God’s gaze

   
Did you ever think about what God had on His mind before He created the universe? Now of course none of us know the answer to that question really, because we cannot know the mind of God. After Job and his friends spent days talking and contemplating the attributes of God we see in chapter 38 of Job where God begins to speak: “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you possess understanding!” (Job 38:4) Again we read in Isaiah 55:8-9 that we cannot even come close to God’s thinking:



“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:8-9)


I would like to think that God had a plan in mind even before He began the act of creation. Some have said that a man like Michelangelo could look upon a raw stone and see the moving, living form trapped inside. His statue of David is a piece of art that has lasted through centuries of time; but once it was nothing more than a large stone with Michelangelo walking around it looking at it, thinking about that first blow with the hammer and chisel. As he broke away the excess stone the life-like image of David appeared.






Now we know that Michelangelo made something from something else; God, on the other hand, made something from nothing. If He didn’t have something He needed, He created it. I suppose that is the essence of the difference between “Creationism” and “Darwinism” or evolution.






Evolution must start on the premise that “something” was already available (Big Bang, ocean, etc.) and from that available “something” life forms began to evolve. In the beginning of many evolution books, especially text books, on about the second or third page tucked away in the middle of a paragraph, inside a sentence is a little phrase that usually says, “the inorganic became organic.” The writer then moves, without fanfare, to build the theory of evolution on the foundation of that little phrase without ever stopping to explain how that event happened.




The difference is that God created something from nothing. He then formed mankind from the soil of the ground. God then did something that answers the question about the inorganic becoming organic: God breathed into the man’s nostrils the breath of life. The man came alive with actual life from the Creator God, animated with a soul and spirit that gave him a conscience no other part of the creation had. Man had a spirituality that had capacity to link with God’s Spirit and commune with Him and have relationship with Him. (Review this by reading Genesis chapters 1 and 2.)






God is credited with being all-knowing (omniscient), all-powerful (omnipotent) and everywhere present at the same time (omnipresent). Knowing that about Him only stands to reason that He doesn’t do anything haphazardly, unknowingly or without thinking. Therefore, I would like to believe that He had very deep thoughts about what His creation would be prior to His creative actions.






I wonder if He didn’t see the fall of mankind from the perfect relationship even before it actually happened; I wonder if He didn’t see the entry of sin into His creation at the beguilement from Lucifer (in the form of a serpent) long before it actually happened. At that very moment when sin entered into a world of perfection, God seemed to have a plan in mind that would heal that wound and bring mankind back into a relationship with Him (See Genesis 3:15 for details). He knew that there would be a great separation between Himself and His creation, mankind. So He created a plan of redemption for those who wanted to choose Him over Satan. Adam and Eve had chosen Satan over God and thereby brought death and ruin into the creation. But God’s plan was to reconcile all of mankind to a position and opportunity to exercise free will and choice to choose God to regain that close relationship and receive life with Him.






The Apostle Paul wrote a letter to the Christians in Ephesus and with the inspiration of God the Holy Spirit explained the plan God had even before the foundations of the world. The following is that account:


"1Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, to the saints which are at Ephesus, and to the faithful in Christ Jesus:


2Grace be to you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.


3Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ:


4According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:


5Having predestined us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,


6To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.


7In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace;


8Wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence;


9Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself:


10That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him:


11In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:


12That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.


13In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,


14Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory."  (Ephesians 1:1-14 KJV)


It seems that what God may have had on His mind prior to creation was the plan to redeem us from sin and death. He wanted to establish a plan where He completed the work that required sacrifice and in order to do that He needed to do it Himself.


His plan, established prior to the “foundation of the world” was to complete the requirements of sacrifice to pay the price of sin and overcome the power of death and separation from Himself to His creation, mankind. His plan made a way for anyone who believed in Christ to accept Him, be washed in His blood and be saved into an eternal relationship to be with Him forever. The plan was “predestined” even before the presence of sin, and became the only plan acceptable to God as a means for salvation.


Those who exercised their choice to yield to Jesus Christ the Son of God would be making their choice to be saved by God only on His conditions of accepting the blood of Jesus and yielding to Him and be covered by that specific redemptive blood. It is that blood of Jesus that takes away our sins through the work that Jesus did on the cross to present Himself as a perfect, unblemished (paschal lamb) that allows us to be adopted as His sons (and daughters) through Jesus Christ, because that is what He willed and was given through His grace.


God does not “cause” us to be saved or unsaved by forcefully directing us against our will. He has “predestined” His plan for redemption through the blood of Jesus Christ, and only when a person chooses to accept God’s grace and yield himself to Jesus Christ through accepting His sacrifice, does the person enter into the “positional” place of adoptive child and be justified in God’s sight.


From my perspective, to sum it all up, I think I know what was on God’s mind before He began the work of creation. I believe He was thinking about me. And if you are reading at this very point in this article, and you have accepted Jesus Christ and have been buried with Him into His death and raised to a new life in Him, God was thinking about you too.


Now if you are outside of Christ and have not yet believed in Him or accepted Him as your Redeemer, you need to accept Him, be buried with Him in His death through baptism, be raised up to walk in a new life with Him, yield to Him as your LORD as well as Savior, and receive the gift of His Holy Spirit so you can grow in Christ. Associate yourself with a Bible-believing group of Christians and begin to gather with them to worship and continue to learn and grow in Christ. Submit yourself fully to Him and be assured that even before the beginning of creation, God was thinking of you as well.

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Restored by forgiveness

In his letter to the Romans, the Apostle Paul presented an argument that those who live an unrighteous life outside the life in Christ will be condemned. He even said that those who may do good works are not really “good” enough to earn salvation if the person remains outside the Gospel of Christ. Paul goes even further and says that being part of the “Chosen” people of God as in being Jewish is not good enough outside of the blood of Christ. In fact, Paul said that no person in the entire world could be saved outside of the blood of Christ. He culminates his argument by saying that all have sinned and fall far short of God’s glory, and of course, the wages of sin is death.



The Apostle Paul affirmed his faith in the Gospel of Christ and the power it has to save us. He openly confirmed his belief and preached it without shame. He said,

“16For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.


17For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, ’The just shall live by faith.’” (Romans 1:16-17 KJV)


As we continue to live by faith in Christ and put our trust into Him and the work He did on the cross, we are safe in His arms. God is always ready to make sure that we are loved. Paul reminded us of that by telling us just how loved we are. He said,

“37Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.


38For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,


39Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 8:37-39 KJV)


Now, sometimes Christians can begin to live in ways that brings separation between God and that Christian. Choices to live in faith in Christ Jesus are constant; we continue to choose each day, perhaps even multiple times per day. But even when we move away from Christ we are still loved by Him. We can revive the sin nature within us and drive away the Holy Spirit from our lives by the choices we make and the life we choose to live. We can even deny Christ, and in a sense, re-crucify Him.


If we continue in that denial of Christ we are in danger of being lost; or we can return to Him and be restored by Him because He continues to love us even when we have denied Him. We have two distinct examples in the Gospel accounts. Judas, who betrayed Jesus, was lost because he never came back to Jesus for restoration. Instead he hanged himself, thereby separating himself from that love forever. Peter, on the other hand, denied Jesus three times on the very night that Judas betrayed Jesus.


Peter had recognized his denial, and had bitterly wept because of it. But the moment he heard that the tomb was empty, Peter ran to investigate. When Jesus was resurrected from death, He appeared to Peter and the other Disciples during a forty-day period. We don’t know for sure everything that went through Peter’s mind during that period when Jesus walked and talked with them. But it may be that Peter often thought about that night when he actually denied his Lord with a curse for the third time.


Luke, the physician, is the only one of the Gospel writers that records at the very moment that Peter denied Jesus the third time; the Lord turned and looked at Peter.


“60And Peter said, Man, I know not what thou sayest. And immediately, while he yet spake, the cock crew.


61And the Lord turned, and looked upon Peter. And Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said unto him, Before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice.


62And Peter went out, and wept bitterly.” (Luke 22:60-62 KJV)


Sometimes when we are in the very act of denial of our Lord we can feel the impact of His soft, gentle, piercing, but loving eyes gaze our way. He looks directly into our heart even as we deny His existence. Yet when we feel that piercing in our spirit, we know there is still hope. His message is that He still loves us and wants to restore us to Himself.


We know that because we have seen that restoration. We simply look at Peter and his denial of Jesus. The Apostle John preserved for us the account of Peter’s restoration to Jesus.


“15So when they had dined, Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my lambs.


16He saith to him again the second time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my sheep.


17He saith unto him the third time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? Peter was grieved because he said unto him the third time, Lovest thou me? And he said unto him, Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee. Jesus saith unto him, Feed my sheep.” (John 21:15-17 KJV)


Three times Peter denied Jesus and three times Jesus gave Peter the opportunity to reaffirm his love for Jesus. Notice the words that are used in this passage. Jesus asked Peter if he loved Him more than those people or things around him. Peter answered Jesus by saying that he loved Him. Jesus asked Peter again with the same response. Finally, a third time Jesus asked Peter if he loved Him. This time Peter is a bit grieved, and said in essence, “You know, Jesus, I love you.”


There are two different Greek words for love used in this passage. One word for love is the word Agape which denotes a form of love that God has for mankind. The other word used is the form of the word Philo. This word is a good word and may also be used to express the love between God and man, or man toward God. However, it also has a slight variation that means the same as a love between family members, like brotherly love or friends. Some believe that the Agape is a much stronger word than Philo. Jesus used the stronger word in this passage, and Peter never used the stronger form of the word. Using the words as they are in the original, the conversation between Peter and Jesus would be like the following:


Jesus asked Peter if he truly loved (Agape) Him like God would love Him and Peter replied to Jesus that he was His friend (Philo). A second time Jesus asked Peter if he truly loved (Agape) Him and again Peter replied that he was Jesus’ friend (Philo). The third time Jesus asked Peter if he was His friend (Philo); even though this grieved Peter, he still replied to Jesus that he was His friend (Philo).


The outcome of the conversation was that Jesus restored Peter and lifted him to great heights in the ministry. Peter preached the first message on the day of Pentecost where three thousand accepted Jesus and were baptized into Him. So Jesus stands ready to restore any of us who might want to return to Him and live in faith through Christ.

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Husbands have greater responsibility

Not too long ago I visited a Church congregation in one of the Southern states and found myself listening to a fine Christian minister talking about the women in the church being “under subjection” to the man in a marriage relationship. When he had the folks turn to the passage in Ephesians 5:22-24 and began to read, I couldn’t help but notice a few of the men glancing with a superior grin toward their wives and nudging them to pay attention.

The King James Version renders this scripture as a familiar one for sure,






“Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body. Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing.” (Ephesians 5:22-24)










To drive this point home, another scripture was read:






“Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as it is fit in the Lord.” (Colossians 3:18)






Finally, to anchor the point solidly, the final scripture was read:






“Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. For Adam was first formed, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression.” (I Timothy 2:11-14)






Taken out of context, these passages suggest that subjection is not only demanded, but subjection in silence is required. In fact, it is almost a punishment being applied since the woman “deceived was in the transgression.”






Having been “raised” in the Church I have actually heard sermons based on those scriptures that outlined this position many times through the years. In fact, the remnants of this position are still maintained in some facets of church life, especially in some main-stream religions throughout the world. From a prohibition of female public prayer or teaching anyone other than children within the church, to the complete dominance of men in all aspects over women practicing the Islamic faith, the subjection of women to men is regarded almost as absolute.






To be fair, many fine ministers of the Gospel have explained this man-woman relationship over the years in a way that has expanded the interpretation simply by putting it in context with the full scripture that also explains the responsibility of the husband. By placing it in the context (and this is why context is so important), it provides a balance of responsibility for both marriage partners that otherwise is absent. Ephesians 5:25-33 records,






“Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish. So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself. For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church: For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church. Nevertheless let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself; and the wife see that she reverence her husband.”






Likewise, continuing on with the passage in Colossians 3:19, in context it records,






“Husbands, love your wives, and be not bitter against them.”






Well, husbands, you might want to reconsider that little elbow in your wife’s ribs when the “subjection” topic begins. It seems that your responsibility goes well beyond the responsibility of your wife. Her responsibility is only to submit herself to you; YOUR responsibility is to die for her.






This idea was perfectly outlined in a book written by Dr. M.R. De Haan entitled Portraits of Christ in Genesis. In that book Dr. De Haan explained that it was indeed Eve who sinned. She first ate of the “forbidden” fruit by listening to the Serpent’s word over the word of her husband who had told her what God had commanded. But when Adam approached his bride in the garden he was surprised at what she had done. Not only surprised, perhaps, but extremely saddened






Adam and Eve had been in a face-to-face relationship with God up to that very moment. Prior to that, when God had made Eve from Adam’s side, Adam had declared Eve as “bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.” (Genesis 2:23) But had very quickly realized the special relationship he was to have with his wife and declared, “Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.” (Genesis 2:24) But now, Eve had sinned and had fallen out of that relationship and had fallen under the condemnation of God’s edict of death. At that very moment, however, Adam remained in his face-to-face relationship with God, but was lost in his relationship with his bride. The only thing that he could do was to “give himself up for her” and join her in her sin. Adam died for his bride in order to save her. But God knew that even Adam’s sacrifice for his wife was not enough to extend to the entire human race. It would take much more than that.   The death that Adam experienced was to bring death into the world through his sin. But God, later brought life back to the world through the death of His Son.






When God joined the two of them again He found that they knew they had sinned against Him. It was then that God revealed for the first time a hint of the great sacrifice that would come. In Genesis 3:15 we read,

“And I will put enmity between thee (Serpent or Satan) and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it (Christ) shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his (Christ) heel.”

We usually attribute this passage as foreshadowing the sacrifice of Christ. Formally the two had been naked and not ashamed (Genesis 2:25), but now, in the presence of God, they had covered themselves because of their sin. Adam remembered, and knew that he had left his Father and will now always “cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.” (Genesis 2:24)






Paul picked up on that in his great passage in Ephesians 5 when he interpreted that passage as

“For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church: For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church.”

For us it has forever been declared that even in the beginning God was speaking of the relationship between Christ and the church.






To bring that home even further, Paul declared in Romans 5:14 that Adam was a “figure” of Christ.






“Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come.”






Christ is the one who ultimately gave the blood sacrifice that restores us to the saving relationship with God. And it was Adam who first died for his bride as a way to join her in the transgression. Therefore, although Adam did not die a physical death immediately, he died the ultimate death of separation from God as he participated in the disobedience to God by following his wife’s sin, even though Adam had heard the command to not eat the fruit directly from God’s lips.






Therefore, for each of us guys who may have a tendency to expect “submission” from our wives, we need to first examine our own willingness to lay down our life for our bride in the same type of love that Christ gave the Church. We need to yield to the realization that husbands have a greater responsibility. Although it is likely that we will never be called upon to demonstrate that level of love, but we should nevertheless be willing to reflect that level of love.

And if our love for our wives reflects that responsibility, then there will never be a problem of willing submission from our wives.

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Freedom and independence (Part 2)

In part 1 of this article we learned that when we accept Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God, who gave Himself as a ransom by willingly presenting Himself as a sacrifice and giving His life to purchase back the freedom of directly relating to God the Father, we have yielded ourselves to Him and therefore have been bought back with a price of His blood. But when Jesus talked about yielding ourselves, becoming a servant, even a slave to God so that we can grow in our knowledge through the work of His Holy Spirit unto holiness that allows God to work through us, we sometimes have a bit of revulsion to the idea of being a slave or servant to anybody. We maintain that we are “free” and are independent by our very nature.

Freedom has a different meaning to those who live in the parts of the world that allow people to exercise personal freedoms. In America we are proud that we live under the Constitution of the United States. Likewise, in other Western Democracies the people are proud of the fact that they live under freedom where the government derives its power and authority from the people through some kind of elective process. Through all the hard work of fighting the wars against tyranny, establishing ourselves as a people of laws and declaring ourselves as living under a freedom by Democracy, we claim independence and will fight to maintain that freedom.


When we read about Jesus wanting us to submit ourselves to Him, or become a slave to God, our John Wayne instincts of rugged individualism rears up leaving us in a “fight or flight” mode to either fight the one who suggested submission, or run away from the idea entirely. Even in our marriage vows that once held words that suggested obedience and submission have been changed to more words that suggest tolerance and less permanence of the state of matrimony.


We are a culture that “raises ourselves by our own bootstraps” and have “independently” tamed those pesky hindrances that “saddle” us with loads that increase dependency on others. Throughout the world, not just the Western world, the “maleness” of our species projects us to “territorial” markings that propel us to defensive positions when stranger encroachment is eminent. And the truth of it is...we love it.


We love the dueling that protects our favorite positions on issues; we love to be right more than being wrong. We love our routines and our excitement. We love moving throughout the states without passports and visiting cities that look alike. Our favorite cup of coffee can be purchased at the fast food store from Vermont to New Mexico. We have permanence and stability; we know our rights and will fight for them. We are satisfied when we win and disappointed when we lose.


Yes, we have our ups and downs; we live high sometimes and have to tighten the belt on occasion. The Market goes up or comes down, but we love the free Market and the capitalism that stands behind it. We have our issues that are met with conservatives and progressives; but in the end we fall asleep at night feeling contented that we live in a time and place that affords us so many choices of variety that we have assured ourselves that we are truly blessed. But sometimes I wonder if Jesus looks over our lives as He looked over Jerusalem and turns away and weeps at what He sees.


I wonder if Satan isn’t using a tool of prosperity and ease the same as he used the great lie with Eve and Adam in the garden. We are in a garden of sorts; across our land we have great houses of worship from High Church to Pentecostal. We have been lured into thinking we have a choice when it comes to our religion, whatever its flavor. We can “go to church” anywhere we want to; visit anyone we desire, and then live as we please most any time we want. A Mosque on one corner, a Temple across the street, a Baptist House of Worship next door and a spiraling, massive Cathedral for Catholics to have Mass. We have it all, and by gosh, by golly, we built it all for ourselves and delivered to ourselves our own independence.


Now enters Jesus, telling us we need to look closely at our politics, economy, education, religion, career, job, security, our very freedom and independence and turn to Him in submission as a bond servant. During Roman times independence for Jesus and His fellows in Nazareth were non-existent: They were captives as an occupied nation. They had no democracy; no freedom. If a Roman soldier demanded a common, ordinary person who was not a Roman citizen to carry their battle gear, the person was required by law to carry it for a mile. People hated that so much that they laid stones along the road one mile apart, mile stones. Jesus preached about different rules.


Jesus said don’t carry the soldier’s gear for just one mile, carry it two. If someone asks for your inner coat; give them your outer coat as well. These people who occupy your land and persecute you should be prayed for; they may be your enemies but you need to pray for them as well. His was a radical message then and still is today.


The people in Jerusalem, Judea and the world over at that time were without the outward freedom. They were enslaved by a strong nation that became even harsher as time passed. History records that the Roman soldiers would tie people to stakes, or crosses, and dip them in pitch to light them on fire to serve as lights during the night. There was no outward independence or freedom to make the choices that come with independence. But the independence they were being offered by Jesus was an internal independence; an independence that was rooted in the heart.


Ours is an external independence. We have it all; an independence that is guaranteed by the laws of our land. I believe that it is much more difficult for us to yield to the calling of Jesus to be His bond servant now than it was then. Our freedom and independence has become a mill-stone around our neck. It weighs heavily on us because we believe that to accept a position of being a bond servant for Jesus is to abdicate our external freedom and independence. There is one thing we are failing to understand.


When we yield ourselves to Jesus, accept Him as our Lord and Savior, are buried with Him into baptism we are made free in Him. We are given salvation in Him because of the work He did on the cross once and for all and have died to sin and have been made alive in the law of life and righteousness by His shedding His own blood. He doesn’t just “repair” us or “fix” us as the old self with a new coat of paint; He makes us a new creation and breaths into us his Holy Spirit who has the power to grow us in that new creation as we keep our focus on Jesus and what He has done through His sacrifice and having redeemed us.


As we submit ourselves to Him, we still live in America, we still have freedoms externally and are protected by the laws of the land, but now, with the indwelling of God’s Holy Spirit, we are sanctified, which is just a fancy word for “growing toward God’s righteousness and holiness. The difference is we are not “independently” doing anything on our own; we are now operating under the power and strength of the Holy Spirit that lives within us. This gives us the internal freedom that God offered then, and now. As we continue to yield ourselves to Jesus, the Power of the Holy Spirit continues to work in and through us to grow us toward our dependency on Him.


When we submit to Jesus we no longer want to “pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps” but we want to live in the power of the Holy Spirit as He lives in us and makes us a new creation to grow in Christ. Our focus shifts from our narcissistic selves of operating under our own power to that of yielding to Jesus, who sends the Holy Spirit who offers up the power to work through us to accomplish His work of growing us and pointing others to Jesus through us. This is accomplished not as a result of our own independence, but the power of the Holy Spirit working through us and letting all the glory flow to God.

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Freedom and independence (part 1)

I was just thinking about being free in Christ. We are taught that Jesus came and lived among mankind and gave Himself as a ransom for each of us who believe in Him. The Bible says that Jesus reminded us that rulers over us will lord their power over us and use their high positions to take advantage of others for their own personal gain. We have witnessed that in many ways from people who hold positions of power and authority. But Jesus said that the kind of misuse of power and authority exhibited by those who fail to recognize Him should not be found among those who have yielded themselves to Him.

Jesus insists that if we want any kind of leadership, power and authority or be called great we must yield ourselves over to being a servant. Jesus goes even further and says that we should not only yield to being servants, but we must yield to being a slave to everyone. Not a slave in the sense that we are taken captive and forced to work for others; but in the sense of being a bond servant where we voluntarily yield ourselves to another without complaint.


Jesus makes the assertion by declaring that even He did not come to be served by others, but He came to live among us not to be served, but to serve others, even to the point of giving His life as a ransom for many. Jesus tells us that the ransom He paid was the price of His own life as the payment for the judgment required as the consequence for sin. (Please read Mark 10: 42-45 for His discourse regarding this.)


The ransom that Jesus paid was so important because when Adam and Eve sinned and turned away from God in the very beginning, it caused an irreversible change in the creation, even the cosmos. Even the creation is held in bondage and all who are part of the creation share that bondage and need to be ransomed. The Apostle Paul wrote in his letter to the Romans that the creation was subjected to that bondage and was waiting to be set free by the work of Christ’s death as a ransom so the creation could be transformed into the same freedom that is enjoyed by God’s children. (Please review Romans 8:20-21 to read about it.)


Almost from the very beginning of His ministry Jesus proclaimed His purpose was to set people free from their bondage to sin. Jesus had returned back to his hometown where He had been raised as a child. The physician, Luke describes this scene for us in chapter four of the Gospel that bears his name:


"16 He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. And he stood up to read. 17The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written: [Isaiah 61:1-2]


'18 The Spirit of the Lord is on me,


because he has anointed me


to preach good news to the poor.


He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners


and recovery of sight for the blind,


to release the oppressed,


19 to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.'" (Luke 4:16-19 NIV)


Jesus is not just repeating a prophetic message here; He is proclaiming a messianic declaration of deliverance by releasing those who have been held captive. He has come to “set free” those who are held by the chains of sin. This oppression goes much beyond being held bondage by governments or a lack of wealth, it goes to the very heart of setting free the captives that are being held under the sentence of death by sin.


We are reminded of the degree of that freedom by John, who was another Disciple of Jesus:


"31 Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, 'If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed.


32 And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”


33 They answered Him, 'We are Abraham’s descendants, and have never been in bondage to anyone. How can You say, ‘You will be made free’?”


"34 Jesus answered them, 'Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin. 35 And a slave does not abide in the house forever, but a son abides forever.'” (John 8:31-35 New King James Version)


Then Jesus said in verse 36:

36 “Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.” (John 8:36 New King James Version)


Some might say that because we have been ransomed by Christ and our sins are forgiven and we are no longer slaves to sin, what is the advantage? The Apostle Paul answered that in his letter to the Romans:


21 “What fruit did you have then in the things of which you are now ashamed? [Your former sins] For the end of those things is death. 22 But now having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 6:21-23)

Part 2 of this article will be posted shortly.

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Mosque at ground zero

My friend sent the above picture that was said to have been taken at some NASCAR event. I am sure the painter of that picture and the owner of that truck intended for people to see the truck and picture and think about what happened on 9/11. More than that, however, they were making a statement about a religion that is shared by millions of people around the world.







Many might say that the word “Islam” should not be depicted in the same picture that shows the horror of the burning of the World Trade Center on 9/11. It seems to paint a broad picture that perhaps unfairly, microscopically narrows a religion practiced by millions of people to a relatively small group of extremely radicalized zealots whose aim is not to worship, but to destroy.


Perhaps it was only coincidence that the email with this picture’s sentiment arrived in my mailbox on the day President Obama raised the national debate of the building of a Mosque and Islamic Civic Center near the 9/11 ground zero site to the level of the Oval Office. Nevertheless, the President moved it from a “local” debate to a national one. The news story reported the following:


“WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama forcefully endorsed allowing a mosque near ground zero, saying the country's founding principles demanded no less.







‘As a citizen, and as president, I believe that Muslims have the same right to practice their religion as everyone else in this country.’






Obama made the comments at an annual dinner in the White House State Dining Room celebrating the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.”






“It was already much more than that [a local issue just at New York City], sparking debate around the country as top Republicans including Sarah Palin and Newt Gingrich announced their opposition. So did the Anti-Defamation League, a Jewish civil rights group.”






The President’s statements in support included,






"As a citizen, and as president, I believe that Muslims have the same right to practice their religion as everyone else in this country."






"That includes the right to build a place of worship and a community center on private property in lower Manhattan, in accordance with local laws and ordinances," he said. "This is America, and our commitment to religious freedom must be unshakable." And finally, "Our capacity to show not merely tolerance, but respect towards those who are different from us – and that way of life, that quintessentially American creed, stands in stark contrast to the nihilism of those who attacked us on that September morning, and who continue to plot against us today."






“President Obama elevated it to a presidential issue without equivocation.”






It seems like our President knows a lot more about Islam than that guy who painted this truck. I just wonder if in other world capitals where Islam is the national religion if they are willing to be as tolerant toward Christians.






Let's take the President's words and see if the Muslim world leaders would repeat them about Christianity:






"As a citizen, and as a leader of Islam, I believe that Christians have the same right to practice their religion as everyone else in this [Islamic] country," And again,






"That includes the right to build a place of worship and a community center on private property in Mecca, in accordance with local laws and ordinances," the Islam leader said. "This is Saudi Arabia, and our commitment to religious freedom must be unshakable." And finally,






"Our capacity to show not merely tolerance, but respect towards those who are different from us – and that way of life, that quintessentially Saudi Arabian creed, stands in stark contrast to the nihilism of those who attacked the United States on that September morning, and who continue to plot against them today."






If the President believes that those Islamic capitals and leaders will follow suit by his example, then perhaps this debate can turn into a victory for Christianity.

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