#remember that the root of 'good' is 'God'. you claim that you are fundamentally godly. holy. I wonder what God thinks of that.

[rabbits-of-negative-euphoria]

if people were fundamentally good, we would not need Christ

[kingdomofthelogos]

One Generation from Chaos

Read 1 Peter 2

Download a printable version here.

To begin this second chapter of Peter’s first letter, we have to understand some basic elements behind the text. The Christians receiving this letter understood that the world around them was hostile, desiring to murderously cast out the church in the same manner that they did Jesus. However, the faithful were given the gift of salvation and sanctification, and were graced with an entirely different way of living and thinking, a way of life that was the Way of Life; a way that was more free and just than any method of living produced by the depraved minds of the world. The church understood their burden to win the lost for Christ, that they were truly here to carry out the Great Commission. God chose to use the church to transform the world, and the faithful must be motivated to stand firm in lives of holiness. At the heart of both of Peter’s letters is instruction for how the church should contend for the Gospel in a hostile world without becoming monsters that cease to live in the Gospel. Holiness is the antidote to worldly chaos, and for its goodness we must labor. 

Throughout history people have been very bad at gauging what is and is not an existential threat. People have not done well at paying attention to the threats that are about to end their way of life. Peter is writing to a church who understands their constant task of defending their way of life. Furthermore, the way of life they are defending is not a worldly lifestyle that people simply inherit by way of birth, but rather the Way of Life that comes from God and requires conscious rebirth into the Kingdom of God.

Peter is writing his letter with an expectation that his audience understands the magnitude of their calling and responsibility as believers. All of them were born sinners, and their future generations will also be born sinners; therefore, they must be constantly laboring in holiness as before their children and neighbors. They must be evangelistic to the lost that they might enter into the faith. The church must always be contending for the Gospel. Do we in the modern world understand how foundational this is to our faith?

The church is not here to protect, advance, or simply be comfortable in a worldly way of life as if the worldly lifestyles have preeminent value; again, the operating word in that statement is worldly. However, we should not be confused on this matter, just because we do not grant worldly affairs the same significance as we do external affairs, this does not mean we are not contending for a way of life in the moments in which we live. God did not design his creatures to live in chaos and suffering, although he did not design us to be shy in the face of suffering either. The Way of Life, that is the Christian faith, is something we must always be contending for; moreover, we must always be looking to organize the world under the virtues of Christ.

Living with truth, honor, justice, purity, beauty, goodness and all the other Godly virtues is not the default setting for life. If it were, then Christ would not have had to come in the way He did and nor would history be so heavily marked by tyrants. The world is fallen, and we are born with a nature to sin, and our task is to actively be winning people out of worldly ways of life and continually raising generations to set aside their malice, guile, insincerity, envy, slander, and all things that can be wrapped up in the single word “depravity.” To taste goodness, to undertake the responsibility of freedom, and if one is to ever desire truth, then they must be born of God and persevere with God. If not, then their ambitions will revert to the malicious fetters of sin.

At just a year old, my little dog is always on the hunt. If he is inside at night, he hunts for socks, a stray article that has fallen to the floor, or some debris under the couch. If he is outside, he roots in the flowerpots, digs up moles, and even tries to fish in the pond. He is always on the hunt, always looking to find something over which he can claim victory. It is in his nature to hunt and conquer; likewise, it is in our nature to sin.

We are always one generation away from abject chaos. The goodness which God has in store for us, the freedom to which Christ came to deliver, these are all but one generation away from burial; for it is in the nature of the Sons of Adam and Daughters of Eve to spite God and cast His gifts away.

There is a lot of confusion in the modern church of what it means to respect human authority here on this earth. 2 Peter 2:13 reads for the Lord’s sake accept the authority of every human institution, whether of the emperor as supreme. There are many who will take this passage, as well as Romans 13:7, pay to all what is due them—taxes to whom taxes are due, revenue to whom revenue is due, respect to whom respect is due, honor to whom honor is due, and assume it means for Christians to take a passive position in the world around us where we go along with whatever is set before us by worldly authorities. What is strange about this understanding, is that it fails to remember that both Peter and Paul, the men who wrote these words, were so unwilling to comply with the world that they were violently executed specifically for refusing to comply with the world. To believe these verses to mean that the church in all things must be compliant with the world does teach a contradiction to the cross, where Jesus was rejected for not complying, to the martyrs, to the Book of Daniel, and much more of Scripture.. Psalm 94:20 asks “shall a throne of iniquity have fellowship with Thee, which frameth mischief by law?” If one believes compliance to be the prime objective for Christians, then the answer is “yes,” God turns a blind eye to evil and doesn’t mind it at all. It is sad and immature in one’s faith to fall into this snare.

These verses instructing the church to respect human authority are meant to remind the church that we are here to be men and women of order, not men and women of rebellious chaos. When the world asks you to affirm a belief that is untrue, then no, neither Peter nor Paul would have permitted one to go along with that worldly demand. We are here to advance the Gospel and to move our world towards God’s goodness. Peter’s words remind the church to be a people of order who are not discouraged by suffering for the Gospel.

One cannot lead others towards the good by being passive, however, what we must understand is that we must walk the straight and narrow path where we are contending for the Gospel of Christ and not our own ambitions. Christians are always under an existential threat, meaning our way of life is endangered, simply because people are naturally born with a nature to sin. 

1 Peter 2 examines three different angles of the Christian life: how we relate to our faith; how our faith relates to the world; and how we should relate to the world as a people transformed in our faith. Our faith fundamentally changes how we think and navigate the world around us. There will be people who want us to leave it behind and affirm evil beliefs, but we have tasted the good and must therefore live according to Christ and not the world.

The world rejected Jesus, and is constantly and continually of a mindset to reject God, the laws of God, and even His people. People are born sinners, and the world willfully rejects Jesus. In the same way that God’s prevenient grace works in us before we know Him, so too hell comes to people to build moats of deception that preemptively turn people away from God and the good things of God.

One of the tragic consequences of our historical failure to recognize threats to our way of life is that evil is not restrained while it is still small. Therefore, the pendulum swings from a passive people to a violent people who, even if they may have started off with a noble intent, end up being the very sort of monster they sought to destroy. If one is not careful, they might stare into the void and become the void. The antidote is to set aside the malice, and to make sure our hearts are motivated by the love of God. We must contend for the Gospel, but we are here to bring order and not chaos, here to fight for beauty not the vile rot of hell.

We must also take our faith to its logical conclusion. If there are those who are lost, then there are those who are lost. Insomuch as Christ loved us when we did not love Him in return, we must love the lost and desire to pull them into the goodness which comes from Godly living. Peter’s message is beautiful and encouraging, and let us walk the straight and narrow pathway while contending for the Gospel. God chose to advance His Kingdom by giving men and women responsibility in its growth, and we must honor this responsibility. God’s justice is coming, and let us endure with holy lives worthy of Him who died for us

[mrlnsfrt]

Paradise Lost (Part 1)

Last post we talked about the the importance of the creation week.

We studied Genesis 1-2:3, learning about God as our creator, and how this knowledge is fundamental to everything else that comes after it in the Bible. Reading the first two chapters of Genesis we found a powerful, intentional, and loving God carefully creating a perfect world.

However, when we look around ourselves, we see an imperfect world.

What happened?

We will take a look at that today.

However, before we can talk about Genesis 3 and the fall we need to take a quick look at Genesis 2:4-25.

Genesis 2

On Genesis 2:4 we have a subtle shift from

“the history of the heavens and the earth when they were created”

to

“the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens.”

We have a shift from “heavens and earth” to “earth and heavens” as well as a shift from "God" to "the LORD God."

These subtle shifts indicate a couple of things.

One is that the following verses will be focusing on life here on earth.

We also have the introduction of “LORD,” an additional name for God that focuses upon a unique covenant relationship with humanity and eventually to Abraham’s seed (Exodus 3:14-15).

Here we have a shift from God creating the earth, to God having a close relationship with His creation.

On Genesis 2:7 we have God forming man the way a potter works with clay (Isaiah 29:16; Jeremiah 18:4-6) then God breathes. I love how close and personal the process is. God could have spoken humans into existence. But God chose to come down, kneel down, and get His hands dirty and fashion man out of the clay. Then God breathes the breath of life and transforms that clay figure into a living being or a living soul. The Hebrew here is nephesh, if you ever do a word study on this word you will find all kinds of interesting things.

Once again, the account of creation is more interested in describing God’s relation to us, and His love and attention, then the biological details of creation.

God also planted a garden and put the man in the garden to tend and keep it. (Genesis 2:15) This demonstrates that work is not a curse that came after the fall, we were not created to be idle, we had responsibilities from the beginning, to tend and keep the garden. This was a blessing and not a curse.

Looking at Genes 2, I want to highlight especially verse 16, this is the first command we have from God in the Bible. God commanded man to freely eat of every tree of the garden. But he was not to eat of the tree of knowledge or good and evil because the day he ate of it God said, literally “dying you shall die” often translated as “surely you will die.” The day that humans ate of the fruit, the death process would begin.

Also on chapter 2, we learn the only thing that was not good in creation was for man to be alone, so God creates Eve out of his rib. Personally I believe it was for Adam to keep her close to his heart. It is interesting that Eve was not created from a bone from Adam’s foot or from a bone from Adam’s head. Seeing how intentional God has been about each aspect of creation I believe it is worth to note this detail. Eve was there as Adam’s equal, created from his side, bone of his bones and flesh of his flesh, the two were to be joined and become one flesh and they were both naked and were not ashamed.

By the way, the word used here for one ('echad)is the same one used in Deuteronomy 6:4 (NKJV)

“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one!

I highlight this because I believe that God intended married couples to experience the same union that the Godhead experiences. Father, Holy Spirit, Son, one God. Male and Female should become one flesh. It is a mystery, but I believe a godly marriage gives us a glimpse of God.

The use of 'echad (one) shows that it can be used to represent a complex unity, so the deity of Christ and the personality of the Holy Spirit do not mean polytheism. He is still one God, still monotheism, but a complex unity.

At the end of Genesis 2 there is no shame, no fear, no guilt, only harmony.

Genesis 2:4-25 highlight relationships, humans with God, Humans with Humans, and Humans with the rest of creation (plants and animals).

I know there is a lot of information I am leaving untouched. We can come back at another time for a more in-depth study of these verses. I just wanted to highlight some key points before moving on to Genesis 3, which is where I wish to focus on.

Genesis 3

Genesis 3 begins with the word “now” or in the original “and.” This may lead a first time reader to expect another description of a perfect world existing in harmony.

With a brief introduction regarding the craftiness of the serpent the reader is dropped in the beginning of an odd dialogue.

We have the serpent speaking to the woman.

"Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?”"  -- Genesis 3:1 NKJV

The serpent is introduced as being “more cunning.” This word is used in both positive and negative ways in the Bible. Here the craftiness of the serpent is demonstrated not only by its ability to speak, but also by the careful wording of his speech.

Notice how the serpent begins with a question, as someone seeking clarification, meanwhile twisting God’s words. The serpent pretty much quotes God’s words from Genesis 2:16, with just one twist.

The serpent takes a command that was mostly positive,

“Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat,” (Genesis 2:16)

and makes it negative

“you shall not eat of every tree of the garden” (Genesis 3:1).

One word changes your perception of God as someone who gives free access to all trees to someone who restricts your access to things.

How do we describe ourselves as Christians?

Are we people who live happier, healthier, longer lives (longevity study mentions Adventists) or do we describe ourselves as people who do not do certain things?

Yes there are restrictions, but God gives us so much more than He restricts. There is so much we can do! Why focus on the few behaviors He does not want us to engage in?

Identify yourself as a Christian by what you do, what you love, what you enjoy, and then, when necessary also share what you refrain from doing.

Hearing the snake misquote God, Eve seizes this opportunity to correct the theology of the serpent.

"No, no, no, we can eat of every tree of the garden, it is just the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden that God told us not to eat or touch or we would die."

"2 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; 3 but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.’”"  -- Genesis 3:2-1

You shall not surely die

Genesis 3:4 “You shall not surely die.”

Now the serpent goes blatantly against God’s words. The serpent is calling God a liar.

But how did we arrive here? It began with a question. (Genesis 3:1)

Did God really say...?

Did God really say you can’t?

How many people spend time and resources doing away with God’s guidelines.

Did God really say you should not steal? Surely He did not mean it in this circumstance.

Did God really say you should not take His name in vain? Look at all the people who do it, nothing bad has happened to them, so He must be okay with it now.

Did God really tell you to honor your father and mother? Maybe back then, but your parents are so stubborn and narrow minded, you can dishonor and disrespect them, they have to earn your honor.

Did God really say for you not to bear false witness? Who can be honest in our day and age, everybody cheats a little bit, everyone tells a little lie, that law was in the Old Testament, those were different times. God wants you to prosper, and this little lie won't hurt anyone.

Did God really say not to have any other Gods? Well, these things in your life are important, God understands, God can wait. Later on in life you can make Him your top priority, right now you need more money, God understands that.

Did God really say do not commit adultery? But its unreasonable to expect people to stay married and faithful to just one person their whole lives. Maybe back then, but we live in a different society now.

Did God really say we should not commit murder? Look, the world is a bad place, we kill ‘em and we let God sort them out.

Did God really say we should remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy? Surely God does not need a whole day, you can't afford to stop and dedicate a whole day to God.

Little by little, we find all kinds of reasons and arguments to do away with every restriction, with each commandment, ultimately believing that we will not surely die.

You will not surely die.

Speaking of not dying, most world religions believe in some form of this. Most people believe that there is something immortal about us that continues to live away from the body and that after the body dies, it will either go to a good place, or a bad place, or reincarnate.

1 Timothy 6:16 presents God alone as immortal. The serpent is the one who claimed that we, creatures, could disobey God and continue to live apart form God.

I do not have time at the moment to dive into this topic. But feel free to contact me if you would like to go deeper. I just want to give you a word of caution, that in your practical life, you don’t end up living a life that aligns itself more with what the serpent is saying that with what God said.

Here in Genesis 3, we have the roots, the foundations, of many things that will be fleshed out throughout the Bible.

In the future we will have entire messages just tracing these principles throughout the Bible. It is worth taking a moment to study God’s law as opposed to just doing away with it.

It is important to know what the Bible has to say regarding life, death, and judgment.

I cannot tackle all these topics now, but I hope you see they are rooted in the very beginning of human history.

These are big issues, ultimately, the largest issue is who is God?

Is the creator God really God? Does He deserve our worship? Should we trust Him?

These questions are at the core of the Genesis account.  

You will be like God

Ultimately, doubting God, questioning His clear commands all have one root, a desire to be gods.

"For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."  -- Genesis 3:5 NKJV

The serpent portrays God as someOne who is keeping good things from His creatures. God as someone who says "No" not because He loves you or because He knows what's best, but rather because He wants to keep good things from you, or He is afraid of your potential, that you might become a god.

The lie of the serpent is about the character of God. An attack on God's laws is an attack on God's government, His sovereignty, His character. These lies were not about trees and fruit, only, they were about who God is and whether or not we should obey, and worship Him. The serpent wanted Eve to consider whether she would be better off without God, rebelling against Him, replacing Him with herself.

We live in a world that worships the self and vilifies God. We often hear different versions of

"God is bad,"

"religion is bad,"

"religious books are bad,"

ultimately replacing it with "you just do what you want, "

"become your own god."

"You can be whatever you feel like being."

What does the Bible say next?

"So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate."  -- Genesis 3:6 NKJV

Eve saw that the tree was good for food. In Genesis 1 God creates and He sees that things are good. When we closely examine the biblical narrative we learn that God originally saw and evaluated things, only God is described as seeing things and evaluating them up to this point in the narrative. Now Eve takes the task upon herself to see and decide whether something God prohibited is really bad or not.

God said "no", but Eve didn't see any problems. Eve set herself up as judge of God's word. Instead of accepting and obeying God's will for her life, she decided to decided for herself whether God's laws should be obeyed.

God created a perfect world. God provided for all her needs. God placed her in paradise, filled with everything she would ever need. Now Eve questions God's laws, God's intentions, God's true character. She probably wonders why God would tell her not to eat a fruit that looked good. She sure didn't see any problems.

The forbidden fruit looked good as food, its was pleasing to the eyes and had the benefit of granting her wisdom.

How dare God set up rules to keep us from certain experiences. Have you ever noticed that every time you break one of God's laws it only makes things worse in the long run?

Poor Eve, God was keeping her ignorant about evil, she only knew good. Eve knew nothing about lies, death, suffering, betrayal, shame, guilt, fear. Poor Eve, so sheltered. God was really keeping certain knowledge/wisdom from her. God's "restrictive" law was keeping Eve from knowing evil.

It is amazing how the serpent was able to make something so negative seem so appealing.

Notice also that Eve was not content in sinning by herself but offered it to Adam as well. Even though Eve was deceived by the serpent, Adam made a conscious choice to eat. Adam thought that the loving thing to do was not to confront a loved one who had made a poor choice, but rather to join in.

Next time we will study the results of their choice, their rebellion, and how God handled it.

For now, I think we ought to ponder in our own lives, how we handle the similar doubts that come our way. When we are tempted to disregard or disobey God’s laws, His commands, how do we handle it?

Do we trust God to know what is best?

Do we believe that He loves us and wants what is best for us?

Do we doubt God’s goodness and believe He is actually keeping good things from us?

These are questions for us to ponder this week. The battle Adam and Eve faced in the garden has many similarities with the battle Jesus faced in the wilderness after His baptism and 40 days of fasting, and very similar to the battles we face today.

In Jesus we can have the victory, and forgiveness of our sins and eternal life. However, the big question remains the same.

Do we trust God?

Do we believe He is worthy of our obedience and worship?

Do we love Him?

How is our love for God reflected in our lives when we are being tempted?

Something for us to ponder.