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Quench Not the Spirit

01 Monday Apr 2024

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Hello Readers!  Welcome to Renaissance Woman and another installment in my bible study on the Whole Armor of God.  I am still looking at the Helmet of Salvation and, in this week’s post, am pondering the significance of Salvation being a helmet.

I wonder about the Apostle Paul’s letters.  Were they correspondence he dashed off in answer to questions?  Were his words ones he agonized over?  Did he have any idea his every jot and tittle would be scrutinized thousands of years later as we all take his advice to the Philippians and “work out our own salvation?” Did he have specific reasons for listing off the Whole Armor of God as he did?  Was “the helmet of salvation” intentional?  I suppose it doesn’t matter one way or the other: what matters is what the Holy Spirit shows each one of us as we study the Bible for ourselves.  I find salvation being a helmet significant.

The Greek word translated as “salvation” is, in its various conjugations; soter, soteria, soterion.  The root is sozo and the meaning conveyed is to save, deliverer, heal, preserve, make whole, rescue, safety, and defense.  The Greek word soma meaning “the body as sound, whole” is also related to sozo and so thinking of our salvation in terms of Jesus Christ our Deliverer rescuing and healing and preserving and making whole our physical bodies is accurate.  However, Paul describes salvation as a helmet which means we are delivered, healed, preserved, rescued, and made whole in our minds.

As I was meditating on the Helmet of Salvation, I began to see various quotes and hear Believers speaking on the importance of our thoughts.  The stress wasn’t just on the importance of what we think but how what we think flows out of us and into our world through our words and actions.  Several of the Bible Teachers I’ve followed for years have made the point we are actively creating the world around us as we speak out the thoughts in our minds. Luke 6:45 records Jesus saying, “A good man out of the good treasure of this heart brings forth good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil.  For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.” The importance of our thoughts cannot be underestimated for whatever we are thinking is brought forth.

The emphasis of Paul’s Spiritual Warfare passages is on thoughts.  “For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ” he writes in 2 Corinthians (10:4-5) and then in his passage on the Whole Armor of God: “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places” (Eph. 6:12). 

No, wait a minute, I can hear some of you saying.  These passages are speaking of the Devil and his minions.  Spiritual forces, certainly, I agree; but the truth that I find has been passed over is where these spiritual forces are and just what they are affecting.  I have already posted studies on the 2 Corinthians 10 passage so am going to focus on Ephesians 6.

Before I can do so, however, I must quote two passages from Romans.  The first is found in 8:6-7 where Paul writes, “for to be carnally minded is death but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.  Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God nor indeed can be.”  The second is Romans 12:2 where Paul writes, “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”

I don’t know of any Believer who would not agree that we are changed when we first receive the Revelation of Jesus Christ as Son of God and Man, Lord and Savior, Risen and Ascended One who lives forever.  There is no way to stay the same when we see Jesus as He is.  But the how of “being transformed through the renewing of your mind” is where I am seeing Believers living far below all that is ours in Christ Jesus.  The how is summed up in read your Bible every day, pray at least (insert set amount of time) per day, and go to Church.  The focus is on training our minds on thinking a different way.  And, I agree it can work, but who can deny walking this path is one of success and failure depending on the power of the temptations of any given day?  I see the writers of the New Testament promising so much more. 

In the fourth chapter of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, he expresses the same though as he did in Romans 12:2 but, this time, writes: “and be renewed in the spirit of your mind” (Eph. 4:23). In chapter 2 of this same letter, Paul writes; “And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.”

Before the Holy Spirit opened our eyes so that we might see Jesus and turn from darkness to light, we walked according to the course of this world.  Our minds were affected by a spirit not of God.  We couldn’t help it.  We were born into this world and, from our earliest days, the ways of this world formed the thoughts of our minds and thus how we would be in the world.  But now, we know there is a new Spirit at work in us.  This Spirit is the Spirit of the Living God and is the source of a new mind and new way of thinking.  We do not have to train our minds to think different thoughts: we let the same mind be in us that was in Christ Jesus (See Philippians 2:5). 

Paul doesn’t just make this point in his letter to the Ephesians.  Our new life in the Holy Spirit is described throughout Romans 8: “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 those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit…But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you.  Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His.  And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness.  But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you…for if you live according to the flesh you will die but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.”

The secret is Spirit.  How crucial it is we don’t quench the Spirit for it is now the Spirit of the Living God who is the source of our thoughts! No longer is it the Prince of the Power of the Air, the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.  Because we are in Christ we are seated with Him in heavenly places.  How can that be since as I write this I am seated in my office chair in the office space inside my house?  We are seated with Him in the Spirit.  In this realm of Spirit, we encounter a spiritual enemy whose sphere of influence is our minds.  But, this enemy is a defeated one because Christ, who is our life, has destroyed the works of the devil.

I don’t think the Bible in any way suggest “the mind of Christ” is something that overpowers ours.  We don’t cease to be as Christ lives in us and we are conformed to His image.  What I see the Bible describing is a covenant bond akin to marriage.  Picture a married couple living and loving for years.  They can finish each other’s sentences and there are times words aren’t even necessary for communication.  They have grown together into one.  Our covenant with Jesus is the same.  His mind doesn’t wipe ours out: we grow in union through the covenant bonds of love until we are so One we think the same thoughts.  I’ll have to continue this thought next week (if God allows!) so will close with this:

 Jesus Christ, who IS our Salvation, has not only delivered us from sin and death but delivered us into His life.  We are joined to Him, are of one Spirit with Him, and everything that is His is ours: His life, His victory, His mind. In his letter to the Colossians, Paul gives thanks to the Father who “has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light” and “has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love” (Colossians 1 12-13).  Has delivered.  Now.  It’s all ours because He has lavished His Spirit on us and poured His Spirit into us.

There is a beautiful promise of God recorded in Ezekiel.  As you read it, take some time to let it sink in that the promise is fulfilled in Christ Jesus and is our state of being now and forever:

“I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.  I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them.”

Amen.  It is so!

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

References

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

Brought to Rest

25 Monday Mar 2024

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Hello, Readers!  Welcome to another week and another post on Renaissance Woman!

In last week’s post, I mentioned I was facing some difficulties.  Storm clouds were gathering on the horizon of my life and I didn’t know what was going to happen.  I still don’t.  There have been a few flashes of lightening and rumbles of thunder but the storm has not erupted in full fury.  It could be the storm has merely been postponed or it could be it will all come to nothing.  I didn’t know what was going to happen last week and I still don’t know.

All of which has got me thinking about salvation.  “Put on the Whole Armor of God,” Paul writes in Ephesians 6.  “Take the helmet of salvation…” What do we think of when we think of salvation?  The Strong’s Concordance lists soterion (G4992) as the Greek word translated salvation in this passage which means “defender, defence, salvation.”  Soterion comes from soteria (G4991) which expands a bit on the definition: rescue, safety, deliver, health, salvation, save, saving.  The Strong’s says soteria is derived from soter (G4990) which means “a deliverer, God or Christ”.  Soter comes from sozo (G4982) which means “to save, deliver, protect, heal, preserve, save (self), do well, be (make) whole”. 

I find all of these definitions interesting and even helpful but what truly matters is what I believe about Jesus and salvation.  Do I believe salvation is something Jesus made available to me before He went off to be with the Father in some far off heaven somewhere and now I must believe and have faith in order to receive the salvation He’s made available?  Or, is He Himself my salvation and thus salvation is my reality as His life is lived in me through and by His Spirit?  To me, these are two opposite belief systems even though they might use the same words.  The first points us to Jesus because He is away from us.  Jesus is in heaven (wherever that is) and that’s where we’ll get to go when we die.  The salvation He has bought for us is summed up in our being saved from hell.

In the second, there is no separation because He is not away from us.  He is not God with us in the way that He was God in flesh walking the shores of Galilee all those years ago but neither is He God in heaven waiting for us to die and join Him.  He is God with us inside of us through the Indwelling Holy Spirit.  Thus, His salvation is not something separate from us we have to receive through our believing and having faith.  Rather, He is our very life (see Colossians 3:4) and therefore it follows that the salvation He is is also our very life.

The scriptures make it plain (to me anyway) that Jesus Christ IS salvation: it’s not something He has and bestows on us.  One of my favorite passages of scripture is found in Isaiah and echoes both Psalm 118 and Moses’ song recorded in Exodus 15.  Psalm 118:14 says, ‘The Lord is my strength and song, And He has become my salvation.”  Exodus 15:2 says, “The Lord is my strength and song, And He has become my salvation.”  Isaiah 12:2 says, “Behold, God is my salvation, I will trust and not be afraid; For YAH, the Lord, is my strength and song, He also has become my salvation.” 

There is a story related in the second chapter of Luke’s Gospel.  “And behold, there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon, and this man was just and devout, waiting for the Consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him.  And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ.  So he came by the Spirit into the temple.  And when the parents brought in the Child Jesus, to do for Him according to the custom of the law, he took Him up in his arms and blessed God and said; ‘Lord, now You are letting Your servant depart in peace, according to Your word; for my eyes have seen Your salvation which You have prepared before the face of all peoples, a light to bring revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of Your people Israel’.” (See Luke 2:25-32).

My salvation then is a person whose very name means “Yahweh is salvation” (see meaning of Yeshua below).  This person is not separated from me.  I don’t have to go to a meeting place and get a dose of salvation to help me through the week.  Jesus Christ, who is my life, alive in me in and by His Spirit, means salvation is my state of being.  There is no situation I face where His salvation is not because He faces the situation with me.  His presence is always with me therefore His salvation is immediate.

What does that look like?  It looks like Christ in me, the hope of glory.  It looks like my being transformed into His image from glory to glory.  It looks like the peace of God which surpasses all understanding guarding my heart and mind.  It looks like all things being worked together for my good.  It looks like me living and moving and having my being in Christ Jesus.

While this is the truth of Christ in us and us in Christ, we still live in a world that abides by thought processes and ways of being that do not conform to-or even recognize-the life of Jesus Christ.  This world lies in the power of the evil one and those whose minds are still conformed to the patterns of this world will behave accordingly.  I read something in William Gurnall’s The Christian in Complete Armour which I do agree with but only partly.  Speaking on Ephesians 6:12, William Gurnall writes, “we wrestle not against flesh and blood…The Christian’s state in this life [is] set out by this word ‘wrestling.’…It is single combat.  Wrestling is not properly fighting against a multitude, but when one enemy singles out another, and enters the list with him, each exerting their whole force and strength against one another…The permanency or duration of this combat…lies in the tense we wrestle. Not, our wrestling was at first conversion, but now over, and we passed the pikes; not, we shall wrestle when sickness comes, and death comes; but our wrestling is; the enemy is ever in sight of us, yea, in fight with us.” (Gurnall, Vol 1. Pgs. 112-114).

 I read this and felt tired.  There is a modicum of truth to it.  We believers head everyday into a spiritually hostile world.  If Jesus were in some far off heaven somewhere bestowing salvation on us, it would mean we would have to conduct the warfare in our own strength to the best of our own ability with moments of refreshing from heaven.  Perhaps there would be victories but there would be the inevitable failures as well.  Since He is not: since He is in us, He is in our experiences with us.  He is our deliverance from the place we find ourselves.  He is our armor and He is the Victorious One.  I’ve already studied the word “stand” in Ephesians 6:10-18a but it doesn’t hurt to be reminded that the word is a covenant word and it means “made to stand”. 

“In the world you will have tribulation,” Jesus tells us, “BUT! Fear not!  I have overcome the world” (exclamation marks mine).  He gives us rest, even in the midst of the battle.  He is our armor.  He is our salvation.  He is all of these things to us right this very moment because His Spirit is in us and we are thus joined to Him.  The Spirit is the One who makes everything of Christ ours in every moment of our lives.  And so, my closing message for this week is Quench not the Spirit!  Let us cast all our cares on Him!  We may have to remind ourselves we have done so but there is nothing wrong with that.  We remind ourselves as often as we need to that, in this moment, Christ is our strength, our song, our light, and our salvation until we no longer need reminding.  He is our Helmet of Salvation, transforming us through the renewing of our minds!

It is so!  Amen.  

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

References

Yeshua (יֵשׁוּעַ) – What is the Meaning of Jesus’ Name? – Path of Obedience

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 Future is Now!

04 Monday Dec 2023

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Hello Readers and welcome to a new post on Renaissance Woman!

I want to open with a quote from Andrew Murray’s The Ministry of Intercessory Prayer: “…’As Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life’ (Romans 1:6 KJV).  It is the Risen One who says to us, ‘Get up!…and walk.’ He gives us the power of the resurrection life.  It is a walk in Christ: ‘As you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him’ (Colossians 2:6 NKJV).  It is a walk like Christ: ‘He who says he abides in Him ought to walk just as He walked’ 1 John 2:6 NKJV).  It is a walk in the Spirit and after the Spirit: ‘Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh…walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit’ (Galatians 5:16, Romans 8:1 NKJV).  It is a walk worthy of God and well pleasing to Him: ‘That you might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work’ (Colossians 1:10 KJV).  It is a walk in love: ‘Walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us’ (Ephesians 5:2 KJV).  It is a walk of faith, its power coming from God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit: ‘We walk by faith not by sight’ (2 Corinthians 5:7 KJV).

How many believers regard such a walk as an impossible goal?  So impossible that they do not feel it a sin to walk otherwise.  Therefore, they do not truly desire this walk in newness of life.  They have become so accustomed to the life of fruitlessness that the life and walk in God’s strength has little attraction.  There is no expectation of attaining it.” (Murray, 80-81).

This struck me: especially the part about Christians thinking the Christian life so impossible there is no real expectation of attaining it.  I think I honed in on that portion because it is impossible for me to be seeking an accurate definition of faith without looking at Hebrews 11:1: “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”  I have never performed a thorough study on this passage and so, curious what those who had done such study had to say, I looked at various commentaries.  I was amazed at how many spoke of those things hoped for as being things belonging to the future.  These commentaries had very little expectation of an immediate experience of “things”.  No, they were of God and therefore eternal and waited for us in heaven.

There were a few who suggested it was faith that made these future things “as though they were already present” (quoting Meyers NT Commentary).  The Expositor’s Greek Testament (quoting Dr. Hatch) says, “Faith is the ground of things hoped for, i.e. trust in God, or the conviction that God is good and that He will perform His promises, is the ground for confident hope that the things hoped for will come to pass…So trust in God furnishes to the mind which has it a clear proof that things to which God has testified exist, though they are not visible to the senses.” The Expositor’s then goes on to say, “The words thus become a definition of what faith does, not of what it is.  Substantially the words mean that faith gives to things future, which as yet are only hoped for, all the reality of actual present existence; and irresistibly convinces us of the reality of things unseen and brings us into their presence.”

Well, okay, but I find I am not satisfied.  If we are to stand firm in this present evil day, having put on the Whole Armor of God and taken up the Shield of Faith, defining that faith as giving to yet future things the reality of actual present existence is a definition I find lacking.  Something with-if I may use the same word as the writer to the Hebrews-substance in order to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one.

I found my first real glimmer of substance in the Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges: “The object of faith from the dawn of man’s life had been Christ, who, even at the Fall, had been foretold as ‘the seed of the woman who should break the serpent’s head.’ The difference between the Two Covenants was that in the New He was fully set forth as the effulgence of the Father’s glory, whereas in the Old He had been but dimly indicated by shadows and symbols.”  This was one of the few commentaries that suggested Jesus was the fulfillment of the Old Testament and that the things hoped for were tangible in Him rather than things reserved for some later time.

Now, there is a passage found in 1 Peter 1:3-4 which says, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you.”  “Reserved” does sound as if our inheritance is a future one but the Greek word translated “reserved” here is tereo (G5083) and means “a watch, to guard from loss or injury by keeping the eye upon.”  This does deserve further study but I cannot see that the definition of the word warrants the pushing off of all “things” to either a future date or as something reserved for us which we cannot experience until we get to heaven.

There is the passage in Ephesians 1:13-14 which says, “In Him you also trusted after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory.”

I am not saying I utterly disagree with the commentaries: this passage in Ephesians speaks of a time of redemption and Acts 3:21 speaks of a time of restoration of all things.  There’s this passage in Romans as well: “For I consider the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.  For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope: because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.  For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now.  Not only that, be we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body.  For we were saved in this hope, but hope that is seen is not hope; for why does one still hope for what he sees?  But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance.  Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses…” (Romans 8:18-26a NKJV).

I wonder if a lack of both seeing and understanding the work of the Spirit isn’t the explanation for the lack of expectation described by Andrew Murray and still so prevalent among Christians today.  Not one commentary mentioned the Holy Spirit.  There are denominations who declare there is no longer any work of the Spirit: He ceased activity with the death of the last apostle and now we have the Bible to help us get into heaven.  And, going to heaven after death appears to be the pinnacle of expectation among far too many Christians.  They have no expectation of being conformed to the image of Jesus Christ, there is no understanding of having the fullness of God in us through Jesus Christ, and there is no understanding of our inheritance in Jesus Christ.  All of this due to an unfamiliarity with the Holy Spirit for it is He who takes what belongs to Jesus Christ and declares it to us. 

The Old Testament did point to a coming Day but, for us, that Day has already come.  We don’t have to have to trust that God will keep His promises because all of His promises are YES! in Jesus Christ to the glory of God through us (2 Corinthians 1:20).  Without the Holy Spirit teaching and interpreting for us, we can’t begin to understand the New Testament for it speaks of a covenant ratified by the blood of Jesus but made reality in us by Spirit and ministered to, in, and through us by Spirit.  If you do not know the Holy Spirit is poured out in YOUR flesh, then you are missing the inheritance that is yours in Jesus Christ sealed in you by the Holy Spirit and experienced by you in the Holy Spirit.  Is there more to come?  Absolutely! But, do not have what is yours in Jesus Christ stolen from you by denominations who teach there is no longer a working of the Holy Spirit or teach you that you must come to God through their leader.  The Spirit is for you.  There is an inheritance each one of us can experience right now of which the Spirit is the down payment-or firstfruits-but what a firstfruits!  The full harvest was not of a different type than the firstfruits neither was the firstfruits a belief there would be more to come.  The firstfruits were the promise there was a coming bounty but they were full, mature fruit able to be feasted upon and enjoyed.  Do not let the fact that there is more to come keep you from enjoying the firstfruits now.

The Christian life is so much more than going to heaven when you die.  It is life now.  Eternal life is knowing the only true God and Jesus Christ (John 17:3) and we don’t have to wait until we die in order to experience it (1 John 5:13).  The Holy Spirit is lavished upon us and enables us to know our God now right from where He dwells in the secret place of our hearts.  Since He is the guarantee of our inheritance, I do not think I stretch Hebrews 11:1 too far when I say He is our faith.  He brings all that Jesus gained for us into our present reality while at the same time showing us the glorious future of all creation set free from bondage into the glorious liberty of the children of God.

Hallelujah!  Hallelujah!  Amen.

References

Hebrews 11:1 Commentaries: Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. (biblehub.com)

Murray, Andrew, The Ministry of Intercessory Prayer, Bethany House Publishers, Bloomington, Minnesota, 1981, 2003

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

Help My Unbelief

16 Monday Oct 2023

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

You might be thinking the photo at the top of this post looks a bit sad.  Perhaps it does.  The tiny sprouts are the result of a project I was certain had failed but it had not!  I shouted for joy when I saw them.  There was an internet tip which said to lay tomato slices filled with seeds on the top of potting soil and then cover the whole lot with plastic, creating a terrarium.  I did so and then watched as nothing happened except the tomato slices molded, shriveled, and dried into rings.  I finally approached the pot with trowel in hand, intending to scrape the tomatoes and a good layer of dirt into my compost bin.  When I looked under the plastic, there were sprouts!  The project had not failed after all.  Despite how things looked, the process was working and some of those seeds had sprouted.

There are many lessons I think can be drawn from this especially in regards to my current study.  Then again, some of you might be wondering what tomato sprouts could possibly have to do with the Breastplate of Righteousness.  When I saw those slender green sprouts long after I had given up hope of their growth, I couldn’t help but to see them as another confirmation that what I’ve been seeing in my current study is the truth.  I’ve been looking at Genesis 15:6 “And he believed in the Lord, and He accounted it to him for righteousness” which is quoted in James 2:23.  I’ve also been looking at John 6:29 where Jesus says, “This is the word of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent” and at Revelation 19:8 where we find this description of the wife of the Lamb: “And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.”

I don’t think I deviate from accepted doctrine when I say the Christian life can be summed up in these four passages of scripture if we also take into account all of James 2.  Belief equates to righteousness and we do the work of God by believing/having faith in Jesus.  We prove our belief/faith is real by performing good works and then one day our works will transform into a fine linen garment.  But what if our belief is backwards?  What if Jesus was saying God does the work of belief in Him who He sent?  What if every part of our Christian life, especially the good works that have been prepared for us to do, are intended to flow out of the life of Christ within us, made our reality by the Indwelling Holy Spirit, and not a lifestyle of exhaustion and spiritual burnout?

If Jesus was saying belief in Him is a work God performs, it makes clear a passage of scripture I have never understood.

The passage is found in Mark 9.  There is a great multitude around the disciples and the scribes are there also, disputing with the disciples.  As Jesus approaches he asks the scribes what they are discussing with His disciples.  It is one of the crowd who answers that he has brought his son to Jesus.  The son has a mute spirit who, from childhood, not only seized the boy, threw him to the ground, and caused him to foam at the mouth and gnash his teeth; but had tried to destroy him by throwing the boy into the fire and into water.  The disciples could not cast the spirit out and the man hoped Jesus could do something.  Jesus answers, “If you can believe all things are possible to him who believes”.  The man answers, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!” (Verses 14-24).

I have quoted from the New King James Version but Jesus’ reply is related a bit differently in other versions.  For example, the Berean Standard Bible casts a different light on this passage.  The man says, “But if You can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.”  Jesus’ reply is, “If You can?” echoed Jesus.  “All things are possible to him who believes!”  Then the man cries, “I do believe; help my unbelief!”  The Amplified is similar in its wording: “Jesus said to him ‘[you say to Me,] “If You can?” All things are possible for the one who believes and trusts [in Me]!’  While the NKJV does translate the Greek here as “If you can believe…” there is a note included which states “NU-Text reads, ‘If You can! All things…” so there is good reason to accept Jesus is repeating the man’s words, not stating that all things are possible if you can believe.

Let’s look at “belief”:

The Greek word translated as “belief” in this passage is pisteuo (G4100) which is the verb form of pistis, the word translated as “faith” in Galatians 2:20 and James 2.  Pisteuo is also the word appearing in John 6:9 and John 16:5-10: “But now I go to him that sent me; and none of you asketh me, Whither goest thou?  But because I have said these things unto you, sorrow had filled your heart.  Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away; for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you.  And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment.  Of sin, because they believe not on me; Of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more; Of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged” (KJV).

Pisteuo means “persuade, be persuaded” and the full definition of the word mentions two different types of persuading: “4100 pisteuo (from 4102 pistis, “faith” derived from 3982 peitho, “persuade, be persuaded”) believe (affirm, have confidence); used of persuading oneself (=human believing) and with the sacred significance of being persuaded by the Lord (=faith-believing).  Only the context indicates whether 4100/pisteuo (believe) is self-serving (without sacred meaning), or the believing that leads to/proceeds from god’s inbirthing of faith”.

The word “unbelief” in the passage from Mark is apistia and I find this definition: “570; form of 4103 pistos “faithful” properly, without (divine) persuasion”.  I think the context of this passage supports a conclusion that both definitions of persuasion are meant.  The man was convinced that, if anything could be done for his son, Jesus was the one who could do it.  “If you can…”  He needed something more than he could find in himself to come into a place of rest and trust that not only could Jesus, but that Jesus would.

What about John 6:29?  What definition does the context support?  The entire chapter is full of signs and wonders only God could do.  Jesus feeds a great multitude with 5 barley loaves and 2 small fish and then walks on the water.  When the people follow Jesus to the other side of the sea, He says, “Most assuredly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw the signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled.  Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set His seal on Him.”  The people ask Him, “What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?” Then comes Jesus’ reply: “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent” (John 6:1-40).

If we continue on in Chapter 6, Jesus appears to be stressing his point: Moses did not give the bread of heaven, it is the Father who gives the true bread, Jesus Himself is the true bread, etc.  I find the context to be clear that the definition of pisteuo intended is that of divine persuasion: “This is the work of God, to persuade you…”

This brings me such joy and peace when it comes to sharing the Gospel of Jesus with others.  There have been many who have asked me questions about Jesus and then have rejected outright what I have said.  The few who do not reject it outright don’t appear to make any sort of response.  What do I expect when I answer a question?  There is another passage in Mark that perfectly describes my expectations and brings me back to the picture of the surprise tomato sprouts.  It’s found in Chapter 4 verses 26-29: And He said, “The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground, and should sleep by night and rise by day, and the seed should sprout and grow, he himself does not know how.  For the earth yields crops by itself; first the blade, then the head, after that the full grain in the head.  But when the grain ripens, immediately he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.”

My work is not to try and get more faith or try really hard to believe in Jesus.  I can read and study and listen to various Bible Teachers to persuade myself about Jesus but learning about Jesus is the best I will get.  It takes the Holy Spirit, the very Spirit of the Living God, dwelling and working inside of me to reveal to me the nature of God.  I can only know Jesus and know the Father through the Holy Spirit.  In Acts 1:8, Jesus says, “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me…”  The disciples were to wait for the Holy Spirit for, without Him, they would have poured out their lives to no avail.

The Holy Spirit makes our Christian life.  He brings us into union with the risen and ascended Jesus Christ without whom we can do nothing.  The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation and it is His working in us which enables us to be ready to give an answer to anyone who asks the reason for our hope (See 1 Peter 3:15-16).  When we speak as the Spirit gives us utterance, we can trust that the words we speak are a seed planted in the heart-ground of those around us.  No matter how impossible it looks, the Spirit will nurture and water that seed until it sprouts and grows though we know not how.

It is truly the work of God that we all believe in Him whom He has sent!

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

References

https://biblehub.com/kjvs/james/2.htm

https://biblehub.com/kjvs/galatians/2.htm

https://biblehub.com/kjvs/john/16.htm

https://biblehub.com/kjvs/mark/9.htm

https://biblehub.com/greek/4100.htm

https://biblehub.com/greek/570.htm

Jesus is Coming-Look Busy!

09 Monday Oct 2023

Posted by in Studies, Whole Armor of God

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Image by Brian Merrill from Pixabay

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

This week, I am going to share something private with all of you: I enjoyed the movie “Waterworld.”  I used to own a copy of it on DVD.  I have seen it more than once.  If you have not had the opportunity to enjoy this cinematic masterpiece (it’s not at all), allow me a moment to describe the plot and why it’s relevant to this continuation of my study on righteousness: specifically righteous deeds or works as described in scripture.

“Waterworld” is placed in the future where the polar icecaps have completely melted and the world is covered in water.  Remaining humanity lives in floating cities but there is a rumor that Dry Land still exists.  There is a fabled map supposed to reveal Dry Land’s location.  There is (of course) a villain who wishes to possess Dry Land for himself and is thus searching for said map.  He acquires it but cannot read it and here is why this movie is relevant to this week’s post:  the villain has to pacify his people who know he has acquired the map.  He cannot possibly tell them he can’t read it so the villain (brilliantly played by the late Dennis Hopper) gives this rousing speech and shows his people he does indeed have the map.  The people are whipped to such a frenzy they begin rowing their floating home to…where?

One of the villain’s lieutenants asks him that exact question and the villain answers he doesn’t have a clue.  Then he says something I’ve been thinking on for weeks now.  “But don’t worry”, he says, “they’ll row for a month before they figure out I’m faking it.”  Such is the state of many a Christian life.  It is rare that I hear anyone in Christian leadership saying the whole reason for the Incarnation was restoration to a vital relationship with the Father.  I never hear leaders declaring the Christ life is being formed within you by the quickening power of the Holy Spirit and that it is an established truth that the life we now live we live by the faith of Jesus Christ.  Instead, what I hear is; say the Sinner’s Prayer, believe in Jesus, pray every day, read your bible every day, don’t forget to tithe, and you’ll get to go to heaven when you die.  If you don’t, especially if you don’t believe in the correct authentic Jesus, then a fiery hell, or eternal death, or eternal torture is your fate-depending on which theological branch you are perching on. 

The “heaven” you must die to achieve is actually rather vague.  You will be where Jesus is and there are many mansions and…we don’t really know what heaven is like.  Hell is much more fleshed out as a concept even though the various denominations don’t agree on this either.  Suffice to say it’s a bad place and you do NOT want to go there.  The various denominations don’t agree on how to avoid going to Hell but they do all seem to agree that your best bet is to make sure you’ve declared your belief in Jesus and then stay busy.  Make sure all of your works are something you are doing FOR and TO Jesus and do as many of them as you can because without faith it is impossible to please God and faith without works is dead (Hebrews 11:6, James 2:26).

This is the answer for the problems of your day to day life as well.  Read your Bible, pray, and stay busy being a good Christian and all of the problems of your day to day life should sort themselves out.  If they do not, it might be because you doubted when you prayed which makes you double minded and such a person cannot expect to receive anything from God. And, maybe you prayed a prayer of faith but didn’t energize your faith with enough works so your prayer never really got off the ground.  But then, even if you are the busiest Christian ever to have walked the earth with the longest resume of good works, there is no real guarantee you have safe passage to heaven because Jesus is going to come back, look at your works, see they weren’t done properly, and then He will utter words that bring despair: “I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!” 

Perhaps the hope is we will all be so busy working for Jesus, we won’t realize we are not being offered life.

I find it a tragic irony that the book of James, especially chapters one and two, are used to back up the “good news” I’ve just described.  However, this lifestyle is so opposite to the one described by Paul in his Epistles that it is taught that James and Paul contradict each other. In the course of my studies, I have found no such contradiction.

When James is speaking of not doubting and not being double minded,  I have seen a practical application of what Paul is saying when he says to let the same mind that was in Christ Jesus be in us and that we do indeed have the mind of Christ (Philippians 2:5, 1 Corinthians 2:16).  I have also read James 1:1-8 with Paul’s words “to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace” (Romans 8:6) in mind.  I have always thought James’ warning not to doubt was a plea to believe what he wrote in verse 5: that we can ask wisdom of God and trust that He we will receive it because He is a God who gives liberally and without reproach.  This passage is not a hammer being dropped on the poor believer who prays in genuine faith but, when time stretches on without seeing the prayer answered and a bit of doubt creeps in, that’s it!  You’ve doubted now, proving you are still unstable and now God cannot answer your prayer.  You have been tested and found wanting.

Incidentally, the King James Version doesn’t have the word “doubt” in this passage at all.  The English word chosen to translate the Greek here is “waver” and I prefer it to “doubt” in every respect.  I have always thought James was in complete agreement with Paul and his admonition to be not one who wavereth could be put in other words: be not carnal but spiritual minded!

I also find it tragic that Chapter Two of James’ Epistle is said to contradict Paul.  Rather, I have always found it contradicted the idea of the necessity of a busy Christian life and was perfectly in line with Paul’s theology.  As I began to research this idea of contradiction, I looked through the commentaries on my shelf and found none upholding contradiction.  For example, the Abingdon Commentary says, “the theology of James is not as fully developed as that of Paul but there is no real contradiction between them” (page 936). Ellicott’s Commentary on verses 14-26 says, “Many have seen James and Paul at variance here; but the truth is that they regarded the same object with a different motive, and aimed at a dissimilar result-just as in medicine, opposite treatments are required by various sicknesses and in the several stages of disease” (Page 1152).

I agree.  Rather than see a contradiction, I have seen James to be perfectly in line with Paul.  I have read James and seen that he was speaking against a faith of mere assent: “you believe God is one?  So do the demons believe, and tremble!” (Ja. 2:19).  He was not proposing doing works according to the Mosaic Law.  James points out how transgressing one part of the law meant we were guilty of the whole (10) and he mentions the “law of liberty” in verse 12.  This is perfectly in line with Paul’s law of the spirit of life which has set us free from the law of sin and death (Romans 8:2).  I have read James’ Epistle thinking he meant the works that we Christians do we do because the faith and life of Christ are in us, the same way the spirit (or breath) is in the body.

This post is becoming rather long so this is a subject I plan to return to next week.  I will close with two thoughts.  “Without Me, you can do nothing,” Jesus says in John’s Gospel.  “I am the Alpha and Omega”, He says in John’s Revelation.  In his commentary on Revelation 1:8, Francois du Toit writes, “The union of Alpha and Omega in Greek makes the verb αω, I breathe” (The Mirror, Page 495). 

This is beautiful and it brings me to peace and rest.  Jesus is our life, our very breath.  Apart from Him, we can do nothing.  What then?  Is this a free pass to laziness?  Of course not.  But, instead of doing works TO prove we believe in and love Jesus, our works flow OUT OF His life in us.  Waiting on God, doing only what we see The Father doing, saying only the words He has given us to say, is very difficult.  One reason is because God is unpredictable and not knowing HOW He is going to bring about His will in a situation can be difficult.  We see what we think is the best solution and refusing to act to ensure our desired solution is open warfare with our flesh.  Another reason waiting is so difficult is there is a vast list of dos and don’ts in the Bible and so, as long as we align our works with God’s law, our works ought to be acceptable.  The law never made anyone righteous (See Romans 3:20).  Our works must align with His life.  We must be sensitive to the moving of His Spirit.  Anything else is fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.

May this be our prayer in the upcoming week: that our ears are opened to hear the Voice of our Shepherd, that our eyes are opened to see what the Father is doing, and may we be strengthened to BE STILL until we are certain we are moving in the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

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

References

The New Testament in Four Versions, Christianity Today, Inc. Washington, D.C., 1965

Du Toit, Francois, Mirror Study Bible: The Romance of the Ages, Eighth Edition, Mirror Word Publishing, 2012, 2018

Eiselen, Frederick Carl, Edwin Lewis, and David G. Downey, The Abingdon Bible Commentary, The Abingdon Press, Inc., Nashville•New York, 1929

Ellicott, Charles John, Ellicott’s Bible Commentary In One Volume, Zondervan Publishing House, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1971