Ramblings along the narrow way

Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Mt 5:4

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Mt 5:3

How can it be that those who are poor in spirit inherit the kingdom of heaven? How can it be that those who are poor in spirit are blessed?

The answer lies in how we stand before God. As we are, we are sinners before a holy God. We can try as hard as we can to do what is right, to score brownie points, we can read our bibles, go to church regularly, help those around us with their problems, help old ladies across the road, but as good as these actions are, they cannot deal with our sinful nature. Our sinful nature causes us to sin, to be selfish, to be arrogant, to think we are more important than others, even to think we are God.

Yet, it is so easy for us to think these good actions can make us right before God. In effect, our good actions cause us to think we are rich in spirit.

It is only when we realise that we cannot make ourselves righteous before God, when we become poor in spirit, and we repent of our sin and put our faith in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Saviour, that we are made righteous. For it is only through Christ taking on our sin, and imputing his righteousness on us do we appear righteous before God. It is only when we acknowledge we are poor in spirit that we are blessed and inherit the kingdom of heaven.

As we’ve been considering the name of God over the past few weeks, we come to the name which above every other name – Jesus the Christ. Just as the name of the Father reflects his character, so the name given to God the Son in the flesh reflects his mission. Jesus is indeed, “God to the rescue”.

“Rescue from what?” you might ask, to which the bible would answer, “Our sin”.

For the Word was made flesh that he might set us free from the punishment due to us for our sin. Whilst he was on earth, he set and example by leading a sinless life, he taught with authority unknown amongst the teachers of the Law, but ultimately he came to die in our place. He mission was made complete in his crucifixion and resurrection, where he took on the wrath of a holy God in his death, and his defeat of death in his rising again on the third day. You might ask “If God were merciful, why could he not just ignore our sin without the need for the crucifixion?” The answer lies in the fact that God is a merciful God. Just as we feel aggrieved when justice is not served in our earthly lives, God must act according to his just and holy nature. Justice must be done, punishment must be served. Through faith in Christ, he takes on our sin, and imputes his righteousness to us.

We are also saved from the power of sin. For anyone who sins is a slave to sin, but the Holy Spirit dwells within all Christians enabling them to say no to unrighteousness. This is not to say we’ll reach sinless perfection this side of eternity, for that would be folly. We will still battle against our sinful nature, but we will no longer have to battle alone, for the Holy Spirit not only enables us to say no, but enables us to become self-controlled, to be free.

However, one day, we’ll be completely free from the presence of sin when our sanctification will be made complete and we will be with God in eternity. The justification which is ours in Christ through faith and is already complete will be accompanied by a sanctification which will be complete in eternity. We will be reconciled to God not only legally, but completely.

As Charles Wesley’s famous hymn quite succinctly summarises:

Hark! The herald angels sing,
“Glory to the newborn King;
Peace on earth, and mercy mild,
God and sinners reconciled!”

Do we know what it is to be reconciled to God?

In the bible, the name of God is not just a tag, but it represents him. As such, not only are we to not use it lightly, but we are to afford it due glory and praise.

Just as Jesus gave glory to his Father, so we are to glorify God in all we do. In order to praise God, we need to know him personally. We need to know God as he really is, not some figment of our imagination, but as he reveals himself in the bible and in creation. This is the God who is eternal and infinite, almighty and omnipresent, who sees all and knows all, who is holy and just, merciful and loving. It is because of these things, he is worthy of all glory and praise.

In the opening lines of the Lord’s prayer, we seek to hallow God’s name, to set him apart from everyday life, and yet have him involved in our everyday lives. Just as we should avoid doing anything which would bring the name of Christ into disrepute, so we should seek to do that which glorifies the name of Christ.

On our own, we cannot do these things, for our nature is sinful. We need to have our sin dealt with by the one who is to be glorified. By the sacrifice of Christ, we can have our sin taken away from us, and his righteousness become our own.

When most people think of the third commandment, they have a very narrow view concerning its application. It’s often only thought to concern bad language such as swearing and blasphemous vulgarity.

However, as Christians, it’s not just what we say which can be blasphemous. If we claim to be Christ’s and fail to do his command, we are effectively sullying his name through our conduct. Those around us will see our actions and speech and associate it with the name of our Lord and Saviour.

In addition, our attitude to God’s name encroaches on our reliance of oaths. How can we bring the God of the universe into our petty squabbles? Our reputation alone should be enough to back the trivial. Even when considering serious matters such as determining someone’s criminality, we should understand the gravity of swearing in the name of God.

Much like all of the other commandments, it is primarily a question of attitude. Our conduct ultimately results from our attitudes. If our hearts are polluted, then so will our speech and actions. There is no point in policing our actions if our hearts are unchanged.

Effectively then, when we break any of the other commandments, we break the third.

There are times when you think you understand a passage, and then a preacher reveals something you’d never noticed before. This was one of those mornings. Just as a building has a foundation, so do our lives. As Paul writes to the church in Corinth he points out something which every Christian has, Jesus Christ as our foundation.

If we are Christians, what we are building should reflect our foundation. We should be building with that which is precious, costly and permanent, rather than that which is easy to come buy, quick to build, cheap and fleeting. Do we ensure our lives are built with good solid biblical teaching rather than the clever arguments of men, do we work to build the kingdom of God rather than that of men? Are we members of a local church, committed to serving God in our locality, or are we unwilling to commit to one church and merely feeding instead of working?

Our motivation should not be to seek the praise of men, but the reward of God. This reward will not be in this life, being a Christian will not make us materially rich, nor necessarily healthy. The reward will be on the day when we will all stand before God. Will we be able to say that we used the foundation we were given to its fullest potential, or will we have underdeveloped it?

In an age which is very similar to ours today, Jesus makes a bold statement. Much like today, the Roman Empire of the 1st century was a very multi-cultural, pluralistic society, with a very accepting attitude to all manner of religions and philosophies. There were gods and philosophies of all kinds throughout the empire, it was very much a consumer market.

Jesus’ statement went straight against the popular thinking of the day.

I am the way and the truth and the life. No-one comes to the Father except through me. Jn 14:6

Here was an absolute statement in a sea of relativism. To those who said that all faiths were equally valid, this was anathema. How could anyone claim to have a monopoly on the truth?

When you look at other aspects of life though, we don’t have such a pluralistic view. When we’re ill, we’d be ill-advised to take the medical advice of anyone who voiced their opinion. We seek out doctors who know what they’re talking about and have the means to help us.

In our daily lives, we rest upon absolutes when we do our shopping. We don’t make up our own arithmetic when calculating our bill, but we still to the absolutes of mathematics. Our thinking isn’t guided by how we feel, but by what we know.

If our lives at a basic level rests on absolutes, why should our Spirituality be any different? In other parts of our lives, we assess the options. In a culture which states all religions are equally valid, Jesus’ claim is either invalid, or invalidates the statement. He cannot be the way, the truth and the life, if all religions are equally valid. All religions cannot all be equal is Jesus claim is true.
A look at his claim can only boil down to three options, famously stated by C. S. Lewis.

A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic – on the level with a man who says he is a poached egg – or he would be the devil of hell. You must take your choice. Either this was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. Mere Christianity, C. S. Lewis

Looking at the life of Jesus in the New Testament, Jesus doesn’t come across as either a fool, nor a fiend. Those who listened were amazed at his teaching, those who came to him were healed of their afflictions. His seeming defeat at the hands of men were to lead to his ultimate show of who he is. His crucifixion and resurrection would demonstrate his mission and his power.

For he was God in the flesh. All other attempts to reach God would be a contravention of the first two commandments. If we were to try to worship God apart from Jesus, we would be worshipping a false god. Not only that, but we would be trying to fashion God in our image, trying to approach him on our terms instead of his terms.