Oh! to feel the ache, the sorrow, the dismay at the remnants of the old man, this body of death lurking within. To be giving him no place, no quarter, no sympathy, sheltering no lie (Ps 119:29), harboring no falsehood. (Ps 119:104)
To cry out with my whole heart for this, to be heard, and to be healed! (Ps 119:145)
To be playing with the trinkets of this world, pursuing, continually occupied with, consumed in the temporal, is to be God’s enemy. (Php 3:18-19)
Longing for righteousness. Relentless craving, undying pursuit, unwilling to take Nofor an answer. I must have holiness, perfection, knowledge and understanding.
When I cry after knowledge, lift up my voice for understanding, seeking her out as my treasure, my delight, then shall I understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. (Pr 2:3-5) He will pour water on my thirsty soul, and floods upon the dry ground. (Is 44:3)
Resentment: bitter indignation at having been treated unfairly, a feeling of indignant displeasure or persistent ill will at something regarded as a wrong, insult, or injury.
Do I feel resentmenttoward God for allowing bad things to happen to me? He could have stopped it, arranged for life to work out differently, to be free of pain and trouble. Do I hold this against Him? Does it impact my love for Him, my ability to trust Him?
My afflictions have a purpose: “Before I was afflicted I went astray: but now have I kept thy word.” (Ps 119:67) The harm I’ve felt, and the troubles I’ve endured have been good for me: “It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn thy statutes.” (Ps 119:67) Confessing, “I know, O LORD, that thy judgments are right, and that thou in faithfulness hast afflicted me,” (Ps 119:75) is to agree that God is sovereign, just, good and faithful.
My alternative is to believe that I know better than God, that my perspective is better than His, that He’s shortsighted, selfish, unjust. I cannot rejoice in the Lord from here. It’s the old man.
How can I know what I would have been like without pain? What do I base my presumption on? My tendency towards pride and selfishness requires God to break me. (He 12:6-28) Which of the fathers of our faith lived lives of ease and pleasure? I have nothing.
In suffering the enemy tempts us to bitterness and resentment, so we should be careful in watching over each other, praying for each other lest anyone fail of God’s grace(He 12:15), reminding each other to prayerfully and joyfully confess: “Thou hast dealt well with thy servant, O LORD, according unto thy word.” (Ps 119: 65)
Our enemy Satan is at war with the saints(Re 13:7); we’re in a continuous spiritual battle. (Ep 6:11-12) The basic dynamic in this war isn’t what I was taught, and it’s quite simple: wrong beliefs give the enemy spiritual ground (2Ti 2:25-26), believing the truth takes it back. (Jn 8:32)
The enemy’d have us believe there’s a LOT more to it than this, but he’s the father of lies (Jn 8:44), so why listen to him?
Think of spiritual ground as territory in our minds and hearts defined by our beliefs. The enemy has jurisdiction wherever we’re holding a lie (Ep 4:27); it gives him access to influence our thought patterns, motives, emotions and will to bring us into bondage, alienate us from God, and destroy us. This ground is called a carnal mind(Ro 8:7-8), the flesh(Ga 5:17), and our old man. (Ep 4:22)
Repentance is replacing lies with truth (2Ti 2:25); it recaptures spiritual ground and sets us free. (2Ti 2:26)
Getting hold of this changes everything. Wrong beliefs produce wrong attitudes, motives, and actions which alienate us from God and create spiritual, mental, emotional and physical bondage in our lives. (Ja 1:13-16) Truth then becomes infinitely precious: we buy the truth and sell it not (Pr 23:23); we seek it out, obey it and never let it go; it’s the key to freedom. (Ep 6:14)
In warring against us, the enemy is relentless in presenting lies to us in various forms: wrong teaching, emotional impulse, physical and emotional trauma, all with the purpose of gaining more ground, more control in our lives to destroy us. (Jn 10:10) This is how he works in the children of disobedience, who accept his suggestions as their own and act on them. (Ep 2:2) It’s how we all started out. (Ep 2:3)
To maintain the ground he already has, the enemy protects it with strongholds, irrational emotional ties to deception, moving us to feel comfort, pleasure, safety and security in our lies (Pr 9:17), and to feel deeply threatened by any challenge to them. (Ge 19:9) He does this because he has no other defense; lies cannot be upheld with a divine moral standard or with truth, only by other lies and our emotional attachments to these lies. They’re easy to spot: intense and intrinsically irrational, rooted in and springing from an innate hatred of God and His Law. (Ps 2:1-3)
No challenge to a belief threatens our well being: when an idea makes us feel defensive or fearful we have a stronghold guarded by the enemy. To love the truth, to be earnestly seeking it out wherever we can find it, and constantly shining the light of God’s moral standard, Torah (1Jn 3:4), on all of our beliefs and attitudes so that we might be fully aligned with Him throughout our entire being (1Jn 3:3), is to expose and disable all our enemy strongholds. (2Co 10:3-5)
Then, taking the sword of the Spirit, as God gives us understanding, repentance and faith, we may freely and relentlessly expose enemy ground and take it back (2Th 2:13), gaining progressively more and more freedom in our spiritual lives. (Ps 119:45)
YHWH. Jehovah God. The infinite, unchanging (Ja 1:17), omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent Creator. Matchless in beauty, infinite in wisdom and understanding (Ps 147:5), unwavering in truth. (Tit 1:2) He cannot learn; He cannot risk in hope: He knows.
Orion Nebula, Hubble
He inhabits eternity(Is 57:15), ever present in all places at every moment of time (2Pe 3:8), both within and beyond time and space, knowing all, pervading all, all powerful.
He made the stars (Ge 1:16), arranging them in countless, gigantic, spectacular galaxies, and calls them all by name (Ps 147:4) as they each uniquely proclaim His glory (Ps 19:1), His exquisite, eternal, infinite majesty.(Ps 96:6)
He is infinitely sovereign, in absolute control of everything all the time. (Da 4:35) He always works everything according to His own will. (Ep 1:11)
He’s relational, in Himself a flawless divine community (Ge 1:26), in perfect delight and harmony within Himself (Jn 17:5), needing nothing and no one (Ps 50:12), welcoming every sentient being to come to Him and enjoy Himself. (Re 22:17)
He’s created each of us uniquely in His own image (Ge 1:27) to express some nuance of the divine nature, giving us meaning, purpose and intrinsic value, loving us unconditionally (Jn 3:16) and individually. (Jn 13:1) Though we’re all born at enmity with Him (Ep 2:1), He’s reaching out to every one of us in the mystery of the gospel to reconcile us to Himself, regardless what we’ve thought or done. (2Co 5:19)
He has revealed Himself though perfect Law(Ps 19:7), a living expression of His love and justice (He 4:12) in the context of human brokenness (Mt 22:37-40), revealing and exposing as corrupt all that is contrary to His nature. (Ro 8:7)
He has also revealed Himself through His Son Jesus Christ, Himself the godhead incarnate. (Co 2:9) God Himself condescended to become one of His own creatures, one of us, to show us exactly what He’s like (Jn 14:9), willing to die for His enemies (Ro 5:10), enduring His own justice on our behalf, receiving us into His family and adopting us as His own (1Jn_3:1), if we would just be willing to receive Him. (Jn 1:12)
He’s perfectly just, no respecter of persons (Ac 10:34), and yet He’s infinitely merciful(Ps 103:17), benevolent and kind(Lk 6:35), even offering us the strength to obey Him if we’ll have it; He will never turn anyone away who’s diligently seeking Him(He 11:6), and will eternally terrify(2Co 5:11) all who won’t. (Mt 25:46)
He’s made many, many amazing promises(2Pe 1:4), and He’s never broken one. He’s perfectly faithful; He will never leave us nor forsake us. (He 13:5)
Regardless where I am, who I’m with, or what’s happening to me or around me, I can always rejoice in the eternal infinitude of God, beholding His beauty(Ps 27:4), feeding in His majesty, being delighted in, awed by and overcome with the perfection of His Way.
The almighty, eternal God repeatedly commands me to rejoice in Him, and to persist in this, always. (Php 4:4) He will have it no other way; He’s made me to exult in Him: enjoying God is the singular fuel of the human soul, joy unspeakableand full of glory. (1Pe 1:8)
We’re to abide in Christ, so that when He shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before Him at His coming. (1Jn 2:28)
How we imagine we’ll feel at His appearing isn’t the point, it’s how we’ll actuallyfeel: shame or confidence. If we’re following a false Jesus(2Co 11:4), our anticipation of our response is as much in error.
So, what do we have now that’s the most like Jesus Christ? I’d say Torah,God’s commandments, is the best we have; they’re His testimonies about Himself, revealing His mind and heart, His way, His Truth, His life. We measure any likeness of Jesus Christ by its standard. (1Jn 3:4)
A king’s heart is revealed in His laws. Imagine Mosaic Law returning in the clouds, the Torah alive, deified: this, on moral and character grounds, is indistinguishable from the heart of Jesus Christ.
If we don’t know God’s Law, we don’t know Him; if we don’t delight in His law(Ro 7:22), we don’t love Him and we’ll be cursed when He comes. (1Co 16:22) Only those who obey Him are born of Him. (1Jn 2:29)
How we respond to our God’s Law is, I think, how we’ll respond to Him. Are we treasuring it (Ps 119:111), hiding it in our hearts like He told us to (De 6:6), and meditating on it all the time? (Jos 1:8) This is what abiding in Him looks like; it’s how He walked. (1Jn 2:6)
All the tribes of the earth will mourn when Jesus Christ returns (Mt 24:30); they can’t submit to His law. (Ro 8:7) His saints will rejoice in Him, just as they rejoice in His law. (Ps 119:127) To abide in Him, that we not be ashamed before Him at His coming, is our heart being sound in His statutes. (Ps 119:80)
A friend once said, “If I won’t let you spend my money, why should I let you spend my time?” The words captured me. What do I really value more: time or money?
I spend much of my time earning money, but it seems appropriate, what I ought to be doing. I need work to be healthy; it humbles me, challenges me and gives me a sense of purpose. Work isn’t a curse, it’s commanded (Ex 20:9), so it’s a blessing (Ps 19:11); I’m a better person for it.
But I suppose that’s why I’m also constantly valuing my free time in monetary terms: it’s valuable, but howvaluable? Spending my life in temporal pursuits will leave only a blur, a distant memory.
I can always get more money, but I’ve only a fixed amount of time on Earth; not one second more than Abba’s given, each one a perfect gift to enjoy and serve Him. Yet there are innumerable ways to spend our time, and so many clamor for a piece of it.
If there’s no eternal purpose in a moment it’s lost, gone forever. I want each one to count for Him, to redeem the time. (Col 4:5), creating eternal value, being intentional and deliberate, not cruising through life, or letting others spend it for me.
Resting, relaxing, taking it easy – this isn’t necessarily wasting time, it’s also commanded. (Ex 20:10) Enjoying God in games and Creation … He’s given us richly all things to enjoy (1Ti 6:17) … re-creation … to rejuvenate our souls and minds. Leisure has it’s purpose, helping us stay healthy and balanced, but it’s not our goal.
We each have unique gifts, ways we’re particularly enabled to serve God, so we each have a unique purpose in this life. We’ll be held accountable for how we live it. (Mt_12:36) The goal is to so run that we hear in the end, “Well done!” (Mt 25:21)
My old man is being crucified with Christ; God’s destroying my selfish, sinful nature and freeing me to obey Him. (Ro 6:6)
So I’m to put this old man off, with his lying desires (Ep 4:22), and put on my new man, the part of me being renewed in knowledge after God’s image. (Col 3:10)
This gives me a key to what this old manactually is: my carnal mind(Ro 8:7), my wrong thinking, false paradigms and mindsets in which I walk with selfish motives, unable to please God. (Ro 8:8) I live in God as He gives me understanding. (Ps 119:144)
So I find the old man to be nothing more than a personification of the selfish lies I’m holding on to. This demystifies him, exposes him, makes him vulnerable and helpless. He’s insidiously strong, no doubt, but in the power of God his strongholds are going down (2Co 10:4), one lie at a time. This process is certainly mysterious in some ways, but in principle it’s simple.
I put off the old man by hiding God’s Word, the sword of the Spirit, in my heart(Ps 119:11), meditating on it regularly (Ps 119:97), continually exposing myself to truth (Jn 17:17), noting where I deviate from His Way(Ps 119:9), and asking God to make me understand (Ps 119:27), order my steps in His Word (Ps 119:33) and set me free. (Jn 8:32)
I also engage with others in community doing the same thing, listening to what they’ve learned, encouraging them and being encouraged by them as we edify one another, praying for each other (Ep 3:14-19), helping each other see our blind spots and pursuing Godtogether.
Putting off the old man isn’t like taking off a coat; it’s more like climbing a mountain, or peeling an onion, step after step, layer after layer. It’s a growth process, walking in the light, building an eternal relationship, connecting with God’s heart, seeking His face. (Ps 27:8) It’s a life pattern of spiritual exercise, a discipline, a journey. (Php 3:14)
If I found a treasure chest filled with gold, I’d be excited! It would put a smile on my face and a spring in my step! I’d be delighted!
Delight: a high degree of gratification or pleasure, a strong feeling of happiness.
Paul says the part of us that’s united with and inclined towards God delightsin God’s Law, Torah (Ro 7:22) and keeps His commands(1Jn 2:4); the part of us that doesn’t, our old man, our carnal mind (Ro 8:7), is at war with God. (Ro 7:23)
In this war, God is delivering His children from bondage, from their inclination to neglect and despise Torah. (Ro 7:24-25) Where are we in this deliverance process? Is it happening in us?
Saints love God’s Law more than heaps of gold and silver (Ps 119:72), and we’re always thinking about it (Ps 119:97) because God’s putting His laws into our minds and writing them onto our hearts. (He 8:10) God reveals Himself through His law (Ps 119:18), and He’s Who we’re after.
If we aren’t too far along on this journey yet, maybe not yet started, still cleaving to dust, it’s never too late. We can seek God out and ask Him to create a clean heart within us (Ps 51:10), and incline it unto His testimonies.(Ps 119:36)
Christ is the central figure of history; His crucifixion, resurrection and ascension are the key facts of history. Knowing Him is life eternal (Jn 17:3); it’s our singular objective (1Jn 5:5), to know Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. (1Co 2:2)
But the enemy has positioned innumerable counterfeits, false Christ’s (Mt 24:5), much easier to find and follow (2Co 11:4), promoting them through false brothers and seducing spirits. Very few of us will find the Way. (Mt 7:14)
Yet even as we pursue the living Christ it’s easy to get distracted, bogged down and side-tracked(2Ti 2:14), forgeting Who it is we’re after. (Php 1:21) Spiritually speaking, is anything worth knowing that doesn’t help us in knowing Him? (Php 3:13-15)
Christ is the foundation of the assembly (1Co 3:11) and the very life of the believer (Col 3:4); our objective in community is to help each other find Him and know Him (Php 3:8), discovering why He died and what it means for us, exploring the mystery of the gospel together.
So who is Jesus Christ? What’s He like? What does He value? (Jn 14:21) What did He do, and for whom? (1Jn 2:2) How does this affect our lives? (Ro 6:6) What does it mean to be crucified with Him? (Gal 2:20) How does this impact our values? (Ga 6:14) These are the salient, timeless questions, the answers to which comprise our spiritual quest.
It’s not about parroting answers, but in knowing the Person of the answers, walking in the light, in fellowship with Him, worthy of Him. Otherwise we may ever be learning, yet never able to come to the knowledge of the Truth. (2Ti 3:7)
Well after Christ’s resurrection, as the Apostle Paul penned Hebrews (circa 67 CE), God’s temple in Jerusalem, the earthly picture of His heavenly temple with its ceremonial ordinances and sacrificial system, was as functional as ever. (He 8:4-5)
Petra, Jordan
Yet Paul said God’s old covenant with Israel, built around this temple and its priestly activity, was decaying, growing old, and “ready to vanish away.” (He 8:13) Shortly afterward (circa 70 CE), Rome destroyed God’s earthly temple, halting the entire sacrificial system and Israel’s ability to keep this old covenant.
But this wasn’t the first time. Previously, in 586 BCE, Babylon destroyed the temple, similarly disabling the sacrificial system and Israel’s ability to keep God’s covenant. This first vanishing of the covenant lasted for 70 years while Israel was in exile, but it didn’t make either the covenant or the sacrificial system obsolete. Why then would anyone think the second instance did? The true temple in heaven, after which the earthly counterpart was modeled (He 9:24), has never missed a beat. (Re 11:19)
One reason might be that, when left to ourselves, we’re innately disposed to hate God and His law (Ro 8:7), jumping at any excuse to dismiss His way as irrelevant or obsolete. (2Ti 4:3)
The cross of Christ didn’t displace either the temple or its sacrificial system; animal sacrifices have always been God’s way of pointing us to the cross, helping us understand the nature of Christ’s atoning work. (Jn 1:29)
Without this tangible expression of propitiation (1Jn 2:2), enabling us to relate intimately and practically with the concept of atonement, most of us are hindered in our ability our grasp the nature and significance of the gospel mystery; many in Christianity remain alienated from God (Mt 7:21-23), worshiping another Jesus and preaching another gospel. (Ga 1:6-7)
Yet even with the temple and sacrificial system in place, Israel missed God’s intent so completely, corrupting and abusing its design so thoroughly (Ro 10:3), that God stepped around them to work His plan for world evangelism another way. (Ro_11:15)
Meanwhile, YHWH’s Heavenly temple still stands, eternally relevant.(Re 16:17) Its earthly counterpart will eventually be fully restored (Re 11:1-2) — there’s nothing in it inconsistent with the gospel.
Torah is holy, just and good (Ro 7:12); it’s God’s moral standard, defining sin and righteousness (1Jn 3:4) so long as Heaven and Earth remain. (Mt 5:18)
God’s temple, His kingdom, and all His laws are amazingly beautiful (Ps 27:4); we do well to seek God in them,keeping His commandments, enjoying them as He intended(Ps 119:111), longing after them (Ps 119:40), and looking forward to their glorious revelation to all Mankind. (Mi 4:2)
