Controlling Anger

Posted on by korgrocker

“Don’t sin by letting anger control you. Think about it overnight and remain silent. Offer sacrifices in the right spirit, and trust the Lord.”
Psalm 4:4-5 NLT

There is much to be angry about in today’s society, just as there was in David’s. Today, as we interface with the fellow members of society around us, we inevitably come up against situations that have the potential to make us angry. We watch a news report, or read a social media post, and feel the anger starting to well up within us. Operating a motor vehicle can always have the potential to initiate a personal angry episode, as we observe the behaviour of other drivers. But it’s ok to be angry – we just need to make sure it doesn’t get to the point where it controls us. To be clear, if the anger we feel is negatively influencing our attitudes and actions, then it is controlling us, and that is sin.

Jesus became angry one day with the behaviour of the people in the synagogue. We can read the account in Mark 3:3, 5, “Jesus went into the synagogue again and noticed a man with a deformed hand.  … He looked around at them angrily and was deeply saddened by their hard hearts. Then he said to the man, “Hold out your hand.” So the man held out his hand, and it was restored!” But Jesus didn’t let His anger about the unbelief present in the people control Him. Instead, it led to a sadness about how or why people should have hearts hardened against the wonderful miracles that were possible with God. And His anger resulted in a positive outcome, particularly for the man with the deformed hand. On another occasion, Jesus became angry with a situation that had brought so much distress to the people He loved. John 11:33, “When Jesus saw her weeping and saw the other people wailing with her, a deep anger welled up within him, and he was deeply troubled“. Again, Jesus didn’t let His anger control Him. Instead He did something about the situation that turned mourning into joy. John 11:43-44, “Then Jesus shouted, “Lazarus, come out!” And the dead man came out, his hands and feet bound in graveclothes, his face wrapped in a headcloth. Jesus told them, “Unwrap him and let him go!””. 

The Psalmist David brought us good advice in Psalm 4 about anger. When faced with a situation that causes us to be angry, he wrote, don’t react straight away. Instead, go away and think about it, preferably overnight. Get before God and ask for His perspective, and trust Him to bring about a righteous conclusion. When we become angry about something we face, perhaps an injustice or similar, we should ask God what he wants us to do about it. And if it is beyond our ability to bring about a remedy, then we should pray and ask God to deal with it. But if we do that, we should really leave it with Him, and not repeatedly pull the situation back, chew over it, and get angry again. David’s advice was timeless – we should, in the “right spirit and trust the Lord”.

Father God. When we face into the injustices of life, please help us to channel our anger righteously and in accordance with Your will and purposes. In Jesus’ precious name.. Amen.

Conviction of Judgement

Posted on by korgrocker

“But in fact, it is best for you that I go away, because if I don’t, the Advocate won’t come. If I do go away, then I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will convict the world of its sin, and of God’s righteousness, and of the coming judgment. The world’s sin is that it refuses to believe in me. Righteousness is available because I go to the Father, and you will see me no more. Judgment will come because the ruler of this world has already been judged.”
John 16:7-11 NLT

The Holy Spirit, or the Advocate, as Jesus referred to Him, has a ministry to both believers and unbelievers. Jesus said, “And when he comes, he will convict the world of its sin, and of God’s righteousness, and of the coming judgment“. Jesus didn’t come into this world two thousand years ago to judge it. His mission was to save it, as we read in John 3:17, “God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.” Jesus went on to say, “There is no judgment against anyone who believes in him. But anyone who does not believe in him has already been judged for not believing in God’s one and only Son. And the judgment is based on this fact: God’s light came into the world, but people loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil” (John 3:18-19).

So, inevitably, the sin of unbelief, and all that follows it, will one day have to be judged. And the Apostle John, in his Revelation on the Island of Patmos, wrote down what will happen. “And I saw a great white throne and the one sitting on it. The earth and sky fled from his presence, but they found no place to hide. I saw the dead, both great and small, standing before God’s throne. And the books were opened, including the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to what they had done, as recorded in the books” (Revelation 20:11-12). It is often a great comfort to me, and others as well, that one day the scales of justice will be balanced. The people who have committed crimes against God and their fellow members of society will be called to give an account. Every careless thought, every misdemeanour, every sinful act, will all be written down in Heavenly books, and one by one they will be read out for everyone to hear, followed by the pronouncement from the Throne – guilty. We read in Revelation 20:15, “And anyone whose name was not found recorded in the Book of Life was thrown into the lake of fire.” A terrifying occasion don’t we think? But thankfully, those who believe in Jesus will find that their names are written down in the Lamb’s Book of Life.

When will all this happen? We don’t know, although the previous chapters of Revelation provide some sort of timeline of events that will happen before Jesus returns. In a sense though, judgement has already started, as we read from John 3:18. The influence of the Holy Spirit in an unsaved person’s life will lead that person to the realisation that he is guilty, that God is just, and that all sinners are deserving of judgment. And we’re so thankful that God has it all in hand.

Dear Father God. Thank You for Holy Spirit, without whom we would be disempowered people. Amen.


Conviction of Righteousness

Posted on by korgrocker

“But in fact, it is best for you that I go away, because if I don’t, the Advocate won’t come. If I do go away, then I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will convict the world of its sin, and of God’s righteousness, and of the coming judgment. The world’s sin is that it refuses to believe in me. Righteousness is available because I go to the Father, and you will see me no more. Judgment will come because the ruler of this world has already been judged.”
John 16:7-11 NLT

The Advocate, the Holy Spirit, will come after Jesus has left this world. We know what Jesus promised to believers – Jesus said, “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, who will never leave you. He is the Holy Spirit, who leads into all truth ….” (John 14:16-17a). But Holy Spirit also has a mission to unbelievers. Previously we considered the ministry of conviction of sin, and now come to the second part of His ministry, the conviction of righteousness. God’s righteousness is absolute. His standards are far above those of human beings, and human efforts can never attain to them without God’s help.

In human terms, righteousness relies on a set of rules, regulations and morals, which, if kept, lead to a claim of self-righteousness. But if we bring our rules, regulations and morals to God and allow Him to show His spotlight of truth upon them we soon find that, in fact, they do not come anywhere near the standards that God requires. Isaiah wrote, “We are all infected and impure with sin. When we display our righteous deeds, they are nothing but filthy rags. Like autumn leaves, we wither and fall, and our sins sweep us away like the wind” (Isaiah 64:6). We may feel that what we do, or how we behave, falls into the category of righteousness, but Titus 3:4-5 says differently, “But— When God our Saviour revealed his kindness and love, he saved us, not because of the righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He washed away our sins, giving us a new birth and new life through the Holy Spirit.”

The Pharisees believed that if they completely kept to the Law of Moses then they would become righteous in God’s sight. But Paul wrote otherwise, “For no one can ever be made right with God by doing what the law commands. The law simply shows us how sinful we are” (Romans 3:20). In Matthew 5:20 Jesus said, “But I warn you—unless your righteousness is better than the righteousness of the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees, you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven!” I’m sure those religious leaders were quite upset by Jesus’ words.

The Holy Spirit convicts people of their lack of righteousness by pointing them to Jesus. He was, and is, the only Man who has ever been totally righteous. He is God’s only standard of righteousness. He is the only source of truth, and is the only way to Father God.

Dear Lord Jesus. We worship You, the only Source of sinless righteousness. Only You are the way, the truth and the life. Amen.


No Excuse

Posted on by korgrocker

“If the world hates you, remember that it hated me first. … They would not be guilty if I had not come and spoken to them. But now they have no excuse for their sin. Anyone who hates me also hates my Father. If I hadn’t done such miraculous signs among them that no one else could do, they would not be guilty. But as it is, they have seen everything I did, yet they still hate me and my Father. This fulfils what is written in their Scriptures: ‘They hated me without cause.’”
John 15:18, 22-25 NLT

The first Advent had far-reaching consequences for the Jewish nation and for the world, and are still reverberating around the world to this day. Jesus came to Planet Earth with His teaching, His miracles, and His claim to be God’s Son. But there was a problem. In John 1:10-11 we read, “He came into the very world he created, but the world didn’t recognise him. He came to his own people, and even they rejected him“. And worse than rejection, Jesus was hated, and by association, every believer in Jesus has been hated as well. Isaiah could see in the Spirit what was going to happen. He wrote in Isaiah 53:3, “He was despised and rejected— a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief. We turned our backs on him and looked the other way. He was despised, and we did not care“. But Jesus never looked back, mourning the “what could have been”. He looked ahead to the awful day when those who had heard his teaching and had seen His miracles would be standing before Him, stuttering out some feeble excuse. Stand in the shoes for a moment of someone who was in the crowd shouting out, “Crucify Him!” What will they say before the Man on the Great White Throne? Or how about being someone who Jesus spoke to personally but they still rejected Him? Imagine their horror when Jesus said to them, “I remember you …”. Jesus will say to them that they have no excuse for their sin.

Before we pilgrims feel that we are off the hook because we weren’t around two thousand years ago, what Jesus did and said was timeless. The vivid nature of the Gospel accounts, backed up by the rest of the New Testament, eliminates any excuses we might try to offer in mitigation for our sins. But we wouldn’t want to live in our sins, would we? Our new birth into God’s Kingdom provided a remedy for our sins and put us into a place of right standing before Jesus. And the verdict from the Throne will be, “Not guilty!” 2 Corinthians 5:21, “For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ”. 

Superficially, we could perhaps think Jesus was puzzled and perplexed by the response from His fellow Jews. In spite of everything He had done, He said that the people, “still hate me and my Father”. But He knew this would happen and he quoted a prophesy from Psalm 39, “They hated me without cause”. And so it is today. Recently the church I attend put out some evangelistic leaflets in the neighbourhood around where we meet. One hate-filled response was received via social media asking us not to put any such literature again through his door. People still hate Jesus today. There is no reason why, we think, until we are reminded that Jesus confronted the sins of mankind, but with a solution that would provide right-standing before God. However, and inexplicably, people generally prefer to live in their sins rather than be set free from their consequences. 

We pilgrims carry on spreading the Good News about God and His saving grace. God’s love is there for all to experience. 2 Corinthians 6:1-2, “As God’s partners, we beg you not to accept this marvellous gift of God’s kindness and then ignore it. For God says, “At just the right time, I heard you. On the day of salvation, I helped you.” Indeed, the “right time” is now. Today is the day of salvation”.  It is indeed!

Father God, there is no excuse that will mitigate our sin-laden guilt before You. But, thanks to Jesus, we have a remedy for all our sins. Thank You. Amen.

Look

Posted on by korgrocker

“He came into the very world he created, but the world didn’t recognize him. He came to his own people, and even they rejected him.”
John 1:10-11 NLT

John wrote that the people in the world failed to recognise their Creator. And even the Jews, God’s own chosen race, failed to recognise Him. Worse, the Jews rejected Him as their Messiah, even though they had been expecting Him. And to this day, people fail to realise that the Messiah and the Creator visited this world 2000 years ago, a problem that is endemic. There were as many as 400 prophecies about the Messiah in the Old Testament so how did the Jews miss Him? Specific prophecies such as in Isaiah 7:14, “All right then, the Lord himself will give you the sign. Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son and will call him Immanuel (which means ‘God is with us’).” But the key word in Isaiah’s prophecy was “look“. The Jews had developed in their minds a picture of a different Messiah, selectively taking prophecies to suit their own expectations, particularly regarding the hated Roman occupation. They desired a Messiah who would come as a Man of war, not a baby in a manger. Not all Jews thought this way, though. There was Simeon, who was waiting for the Messiah. “At that time there was a man in Jerusalem named Simeon. He was righteous and devout and was eagerly waiting for the Messiah to come and rescue Israel. The Holy Spirit was upon him” (Luke 2:25).‭‭‭ Further on we read, “Simeon was there. He took the child in his arms and praised God, saying, “Sovereign Lord, now let your servant die in peace, as you have promised. I have seen your salvation” (Luke 2:28-30). There was also a prophetess called Anna. “Anna, a prophet, was also there in the Temple. …  She came along just as Simeon was talking with Mary and Joseph, and she began praising God. She talked about the child to everyone who had been waiting expectantly for God to rescue Jerusalem” (Luke 2:36a, 38). ‭‭

But back to that keyword, “look”. Isn’t it strange that when we look at something we find that our interpretation of the scenario before us is tailored by our thoughts and desires? We read Bible verses and try and extract a meaning from them to perhaps justify a sin, particular when the misdemeanour isn’t specifically mentioned. Or we look at a person, a politician or a pastor perhaps, and expect more from them than they can provide. And we try and get someone to follow a course of action to suit our world view rather then provide a remedy for the good of all. Isaiah said that the people had to “look” for their Messiah, implying that they must see what God was doing, not what they wanted Him to do. The people who heard Anna excitedly talk about the Messiah Child, were waiting for God to rescue Jerusalem. God’s plan was salvation for the world. The Jerusalem Jews were expecting a political solution.

So how do we come to recognise our Creator and Messiah? There is rarely a day when I don’t thank God for His creation. In my morning rambles around the West of Fife in Scotland, there is always some wonder that catches my eye. The colours of the Autumn leaves. The birdsong echoing through the trees. The flowers bursting forth time and again each Spring. The deer crossing my path. I look up on a clear night and see a myriad of stars. There seems no limit to what God has done. And yet there are those who fail to appreciate God’s creation. There was a day recently when I stopped by a tree that stood out because of its vivid red Autumn leaves. I pointed out the beauty to a passer-by, but he was unimpressed and continued on his way. People fail to “look” for God and miss seeing their Creator in the natural world around them.

The Messiah came and was rejected by His people. But one day they will recognise Him. We read in Zechariah 12:10, “Then I will pour out a spirit of grace and prayer on the family of David and on the people of Jerusalem. They will look on me whom they have pierced and mourn for him as for an only son. They will grieve bitterly for him as for a firstborn son who has died“. They will “look” at last and will find Him.

We pilgrims have a personal relationship with Jesus, the Messiah, though. We have, as Simeon, seen His salvation. Simeon saw what was to come. We experience at first hand the saving grace of God. And we praise Him, and continue to praise Him, this day and forever, for all he has done for us and the rest of mankind, if only they would “look”.

Dear Father God. As we share Your messages with those around us I pray that You open their eyes. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

A Good Life

Posted on by korgrocker

“Instead, you must worship Christ as Lord of your life. And if someone asks about your hope as a believer, always be ready to explain it. But do this in a gentle and respectful way. Keep your conscience clear. Then if people speak against you, they will be ashamed when they see what a good life you live because you belong to Christ.”
1 Peter 3:15-16 NLT

What does a “good life” look like? As a start, a person considered “good” is one who obeys the laws of the land, is a conscientious worker, probably does a bit of charity work, is a valued and loved family member, and overall is respected by friends, neighbours and all. The same person, if they believe in a heaven, would expect to get there purely as a reward for their “goodness”. A “bad” person would fail to meet expectations in one or more of these areas. We all recognise someone who society considers to be good.

However, the “good life” Peter was writing about is more than how the world sees it. There has to be a difference, because the “good life” he describes is “because you belong to Christ”. So what difference will that make? The Christian life is full of faith. Faith in God and faith that through the Holy Spirit we are developing the fruit of “goodness”. A believer’s “good life” starts at the cross, in repentance of sins, and believing in Jesus. The divine exchange takes place and in return for taking on all our sins, Jesus gives us His righteousness. We can then stand before God, meeting His definition of “good”. For all those people who claim to be “good” we must consider that even Jesus Himself would not take on board that title. In Mark 10:17-18 we read, “As Jesus was starting out on his way to Jerusalem, a man came running up to him, knelt down, and asked, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” “Why do you call me good?” Jesus asked. “Only God is truly good“. Of course, we know that Jesus was, and is, divine, so He knew that He could claim to be good, but for the benefit of the man before Him He didn’t muddy the waters of his understanding. To be good in God’s eyes involves being holy, pure and righteous. Impossible qualities for human beings because, through our own efforts, we can never attain the standard that God requires. 

Those who are “good” in God’s eyes therefore must propagate that goodness to others, as Paul wrote in Galatians 6:10, “Therefore, whenever we have the opportunity, we should do good to everyone—especially to those in the family of faith“. Peter, in today’s verses, pointed out that the “good life” we lead must be visible so that those who “speak against you” will be ashamed. Our goodness is a visible quality that has a strong counter-cultural content. Belonging to Christ elevates us into a realm that is represented by light. In John 1:5, we read, “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it“. That light is Jesus, and as His followers we reflect that light into a dark and depressed world. As a small boy I remember a chorus we used to sing in Sunday school. “Keep me shining Lord…”. I didn’t understand it too well then, but it has stuck with me ever since. So we pilgrims, every day, have the opportunity to switch on our Jesus-lights and make a difference in our communities. Our “goodness” will illuminate many a dark soul.

Dear Father God. Only You are good, but through Jesus we can stand before You with His righteousness. There is no badness in Your presence, no sin or evil. So we thank You that one day perfection will be found with You. Thank You too for Jesus, because if it wasn’t for Him we would die because of our sins. We praise and worship You today. Amen.

Kind and Severe

Posted on by korgrocker

“Notice how God is both kind and severe. He is severe toward those who disobeyed, but kind to you if you continue to trust in his kindness. But if you stop trusting, you also will be cut off.”
Romans 11:22 NLT

Paul wrote that “God is both kind and severe”.  This is not something we hear very often. We talk much about the grace and love of God. About His loving kindness. About His forgiveness for repentant sinners. But severe? A severe God perhaps stirs up feelings within us of a parent, or someone else in authority over us, like a teacher, who was unloving or overly strict. Memories of a detention at school, perhaps unfairly applied, surface again. And those of us old enough to remember the days of corporal punishment in schools experience, once again, the pain and tears. 

But we have to face into the reality that God is a righteous God. And if we reflect on this, we see that He could not be anything else. If He wasn’t fair and righteous in all He does, then the universe would have descended into chaos long ago. However, whether we like it or not, we live in a God-created moral universe. Throughout the creation story in Genesis 1 we read that after each day, God said that it was good. And then we read Genesis 1:31, “Then God looked over all he had made, and he saw that it was very good! And evening passed and morning came, marking the sixth day”. For the Creator of the world, our righteous God, to say that something is good, means that His character is in-built to make it so. We tend to think that the world around us is physical but there is a spiritual creation in it as well. And because of that there has to be a balance to right and wrong, good and bad, moral and immoral. The Psalmist, as recorded in Psalm 73, was faced with a dilemma. He almost lost his trust in God when he looked around and saw how wicked people lived lives of luxury, when he apparently struggled to survive. We read in Psalm 73:1-3, “Truly God is good to Israel, to those whose hearts are pure. But as for me, I almost lost my footing. My feet were slipping, and I was almost gone. For I envied the proud when I saw them prosper despite their wickedness”. He mused about the injustice of the situation, until he finally discovered the truth. Psalm 73:16-17, “So I tried to understand why the wicked prosper. But what a difficult task it is! Then I went into your sanctuary, O God, and I finally understood the destiny of the wicked”. We humans want to see justice dispensed in our lifetimes. We want to see those who commit crimes, and apparently get away with it, come before a judge before the victims pass on. We want to see greedy company owners and corrupt politicians held to account. But we must be assured that one day there will be a day of justice, when God will square the circle and deliver the justice His creation, His universe, His righteousness, demands. We trust our wonderful Heavenly Father, and we don’t have to fret like the Psalmist, thinking that evil people who commit wrongs will get away with it.

Paul said that God is severe and well as kind. We like to think of the kind God, but we must never forget that God is severe with those who disobey Him. Just because He is patient, and apparently overlooks sin, doesn’t mean He has forgotten it. One day there will be a time when God’s severity will be revealed for all to see. The Apostle John had a vision about the final time of reckoning. He wrote, “I saw the dead, both great and small, standing before God’s throne. And the books were opened, including the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to what they had done, as recorded in the books. The sea gave up its dead, and death and the grave gave up their dead. And all were judged according to their deeds” (Revelation 20:12-13). There are people, even Christians, who dispute these events, saying that when we die we will experience nothing, as if we just went to sleep without ever waking up. They are call annihilationists and believe that consciousness as we know it will cease when we die. But that isn’t what the Bible says. And God’s moral universe would have been violated if that was the case. 

We pilgrims know of course that God is a balanced Person. His character has many facets that all blend into a Whole, and severity is in there somewhere, along with love and kindness. But we must never forget what Jesus said to His disciples, as recorded in Matthew 10:28, “Don’t be afraid of those who want to kill your body; they cannot touch your soul. Fear only God, who can destroy both soul and body in hell“. Now that is something we pilgrims should note!

Father God. We know that You are a God of righteousness and love. We praise and worship You today, with thanks for being a Parent who only wants what is best for us. Please help us not to stray from Your ways. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

The Cornerstone

Posted on by korgrocker

“God warned them of this in the Scriptures when he said, “I am placing a stone in Jerusalem that makes people stumble, a rock that makes them fall. But anyone who trusts in him will never be disgraced.””
Romans 9:33 NLT

“Therefore, this is what the Sovereign Lord says: “Look! I am placing a foundation stone in Jerusalem, a firm and tested stone. It is a precious cornerstone that is safe to build on. Whoever believes need never be shaken. I will test you with the measuring line of justice and the plumb line of righteousness. Since your refuge is made of lies, a hailstorm will knock it down. Since it is made of deception, a flood will sweep it away.”
Isaiah 28:16-17 NLT

Paul tells his readers that one day there will be Someone placed in Jerusalem (“Zion” in the Greek version) who will bring security and peace to anyone who believes in Him. We know, of course, who this “Person” is. He is none other than Jesus Christ, the Son of God. He was quoting from Isaiah 28:16,  a verse that we have included today. But if there is ever a time when there is much stumbling and shaking going on, it is in these 21st Century days. Geopolitical uncertainties through wars and threats seem to be greater now than they have ever been. There are unstable leaders intent on implementing their own agendas. Different national ideologies are constantly in conflict. On the domestic UK front, lobby groups stridently declare their own particular ideology, trying to force political parties and urban councils into adopting their extreme beliefs. Protest groups cause disruption to the general public, with the police seemingly powerless to stop them. As the old song says, “there’s an awful lot of shaking going on”!

But why should anyone be surprised? Way back in history, a Jewish prophet declared that the “refuge” adopted by most people “is made of lies”. Nations that have displaced God, instead implementing their own secular systems, lacking in either justice or righteousness, find that very soon their houses built on the sands of human effort, come crashing down. Throughout history, empires have emerged, only to disappear a relatively short time later, collapsing under the weight of their own corruption and ideologies. 

Isaiah’s prophesy still applies today. God said that peoples and nations will be tested, and unless they meet the standards of righteousness and justice, they will soon find that “a hailstorm will knock it down”. And “a flood will sweep it away”. Thankfully, for God-followers everywhere, we can put our trust in Him and find the peace and security so lacking everywhere else. Jesus compassionately invited people oppressed by life in their times to let Him share their burdens. we read in Matthew 11:28-30,

Isaiah’s prophesy still applies today. God said that peoples and nations will be tested, and unless they meet the standards of righteousness and justice, they will soon find that “a hailstorm will knock it down”. And “a flood will sweep it away”. Thankfully, for God-followers everywhere, we can put our trust in Him and find the peace and security so lacking everywhere else. Jesus compassionately invited people oppressed by life in their times to let Him share their burdens. We read in Matthew 11:28-30, “Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light“. Jesus will never close the door in our faces. He will always keep it open for earnest seekers after His truth. He came to this world bringing the Good News of the Kingdom of God, a Kingdom that will never be shaken. At the end of Psalm 136 we read, “Give thanks to the God of heaven. His faithful love endures forever“. Everything else will disappear one day.

Father God We thank You for Your endless love. You carry our burdens. You give us the peace our souls crave for. We are so grateful. Amen.

Is God Unfair?

Posted on by korgrocker

“Are we saying, then, that God was unfair? Of course not! For God said to Moses, “I will show mercy to anyone I choose, and I will show compassion to anyone I choose.” So it is God who decides to show mercy. We can neither choose it nor work for it.”
Romans 9:14-16 NLT

There are places in the Bible where God’s fairness has been questioned. Where God is perhaps allowing a wicked person to flourish, while allowing one of His followers to go through a difficult time with disease or poverty. The Psalmist who wrote Psalm 73 had some doubts. We read in Psalm 73:1-3, “Truly God is good to Israel, to those whose hearts are pure. But as for me, I almost lost my footing. My feet were slipping, and I was almost gone. For I envied the proud when I saw them prosper despite their wickedness”. We look around us today and see corruption in sport, commerce, and politics. We are told of eye-watering salary packages paid to company bosses. And we pilgrims, who find that paying our bills and keeping warm and fed in these days of inflation more and more challenging, wonder where the fairness is in it all. Why does God allow such inequity? Or are we blaming Him instead for what is effectively mankind making wrong choices and allowing sin to flourish?

Much has been written about capitalism and communism, and many “ism’s” in between. But we won’t be able to find a truly equitable, perfect, and fair society until Jesus comes again to rule and reign. Isaiah prophesied about the coming Messiah, that, “His government and its peace will never end. He will rule with fairness and justice from the throne of his ancestor David for all eternity. The passionate commitment of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies will make this happen” (Isaiah 9:7). God is committed to bringing a fairer world, a promise that He will never break.

In the context of today’s verses from Romans 9, was God being unfair when He chose Jacob rather than Esau? There is of course a bottom line to God’s mercy. He will never reject any repentant sinner, and He will cover them with His grace come what may. But the reality is that God will choose some to undertake special roles within their lifetime, so that He can bring about His purposes. For example, consider the Apostle Paul. God chose Him in a dramatic way with a special revelation of Jesus on the Damascus Road. But God didn’t start there. He had His hand on Paul from the moment he was born, training him well in a Jewish home and with the teaching of the Jewish religion. And after Damascus, Paul started his missionary journeys and even found the time to write the letters we know and love. God also had jobs for the other Apostles, and many people since. Some had much to do. Others have had very little. Moses is another example. He was eighty years old when God chose him to do a specific job (Acts 7:23,30). 

Was God being fair when He chose Paul or Moses for the tasks He had for them? In our man-made world of pseudo-fairness, we would have invited applications from people with appropriate CV’s, giving the job to someone after a process of candidate interviews. God, however, knows straight away who is right for the task He has for them because He can see what is in a person’s heart. It would have been unfair of God if He had chosen Esau rather than Jacob for becoming a founding member of the Israelites nation because his character didn’t fit in with the job spec.

In the context of Romans 9, and our verses today, Paul quoted part of a verse from Exodus 33. It was the occasion when Moses was asking for reassurance from God after the Israelite people’s rebellion and sin. God gave Moses a glimpse of Him as He passed by, and the reassurance He requested was granted. God also told Moses that how He dispensed His mercy and compassion was His affair. From a human perspective we may be tempted sometimes to consider that God in unfair with His dealings with mankind, and many will shake their fist in God’s face in their anger and frustration. But we pilgrims know and love our wonderful Heavenly Father – we know He will always act fairly. We trust Him in all that He does, even when there are grounds for confusion. The Psalmist wrote in Psalm 73:17, “Then I went into your sanctuary, O God, and I finally understood the destiny of the wicked”. Here’s the secret for when we might become confused because of what is happening with people around us, both afar and near. In the quietness of our prayer closets, where we are close to God, we find the answers we need. Guaranteed. 

Dear Father. There are many times when we would like You to act in a certain way, but You are sovereign, and see the end from the beginning. So we can trust You to act with fairness and righteousness, regardless of what we see. We praise and thank You today. Amen.

Being Justified

Posted on by korgrocker

“For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.”
Romans 8:29-30 NIVUK
“For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son, so that his Son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And having chosen them, he called them to come to him. And having called them, he gave them right standing with himself. And having given them right standing, he gave them his glory.”
Romans 8:29-30 NLT

We’ll spend another day with these two verses in Romans 8. This time the word “justified” or phrase “right standing with himself” appears in the text, depending on which of today’s Bible versions we look at. What does it mean to be “justified”. 

An old pastor of mine used to define justification as “just as if we had never sinned”. Quite close to the mark. But although there has been much theology written about justification, all easily accessible via Mr Google, it has no impact unless there is a personal experience woven into the definition. I’m sure many of us can spout out what justification means. It all starts with man’s ubiquitous sin. We have all sinned, as Paul wrote in Romans 3:23 – “For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard”. And that sin will inevitably one day have to be accounted for, and punishment dispensed. An unrepentant sinner will one day find himself standing before God to give an account of his life. Perhaps God will ask him why he never had his sins forgiven through the death of His Son. Ignorance won’t be an excuse. There are no mitigating circumstances. The punishment is eternal death without parole, in a place far worse than any human jail.

But through our faith in Jesus, who took on board all sins committed, past, present and future when He was crucified at Calvary, we are now declared righteous. It is not as though God now considers us as being holy, which is something internal, but being justified declares that we are sinless in His sight. The sins we have confessed and repented of are now accredited to Jesus rather than to us. And because of that we are now declared righteous in His sight. We are “justified”. 

Far too simple, some say. Christians who believe this are naïve and deluded, goes the criticism. There will always be many who reject such a profound explanation. A question is often, ”How do we know all this is true? No-one has returned from the dead to confirm it”. Jesus told a parable about the Rich Man and a poor man called Lazarus, who begged for money at his gate. Lazarus ended up justified in God’s presence but the Rich Man ended up in hell. He begged Abraham to send Lazarus back to speak to his brothers, to warn them about what would happen to them unless they changed their ways. And the conclusion of the story can be found in Luke 16:19-31, “But Abraham said, ‘Moses and the prophets have warned them. Your brothers can read what they wrote.’ “The rich man replied, ‘No, Father Abraham! But if someone is sent to them from the dead, then they will repent of their sins and turn to God.’ “But Abraham said, ‘If they won’t listen to Moses and the prophets, they won’t be persuaded even if someone rises from the dead’”.

We pilgrims will nevertheless keep on warning those around us. We share our experiences, our testimonies, and the picture of a God of love and well as a God of righteousness and holiness. Our message of hope will mostly be rejected, we know. But unless we try how can God’s love touch someone we know? We can never give up sharing what God has done for us.

Father God. We worship You today, the wonderful and merciful God, with the gracious power to forgive our sins through Your Son Jesus. Amen.