The Bible, the Book of God

I recently found an online claim that we didn’t need to use “a book” to get to know Jesus. The person was referring to the Bible. I was shocked that anyone would post such a thing, particularly since I had decades of experience in getting to know Jesus through his book! 

However, whenever I face such things, I simply keep meeting with God every morning in his word and prayer to see how he leads me. I don’t change where I am reading. I don’t do a word study on the topic being challenged. I just continue my journey through the Bible that began in childhood and for over three decades has focused on God speaking to me through his word. 

One of the things God has done for months is the same thing I have witnessed so often, that my journey through the Bible will lead to one viewpoint after another that addresses the very things I am facing. And it will always fit like puzzle pieces coming together with people in our home church who are also sharing their journey through God’s Book. 

Since I discovered this dissing of God’s word, I have been absolutely amazed at how often God has drawn attention to his “word”, or his “book”. All through the generations of God’s people, they received the “scriptures” as the written word of God. We now have sixty-six “books” collected into one “Book” we call the Bible, the word of God, and the way this book keeps referring to itself as God’s Book is absolutely amazing. 

Yesterday, I finished a journey through the book of Nehemiah. When I was going through Jeremiah, I was mesmerized by God’s promise, “‘And I will give you shepherds after my own heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding.’”[1] I realized that Nehemiah was one of these shepherds, and I needed to read his journal like it was mentoring me in what a shepherd after God’s own heart looks and sounds like. I wanted to know how he fed God’s people with knowledge and understanding. Let’s just say I was not disappointed with my journey and what it taught me! 

This morning, I began my next adventure in God’s word, a journey through the gospel account of Matthew. What greeted me was the introductory expression, “The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.” It hit me like receiving the key to a chest full of “the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” that are hidden in Jesus Christ our Lord.[2] I could hardly contain myself in what to do with all the wonder-filled thoughts that were delighting my mind. Let me give a summary of how this phrase speaks to us. 

It does something to me to hear Matthew refer to his gospel account as “the book”. We call the Bible God’s “Book”. The sixty-six sections of God’s word we call “the books” of the Bible. Matthew calls his record of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, “the book” about Jesus. Reading this brought to mind God’s encouragement, “But this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word.”[3] That is certainly the way I felt, that my heart was trembling with awe and wonder at God’s word in this book. 

The message all through the Bible is that God has written us his story (history). My testimony is that we can read this Book every day of our lives and feel like the ink is still wet on what God has written because of how it speaks to us in such real and personal ways that address whatever we are going through. 

“The genealogy” puts Jesus Christ so solidly into verifiable history that even Richard Dawkins (the high priest of the evolutionary religion) had to admit Jesus truly existed and that he (Dawkins) lied in his book, The God Delusion, when he claimed there was virtually no proof of Jesus’ even existing. Not only does the genealogy show that Jesus existed, but Matthew’s gospel account was written so soon after Jesus’ death and resurrection that anyone could talk to people who were still alive to verify the events that took place. 

As an example of the way the genealogy verifies Jesus’ existence, I read about some Bible translators who had just completed their translation of the gospel of Matthew into the language of whatever people group they were reaching. When they presented it to the people to read, they weren’t sure how they would do with the way it begins with the genealogy. After all, so many North American church folk struggle to get through these parts of the Bible!

However, when the leader read the first chapter of Matthew’s gospel to those who had gathered, the most unexpected thing happened. Everyone began talking with amazement at how this Jesus was a real person who really lived. And how did they know this? Because Jesus had a real story of the generations of his ancestors. And they didn’t even know how significant these ancestors were! 

The various “genealogies” in the Bible are given so we can know for certain that “when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.”[4] And Jesus has now accomplished this redemption so it can be applied to us today. 

“Jesus” is the name given to the Savior who was born of the virgin Mary. The name means “God saves”, and God’s angel told Joseph to give Jesus this name, “for he will save his people from their sins.”[5] And it is Jesus who fulfills God’s word that “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”[6] 

“Christ” is the title of Jesus’ role in God’s redemptive history. It is the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew designation, “Messiah”. It refers to the one set apart by God to carry out the work of reconciling people to God. Jesus came into the world authorized by his Father to be the Savior who saves from sin. And his work of salvation in his death and resurrection makes it possible for him to now save anyone who calls on his name in repentance and faith. 

“The son of David” tells us that Jesus fulfills the prophesies that a King would one day sit on David’s throne and restore God’s people to their God. Again, Jesus’ genealogy back to David could be verified by talking with people who were still alive when this gospel account was written. 

“The son of Abraham” tells us that Jesus is the “offspring” God promised Abraham when he said, “and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed”.[7] And, while both Jews and Muslims look back to Abraham as the father of their people, only Christians know that Jesus was the “offspring” God promised to save people from all the nations. But it is a special delight whenever Jews and Muslims discover this truth about Jesus and become Christians, born again disciples of Jesus Christ our Lord. 

Matthew’s opening statement, “The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham”, invites us to open our hearts to this “book” in God’s “Book” so we can have “the eyes of our hearts enlightened”[8] to what God himself has given us in his Son. And that is enough for all of us to hear Jesus calling, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest,”[9] and to answer that call with repentance and faith for the forgiveness of our sins and the gift of eternal life.

 

© 2024 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)

 

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[1] Jeremiah 3:15

[2] Colossians 2:1-3

[3] Isaiah 66:2 (see also Isaiah 66:5 for a similar reference)

[4] Galatians 4:4-5

[5] Matthew 1:21

[6] Romans 10:13

[7] Genesis 22:18; 26:4

[8] Ephesians 1:18

[9] Matthew 11:28

It’s Not My Body (to do as I please)

Everyone has an opinion on what level of autonomy we have over our bodies (especially when a mother wants to put to death the other body in her body). However, those who are born again by the power of the gospel are now members of the body of Christ. This means we have no autonomy whatsoever, and no right to decide for ourselves what we do with Jesus body! 

I’m addressing this today because I’m nearing the end of Nehemiah’s journal and he is still finding house-cleaning needs among the people. Ezra had come back to Jerusalem decades earlier to lead the way in rebuilding the temple after the exile. Nehemiah followed with the aim of rebuilding the wall around the city so the remnant could reestablish themselves in their land. 

The first twelve chapters of Nehemiah chronicle the steps he took to lead the rebuilding project, and then we see how the people returned to their covenant relationship with Yahweh, the only true God. This included the repentance that removed any practices that were against their covenant with God, and faith that returned to all the requirements of the Law of God. 

Today we find Nehemiah discovering one more problem situation that needed addressing. It is described like this: 

Now before this, Eliashib the priest, who was appointed over the chambers of the house of our God, and who was related to Tobiah, prepared for Tobiah a large chamber where they had previously put the grain offering, the frankincense, the vessels, and the tithes of grain, wine, and oil, which were given by commandment to the Levites, singers, and gatekeepers, and the contributions for the priests.[1] 

Tobiah was one of the men who had opposed Nehemiah coming to Jerusalem and rebuilding the wall around the city. Not only was no one given accommodations in the temple, but Tobiah was against God so shouldn’t have been anywhere near there! 

Nehemiah is going to address this, but my focus was on considering possible ways we invite friends and relatives into the temple of God and give them a home when they are still opposing the work of God. At no time in the history of God’s people have favoritism and partiality been acceptable practices. In fact, in the essence of the new covenant, we find the apostles teaching the churches to get rid of people who shouldn’t be there because of their false teachings, sinful practices, or divisive activities. 

The issue is all about who we are. We are not autonomous figures who are entitled to think of no one but ourselves and what we want. That is the toddler level of maturity! Instead, we are even more focused on how we relate to the temple of God under the new covenant since the temple of God is us! Yes, the people of God are the temple of God. And who is in or out of God’s temple is not up to us. 

When Paul was addressing how the Gentile Christians are to see themselves alongside the Jewish Christians, he made it abundantly clear that we are part of the “one body” of Christ. 

For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.[2] 

This means that the Gentiles are not added to the Jewish Christians, and the Jews are not added to the Gentile Christians, but are now made into “one new man in place of the two”. Both Jews and Gentiles had to leave their earthly cultures behind and enter the new culture of the kingdom of God. There is no longer any ground for hostility between different ethnic groups of Christians since we no longer belong to those groups because we are now the one people of God. 

Paul continues: 

So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.[3] 

Here we see that all believers are “joined together” in Christ so that we grow “into a holy temple in the Lord.” And as much as the Tabernacle and the first and second temples all had requirements and restrictions that could not be violated by favoritism and partiality, the people who make up God’s holy temple are now the place where God lives by his Spirit, and he alone decides who is in and who is out. 

The letters the apostles wrote to the churches explain in detail what it means to be part of this body of Christ, this one new man, this holy temple in the Lord. Anyone who has their daily time with God in his word and prayer and participates in a church where there is regular teaching and instruction in these letters will know what it means to live under the new covenant. 

Paul gives a summary of this in writing to Timothy: 

I hope to come to you soon, but I am writing these things to you so that, if I delay, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, a pillar and buttress of the truth.[4] 

All believers are “the church (assembly) of the living God”, and we are all that way through the “bond of peace,” which is the saving work of Jesus through the cross. Our identity includes the fact that the church Jesus is building is the only “pillar and buttress of the truth”, and none of us can behave in the church with prejudice, favoritism, or partiality. We must live according to the details of the new covenant. Who we honor and who we discipline is according to how anyone relates to the new covenant not how they are related to us as family or attached to us as friends. 

The application of this is simple (but not necessarily easy). We must examine ourselves to see if we are relating to everyone in our church fellowships without favoritism or partiality. Each of us must question whether we favor some and ignore others based on friendships or family relationships instead of our “household of God” relationship as God’s children. We must examine whether people who are not honoring Jesus Christ are given leadership or influence just because of who they know (you know, the way the world does things). Any kind of autonomy, favoritism or partiality has no place among God’s people under the new covenant just as it had no place under the old. 

My journey through Nehemiah has shown me so many things about how our mentors of old handled situations according to the old covenant. What is clear is that we can’t do less in our adherence to the new covenant. The letters to the churches in the New Testament continue to address the positives of our life of faith and the negatives of sinful unbelief as clearly as has always been done by God and his shepherds. 

In relation to how we “love the brotherhood” in the faith,[5] we must always be devoted to making sure that no family or friend relationships pull us from “the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace”[6] into the horrible sins of favoritism and partiality. Nehemiah wouldn’t tolerate it in his day and the apostles didn’t tolerate it in theirs. We must not tolerate it in our generation because Jesus is our head and “There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.”[7] 

Let us live as God's holy temple no matter what house-cleaning is required. Because, after all, the body of Christ is not our body, and when we are made alive in Jesus Christ, we no longer have the right to do what our sinful and sarky old hearts please. We are “in Christ” and must live accordingly.

 

© 2024 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)

 

 

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[1] Nehemiah 13:4-5

[2] Ephesians 2:14-16

[3] Ephesians 2:19-22

[4] I Timothy 3:14-15

[5] I Peter 2:17

[6] Ephesians 4:3

[7] Ephesians 4:4-6

The Most Loving Standard of “Bringing”

This morning, I was going to focus my time in the word on these two phrases that stood out in my journey through Nehemiah. They were, “We obligate ourselves to…” and “We will not neglect the house of our God.”[1] The scene is that, when the people began returning to the land after their exile, Ezra had led the people in rebuilding the temple, Nehemiah had led them in rebuilding the wall around Jerusalem, and it was now time to return to their covenant-relationship with God. 

The first expression included a whole list of positive statements from the Law that the people were going to carry out as required. The second was the negative conclusion that they would not neglect God’s house, the temple that had now been restored to full use. The point was that, in returning to their homeland, the people were 100% ready to return to 100% of their covenant responsibilities. 

However, as I was meditating on this section, I couldn’t help noticing that one word applied to everything they were promising to do. It was the word “bring”. There were so many things under the old covenant the people were to bring to the temple as their worship (tithes, offerings, sacrifices, etc.), and the people were recommitting themselves to bringing everything their side of the covenant required. The leaders had been exemplary in shepherding the people with knowledge and understanding,[2] and the people were exemplary in fully joining God in his work. 

When I looked at what the counterpart is for us under the new covenant, it basically came down to what Paul summarized in I Corinthians, “Pursue love, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts”.[3] I even looked up the word “bring” and there wasn’t one reference in the New Testament to us bringing something as our part of the new covenant the way the Israelites had to do under the old covenant. 

This was not a surprise since, “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”[4] The new covenant in Jesus’ blood has nothing we can bring as our contribution, and the good works we now do to express our new life in Christ amount to continually joining God in the work we see him doing rather than listing behaviors that are commanded. 

So, understanding that we don’t “bring” good works to the table as if that is our requirement for keeping the covenant, I was drawn to consider how Paul summarized the “love chapter” of I Corinthians 13 with the expression, “So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”[5] And I could see how these were the things we must “bring” to our participation in the new covenant. 

We bring “faith” to church with us because “the righteous shall live by faith”,[6] and, “without faith it is impossible to please” God.[7] We bring “hope” to all our activities and relationships in the kingdom because, “in this hope we were saved.”[8] And we bring “love” to all our interactions in the household of God because, if I “have not love (agapè), I am nothing.”[9] 

As I considered this, I couldn’t help replaying some negative experiences where church-folk rejected these qualities and then abandoned us because they did not have them (I saw this happen in both institutional and home church settings). I also remembered the positive experiences of those seasons where we did witness people bringing these qualities with them to church and how joyful we were to see the genuine experience of “the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace”.[10] Both the negative and the positive encounters encourage me to tune my heart to this life of “faith, hope, and love” as an absolutely inherent reality of the new covenant, not a suggestion for extra credits. 

What happens to us when we combine the earnestness we see in Nehemiah as the people return to their covenant-relationship with God, with all we know of the realities of living in the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ under the new covenant where “the righteous shall live by faith”? 

For me, I want to see any church assembly I am part of the way Paul described. Before we gather for anything as a church, I want to see God’s people fill our hearts with “faith, hope, and love”, and bring those characteristics with us so we are ready to build up one another in every way that is needed. I know that not everyone will have the capacity to do this at the start. I know we can’t necessarily maintain this every week if we are the ones who just got hit with something traumatic and need of ministry. 

However, if this were to become a way of life where people came to church bringing their faith, hope, and love to contribute rather than coming only to see what the church was going to give us, there would be an over-all quality of kingdom-and-covenant focus so that those who were running on empty that week would be built up by all the others who were maintaining the covenant-life of the church. It would be as Peter described, “Above all, keep loving (agapèing) one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins.”[11] The more people who live like “faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love”, the more those who struggle with these will be built up in the Lord Jesus Christ with us and the world will know we are Jesus’ disciples by our love.[12] 

In conclusion, I return to Paul’s summary challenge of, “pursue love, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts”. When we treat that like it is our side of covenant-relationship with God and his people, we will always bring our “faith, hope, and love” to church gatherings, and then express those very thing as we use our spiritual gifts to glorify God and love his people. 

And I am now very eager to see what happens to me and our home church gathering when I devote myself to this the next time we meet.

 

© 2024 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)

 

 

 

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[1] Nehemiah 10:35,39

[2] What God had prophesied in Jeremiah 3:15

[3] I Corinthians 14:1

[4] Ephesians 2:8-10

[5] I Corinthians 13:13

[6] Romans 1:17; Galatians 3:11

[7] Hebrews 11:6

[8] Romans 8:24

[9] I Corinthians 13:2 (we must keep in mind that this is the Greek word “agapè” which means the love of God in us, not family, marriage, or friendship kinds of love)

[10] Ephesians 4:3

[11] I Peter 4:8

[12] John 13:35

Enlarging Our View of the Good News

I first believed in God around seven years of age. I first understood what Jesus did for me in salvation around twelve years old and privately prayed to receive him in my best understanding of repentance and faith. A couple of years later I affirmed my faith as a teenager by going forward at a crusade meeting. Family conflict kept me from getting baptized until I was around eighteen years of age, but I finally understood that I had to obey my Savior instead of men and made my public identification as a disciple of Jesus Christ. 

However, it was quite a bit further down the road when I realized that salvation is not a one-on-one interaction with God. It is not about asking Jesus into my heart and then carrying on through life with him helping me in whatever I was doing. It was a much bigger and better picture. 

I don’t know the order in which things really stood out to me, but here are the elements of what I had to change my mind about. I never lost the receive-Jesus-as-your-Lord-and-Savior puzzle piece, but so many other pieces were added that I wish had been made clear much earlier on. 

I think the most foundational adjustment to my thinking was the discovery that Jesus didn’t just proclaim “the gospel”, which really means “good news”. Instead, he repeatedly declared “the gospel of the kingdom”. As soon as I recognized that, it was no longer possible to think of the gospel and salvation on an individual basis. 

What I saw was that Jesus began his ministry with the message, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”[1] 

“The time is fulfilled” referred to the message of the whole Old Testament, particularly the prophets, who told of the one who would come to redeem God’s people from their sins. This was fulfilled in Jesus as described in the gospels, and Paul explained it in these terms, “But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.”[2] The “fullness of time” was “the time is fulfilled” that Jesus identified. 

“The kingdom of God is at hand” meant that Jesus’ focus was on the kingdom. This was a huge declaration since the Jews thought that they were God’s kingdom, but Jesus said it was “at hand”, meaning, they were not in it! This would clearly apply to Jew and Gentile alike, that the kingdom of God is brought near to everyone in the proclamation of the gospel, and no one is in the kingdom until they receive this good news about Jesus. 

“Repent” means that everyone must change their minds in some way when they hear the gospel. No matter how we were living prior to hearing the good news, we’re not in the kingdom. So, the first thing we need to change our minds about is that we are not where we should be, and the kingdom of God is where we ought to live. We change our minds about loving sin and having no place for God, to despising our sin and desperately wanting to return to God our Creator. 

“Believe in the gospel” takes us from the negative focus of repent (turning from what is wrong) to the positive focus of faith (turning to who and what is right). And it isn’t just faith, but faith “in the gospel”, or faith in the “good news”. 

From the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, he made the good news about the kingdom of God. By God’s grace, the kingdom was at hand. And by the gospel, people could repent and enter this kingdom by faith. 

From there we have this summary statement of how Jesus did all the rest of his ministry for the new three-plus years, “And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction.”[3] 

The point here is that we are told to view Jesus repeating this same “gospel of the kingdom” everywhere he went. It isn’t stated every time since that would take up far too much room in the gospel accounts. But it is superimposed on every visit to every city. Jesus’ message was “the gospel of the kingdom”. And everyone was called to repent and believe this good news so they could enter this kingdom. 

At the end of Jesus’ time on earth, just before his return to heaven, he told his apostles, “And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.”[4] 

This ratifies that the gospel is the good news of the kingdom, and it shows clearly that the church would continue proclaiming this gospel of the kingdom throughout the whole world. It also shows what should be our primary interest regarding “the end”, which is whether the gospel of the kingdom has been proclaimed throughout the whole world! 

The question is, if the only thing Jesus taught was “the gospel of the kingdom”, and this is what he instructed his church to proclaim, is that the gospel you have believed and received? When you heard about what Jesus did for you on the cross, did you know that your response was about what you would do with him and his kingdom? 

This really confronts the false idea of telling people that we can invite Jesus into our hearts. That implies that Jesus is the one who moves towards us. It views Jesus as “at hand” to come into our lives when the gospel of the kingdom says that the kingdom of God is at hand for us to leave where we are and enter the kingdom. 

On one of the occasions when Jesus was lovingly reproving the religious elite, he pointed out to them, “Truly, I say to you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes go into the kingdom of God before you.”[5] The religious hypocrites wanted a Messiah who would come to them and save them from the Roman Empire. Jesus said that even the people they considered the worst sinners “go into the kingdom of God before you.” They “go into” the kingdom, not invite Jesus to come into them.[6] 

The apostle Paul made this abundantly clear when he wrote, “He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”[7] 

This is the good news. When we hear the gospel of the kingdom, and when we repent and believe this good news, we are delivered “from” the domain of darkness we were living in and transferred “to” the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. THAT is the gospel of the kingdom! 

Home church ministry has taught me a lot about living in the kingdom of God rather than just going to church. We could say that every church that gathers (a church is an assembly of people) is a group of people who are in the one kingdom of God. The local assemblies of believers is the small part of the picture, but all true churches are part of the one kingdom of God and must act accordingly. 

I share all this to help us think like Jesus has “made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.”[8] We are to live like we are “a kingdom and priests to our God”.[9] We have our individual places, but that comes secondary to what unites us as the same, that we are in the one kingdom of Jesus Christ our Lord. 

The application is to first examine ourselves to determine whether we received this “gospel of the kingdom” and are living in “the obedience of faith”[10] as a priest unto God Most High, or whether we were taught the North American gospel that says that we can stay where we are, receive Jesus into our hearts, and get by with just trusting Jesus to help us through life. 

Since Jesus only proclaimed the gospel of the kingdom and clearly taught his church to do the same, let’s all present our hearts to God in this so he can teach us not only to repent and believe this good news, but also to live as “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you OUT OF darkness INTO his marvelous light.”[11]

 

© 2024 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)

 

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[1] Mark 1:15

[2] Galatians 4:4-5

[3] Matthew 9:35

[4] Matthew 24:14

[5] Matthew 21:31

[6] I’m not rejecting what Jesus did say about being in us, just that the primary message of the gospel of the kingdom is that we leave where we are to enter the kingdom, and it is in the kingdom that we are in him, and he is in us.

[7] Colossians 1:13-14

[8] Revelation 1:6

[9] Revelation 5:10

[10] Romans 1:5; 16:26

[11] I Peter 2:9 

When the Narcissists are Gone

My first understanding of a narcissist was as someone who was in love with themselves. It was only in the last few years that it was explained why, which is, a narcissist is unable to receive a healthy shame message. They can’t admit they are wrong when they are wrong because the shame of being wrong (as they see it in their own mind) is so reprehensible that they can’t ever let themselves feel such a crippling emotion. This, of course, results in them loving and taking care of themselves no matter who gets sacrificed along the way. 

The Bible speaks of narcissists, but God has his own word for this condition that was in use long before Greek mythology presented the idea or modern psychology popularized the problem. God’s word for narcissism is “stiff-necked”. A stiff-necked person is someone who, when confronted with anything they have done wrong, cannot admit to it. Instead of bowing their head in a good and healthy response of shame for what they did, they stiffen their neck in absolute pride that they will never admit to doing anything wrong. 

The sad thing is that I can replay virtually every church I have been in and tell you the head narcissist who ran the life of the church. And they did this primarily by making the rules of how everyone had to behave and treat them so that they were never the bad guy about anything. They also delighted in gathering intel on the weaknesses of as many of the members as possible because these weaknesses could then be exploited to keep these people supporting the narcissist out of self-protection rather than doing God’s will out of faith, hope, and love. 

I bring this up because of where I am in my journey through the book of Nehemiah. Nehemiah was one of the fulfillments to a prophecy God gave his people a hundred or so years earlier, prior to the judgment of the exile. God promised, “‘And I will give you shepherds after my own heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding.’”[1] Ezra and Nehemiah were two of those shepherds who overlapped in their work, Ezra focused on rebuilding the temple, and Nehemiah on rebuilding the wall around Jerusalem. 

I am into chapter 9 of Nehemiah. The people have rebuilt the temple and the wall. They are organizing for reestablishing themselves as God’s people in the land, particularly once again centered on Jerusalem. They have begun coming together to hear the word of God read to them daily. And they are so aware that it was the unrepentant sins of their people that brought all the judgment of God upon them. 

As I found them this morning once again gathering to hear the word of Yahweh, this is the way Nehemiah’s journal describes it: 

Now on the twenty-fourth day of this month the people of Israel were assembled with fasting and in sackcloth, and with earth on their heads. And the Israelites separated themselves from all foreigners and stood and confessed their sins and the iniquities of their fathers.[2] 

The following verses show how “they stood up in their place and read from the Book of the Law of the LORD their God for a quarter of the day; for another quarter of it they made confession and worshiped the LORD their God.”[3] 

Following this is a detailed confession of the sins of the people over the generations of their history, including three expressions of “stiffened their neck” in response to God’s prophets. This included them acting “presumptuously”, they “refused to obey”, and they “were not mindful of the wonders that you performed among them”.[4] 

Another way this narcissistic tendency is described in God’s word is when people “harden your hearts”. A hardened heart produces a stiffened neck. All of it is a refusal to hear what God says about our sin. And churches are destroyed by such prideful rebellion because the narcissists always aim to control the church to keep anyone from daring to suggest they are doing anything wrong. 

Both these phrases come together in God’s rebuke of king Zedekiah. First, we read that, “He did what was evil in the sight of the LORD his God. He did not humble himself before Jeremiah the prophet, who spoke from the mouth of the LORD.” And then that, “He stiffened his neck and hardened his heart against turning to the LORD, the God of Israel.”[5] 

The reason this is standing out so much for me today is that I have witnessed too many churches held back (usually completely controlled) by the chief narcissists. They will sacrifice anyone on the altar of their self-protection to maintain the appearance of always being right and never being wrong. 

And in comes this glorious picture of God’s people returning to their homeland, coming every day to hear the word of the Law of God read to them, humbling themselves under the word of God to do what it says, and now clearing up with God any sins of every generation of their people. It was the unrepentant sin of their fathers that got them into the exile and captivity, and it would be repentance of sin that laid the foundation for their return. 

The good news of the gospel began with these words from our Savior’s heart, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”[6] Repentance and belief always go together. Repentance is usually pictured as the “turning away” from sin, and belief, or faith as the “turning to” Christ. 

In fact, this is made abundantly clear in these words from the apostle Paul, “He has delivered us FROM the domain of darkness and transferred us TO the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”[7] We are delivered “from” our sinful lives and “transferred to” God’s kingdom. That happens as we join this work of God in repentance and faith. 

In the seven letters to the churches in Revelation 2 and 3, Jesus is clear to point out the good he saw in some of the churches, but also to identify the things he held against them. Why? Because we are taught “to PUT OFF your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to PUT ON the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.”[8] The “putting off” is repentance, and the “putting on” is faith. They are always together. 

I know that not everyone in the church is a narcissist. However, we all have that narcissistic tendency to avoid shame by denying we have done something wrong. Many of us have deep hidden shame inside us that terrifies us of experiencing it again and that works against our obligation to always resolve our sin problems, not only with God, but also with anyone we hurt by our wrongdoing. 

But it is the gospel we believe in that gives us the ability to face our sin. Why? Because in Jesus Christ it is forgiven. “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”[9] Even our Old Testament brothers knew this, as the psalmist wrote, “If you, O LORD, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? But with you there is forgiveness, that you may be feared.”[10] And, “For you, O Lord, are good and forgiving, abounding in steadfast love to all who call upon you.”[11] 

The whole message of the Bible is about God the Creator who wanted a people in his own image and likeness upon whom he could show the glories of his love. The “for God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life”,[12] was written into the script of salvation before creation began. And it is that love that softens hearts and necks to humbly receive the word of God. 

In our home church we promote the idea of “keeping short accounts with God”. It means that we are quick to repent of sin so that nothing has time to take root in our hearts so we “give no opportunity to the devil.”[13] 

However, for those times when we realize that we have hardened our hearts against admitting our sins, or stiffened our necks when a sermon or a scripture was working to convict us, we may need to stop and get caught up on confessing our sins and receiving forgiveness. If we ask the Lord to show us all our unrepentant sins, he will do so in the most loving and gentle ways, and we simply need to confess them and receive forgiveness. 

I often use this verse in my praying for others who are hurting the church with their unrepentant sins, and also in reminding me how I should view the times when God is being patient with me in my struggles. Paul warned, “Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?”[14] His point is that, just because you don’t see any direct discipline on specific sin in your life, don’t show contempt for God’s patience by delaying your repentance. Instead, we are to view the kindness of God’s grace and patience as the means of leading us to repentance because he would much rather bring us home the easy way than the hard way of discipline. 

Well, enough said. It is still true that “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”[15] So, “humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.”[16]

 

© 2024 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)

 

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[1] Jeremiah 3:15

[2] Nehemiah 9:1-2

[3] Nehemiah 9:3

[4] Nehemiah 9:16,17,29

[5] II Chronicles 36:12,13

[6] Mark 1:15

[7] Colossians 1:13-14

[8] Ephesians 4:22-24

[9] I John 1:9

[10] Psalm 130:3-4

[11] Psalm 86:5

[12] John 3:16

[13] Ephesians 4:27

[14] Romans 2:4

[15] James 4:6; I Peter 5:5

[16] I Peter 5:6-7