Month: May 2017

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The Beauty of Holiness

Righteousness and holiness are words out of fashion. To some, they are terms that imply exclusion and division. They are words employed to convey the sense of things sacred, and sacred things are things that seem out of reach.

Jesus changed this. He came from Heaven to earth, the only begotten Son of God. He followed a course of life guided by the Holy Spirit in obedience to His Father. In Him, all of the Law of Moses was fulfilled. He left not a point of it undone.

Did Jesus do this sequestered away from people and their problems? Did He take up residence atop a lofty mountain and wait for the strong, the rugged, and the dedicated to climb to Him?

He did not. Rather, Jesus came to us, to where we are. Two disciples asked the Lord, “Where do you live?” His answer: “Come and see” (John 1:39-41).

Christ’s life on earth was one of ministry and availability. His righteousness, His holiness, was there for all to watch, to approach, and to touch. He proved attractive to the worst of the society He walked through. Those made ill by demons, diseases, and sin flocked to Him. To them, He revealed Himself as the Healer and the Deliverer.

[bctt tweet=”The Holy One came close, but He never compromised His character or His Person.” username=”ggwo”]

The very unclean spirits He encountered were among the first to declare the reality of His deity, as they cried out, “Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are–the Holy One of God!” (Mark 1:24).

The Holy One came close, but He never compromised His character or His Person. His way was gentle, yet firm and clear and supremely consistent.

Worship and Awe

Consider how Jesus sat with the woman at the well, a story related in John 4. She came at midday to fill her water pot — a most unusual time to come to the well. She was probably there then because she wanted to avoid the scorn of the townsfolk. The details of her life likely filled the gossipy chatter that went on there.

Jesus sat with her – a development that stunned her. He addressed her and her sin; she had been married five times and had taken up with a sixth man who was not her husband. She made no excuse, neither did she run away. She even tried to steer the conversation toward religion. “I perceive You are a prophet,” she told Him.

The conversation went on and, eventually, Jesus told her directly that He was the promised Messiah. Her heart touched, she hurried to town and invited everyone to hear from Him, “the One who told of all she had ever done.” She had come to worship Him, the Righteous One who had come to her. Others came to Him because of how He had come to her.

The Attraction of Righteousness

Psalm 96 includes an invitation: “Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness: fear before Him, all the earth” (Psalm 96:8). Holiness, rightly perceived, stirs appreciation and awe. Worship! Give honor! Fear the Lord!

Real righteousness attracts the most unattractive, those who have come to the end of themselves. They recognize a righteousness so right that it has liberty to forgive and set free, a righteousness that offers mercy and makes clean. Sin is never excused. It is, however, labeled and exposed. It is shown in all of its weight and bondage. Those burdened, crushed, and confined by sin, cast themselves on the Holy One, whom they see as their only hope.

False righteousness, the kind fueled by self-effort, is repellent. People sense pretense – especially teenagers; ask any youth pastor or leader about how fast phonies are found out and tuned out. Better yet, ask the teens themselves.

Luke 7 provides an account of a collision between the false and the true, as Jesus is invited to dinner at the home of a Pharisee, Simon. As they sat together at the dinner table, a prostitute pushed her way to Jesus and began to kiss His feet and wash them with her tears. She dried those feet with her hair. She bathed them in ointment.

What moved her to such a response? The righteousness of Christ drew her to Him.

Jesus perceived the thoughts of the self-righteous in the room and told them just how wrong such thoughts were. In essence, they saw righteousness as something to be attained, as something that is earned through a pattern of effort. Christ showed them that true righteousness must be received from above. It is robed upon those who run to it and it covers all those who cry, “Lord, have mercy.”

The woman in Luke 7 loved Jesus very much and apparently felt at home at His feet. The greatness of her sin overwhelmed her, but in Him she saw hope — the hope in the mercy that rejoices against judgment.

How to Make a Difference

What does this mean for us now? Righteousness matters and makes a difference. This cannot be a righteousness that we fashion on our own, but it must be the righteousness that we receive by faith in the One who saved us. Such righteousness changes things.

“When it goes well with the righteous, the city rejoices” (Proverbs 11:10). It all comes down to the beauty of holiness. The highness and rightness of Jesus when seen in His people can affect eternal results.

Let’s not take the edge off of His righteous way. Let’s avoid the temptation to dim the glory due the Savior. Let’s worship and adore Him and manifest this adoration with inspired lives, with hearts full of appreciation for His mercy and grace.

In this way, we shall be beautiful for all of our situations. Christ shall be lifted up, and He shall draw men unto Him.

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Made for War

The best defense is a good offense – or so I have heard it said by a number of sports coaches through the years. In fact, this is an ancient concept; really it’s one that’s as old as Creation.

Follow this with me. Genesis opens by telling us that “the Earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep” (Genesis 1:2). God spoke – “Let there be light” – and the ordering of all things began.

Next, the Lord moved through a series of days to fashion the cosmos as we know it. God did not sit still; He set in motion the processes of fruitfulness and multiplication.

Go through Genesis 1 and notice the pattern the Lord followed. Dry land, the heavens, and the seas were organized and then filled. The land became thick with grass, herbs, and trees bearing fruit. The heavens were brightened as suns, stars, planets, and moons were set in their places. Then, the seas became populated with fish and whales and other creatures; the skies grew cluttered with birds; and on land, all manner of animals and creeping things began to roam and swarm.

At last there came the climax of the Lord’s work days of forming and filling. God determined to make man in His image and to set man in dominion (see Genesis 1:26-28). He formed man from the dust of the Earth, breathed into man’s nostrils the breath of life and so man became a living soul (Genesis 2:7). Adam, he was called.

As with the rest of God’s Creation, man was formed, but he was filled in a different way, he was filled with God. Adam was set in a garden and given the work of dressing and keeping it. He then named all the animals as the Lord brought them to him.

End of story? Not at all. God saw a void, an emptiness that was “not good” according to Genesis 2:18. The man was alone. The Lord, again on the offensive, put Adam to sleep, took a rib, and made woman from that rib to fill the place at Adam’s side.

There’s more to this part of the story. Adam was to take his bride and come together with her as one flesh in fruitful fellowship and relationship. In their fruitfulness, the man and the woman would multiply.

Simply, they were to be at home with each other and to make a home full of children. The purpose was that human beings might fill the earth and subdue it with their kind — those made in the image of God.

Psalm 8 provides insight into the purpose at the heart of it all. This song, composed by King David, exalts the Lord who ordained strength out of the mouths of “babes and sucklings.” The strength that comes from these weak and helpless ones is what God uses to “still the enemy and the avenger” (Psalm 8:2). For this cause, so says Psalm 8, the Lord is mindful of man, who though made lower than angels, has been crowned with glory and honor and given dominion (see Psalm 8:4-8).

There’s a war we cannot see, but one we are most involved in, according to the design of God. The Word tells us of how an enemy arose amid the realm of the Lord. Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28 describe one cherub, Lucifer, who sought to establish an identity apart from the order of God and to set up an authority “as the most High.” He succeeded in attracting a following from among the angels, a third of this host joined the rebellion (see Revelation 12:4; Hebrews 12:22).

God ‘s offense against this lingering enemy is us, weapons He formed from the dust.

Families are fearsome forces for Hell to reckon with because of their design in the order of God.

Angelic beings cannot multiply as human beings. We know this from Jesus Himself, when in a disputation with the Sadducees about resurrection life,  He declared that angels neither marry nor are given in marriage (see Matthew 22 and Mark 12).

Satan orchestrates efforts to “weaken the nations” and it should come as no surprise that he targets families and children. Every marriage represents another opportunity for fruitfulness and multiplication, a chance for the Lord to gain more arrows to fire in the invisible battles that continue.

Babes and sucklings, God ordained them for strength against His enemy. These are like smooth stones in the sling of David, and they are devastating to the Goliaths who mock the Lord and His people.

Is it any wonder that Satan seeks to eliminate these little ones? Anyone paying attention to modern cultural trends should recognize Hell’s strategy to marginalize biblical marriages that could result in healthy homes and strong families.

The Church of Jesus Christ, therefore, must lead in helping homes become stable expressions of Gospel-centered life. We cannot afford to be casual about the ways husband and wives are troubled. Children need models of tenacious conviction. They need to see couples love, fight, forgive, and forbear, and grow up to become couples who do the same.

Let us pray fervently for victories in our homes. Not just for the sake of cities, states, and nations, but for the purpose of God in seeking the lost and filling the earth with testimonies of His glory.

May the Spirit of the Lord help us as take our positions in God’s offensive order.