The Return to Joy of a Willing Spirit

I recently woke up in the early morning from a very good dream about someone wanting to reconcile with me. It had such an emotional effect that I had to immediately get out of bed and pray for this person. As I did so, I was drawn to David’s prayer of repentance in Psalm 51 and realized that this is what I needed to pray for them in the hope that my dream would turn into reality. 

However, it is impossible to pray Psalm 51 in an intercessory way (bringing the needs of others before God with the hope of bringing God’s grace and goodness to others) without first praying it in a humbly repentant way for us first. 

Since then (about 9 days), I have begun each morning with prayerful meditation on David’s prayer, praying it for myself as needed in the branch-of-the-vine kind of way,[1] and then praying it for the person who had reconciled with me in my dream, and anyone else I can think of who would be blessed to experience David’s prayer of repentance for themselves. 

My meditation has settled into asking for three things. First, that God would do for me whatever David prayed for himself. Second, that God would do for others what David and I prayed for ourselves. Third, that God would lead others to pray each of these prayer requests for themselves the way David and I prayed them. The aim is that God would answer their prayers with as much gracious blessings as David and I could wish for ourselves. 

With that as background, I am up to this request in David’s prayer: 

Restore to me the joy of your salvation,

    and uphold me with a willing spirit. (vs 12) 

Let’s look at how we can pray about this in the three ways we are considering. 

QUESTION 1: What are we asking God to do for us when we pray this for ourselves?

We must begin with the admission that we have lost the joy of God’s salvation and become weak and demoralized about what we have done. David had already addressed how he couldn’t hide from his sin, he knew God was blameless in any judgment he meted out, he could feel his sin as a curse from conception, and he was desperate to know that God would “cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me” (vs 11).

When he prayed this “restore” and “uphold” prayer, he was asking God to let him have back the things he had lost because of his sin. He could not erase the sin from history, as much as he wished it could happen (he likely had no idea that people 3,000 years later would still benefit so much from his prayer), but he could call on the God of “steadfast love” and “abundant mercy” (vs 1) to restore what he had destroyed and repair what he had ruined. 

When we pray this for ourselves, we freely admit to God how our joy has taken such a beating because of our sins that we have fallen prey to a spirit within us that struggles to be willing to walk in the righteousness of faith. As a distressed father of old pleaded with Jesus, “I believe; help my unbelief!” we can pray, “I am willing; help my unwillingness!” 

I often find myself on a Beatitudinal Journey through whatever God is teaching me. As I walk through the eight Beatitudes Jesus used to introduce his Sermon on the Mount, I see a fresh valley of blessings pouring into my life, helped along by my meditation on how they apply.[2]

I can see how the “poor in spirit” admission that I have lost joy because of sin and fallen pray to an unwilling spirit because of iniquity is God’s blessing to lead me to honest repentance. The blessing continues as I express myself as one of “those who mourn” and enter the blessing of God’s comfort through forgiveness. When I interact with God in acknowledgment that I cannot fix myself but rest in the authority of Jesus Christ to save me from my sin, I find the blessing of meekness that knows I am a joint heir with Christ of all that is his. And when I find myself “hungering and thirsting for righteousness” no matter how horrible my sin, I know I am being blessed with the satisfaction of righteousness that is mine only by grace through faith. 

That is what I see in David’s prayer, that God would restore to him the joy of his salvation and uphold him with a willing spirit. David had arrived at the bottom of the Beatitudinal Valley where God could satisfy him with the super-abounding grace that restores sinners from our horrible experiences of sin into a life where “the righteous shall live by faith” once again (David’s sin was a faith problem after all). And I know God is just as loving and gracious to answer this prayer for me as he was to return David to joy and restore his broken and contrite spirit. 

QUESTION 2: What are we asking God to do for others as we pray this prayer for them in an intercessory way?

The first test in praying this for others is whether we are in the “blessed are the merciful” experience where we want God to be just as merciful to people who have wronged us as we expect him to be with us in our wrongdoing. We will also discover whether we are in the “blessed are the pure in heart” reality where we want only one thing, that God would be glorified in all of us as we all find our satisfaction in him. We will also know whether we are blessed as a “peacemaker” by our heart’s desire in asking God to do for people who have wronged us the same return to joy and willing spirit as we have experienced for ourselves. And we will know we truly want the same thing for others as ourselves when we are willing to be blessed as one of those who “are persecuted for the sake of righteousness” even while we pray for our persecutors as Jesus instructed. 

If we have truly prayed David’s prayer for ourselves, knowing that “where sin increased” in us, “grace abounded all the more” for us,[3] We will be just as eager to see God restore to our church-going opponents the joy of his salvation as he has returned us to joy more times than we could ever deserve, and we will want him to be just as gracious in upholding them with a willing spirit as we have felt him do for us more times than we can count. 

QUESTION 3: What are we asking God to do for others as we intercede for them that they would pray this prayer for themselves? 

When we pray for others, it never means God will just do what we ask for them without engaging them in a relational way. 

For example, once we know that the Bible never teaches us to forgive unrepentant people, when we obey Jesus’ command to pray for our persecutors, and we take up his prayer from the cross, “Father, forgive them,” we know that God cannot and will not answer that prayer without bringing them to repentance. 

When we obey Jesus’ command to “bless those who curse you,” our prayers for our cursing opponents cannot be applied except in the Beatitudinal way Jesus presented. He can only bless a cursing person by bringing them to see their poverty of spirit that is making them such a miserable person. He can only bless them by leading them to mourn what they are doing. He must bless them with the meekness that surrenders to the authority of Jesus Christ and hungers and thirsts for the righteousness of being like Jesus. 

In other words, Jesus taught us to seek what is best for others (that’s what agapè-love is all about), and to answer our prayers he will always engage with a person in a relational way that leaves them aware that they are dealing with the living Christ and must humble themselves and receive the good news with great joy and thanksgiving.

With all that in mind, it isn’t enough for us to pray for sinning people that God would return them to joy and build up their spirits. We must pray that God would show such kindness to them that would lead them to repentance so they would call on him to restore to them the joy of his salvation, and to uphold them with a willing spirit. We must ask God to bring them to the place of praying this prayer for themselves just as we have prayed it for ourselves. We want them to know God as the gracious and loving Savior who has forgiven them just as we have come to know him by letting David mentor us in how to pray. 

So many church-folk have no idea how to live in “the joy of your salvation” because they have never really prayed in repentance and faith. They languish with an unwilling spirit because they have never confessed how desperately they need God where they have so horribly sinned. 

The cure is to meet with God in David’s prayer so we know the joy of restoration and forgiveness for ourselves and then actively seek the same experiences for others, including the personal repentance and faith that attaches to God in everything we go through. 

The fact that God led David in his prayer, and then led his people to include David’s prayer in the Bible, means that it is God’s will that we be restored to the joy of his salvation after any sin, and it is God’s will to uphold us with a willing spirit. If we will take this kind of praying to heart for ourselves, we are already doing the same thing we want God to do for someone else. 

And so, we keep praying for ourselves and others according to the word and will of God and wait expectantly for God to do God-sized things in all our lives that were once nothing but a dream.  

 

© 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.)

 

[1] John 15:1-11 is where Jesus spoke of himself as the vine and us as his branches. His emphasis was on our need to abide in him in order for us to bear much fruit. This means we always deal with how we are doing in our walk with God first, and then look at how he wants to bless others out of that abiding attachment to him. It is easy to apply this to David’s prayer as we make sure we are caught up on everything we need there for ourselves and then asking God to do the same things for others as we seek God to do for us.

[2] Matthew 5:1-12 (in context of the whole Sermon on the Mount from Matthew 5-7)

[3] Romans 5:20

A Hope-filled Prayer for Cleansing

WHEN SIN entered the world, Adam and Eve immediately felt guilt, shame, and fear. The horror of that moment, that they had sinned, that the curse of death would now be upon every child they would bear, and that it was impossible for them to fix it, can only be imagined in those moments when we have done the unthinkable and know we cannot take it back.

HOWEVER, within minutes, God revealed the lifeline for the whole human race. God promised that a particular “offspring” of the woman “shall bruise” the serpent’s head (authority) while the serpent “shall bruise his heel.” In other words, God would send a Savior through the woman, born of a virgin, who would absolutely defeat sin, death, hell, the grave, and Satan himself, but through suffering in our place for our sin. 

DAVID’S PRAYER was, “Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.” David is using some delightful rhyming thoughts here. “Purge me with hyssop (a medicinal plant)” rhymes with “wash me”. “I shall be clean” rhymes with “I shall be whiter than snow.” 

DAVID KNEW the horror of being convicted of sin that can never be taken back. There is no way we can do enough good to undo our sin because our sin already makes us guilty of violating God’s law and we are all without excuse. 

THE ONLY HOPE is cleansing. David understood his need then, and we must understand our need now. “For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” and “the wages of sin is death”. Period. 

EXCEPT THAT Jesus is the one “in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” Why in Jesus and only in him? Because “for our sake God made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” Jesus suffered God’s judgment against our sins so we could receive God’s righteousness in our place. And the righteousness of God is as clean as it gets. 

HERE IS God’s promise: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” That is the new covenant way of asking for what David poured out from his heart, the cleansing from sin that only comes through faith in Jesus Christ our Lord.

© 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.)

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