Tag Archives: Covenant

The Faith of the Son of God

11 Monday Dec 2023

Posted by in Studies, Whole Armor of God

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Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

Hello Readers!  Welcome to Renaissance Woman and another post in my current study series on the Whole Armor of God described in Ephesians 6:10-18a.  I am focusing on the Shield of Faith for the time being and, in an attempt to understand what faith is, have been seeking an accurate definition.

My Webster’s New World Dictionary does begin its definition of faith with the word origins and their meanings.  These are the Middle English feith, the Old French feid and fei, the French foi, the Latin fides meaning confidence, belief, the Late Latin fidere meaning to trust, the Indo-European bheid meaning to urge, be convinced, the Greek peithein meaning to persuade, and the Latin foedus meaning a compact & to bide.  The dictionary ought to have stopped here for this is an accurate representation of what the word has historically meant.  But, it does not.  The dictionary then goes on to define faith as “unquestioning belief that does not require proof or evidence”.  It is not until I read down to the 5th entry that I see a return to the historical meaning. 

In the Greek, faith was originally a word of covenant and, I know I am harping on a point, but I cannot imagine anyone entering into a covenant without confidence and trust.  I also cannot see this would be a confidence and trust without proof or evidence, especially considering the seriousness with which parties entered into covenant.  Breaking a covenant more often than not meant forfeiture of one’s very life: not a compact to be lightly entered into.

A dictionary must address how a word is used by the majority of the population and there is no denying the word “faith” is one that is used in a derogative manner.  I hear it mostly among those in the scientific community who say “that belongs to the realm of faith, not science”.  However, faith is something possessed by all people and does not always pertain to a religious belief.  Faith simply means confidence, belief, and trust and, without it, there would be no relationships of any kind.  I had made this point in an earlier post and, while reading through the Commentaries on Hebrews 11:6, I found this in the Pulpit Commentary: “Even in ordinary affairs of life, and in science too, men act, and must act, to a great extent on faith; it is essential for success, and certainly for all great achievements-faith in the testimony and authority of others whom we can trust, faith in views and principles not yet verified by our own experience, faith in the expected outcome of right proceeding, faith with respect to a thousand things which we take on trust, and so make ventures, on the ground, not of positive proof, but of more or less assured conviction.” 

The point I am striving to make is, “faith” is not a dirty word.  Even those who would use it to mock others also operate in faith.  I do not think it is possible to have a faithless human existence which is a point I think the quote from the Pulpit Commentary makes clear.  The question I am asking this week-regarding faith-is, what does the faith of the son of god mean?  That phrase is found in Galatians 2:20 and the original language does say “…the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith OF the Son of God” not “IN the Son of God”.  Every person subscribing to a religion has faith in that those persons have been persuaded their way of believing is the correct way.  We who are believers in Jesus have faith that He is God who became a man, lived and died as a man, rose from death and ascended to the right hand of The Father, and ever lives to make intercession for us.  It is possible to have an intellectual belief these things are true: there are some fairly potent arguments that have served to convince others of the truth of the tenants of Christianity.  True Christianity is not intellectual though: our faith in Jesus is alive because the Holy Spirit has opened our eyes to see Him who was dead but Behold! is alive forevermore.  Our faith is covenantal because He is not only alive but is alive in us.  This is our faith.  What is Jesus’ faith?

Do we think of Jesus as having faith?  Did He have to trust not only the people around Him but did He also have to trust His Father?  The scriptures do not reveal to us a doubting Jesus but we do see a Jesus who did not know the end from the beginning, who had to be alone with His Father in order to hear and receive His words, who had confidence in, believed, and trusted His Father, and we see a Jesus who had that faith tested.

The Bible is relatively silent on Jesus’ early years.  There are a few stories told here and there but, for the most part, Jesus as a child, a teenager, and young man are summed up for us as “And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man” (Luke 2:52).  I wonder though…

…one of my favorite movies is The Nativity Story starring Keisha Castle-Hughes, Oscar Isaac, and Ciaran Hinds.  This movie had one of the best reactions to Mary’s pregnancy I’ve ever seen.  Do you ever put yourself into the mind of a villager during that time?  Joseph wasn’t preparing for the marriage in a vacuum: the entire village-and perhaps surrounding villages as well-had to be aware of his betrothal to Mary.  The entire village had to be aware of her pregnancy as well.  Would I-would you-as a villager believe she was pregnant with the Son of God?  If I am honest, I wouldn’t be entirely convinced.  I would wonder if the poor girl wasn’t at worst lying and at best suffering under some mental confusion.

I wonder whether Jesus had to deal with snide remarks about Himself and His human parents after He and Mary and Joseph returned to Nazareth from Egypt.  I wonder because of His temptation in the wilderness after His baptism.  His baptism is described in Luke’s Gospel and it is here we read of the Holy Spirit descending on Jesus like a dove and the voice from Heaven says to Him, “You are My beloved Son; in You I am well pleased.”  Jesus, being filled with the Holy Spirit, is then led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.  The devil’s first recorded words to Jesus here are “If You are the Son of God…”

Knowing the wiles of the devil as I do, I imagine these words were carefully chosen because there was a potential button to press here.  If you are the Son of God…what if all those asides and smirks and careful references to your parentage are really true…what if the voice you heard wasn’t really God…what if you’ve imagined all of this and are, after all, just a man…the temptation to doubt everything He knew about Himself had to be strong but Jesus did not give in.  He had faith in His Father and countered with “it is written…!”

I don’t think this wilderness experience was the only test of Jesus’ faith either.  Hebrews 12:1&2 says, “Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

I think about the “because of the joy that was set before Him,” and I also think of a passage in Galatians: “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,’ which is Christ” (Gal. 3:16).  I also think of Philippians 2:7 in the Revised Standard Version: “but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.” 

There is the argument among Christians as to how much Jesus-fully God and fully man-knew about Himself and how when and where He knew it.  The passage in Luke 2:52 does say “He grew…” and I wonder if our being changed into His image “from glory to glory” (2 Corinthians 3:18) isn’t similar to how Jesus grew: one word at a time coming to Him from the Father, one promise at a time, one situation at a time where He had to trust His Father until the day when we see Jesus in the upper room, “knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come from God and was going to God” (John 13:3).

Who is this Jesus in whom we have our faith?  He is the Son who learned obedience by the things which He suffered.  He is the One who sympathizes with all of our weaknesses because He has been tempted in all points like as we are and yet was without sin.  He is the One who made a living way for us through His own flesh enabling us to draw near with true hearts in full assurance of faith.  Our faith is not a fleshly faith.  It is not one of intellect or good arguments or a vague and formless hope of one day by and by nor blind unquestioning obedience.  Our faith is the faith of the Son of God tested and proven in the crucible of His human existence. 

Because we are His, everything of His is ours.  What a wonder to be able to say, it is no longer I who live but Christ lives in me and this life I now live in the flesh I live by faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me.  What an indescribable love is Christ’s love for us.  It truly does surpass knowledge.

Hallelujah! Amen.

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

References  

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

Guralnik, David B., Webster’s New World Dictionary of the American Language, Second College Edition, William Collins + World Publishing Co., Inc., Cleveland • New York, 1953, 1976

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    

Wisdom in the Psalms

20 Monday Jul 2020

Posted by in Walking in the Way

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I have already mentioned my love of the Psalms. Whenever I pick up a new translation of the Bible, I turn to the Psalms to see how they sound. I am currently enjoying them in The Passion Translation and, in fact, read Psalm 32 after saving a draft of this post and, since King David was saying exactly the same thing I’m attempting to say here, have decided to move forward.

In my previous post I also mentioned how I find the wisdom to handle life’s problems in the Psalms. While I have no wish to discount in any way those Psalms not written by King David, his Psalms are the ones I find most instructional. This is because so much of David’s life is revealed in the books of the Old Testament. Though David did make many terrible mistakes, he knew who he was in covenant relationship with God and his Psalms teach me how to live as a Covenant Woman.

I recently had an opportunity to be deeply grateful to David and his Psalms. I transgressed, grieved the Holy Spirit, and would have despaired if I had not remembered King David. I’ll get to that transgression in a moment: I must first relate another transgression from years ago.

In this instance, I had been told certain things, believed them, and acted on that belief only to discover what I had been told was not the truth. Accusations fell upon me and my transgression would have been terrible indeed if I had acted with the motivation I was being accused of. I could have defended myself but to do so would have meant relating exactly what I had been told which would have caused much more pain than my actions had done. Instead, I sat silent and bore the invective poured down on me though it resulted in a burning resentment I carried with me for years afterward.

I must be clear: it was by the Grace of God that I stayed silent. There was nothing in me that wanted to. Two years later when I heard the first real call of God on my life (He was little more than a presence I struggled to understand and serve before this), I was grateful that He had kept me from making the situation worse. I did not have to bear that shame. As I started to move on the path God has set me feet on, He began to touch that resentment and anger I carried and nudge me towards forgiveness. I was willing to have Him work, of course, but didn’t think He had all that much to do in me. I could see how others had made no provision for my grief and there was no understanding for what I might be going through having just been through a car accident that altered my entire life. The way I, my family, and even a close friend had been treated during this time was far worse than any sin I committed and didn’t the balance of the scales of justice really tip in my favor.

God did not agree. There came the day when He decided to deal with this situation and His chastisement was upon me. There was no room for “but God, they-” as He dealt with me. How can I describe how this felt? I have heard many songs sung and teachers speak on “weeping in holy brokenness” like it’s this beautiful, gentle thing. It is beautiful when its over but, if being under the corrective hand of God is like a song at all, it’s the lead singer of a death metal band screaming into the microphone. There was no weeping. It was ugly crying, snot everywhere, shuddering and quivering, and I could only remain kneeling while He worked. King David describes it as “The pain never let up for your hand of conviction was heavy on my heart”. (Psalm 32: 4a)

God was not cruel, just determined, and He held me there until He’d finished making me clean. Then He poured His healing into me, soothed and comforted me. That feeling of being scrubbed clean and then filled with Himself made what I had experienced worth it. That is, until He told me to apologize. Me? Apologize? Yes. The choice was mine but He showed me how obedience led to a deeper experience of Him and disobedience led to stagnation and death. And so, I made the choice that was no choice at all, wrote out my no-excuses apology, stamped and mailed it. I have never felt any anger or resentment about this situation or the people involved since.

This was a deeply painful and humiliating lesson to learn. One would think I would take care not to do anything or disobey in any way that would result in my needing to undergo another session under the mighty hand of my Heavenly Father. But, I told you that situation to tell you this one. Only a few months ago I was in a situation where I wanted to defend myself against something I hadn’t done and take credit for something I had. I heard a resounding, echoing, “No! Remain Silent!” inside my spirit. Even so, I decided the opinion of the humans in front of me was more important than obedience to my God and I spoke the words He’d told me not to speak. It was a deliberate transgression and I felt an instant wrenching of the closeness between Him and me. Not that I had no sense of His presence because He didn’t leave me, just that I knew we did not have the closeness we’d had before I disobeyed.

I sat on the edge of my bed having no idea what to do. I remembered the first instance from years before but the two situations could hardly be compared. Then I had not deliberately transgressed and, even so, it had all happened before He’d really called me to walk with Him. Once I was truly in Christ, being made a new creation with old things passing away, there was no guilt or condemnation for my Before actions. This was After. I had deliberately disobeyed and, since I’d been walking with Him for years, I knew better. And, the Accuser was ready and able to begin speaking to me out of my mind. I could not deny my own thoughts: I knew I was guilty. I wanted to get back into that harmonious existence I’d had before I spoke the words, but how? I was sorry. God knew I was sorry. What could I do? The answer was nothing. There wasn’t anything I could do that would undo what I’d done: no specific number of prayers, no positive confessions, no readings, nothing I could do that could restore me to that sense of Oneness. I could pray until my tongue clove to the roof of my mouth and I knew He would accept none of it.

This is when I remembered King David. More specifically, his adultery with Bathsheba and murder of her husband. What a terrible thing and yet, when Nathan the Prophet came to him, David did not run and hide from God. Despite what he’d done and knowing he deserved to die for it, David fell directly on his face before God and later ended up writing Psalm 51. David knew who he was in covenant relationship with God and knew that, ultimately, nothing could separate him from God. I am a partaker in an even greater covenant in Christ Jesus and, if I believe Hebrews 10:12 (and I do), there was nothing I could do to make God forgive me. Jesus had already taken care of it.

That remembrance gave me the peace and strength I needed to once more confess my sin before God and know He was faithful and just to forgive me (1 John 1:9). This scripture is now real to me in a way it never was before. He IS faithful and just to forgive me and cleanse me of my unrighteousness. He is not a sulking God who withholds Himself from me until I prove to Him just how sorry I am but even then keeps reminding me of my sin and how He has low expectations of me moving forward. No! That closeness was instantly restored. Again, Psalm 32 states: You forgave me! All at once the guilt of my sin washed away and all my pain disappeared! (verse 5b)

Does this mean I have a blank check for transgressions, so to speak? Of course not. I can’t put into words how it feels to know I’ve grieved the Holy Spirit except to say it’s awful and I don’t intend to do it ever again. Returning to Psalm 32 I read, “I hear the Lord saying, ‘I will stay close to you instructing you and guiding you along the pathway for your life'” so I can trust He will keep me. And, I move forward in harmony with Him thinking not that I have attained this ideal or have already been made perfect, but I press on to lay hold of (grasp) and make my own that for which Christ Jesus has laid hold of me…(Philippians 3:12, The Amplified Bible)

Wondering who you are in Covenant Relationship with God through Christ Jesus? Here are some resources which have helped me:

The Bible, of course! The Message is a translation in contemporary language

The Power of the Blood Covenant by Malcolm Smith

The Two Covenants and the Second Blessing by Andrew Murray