Jim Wilson's Blog, page 23

Do You Want to Be Godly?

One of the questions I have asked individuals over the lastseveral years* is, “Do you want to be godly?”

The question is probably counter-productive. The answers arehesitant, preceded by looking around the room. When the answer is yes, it isbecause that is supposed to be the right answer.

Here are a few verses for meditation:

“Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect”(Matthew 5:48).

It does not matter what the definition of “perfect” is.Whatever it is, it is “as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

“But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in allyou do” (1 Peter 1:15).

The same reasoning follows this command. It is because Godis holy.

“Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children”(Ephesians 5:1).

We are to imitate God in love and forgiveness.

“We proclaim him, admonishing and teaching everyone with allwisdom, so that we may present everyone perfect in Christ” (Colossians 1:28).

“For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformedto the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers”(Romans 8:29).

“And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord'sglory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory,which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit” (2 Corinthians 3:18).

God’s purpose and provision is for us to be holy.

 

* Written August 2008.

How To Be Free From Bitterness and other essays on Christian relationships

Taking Away Sin

“The gifts and sacrifices offered were not able to clear the conscience” (Heb. 9:9).

“How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who throughthe eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciencesfrom acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God” (Heb. 9:14).

''Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness”(Heb. 9:22).

“Just as a man is destined to die once, and after that toface judgement, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of manypeople; and He will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bringsalvation to those who are waiting for Him” (Heb. 9:27-28).

“For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you exceptJesus Christ and Him crucified” (1 Cor. 2:2).

The first verse tells us of the inadequacy of Old Testamentsacrifices. They were a shadow, not the reality. They did not work. The nextthree verses tell us that the death of Christ is effective in:

·      cleaning the conscience

·      delivering from death

·      forgiving sins

·      taking away sins

·      doing away with sin

Even if you think that this is five different ways of sayingthe same thing, the truth of it is great. The verse from Corinthians to do withthe proclamation. Jesus Christ took away sin. We proclaim it.

Written July 22, 2019.

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Making Restitution

It has been several years since I taught on this subject. It istime for another reminder.

If you are a normal, moral person, that is, not into drugs,sex, or alcohol, you are probably still guilty of stealing and lying. Todaywill be about stealing—not bank robbery, but just taking things that are notyour own.

This is described in Leviticus 6:1-7. Pay attention to thetext. “The Lord said toMoses: ‘If anyone sins and is unfaithful to the Lord by deceiving a neighbor about something entrusted to them or leftin their care or about something stolen, or if they cheat their neighbor,or if they find lost property and lie about it, or if theyswear falsely about any such sin that people may commit—when they sin in any ofthese ways and realize their guilt, they must return what they have stolen ortaken by extortion, or what was entrusted to them, or the lost property theyfound, or whatever it was they swore falsely about.They must make restitution in full, add a fifth of the value to it and give itall to the owner on the day they present their guilt offering. And as a penalty they must bring to the priest, that is, to the Lord, their guilt offering, a ram from the flock, one without defect andof the proper value. In this way the priest will makeatonement for them before the Lord, and theywill be forgiven for any of the things they did that made them guilty.’”

·       Thepassage says that stealing is unfaithfulness to God. “Youshall not steal” (Ex. 20:15).

·      It includes several types of stealing.

·      The solution includes taking it back to theowner.

·      This restitution includes adding 20% of thevalue stolen.

·      You confess it to God. His forgiveness is basedupon Jesus’ death on the cross and His resurrection. The animal sacrifices wereprophetic events that pictured Jesus’ sacrifice.

Exodus 22:1-15 gives more details on restitution. If the thiefsteals an ox and kills or sells it, he must return five oxen or 500%. If it isa sheep that he kills or sells, he must return four sheep or 400%. If the oxenor sheep are alive when they are returned, the thief must return double whatwas stolen.

Restitution includes things stolen before you were a Christian.When you were saved, all of your sins were forgiven by God. However, the itemsyou stole are still not yours and must be returned. It is like robbing a bankand confessing the robbery in order to be forgiven by God, but keeping themoney. Confessing and restitution go together.

Numbers 5:8 tells us what to do when we can’t find the originalowner. “But if that person has no close relative to whomrestitution can be made for the wrong, the restitution belongs to the Lord and must be given to the priest, along with the ram with whichatonement is made for the wrongdoer.”

 

Written December 22, 2017.

This post coordinates with today's reading in the Tothe Word! Bible Reading Challenge. If you are not in a daily reading plan,please join us at TotheWord.com. We would love to have you reading with us.

How To Be Free From Bitterness and other essays on Christian relationships

Impossible Commands? Be Ye Holy

“But just as He who called you is holy, so be holy in allyou do; for it is written: ‘Be holy, because I am holy’” (1 Peter 1:15-16).

“Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father isperfect” (Matthew 5:48).

There are several common things in these two commands.First, they are not suggestions. Second, they are be commands, not docommands. Third, they are in each case related to the holiness and theperfection of the Father.

We can assume that God does not command us to besomething that He will not provide the means for us to be. Therefore, we shouldnot think that these commands are impossible. If we think that way, then we arenot believing or obeying God. We are following the suggestions of the Enemy.

We can start obeying these commands by believing thatit is possible to be holy and by wanting to be holy.

This post coordinates with today's reading in the Tothe Word! Bible Reading Challenge. If you are not in a daily reading plan,please join us at TotheWord.com. We would love to have you reading with us.

How To Be Free From Bitterness and other essays on Christian relationships

Definitions of Grace/Grace in the Bible

“Bigwords” normally mean lots of letters and a surplus of syllables. Here, I willuse “big” to mean a word’s frequency of use and its influence on society.

Thereare many wonderful words in the languages of the world. Some of these wordshave precise definitions like the word kind. Because of thispreciseness, the word is not a “wide” word. There are other words that are“big,” “wide” and are not wonderful. Sin is one of those words. However,there is a word whose definition is “big,” “wide,” and it is still wonderful. Thatword is GRACE.

BeforeI tell you about this word, let’s look at the various definitions of the word“definition.”

Thedictionary defines “definition” as:

Definition #1: A statementof the meaning of a word or word group or a sign or symbol.

Definition #2: The meaningof a word from the context of a paragraph or a story or a lecture.

Thereare many such examples from the books of L.M. Montgomery. Here is one:

“Butan August afternoon, with blue hazes scarfing the harvest slopes, little windswhispering elfishly in the poplars, and a dancing splendor of red poppies outflowingagainst the dark coppice of young firs in a corner of the cherry orchard, wasfitter for dreams than dead languages” (Anne of Avonlea).

Bothscarfing and outflaming are invented participles made up from thetwo legitimate words scarf and flaming. The definitions are clearfrom the basic words and the context. Harvest is a legitimate word if itis used as a verb or a noun. Here it is an adjective. However, the definitionis clear. Dancing is a legitimate word, but it modifies splendor,which should not make sense, but it does.

Definition #3: An agreed-uponmeaning of a word within a certain group of people.

Twopeople invited to dinner could agree, before they arrived at the dinner, thatthe main dish would be called “garbage.” At the table they would say thingslike this to each other: “Please pass the garbage,” or “Boy, this garbagetastes good.” The hostess might be offended, because she knows the standardmeaning of “garbage.” She was not in on the agreement.

Thishappens in religion frequently. Mormons, Christian Scientists, Jehovah’sWitnesses, and Muslims all speak of Jesus, but they have differentdefinitions of who He is. They do not agree with each other’s definitions orwith the Bible’s. However, if we do not know that each group has an “agreed-upon”definition within itself, we might think that they are talking about the same personwe are talking about.

Theyknow what they are talking about, but others who know the dictionary definitionor have a contextual definition of the same word, but who are not in on theagreement, do not know what they are talking about, although they will thinkthat they know.

BothReformed and Wesleyan theologies have modified the contextual definitions ofgrace with their agreed-upon definition in their own group. The Reformed groupprecedes the word with the modifiers sovereign and efficacious. Thesemodifiers are used so often that after the group is convinced of the modifiedmeaning, then “grace” can be used by itself and people will hear it in the lightof the new meaning. The emphasis is on God giving what cannot be refused.

TheWesleyan group will place the modifier “free” in front of grace and useit until the meaning is commonly understood. The emphasis is on man receiving.

Gracehas a cleardefinition all by itself. The modifiers are applied to help God out so that peoplewill be sure to understand God’s meaning, as if He had not made it clearHimself.

Agreed-upondefinitions are O.K. for small societies using “in” words. They are notlegitimate for words of world-wide import. We should stick to the dictionarydefinition, contextual definition, or common usage if the common usage islanguage-wide.

Hereis the definition from Webster’s Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary: Definition#1: grace, unmerited divine assistance given man for his regeneration orsanctification.

Gracein the Bible

Nowlet’s look at this wonderful word from the context of the Bible. This isdifficult because there is a lot of context. I will quote one passage from eachverse group to give some, if limited, meaning. I will group the verses in anorder based upon common meanings.

TheSource of Grace

·       Luke 2:40: “And the childgrew and became strong; he was filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was onhim.”

·       John 1:14

·       John 1:16-17

·       Acts 15:40

·       Acts 20:24, 32

·       Romans 1:7

·       Ephesians 2:5, 8

ForWhom Is This Grace?

·       Titus 3:5-7: “He saved usthrough the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he pouredout on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having beenjustified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life.”

·       Ephesians 3:2, 7-8

·       2 Corinthians 12:9

·       2 Corinthians 1:2

Modifiersof Grace

·       Acts 4:33

·       Acts 6:8

·       Romans 5:15, 17, 20: “Butthe gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of theone man, how much more did God’s grace and the gift that came by the grace ofthe one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many! … For if, by the trespass ofthe one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those whoreceive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousnessreign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ! … The law was brought in sothat the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased allthe more.”

Rejectionof Grace

·       Jonah 2:8

·       Galatians 5:4: “You who aretrying to be justified by the law have been alienated from Christ; you havefallen away from grace.”

·       Hebrews 12:15

Relationshipto Mercy, Faith, and Love

·       Acts 18:27

·       1 Timothy 1:14: “The graceof our Lord was poured out on me abundantly, along with the faith and love thatare in Christ Jesus.”

WhatDoes Grace Do?

·       Acts 15:11

·       Romans 3:24: “And all arejustified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”

·       Romans 5:21

 

 

How To Be Free From Bitterness and other essays on Christian relationships

“Christians” to Stay Away From

You may have experienced or witnessed Christians orpseudo-Christians who have divided the body of Christ. The Bible speaks to usabout them in several places.

“They said to you, ‘In the last times there will be scofferswho will follow their own ungodly desires.’ These are the men who divide you,who follow mere natural instincts and do not have the Spirit” (Jude 18-19).

“Warn a divisive person once, and then warn him a secondtime. After that, have nothing to do with him. You may be sure that such a manis warped and sinful; he is self-condemned” (Titus 3:10-11).

“I urge you, brothers, to watch out for those who causedivisions and put obstacles in your way that are contrary to the teaching youhave learned. Keep away from them. For such people are not serving our LordChrist, but their own appetites. By smooth talk and flattery they deceive theminds of naive people” (Romans 16:17-18).

“I appeal to you, brothers, in the name of our Lord JesusChrist, that all of you agree with one another so that there may be nodivisions among you and that you may be perfectly united in mind and thought”(1 Corinthians 1:10).

“In the first place, I hear that when you come together as achurch, there are divisions among you, and to some extent I believe it. Nodoubt there have to be differences among you to show which of you have God'sapproval” (1 Corinthians 11:18-19).

We are to be separate from those who divide. How do werecognize them? There will be indications:

·      They will secretly slip into the church (Jude4).

·      After they are in, they will say that grace isfreedom to sin (Jude 4).

·      They will deny Jesus Christ the Sovereign Lord(Jude 4).

·      They will gossip.

·      They will slander.

They will do all of this so well that many of the believerswill believe them and enter into their sins.

How To Be Free From Bitterness and other essays on Christian relationships

The Gospel That Saved Us

“I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the onewho called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a differentgospel—which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing youinto confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if weor an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preachedto you, let him be eternally condemned!” (Gal. 1:6-9).

This is a good measuring stick against which we can measureanything that is declared to be true. It is the Gospel that saved us. ThisGospel is succinctly expressed in 1 Corinthians 15:1-5:

“Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel Ipreached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. Bythis gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you.Otherwise, you have believed in vain. For what I received I passed on to you asof first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to theScriptures, and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve.”

This post coordinates with today's reading in the Tothe Word! Bible Reading Challenge. If you are not in a daily reading plan,please join us at TotheWord.com. We would love to have you reading with us.

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All Knowledge and No "Puff"

Jesus had just finished saying to the twelve that after Hisresurrection they should no longer ask Him anything. They should ask the Fatherin Jesus’ name, because the Father Himself loved them.

“Now we can see that you know all things and that you do noteven need to have anyone ask you questions. This makes us believe that you camefrom God” (John 16:30).

Normally, we would come to two conclusions concerning John16:30. Either a person who knew all things would not need to ask anyone anyquestions, or a person who knew all things would want others to ask himquestions in order to display his knowledge.

Because Jesus spoke clearly and without figures of speech,the twelve first could see that He knew all things, and second that He did notneed to have anyone ask Him questions. These two conclusions made them believethat he came from God.

"Knowing all things" would make any person believethat Jesus came from God. However, that was not convincing enough for thetwelve. They also knew Jesus was not interested in displaying His knowledge. Hehad no need for someone to ask Him questions so He could answer them and gainpraise from men. On the contrary, He was humble and secure, though knowing allthings. According to 1 Corinthians 8:1, "knowledge puffs up." Moreknowledge = more puff; all knowledge = all puff. However, in Jesus' case, itwas all knowledge and no puff. He had no need that anyone ask Him questions,therefore they believed he came from God.

 

Written November 1991.

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The Father Himself Loves You

"I have said this to you in figures; the hour is comingwhen I shall no longer speak to you in figures but tell you plainly of theFather. In that day you will ask in my name; and I do not say to you that Ishall pray the Father for you; for the Father himself loves you, because youhave loved me and have believed that I came from the Father. I came fromthe Father and have come into the world; again, I am leaving the world andgoing to the Father" (John 16:25-28).

This is a wonderful statement! The Father Himself lovesyou. Many Christians do not believe that, even though they know John 3:16and Romans 5:8. They read those verses in such a way as to read, "ForJesus so loved the world," and, “Jesus commends His love for us.” TheFather loves us. We should dwell on that fact. It influences all of ouractions.

 

Written August 1986.

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Helping Mormons See

 

Jesus said, "If you were blind, you would not be guiltyof sin; but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains” (John 9:41).

We all know people who claim they can see but who are, in fact,blind. Their guilt remains. You may not know this but here in the United Statesthere is a geographical area in which the entire culture (social, religious,political, and business) claims to see. It is the Mormon culture that controls Utahand the contiguous areas of Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, Arizona, and Nevada.Backslidden Mormons are more willing to admit that they cannot see.

We have one mission station in this area: Oasis Books inLogan, Utah, the location of Utah State University. Please pray for our staffas they work with people who do not know that they are guilty of Romans1:22-23: “Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged theglory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man…” Their ideaof God is one that is physical and looks like man. They deny the efficacy ofthe cross, saying that the atonement did not take place on the cross. They denygrace by saying, “We are saved by grace after all that we can do.” Theyhave many biblical words in their vocabulary. Almost all of them have adefinition different from the ones in the Bible.

We do not wish to win arguments with these blind people who thinkthey can see. We wish to help them see.

This post coordinates with today's reading in the Tothe Word! Bible Reading Challenge. If you are not in a daily reading plan,please join us at TotheWord.com. We would love to have you reading with us.

How To Be Free From Bitterness and other essays on Christian relationships