Tag Archives: Christ Alone

Preparing the Ground

24 Monday Jun 2024

Posted by in Poetry, Writing

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Preparing the Ground

The Sower came to sow His seed 
In the field assigned to me
We would now put to the test
My preparation of the ground.
I was sure results would exceed 
Expectations and I'd see 
My field yield the very best
Grain that could be found.
By harvest I had to concede 
The books I'd read so avidly
And followed all they did suggest
Their advice had proved unsound.

The Sower came and I did plead
Not to judge me too harshly 
Instead to please heed my request 
Help me make my field renowned.
The Sower said He could indeed
Prepare the ground and guarantee 
A harvest that would be so blessed
It could feed everyone around.
He'd clear all that would impede
The growth and health and beauty 
Of the seed He would invest
The harvest would abound.

At my word He would proceed 
To help me clear all the debris 
From the field which He possessed 
The care of which confounded
Me-All I could ever need
Was available and He 
Would see I was not distressed 
Instead the yield would dumfound
Me-Following His lead 
I can see He's spoken truly
It is His ability expressed
To Him alone let all praise resound!

Ending in Death

18 Monday Sep 2023

Posted by in Studies, Whole Armor of God

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Hello Readers!  Welcome-or welcome back-to Renaissance Woman.

This week is a continuation of my study of the Whole Armor of God as described by the Apostle Paul in his Epistle to the Ephesians.  My study passage is Ephesians 6:10-18a.  For those of you who have been following along with all of my posts on this passage, you are well aware I have not made great inroads on this study.  I am, in fact, still looking at the words “take”.  Paul says to “take up the whole armor of God” in verse 13, “take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit” in verse 17, and says also “above all, taking the shield of faith” in verse 16.

“Take” in verses 13 and 16 are translated from the same word analambano.  The tenses are different but the words are the same.  “Take” in verse 17 is translated from the Greek dechomai.  The definitions of these two words aren’t all that different.  The Greek-English Lexicon (BDAG) defines analambano as “to lift up, carry away, take up, to take up in order to carry, to make something someone’s own by taking, with a focus on moral or transcendent aspects, to take to one’s self, adopt, take someone along on a journey, to take something up for scrutiny, take in hand” whereas dechomai is defined as, “to receive something offered or transmitted by another, to take something in hand, to be receptive of someone, to overcome obstacles in being receptive, to indicate approval or conviction by accepting” (BDAG, 66, 221-222). 

The two phrases that caught my attention are “to make something someone’s own…to take to one’s self” and “to indicate approval or conviction by accepting.”  What does it mean that two different words were used in this passage?  Is this passage saying we take the whole armor of God to ourselves and make it our own but then merely receive, or take hold of, the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit?  Don’t we make salvation our own?  Since the Holy Spirit lives in us, don’t we also make the sword of the spirit our own?

As I meditated on the meanings of these two different Greek words I found the short is answer is “yes”.  A more descriptive answer is; since the whole armor of God is Jesus Christ, every piece ought to be considered part of the whole with no part considered greater or lesser than another.  As Jesus fully gives Himself to us, nothing lacking; so then does every part of the armor which He is become ours without limit.  And yet, I cannot deny the helmet of salvation and sword of the spirit are “taken up” dechomai rather than “taken up” analambano.  Can something be learned by considering these two different words and their usage in this passage?  Again, the short answer is “yes”!

I have been reading Andrew Murray’s With Christ in the School of Prayer and, just this last week, I read: “The whole of salvation is Christ Himself: He has given Himself to us.  He Himself lives in us…We participate, not only in the benefits of HIS work, but in the work itself.  This is because we are His Body.  The Head and the members are one: “The head cannot say to the feet, I have no need of thee” (1 Corinthians 12:21).  We share with Jesus everything He is and has. “The glory which Thou gavest me, I have given them” (John 17:22).  We are partakers of His life, His righteousness, and His work.”  (Murray, 115-116). 

This quote is taken from Andrew Murray’s Chapter Titled “Christ the Intercessor” and the entire chapter reiterated to me that I ought not to think of the helmet of salvation and sword of the spirit as something separate from the armor and shield: it’s all Christ.  The difference in Greek words was not suggesting to me that the helmet and sword were something I could receive but could not adopt as my own.  I think the difference in the Greek words are a warning and that warning is found in the portion of dechomai’s definition which says, “to indicate approval or conviction by accepting.”

I was reminded of something I had read in William Gurnall’s The Christian in Complete Armor.  He writes, “The Christian’s armour which he wears must be of divine institution and appointment.  The soldier comes into the field with no arms but what his general commands.  It is not left to every one’s fancy to bring what weapons he please; this will breed confusion.  The Christian soldier is bound up to God’s order; though the army be on earth, yet the council of war sits in heaven; this duty ye shall do; these means ye shall use.  And [those who] do more, or use other, than God commands, though with some seeming success against sin, shall surely be called to account for this boldness.  The discipline of war among men is strict in this case.  Some have suffered death by a council of war even when they have beaten the enemy, because out of their place, or beside their order.  God is very precise in this point; he will say to such as invent ways to worship him of their own, coin means to mortify corruption, obtain comfort in their own mint; ‘Who hath required this at your hands?’” (Gurnall, 50).

On the armor of God must be of God in constitution, Mr. Gurnall has this to say: “The Christian’s armour must be armour of God in regard of its make and constitution.  My meaning is, it is not only that God must appoint the weapons and arms the Christian useth for his defence: but he must also be the efficient of them, he must work all their work in them and for them.” (Gurnall, 54).

The Chapter in Andrew Murray’s book opened with this: “All growth in the spiritual life is connected with clearer insight into what Jesus is to us.  The more I realize that Christ must be everything to me and in me, that everything in Christ is indeed for me, the more I learn to live the real life of faith.  This life dies to self and lives wholly in Christ.  The Christian life is no longer a vain struggle to live right, but a resting in Christ to find strength in Him as life.  He helps us fight and gain the victory of faith!” (Murray, 115).

Proverbs 14:12 says, “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.”  This is what I see in the difference between the two Greek words used in my study passage.  It’s all Christ.  There is nothing of Himself He holds back from us but He is THE WAY.  Jesus Christ is salvation.  I think it’s significant that Paul says “the helmet of salvation”.  I plan to take some time with this later in the series so will only say now that, the helmet does not only serve to keep our thoughts safe from the wiles of devil.  We have the mind of Christ but are admonished by Paul to “let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 2:5).  Our thoughts ought to be His thoughts.  We ought to be thinking about salvation the same way He thinks about salvation.

The sword of the spirit, which is the word of God, is ours to wield.  The Greek for “word” in this passage is rhema (G4487) and means “utterance.”  We are to live on every word that comes from the mouth of God (Matthew 4:4).  God did not stop speaking at some point in the past.  We are not stuck with the books that have been collected into that which we call The Bible.  No, we can hear God’s words for ourselves at any moment.  His Spirit lives within us and He guides us into all truth for “He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak” (John 16:13, emphasis mine). 

We indicate our approval and conviction by accepting His helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit.  When we go about our daily lives, we do so in the knowledge that Jesus Christ is the savior of the world.  We live each moment in vital union with the Father and Son in by and through the Spirit.  Like our Elder Brother, we know that we can of ourselves do nothing and so we do only those things we see The Father doing and we speak only those words we hear The Father speaking.

It is a heartbreaking truth that many believers have chosen to wear another helmet and wield another sword.  They do not declare the truth God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself not imputing their trespasses to them nor do they speak the word (logos) of reconciliation.  They do not listen for nor wait for the utterances of God but go rushing forth with swords forged from carnal interpretation forgetting the letter kills and it is the Spirit who gives life.

There is a way that seems right but its end is the way of death.  Jesus Christ is THE WAY and He is the only way wherein there is life.  Let us refuse the counterfeit armor of God and instead allow the Holy Spirit to guide us into all truth.  May we listen for His voice alone and may grow more and more each day in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  May we dechomai only those things that are of Him and from Him.

To Him be the glory both now and forever!

Amen

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

References

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

Gurnall, William, The Christian in Complete Armour, Volume 1, Seventh Printing, Hendrickson Publishers, Peabody, Massachusetts, 2021

Murray, Andrew, With Christ in the School of Prayer, Wilder Publications, Radford, Virginia, 2008

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

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    

When Tradition and I Part Ways

28 Monday Nov 2022

Posted by in Isaiah 45:7, Studies

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“I have to go downstairs and study ‘evil’.” 

I heard myself say those words to my family and laughed when the responses I received were “okay” and “sounds good”.  Only within the context of a Bible Study can someone announce he or she is going to study evil and no one wonders at it!

I am continuing my study of “evil” this week.  In Isaiah 45:7, God says, “I create evil”.  I’ve already posted a series of studies on the Hebrew word translated “create” in this passage-which is bara-so will not repeat myself but will say I have learned enough to question what is being said here.  “To make something out of nothing” is not an accurate definition of “create” and bara is used often enough in the OT where something new came into being out of already existing materials that we do not have to automatically assume God is saying He is the source of evil.  What then is this passage saying?  In the 45th chapter of Isaiah, God is making it clear He alone is God.  There is no evil power equal to Him so-looking at this passage alone-it could be He is claiming to be the source of evil.  And yet, the text allows the equally valid interpretation that God alone is God and even evil becomes part of the working out of His will: He will come inside it, make it new, and turn it into His good.

I cannot make a determination based on this single passage of scripture.  I hear that done so often: a single verse or at times a fragment of a verse is taken and entire doctrines are built upon it.  Any passage that refutes the established doctrine is either refuted in turn or utterly ignored.  I have seen the truth of the words spoken by the Lord Jesus Christ: “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written: ‘This people honors Me with their lips, But their heart is far from Me.  And in vain they worship Me, Teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’  For laying aside the commandment of God, you hold the tradition of men-the washing of pitchers and cups, and many other such things as you do…All too well you reject the commandment of God that you may keep your tradition” (Mark 7:6-9, Isaiah 29:13). 

And so, because I do not want to keep hold of what the traditions I have been part of have told me evil is and how it came into being, I began first by checking which Hebrew word is translated “evil” in Isaiah 45:7.  It is ra and the Strong’s number is 7451.  I then checked whether the word was the same in Genesis 2 for the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and, when I saw it was, I decided to read each passage containing the word ra and see what I could see.  I had barely begun when I wondered which Greek words the Septuagint had in place of ra in both in Isaiah 45:7 and in Genesis 2:9.  I had read that it was impossible to show a difference between kakos and poneros which are the two Greek words used to translate “evil” most often in the NT, so I checked the two passages in the OT to see if the same Greek word was used both times.  It is not.  Isaiah 45:7 has kaka which is the nominative/accusative/vocative plural neuter of kakos.  Genesis 2:9 has poneros.  I had to ask myself, why use two different Greek words to translate the same Hebrew word?

I mentioned before I had read that it was impossible to differentiate between kakos and poneros.  I read that statement in the New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology.  The first paragraph in the entry for Evil, Bad, Wickedness states: “The two main NT terms for expressing the shortcomings or inferiority of a thing (i.e. bad) and the ethically negative and religiously destructive character of a person or thought (i.e. evil) are kakos and poneros.  In the NT kakos occurs 50 times and the linguistically later poneros 78 times though the LXX uses it only 50 times compared to the 300 cases of kakos.  Unlike the terms dealt with under –Good, it is impossible to show any difference between these two terms.  Both are used even for the personification of evil in the devil or men” (Brown, 561).

Is it impossible to show any difference between the two terms?  Perhaps it is so merely looking up the different passages in our English translations.  It is not impossible if we look up the meanings of the words.  The full definition the Strong’s gives kakos (G2556)is: “apparently a primary word; worthless (intrinsically whereas 4190 (poneros-addition mine) properly refers to effects) i.e. (subjectively) depraved, or (objectively) injurious-bad, evil, harm, ill, noisome, wicked.”  The Strong’s defines poneros (G4190) as: “from a derivate of 4192; hurtful i.e. evil (properly in effect of influence and thus differing from 2556, which refers rather to essential character, as well as from 4550 which indicates degeneracy from original virtue); figuratively, calamitous, also (passively) ill, i.e. diseased; but especially (morally) culpable, i.e. derelict, vicious, facinorous; neuter (singular), mischief, malice, or (plural) guilt; masculine (singular) the devil or (plural) sinners:-bad, evil, grievous, harm, lewd, malicious, wicked (-ness).”

 For the sake of clarification, the Greek word under 4550 in the Strong’s is sapros and means “rotten, worthless, bad, corrupt”.  I had to look up “facinorous” and found it means “atrociously wicked: infamous”.  I admit there isn’t a massive difference between the two definitions as I’ve shared them but I found the difference becomes more obvious as I traced kakos through its familial words and poneros to its root.  The root of poneros is ponos (G4190) and it means, “toil, anguish, pain.”  Ponos can be traced further to penes or peno (G3993) which means, “to toil for daily subsistence, starving, indigent, poor.” 

I won’t share every definition of the Greek words related to kakos: they are numbers 2549-2561 in the Strong’s concordance should anyone wish to look them up.  There isn’t a great variation in meaning which is expected.  What I found interesting is the Greek word kakωs (G2560).  This word is the adverbial form of kakos, is pronounced kakooce, and means, “badly (physically or morally), amiss, diseased, evil, grievously, miserably, sick, sore.”

I find it utterly fascinating that the Septuagint chose poneros for the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.  In Genesis chapter 3, the ground is cursed for Adam’s sake and God says to him: “in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life” (verse 17) and poneros has the root meaning of “toil.”  Kakos, on the other hand, has the meaning of “illness, affliction.”  It is obvious to me these two words do not mean the same thing and, if word choice by the writers of the New Testament was deliberate, the passages where these words occur were meant to be read with these definitions in mind.  What the different choices in Genesis 2:9 and Isaiah 45:7 mean is something to be looked at in upcoming weeks.

It is a difficult thing to leave tradition behind and look at the scripture without any preconceived bias and be led entirely by the Holy Spirit.  It can be uncomfortable to “test everything”.  I have already come across some difficult passages which I do not want to shrink from nor dismiss out of hand.  They have been recorded in scripture for a reason.  They are important to understand.  I do not want to continue to interpret them as I’ve always been told they ought to be interpreted and I am not satisfied to settle for the vague answers I find in some commentaries.  I want to know the truth and so I continue to pray, “Holy Spirit, Spirit of the Living God, Spirit of wisdom and revelation, continue to teach and guide me.  Renew my mind and open the eyes of my heart that I might see You, Jesus, the One who is the Truth.”

Amen.

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

 Notes:

Whenever I have typed kakos I am referring to the Greek word spelled with an omicron: number 2556 in the Strong’s Concordance

LXX is the abbreviation for the Septuagint

References:

κακά – Wiktionary

Septuagint | biblical literature | Britannica

Facinorous Definition & Meaning – Merriam-Webster

Brown, Colin, The New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology, Volume I, Regency Reference Library, Zondervan Publishing House, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1967, 1986, Page 561

Lanier, Gregory R., and William Ross, Septuaginta: A Reader’s Edition, Volumes I & II, Hendrickson Publishers, Peabody, Massachusetts, 2018

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