual life.
How can we be born again?
To be born again means a new birth, a regeneration of one’s mind,
soul and spirit. Jesus told Nicodemus, “Except a man be born
again (from above), he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John
3:3).
What does it mean to be born (from above)? Why is it so important to be
born again? Nicodemus asked Jesus, “How can a man be born when
he is old? Can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb,
and be born?” (John 3:4). This was an appropriate question
asked by a learned teacher. Any intelligent person probably would ask
the same question. However, Nicodemus would not understand because he
held a natural outlook and the natural man cannot discern the things of
God.
Jesus answered, “Except a man is born of water and of the spirit,
he cannot enter into the kingdom of God” (John 3:5). Jesus
never told us to do anything here on earth that he did not do himself.
We can read about the baptism of Jesus in Matthew 3: 13-16. Jesus told
John it was to “fulfill all righteousness.” In other words
he was saying, “I bear the nature that must be denied and eventually
changed. My baptism is part of the work I was sent to accomplish.”
Restoration to God
Sin separated man from God spiritually and resulted in his being driven
from the presence of God. The only way back to God is to confess our sins
and die to the flesh through baptism. By doing this we are showing the
world that we are putting away the carnal things of this world that separate
us from God and we are coming up a new creature born again into this world
– this time as a willing faithful child of God. Our new life is
influenced daily by the Word of God and will be guided by the wonderful
example of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Kendris David Hield, Freeport, Bahamas
Editorial
Loving an Unlovely World: Upgrading Our Opinion of Lot
Bible readers have long struggled
with their understanding and assessment of the character of Lot in the
Book of Genesis. He seems to have been strong and yet weak – godly
yet unwise – a man of God, yet perhaps too involved with the world.
We must read the record carefully lest we be too unkind to Lot. We do
not read about him drifting anywhere. There is no condemnation whatsoever
of Lot in the Bible. Unlike his wife, Lot is presented as an example to
be followed.
How does Peter describe him? Lot, a righteous man…that righteous
man…[with a] righteous soul.
A threefold cord is not quickly broken. Beware: do not run down someone
God has so plainly commended. Take care how you expound the word of truth.
Moreover, he was not only righteous before he settled in Sodom. Peter
says he had a righteous soul when he was deep inside the unlovely city,
when he had friends who were lawless and unrighteous. So, as far as his
day to day life was concerned, he really was very much like most of us.
Lot is not condemned for selecting the whole plain of the Jordan nor for
pitching his tents towards Sodom, or for finally migrating inside its
gates, even though the men of Sodom were wicked and were sinning greatly
against the LORD.
The Bible does not say that they made Lot into a wicked man, or endangered
his salvation. In fact it says exactly the opposite:
God rescued Lot, a righteous man, who was distressed by the filthy lives
of lawless men, living among them day after day, [and] was tormented in
his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard – if this
is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue godly men from trials.
Remarkable hospitality
The story of Lot is an example of how God helps loving people when they
are being grievously tried by an unloving world, and sometimes dramatically
brings them out from the midst of it.
There is one marvellous thing that Lot did which can easily escape our
notice. But the writer to the Hebrews in his Bible reading did not fail
to notice it: Keep on loving each other as brothers. Do not forget to
entertain strangers, for by so doing some people have entertained angels
without knowing it. Lot was one of those people, perhaps the one that
first came to the writer’s mind.
Lot’s courtesy and generous hospitality are quite extraordinary.
Two complete strangers approached the gate of Sodom. Lot was there, presumably
in some sort of official municipal capacity. When he saw them, he got
up to meet them and bowed down with his face to the ground.
Preliminary greetings over, he got down to practicalities. Please come
to your servant’s house, wash your feet and spend the night. He
did a lot more than that. He prepared a meal for them, baking bread without
yeast (to save time) and they ate. And it was not just an ordinary meal.
The word in fact means a royal banquet, such as those described in the
book of Esther! And whereas, in a similar situation with the very same
visitors, Abraham called on Sarah to prepare the meal, Lot did the cooking
himself.
Sodom not unique
Some say that if Lot had avoided Sodom altogether he would have been better
off. But that is man’s faulty evaluation of the situation, not God’s.
There are many places like Sodom in our world today, towns where people
are arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and
needy. God’s prophet Ezekiel says that this was the sin of Sodom.
I know lots of places today that would fit into that category perfectly.
Personally, I certainly cannot choose where I live, Sodom or not. The
example of Lot’s experiences can be a helpful guide to living faithfully
in an ungodly environment. He tried by example to express his godly love
for people practically. He must have tried to wean them away from materialism
toward concern for one another. He tried to introduce some godly standards
into this ungodly society, and is never blamed for having failed.
Lot was horrified at the way his Sodomite neighbours behaved, but he loved
them nevertheless. When a gang of loutish sexual predators had surrounded
the house, Lot did not lack courage. He went outside to meet them and
shut the door behind him. He pleaded with them. No, my friends. Don’t
do this wicked thing. Don’t do anything to these visitors, for they
have come under the protection of my roof.
Lot vexed his righteous soul over the sins of his fellow citizens. He
called them his friends and pleaded with them to prevent a judgement that
was inevitable. Jesus Christ vexed his righteous soul over the sins of
his contemporaries. As he approached Jerusalem on the final journey of
his mortal life, he broke down and he wept over it at the unconcern of
its heartless and complacent people. Through his tears he pleaded with
them to avoid a judgement that was otherwise inevitable.
We have two great examples in these two menof loving an unlovely world.
Mary Eyre
Bible references: Proverbs 26:4-5. I John 2:15. John 3:16.
James 4:4. Luke 7:34. Matthew 26:50. Acts 22:22,1. Acts 7:2. Genesis 19:7.
Ecclesiastes 4:12. Genesis 13:10,12,13. 2 Peter 2:7-9. Hebrews 13:1-2.
Genesis 19:1-3. Ezekiel 16:49. Genesis 19:14. Genesis 19:6-8. Genesis
20:11. Luke 19:41.
Yesterday morning we saw
a rather watery-looking sun for the first time for days. I went into the
garden to survey the damage and in the front garden, completely untouched
by the ferocious winds, was the native rosebush which was given to us
be a family member. It was a plant cut from the original bush which grew
in a garden in Eleuthera for years, so it has very special significance
to me, and there in the blooms was a very stunned-looking little humming-bird
sipping from every single flower he could find. He looked as though he
was desperate for food! When he turned and the sun caught his breast;
he had an apron of the most brilliant magenta.
In the same bush was a bright orange and black butterfly. Where had these
fragile creatures weathered this storm which had driven us into a poured-concrete
bunker basement?
This sight was a powerful metaphor to me – God’s hand is stretched
out still. The day after 120 mph winds blew through, here are these two
most fragile of creatures on my special bush, when trees were downed all
around them.
We truly serve an awesome God and He speaks loudest to me in these simple
wonders in His creation. We truly ought not to fear anything.
Penny Cates, Nassau, Bahamas
Ten Lepers Cleansed and One Man Saved
In Luke 17 there is a story,
just eight verses in length, about the Lord Jesus and ten sick men. In
this brief episode there are 13 spiritual lessons that are very hard to
accept. However, if we think deeply enough, we will understand how powerfully
they reveal the good news of God’s salvation. These hard lessons
arise from 13 words or phrases in this short passage of scripture.
Hard lesson number one: lepers.
In this place where I am, patients crave healing more than anything else.
There is one lady whose only words day and night are, Help me! He…lp!
Usually, all she wants is permanent relief from her terrible sickness.
It’s sad, but that’s the one thing the wonderful nurses cannot
give her. No illness could be more terrible than leprosy, which these
ten men had. We are told that when Jesus saw or met lepers, his reaction
was to be “moved with compassion,” or as those words
imply, the very sight of these wretched, homeless beggars turned his stomach.
He just had to help them in some way.
Hard lesson number two: Jesus, Master.
One of the fundamental insights of discipleship is the recognition and
full acceptance of Jesus as our Master. It takes sincere faith to honestly
and simply say, Jesus, Master! showing and meaning that we love him as
our own personal healer and teacher.
Hard lesson number three: mercy.
The truth about Jesus Christ is “good news” because
it is about “tender mercy.” Zacharias joyfully describes
God’s truth as a visit from a God of tender mercy. Most religious
people are big on outward holiness and justice and matching up to their
standards. To helpless folk like me, Jesus is big on mercy.
Hard lesson number four: as they went.
Jesus didn’t heal the men and then send them to the temple. He told
them to go, and “as they went,” they were suddenly cured.
Surely that needed a lot of faith. That kind of faith I find hard to develop.
I like to be sure of what is happening. Faith, like that of Abraham, that
sets off without knowing where and exactly why, is what Jesus is looking
for in every one of us.
Hard lesson number five: cleansed.
Once these men had the faith to set off, their cleansing was assured,
just like Naaman the Syrian. His servants told him that to have faith
was a small thing. But I find it hard to set off in hope, and believe
that God will work a miracle. In his synagogue sermon in Nazareth, Jesus
stressed that this kind of dramatic cure is rare in our present mortal
experience. For many of us, that is a very, very hard lesson to have to
accept.
Hard lesson number six: turned back.
Why did only one turn back? Were they not all going where they were asked
to go? No not all. The Samaritan could not go to the Jewish priests. A
wall in the temple barred his way on pain of death! So he went to his
priest, Jesus the Christ. And, oh the joy! He turned back to find his
Saviour and the one true High Priest of all mankind.
Hard lesson number seven: fell down on his face.
In all the gospel records, how many holy and righteous people do we read
of who “fell down at Jesus’ feet”? This hard
lesson tells me that Jesus takes more notice of one contrite woman on
her face than a thousand righteous on their feet.
Hard lesson number eight: stranger.
Among the 10 lepers was a Samaritan – a stranger. But this Samaritan
was not just a “stranger.” To Jews he was an “ex-brother,”
estranged by a worship that was considered heretical. But to Jesus, he
was not a stranger at all. In fact, he was the only one of the ten to
be saved.
Hard lesson number nine: where are the nine?
They had gone to the Jewish priests, to the old law that could pronounce
them “pure” and healed in body, but could not save
them inside or “make them whole.”
Hard lesson number ten: give glory to God.
What Jesus is looking for in each of us is appreciation. In a lifetime
of serving the brotherhood, I have found that this rare virtue is the
mark of a true believer. Gratitude to God and to others, practically expressed,
is what marks a ‘real’ Christadelphian. It is hard to accept,
but appreciation is what makes us whole. It heals. It reconciles. We cannot
live eternally without it.
Hard lesson number eleven: Arise, go thy way.
Because he was not a Jew, this grateful man did not need to go all the
way to Jerusalem. He could joyfully go his own way wherever he wished,
witnessing as he went.
Hard lesson number twelve: your faith.
Because the name of Jesus is the only name given under heaven through
which we can be saved, the nine were medically cured but had no hope of
eternal salvation. Only one went to the right place to be born again and
start a new, clean life. He alone, stranger though he was, had the key
to salvation: faith in Jesus, the Lamb of God.
Hard lesson number thirteen: saved, whole.
One man out of ten was transformed – body, soul and spirit. His
whole personality experienced the full benefit of what Jesus had to offer.
Beyond receiving healing from leprosy, he alone was saved.
A Penitent