Heavenly Mindedness (26)

 

Continuing our reflections on Geerhardus Vos’s Message on “Heavenly Mindedness” from Hebrews 11:9 – 10:

 

“Next to the positiveness of its object the high degree of actuality in the working of this grace should be considered. Through the faith of heavenly-mindedness the things above reveal themselves to the believer, are present with him, and communicate themselves to him. Though as yet a pilgrim, the Christian is never wholly separated from the land of promise. His tents are pitched in close view of the city of God. Heaven is present to the believer’s experience in no less real a sense than Canaan with its fair hills and valleys lay close to the vision of Abraham. He walks in the light of the heavenly world and is made acquainted with the kindred spirits inhabiting it.

 

“And since the word “actual” in its literal sense means “that which works,” the life above possesses for the believer the highest kind of actuality. He is given to taste the powers of the world to come, as Abraham breathed the air of Canaan, and was refreshed by the dews descending on its fields. The roots of the Christian’s life are fed from those rich and perennial springs that lie deep in the recesses of converse with God, where prayers ascend and divine graces descend, so that after each season of tryst [intimate private time with God] he issues, a new man, from the secrecy of his tent.” G. Vos

 

What are the roots of our life? What do we feed on? What, or who, is the source of our life? Vos writes that our roots are to “lie deep in the recesses of converse [communion, relationship, fellowship, koinonia] with God.” Vos gives us a picture of being renewed and transformed in this relationship, “he issues, a new man, from the secrecy of his tent.”

 

Paul writes that “though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day” (2 Cor. 4:16; see also 2 Cor. 3:17 – 18).  The Christian life is to be a life of transformation into the image of Jesus Christ (Romans 8:29; 12:1 – 2) as God works in us, to will and to do His good pleasure (Phil. 2:13).

 

What do we see in the relationship of the Incarnate Only Begotten Son with His Father? We see that Jesus had food that the disciples didn’t know anything about, it was to do the will of the Father and to accomplish the Father’s work (John 4:31 – 34; 17:4). We also see that the koinonia of the Father and Son is such Jesus said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner” (John 5:19; see also John 5:30; 6:38; 8:28; 12:49; 14:10). Since this is the manner of life of the Only Begotten Son, this is what the manner of life ought to be in His Body; as the Head lives so is the Body called to live (1 Cor. 12:12; Eph. 4:14 – 16; Col. 2:19).

 

The life that lives in the follower of Jesus Christ is the life from above, the believer is born of the Spirit of God (John 3:1 – 8), the Spirit of sonship (John 1:12 – 13; Romans 8:14 – 17), and is given the seal and deposit of the Holy Spirit that places a foretaste of future glory in our jars of clay (Eph 1:13 – 14; 2 Cor. 1:21 – 22; 5:5). We live in anticipation of our future participation in God’s glory (Phil. 3:20 – 21; 1 John 3:1 – 3; Romans 5:1 – 2; 8:18 – 25; 2 Thess. 1:10; 1 Peter 4:12 – 13). This seal and deposit of the Holy Spirit draws us into a participation, in this present life, of this glory that will be revealed (1 Peter 5:1).

 

The root of our life, the source of our life, is to be the very life of God, the Holy Trinity.

 

Vos writes of “rich and perennial springs that lie deep in the recesses of converse with God, where prayers ascend and divine graces descend, so that after each season of tryst [intimate private time with God] he issues, a new man, from the secrecy of his tent.”

 

While we are most certainly members of Christ’s Body, and citizens of a heavenly community, and while we have a community of communion with the Trinity; we are also called to have individual intimacy with God, to enjoy what Vos styles as seasons of tryst in the secrecy of our tents.

 

Jesus teaches us to go into our inner rooms and close the door, praying to our Father in secret (Matthew 6:6). Paul writes that our lives are “hidden with Christ in God” (Col. 3:3). John speaks of a different language in Christ, in the sense that there is a speaking and hearing beyond what is naturally spoken and audible (1 John 4:5 – 6; see also John 15:18 – 19; 1 Cor. Chp. 2).

 

The heavenly – minded life is a life of cultivation in which we learn, by the grace of God, to respond to the love and Word of God, by the heavenly Holy Spirit of God working deep within our souls and transforming us into the image of Jesus Christ.

 

While this life in Christ is intimately individual (it is also intimately communal!), the Scriptures teach us that we meet Christ in His Word and in prayer; we learn to receive His Word in prayer and to pray according to His Word. Whatever distinctions we may have in our individual relationships with the Trinity, the Scriptures demonstrate again and again the common Table from which we all must eat – the Word and prayer.

 

May I ask you a question? Let us suppose that you are a member of the royal family of Britain. How would you respond if the Queen said to you, “I love you so much, I desire a relationship with you so deeply; I want to know you and I want you to know me, I want to know your heart and I want you to know my heart…may I ask you; Would you please begin each and every morning with me? Could we have breakfast together every day and spend some special time together…just you and me?”

 

How would you respond?

Russell Moore and The Roman Road from Insurrection

 I admit that I am fatigued from the news and the chaos. But I am reminded of Proverbs 24:10, "If you are slack in the day of distress, your strength is limited." (NASB). Below is a link to a piece from Russell Moore - well worth pondering. 

https://www.russellmoore.com/2021/01/11/the-roman-road-from-insurrection/

Heavenly Mindedness (25)

 

Continuing our reflections on Geerhardus Vos’s Message on “Heavenly Mindedness” from Hebrews 11:9 – 10:

 

“Next to the positiveness of its object the high degree of actuality in the working of this grace should be considered. Through the faith of heavenly-mindedness the things above reveal themselves to the believer, are present with him, and communicate themselves to him. Though as yet a pilgrim, the Christian is never wholly separated from the land of promise. His tents are pitched in close view of the city of God. Heaven is present to the believer’s experience in no less real a sense than Canaan with its fair hills and valleys lay close to the vision of Abraham. He walks in the light of the heavenly world and is made acquainted with the kindred spirits inhabiting it.

 

“And since the word “actual” in its literal sense means “that which works,” the life above possesses for the believer the highest kind of actuality. He is given to taste the powers of the world to come, as Abraham breathed the air of Canaan, and was refreshed by the dews descending on its fields. The roots of the Christian’s life are fed from those rich and perennial springs that lie deep in the recesses of converse with God, where prayers ascend and divine graces descend, so that after each season of tryst [intimate private time with God] he issues, a new man, from the secrecy of his tent.” G. Vos

 

Vos says that, “Though as yet a pilgrim, the Christian is never wholly separated from the land of promise. His tents are pitched in close view of the city of God.” St. John Chrysostom taught that we ought to always be living in tents, for when we build grand houses for ourselves the walls of those houses become the walls of prisons – we are imprisoned in the things of this world and we forget that we are pilgrims on a journey. In other words, when we become enthralled with the world we imprison ourselves. Jesus teaches us that “where our treasure is, there our hearts will also be.” Might we say that we are either pilgrims following Jesus Christ or prisoners of this present age?

 

“Heaven is present to the believer’s experience in no less real a sense than Canaan with its fair hills and valleys lay close to the vision of Abraham.” Abraham lived in Canaan but he did not fully possess Canaan. While on earth we can also live in heaven, while as yet not fully possessing heaven. As Abraham’s acquaintance with Canaan grew, as he moved from a general vision to a particular vision, and then from particular visions back to a grand expansive vision; so our acquaintance with the heavens can grow and deepen in Christ as we love Him with all that we have and all that we are.

 

Paul writes (Ephesians 1:3), “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ.” We must always be clear that we are not called to have spiritual experiences, any more than we are called to be good moral people, to fulfill our potential, to have successful careers, healthy families, or growing churches – we must insist on this. Our call is to know Jesus Christ, and in Christ, as we seek the Face of God and love one another, we pray that His glory will be displayed in our experiences, the sanctification of our lives, our faithfulness in vocation and careers, in our families, and in our churches – but all of these relationships and endeavors must be rooted and grounded in Christ. Paul is saying, “God has given you every blessing in the heavens, and I’m about to disclose to you many of those blessings, I’m about to write to you of your inheritance, but make no mistake that these are all to be found in Christ.” This is why Paul can write to the Colossians that Christ is “God’s mystery” and that in Christ “are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Colossians 2:1 – 3).

 

I am making a point of this because Vos is writing of a deep awareness of the heavenlies and of the unseen (2 Cor. 4:18), and of an ongoing communion with the saints. This can be misunderstood on many levels, but I am particularly concerned that it may be misunderstood by those seeking spiritual experiences for the sake of having those experiences. It is one thing to seek the Face of God in order to know God in Christ in His love, grace, and glory; it is another thing to seek God’s Face in Christ in order to have a supernatural experience. Let’s be clear about this, the closer we move into the heavenly life, the more pronounced the Cross of Christ becomes in our lives – heaven is not an amusement park, it is the Lamb that opens the seals of the book, and the Lamb with the Father who gives light to the City – a Lamb slain. If we would live in the light of that City then we will learn the ways of the Lamb and live by His light. For the Christian, there is no heavenly glory absent crucifixion. There is no grand and glorious “Hallelujah!” without an agonizing “My God, my God! Why have you forsaken me?” There is no Easter without a Good Friday. The power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings are inseparable (Phil. 3:10).

 

We’ll continue with this quote from Vos in the next post.

Heavenly Mindedness (24)

 

Continuing our reflections on Geerhardus Vos’s Message on “Heavenly Mindedness” from Hebrews 11:9 – 10:

 

“Next to the positiveness of its object the high degree of actuality in the working of this grace should be considered. Through the faith of heavenly-mindedness the things above reveal themselves to the believer, are present with him, and communicate themselves to him. Though as yet a pilgrim, the Christian is never wholly separated from the land of promise. His tents are pitched in close view of the city of God. Heaven is present to the believer’s experience in no less real a sense than Canaan with its fair hills and valleys lay close to the vision of Abraham. He walks in the light of the heavenly world and is made acquainted with the kindred spirits inhabiting it.

 

“And since the word “actual” in its literal sense means “that which works,” the life above possesses for the believer the highest kind of actuality. He is given to taste the powers of the world to come, as Abraham breathed the air of Canaan, and was refreshed by the dews descending on its fields. The roots of the Christian’s life are fed from those rich and perennial springs that lie deep in the recesses of converse with God, where prayers ascend and divine graces descend, so that after each season of tryst [intimate private time with God] he issues, a new man, from the secrecy of his tent.” G. Vos

 

In the first paragraph above Vos says, “Next to the positiveness of its object the high degree of actuality in the working of this grace should be considered.” Then in the second paragraph we read, “And since the word “actual” in its literal sense means “that which works,” the life above possesses for the believer the highest kind of actuality.” Heavenly – mindedness and the grace within which we live, is real, tangible, and works itself out (is manifested) in daily life. The Biblical view of life is holistic and there is no room in Biblical thinking for the compartmentalization of life that is prevalent in Western culture and philosophy.

 

While there may be legitimate grounds for criticizing church-goers as hypocrites, we are a society of hypocrites in that we are seldom what others see, and have been trained to wear different masks in different contexts and situations and to discount inconsistencies in our thinking and behavior. As we move from compartment to compartment in life we adapt to each compartment and conform to our environments. Hence, putting a “spin” on life and business and religion, which is actually deceit and lying, becomes acceptable because everyone else is doing it – we are a society of liars. This is a far cry from the man or woman or young person living in koinonia with God who will, “Swear to his own hurt and does not change [telling the truth]” (Psalm 15:4c).

 

Consider what the church’s witness would look like if professing – Christians did not compartmentalize life. How could we not witness to Christ and the Gospel wherever we were, in whatever we were doing? Often simply telling the truth is a witness in our society, and a life of telling the truth contributes to a life of witnessing for Jesus Christ. A life of following Jesus Christ, a life of devotion to Christ, a life of heavenly – mindedness, becomes a life of consistent witness to Christ and His Gospel. A life of heavenly – mindedness lifts us above the compartmentalization of society; heavenly – mindedness becomes our biosphere in Christ, it is real, it is actual, and it works itself out holistically in our lives.

 

Vos says, “Through the faith of heavenly-mindedness the things above reveal themselves to the believer, are present with him, and communicate themselves to him.”

 

Jesus says (John 16:12 – 15), “I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of Mine and will disclose it to you. All things that the Father has are Mine; therefore I said that He takes of Mine and will disclose it to you.”

 

Christ Jesus came to reveal the Father to us; the Father reveals the Son; the Father and Son speak to us of the Holy Spirit; the Holy Spirit reveals the Father and the Son – there is a revelatory mutuality in the Trinity. When we learn to cultivate heavenly – mindedness we breathe this revelatory atmosphere; we see Jesus in the Psalms, we see Him in Genesis, we behold Him in Isaiah, we cry out with Him in Lamentations – and in doing so we are transformed from glory to glory by the Holy Spirit (2 Cor. 3:17 – 18). When we read the many quotations, and “see” the even more explicit and implicit allusions, to the Old Testament within the New Testament – we see the unveiling of the Christ throughout the Scriptures. Jesus sets the stage for this in Luke Chapter 24 as He reveals Himself through the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms; and we see this bursting forth in Peter’s message on Pentecost in Acts Chapter 2 as Peter grounds his preaching in the prophet Joel and the Psalms.

 

As Vos points us to “the things above” he points us to Jesus, always to Jesus. Indeed, Vos’s text in Hebrews Chapter 11 leads us to Hebrews 12:2 with the ringing exhortation that we are to live “fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith.” God the Father has One revelation and One revelation only, His Son Jesus Christ.

 

Do we wonder what Jesus meant when He said, “I have many more things to say to you”? Do we want to know what these things are? Then let us seek the face of God in Jesus Christ in the Scriptures – in the whole and holistic Bible. Let us seek Him in the Church Fathers who built upon that Foundation. Let us seek Him in the faithful men and women who have preceded us. But all must ultimately and clearly and unequivocally be built upon the whole and holistic Bible – all must unambiguously radiate Jesus Christ.

 

Just as the focus in the Throne Room (Revelation chapters 4 and 5) is God the Father, the Son (Lamb) and the Holy Spirit, with continuous worship and unveiling – so what we seek and receive must draw us deeper and deeper beyond the veil and into the Throne Room (Hebrews 10:19 – 22).

 

Let us remind ourselves that only the Holy Spirit can reveal the things of God to us (1Corinthinans 1:18 – 2:16). Biblical epistemology is Pneumatic epistemology; the natural man, the soulical person, cannot receive the things the things of the Spirit of God,  “…he cannot understand them because they are spiritually discerned and understood.” For the follower of Jesus Christ, there is no spirituality apart from the centrality and testimony of Jesus Christ.

 

We’ll continue with the above quotation from Vos in the next post…

Musings on January 3 and beyond

 

I’ll admit that the past few days have been somewhat of a fog. I am incredulous that professing Christians are endorsing and advocating violence and lawlessness – this can come from nowhere else but the abyss and is assuredly demonic (James 3:13 – 18; 2 Thess. 2:1 – 12). I am also baffled at the lukewarm response to this insane idolatry by Christians who do know better, where is the clear denunciation of evil in the church? Most of the language I’ve read from people with a broad platform falls far short of calling evil and idolatry what they are – perhaps it is just this sort of cotton candy leadership, which is not “rightly dividing the word of truth,” that has contributed to our present condition.

 

Where are those who speak with authority and not as the scribes? Who will speak as the oracles of God? What have we come to?

 

Below is an email I sent to a friend the morning of January 3. On Sunday mornings I make it a special point to pray for pastors I know, and their wives and families and churches. On January 3 I had a particular burden and sent the note below to a pastor friend. The burden manifested itself in Jeremiah 4:19 – I was living that verse, my heart was pounding in intercession for the church and my country. Little did I know what January 6 would bring.

 

I also knew I was to fast on Monday and Tuesday, I broke the fast late Tuesday. I didn’t know why at the time, but on Wednesday I did.

 

I’ve engaged a few professing Christians in conversation about violence and nation – worship over the past few days, and sadly it has stressed friendships…how can this be? How can professing Christians endorse what is clearly demonic? How can they ignore Christ and the Bible? It appears that what passes for the church in much of American is simply a house of cards. Here’s the email excerpt:

 

 

Sun, Jan 3, 7:58 AM (12 days ago)

 

Good morning…

 

I've been wondering how Ezekiel and friends could possibly live with the images and knowledge they had...such as idolatry in the Temple...sickening. I suppose it is all a Burning Bush dynamic, how else to consider it? Yet it does seem at times as if the frail bush will be consumed

 

Then this morning, Jeremiah 4:19 (and this is one of those passages in which I wish I really knew Hebrew to the point that it oozed from the pores of my skin) - for I don't think any English translation can probably do it justice...though perhaps you could capture it? (Hint).

 

This is likely one of those passages in which unless a commentator has lived it to some degree that any explanation will taste like flat soda pop. But then, unless the reader has touched it, and been touched by it, the flat soda pop will taste okay.

 

And then I've been thinking that we've had conflict since the beginning of the New Creation in Acts...as the Epistles bear witness to...and we insist on desecrating the Temple...even setting up our own Roman standards....or perhaps reenacting Antiochus Epiphanes...with only an altar, a swine, and with images...and we think it is normative.

 

Poor Jude, he had so much he really wanted to write about, but he fell under the necessity to appeal that his readers would contend for the faith once delivered...do we even know what that "faith" is? Strangers we are to the Creed...as Dorothy L. Sayers wrote many times, "The beauty is in the dogma."

 

It's all well and good to be excited about being in the Body of Christ...until you realize just what He is going to do with His Body...

Faithful Cross, Above All Other

 By: Venantius Honorius Clementianus Fortunatus (c.530 – 609 A.D.)

 

1 Faithful cross, above all other:

one and only noble tree!

None in foliage, none in blossom,

none in fruit thy peer may be:

sweetest wood and sweetest iron,

sweetest weight is hung on thee.

 

2 Bend thy boughs, O tree of glory!

Thy relaxing sinews bend;

for awhile the ancient rigor

that thy birth bestowed, suspend;

and the King of heavenly beauty

gently on thine arms extend.

 

3 Praise and honor to the Father,

praise and honor to the Son,

praise and honor to the Spirit,

ever Three and ever One:

one in might and one in glory

while eternal ages run.

Caesar and God

It just so happens that my small group is looking at Matthew 22:15 - 22 next week. Here is the handout I sent them this morning. 

Good morning brothers,

Perhaps it is an accident that we have this passage next week...but maybe not.

I don't cry often, but I cried yesterday...not just for our nation, but for the abdication of a distinct witness by much of the church in this land - when Christians are politicized all hell breaks loose. 

Matthew 22:15 – 22.

 

This is the first of four questions in Matthew Chapter 22:

 

1.    Matthew 22:15 – 22, a sociopolitical question about taxes; how much should we give ourselves to our country?

2.    Matthew 22:23 – 33, a supernatural question about Resurrection.

3.    Matthew 22:34 – 40, a Scriptural question about the Greatest Commandment.

4.    Matthew 22:41 – 46, a Sonship question about the Lordship of Christ.

 

Pharisees = think religious group

 

Herodians = think political group

 

Isn’t it nice when both groups combine?

 

They both have an interest in killing Jesus.

 

If Jesus says that the tax shouldn’t be paid then He can be accused of violating Roman law and siding with those against Rome – inciting the Herodians. If Jesus says that it should be paid then He can be accused of endorsing Roman occupation and inciting the Pharisees, and more radical Jews.

 

Jesus literally asks, “Show me the coin of the tax.” The silver denarius was a coin minted for this tax, with the head of Tiberius Caesar on one side and the head of his mother, Livia, on the other. On one side of the coin was printed, “Ti[berius] Caesar, worshipful son of the divine Augustus.” You might call this a “portable idol.”

 

When Jesus asks whose image and inscription is on the coin, He forces them to say “Caesar’s”, to acknowledge the image on the coin and who the ownership of the coin belongs to.

 

Bruner writes, “Their reply half answers their own question: they possess in the coin the possession of another. Is it ever wrong to return property to its owner? Jesus could have stopped there. But he adds one more stroke, his great principle, to teach with all possible clarity the truth of loyal but limited responsibility to political power.”

 

When Jesus says, “Render” the Greek word means to “give back” – since it belongs to Caesar give it back to Caesar.

 

Here are some other passages regarding Christians and government:

 

1 Timothy 2:1 – 2 (many Christians seem to only pray for those they agree with); Romans 13:1 – 7 (note context); Titus 3:1 – 3 (many Christians ignore this, “Christian” vitriol and sarcasm is sickening); 1 Peter 2:13 – 20 (the context of this is suffering, Peter expects his readers to respect the state even if the state persecutes them).

 

I’m going to close this handout with an extensive quote from Frederick Dale Bruner’s commentary on Matthew, Bruner is a Presbyterian, but what he has to say is not unusual historically, nor among those who struggle with the implications of the Bible’s teaching (the Barman Declaration that Bruner mentions was a document of the faithful German church (a minority) drawn up during Nazism when most of the church was being politicized for nationalist and political ends – of course that would never happen here, thank goodness). The underlining is mine:

 

“But if the first half of Jesus’ answer means the honor of the state, the last half means the limitation of the state. “But [you give back] to God the things that belong to God!” As Caesar’s coin bears Caesar’s image and belongs to Caesar, so God’s human beings bear God’s image and belong to God. God provides humanity with all kinds of services through the state, and so now God mandates through his Son that humans honor God’s servant state, with a due reciprocity – with a due, not a deified, reciprocity. The “total” in the word totalitarian signifies undue respect for the state. “My country, right or wrong” is a totalitarian statement. The only reality with a total claim on conscience is God. Jesus’ Caesar – God formula means that we are to give Caesar a great deal, but not an allegiance that knows no bounds. God is the boundary of the state.

 

“The state is God’s servant, and the preponderance of NT witnesses to the state lays emphasis on this dignifying fact. But the state can become demonic, and it is one ministry of the book of Revelation to paint this fact colorfully (esp. Rev. 13 and 18). The state becomes demonic in the measure that it asks for itself “the things of God,” such as total commitment, unconditional obedience, or uncriticizing allegiance (e.g. “America, Love It or Leave it”). Some governments play God or the special friend of God. In such cases, the warning of the Presbyterianism’s Confession of 1967 is salutary: “Although nations may serve God’s purposes in history, the church which identifies the sovereignty of any one nation or any one way of life with the cause of God denies the Lordship of Christ and betrays its calling” (see the fifth thesis of The Theological Declaration of Barmen for similar limitations).

 

“Implicit then, in Jesus’s imperial answer is a twofold critique: (1) of those who give the (even usurper) state too little, such as the anticolonial revolutionaries and later the Zealots, and (2) of those who give the state an almost divine too much, like the Herodians and all later hyperpatriots. Jesus’s command frees the secular – political realm from ultimacy and makes it penultimate. Every attempt to make our politics God’s, or to make the political divine or ultimate, as the Far Right and the Far Left are always inclined to do (“Far” usually means the divinization of a cause), must shatter on this Word of Stone. Fundamentalisms of all kinds illustrate this evil dramatically.”

 

Much love,

 

Bob

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When The Church Becomes A Whore

 

January 6, 2021

 

I wrote this a few days ago, but then thought maybe it was too strong and I put it aside. Now it isn’t strong enough. Shame, shame, shame on so many “professing Christians” who have abandoned the Way of the Prince of Peace.

 

What sacrilege, what idolatry. What a disgrace of the Gospel.

 

It seems we’ve traded the white linen of Christ for the brownshirts of the “man of lawlessness.”

 

Robert L. Withers

 

The Price of Infidelity – When the Church Becomes a Whore

 

How can we explain the alignment of professing Christians with people who engage in vitriol, weave webs of lies, and advocate lawlessness and violence? How can we explain the adoption of these sins by professing Christians?

 

How is it that those who purport to be followers of Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, the Prince of Peace, engage in verbal and physical violence and intimidation; idolizing and defending the narcissistic and indefensible?

 

How is it that knowing that the devil is the accuser and slanderer, that professing Christians propagate accusations and slander?

 

Let’s remember that the primary Biblical image for idolatry is adultery, spiritual promiscuity. With this in mind, consider Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 6:15 – 20:

 

“Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take away the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Far from it! Or do you not know that the one who joins himself to a prostitute is one body with her? For He says, “The two shall become one flesh.” But the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him. Flee sexual immorality. Every other sin that a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought for a price: therefore glorify God in your body.” (NASB)

 

While the immediate context of this passage is physical promiscuity, note the introduction of the spiritual in, “But the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him.” As we see throughout the Bible, we become what we worship; we take on the characteristics of that which we join ourselves to – and no amount of rationalization can alter this fact. In 2 Corinthians 6:14 – 7:1 Paul writes:

 

“Do not be bound together with unbelievers; for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness? Or what harmony has Christ with Belial, or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever? Or what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; just as God said,

 

“I will dwell in them and walk among them; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people, says the Lord. And do not touch the unclean; and I will welcome you. And I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to Me, says the Lord Almighty.

 

“Therefore, having these promises, believed, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness n the fear of God.” (NASB)

 

So then, how do we account for the fact that so many professing Christians are manifesting the spirit of lawlessness and violence, rather than fulfilling their calling in Christ Jesus to be peacemakers (Matthew 5:9; Hebrews 12:14; James 3:13 – 18)?

 

It is because rather than being faithful to Christ as a pure virgin (2 Corinthians 11:1 – 3), much of His Bride has believed the, “Has God really said?” of the serpent. Having believed that, they have engaged in adultery with those elements which war against our Lord Jesus (Psalm 2) to the point where they take on the characteristics of these elements…forgetting that they are called to be the sons and daughters of the living God.

 

When God’s people join themselves to prostitutes, they take on the characteristics of prostitutes. Though as the Lord says concerning His people in Ezekiel 16:32 – 34:

 

“You adulteress wife, who takes strangers instead of her husband! Men give gifts to all harlots, but you give your gifts to all your lovers to bribe them to come to you from every direction for your harlotries. Thus you are different from those women in your harlotries, in that no one plays the harlot as you do, because you give money and no money is given you; thus you are different.”

 

 

 

A Living Sacrifice

 

 

“Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.” Romans 12:1-2, NASB.

 

Is this not our daily calling? That we present our entire selves, our bodies and our minds, as sacrifices to God? Can we hear Jesus saying that we are to love God with all of our heart, mind, soul, and strength (Mark 12:30)?

 

Are we holding anything back from God?

 

We live in a land that exalts personal freedom, but the follower of Jesus Christ is a servant; more than a servant, he or she is a slave belonging to Jesus Christ. We live in a land that exalts individual “rights” and insists on expanding those rights and defending them at all cost; but the woman or man or child who belongs to Jesus is the property of Another and has no “rights” in the ultimate sense of the word – all “rights” belong to Jesus Christ.

 

We are surrounded by a Christianity that requires nothing and promises to cater to our desires and wants and every need, a Christianity that teaches us to ask, “What’s in it for me?” The disciple of Jesus Christ is required to deny himself and take up his cross and follow Jesus. The disciple of Jesus Christ does not ask, “What can I get?” Rather she perpetually asks, “What can I give?”

 

Our bodies are not our own, our minds are not our own, our lives are not our own – we have been “bought with a price.”

 

The Lord willing, there are 365 mornings in the year 2021. May we begin each morning, and live each day, by offering ourselves to God as living sacrifices. May Romans 12:1-2 be the foundation of our morning prayers and set the trajectory of our days.