2011-11-11
Good Morning Dear Ones,
If we know the pitfalls along the way, we see the road to death and can avoid it. Our decisions are informed ones, and they can be righteous in God’s sight. Last week I wrote about congregations that don’t put the word of God at the center of everything they do. Instead, they are more concerned about social issues or other things. That is when politics on disagreements over theology or more often, over church polity get in the way of forward motion down the “hard path that leads from the narrow gate to eternal life” [MT 7: 13-14]. For God’s perspective, we are given PR 3: 5-6, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; so all your ways acknowledge Him and he will make your paths straight.”
We need to look at what a covenant relationship is, why it’s’ crucial to eternal life and happiness. In a covenant, two becomes one. Marriage, for example, is a covenant relationship, albeit one that is on earth only. [I’m told there is no marriage in heaven. This is no reason to worry, because heaven wouldn’t be the great place it is if we didn’t have connection there to other believers. This is at the very least as brothers and sisters in Christ as we are on earth, and surely much more, which God promises us, that will be to our delight]. This becoming one in a covenant means both parties are obligated, one to the other. Even in the greatest covenant of all, the Covenant of Grace, God obligates Himself to love and save us, which we have our own obligation to live according to His teaching, believing in His Son, Jesus Christ. Are these obligations equal? Of course not in the Covenant of Grace, because God is so much greater than us and is perfect. Each party to any covenant makes adjustments in the interest of both parities. God’s adjustment was the sacrifice of His only begotten Son on the cross, Who suffered, died, was buried, and was resurrected as the “first among many brothers” [JN 3: 16; RO 3: 24-25; RO 8: 29]. He is also making us a “new creation in union with Christ” [2 COR 5: 17] and is renewing us every day in His own image, so that we might have a greater knowledge of Himself” [COL 3: 10]. Our obligations are many, depending on individual needs- to expunge sins, to live righteously, to love as Christ loves us, to be forgiving, to engage in faith-strengthening activities, to live a wholesome lifestyle, and to share the Good News with potential believers. Our awesome, loving God wants to be a full-time Resident in our homes and hearts, the very Center of our lives. This is no hostel takeover! It is a willing act of love, fidelity, and obedience.
When we are newborn, we are entirely selfish, as we have to be. This is because we are born unable to help ourselves and totally dependant on our parents. But, if our parents are good parents, they will gradually teach us to become less and less dependant and self-centered. God, on the other hand, has always been self-determinate [HE 13: 8; JAS 1: 17]. When we become true believers, we gradually become less and less self-centered and more and more God-centered. Selfishness has never been the road to self-esteem or true happiness, so God wants us to become less and less selfish as we mature spiritually. Can we imagine? We have a God who wants nothing more than our happiness! PS 146: 5, “But happy are those who have the God of Israel as their Helper; whose hope is in the Lord their God.” So, selfishness can no longer be a component of our lives if we have a real covenant relationship with God.
The same can be said of knowingly breaking promises. All we need to do is to review Christ’s teaching on the taking of vows to see this. Christ tells us, in MT 5: 33-37 His views on the taking of vows. He tells us never to make a vow before God that you knowingly can’t keep or have no intention of keeping. Think twice before taking any vow, but when you do, keep it. I can’t help but think of all the marriage vows taken before God and broken by the bad behavior of one or both human parties to it. This is not a reason to resist getting married, but it is a reason to get to know the other person well first, get married when we are emotionally and spiritually mature enough to make such a decision, and then act with fidelity and love toward one’s mate. Our lives would be meaningless if we never committed to anything; not making commitments that are wise ones is a major concerning trend in many of today’s young people. Partners in a friendship vow, like the one David made with Jonathan [1 SAM 18: 1-4], are asking God to administer the covenant and are making a two-way promise unto death. Yes, that’s as serious as it sounds, but look at the love and care that went from David and his family toward Saul’s family [remember Jonathan was Saul’s son; 2 SAM 4: 4, 9: 11b-13]. It wasn’t just David and Jonathan involved, but their entire families for several generations to come. This is how it is with a covenant relationship, and there were some terrible tragedies, like the battle of Mount Gilboa and its aftermath [1 SAM 31: 1-13] that happened along the way. Even such tragedies don’t break a true covenant. Just as Christ died to open the way for salvation for those who believe in Him, His death-a horrific tragedy-doesn’t abrogate the covenant relationship a believer has with God. If my own experience is any teacher, this relationship has given my life greater texture, complexity, hope, and joy than any other. It’s a good argument for why a covenant relationship with God is not to be taken lightly and is essential to real happiness and everlasting life.
PRAYER: O Lord, You ask us to place our trust in You and in Your Word. That’s no easy thing for us to do, but it is necessary to one day have eternal life. The alternative is unthinkable. I used the capital “W” on Word to indicate both Your Son and Your teaching-Biblical truth here. JN 1: 1-4, “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through Him all things were made; without Him nothing was made that has been made. In Him was life, and that life was the light of men.” Without us “cutting” a covenant with You, we are on a one-way path to Hades, then Gehenna. Hades is that place where one who has been serially evil, steadily rejecting God in his earthly life, waits until the second coming of Christ and the final judgment [e.g. Abraham speaking to the rich man, LK16: 22-24 across the gulf of no return]. Gehenna is the ultimate place where those in Hades will go-eternal and conscious torment from which there is no escape; the lake of fire and brimstone [REV 20: 14]. That’s the unthinkable alternative to repenting of one’s sins and having faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. It is spiritual death, as opposed to eternal life. With active participation in the Covenant of Grace, we can avoid Hades and Gehenna; we can cooperate with God in the process of sanctification, where He gradually perfects us and purifies us from sin, in preparation for taking us to Paradise, the place where we will wait until the second coming of Christ and the last judgment, as in LK 23: 42-43 and in 1 COR 12: 1-4. People who have died physically and gone to Paradise, will have their names in God’s Book of Life [REV 20: 11-15-in the great white throne judgment] and will go on to Heaven, the new earth and new Jerusalem described in REV 21-22. Dearest Abba, You are to be praised and thanked forever for Your forgiveness of believers and Your justice. In Christ’s holy/mighty name, we pray. Amen.
NEXT WEEK: As the next installment in this “The Road To Death” segment, I am led to write about walking the talk in our lives and about salvation through grace, not deeds. In the meanwhile, we should spend time recognizing just how important to our ultimate happiness our covenant relationship with the Lord really is. Each of us has a separate and unique life, our own talents and gifts. Just as Paul spoke of the body of Christ being made up of many parts, each different from the other and no one part more important than the other, we should understand that we need to use our parts for the building of the Kingdom and the welfare of the whole body of Christ. RO 12: 4-5, “Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these member do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to the others.” To make our position in the covenant relationship we have in God clear, I must once again cite one of my favorite passages in the Bible, RO 12: 1-2, “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God-this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind. Then you will be able test and approve what God’s will is-His good, pleasing, and perfect will.” Living sacrifices continue actively living “in Christ,” and can do a lot which pleases both God and themselves over their earthly lives and heavenly eternity. Our God is to be eternally praised and thanked for His loving intervention and our transformation!
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn
JS 24: 15