against the kingdom of Satan

I was looking at this book today: Jesus Is Lord, Caesar Is Not: Evaluating Empire in New Testament Studies, and ran across this important point: While the Roman empire was idolatrous, it wasn’t directly what Jesus and his kingship and God’s kingdom come in him were against. Rather, Jesus and God’s kingdom come in him are in opposition to the kingdom of Satan. That is a good point, I think, and I look forward to reading the book.

Some Christian scholars and Christians see the nations and particularly any world power or empire as the enemy which God’s kingdom takes down. And in the end, all nations will be judged, to be sure, in fact likely going through a sort of judgment already. But God’s kingdom come in Jesus could never be a part of this world’s system as say a political party.

But getting to the main point, it would not be a popular one today, even among many Christians. The gospel of Christ is the power of God for salvation to all who believe, freeing us from sin’s penalty and power, and from the kingdom of Satan. We are translated from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of God’s dear Son. In and through Christ, we are another entity altogether, not from this world, although for this world.

My guess is that such a stance might comport with a humble participation of Christians in the politics of the world. Maybe that would be a particular calling, and Christians could humbly be salt and light in aspects of it, such as seeking to pass legislation which would help the poor, as well as the unborn, etc. But first and foremost we need to recognize that the battle we’re in is spiritual, and against nothing less than the kingdom of Satan.

In Christ and God’s kingdom come in him, we indeed have the victory. It is a victory through the cross of Jesus,  for forgiveness of sins and new life through his resurrection. And in the way of Jesus as God’s resurrection people, the way of the cross. Together in this in Jesus for the world.

older and less sure

We recently heard a lady in chapel at RBC Ministries who is probably more “conservative” than I, some would call a “fundamentalist” (I’m sure there’s a good number that would call me that, as well). She took a clear stand on a heated subject (I agreed with her), but in the course of the talk, without hedging at all on the stand she had taken, she also made the remark that as she has gotten older (I think in her mid-sixties, or older) she is less sure on a number of things apart from her commitment to the Lord. I appreciated that thought and her message. And then recently in our team devotions our leader, in his mid-seventies if I remember right, stumbled through explaining something, after which I expressed appreciation, because I said that his thought reflected the ambiguity on that subject seen in scripture and in life.

As I get older I think I’m more firm than ever on the essential point: God has revealed himself in Christ and the basic things that follow that. But on so many other points, specifically on controverted points, I’m less sure. That being said, my uncertainty is not so much about specific points. For example I still hold to a pacifist Christian position, and on lesser matters, probably an Arminian view with reference to salvation, believer’s baptism (as opposed to infant baptism, which I believe God still accepts), etc.

What I’m less sure about is just how we live out this truth in the world. I have all kinds of basic answers from scripture and theology, and I think I hold to them as firm as ever. But sometimes somehow there seems to be a disconnect from those answers and life itself. I’m not necessarily thinking so much of my own life, though I’m sure it’s there, too. I’m especially thinking of just what the Spirit would have us do individually and together as church in the current culture in which we live.

In all of this we need the Holy Spirit to help us together sort through stuff. Yes, the church should be a centering point for this, even while we work through it in our own lives. We need people of wisdom who understand the times and what God’s people ought to do. Each generation needs to work on the application of the gospel for the specific time and place. And to be less sure ourselves means we can become more dependent on God, which is a good thing, a dependence in which there is interdependence on Christ’s body, the church. Together in Jesus in this for the world.

speak out

In Acts the Spirit comes on the believers and they begin to speak in other tongues/languages as the Spirit gives them utterance. In other places when one is filled with the Spirit they speak.

I think sometimes we who have the Spirit for one reason or another remain mute. Perhaps that’s a near impossibility when we receive a fresh infilling of the Spirit. I think even in our weakness we need to trust the Spirit to give us words for the moment. Our entire lives are in a sense preparation for that, as well as learning from God through scripture, tradition (the church), reason and experience. We need to trust the Lord that even in and through our weakness, he can speak through us. At the same time we must seek to speak his word and words, not our own. While realizing with all humility that something of our own words may get mixed in, which can not only be alright, but in fact an expression of the incarnational faith that is ours in Jesus.

And so prayerfully with all humility, let us seek to speak out, words of truth and love. To each other in Jesus, and especially to the world as his witnesses.

growing up together

There is a time for solitude, in fact we do well to learn how to spend time alone and in silence before God. Actually even in the noise and busyness of my work I often engage in that as much and as well as I can. Though one needs those regular times alone with God as well as times of retreat. We need much more of that, and I need to grow in all the above.

However when it comes to spiritual growth and formation in our Lord, there is no way that is possible apart from living with each other. Christian character formation is not possible apart from relationships, of course first with God and then with others. We’re to love God with all our being and doing, and our neighbor as ourselves, for starters. Notice that the fruit of the Spirit: “love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control” are especially acclimated to relationships, and note the context of that passage, which bears that out. Not only acclimated, but actually couldn’t exist, at least in part apart from relationships.

I have learned by experience that the Lord grows us up, together. At least that that is the best ground for growth. Of course I’m supposing we’re trying to be followers of the Lord, in his word day and night, at least sincere in our desire to follow him. But significant growth into Christ-likeness can’t happen apart from the bumps and even bruises of relationships lived in on a regular basis.

Yes, weaknesses in us come out, in fact just downright plain old fashioned sin. The Spirit helps us to see that better in relationships, and to live in the new way of love in Christ, to grow up in that love together. In Jesus we are required to work through relational issues, there is no getting around it. And the goal is maturity together into becoming like Christ, both individually and corporately, or as a community. We grow up in Jesus together, in this together for the world.

why? (the storm)

For a long time I’ve said that I’ll have no questions to ask God in the life to come, that it won’t matter, all will be well then. But I’m having second thoughts on that now. I heard our Pastor Jack recently say that he’ll have a good number of questions to ask God someday. I know Jack and that thought comes from a pastor’s heart, one who cares deeply about the flock.

In the aftermath of the devastating, deadly tornado in Oklahoma, as well as seeing the devastation of lives in much slower, subtler ways, I realize that there is a mystery here which I can’t understand, at least not now. There are so many tragedies in this life. We can hardly begin to sort them out. These are opportunities to enter deeply into people’s lives, at least in prayer, and hopefully in practical ways such as meeting needs until they can get back on their feet. And simply being with them.

We have no answer even as Christians for such events as happened yesterday in Oklahoma. Or for the sadness and difficulty we could find in so many places everyday.

Jesus did take the storm of all the evil crashing in upon him, crushing him as we see in the Garden of Gethsemane. Worked out and completed on the cross. Jesus’ resurrection bringing in a new era, the new creation, someday to be consummated when heaven and earth become one in him.

Until then we in Jesus can only pray and seek to be present especially to those in our lives who face great loss. As we pray the prayer our Lord taught his disciples:

Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one,
for yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.
Amen.

 

a Spirit-saturated existence

You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ.

It is said that all who are in Jesus are in the Spirit, that they are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if the Spirit of Christ dwells in them. Then we are told that those of the Spirit must by the Spirit to put to death the deeds of the body. And that all who are led by the Spirit are God’s children.

I have heard or read sharp Spirit-flesh teachings in my life. Watchman Nee, a great Bible teacher and writer as well as a martyr, comes to mind. It is a stark either/or; either what you do is of the flesh or of the Spirit. I think there is truth in that. Indeed any of us are capable of committing “great transgression” as David did. In the heart, and worse than that (although all sin starts in the heart) in the body. At the same time I think we are also capable by God’s grace to live by the Spirit, or think and do something by the Spirit.

What I want to push back against is the teaching that all that we do is a stark either/or. So that if we are struggling in our lives over anything, then nothing of the Spirit can be in anything in our lives. The passage (see context) quoted above suggests otherwise.

Indeed all who are in Christ, all followers of Jesus live in a Spirit-saturated existence, that is, the Spirit fills all things in our lives. We in turn are given the imperative to be filled with the Spirit. Indeed we can both grieve and quench the Spirit of God in our lives. We are not necessarily filled with the Spirit, but just the same we live in the Spirit, or in the realm of the Spirit. Being filled in our lives might simply mean to yield to the Spirit, to not resist the Spirit, to at least be open to the Spirit’s work in our lives.

What I am saying may or may not necessarily contradict the teachings I’m pushing back against. Maybe I’ve misunderstood them. Nor do I mean to water down the danger of living according to the flesh, rather than the Spirit. All I’m wanting to insist on and point out in this post is that we in Jesus live in the realm of the Spirit, indeed in a Spirit-saturated existence. Jesus’ words here, and the passage quoted afterward seem to suggest as much:

On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said,rivers of living water will flow from within them.” By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.

For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.

We in Jesus do indeed live in the Spirit, not in the flesh, if the Spirit of God lives in us. We live a Spirit-saturated existence. May we be enlarged in our hearts and lives to take in more and more of the Spirit who is present and at work in us in Jesus for the world.

Eugene H. Peterson on the Holy Spirit’s conception and birth of the resurrection community of Jesus’ followers

…the last words of Jesus to his followers are, “you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you” (Acts 1:8). Jesus’ friends are going to get their start the same way he got his, by the Holy Spirit. Jesus’ followers are going to become a resurrection community in the world (“when the Holy Spirit has come upon you”) in the same way that Jesus became the Savior of the world (“the Holy Spirit…upon you”). The operations of the Holy Spirit upon and in that septet of marginal Jews assembled in Luke 1-2 is about to be reproduced in Jesus’ followers who are gathered in Jerusalem waiting for Jesus to send them “what my Father promised” (Luke 24:49; cf. Acts 1:4-5).

Fifty days after the fateful Passover in which Jesus was crucified, and ten days after his ascension into heaven, the Holy Spirit descended on the waiting believers in Jerusalem. On that day, the Day of Pentecost, the holy community of the church as we now know it was conceived. Mary the mother of Jesus is the only member of that core group of seven who was in on the conception and birth of Jesus who is also now present at this conception and birth of the community (Acts 1:14). The Holy Spirit that conceived Jesus in Mary’s womb now conceives Jesus’ community with a charter membership of 120 (at least) of Jesus’ followers. And Mary is there to see and be a part of it.

References to the Holy Spirit now quicken. The seventeen references to the Holy Spirit in Luke’s Gospel increases to fifty-seven in Acts, a document about the same length as the Gospel. We are not to lose sight of the fundamental story line: what the community does and says and prays is continuous with what Jesus does and says and prays. This is the same Jesus story that we read in the Gospel but without Jesus being visibly and audibly present. The Holy Spirit is God’s way of being present and active among us in the same way that he was in Jesus.

Eugene H. Peterson, Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places: A Conversation in Spiritual Theology, 270.