Fatalism Revised

1JN 2:1 NLT

My dear children, I am writing this to you so that you will not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate who pleads our case before the Father. He is Jesus Christ, the one who is truly righteous.

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Jesus advocacy warms our hearts!

The person who knows Jesus can make real choices. Before we are received into God's family by grace through faith we are slaves to sin, Paul says. We have no choice. Everyone who isn't a believer in Jesus can't help but sin. Sin is their master and they are not free agents. If sin says jump, they must jump. And the deception of sin is powerful. We know nothing else. What is sin? Sin is disobedience to God. Sin is disbelief in his promises. Sin is an inextricable headlong run toward death. Sin is self destruction. Sin is selfishness. Sin is loveless. Sin takes and destroys. Sin murders when it cannot have what it wants. Sin leads to death.

So sin requires judgement. God is just. He will not allow sin to ruin everything. God will save some from sin. He has set some free. He has released some from the slavery of sin and the fear of death.

But we who are free to choose life, the ones able to obey, may still fall prey to sin. Although we are free from the hideous, cruel master that wants our  destruction and uses us to lash out in rebellion against God, we sometimes still sin. We should hate sin. We should find sin repulsive. We should see past the moment of selfish pleasure and we should loathe the harmful, hateful former master of our torture and destruction. We should feel the sting of being a pawn in the full on assault against life. We should feel the shame of being a treacherous traitor who has deceived the vulnerable and harmed the neediest of this world.

We don't have to sin, but we do. We sin against God. Even more, we sin against Jesus who died for our sin. We add to his suffering.

And what does he do?

He defends us. The Father and the Son must execute justice against our sin. This sin we cling to in many ways is a greater offence, for it is the sin we chose. We were washed, we were saved. We had a choice. We knew better.

And the one we keep hurting the most is the one who defends us.

Jesus stands up for us. He says, I died for them. Jesus is the only one who is right. We are wrong. And yet he makes us right even when we are a traitor.

Choose not to sin! You can. You are not a slave. You are free.

But if you do sin, Jesus defends you, Jesus protects you, Jesus is your advocate. Jesus loves you. He has chosen you to be his. Jesus knows you are a sinner. Jesus knows your heart, your motives, your fears and he knows your selfish heart. Jesus knows your disbelief and your stubborn selfish pride.
And still he defends you, still he protects you from his coming wrath. Jesus sees you sin and try to hide it and, even so, he will treat you as righteous because of his own righteousness.

So stop sinning. You don't have to; you are free.
But if you do sin, repent without fear. Return with no reservation. You are safe. 

Oh sinner, you are safe.

Last Enemy

1 Corinthians 15:26 NLT

And the last enemy to be destroyed is death.
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I got news this morning that a friend died. He was only 51. Premature death came to my life early with the death of my grandfather. And then the life changing, gut wrenching, loss of my best friend and only brother (and only sibling) visited my life when on the 4th of June 1987, Daniel Allen Bode suddenly and unexpectedly died. I was irrevocably changed by these deaths.

Death is inevitable. Death is our enemy.

But death is not the end.

I've pasted in at the end of this note the whole passage from 1 Corinthians 15 about Jesus power over death and his ultimate victory over death.

Another passage that really helped me face death and make sense of it, is found in Hebrews chapter 2.
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Hebrews 2:14-15 NLT

Because God’s children are human beings—made of flesh and blood—the Son also became flesh and blood. For only as a human being could he die, and only by dying could he break the power of the devil, who had the power of death. Only in this way could he set free all who have lived their lives as slaves to the fear of dying.
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Death and even more the fear of death has a great power over us. Jesus has a greater power.

I can not make sense of mortality and the ticking clock without lastly hearing Jesus.
The night my father called to tell me my little brother had died, I was stunned. I had been up most of the night studying and was deeply in academic mode and weary. Because of university and work I missed my brother's high school graduation. Luckily, my brother came to visit me in Chicago just before he died.

I told my dad, I'd be right there, a five hour drive. I called back to make sure it wasn't a bad dream or I'd misunderstood. No, it was true. (Thinking about it now makes me feel young, nearly a child again, and very vulnerable.)
I sat at the kitchen table and cried out to God. I had no idea where to turn. My Bible fell open to this passage and these were the words I read :
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John 11:21-26 NLT

Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if only you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask.” Jesus told her, “Your brother will rise again.” “Yes,” Martha said, “he will rise when everyone else rises, at the last day.” Jesus told her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even after dying.  Everyone who lives in me and believes in me will never ever die. Do you believe this, Martha?”
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I answered, "I believe!"

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1 Corinthians 15:12-28 NLT

But tell me this—since we preach that Christ rose from the dead, why are some of you saying there will be no resurrection of the dead? For if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised either. And if Christ has not been raised, then all our preaching is useless, and your faith is useless. And we apostles would all be lying about God—for we have said that God raised Christ from the grave. But that can’t be true if there is no resurrection of the dead. And if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then your faith is useless and you are still guilty of your sins. In that case, all who have died believing in Christ are lost! And if our hope in Christ is only for this life, we are more to be pitied than anyone in the world. But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead. He is the first of a great harvest of all who have died. So you see, just as death came into the world through a man, now the resurrection from the dead has begun through another man. Just as everyone dies because we all belong to Adam, everyone who belongs to Christ will be given new life. But there is an order to this resurrection: Christ was raised as the first of the harvest; then all who belong to Christ will be raised when he comes back. After that the end will come, when he will turn the Kingdom over to God the Father, having destroyed every ruler and authority and power. For Christ must reign until he humbles all his enemies beneath his feet. And the last enemy to be destroyed is death. For the Scriptures say, “God has put all things under his authority.” (Of course, when it says “all things are under his authority,” that does not include God himself, who gave Christ his authority.) Then, when all things are under his authority, the Son will put himself under God’s authority, so that God, who gave his Son authority over all things, will be utterly supreme over everything everywhere.

Forsaken

Mark 15:34 And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, "Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?" which means, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"

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York Minister

Why would God the Father forsake Jesus, the Son of God? 

I find it interesting that today I published a blog consisting of a passage that's been sitting in my drafts from reading Exodus. The interesting thing is the contrast with this passage in Mark. Many have noted over the years that in every way Jesus is the perfect Israel. Jesus is the obedient son. Jesus kept the law fully as no man or woman had ever done and he did this without stumbling once. He is faultless in all ways. 

Yet here on the cross he is forsaken by the Father. Here on the cross Jesus assumes the position of the guilty. Jesus is suffering the full wrath of God. He faces death, mocking, torture rejection. But further, where we can not observe, Jesus is carrying the weight of our sin. All the evil of humanity past, present, and future is crushing Jesus. All the guilt, all the fear, all the pain is rending God's soul. 

Somehow Jesus the God man is actually suffering so that we can be made free. He is punished so we can be accepted and more than accepted we are imputed, attributed and blessed with the merit of his righteousness. 

Till the moment he dies it seems all humanity is hurling upon Jesus scorn, mocking, and abuse because he had made himself vulnerable. 

When in fact he is the all powerful, all knowing, compassionate, merciful, gracious, exacting, just judge of all mankind. 

And after he dies there on the cross people say he must be the Son of God. 

Why this change? 

Maybe we see it partially in Joseph of Arimathea. Joseph it says was looking for the Kingdom of God. This small commentary on the man who buries Jesus I believe is meant to say he found what he was looking for in Jesus. Joseph wasn't running away like the disciples earlier, nor standing at a distance like the women. Joseph found courage on Jesus' death. We too can find courage in the obedient son's ultimate act of courage. We can identify and let Jesus' death in fact be our own. When Joseph places Jesus in his tomb could it be he is saying this man died in my place so I have nothing to fear and no need to further prepare for my own death. 

Jesus had done it all. 

Mark 15

The Crucifixion

21And they compelled a passerby, Simon of Cyrene, who was coming in from the country, the father of Alexander and Rufus, to carry his cross. 22And they brought him to the place called Golgotha (which means Place of a Skull).23And they offered him wine mixed with myrrh, but he did not take it. 24And they crucified him and divided his garments among them, casting lots for them, to decide what each should take. 25And it was the third hour when they crucified him. 26And the inscription of the charge against him read, "The King of the Jews." 27And with him they crucified two robbers, one on his right and one on his left. 29And those who passed by derided him, wagging their heads and saying, "Aha! You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, 30save yourself, and come down from the cross!" 31So also the chief priests with the scribes mocked him to one another, saying, "He saved others; he cannot save himself. 32Let the Christ, the King of Israel, come down now from the cross that we maysee and believe." Those who were crucified with him also reviled him.

The Death of Jesus

33And when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. 34And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, "Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?" which means, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" 35And some of the bystanders hearing it said, "Behold, he is calling Elijah." 36And someone ran and filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink, saying, "Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to take him down." 37And Jesus uttered a loud cry and breathed his last. 38And the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. 39And when the centurion, who stood facing him, saw that in this way he breathed his last, he said, "Truly this man was the Son of God!"

40There were also women looking on from a distance, among whom were Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joses, and Salome. 41When he was in Galilee, they followed him and ministered to him, and there were also many other women who came up with him to Jerusalem.

Jesus Is Buried

42And when evening had come, since it was the day of Preparation, that is, the day before the Sabbath, 43Joseph of Arimathea, a respected member of the Council, who was also himself looking for the kingdom of God, took courage and went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus.44Pilate was surprised to hear that he should have already died. And summoning the centurion, he asked him whether he was already dead. 45And when he learned from the centurion that he was dead, he granted the corpse to Joseph. 46And Joseph bought a linen shroud, and taking him down, wrapped him in the linen shroud and laid him in a tomb that had been cut out of the rock. And he rolled a stone against the entrance of the tomb. 47Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses saw where he was laid.

Life or death in God's presence!

Leviticus 16:1-2 NLT

1 The Lord spoke to Moses after the death of Aaron’s two sons, who died after they entered the Lord’s presence and burned the wrong kind of fire before him. 2 The Lord said to Moses, “Warn your brother, Aaron, not to enter the Most Holy Place behind the inner curtain whenever he chooses; if he does, he will die. For the Ark’s cover—the place of atonement—is there, and I myself am present in the cloud above the atonement cover.

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See why I worry about my children?
Emily Bode, Amy Westlake,
 Gwendolyn Bode, and Bethany Bode

I can't imagine How Aaron must have felt at the death of his two sons. We read in chapter 10 of Leviticus that Aaron remained silent when Moses explained God's reason for his two sons being consumed with fire from God's presence. I'm not sure you caught it but although the rest of the Israelites were allowed to mourn officially for the death of Nadab and Abihu, Aaron and the rest of his family and the Levites were not allowed to mourn.

The death of a child must be devastating. I worry nearly every day for the last 24 years about my children! And I've seen the grief parents have at the loss of their child up close and personal. Grief is important. Aaron was denied the normal outward signs involved in this process.

Now his brother, Moses is asked by God to speak to Aaron and warn him about his own vulnerability in the presence of God.

Leviticus is all about being able to have God's presence in the midst of his people! The presence of God is special. It is not ordinary. And for sinful people to be allowed to be in God's presence they have to be reminded they are sinful! They have to know all the ways in which they offend God. The people have to see that being close to God is a matter of life and death.

Ever since the garden of Eden, all men have been under a death sentence. And every sin confirms that they can not live in the presence of God. Something has to be done to turn around the reign of death over each and every person.

In the next chapter, God says that the only way that anyone can be made clean enough to be with him is to have someone or something give it's life in their place.

Leviticus 17:11 NLT ...for the life of the body is in its blood. I have given you the blood on the altar to purify you, making you right with the Lord. It is the blood, given in exchange for a life, that makes purification possible. 

Blood given in exchange for a life, All the dead animals in the sacrificial system, and  all the barbecues for God alone, were meant to demonstrate the serious life or death situation between God and man!

Your sin offends God. It stinks to him. It amounts to treason. Your rebellion is an affront to him. Your willful cocky disobedience deserves death! But God wants to be close to you. He wants you in his family. He made you to know him. He is worthy of being known. There is nothing other than you being in his presence and worshiping him that matters. And for God sake, get over yourself. He is holy. He is pure. He is righteous in everything he does. He is the all knowing one. He is the all seeing one. He is the all powerful one. He created you. How for a millisecond can you even think you know better? What makes you imagine for a moment that you are more righteous? How can you judge God? What makes you think you have all the information? Really you know very little. You are weak. You are not very clever. You are easily deceived and you need help.

So God has a plan to bring you into his presence eternally. And his plan involved Jesus blood, given in exchange for your life. 

So he warns you as Moses warned Aaron; Don't come into God's presence without an invitation, don't come at the wrong time and don't come without being made pure by the sacrifice of someone's blood or you will loose your life.

But you can come, safely and boldly because of Jesus.

Look at what Jude says more than a thousand years later:

Jude 1:24-25

New Living Translation (NLT)

A Prayer of Praise

24 Now all glory to God, who is able to keep you from falling away and will bring you with great joy into his glorious presence without a single fault. 25 All glory to him who alone is God, our Savior through Jesus Christ our Lord. All glory, majesty, power, and authority are his before all time, and in the present, and beyond all time! Amen.

And we can further see that although Aaron, the high priest had to be very careful and Aaron's sons Nadab and Abihu lost their lives for their carelessness, We can come into god's presence boldly because of Jesus.

Hebrews 4:14-16 NLT Christ Is Our High Priest

14 So then, since we have a great High Priest who has entered heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to what we believe. 15 This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin. 16 So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.

A heart to know me.-- A Tale of Two Figs.

Audio Blog

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Jeremiah 24:6-8 NIV

My eyes will watch over them for their good, and I will bring them back to this land. I will build them up and not tear them down; I will plant them and not uproot them. I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the Lord .

They will be my people, and I will be their God, for they will return to me with all their heart.

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Lost Baby Boot on Rustlings Road, Sheffield.

The prophet Jeremiah had a difficult job. God wanted him to deliver a lot of bad news. Thankfully for us, and God's people then, God's message of judgement always has little moments of hope. (Just as an aside, today's daily Bible reading, for me, includes the famous 70 years passage that gets Daniel all worked up, but that's for another time.)

God uses a couple baskets of figs to make a point. And for me today, I've chosen to focus on the hopeful message pictured in the tasty figs.

This basket is a variable cornucopia of promises. Anybody reading this would be a bit confused but would want the good fig deal offered in basket number 1.
The confusion comes in having to leave the land and go into exile to be blessed. But there it is, the exiles are the ones God is going to do the good to. We'll not explore the bad fig basket's scenario today but suffice it to say, it stinks!

So let's look at the promises for the exiles.

God's eyes will watch over them for their good--not just a negative big brother but a benevolent Father.

God will bring them back. Sometimes it seems you've got to leave a good thing to get it. Grasping does but result in anything positive. Don't try and force God's hand in promise fulfilment.

There is a promise to build them up!
There is a promise to plant them!

And maybe the biggest promise of all: God will give them new hearts!

And the new heart is expressly so they can know God!

These promises might seem remote and unrelated to us, but they are not. From Genesis to Revelation some form of these promises is repeated and expanded upon. And so we are definitely inheritors of the promise of a new heart that knows God. 

Read how Paul says it to the believers in Rome, "But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. 9 And since we have been made right in God's sight by the blood of Christ, he will certainly save us from God's condemnation. 10 For since our friendship with God was restored by the death of his Son while we were still his enemies, we will certainly be saved through the life of his Son. 11 So now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God because our Lord Jesus Christ has made us friends of God. (NLTse)

Now that is a fulfilment of a new heart that can know God! 

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Jeremiah 24:1-10 NIV

After Jehoiachin son of Jehoiakim king of Judah and the officials, the skilled workers and the artisans of Judah were carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, the Lord showed me two baskets of figs placed in front of the temple of the Lord . One basket had very good figs, like those that ripen early; the other basket had very bad figs, so bad they could not be eaten.  Then the Lord asked me, “What do you see, Jeremiah?” “Figs,” I answered. “The good ones are very good, but the bad ones are so bad they cannot be eaten.”  Then the word of the Lord came to me: “This is what the Lord , the God of Israel, says: ‘Like these good figs, I regard as good the exiles from Judah, whom I sent away from this place to the land of the Babylonians.  My eyes will watch over them for their good, and I will bring them back to this land. I will build them up and not tear them down; I will plant them and not uproot them. I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the Lord . They will be my people, and I will be their God, for they will return to me with all their heart.  “ ‘But like the bad figs, which are so bad they cannot be eaten,’ says the Lord , ‘so will I deal with Zedekiah king of Judah, his officials and the survivors from Jerusalem, whether they remain in this land or live in Egypt. I will make them abhorrent and an offense to all the kingdoms of the earth, a reproach and a byword, a curse and an object of ridicule, wherever I banish them. I will send the sword, famine and plague against them until they are destroyed from the land I gave to them and their ancestors.’ ”

Audio Blog

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Now on iTunes as a podcast :

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God's promise of forgiveness.

Matthew 26:26-28 NASB

While they were eating, Jesus took some bread, and after a blessing, He broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, "Take, eat; this is My body."  And when He had taken a cup and given thanks, He gave it to them, saying, "Drink from it, all of you;  for this is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for forgiveness of sins.

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Many times Jesus told his followers that he would suffer and die. 

Jesus was with his followers eating a special holiday meal. The holiday celebrated the time God rescued his people from slavery in Egypt. Long before Jesus was born, God sent Moses to rescue his people from Egypt's evil ruler Pharaoh. God told Moses a terrible judgement would come to every home that did not put lamb's blood on the door posts of their house. If God's angel saw the people obeyed God and that they put lamb's blood on the door posts then they would be saved from the terrible judgement. When the God's people survived the judgement God said they needed to hurry and leave Egypt the next day. So God said make bread without yeast. God said you will not have time for the bread dough to rise. God told his people to remember that day by celebrating every year with a holiday called Passover. It is called passover because God's judgement passed over the house with lamb's blood on the door posts.

Jesus was eating the Passover holiday meal with his followers. During the meal it was traditional to eat special flat bread that was made with no yeast. The people did this to remember God's promise to rescue them and because they had to  leave in a hurry. At the Passover celebration the people would drink wine to remember the blood of the lamb that was put on the door posts.

Jesus said the bread and the wine had a new meaning. Now when his people celebrated together they would remember that Jesus died to rescue his people like the lamb in Egypt. On the cross Jesus body was broken and his blood was shed for his people.

Jesus said these were new promises from God. God promised to forgive many people's sin because Jesus died and faced God's terrible judgement.

When we remember God's promise together, we can be sure that because of Jesus' death we are forgiven.

Jesus died to forgive your sin!

Will you remind someone today?