This Guy Walks Into A Blog…

I don’t normally do requests, but I do consider recommendations.  From a blog I follow, I was directed to an entry on another blog about biblical perspectives on hell, and from there entered into a discussion about life and death.  That discussion led me to Romans 5.  I don’t typically study topically, my method of study makes topics excruciatingly difficult and inordinately long.  I’ve spent around 30 years, off and on, studying the biblical meaning of life and death…see what I mean?

So, I want to begin by thanking Amanda from “Kindling Truth” for the nudge toward this chapter.  She actually had a very long page of references, but many at the top were from this chapter.  Anyway, she can’t be blamed for what I say here, she’s simply the one the Holy Spirit used to direct me to this chapter.

I believe that Romans 5 is a “hinge” in Paul’s explanation of his understanding of the good news of Jesus.  I see in this chapter a point where Paul’s explanation pivots, swinging from an emphasis on the problem to an emphasis on the solution.  In chapters 1 through 4, Paul describes that we are separated from our Creator, whether we have the law of God from the Hebrew Scriptures or not.  Basically, after chapter 4, the conclusion is that we’re all lost, Jews and Gentiles.

In chapter 5, the discussion swings into a focus on the solution, and how the solution perfectly fits the problem.  In this chapter, Paul uses a lot of different words, all referring to a covenant violation of some sort.  If you want to know how Paul can pin “covenant violations” on Gentiles, the answer is found in Romans 2:12-16.  And, honestly, calling these actions “covenant violations” is simply convenient, more than being accurate.  Essentially, our Creator doesn’t want us to do them.  Call them what you will, define them how ever you like, but the basic truth underlying the problem of humanity is that we do what our Creator doesn’t want, and don’t do what He does want.

But, why? There are lots of answers to this question.  The writer of the blog I followed to find Amanda’s believes that we have no choice.  God’s sovereignty means that every thought and action that follows is predetermined by God, and we are powerless to do otherwise.  I don’t subscribe to that belief, but I don’t fault him for it either.  He supports it through Scripture, Jesus is his Master, and his relationship with God is through the Jesus of Scripture.  So, disagree all you want, he’s still a fellow disciple.

Still, if the answer to why isn’t predetermination, then what?  In Romans 5:12, Paul introduces a theme he will return to later.  He writes of the “one through whom sin entered the world”, and most readers agree he refers to Adam in Genesis 3.  Paul begins a contrast between Adam and Jesus, point for point, showing how Jesus solves the problem created by Adam.  He will return to it again in Romans 7 in much more detail.  Here, Paul simply touches lightly the points of contrast.

But the free gift is not like the transgression. For if by the transgression of the one the many died, much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abound to the many. (Romans 5:15 NASB)

Did you notice the “much more” element of the contrast?  Look again at verses 9, 10, and 17, and you will see this same element.  The solution through Jesus overwhelms the problem.  Wait, have you noticed that I haven’t defined the problem?  Okay, here’s the “hint” from Paul:

Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God. (Romans 5:1-2 NASB)

The problem is defined here, by the solution, “…we have peace with God…”.  The problem is that we have been aligned against Him, enemies of our Creator.  And, because of this, we deserved wrath (see verse 9).  This is described in a lot more detail in chapters 1 through 3, but here, in this “hinge” of his discussion, Paul contrasts the resulting “death” with the gift of “life”.  Look at verses 17, 18, and 21.  These are contrasts where our death is traded for life.  Why? Because of what Paul has said in verse 10,

For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. (Romans 5:10 NASB)

The solution through Jesus overwhelms our problem.  We were dead, but the life of Jesus overwhelms our death.  We are supposed to be dead.  We earned it, death is our “wages” earned as a part of the rebellion against our Creator.  Many today embrace it, they love death, revel in it, consider it their privilege.  Yet, read, again, verse 10, “…while we were enemies…”.  Yes, many do wallow jubilant in their death, but that didn’t stop our Creator from solving their problem, and ours, through His Son, Jesus.

What I learn from this is that death is optional.  I know my buddy at Perfect Chaos disagrees, and that’s fine, but even he agrees that the problem of death, predetermined though it may be, is solved in Jesus, even if for another predetermined population.  It’s still Jesus, He’s still the answer to the problem of death.  I believe I have a choice in this, he doesn’t, you may nor may not.  Regardless, a solution exists.  I don’t have to remain in death.  Neither do those who claim to revel in that existence the Scripture defines as death.  Even though they “love” it, they can be saved from it.  Jesus’ willing action in death overwhelms the problem of our death, and, as He rose from death, so His life now becomes ours.  And the life defining our existence has no end, no wrath, and no death.

I have chosen life, others have submitted to the determination of our Creator to live, and both of us call Him Lord.

“I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants, by loving the LORD your God, by obeying His voice, and by holding fast to Him; for this is your life and the length of your days, that you may live in the land which the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them.” (Deuteronomy 30:19 NASB)

What does your view through the knothole lead you to believe this morning?  Are you bound for eternity in the promised land?

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It’s Been Too Long

I have wondered, looking back over my life, what I might have been had I chosen differently.  I used to think there was really only one other option, but I’m no longer so sure.  I’m pretty sure I’d be dead, fairly certain I wouldn’t have the child or wife I have, and it’s very likely I would not be mourned or missed.

I don’t say that, mourning what might have been.  I say that because the only decision creating any sort of demarcation in my life was the one to follow Jesus.  Had I not done that, made that choice, my life would have been characterized by the enemy of all mankind.  That’s pretty much the only two choices.

According to my Master, the enemy comes to steal, kill, and destroy.  So, that’s what I could expect from any option where I didn’t choose to follow Jesus.  On the other hand, Jesus came that we might have life, and life overflowing.  It’s weird, now, after saying that, to think of how often I’ve said that life sucks.  How can that be true?  Honestly, only death can be that bad.

Regardless of what I might have been without Jesus, I am what He does with me now.  Yet, it seems that He has a real fight on His hands to use me at all.  I’m a mess.  I remain this impossible mixture of life and death, beauty and ugliness, pain and healing, all bound up in a fractured person of clay.  Perhaps we all are.  And, perhaps, we are all also aware that it’s not supposed to be that way.

The One saving my soul is Yahweh Elohim, Yeshua Messiach.  He destroys and makes alive.  So, Jesus came that we might have life, but He is also the One causing death.  He is the Creator, but He is also the Destroyer.  Only He has such power.  The enemy didn’t create this universe, he didn’t make people, form the land and seas, or the heavens, or even sin.  And so, whatever my Master says is truth, and however He defines terms is real meaning.

We are what He has made us to be.  And we will continue being no more, nor no less, until He says we’re done.  And yet we have choice.  Two naked, unashamed, gardeners chose the wrong tree.  And they brought us the knowledge of good and evil.  The choice before me is whether or not to give it back.  Life is letting go of the knowledge of good and evil, and walking with my Creator.  Death is knowing good and evil for myself, walking by myself, and defining for myself, as if I truly had such power.

It’s no wonder Paul refers to death as sleep, when to be dead in my sins, apart from my Master, is to be dreaming of something unreal.  When illusion is all I have, then I’m dead.  But when my Master defines for me, I walk with Him in the cool of the day.  There’s no point in anything else, no other experience, no other choice, no other truth or reality compares to walking with my Master.

I am what He has made me.  And I live because He says so.  And I choose to walk with my Master.  What do you know?  And what do you choose?

Pegged By a Woman

Barak called Zebulun and Naphtali together to Kedesh, and ten thousand men went up with him; Deborah also went up with him.  Now Heber the Kenite had separated himself from the Kenites, from the sons of Hobab the father-in-law of Moses, and had pitched his tent as far away as the oak in Zaanannim, which is near Kedesh. (Judges 4:10-11 NASB)

Now Sisera fled away on foot to the tent of Jael the wife of Heber the Kenite, for there was peace between Jabin the king of Hazor and the house of Heber the Kenite.  Jael went out to meet Sisera, and said to him, “Turn aside, my master, turn aside to me! Do not be afraid.” And he turned aside to her into the tent, and she covered him with a rug.  He said to her, “Please give me a little water to drink, for I am thirsty.” So she opened a bottle of milk and gave him a drink; then she covered him.  He said to her, “Stand in the doorway of the tent, and it shall be if anyone comes and inquires of you, and says, ‘Is there anyone here?’ that you shall say, ‘No.'”  But Jael, Heber’s wife, took a tent peg and seized a hammer in her hand, and went secretly to him and drove the peg into his temple, and it went through into the ground; for he was sound asleep and exhausted. So he died. (Judges 4:17-21 NASB)

The account of Deborah and Barak would not be complete without Jael.  You simply cannot get the point without her.  We get so focused on the fact that Deborah led the Sons of Israel as a woman, that we forget that the enemy of God’s people was defeated by a woman from another people.  Not only did God keep the victory from Barak, but also from the Sons of Israel.

Also, much is made about the fact that Deborah prophesies that Barak won’t be given the victory because he asked a woman to go with him.  I think that has more to do with literary irony from the writer than some sort of indictment from God on women involved in leadership.  Deborah remains the judge, and there seems to be no problem on God’s side with her in that role.

The irony for me derives from the layered issue.  This Kenite, Heber, separates from his brethren in the south and is near Kadesh.  He is at “peace” with Jabin, the enemy of the people of Israel.  Yet his wife seems to be the enemy of Jabin and Sisera.  She pretends to be friendly, like her husband, but then secretly assassinates the general.

So, a battle ensues with the chariots being less effective than foot soldiers.  The general escapes on foot, and is killed by a woman while he sleeps.  Just when he thought he was safe, among friends, he wasn’t.  The battle followed him to the tents of his ally.  In all of this, where was Heber, anyway?

I think God’s sense of humor peeks through here.  Sure, the grisly nature of Jael’s actions is kind of gross.  But a woman driving a tent peg through a guy’s head into the ground?  When you consider he’s the chief warrior for the king of Canaan, it has to be the most embarrassing way to go.  What do you put on that tombstone?

I suppose the point for this is that God uses whoever He likes, and uses them in ways that show off His work.  A seasoned warrior killed in his sleep by a woman with a hammer and nail?  Yeah, that would be God.  Nine hundred chariots out run by foot soldiers?  Yeah, that would be God.  How does anyone else get credit?  They don’t.  They get points for participation.

So, what are we after?  Recognition?  Credit?  Kudos?  What?  God doesn’t give points for anything other than participation.  If we’re not okay with that, then there are s a few layers of problems with our relationship with God.  God has to be the Main Character, the Hero, the One in charge.  Who else can save?  Through whom, other than God, can human creatures be saved from eternal death?  If only Jesus saves, then isn’t it in everyone’s best interest that He get all the attention?

I like getting credit, for people to like me, think well of me, be impressed, and so on.  I need to get passed that.  People won’t be saved through any achievement of mine.  My best day won’t get one more person into eternal life.  Only Jesus accomplishes that.  So, let my Master use Jael, Deborah, Barak, foot soldiers, and tent pegs.  That should gain Him so notoriety, and that is the point, because that’s what brings people to Him.

So, what’s your view of God through the fence today?