On This Day: Making No Apologies for an Apologetic Defense

 

   “Brothers and fathers, hear the defense that I now make before you.”

   And when they heard that he was addressing them in the Hebrew language, they became even more quiet. And he said… (Acts 22:1-2)

   As my post to the left states, I had spent considerable time yesterday addressing for myself and anyone listening that there is a way Jesus wants us to rejoice when we are slandered instead of defending ourselves. So, when I turned the chapter to Paul’s message to the angry audience, I had to chuckle at his use of the word “defense” in reference to what he had to say.

   When I looked up the meaning of the word in Greek, I discovered it was the familiar word “apologia” from which we get the idea of “apologetics”. This is not the making of an apology, as though we are sorry for offending anyone with our sharing of the gospel.

   Rather, it means, “defense (legal) n. — the speech act of attempting to prove some act or belief to be reasonable, necessary, or right; especially occurring in a court of law” (Bible Sense Lexicon). With this one word, everyone listening understood that Paul wanted to make a legal defense of his ministry to the Gentiles, showing that he did nothing to disparage the law of Moses as the slanderers claimed.

   One of the threads in my journey of growing up in Christ has included the discovery that I had learned a self-protective way of making a defense. It was conditioned into me because I was constantly being traumatized by accusations of failing, doing wrong, not measuring up, when I knew that I had done none of the above. I knew the accusations were unjust, so I would have arguments in my mind about why I was not guilty of the charges angrily levelled against me. Sometimes I would take a chance and argue my case, but, as I think of it, it wasn’t when I was being attacked personally, but when someone else in the family was the target. Then I could be quite defensive!

   It has been around 50 years since I developed those self-protective strategies. Since then, I have had to learn that anything to do with self-protection, self-justification, self-indulgence, or self-centeredness is contrary to Christ. What, then, is Paul’s example in making a defense that uses the specific word “apologia” as a legal defense of his teaching?

   I know this will become clear in what I explore next (in Paul’s speech), but my first thought was what Peter said in I Peter 3. I will share the longer section here because it explains what it looks like for all us everyday disciples to follow Paul’s example.

   But even if you should suffer for righteousness' sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled, but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect, having a good conscience, so that, when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame. For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God's will, than for doing evil. (I Peter 3:14-17)

  In this paragraph, Peter affirms Jesus’ words that we are to consider ourselves blessed when we suffer unjustly (see the Beatitudes of Matthew 5:1-12). However, he calls us to “make a defense” using the same word as the apostle Paul. The key is in the focus of our defense: “a reason for the hope that is in you”.

   I have not done much studying of the early history of the church outside of what is written in Scripture. I am not sure how making a defense of our hope as the apostles meant it developed into what we now call “apologetics”. Today’s apologetics seems like a calling for gifted men, while Peter spoke as though every believer could make a defense (apologia) of the hope we have been given in Jesus Christ.

   Whatever I will learn in examining Paul’s defense in Acts 22 will include a mix of Paul’s unique calling. But what I learn about how every believer can give to others a defense of our faith comes down to the “reason for the hope that is in you” as is clearly taught in Scripture.

   In other words, if we have opportunity to share with others why we have hope in Jesus Christ, we do not need an apologetics degree in how to prove the Bible is the word of God, or how we know the Bible has not been corrupted over the years, or how to answer every claim of contradictions presented by skeptics. Some people are gifted in that, but it is not the way every believer is to give the reason for their hope in Jesus Christ our Lord.

   Instead, when I picture the everyday Christians of the first century being asked why they had hope in Jesus of Nazareth as the Messiah/Christ, the reasons they gave would be the biblical ones. It would be sharing what Jesus did for us on the cross that gave us our hope of eternal life. It would include sharing whichever of the prophecies we could remember that were clearly fulfilled in his coming. And it would most certainly revolve around how the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead gives us the absolute assurance that everyone who believes in him will also be raised up to be with the Lord forever.

   I do listen to the apologists of our day who can show how the Bible stands up to the evolutionary religion, to the Bart Ehrman kind of skeptics, to antagonists who try to hide their sins behind problems with the Bible, and to Mormons, Muslims and Jehovah’s Witnesses. I respect the truly biblical ones who are gifted to share the good news with people in all these different backgrounds and cultures.

   However, I do not believe that’s what Peter had in mind when he called us to always be ready to make a defense to anyone who asks us the reason for the hope that is in us. I believe he was talking about how every Christian can state the reasons that we have hope in Christ according to the Scriptures.

   And, with that in mind, I am quite sure that Paul’s defense in Jerusalem will help us everyday Christians in today’s world share the reasons for our hope even while Paul did at such a foundational level. Every believer has the same reasons for why we have hope. Those reasons are all in the Scriptures. So share what you know from the Scriptures that Jesus did to give “Christ in you, the hope of glory”, and thank God for the gifted men who are doing the same thing in each of their gifted areas.

 

 

© 2025 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.)

 

 

On This Day: Accepting the Dangers of Preaching Christ

   While we were staying for many days, a prophet named Agabus came down from Judea. And coming to us, he took Paul's belt and bound his own feet and hands and said, “Thus says the Holy Spirit, ‘This is how the Jews at Jerusalem will bind the man who owns this belt and deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles.’” When we heard this, we and the people there urged him not to go up to Jerusalem. Then Paul answered, “What are you doing, weeping and breaking my heart? For I am ready not only to be imprisoned but even to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.” And since he would not be persuaded, we ceased and said, “Let the will of the Lord be done.” (Acts 21:10-14)

   In over 3 decades of treating God’s word like he is speaking to me, one of the most comforting and affirming characteristics has been the way God teaches me things that are exactly what I need at the time.

   Sometimes those things are just personal. God ministers a scripture to my heart for thoughts, feelings, and needs no one else even knows about.

   Other times, like today, the Scripture God uses speaks to me personally, but while addressing something going on in the world around me on a much bigger scale.

   And right now, as the world is reeling from the murder of a young lady on public transit and the assassination of Charlie Kirk, what in the world would God say in his word that is perfectly timed to how his children are doing in handling all the griefs and sorrows we are facing?

   I have just gone through Acts 20, where Paul was preparing the elders of Ephesus for his departure. He told them they would never see him again because he could see the finish line ahead and knew his race would soon be over. What a weight to carry! Not only were suffering and death always looming over Paul’s life, but he knew this particular journey would be the end of his ministry and the elders needed to know how they must build 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” (Ephesians 2:20-21).

   What really stood out to me was the impact of the relational dynamic between Paul and the disciples. In relation to Paul leaving the Ephesian elders, Luke writes, “And there was much weeping on the part of all; they embraced Paul and kissed him, being sorrowful most of all because of the word he had spoken, that they would not see his face again” (Acts 20:37-38).

   In the case I shared above, Paul’s heart was breaking over the way the disciples were weeping at his willingness to suffer and die for the gospel. Even though Paul was the one who had endured so much already (with one “near-death experience”), these things affected everyone around him. You know, like is happening all around the world right now as people who never met Charlie Kirk are feeling deep grief over the ugliness of his death, the shock to his wife, and the loss to his children.

   The fact is that Jesus said this would happen. He warned about the suffering. He warned about the martyrs. He warned about the unjust trials and unfair persecutions. He made clear that the people living in darkness would see the great “light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God” (II Corinthians 4:4) because “God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (vs 6).

   And the next thing he testifies to is “We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our bodies” (vss 8-10).

   The two things I want to leave with you are the specific testimonies of Paul and the other apostles that, “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21). We may never face the same threats to our lives as Paul did. We may never be in danger of being in an assassin’s crosshairs. But we must have the same heart and mind, that our temporary and transient earthly lives are lived for Christ, and our deaths will give us the greatness of being with him forever in his eternal paradise

   And the other encouragement is to have your daily time with God in his word and prayer so you can see for yourself how personally God speaks to his children, that we know what he is saying, we can recognize what he is doing, and we can get to know him by experience as we join him in his work.

   That God would do this for me today in such a profoundly obvious way is not just for me. We are all to benefit from “let the word of Christ dwell in you richly” because that’s how we know how to “teach and admonish one another in all wisdom,” and how to “sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God,” even when the relational dynamic in our churches is filled with heartache and sorrow (Colossians 3:16).

 

© 2025 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.)

 

 

On This Day: How the ‘Unknown God’ Makes Himself Known

   So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said: “Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription: ‘To the unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. (Acts 17:22-23)

   As I was waking up this morning, it hit me: the centrality of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ has not been the central interest in the churches I have been part of. The impact on me was that I must know how to attach to these realities with all my heart and, hopefully, to help others do the same!

   The reason this is standing out right now is that I have arrived in the chapter in Acts I was waiting for more than any other. In this present journey through Luke’s historical narrative, I wanted a fresh encounter, so to speak, in how Paul shared the good news of the kingdom with a thoroughly Gentile audience. And the Greeks of Athens were about as Gentile and disconnected from the Jews and the Scriptures as we could find.

   What I noticed yesterday was that, in Paul’s mingling with the Greeks in the marketplace, his side of the conversations revolved around “preaching Jesus and the resurrection.” In one way, this was nothing new. In another way, it was exactly what I needed settled in me: that it doesn’t matter who we are talking with, church-familiar, scripture-ignorant, evolutionist, atheist, agnostic, skeptic, religious, irreligious, it simply doesn’t matter. The “good news of great joy” is that God has given us “a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” That Savior is Jesus, and the way he saves is through his death and resurrection.

   The very personal part of this is in the mirror. What do I see in the guy looking back at me? Do I see a longing that Paul described as “that I may know him and the power of his resurrection” (Philippians 3:10)?

   Do my prayers for myself and Jesus’ church exemplify knowing “what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead” (Ephesians 1:19-20)?

   Do I long to hear,

   ...around the throne and the living creatures and the elders the voice of many angels, numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice,

“Worthy is the Lamb who was slain,

to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might

and honor and glory and blessing!” (Revelation 5:11-12)

   My point is simply this: that if telling people about the person of Jesus Christ and what he did for us through his death and resurrection is the way Paul would begin sharing the good news with the worldlings of Athens, then we can’t imagine we have a better way of doing things in our time.

   In Philippians 2, after detailing how Jesus died for us on the cross, Paul continued:

   Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:9-11)

   Knowing the person, Jesus Christ our Lord, and the “It is finished” realities of his death and resurrection, ought to be everything to us so we cannot help but make Jesus and his resurrection everything in how we relate to everyone.

   Today, I am going to begin introspectively. I want to know Jesus in person, and I want to know his resurrection in power, more than ever before. In fact, the measure I often present to God applies very well here, that I may know Jesus and his resurrection as much as is possible to know these realities this side of heaven. If there’s more I can experience of this (and there is), I want it!

   And then, after whatever God wants to do with me about this, I will weave this into my conversations with people and see how God uses it to find his lost sheep.

 

© 2025 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.)

 

On This Day: A New Way of Living the Word of the Lord

 

   And Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly, saying, “It was necessary that the word of God be spoken first to you. Since you thrust it aside and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we are turning to the Gentiles.  For so the Lord has commanded us, saying,

“‘I have made you a light for the Gentiles,

    that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.’”

And when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord, and as many as were appointed to eternal life believed. And the word of the Lord was spreading throughout the whole region. (Acts 13:46-49)

   Spending time with God in his word and prayer has two components. The first is the settled and unchanging word of God as we have it in the Scriptures. The second is the “new every morning” way that God’s word ministers to our hearts and leads us through whatever we are facing.

   Today, this stood out in two very significant ways.
   First, the expression “the word of the Lord” really stood out to me last year when I was reading Brad Jersak’s book of false teachings, “A More Christlike Word”[1]. At the same time as I was reading his book (that Peter described as, “which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures”[2]), I also came to the book of Acts in my audio-Bible sessions during my exercise times.  

   As I listened my way through Acts in two or three sessions, something stood out that I had never noticed before. It was the way the references to the “good news of the kingdom” seemed to change in a rhyming-thoughts kind of way. I am sharing all the references (even though most are repeated) just to show how much variation there is and how interchangeable the expressions are.

   The good news the early church preached was a mixture of “the good news of the kingdom” they received from Jesus, along with all the Hebrew Scriptures (our Old Testament) that spoke of him. This was called:

·         “the word” (4:4),

·         “your word” (4:29),

·         “the word of God” (4:31),

·         “the words of this Life” (5:20),

·         “the word of God” (6:2),

·         “the word” (6:4),

·         “the word of God” (6:7),

·         “the word” (8:4),

·         “the word of God” (8:14),

·         “the word of the Lord” (8:25),

·         “the word” (10:44),

·         “the word of God” (11:1),

·         “the word of the Lord” (11:16),

·         “the word” (11:19),

·         “the word of God” (12:24),

·         “the word of God” (13:5),

·         “the word of God” (13:7),

·         “the word of the Lord” (13:44),

·         “the word of God” (13:46),

·         “the word of the Lord” (13:48),

·         “the word of the Lord” (13:49),

·         “the word of his grace” (14:3),

·         “the word” (14:25),

·         “the word of the gospel” (15:7),

·         “the word of the Lord” (15:35),

·         “the word of the Lord” (15:36),

·         “the word” (16:6),

·         “the word of the Lord” (16:32),

·         “the word” (17:11),

·         “the word of God” (17:13),

·         “the word” (18:5),

·         “the word of God” (18:11),

·         “the word of the Lord” (19:10),

·         “the word of the Lord” (19:20),

·         “the word of his grace” (20:32).

   The reason this stood out to me so much was that Brad Jersak claimed “the word” we find in the Scriptures was not Christlike enough, but Dr. Luke used every expression he could think of to show that the early church used “the whole counsel of God” from the Old Testament (the Hebrew Scriptures of the day) along with the whole teaching of Christ as we have it now recorded in the gospels, the book of Acts, and the letters to the churches. It was such a glaring contrast to what Brad Jersak claimed that I began to hear on almost every page of his book what Satan first uttered to Eve in the Garden of Eden, “Did God actually say…?” (Genesis 3:1).

   Coming to these references again today was simply another affirmation of the glory of God’s word, and the delight we Gentiles can have that we are included in the good news this word proclaims. I would rather fellowship in the Spirit with Gentile believers of almost 2000 years ago who celebrated “the word of the Lord” than any of the Scripture-twisters of today who “steal, kill, and destroy” the joy people once had in Jesus’ word.

   The second thing that stood out in a very glaring and comforting way was the realization of what it was like for the Gentiles to rejoice and glorify this word. They had known very well that the only way to have anything to do with the God of Israel, the God the Jews believed in, was by becoming a convert to Judaism, abiding by the covenant God gave Israel through Moses, including the (ouchy) requirement of circumcision.

   I let myself imagine the feelings of those Gentiles that, when the Jews rejected the good news Paul and Barnabas were preaching, the men said, “behold, we are turning to the Gentiles” with the message of “eternal life” (Acts 13:46). That meant that the Gentiles could have what Paul was talking about without converting to Judaism. Paul and Barnabas were showing that the Gentiles could have the gift of God through faith in Christ, which is why “as many who were appointed to eternal life believed” (vs 48).

   The amazing thing for me (what gives me my unique journey in God’s universal and unchanging word)[3], was that I have had my own experience of discovering that I could have everything God is offering us in the good news of the kingdom without submitting to what I now call “Institutional Church” in established congregations run by power-brokers (the people who have been there the longest and control everything the church does). To me personally, there is a clear parallel to what Luke described of the religious Jews in Pisidian Antioch!

   When I considered the rejoicing and glorifying of the word of the Lord by the Gentiles, I could remember the joy that was felt first by a prayer group that formed to pray for the institutional church we were in, and then when we discovered we could meet in someone’s home as Jesus’ church without being bound to an institution, or the power-brokers who kept it under their control.

   This isn’t about what you think of the overly brief summary of our home church story. I’m simply pointing out that we all need to admit that the first two centuries of Jesus’ church growing was through home churches, so they clearly are an acceptable, if not preferable, way of meeting.

   My point is that we should be able to rejoice in and glorify “the word of the Lord” for giving us “such a great salvation” that can be lived by faith in Jesus Christ with any “two or three in my name” gathering of believers who have truly come to faith by “hearing… the word of Christ”, and are truly seeking to “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God” (Colossians 3:16).

   The point for you?

   That the Scriptures we have in the Bible are “the word of the Lord” in all its rhyming, synonymous expressions, and our daily walk with God in his word and prayer ought to lead us to rejoice in this word with all our hearts and glorify it as the word of God it is.

   Jesus said that we are to “live by every word that comes from the mouth of God”. That clearly includes “the gospel of the kingdom” taught by the apostles and recorded in the New Testament Scriptures. “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work” (II Timothy 3:16-17), so let us walk in “the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh” (Hebrews 10:20), and see what the unchanging way gives us of our “new every morning” experiences of the word and the faithfulness of God.

 

 

© 2025 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] Because I have mentioned the book, I must give the copyright info. However, I do NOT recommend the book as a guide to Christian living! You can find my 100+ “journal journey” entries as I went “down the garden path” with the author and concluded he was as much a false teacher as I had originally discerned. A More Christlike Word, © 2021 by Bradley Jersak, Whitaker House, 1030 Hunt Valley Circle, New Kensington, PA 15068.

[2] II Peter 3:16

[3] Just a note to clarify that I do NOT mean “universal salvation”, as in the false belief that everyone will be saved in the end whether they have believed in Christ or not. By “universal” I mean that the same unchanging word to “the Jews first” is the word for us Gentiles. As Paul said in Ephesians 4:4-6, “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.” God “so loved the world,” not just Israel (John 3:16).

On This Day: The Gift of What Was Written and Fulfilled

   “Brothers, sons of the family of Abraham, and those among you who fear God, to us has been sent the message of this salvation. For those who live in Jerusalem and their rulers, because they did not recognize him nor understand the utterances of the prophets, which are read every Sabbath, fulfilled them by condemning him. And though they found in him no guilt worthy of death, they asked Pilate to have him executed. And when they had carried out all that was written of him, they took him down from the tree and laid him in a tomb. But God raised him from the dead, and for many days he appeared to those who had come up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are now his witnesses to the people. (Acts 13:26-31)

   In the "God works all things together for good" category, my traumatic childhood trained me to listen carefully to why people believe what they believe. I can see why this is still helping me grow in my faith in Jesus Christ, my Lord and Savior.

   It’s crazy to think that six decades have passed since I was first aware of God. However, during that whole time, I have never heard anyone present arguments against God's word that hold a candle to the intricate and complex weaving together of divine revelation. What was revealed over the centuries (as “men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit”) had to be carried out by God’s enemies to fulfill what was written about Jesus' suffering, death and resurrection. Only God could write the script and orchestrate its fulfillment!

   Not only that, but today's gift just happened to come after God helped me accept that I must let go of people and things he is not working in (at least in relation to me), and prepare to fully join him in anything he gives our church to do, while trusting him to provide everything we need to do his will.

   What do we do with such a gift as this? When God shows in the Scriptures how only he could have coordinated 40 different men, over a period of fifteen centuries, to write their puzzle pieces of revelation into God’s word, it calls us to RSVP to his invitation.

   “What invitation?” you ask.

   The invitation to know the Creator through his word.

   The invitation to be raised from death to life in the salvation provided by Jesus Christ.

   The invitation to feel the “faith” that “is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1). That “assurance” is not speaking of the feeling of assurance, or the feeling of confidence about something.

   Rather, the word in the Greek means, “title (deed) n. — a legal document to effect a transfer of property and to show the legal right to possess it” (Bible Sense Lexicon). In other words, faith is our “document” of assurance, the certificate of authenticity, so to speak. If we have faith, that faith is our deed to eternal life and all it entails.

   After examining the claims of professional skeptics like Bart Ehrman, the priests of the evolutionary religion like Darwin, Dawkins and DeGrasse Tyson, and false teachers like Brad Jersak, I now see in all of them the first words of the serpent in the Scriptures, “Did God actually say…?” (Genesis 3:1). They never give evidence against the evidence of Scripture. They only parrot the devil’s own thoughts, to make people question the authority of what God said, so they become pawns in the game of the evil one instead of children of God on assignment from their Father.

   Even though my faith has been growing since childhood, and I believe I am putting into practice Paul’s exhortation to Timothy to “Practice these things, immerse yourself in them, so that all may see your progress” (I Timothy 4:15), what I am getting out of my campout in Acts 13 makes me feel like I am “building yourselves up in your most holy faith” as Jude encouraged (Jude 1:20).

   If you do not yet know that your faith in Jesus Christ stands up to every claim of skeptics and enemies of the cross, read God’s word and take it as the Holy Spirit teaches it to you. Faith DOES come from hearing, and our hearing DOES come from the “word of Christ”, so listen for Jesus’ voice in his word, the Bible, and follow him where he leads, no matter how many wolves are howling in the distance, or roaring lions are prowling around seeking someone to devour. 

   As our big brother John wrote,

For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.
(I John 5:4)

  

 

© 2025 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.)

 

 

On This Day: From Justice Denied to Justice Satisfied

   Now the passage of the Scripture that he was reading was this:

“Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter
    and like a lamb before its shearer is silent,
    so he opens not his mouth.
In his humiliation justice was denied him.
    Who can describe his generation?
For his life is taken away from the earth.”

   And the eunuch said to Philip, “About whom, I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?” Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this Scripture he told him the good news about Jesus. (Acts 8:32-35 in context of Acts 8:26-40)

   What did you feel when you read that line, “In his humiliation justice was denied him”?

   Jesus' “humiliation” summarizes all the unjust ways he was treated, culminating in the shame of death by crucifixion. Paul described it like this,

   though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross (Philippians 2:6-8).

   Isaiah’s prophesy set the stage to explain how the injustice against the Messiah would bring about the justice of God against our sin. Since “the wages of sin is death,” the Messiah would suffer the injustice of dying to save us from the just (and deadly) condemnation of our sins.

   Part of the reason this stood out so strongly this morning is the current movement to attack God’s “injustice” against his Son. The “More Christlike” cult claims that this portrayal of Yahweh is not Christlike enough. To the proponents of this teaching, it is not like Christ to do something so unjust to someone as to cause them to suffer for someone else’s sins. In their minds (not God’s), Isaiah’s revelation of Yahweh is not Christlike enough and needs to be corrected. I spent considerable time slogging through one of the books this cult has published and found it a horrible example of the New Testament warnings about false teachers.[1]

   The other reason this stood out is simply the realization of how hopeless we would be if God did not “put forward” his Son “as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith” (Romans 3:25). Propitiation means for one person to bear the justice of God against another person. God gave his Son “to make propitiation for the sins of the people” (Hebrews 2:17). “In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (I John 4:10).  

   These Scriptures are talking about “In his humiliation justice was denied him.” In Jesus’ suffering, justice was denied him because he was bearing God’s justice against the sins of others. And it is only because “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed” (I Peter 2:24).

   So, when Paul wrote that, “It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus” (Romans 3:26), he was summarizing what Jesus did through the injustice against him. He willingly bore our sins (the injustice of a man being humiliated in crucifixion when he had done nothing wrong), so that God’s justice was fully satisfied and we could be forgiven.

   One of the most awe-inspiring expressions of this is, “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (II Corinthians 5:21). That’s what Isaiah spoke about 700 years before Jesus died on the cross. God fully satisfied his justice against our sin by pouring out his wrath upon his Son, and that means God is fully just to make us righteous with his own righteousness.

   Please be guarded against anyone claiming that there is something wrong with God punishing his Son for our sins. Jesus went willingly to the cross. He willingly suffered our condemnation. God’s love for us is without question, and so is his genius in making a way of salvation that turns sinners into saints. His plan was to have a people in his own image and likeness, and satisfying his justice against our sin was a necessary part of the plan from before time began.

   And please allow your heart to rejoice in the so great salvation we have in Jesus Christ. Included in Isaiah’s prophecies about Jesus was this glorious expression:

   Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied;
by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant,
    make many to be accounted righteous,
    and he shall bear their iniquities (Isaiah 53:11).

   Jesus felt the unjust “anguish of his soul” in suffering for us, but he saw the very thing for which he died and was “satisfied”. “It is finished!” And because Jesus came to “bear their iniquities”, we can be one of the “many” who would “be accounted righteous”.

   And if all that amazing weaving together of truth in the divine tapestry doesn’t lift your soul with wonder and praise, perhaps you first need to be the “blessed are the poor in spirit” who admit you are the sinner who needs such a Savior as this.

 

© 2025 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] I was asked to read the book by Brad Jersak titled, “A More Christlike Word” in which the author claims the Bible is not Christlike enough and he and his helpers are a much better authority about Jesus than the prophets (like Isaiah). I had already considered Brad Jersak to be a false teacher from listening to him being interviewed, and going through his book solidified that conclusion. The fact that he also says that the God of the Old Testament (Yahweh) is not Christlike enough, and the Way of the church Jesus is building is not Christlike enough, secures Brad Jersak in Paul’s warnings about false teachers, and the “More Christlike” movement as a cult that is leading people away from both the “word” and the “Word” of God.

  However, in an attempt to resolve the conflict with the people who asked me to read the book, I spent over 5 months making a “journal journey” through the book, honestly assessing what the author taught, and honestly responding with what I was reading for myself. You can find my 102 blog posts about this book under the label of “Countering Counterfeits” on my blog.

   Here is a link to the first entry titled, A Journal Journey with Brad Jersak’s “Different” Jesus – Day 1: https://in2freedom.blogspot.com/search?q=A+Journal+Journey+with+Brad+Jersak%E2%80%99s+%E2%80%9CDifferent%E2%80%9D+Jesus+%E2%80%93+Day+1

On This Day: Stephen’s Prayer for Saul’s Forgiveness

   Then they cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul. And as they were stoning Stephen, he called out, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” And falling to his knees he cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” And when he had said this, he fell asleep. And Saul approved of his execution. (Acts 7:58-8:1)

   Sometime in the past couple of weeks, someone posted another stereotypical post about Christians only having two options in dealing with how we relate to those who wrong us. One option is always presented as forgiveness (even if the person hasn’t repented), the other option is always presented as anger or bitterness. Since we all know we shouldn’t give room for sinful anger or bitterness, we are tricked into thinking we must then choose to forgive people who have never repented of what they have done.

   When I ask people who believe this where in the Bible do we have an example of God, the prophets, Jesus, or the apostles forgiving someone who is clearly unrepentant, I am never given a text where this is shown. I can show multiple examples of unrepentant people not being forgiven, but there isn’t one example where a person is unrepentant about their sin but is forgiven anyway.

   However, there are two Scriptures that are claimed as proof that we are to forgive unrepentant people. One is when Jesus from the cross prayed, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” The other is when Stephen was dying and he prayed, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” I am told that this was them forgiving their enemies. And, because I just came to Stephen’s prayer this morning, it seems timely to once again share some very liberating insights.

   My response to the claim that Jesus and Stephen were forgiving their enemies is always something to the effect of, “Read it again.” If the texts were telling us that Jesus and Stephen were forgiving their persecutors, the wording would need to be from Jesus, “Father, I forgive them…”, and from Stephen, “Lord, I do not hold this sin against them.”

   The wording by both Jesus and Stephen is prayer. They are both talking to “our Father in heaven”, and they are both praying for their persecutors. When we realize Jesus DID instruct us to pray for our persecutors, and we see that this is what Jesus was doing, we can back up a bit and ask ourselves what it would look like for us to pray for our enemies like that.

   Back in 1993, I was introduced to the concept of “freedom in Christ”. I was on the verge of heading through one of the most painful valleys of my life as childhood trauma and abuse came leaking out of my people. I began to see how many Scriptures spoke of God doing things for us that I had not seen him doing in me or others, and I felt a longing to experience God the way I was learning in his word.

   In the 3+ decades since then, it has become clear to me why it is so important to show people the difference between praying that God would forgive someone (like Jesus and Stephen did) and just forgiving them even if they haven’t repented (which can’t be found in Scripture). When we know that God never forgives people until they repent, then our prayer for their forgiveness is with the understanding that people “presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance”.

   Why do we need God’s kindness leading us to repentance if we are forgiven without repenting? If all our sins are cancelled without repenting, why did Jesus say that “repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem” (Luke 24:7)? There is no forgiveness anywhere in the Bible without repentance.

   It is very liberating for abused and traumatized people to understand that no one is forgiven until they repent. Their abusers, their persecutors, their enemies, will not be forgiven unless they repent. If we pray for God to bless them, he won’t answer that prayer without humbling them to repentance first.

   So, instead of these victims cringing at the feeling of injustice with the “just forgive” mantra that can’t be found in the Bible, they can let God lead them into his grace where they truly want God to reach those people with his love and mercy because they have no hope until they repent and are forgiven.

   And when we can truly pray for these people that God would forgive them, and we know this can only happen if they repent, we are able to accept God’s will in this because we can allow ourselves to want these people to experience God’s kindness leading them to repentance just as we experienced for ourselves.

   I know I am in the minority when I show these things from God’s word. If you’re not convinced, I’m still waiting for someone to show me a scene in Scripture where someone is clearly unrepentant and either Yahweh or his prophets in the Old Testament, or Jesus and his apostles in the New Testament, forgave the unrepentant person who was continuing in sin. In all my times through the Bible, I have not come across one instance of this.

   To encourage me in this viewpoint of Stephen’s prayer for his persecutors (not him forgiving his enemies), I found this comment from William Hendriksen in his commentary on Acts 7. He wrote,

Reflecting on the death of Stephen and Paul’s consent, Augustine made this penetrating comment:
    “If Stephen had not prayed,
    the church would not have had Paul.”[1]

Augustine (and William Hendriksen with him) saw that Stephen’s prayer, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them,” is linked to our introduction to sinful Saul, who became the beloved apostle Paul. When we continue down the road and see how God’s kindness brought Paul to repentance, we can see how Stephen’s prayer was answered in God’s gift to Paul of repentance and faith.

   For me, this hit the bull’s eye of my heart today, not as a way to win a debate on the topic of “to forgive or not to forgive”, but to realize that I have “Sauls” in my life who need me to pray for their forgiveness. I know God will only answer that prayer by leading them to repentance (I have lots of Beatitudinal Valley illustrations to go along with this), and I know I want them to experience that mercy from God as I have on so many occasions.

  Ultimately, we do not pray to make God do something our way. Our praying is to line us up with God’s will. God leading me to pray this way is his will, and it is up to him if I ever see the answer. Stephen did not see his prayer answered that day because he died just seconds later. But seeing Paul’s arrival in eternity some decades later (whatever that feels like in the spiritual realm) would have been an experience of joy filled with praise to God.

   Today, I will pray in hope and praise in confidence. God will work it for good, and I might live long enough to see some of my Sauls reconcile with both God and his people. In the meantime, praying the way Jesus and Stephen did keeps my heart free, and that’s what the people in my life need from me each day. 

 

© 2025 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] Kistemaker, S. J., & Hendriksen, W. (1953–2001). Exposition of the Acts of the Apostles (Vol. 17, pp. 281–282). Baker Book House.