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Formed a Vessel-Resh

31 Monday Jan 2022

Posted by in Hebrew Words, Isaiah 45:7, Studies

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This week I am taking a look at the third Hebrew letter of which yatsar is comprised; yatsar being the word translated “form” in my study passage Isaiah 45:7.  This third letter is Resh and it was this letter that captivated me the moment I looked it up in the Table of Contents of The Inner Meaning of the Hebrew Letters by Robert M. Haralick.  I have already shared how I began to see a picture of Jesus-One with the Father, Creator, Logos-being squeezed into the form of a man when I began to study “I form the light”.  With this picture already in my mind, of course I was struck when I saw that Resh means “The Cosmic Container”.  I was so overwhelmed with excitement I had to stop my study for that night and come back to it later.  When I did return I was struck anew with wonder at our God.

ר Resh = The Cosmic Container

I can only think about God becoming flesh and wonder at it.  Some 2,000 years ago now, the man Jesus walked the earth.  He was a man and yet at the same time He was the one who made the very earth He walked upon.  This same Jesus, a man yet God, He who was dead but now lives forever more, He who ascended above all the heavens, He who sits at the right hand of The Father; “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.  For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers.  All things were created through Him and for Him.  And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist” (Colossians 1:15-17).  Such a God is beyond my comprehension.  How is it possible to know Him?  Because He wills it so and because He is humble.

The book by Mr. Haralick says that Resh means both poverty and head or principal.  Here, I see a picture of Jesus: both as the humble servant of The Father and as the One on the throne.  When I read a little further in Colossians 1 I find, “And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence” (verse 18).  Holding this in mind, I think of Philippians 2: “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men.  And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.  Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name…” (verses 5-9).  To these two scriptures, I add: “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich” (2 Corinthians 8:9).

1 John 4:17 says, “Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world”.  I will be spending the rest of my life and no doubt eternity as well, coming to understand the love that God is.  In the sense of Resh being The Cosmic Container and considering the words of the Apostle John-“as He is, so are we in this world”-who am I?  What exactly is my identity in Jesus Christ?  Well, I have been created through Him and for Him and I consist in Him.  In His great love, He emptied Himself, humbled Himself, and obeyed the voice of His Father and through His poverty I am become rich.  Beyond all comprehension, really.  He pours His Spirit in me.  Everything He has he gives to me.  He is conforming me into His very image so that, every day, I become more and more like Him.  If all of this isn’t enough to give me a swelled head, I don’t know what is.  And yet, this is where I am humble because I know all of this is mine because of who Jesus is and not because of anything I do or don’t do.

I return to Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians and read: “For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.  But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us” (2 Corinthians 4:6-7).  Everything I am I am because Jesus Christ lives in me.  I have no life nor light of my own.  It’s all Him and He shines in me and through me.

What is beautiful though is that I’m not just a container for Jesus to manifest through.  There is a mountain in Rome called Monte Testaccio.  It is an entirely artificial mountain composed of smashed and discarded Ancient Roman pottery.  Clay pots called amphorae were the shipping containers of that day.  They were also the single use containers of the day and, once the wine or oil or whatever the Empire imported had been cleared out of the container, the container was smashed and cast aside.  While Paul does compare us to earthen vessels, we are not single use containers.  The Spirit of the Living God comes to live in these earthen vessels that we are and then transforms us.

There is a parable of Jesus found in Matthew 9:14-17, Mark 2:18-22 and Luke 5:33-39 where Jesus says a new piece of cloth cannot be sewn to an old item of clothing and new wine cannot be put into old wineskins.  The new will destroy the old and both will be ruined.  So it would be with this new creation we are in Jesus Christ, if we were left as we were when He first opened our eyes to see Him and brought us to Himself.  But, He does not.  His Spirit moves in and begins to remake us.  We are renewed by the transformation of our minds as we are taught by the Holy Spirit to exchange our thoughts for His thoughts.  2 Corinthians 3:18 says “we are changed into the same image from glory to glory” but I like how the Phillips translation puts it: “We are transfigured in ever-increasing splendor into his own image, and the transformation comes from the Lord who is the Spirit”. 

In John’s great vision of Jesus Christ, the One who sits on the throne says, “Behold, I make all things new” (Revelation 21:5).  I recently read or heard something by one of my Bible teachers who pointed out it doesn’t say “I make all new things” but “I make all things new”.  I like that.  He forms the light.  He forms the light that is the life of Jesus in us.  It is a process and one that can be terribly painful.  As the Spirit opens our eyes to a place where the flesh has ruled and where He is now working, we can feel we are worth nothing more but to be smashed and tossed onto the refuse heap.  That is not how God sees us.  We are His beloved children and He is gentle with us.  Firm and determined in His purpose, but gentle.

“Everyone who is called by My name, Whom I have created for My glory; I have formed him, yes, I have made him” (Isaiah 43:7).  He forms us as vessels and, more than this; in His incredible love for us calls us His children.  “And that is not just what we are called, but what we are.  Our heredity on the Godward side is no mere figure of speech…Here and now we are God’s children!  We don’t know what we shall become in the future.  We only know that, if reality were to break through, we should reflect his likeness, for we should see him as he really is!” (1 John 3:1-3, Phillips).

Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus!

Unless noted otherwise, all scriptures are quoted from The New King James Version of The Holy Bible, Thomas Nelson, Inc., Nashville, Tennessee, 1982

References

Haralik, Robert M., The Inner Meaning of the Hebrew Letters, Jason Aronson, Inc., Northvale, New Jersey, 1995

https://www.archaeology.org/exclusives/articles/2892-rome-monte-testaccio-amphoras

Formed a Vessel-Tzadi

24 Monday Jan 2022

Posted by in Hebrew Words, Isaiah 45:7, Studies

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I am continuing to look at the Hebrew letters that make up the word yatsar, translated ‘form’ in my study passage of Isaiah 45:7.  Last week I looked at the first letter, Yod-Spirituality, and this week I am looking at the second: Tzadi-Righteousness & Humility.   

 צ Tzadi = Righteousness & Humility

The New World dictionary defines righteous as “acting in an upright manner; doing what is right; virtuous.”  However, before it ever gets into the definition of righteous, the dictionary states that righteous comes from the Old English ‘rightwise’.  I looked up ‘rightwise’ online and found the same meaning as given in the New World dictionary but also this definition: “by a rightward path, rightwards, rightwardly, clockwise”.

I remembered how many times I find the mention of ‘paths’ in the Psalms: “smooth paths”, “teach me your path”, “all the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth” and so many more.  It’s in Psalm 23 that I find ‘paths’ linked with ‘righteousness’: “He leads me in paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.”  I love this idea of God’s righteousness being walked out in our daily lives.  It is His attribute and He longs to teach it to us.  I hear this longing in Isaiah 48:17-18: “Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, The Holy One of Israel: ‘I am the Lord your God, Who teaches you to profit, Who leads you by the way you should go.  Oh, that you had heeded My commandments! Then your peace would have been like a river, And your righteousness like the waves of the sea.’”

The beauty of being alive in this day of the Lord is that this teaching is no longer something that comes from outside of us.  The voice that was heard in the OT behind us saying, “this is the way, walk in it” (Isaiah 30:21) is now the voice speaking inside of us.  Righteousness is no longer something to be learned from the law but is now become our identity.  2 Corinthians 5:21 states, “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”  We are taught of Him, certainly, but He does not give us rules and regulations to follow but rather lives His righteousness in us.  Paul states this so clearly in Galatians: “…the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.  I do not set aside the grace of God; for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain” (2:20).  This righteousness that is ours in Christ Jesus is not only our identity but becomes our very garments.  This is something I want to come back to in a later study but, for now, I will share Revelation 19:7-8:  “‘Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready.’ 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 was fascinated to see righteousness and humility together in the same Hebrew letter.  It seems fitting because it really is impossible to have one without the other.  Our Self with all of its righteousness is crucified with Christ and we now live not only His righteousness but His humility.  What is His humility?

In my studies, I have come across a truly horrendous idea of humility.  I am told that, if I am constantly reminding God of my sins-or worse, expecting Him to remind me of them-, if I come crawling before Him with words of my unworthiness on my lips, and remind Him I am acceptable because of the death of His Son; then I am being humble.  How grateful I am for the Holy Spirit as my teacher!  How grateful I am He is with me when I read scripture!  Jesus has come!  As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us (Psalm 103:12)!  The curse to crawl on the belly was to the serpent, not humankind!  We come boldly before the throne of grace, not ashamed, sure in our acceptance because the love of the Father has been shed abroad in our hearts by His Spirit (See Hebrews 4:16 and Romans 5:5).  This is our identity in the Lord Jesus Christ and, because we are in Him and walk by His Spirit, there is no condemnation (Romans 8:1).

I am aware of scriptures like 1 John 1:8-9.  As I study the passage, I find the word confess here is the Greek word homologeo (G3670) and it means “to assent, i.e. covenant, acknowledge.”  Acknowledge what?  Jesus.  The finished work of the Cross.  I don’t see here the necessity of raking my sins over the coals nor does it mean to air my dirty laundry.  I assent, I say with the covenant God that He sent His son, the Lamb who takes away the sin of the world, and His blood doesn’t just cover my sin but washes me clean.  He establishes me and presents me to Himself holy and without blemish (Ephesians 5:27).  This is who I am!  It doesn’t sound very humble though, does it?

I read the best definition of humility I’ve ever found in Hastings’ Dictionary of the Bible.  The entry for humility begins with: “Trench defines ‘humility’ as the esteeming of ourselves small, inasmuch as we are so; the thinking truly, and because truly, therefore lowlily, of ourselves.  Alford, Ellicott, Salmond, Vincent, and many others agree.  It is an inadequate and faulty definition.  A man may be small and may realize his smallness, and yet be far from being humble.  His spirit may be full of envy instead of humility.  He may be depressed in spirit because he sees his own meanness and general worthlessness, and yet he may be as rebellious against his lot or his constitutional proclivities as he is clearly cognizant of them.  Low-mindedness is not lowly-mindedness.  The exhortation of Ph 2:3 does not mean that every man ought to think that everybody else is better than himself in moral character, or in outward conduct, or in natural or inherited powers.  That would be impossible in some cases and untruthful in many others.  It is not an exhortation to either an impossibility or an untruthfulness.  A better definition of the Christian grace of humility is found in the union of highest self-respect with uttermost abandon of sacrifice in service.”

James Hastings then points to John 13:3-5, Jesus washing the feet of his disciples, as the classic NT example of humility.  Mr. Hastings says, “The consciousness of His own transcendent worth was in no respect inconsistent with His humility.  Genuine humility leads the strong to serve the weak.  It never underestimates its own worth, but in utter unselfishness it is ready to sacrifice its own claims at any moment for the general good.  Genuine humility loses all its self-conceit but never loses its self-respect.  It is consistent with the highest dignity of character and life.  Hence we may rightly call the Incarnation the Humiliation of Christ.  He stood at the head of the heavenly hierarchies.  He was equal with God.  There was no dignity in the universe like unto His.  Yet He humbled Himself to become a man.  He made Himself of no reputation.  He came not to be ministered unto, but to minister.  He was the servant of all.  There was no humility in the universe like unto His.  He never forgot His dignity.  When Pilate asked Him if He were a king, He answered that He was.  He stood in kingly majesty before the mob, in kingly serenity before the magistrates; He hung as King upon the cross.  Yet He never forgot His humility.  Being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.  St. Paul exhorts, ‘Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus (Ph 2:5-11).  God giveth grace to all who are this humble (Ja 4:6).”

I have no need to creep and crawl before my Creator.  My identity is Jesus Christ.  I am His Beloved and, because I am in Him, everything He has is mine.  In utter humility, I acknowledge that all of this is true because He has made it so and not because of any merit of mine.  I speak the same words as my Lord and Saviour: “I can of myself do nothing” (John 5:30) and “not what I will but what You will” (Mark 14:36) and I know that “He who calls me is faithful and who also will do it” (1 Thessalonians 5:24)  I look at my talents and offer them up knowing that “every good and perfect gift is from above and comes down from the Father of lights” (James 1:17).  I know that as He is, so am I in this world (1 John 4:17) which means that the one who has bestowed upon me His own transcendent worth will make me into the same sort of servant; humble and meek.

In joyful humility, I cast myself utterly on Jesus and know that He will cause me to walk paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.

The New King James Version of The Holy Bible, Thomas Nelson, Inc., Nashville, Tennessee, 1982

References

Rightwise Meaning | Best 6 Definitions of Rightwise (yourdictionary.com)

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

Haralik, Robert M., The Inner Meaning of the Hebrew Letters, Jason Aronson, Inc., Northvale, New Jersey, 1995

Hastings, James, Hastings’ Dictionary of the Bible, Hendrickson Publishers, Inc. 2001, Humility, Page 372

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

Formed a Vessel-Yod

17 Monday Jan 2022

Posted by in Hebrew Words, Isaiah 45:7, Studies

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Hello, Everyone, and thank you for joining me as I continue to look at Isaiah 45:7 where God says; “I form the light and create darkness, I make peace and create calamity; I, the Lord, do all these things.”  Last week I wrote about God forming the light and how I could see a picture of Jesus.  This week, I am going to take a look at the word “form”.

The Hebrew word for “form” in this passage is yatsar.  For those of you who don’t know, there are no written vowels in the Ancient Hebrew language so this word is written with three consonants: the Yod, the Tzadi, and the Resh or, practicing using the Hebrew symbols (and reading right to left): יצר

I have a book by Robert M. Haralick called “The Inner Meaning of the Hebrew Letters”.  This book was my introduction to each Hebrew letter having a meaning all its own and that my word studies could be deepened as I consider each letter as well as the word as a whole. This book gives the following meanings of the Hebrew letters for yatsar: the Yod means “spirituality”, the Tzadi means “righteousness & humility” and the Resh means “the cosmic container”.  Reading this absolutely fascinated me: especially the meaning of the Resh and especially after picturing the light that Jesus is being formed into a man.  As I looked deeper into the meaning of yatsar, I saw not only a picture of the life Jesus lived as a man but how our lives are lived in Him.

י Yod = Spirituality:  The Bible records that, at the moment of Jesus’ baptism, the heavens opened and the Holy Spirit descended upon Him as a dove.  When I look at His life as recorded in the gospels, I see the Holy Spirit working in a man as He had never done in anyone in the Old Testament.  Well, Jesus was God some might say.  That is true but let us not forget that He emptied Himself and became like one of us.  Jesus did not have superpowers but He did live in and operate in the Holy Spirit in a way no one else had.  Truly, in seeing Jesus, we see the New Thing God promised through the Old Testament prophets.

I try very hard not to digress in my studies but it’s difficult: I see so many awesome things!  There are many times Jesus alluded to His oneness with the Father.  There are also many times He was clear about it but one of His allusions is found in John 14 and John 15.  Jesus is describing the Holy Spirit and He says, “but the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you” (John 14: 26).  Then He says, “But when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me” (John 15:26).  Who is sending the Spirit?  The Father or Jesus?   HE will because they are ONE!  I thought that was cool.  Anyway…that day came!  The Holy Spirit was sent and His sending is recorded in Acts 2.  He was sent then and He has continued to be sent to everyone everywhere.  The life I now live is the life of Jesus lived in me and that is only possible through His Spirit.

I do know there are those believers who insist the Holy Spirit went away with the death of the last Apostle.  There is absolutely no scriptural basis for this without some serious discounting of massive portions of the New Testament nor is it my personal experience.  I am filled with the Holy Spirit right this very minute.  He is my Teacher, my Helper, my Comforter, my Companion, my Best Friend.  He is the Spirit of Jesus imparting the very life of Jesus in me right now.  He is the Spirit proceeding from the Father who assures me I am accepted and reveals to me how I am loved. 

I encourage anyone who does not know they are filled with the Holy Spirit to do four things.  One, read the book of Acts and see how indiscriminately the Holy Spirit filled people.  Then two, go through the entire New Testament with a pen or bible highlighter-whatever you have at hand-and underline or highlight every occurrence of the word Spirit.  I am certain you will begin to see how this New Covenant is one ministered to us by the Holy Spirit.  Three, say “Jesus is Lord” and then call God your Daddy-which while being respectful, is the meaning of Abba (1 Corinthians 12:3, Romans 8:15).  Done?  Then know His Spirit is in you!  After you have done those three things do number four which is to consider the tradition taught to you might be wrong, refuse to be cheated of your inheritance, and ask the Holy Spirit to open your eyes to the truth.

In the Book of the Prophet Ezekiel, God declares a day to His people when He will, “sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols.  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” (Ezekiel 36:25-27).  It is always good to remember that this promise, while to Israel, is not just to Israel.  We who believe on Jesus have been grafted into the family of God and this promise is to all of us. 

Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation (2 Corinthians 6:2).  The promise of God recorded in Ezekiel is fulfilled in Jesus.  We are in Him and His Spirit is in us.  We are clean.  We are being renewed.  His Spirit within us is not only the wisdom and knowledge to know His ways but the strength to walk in them.  This is not a way of life reserved for some spiritual elite.  God shows no partiality (Acts 10:34).  The Holy Spirit is often symbolized by water in the scriptures and Jesus cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink.  He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water” (John 7:37-38).  This idea is echoed in the glorious revelation of Jesus Christ: “And the Spirit and the bride say ‘come!’ and let him who hears say, ‘Come!’ And let him who thirsts come.  Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely” (Revelation 22:17).

The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in us.  We can have as much of Him as we desire.  May our eyes be opened to see this, may we drink deeply, and may our hearts overflow with rivers of living water.

Amen.

All scriptures are quoted from:

The New King James Version of The Holy Bible, Thomas Nelson, Inc., Nashville, Tennessee, 1982

References

Haralik, Robert M., The Inner Meaning of the Hebrew Letters, Jason Aronson, Inc., Northvale, New Jersey, 1995

Forming the Light

10 Monday Jan 2022

Posted by in Isaiah 45:7, Studies

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Photo by Walter Strong

Last week I wrote about asking questions of the Holy Spirit, especially “why”.  I do ask “why”, even though I know I may not get an answer.  My thought on that is, God already knows the “why’s” rattling around in my head so my wanting to know why isn’t a surprise to Him.  I have found if I just ask Him the why of things then it’s with Him, I can trust He’ll answer me when and if He is ready to do so, and my mind is clear to ask Him other questions.  A question I ask with far greater frequency that “why” is, “what does this mean?”

I have had many scriptures interpreted for me by organizations that do, I am sorry to say, have far more dedication to tradition than a desire to know what the scripture actually says.  Scriptural Interpretation is more in line with who these organizations have decided God is than in line with who He has revealed Himself to be.  It can be a struggle to come to a passage of scripture and look at it with fresh eyes, laying aside all I’ve been taught to believe it says, and to have the Holy Spirit teach me what it means.

One of the scriptures I’ve been meditating on for a few years now is Isaiah 45:7: “I form the light and create darkness.  I make peace and create calamity; I, the Lord, do all these things.”  I find this a difficult passage to understand, even after I read it within the context of the surrounding verses.  God is making a point that He alone is God: there is no other.  Yes, I believe that.  This is the same God declared by John to be love (1 John 4:16).  Yes, I believe that too.  What then, does this passage mean?  It doesn’t seem possible that a God who is love would create darkness and calamity but I read these words spoken by God Himself.  I want to know and so I present the passage to the Holy Spirit and ask, “What does this mean?”  Then I begin a word study.

Being a rather linear, methodical sort of person, I begin my study with “I form the light”.  Hebrew is a fascinating language, a language of pictures, and I am not very far into my study before a picture begins to take shape.  The Hebrew word for “form” in this passage is yatsar (H3335).  The Strong’s Concordance gives this definition: “probably identical with 3334 through the squeezing into shape, to mould into a form; espec as a potter; fig to determine (i.e. to form a resolution):-earthen, fashion, form, frame, make, potter, purpose”.

Of course I want to press on to the creating darkness and calamity part of this passage but I cannot.  My attention is seized by this picture of light being squeezed into a shape and being molded into a form.  I see Jesus in this brief line of scripture and I am awed by Him.  I remember how often Jesus is compared to light, especially John 1:4, “In Him was life and the life was the light of men”, and the words of Jesus Himself in John 8:12, “I am the light of the world”. 

While remembering these scriptures among others, I was also reminded that Jesus’ name means “salvation.”  His name is Yeshua-Jesus being an anglicized pronunciation-and this is so exciting when I read passages like Isaiah 49:6: “It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, And to restore the preserved ones of Israel: I will also give You as a light (!!!) to the Gentiles, that You should be My salvation (yeshua) to the ends of the earth”. 

“I form the light”.  In these four words, I see Jesus, the Word of God, the One we meet in the act of creating in Genesis One, becoming man.  I remember Philippians 2:5-7: “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant and coming in the likeness of men”.  Some translations, including the English Standard Version and New American Standard have “emptied Himself” rather than “made Himself of no reputation”.  I find the idea of Jesus emptying Himself to be a stronger word-picture revealing all He sacrificed in order to become man. 

I think about 2 Corinthians 8:9: “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich.”  I also think about Jesus’ prayer: “And now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was” (John 17:5).  I think about these scriptures and wonder if I’ve ever really thought about them and I wonder if I’ve ever understood what they mean.

I don’t know that I, finite and human that I am, can understand what it was like for The Creator to become His creation.  I ponder the words “squeezed into shape” and “moulded into form” and think it must have been agony.  I think about Jesus being “The Lamb slain before the foundation of the world” (Revelation 13:8) and wonder at the intention of God.  There’s a hymn that goes, “O how He loves you and me…He gave His life, what more could He give?” The thought expressed here is the truth: Jesus did give His life on the cross.  And yet, He gave so much more than that.  He gave His Life, a God-life beyond description, when He became human. He gave His life before He ever got to the cross.

The Creator becoming His creation is an expression of a kind of love which I have not yet begun to understand the breadth and length and height and depth.  I am absolutely certain I do not fully understand what it means to be the object of that love.  Jesus became one of us.  My value then is the life of God Himself.  What an identity that is!  And, it’s not just mine.  His life is the light of humankind and He is salvation to the ends of the earth.  The value of every other human being is the life of God Himself. 

This then is my prayer in this upcoming week.  I pray this love with which I am loved becomes so real to me that it permeates every thought I have and directs every action I take.  I pray the same for each of you.  May we know what it means to live and move and have our being in Jesus Christ whose life is the light. 

Amen.

Unless noted otherwise, scriptures are quoted from the New King James Version of the Holy Bible, Thomas Nelson, Inc. 1982

References:

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

Relationship Not Religion

08 Monday Nov 2021

Posted by in Walking in the Way

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I follow a Facebook page called “A.W-Tozer: A Man of God”; a page that is, as you would expect, devoted to A.W. Tozer’s writings.  The page recently shared a quote from A.W. Tozer’s “That Incredible Christian” which caught my attention.  The quote references 2 Corinthians 8:5: “And not only as we had hoped, but they first gave themselves to the Lord, and then to us by the will of God” and then goes on to say:

“Before the judgment seat of Christ my service will be judged not by how much I have done but by how much I could have done.  In God’s sight my giving is measured not by how much I have given but by how much I could have given and how much I had left after I made my gift.  The needs of the world and my total ability to minister to those needs decide the worth of my service.

“Not by its size is my gift judged, but by how much of me there is in it.  No man gives at all until he has given all.  No man gives anything acceptable to God until he has first given himself in love and sacrifice…

 “In the work of the church the amount one man must do to accomplish a given task is determined by how much or how little the rest of the company is willing to do.  It is a rare church whose members all put their shoulder to the wheel.  The typical church is composed of the few whose shoulders are bruised by their faithful labors and the many who are unwilling to raise a blister in the service of God and their fellow men.  There may be a bit of wry humor in all this, but it is quite certain that there will be no laughter when each of us gives account to God of the deeds done in the body.” 

What?  What is A. W. Tozer saying here?  It’s difficult to tell what his material point is without reading “That Incredible Christian” in its entirety.  As it’s not in The Essential Tozer, which is the book I currently have on my shelf, I’ll have to find a copy and may perhaps due a follow-up.  What I am going to address in this week’s post is how this excerpt left me feeling empty and anxious and with the idea that no matter what I did it was never going to be enough for God.  There was nothing in these words that tasted of the Fruit of the Spirit and I couldn’t help but compare them to words I had just read in Andrew Murray’s “Holiest of All: A Commentary on the Book of Hebrews”.

Andrew Murray is commenting on Hebrews 4:9-10 which states: “There remaineth therefore a Sabbath rest for the people of God.  For he that is entered into His rest hath himself also rested from his works, as God did from His.”

Andrew Murray then goes on to say: “It is this resting from their own work that many Christians cannot understand.  They think of it as a state of passive and selfish enjoyment, of still contemplation that leads to the neglect of the duties of life and unfits for that watchfulness and warfare to which Scripture calls.  What an entire misunderstanding of God’s call to rest!  As the Almighty, God is the only Source of power.  In nature, He works all.  In grace, He waits to work all, too, if man will but consent and allow.  Truly to rest in God is to yield oneself up to the highest activity.  We work, because He works in us to will and to do.  As Paul said of himself, “I labour…, striving according to his working, which worketh in me mightily (literally, “agonizing according to His energy who energizes in me with might” [Colossians 1:29]).  Entering the rest of God is the ceasing from self-effort and the yielding up of oneself in full surrender of faith to God’s working.”

What a difference I find in these two quotes!  I find they’re a perfect example of what I mean when I say “relationship not religion”.  I stick fast on A. W. Tozer’s words:”Before the judgment seat of Christ my service will be judged not by how much I have done but by how much I could have done.”  These words are correct if all we have are rules, regulations, the idea that we earn our place in the Kingdom of God through our works, and the deep fear that nothing we do is going to be enough.  I don’t find any joy in the A. W. Tozer quote, no trust in a relationship with God, and no rest.

Rest is the focus of the Andrew Murray quote. That rest is found in Christ and we rest because we trust the relationship we have with the Father, in Jesus Christ, through the Holy Spirit.  How can there be anything but joy once we know this?  All the scriptures that speak of our works being proof of who we are as Christians are not referencing works we do in order to prove we are Christians.  Rather, because of who we are in Christ, because we live in union with Him, because the Holy Spirit lives in us and is a fountain of living water, we can’t help but produce works.  Our works are the fruit of His life in us. 

I am not afraid that there will come a day when God judges me by how much I could have done.  Ever.  I know Him, I trust Him, and I trust the words He has spoken through the writers of the scriptures are true.  I trust that “He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 1:1).  I trust that “it is God which worketh in you to will and to do of His good pleasure” (Philippians 2:13).  I trust that “we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10).  I trust that His word still stands and will not return unto Him void but it shall accomplish that which He pleases, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto He sends it (Isaiah 55:11, paraphrased from the KJV). 

Amen.  So be it.

The A. W. Tozer quote was taken from the A. W. Tozer-A Man of God Facebook post dated Saturday, November 6, 2021.  That quote is referenced as being from “That Incredible Christian, 105”.

The Andrew Murray quote was taken from his book “Holiest of All: A Commentary on the Book of Hebrews”, Whitaker House, New Kensington, Pennsylvania, 1996, 2004, Chapter Thirty-One Rest From Works, Page 164

All scriptures are quoted from The Authorized King James Version of The Holy Bible, Thomas Nelson, Inc., 2003