Author Archives: Kate

Good Gifts

28 Monday Aug 2023

Posted by in Poetry, Writing

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Hello Readers and welcome-or welcome back-to Renaissance Woman!

I am taking a brief break from my study on the Whole Armor of God. Instead, I read a passage in Andrew Murray’s “With Christ in the School of Prayer” which inspired the following poem. I hope you enjoy it and will join me next week when I return to my study.

The Best Gift

Precious Holy Spirit
Sent to us because The Son
Lived and died and rose again
And shares all He has won

You are the Spirit of the Father
You teach us how to live
In the love You have shed abroad
The Father's pleased to give

You are the Spirit of The Son
He is formed in us by You
His relationship with The Father
Is the same one we have too

Spirit of The Living God
From inside of us You lift
Us each into Your fellowship
Our best most wonderous gift!

New Vistas

21 Monday Aug 2023

Posted by in Studies, Whole Armor of God

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Hello Readers and welcome-or welcome back-to Renaissance Woman where, this week, I continue in my study of Ephesians 6: 10-18a.  I am looking specifically at the Apostle Paul’s urging to “Put on the whole armor of God” (verse 11).

This past week has been an interesting one.  Every Christian book I have picked up and every teacher I have listened to has given me a variation on the same message: rest, abide, do only those things you see The Father doing, it is Christ in you that is the hope of glory, Christ lives in you by His Spirit, it is the Holy Spirit who is the revealer, guide, and ability to live the Christian life.  This is all in line with what I have seen up until now in my study: that the Whole Armor of God is the very life of God.  My conviction appears to be substantiated when I read Ephesians 6:11 out of Jonathan Mitchell’s New Testament: “you folks must at some point, for yourselves, enter within (or: clothe yourselves with) the full suit of armor and implements of war (panoply; the complete equipment for men-at-arms) which is God (or: which comes from and belongs to God), in order for you to be continuously able and powerful to stand (or: to make a stand) facing toward the crafty methods (stratagems; schemes; intrigues) of the adversary…” (Mitchell, 479)

I believe this to be true: I believe when Jesus cried “it is finished!” on the cross He had done everything necessary to abolish sin and death and restore us to relationship with The Father.  With His resurrection and ascension, we now have a new and living way opened for us and we-boldly and with confidence-enter the holy places (see Hebrews 10:19-20).  In terms of the whole armor of God and Spiritual Warfare, I don’t believe we are “putting on” something exterior to us nor are we responsible for claiming ground for Jesus, building the kingdom, or seeking to defeat Satan in any way.  Again, I believe this passage is describing the Covenant Life of God freely given to us (and IN US via the Holy Spirit), that the victory belongs entirely to Jesus (see 1 John 3:8) and is a free gift to us because we are in Him, and that His life in us makes us to STAND. 

But then, it doesn’t really matter what I believe if the scripture is saying something else.  The English is clear: Paul says to “PUT ON the whole armor of God”.  I am not forgetting he says to “take up the whole armor of God” in verse 13 but that is the focus of a later post.  At face value, “Put On” does seem to be describing the whole armor of God as something external that we must put on in the sense that we put on our clothes every day.  To that end, I looked up the Greek Word translated “put on”.

That word is endysasthe.  It is the Aorist Imperative Middle 2nd Person Plural Verb form of the Greek enduo.  I realize few share my love of Grammar so I ask you to stay with me through the next few paragraphs!  I’m sure we all remember the definition of a Verb from our language classes but, just as a reminder, a verb is a word that shown an action, occurrence, or state of being.  The Aorist is the tense of the verb and is (probably) best defined as simple past tense.  The Aorist states that an action has happened but gives no information on how long the action took or whether the results are still in effect.  Aorist verbs describe the entire action as a single event.  According to the Ezra Project, “Aorist is an ideal tense to describe an action that happens at a particular point in time.  That is why some grammar books describe it as ‘punctiliar’”. (See Ezra Project link and link to definition of “punctiliar” below).

The Mood of the verb is Imperative which is a verb form used to make a demand or to give advice or instructions.  2nd Person Plural refers to the speaker’s audience.  In this case, the Apostle Paul is addressing many “youse”. 

The Verb enduo is Strong’s number 1746 and is a compound word comprised of en (1722) and duo (1416).  En denotes a fixed position in place, time, or state, instrumentality, a relation of rest, and means simply “in”.  Duo means “to sink, to go down.”  Enduo is thus defined as “to invest with clothing in the sense of sinking into a garment; array, endue”. 

There was enough here for me to meditate on for days however some teachers I’ve recently listened to have made some snarky comments about the definitions in the Strong’s Concordance.  Thus the reason I verified the definition in two other resources.  The Young’s Concordance defines enduo as “to clothe, to go into clothing”.  The Greek English Lexicon defines enduo literally as “to put any kind of thing on oneself; clothe oneself in, put on, wear” and metaphorically as, “the taking on of characteristics, virtues, intentions.”  This Lexicon lists Ephesians 6:11 under the literal definition and Ephesians 4:24 under the metaphorical.  That scripture is “and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.”  An interesting anecdote of Alexander the Great is included in this section and that is that, when he would dress as the gods, he believed he became Ammon, Artemis, Hermes, or Heracles.

Still with me?  Great!  Here are my conclusions.  First, I see no reason to consider the occurrence of enduo in Ephesians 6:11 as literal and the occurrence in Ephesians 4:24 as metaphorical. The occurrence in Ephesians 4:24 is endysasthai which is the Aorist Infinitive Middle form of the verb.  Second, I am fascinated by the verb being aorist in both passages.  Both the new man and the whole armor of God are new realities and ways of being for us in this today moment but they originate at a point in the past. They are not new in any sense of the word except that they are new to us when the Holy Spirit opens our eyes to see them.

Third, I am fascinated by the fact there is no getting around that there are two ways of looking at this word enduo.  We can define it as we are clothing ourselves in the armor that belongs to God and it is ours on loan or we can define it as we are sinking down into the very life of Jesus Christ and He Himself is our armor.  In the first definition, there is no vital connection to the armor.  It is not something that is a part of us which brings me to the inevitable conclusion that, since the armor belongs to God and it is really only loaned to me, it is something that can be snatched away if I happen to fail while conducting Spiritual Warfare.

I have heard many believers say things about their relationship-or lack thereof-to The Father which makes me believe many accept this first definition as truth.  I recently read a description of a book on spiritual warfare which told me the book would help me learn how to escape Satan’s grip, how to address the roots of spiritual bondage, and would teach me how to avoid the wrong approaches so I could truly partner with the Holy Spirit and experience freedom.

This book description is, to me, sadly indicative of the state of believers who do not believe what is spelled out in the Bible.  Satan has no grip on me because the Son of God was manifested that He might destroy the works of the devil.  I don’t worry about sin because I am IN CHRIST, therefore I am born from above (or again), and, because I am born of God I do not sin because His seed remains in me and I cannot sin.  Don’t believe this means you as well? Don’t believe all of that is even in the Bible?  Read 1 John 3!  And, there’s more.

The blood of Jesus, the blood of the new covenant, has cleansed me from all sin because I am IN CHRIST and therefore I walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light (See 1 John 1:7).  Perfect freedom is mine because the law of the Spirit of life IN CHRIST JESUS has set me free from the law of sin and death (see Romans 8:2).  I could go on.  An excellent eye-opening study is to go through the New Testament and underline every occurrence of the words “in Christ”.  Seeing what is ours IN CHRIST is truly marvelous.

And so, I choose the second definition.  I don’t choose it because I wish to (although it really is so much better than the first) but because it is the truth I see proclaimed to me from every page of the Bible.  The manifestation of Jesus Christ, God Incarnate, is my fixed position in time.  As time is linear, this fixed point is past and yet is so vitally my present and also will be my future.  I put Him on by hastening to enter into His rest thus resting from all my works.  I put Him on by abiding in Him because apart from Him I can do nothing.  I put Him on as I conformed more and more into His image.  I sink down into everything He is and experience everything that is mine because I am His and He is God’s (1 Corinthians 3:21).         

He is my salvation.  He is my life.  He is the whole armor of God who protects me and ministers His victory to me in all times and places because in Him I live and move and have my being.  I sink down into Jesus Christ, snuggle into Him like the most comfortable of garments, and my life is now hidden with Him in God (Colossians 3:3).

Isn’t this incredible?!  May the Holy Spirit open our eyes to Christ who is our life!

Unless noted otherwise, all Scriptures are quoted from The Holy Bible, New King James Version, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, Tennessee, 1982

References

Ephesians 6 Interlinear Bible (biblehub.com)

Greek Tenses Explained – Ezra Project

Punctiliar Definition & Meaning – Merriam-Webster

Imperative Mood | Definition, Examples & Use (scribbr.com)

Middle Voice: Overview & Examples | What is Middle Voice? | Study.com

Second Person: Explanation and Examples (grammar-monster.com)

Danker, Frederick William, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, Third Edition, University of Chicago Press, Chicago and London, 1957, 2000

Green, Jay P., The Interlinear Bible: Hebrew, Greek, English, Volume IV, Second Edition, Authors For Christ, Inc. Lafayette, IN, 1796, 2000

Mitchell, Jonathan Paul, MA, The New Testament, 2019 Edition, Harper Brown Publishing, 2009, 2019

Strong, James, LL.D., S.T.D., The New Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville Tennessee, 1990

Young, Robert, LL.D., Young’s Analytical Concordance to the Bible, Hendrickson Publishers, Peabody, Massachusetts

More Than Able

14 Monday Aug 2023

Posted by in Studies, Whole Armor of God

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Image by Adrian Campfield from Pixabay

Hello and welcome-or welcome back-to Renaissance Woman where, this week, I continue my study of Ephesians 6: 10-18a: the passage where the Apostle Paul describes the Whole Armor of God.

As part of my study, I have been reading William Gurnall’s The Christian in Complete Armour.  This is quite a tome and I haven’t made as much progress as I would like.  The book is already bristling with flags and full of underlined passages.  One passage I both underlined and flagged is: “God does not parcel himself out by retail, but gives his saints leave to challenge whatever a God hath, as theirs; and let him, whoever he is, sit in God’s throne and take away his crown, that can fasten any untruth on the Holy One; as his name is, so is his nature, a God keeping covenant for ever.  The promises stand as the mountains about Jerusalem, never to be removed; the weak as well as the strong Christian is within this line of communication.  Were saints to fight it out in open field by the strength of their own grace, then the strong were more likely to stand and the weak to fall in battle; but both castled in the covenant, are alike safe” (Gurnall, Page 30).

This passage has stayed with me.  So much of what I hear other Believers say is opposite to what I hear the Holy Spirit saying.  Believers are so busy with conducting spiritual warfare or ushering in the kingdom and those with greater abilities are heralded as being great in the kingdom.  Those who don’t have the same resources or abilities are not declared less in the kingdom but are described as a different part of His Body with a different function.  Equally important, just different: “The eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I don’t need you!’…” (1 Corinthians 12:15-26).  The message I hear-and it may not be what anyone intends to convey-is to know your place.  Be content with whatever that place is and, if you are not content, you can hold onto the promise that the first shall be last and the last first when Jesus comes back and it’s time to hand out rewards.  What sort of help that is to you now, in your day to day life in a world that is truly filled with tribulation, only you can really say.  It’s no good to me.  I see the truth of what William Gurnall wrote 400 years ago: were we to take to the field in our own strength, there are those who are far more likely to stand in battle than others.  Abilities and opportunities have not been spread evenly between individuals.

I have been thinking about the Parable of the Talents more and more over the course of this study.  The Parable appears in the Gospel of Matthew with a similar Parable in the Gospel of Luke.  In Matthew’s telling, the Master gives one of his servants five talents, another two, and another one, each according to his own ability.  Luke’s telling is a bit different: the Master calls ten servants and each one gets 10 minas though, when the Master returns, only three servants report to him.  There is no mention of ability in Luke’s version though it’s similar to Matthew’s in that one servant saw far more of a return on his investment than the other two so perhaps ability is inferred.  I have always heard these Parables taught in terms of ability: some of us are ten talent people, others are five, and some of us are single talent people.  I will say the Parables are also always taught that the ten talent people are not better than the five or one talent people: the only one admonished in the Parables is the servant who did nothing at all with the talent.  Still, I always sat in the pew certain I was a one talent person rather than a ten talent person.  Not only that, I was possessed with a deep fear that not even God thought I was enough.

This fear only rooted itself deeper as I was forced to come to terms with the effects of my car accident and also forced to admit the truth: my abilities were not remotely equal to those of other people.  There is a saying, “Everyone has the same 24 hours per day” which is supposed to be motivational but isn’t to a person struggling with physical limitations and the effects of a TBI.  These Parables deserve dedicated studies of their own.  For the sake of staying focused on my current study, I will only say I have had to rethink these Parables as my attention has been drawn to passages I don’t remember seeing before, no matter how many times I read through the Bible.  These passages speak of being filled with the fullness of God, being made complete in Jesus Christ, lacking nothing.  I will quote only one as it’s from the same Epistle as my study passage:

“…I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints, what is the width and length and depth and height-to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God” (Ephesians 3:14-19).

It is that last bit “filled with all the fullness of God” that has been ringing in my ears for months now and is the phrase I thought of when I read William Gurnall’s words.  “God does not parcel himself out” and “both castled in the covenant, are alike safe”.  I’ve been writing about covenant verses contract in my last few posts.  A contract is an if/then document whereas a in a covenant, both parties give themselves to each other.  Nothing is held back.  If one party needs food, protection, defense, whatever; the other party commits to provide it up to his very life and vice versa.   In this New Covenant that is now ours, of which Jesus Christ is the mediator, by the very meaning of “covenant”, our God has given Himself to us.  And, He has not given a little bit of Himself to this person and a little bit more to that person and then a whole lot to that person over there because, wow, look at how able they are!  No!  As Peter said, “In truth I perceive that God shows no partiality” (Acts 10:34). 

If this is true, and it has to be because it is written in black and white in the pages of the Bible, what about the Parable of the Talents?  Malcolm Smith has a teaching on The Parable of the Talents and he pointed out how the goods belonging to the Master and delivered to the servants could be seen as a metaphor for the Master giving the servants his life.  Looking at the Parables in those terms, I wondered about the line “according to his own ability”.  If the Master is Jesus, the goods are His life, and He is One who shows no partiality, why does it look like-in Matthew’s version at least-He does indeed show partiality?  Each servant is considered to have a different level of ability and is therefore given a different amount of the Master’s goods.  I discovered something interesting when I looked up the Greek word translated “ability”.

There are three occurrences of “ability” in the Strong’s Concordance and each one translates a different Greek word.  The Greek in Acts 11:29 is euporeo (G2141) and means “to be good for passing through, to have pecuniary means.”  The Greek in 1 Peter 4:11 is ischus and means “forcefulness, might, power, strength”.  The Greek in the Parable as related in Matthew 24:15 is dunamis (G1411) and the Strong’s defines it as “force, specifically miraculous power (usually by implication a miracle itself)-ability, abundance, meaning, might (-ily, -y deed), (worker of) miracle (-s), power, strength, violence, mighty (wonderful), work.”  Dunamis is most often translated as “power”, for example; it is the word used in the Lord’s Prayer, “…thine is the Kingdom and the power”, and is also the word used in Luke 9:1 when Jesus sent out His disciples: He gave them “power (dunamis) and authority”. 

 The fact that the word for “ability” in the Parable of the Talents is dunamis absolutely blew my mind.  As I said, this is something worthy of devotion but I hope you can see, as I saw, that the “ability” of the servants was not something inherent in themselves.  Both the goods and the ability came from the Master. 

I wonder if this Parable isn’t pointing out something I’ve come to suspect; that each one of us Believers has the same “ability” in that each one of us possesses the fullness of God in Christ Jesus.  In that respect, we are equal.  We are not equal in the level to which we have come to know this to be true, appropriate it for ourselves, and see it expressed in our lives.  This is, I believe, a matter of choice.  Many of my fellow believers, too many, are content with being saved and knowing about God.  He has given Himself to us in covenant.  How much of Him do you desire?

What does this have to do with the Whole Armor of God? You may well ask.  This post is what I have received, so far, in my asking this question: if we are made to stand in the power of the Lord and His might, if the Whole Armor of God is describing the way we live in this New Covenant, and thus the Whole Armor of God is an expression of the Life of Christ in us and through us, why does Paul say to “put on” and “take up” the Armor?  I wondered if there wasn’t a conflict here.  I am beginning to see there is no conflict and I hope to continue to share that in the upcoming weeks.

Until then, I leave you with a bit more from Paul’s letter to the Ephesians.  May the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation, open the eyes of our understanding that we might know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints (that’s us!), and what is the exceeding greatness of His dunamis toward us who believe.  May we each one know what it means to be filled with the all the fullness of God and may we give the glory to the One who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the dunamis that works in us.

Hallelujah!  Hallelujah!  Amen.

 Unless noted otherwise, all Scriptures are quoted from The Holy Bible, New King James Version, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, Tennessee, 1982

References

Parable of the Talents: Matthew 25:14-30, Similar Parable found in Luke 19:12-27

Gurnall, William, The Christian in Complete Armour, Seventh Printing, Hendrickson Publishers, Peabody, Massachusetts, 2021

Strong, James, LL.D., S.T.D., The New Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville Tennessee, 1990

The Way He Has Made

07 Monday Aug 2023

Posted by in Studies, Walking in the Way, Whole Armor of God

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Hello Readers and welcome-or welcome back-to Renaissance Woman!

This week’s post is a continuation of my study on Ephesians 6:10-18a; the passage which contains the Apostle Paul’s description of the Whole Armor of God.  I have not yet delved into the pieces of armor as there has been so much to learn from the word “stand” as it appears in this passage.  The Greek word translated “stand” is histemi.  “Stand” is a perfectly good translation for histemi but it doesn’t fully express the intent of the word.  Histemi means “to stand, abide, appoint, bring, continue, covenant, establish, hold up, lay, present, set up, staunch, stand”.  It is not standing in the sense of perseverance or holding fast but rather carries the idea of being made to stand.  I have been thinking of verse 10 of my study passage in terms of defining histemi: “Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might”.  We do not stand in our own strength or merit but are made to stand in the power of His might.  The other word that has grabbed hold of my attention is “covenant”.  I have not ever thought of the whole armor of God in terms of covenant before and doing so now makes me feel as though I am approaching this passage for the first time.

Ever since I looked up the meaning of histemi, I have been thinking about covenants.  It never ceases to fascinate me how, when my attention is focused on something, I begin to see that same thing everywhere.  In last week’s post I quoted from an article published in an issue of Biblical Archeology Review.  I’ve had this issue for months but I just happen to open it and read on article on covenants in the ancient world at the exact time I have begun to meditate on covenants.  During this Sunday’s sermon, the Teacher just happened to mention the phrase “blood is thicker than water” is a shortened version of “the blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb”.  There is no getting away from covenants.

And, what is a covenant?  It is not what I hear it defined as from a great number of believers.  They define covenant in terms of if Person A does this then Person B will do that which is not a covenant but a contract. Of course, I cannot blame my fellow believers for thinking in these terms because THE COVENANT in the minds of believers is the Mosaic Covenant i.e. The Law given at Mount Sinai.  Before Moses and Israelites ever get to Mount Sinai, there is this word from the Lord: “…If you will diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord your God, and will do what is right in His sight, and will listen to and obey His commandments and keep all His statues, I will put none of the diseases up you which I brought upon the Egyptians; for I am the Lord Who Heals You” (Exodus 15:26, AMP).  Reading on through the giving of the law and the description of the results of failing to keep it, I understand why the language of if/then has been drug into this Day.

The Covenants of the Old Testament is a subject worthy of a devoted study.  For the sake of staying on the track of my current study, I point out the Mosaic Covenant is not the only covenant of the Old Testament nor is it the most important.  There is a fascinating passage in Galatians which speaks of a covenant made before and one which takes precedence over the covenant of Moses: “…just as Abraham “believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” Therefore know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham.  And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying, “In you all the nations shall be blessed.” So then those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham.  For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse; for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law, to do them.” But that no one is justified by the law in the sight of God is evident, for “the just shall live by faith.” Yet the law is not of faith but “the man who does them shall live by them.” 

“Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree), that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.  Brethren, I speak in the manner of men; Though it is only a man’s covenant, yet if it is confirmed, no one annuls or adds to it.  Now to Abraham and his Seed were the promises made.  He does not say, And to seeds,” as of many but as of one, “And to your Seed,” who is Christ.  And this I say, that the law, which was four hundred and thirty years later, cannot annul the covenant that was confirmed before by God in Christ, that it should make the promise of no effect.  For if the inheritance is of the law, it is no longer of promise; but God gave it to Abraham by promise” (Galatians 3:6-18).

This passage is referring to the covenant described in Genesis 15: 9-21.  The animals are brought and split in half but Abraham (though he is still Abram at this time) falls into a deep sleep.  God speaks to Abraham but it is a smoking oven and burning torch which pass through the carcasses and blood of the animals.  Abraham certainly took part in the preparation of the animals and he drove vultures away from the carcasses but, when the sun comes down, Abraham falls into a deep sleep.  He is a spectator rather than a participant.  I wholeheartedly agree this is a covenant God makes with Abraham but the keeping of it didn’t depend on Abraham in any way as he did not pass through the pieces himself but slept and saw as if in a dream or vision the smoking oven and burning torch pass through the pieces.

I think of this covenant when I think of the New Covenant which we all live under.  It is not a covenant of keeping laws and rules, or moderating behaviors so God will be pleased with us and bless us.  Like that covenant made while Abraham slept, this New Covenant was not made with our participation.  Like that covenant described in the Galatians passage, this New Covenant is not one of law but one of promise.  Hebrews 12: 18-24 says: “For you have not come to the mountain that may be touched and that burned with fire, and to blackness and darkness and tempest, and the sound of a trumpet and the voice of words, so that those who hear it begged that the word should not be spoken to them anymore. (For they could not endure what was commanded: “And if so much as a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned or shot with an arrow”. And so terrifying was the sight that Moses said,”I am exceedingly afraid and trembling.”) But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel.”

“In Christ” is such a small phrase.  It’s only two words but they refer to a life and an inheritance that surpasses anything we’ve been taught to expect.  In the crucifixion of Jesus we see “God in Christ reconciling the world to Himself” (2 Corinthians 5:19).  Human hands participated in the making of the New Covenant by preparing the sacrifice but, again, humans could only watch as the New Covenant was established.  But now, we are In Christ!  Every promise of God is “yes” in Christ Jesus.  We are raised from death to life in Christ Jesus and we are seated with Him in heavenly places.  His life in us is the life of the New Covenant.  Life, not keeping rules and laws.

How does this pertain to the Whole Armor of God?  I see so many believers engaging in “spiritual warfare” by attempting to animate the Mosaic Covenant with the keeping of rules and laws and adhering to standards of behavior.  I rarely if ever hear fellow believers exulting in passages like the ones I’ve shared from Galatians and Hebrews or Paul’s beautiful description of Christ’s fulfilling the law as related in Romans 8. 

I came across an interesting entry in my New Koine Greek Textbook Series Supplements.  In the collection of George Ricker Berry’s Synonyms under “Covenant”, I found: “Asynthetos, occurring only in Romans 1:31, is “covenant-breaker”, one who interrupts a state of peace and brings on war by disregarding an agreement by which peace is maintained.  Aspondos is “implacable”, one who refuses to agree to any terms of suggestions of peace.  It implies a state of war, and a refusal of covenant or even of armistice to end it permanently or temporarily”.

This struck me because God has, by His own desire, established a New Covenant in Christ Jesus.  It is one where He chose not to impute our trespasses against us.  It is one where Jesus put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself and one where He has destroyed the devil who had the power of death.  He has come that we would have life and that abundantly!  Now, this New Covenant cannot be broken because it does not depend on us.  However, calling anything but the life and inheritance that is now ours in Jesus Christ “good news” is a refusal to partake of the covenant.  It is a rejection of the peace that is ours in Christ Jesus.  The result is a warfare that is carnal rather than spiritual because it is warfare that seeks to gain a victory over a perceived enemy when the reality is, in Christ Jesus, the victory is already won.

We put on the Whole Armor of God and our feet are shod with the Preparation of the Gospel of Peace.  I look forward to gaining understanding of just what this means. 

To be continued…

Unless noted otherwise, all Scriptures are quoted from The Holy Bible, New King James Version, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, Tennessee, 1982

References

 4 quotes that you have been terribly misquoting. | by Josiah Ross | Student Voices (mystudentvoices.com)

Strong, James, LL.D., S.T.D., The New Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville Tennessee, 1990

Walker, G. Allen, New Koine Greek Textbook Series Supplements, 2014-2018, Page 64

Face to Face

31 Monday Jul 2023

Posted by in Studies, Whole Armor of God

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Hello Readers!  Welcome to a new week and a new post on Renaissance Woman.  This week’s post is another installment in my study of the Whole Armor of God.  I am looking at Ephesians 6:10-18a and I have not progressed any further than “Stand”.  The Apostle Paul says to “stand” three times in this passage and I was certain he meant for us to stand fast or stand firm against the onslaught of the enemy.  There is a word in the Greek which does mean to stand, persevere, hold fast, and it is steko.  That is not the word used in this passage.  The word used in this passage is histemi and it means “to stand, abide, appoint, bring, continue, covenant, establish, hold up, lay, present, set up, staunch, stand (by, forth, still, up). 

These two Greek words are related to each other.  Steko comes from the perfect tense of histemi.  The perfect tense in Greek is used to describe actions already done or completed in the past which produced results still in effect in the present: something to bear in mind when reading the passages that use steko.  Histemi carries more of a meaning of “made to stand” or “cause to stand”.  We see this in verse ten of my study passage: “Finally, by brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.”  We stand because Jesus Christ in us causes us to stand.  We are made to stand because we are in covenant with Him.

Covenant is a weighty word.  I have been meditating on the covenants of the Bible since last year when I completed a course on them.  During this course, the Teacher said the Western Church has very little understanding of what covenant means.  The Western Church defines covenant in the terms of contract: if you do this then I will do that.  Surely not, I thought to myself and I have spent a great deal of time since then listening to what my fellow believers here in the west are saying.  I have found this Teacher is correct in his diagnosis of the Western Church.  It came to a head for me when I was watching a television show on the life of Jesus.  Two characters are running a scam on a landowner and, once the landowner agrees to sell, one character says “we’ll draw up the covenants.”  I heard that and I almost exploded.  For the word covenant to be used when contract was so clearly implied left me utterly discombobulated.  The two words have nothing to do with each other. 

I have heard covenant being used when contract is meant many times since by many of my fellow believers.  It is like my ear has been tuned to it.  And, this lack of understanding is being noticed by others.  Just this week I read this in the Spring 2023 edition of Biblical Archeology Review: “The theme of covenant is central to the Hebrew Bible.  It provides the background to many of its most memorable stories where Yahweh establishes alliances with figures such as Noah (Genesis 9), Abraham (Genesis 12; 15; 17), Moses (Exodus 19; 24), Aaron (Exodus 29; Numbers 18:19), and David (2 Samuel 7). 

“Yet modern biblical scholarship has marginalized the covenantal aspects of the Hebrew Bible in favor of the many individuals and events associated with such arrangements, which are generally reduced to their legal aspects and interpreted as obligations subsumed under the law (Hebrew: torah).  The word torah even serves to designate the first major division of the Hebrew Bible.  Reading the Bible in its wider Near Eastern context, however, rehabilitates the covenant as a crucial factor in diplomacy as well as political and private alliances.”

A contract is indeed an if/then document.  Punishments are usually clearly spelled out should either party fail to comply with the contract’s terms.  Covenants are a matter of life and death.  They were not drawn up: they were typically established in blood.  Animals were split in half and the two parties would walk between the pieces through the blood.  The blood of the parties was also often shed and mingled.  A covenant meant both parties were swearing all they were and had-their very lives-were being given to the other person.

In all fairness to the Western Church, they can’t be blamed for thinking in terms of contract because the Covenant of Moses given at Mount Sinai was given in the language “if you don’t do these things, then these things will come upon you.” (See Exodus Chapters 19-24).  I have heard Bible Teachers say the people of Israel made a terrible mistake when they answered with one voice saying, “All the words which the Lord has said we will do” (Exodus 24:3).  Of course they did not.  They could not.  Their inability to do wasn’t a surprise to God either because the Apostle Paul writes, “Moreover the law entered that the offense might abound.  But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more” (Romans 5:20).

There is a fascinating verse that appears earlier in this same chapter: “For until the law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law” (Romans 5:13).  I cannot venture into a study on this subject now.  The Apostle Paul beautifully explains himself in Chapters 6 and 7 and I highly recommend you take the time to read through them.  I think the Apostle Paul’s point, and the point I am making about the Mosaic Covenant is summed up in Hebrews 7:18-19: “For on the one hand there is an annulling of the former commandment because of its weakness and unprofitableness, for the law made nothing perfect; on the other hand, there is the bringing in of a better hope, through which we draw near to God.”

The television show about the life of Jesus I mentioned does, in my opinion, do some things brilliantly; one of which is pointing out how the Pharisees especially revered the law.  The laws given by God at Mount Sinai and in the Book of Leviticus were not enough: they developed a system of 613 more laws.  What I find to be tragic is that a great number of believers today choose the same way of living.  Matthew 5:16-20 records Jesus saying, “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets.  I did not come to destroy but to fulfill.  For assuredly, I say to you, til heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled.  Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.  For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.”

Strong words indeed and I cannot blame my fellow believers for using them as a basis for their endeavors to keep the law.  Some do try to keep it in their own strength.  They fail of course and the penances and punishments of their denominations are there for them.  There are others that believe that, because the Spirit has been given, we now have the strength that was lacking in the Israelites of the Old Testament to keep the law. This passage is not a warning given to us by Jesus if we don’t keep the law. For one thing, even those who break the least of the commandments and teach others to do so are in the kingdom of heaven.  They are least in the kingdom, certainly, but they are not burning in hell which is interesting but not the most important point I would make. That point is: the New Testament makes it clear Jesus has fulfilled the law.

Again, I would point your attention to Paul’s letter to the Romans.  Paul writes, “I was alive once without the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died.  And the commandment, which was to bring life, I found to bring death.  For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it killed me” (Romans 7:9-11).  He goes on to write that famous passage that ends in “O wretched man that I am!  Who will deliver me from this body of death?”  He has an answer! 

“I thank God-through Jesus Christ our Lord!  So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.  There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.  For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.  For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit” (Romans 7:24-8:4).

Our Christian life is not one of extra ability to keep the law.  It is not one of contract.  I have carefully read the New Testament and I do not find our Christian lives are to be lived as if/then but rather because/therefore.  (Malcolm Smith first put our covenant life in these terms and I’ve never heard it better expressed).  We are partakers of a New Covenant and one we had no part in making.  It was established in the blood of Jesus and He is its mediator (See Matthew 26:28, Hebrews 9:15).  He is in us and we abide and rest in Him.  Because this is the truth, we therefore have ceased from our own works as God did from His. We are made to stand in His strength and the power of His might.  We are made to stand in the covenant position with Him: face to face.

Hallelujah!  Hallelujah!  Amen.

Unless noted otherwise, all Scriptures are quoted from The Holy Bible, New King James Version, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, Tennessee, 1982

References

Greek Tenses Explained

The Rules of the Pharisees – pursueGOD.org

Pharisaic Laws | Bible.org

Heintz, Jean-Georges, “Covenants in Context”, Biblical Archaeology Review, Volume 49 Number 1, Spring 2023, 61

Strong, James, LL.D., S.T.D., The New Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville Tennessee, 1990

Vine, W.E., Vine’s Expository Dictionary of Old & New Testament Words, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, Tennessee, 1997