Theodore Zachariades's Blog, page 6
December 28, 2015
Be damned!
Omnipresence making itself present.
September 25, 2015
May 22, 2015
March 26, 2015
It Won’t Straighten
In the midst of a chapter from Ecclesiastes that I happened to be reading on Monday morning there popped up a verse that has troubled me before. It jumps out in the midst of the dreariness and mundane of life as a surprise antidote to the meaninglessness and vanity that the preacher is so well known for. In 7:1-2, we see, “A good name is better than precious ointment, and the day of one’s death than the day of one’s birth.” It could inspire vast pessimism should it not be taken in context. Context, of course, of the book and then the entire canon. Shall we seek to just end it all in a raging or calm suicide? Surely that is not the best way. In the book of the Preacher wisdom is eminently practical and one is enjoined to live and enjoy whatever brief time one has on the planet. This must all be done within the framework of a relationship to God as Sovereign creator. We are accountable to Him and thus one day all will be judged by Him. Indeed, the mysteries of God are far more numerous than the clearest revelation of a bright mid-morning stroll through Scripture. In this chapter we are clearly warned if not for information’s sake per se, but so we can adjust our attitudes and actions Corum Deo, we are commanded, “Consider the work of God; For who can make straight what He has made crooked?” (Ecclesiastes 7:13). Furthermore, both the day of joyful prosperity as well as the adverse day of tragedy are ordained by God. But the key is “in the day of adversity consider; God has appointed the one as well as the other” (7:14; emphasis added). Our schooling is acquired in the college of hard knocks, as is so often something my father used to tell me. Speaking of my father, and the irony of reading the book of Ecclesiastes on Monday morning, for in the early afternoon I was made aware that my father passed away that very day. Far be it from me to tell my Heavenly Father what to do with my earthly father, and vain, indeed, is the attempt to undo what God has decreed as it is to defy gravity. No, the day of mourning must needs be better than the day of feasting! We learn so much about ourselves and our true identity as rebels in the face of adversity. Fight as we may, pull away as we may try, and attempt to cast off the bands as do the raging heathen, we will only discover our own ineptitude. Try as we may to pull out and unfold a coiled life, or even a coiled world, the result will be futile. For clearly we are unable to straighten that which He has made crooked.
May God alone, be glorified.
Theodore Zachariades
February 15, 2015
What did Jesus do when He died?
The writer of the epistle to the Hebrews answers that question and has some amazing truths embedded within his book:
“For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us: Nor yet that he should offer himself often, as the high priest entereth into the holy place every year with blood of others; For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.”
Heb 9:24-28 (KJV)
So ends Hebrews chapter nine. The writer had just elaborated on the distinction between the earthly and heavenly tabernacle/temple and notes that it is the heavenly (invisible) which is the true as opposed to earthly (visible) which is a copy or a figure. The significance of Christ’s death is that He presents His sacrifice in the heavenly realm. It is in Heaven, at the Holy Place, reminiscent of the earthly Holy of Holies, where Jesus represents His own. His death is payment for their sins. This is the once for all presentation of Christ, but it is the eternal significance and value of Christ’s death that saves His people. There is no need, like the merely human priests, to keep going back every year with the blood of animals. Christ’s death is once for always! That Jesus is presenting Himself to God reveals that first and foremost His death was a propitiation, and as such, was directed to God in order to satisfy His wrath against sin. Also, because His death is on behalf of the “many” or as elsewhere repeated in the book, the metochoi (partakers), Christ actually bears their sins and takes them away. He has endured the punishment that was their due. It is the substitutionary nature of the atonement that the gospel holds out as good news. Moreover, the One who saved His own will inevitably return to take them to Himself. He will return, as stated, a second time! At this juncture, the writer continues into the tenth chapter.
“For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect. For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins. But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year. For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins. Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me: In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure. Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God. Above when he said, Sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offering for sin thou wouldest not, neither hadst pleasure therein; which are offered by the law; Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second. By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins: But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God; From henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool. For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified. Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us: for after that he had said before, This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them; And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin.”
Heb 10:1-18 (KJV).
Here the writer returns to his theme of contrasting the old rituals that were shadows with the present reality of Jesus Christ, the substance. Jesus is in every way superior. He reminds the readers that in the Old Testament, the believers though they received ceremonial cleansing through the instituted sacrifices, they were unable to receive absolute clear consciences because the repetitive nature of the sacrifices was a perpetual reminder of those continuing sins. Of course, any OT believer has the same eternal salvation based on the death of Jesus Christ, but the important point made here is that the animal sacrifices were not sufficient in themselves to pay the eternal price, only Christ’s death could do that to which they were merely pointers. Moreover, the fact that the high-priest would die and need to be replaced has already been discussed earlier in the letter. Jesus lives for ever and intercedes for His own, and with the Power of an Indestructible Life redeems for eternity.
Christ did not come to continue the Mosaic religious practices but to put them to an end. Hebrews posits that He said the prophetic words that “a body was prepared for Him.” In other words, the written texts in the OT were ultimately about Him, Jesus! This shows the purpose of the Incarnation that, as a man, Christ could die for His sheep and as the Good Shepherd He would save them from their sins.
It is according to God’s good pleasure that Christ underwent such a task. We are to thank the Triune God for the eternal counsel or “Covenant of Redemption” that led to the actual birth, life, obedience, death, burial, resurrection, ascension, intercession and coming return of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We have no hope but in Him.
Notice that the type of salvation which Christ accomplishes is eternal, everlasting as it remains efficacious throughout eternity. And it is in the very work of Christ Himself that we are perfected. Unlike the OT saints, we have no more need to another intercessor the following year. There need be no Golgotha every new year, as Christ’s death has accomplished perfect and everlasting redemption, and those He came to save are eternally set apart, sanctified unto Him. Praise to the Lord, we are perfected. And we owe it all to Christ.
We need to notice that the triumph of God’s gospel is highlighted in the text as well. Christ is no impotent savior begging men to come to Him. He sits as Victorious King and waits till all His foes are cast under His feet. There will emerge a triumphant church were all of those for whom Christ has atoned will enter the Kingdom of Christ. It is grounded in the very covenant of grace that God has made with His elect. He will remember their sins no more, and as each one of them responds in faith to the Gospel of Christ, God becomes their God in time and realizes in their lives the truth of His eternal election of each of them.
Finally, we see in this passage how the Holy Spirit witnesses the truth of this salvation to us as God’s children. Here we see the convergence and work of all three Persons of the trinity in operation. Moreover, we are certain of this work as it is recorded in God’s Word, and it is in that very Word where our assurance is grounded. The plan was conceived in eternity, and in the “fulness of the times,” the Father sent the Son. The Son dies for His people, the Spirit applies this redemptive work to us, and the Word guarantees for us our eternal redemption.
Praise be to God for His Glorious Gospel of Grace!
Theodore Zachariades
January 31, 2015
God as Creator
G. L. Prestige the great Patristic scholar wrote:
“As one writer says, God is not only the maker of
all but also the best of all. This subject brought into
prominence some of the difficulties involved in the relations
between a transcendent deity and the created world, and
again Stoicism, in its pantheistic tendencies, was explicitly
rejected, in favour of a conception drawn from pre-Christian
Biblical sources. God, it was asserted, pervades the creation
but is not confined to it. He is not represented as too far
aloof, or too holy, to permit Himself to be contaminated by
association with the physical world, as Epicureans and
Gnostics tried to affirm. A place is kept both for divine
creation and for divine immanence. But His transcendence
is vigorously maintained. Since . transcendence, though a
characteristically Hebrew idea, is nowhere philosophically
expounded in the Bible, a term had to be adopted to express
its definition. This was found in the word agenetos,
‘uncreated.’ The idea of creation was therein contrasted
with that of self-grounded existence. To call God uncreated
was tantamount to calling Him infinite perfection, independent
reality, ·and the source of all finite being: He alone
is absolute; all else is dependent and contingent.”
God in Patristic Thought, xx.
December 26, 2014
Repent!
Jesus said “I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance” Luke 5:32. These words sum up His mission in that He came to seek and save that which was lost. Christ’s preaching was designed to lead men to repent and so enter into life. God issues a gospel call in the message concerning repentance. “Those that truly repent of their sins, will not be ashamed to own their repentance,” notes Matthew Henry. So a sorrow for our sin and a genuine turning from it is bound up in biblical repentance. The first word of the gospel is Repent!
Jesus provided a clear illustration in Matthew. “But what think ye? A certain man had two sons; and he came to the first, and said, Son, go work today in my vineyard. He answered and said, I will not: but afterward he repented, and went. And he came to the second, and said likewise. And he answered and said, I go, sir: and went not. Whether of them twain did the will of his father? They say unto him, The first. Jesus saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, That the publicans and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you. For John came unto you in the way of righteousness, and ye believed him not: but the publicans and the harlots believed him: and ye, when ye had seen it, repented not afterward, that ye might believe him” (Matthew 21:28-32, KJV).
The reason Jesus shares this poignant piece is because the religious leaders had refused not only Christ and His message, but they had previously refused to heed John the Baptist as well. In giving the story of the man with two sons, it becomes very clear that sorrow for a previous decision is part and parcel of what it means to repent. Indeed, Matthew places the Greek word, metameleomai, “repent” on Jesus’s lips. This is one of the terms used to denote biblical repentance, but unlike metanoeo, also translated as “repent,” which literally emphasizes a change of mind, metameleomai speaks of deep regret that leads to changed behavior. So the first son said he would not go to work but later had a true “change of heart.” So he ends up going and doing his father’s will, as the crowd rightly notes. He has genuinely repented.
This illustration shows that the mere lip service that the religious leaders gave to John the Baptist was hardly enough. Jesus challenges them that when John convicted the nation of its sins, the religious leaders did not repent in the fashion of the first son, and therefore did not really believe the good news announced by John. Sinners that heard John and welcomed his gospel, however, Jesus assures us, did actually enter into salvation. Thus the religious leaders are much like the second son in Jesus’s story. They merely say they will do the bidding of the Father, but in actuality they do not. Thus they did not believe John’s message, and clearly, they have rejected Jesus Christ Himself.
It is this kind of sorrow of heart that Paul discusses in 2 Corinthians. He speaks of the same idea but utilizes the more common word for repentance. “I rejoice, not that ye were made sorry,” Paul says, “but that ye sorrowed to repentance [metanoia]: for ye were made sorry after a godly manner, that ye might receive damage by us in nothing. For godly sorrow worketh repentance [metanoia] to salvation not to be repented of [ametameleton]: but the sorrow of the world worketh death” (2 Corinthians 7:9-10). Notice in the latter part of these verses that the Corinthian disciples had repented, metanoia, as a result of “godly sorrow.” Interestingly enough, this genuine repentance is secure and true as it is “not to be repented of.” This latter term in the original is the word metameleomai with the a-privative. In other words, they will not undergo a “change of heart” concerning this repentance. That is why Paul assures the Corinthians that this is true repentance that leads to salvation.
May God make it so, that we would see our congregations filled with sinners that have authentically repented. For Christ said, it is sinners that need to repent. All too often, we leave the impression to outsiders that we are “righteous” just like the religious leaders of Jesus’ day. It is not in imitation of the second son in Jesus’ story, who merely says he will do as the father requires, but in genuine repentance exhibited by the first son that is pleasing to the Lord. God’s will, will be done by us only if we have both genuine grief concerning our sin and true turning away from our sin. And so, we will be encouraged by Jesus that we have entered into the kingdom by God’s grace
December 23, 2014
Christmas
Christmas is not about the existential birth of Jesus in us. It is not about some mystical experience in which we engage. It is not about us in that sense. However, Christmas is about us. It is about us as it is recognition of the historical entry of the Word made flesh coming into our world. His coming was for the benefit of sinful people. That concerns us!!
Of course, for those in the know, it was not likely on December twenty fifth or any other date in that month. More probably, Jesus was born in the Spring, most likely in the year 5 or 6 BC. But a date to specify the celebration is welcome, not as a tradition, and even less as a commemoration of a pagan festival celebrating Sol Invictus, or any other heathen deity. We do well to mark a date, if for no other reason to mark Christianity as a faith that depends on events in the space time universe that occurred once and for all.
The birth and the life of Christ are historical in the clearest sense of the term. Not only that, they are historic-of singular significance, unrepeatable, and of eternal consequence. On those historic and historical events, worked out by the power and wisdom of God and based on the eternal plan of God, hang the destinies of all creatures.
Now that is something worth remembering. Moreover, it is something worth considering in depth. In a day when the Christmas celebration has been baptized into the political correct ‘holiday season’ the true meaning has been obscured for several generations to date. This unfortunate twist in the American tradition has its own peculiar result in eliminating any vestiges of the actual event in remembrance. Attempts at restoring the true notion of Christmas are therefore most needed, but only if they are freed from those sentimental trappings and misidentified spiritualized ‘Christian’ concerns of those believers that miss the point just as much as their secular counterparts. Hence, it is not “there is born in us salvation because God loves us,’ but more accurately, ‘there is born for us a Savior which is Christ the Lord.’ It is the historical, and historic, entry of Christ that warrants remembering and worship at this time of the year. But more importantly, because this is not a repeat event, we ought-not relegate it to the end of the year. Rather, it should fill our minds with wonder every day. Yes. Every single day it is Christmas; for Christ has come to stay!
December 4, 2014
Meat Market Theology
Gone are the days when a barber or a butcher would discourse with you about the begetting of the Son while cutting your hair or cutting your pork loin chops. Believe it or not there was a time in the church’s history that ordinary church folk discussed theological matters everyday. People were really engaged over the niceties of doctrine because they believed that truth mattered most. Today we are blessed with so many amenities in studying the Bible, yet we remain concordance cripples, dependent on our Study Bible notes, and generally unable to identify the barest of scripture passages in the event of a discussion about something other than the latest sports victory, what is on sale at the market, or what movie we saw last weekend.
Those days, when your average full-time working laymen knew the scriptures and could debate the theology he heard in the weekly sermon need to be restored. Part of my aim as a minister, and as a continuing student of theology, is to educate our congregants so that they will engage their butchers and barbers with the deep doctrine of the Bible. It accomplishes nothing to parrot the 4 spiritual laws or to recite the Romans road if one cannot think through the theology of the gospel. Why did Jesus Die? For whom? What results in this death? If your responses are the typical generic and anemic answers that usually sound so pious but amount to nothing spiritually, like “Oh How He Loves you and Me!” What means this love if, it can guarantee nothing for the beloved? What means this love if, it is powerless to secure its blessings? You couldn’t get away with that at the butchers market in the fourth century. But now we don’t even discuss theology in our churches let alone anywhere else. Oh for a wide awakening. May the design of William Tyndale come to pass in our generation as it is so needful, that the ploughboy know more of the sacred scriptures than the priests and prelates. Then, maybe your pastor will learn something of value, something he can actually use in his sermons next time he gets a haircut.
