Even if I caused you sorrow by my letter, I do not regret it. Though I did regret it—I see that my letter hurt you, but only for a little while— yet now I am happy, not because you were made sorry, but because your sorrow led you to repentance. For you became sorrowful as God intended and so were not harmed in any way by us. Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death. See what this godly sorrow has produced in you: what earnestness, what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what alarm, what longing, what concern, what readiness to see justice done. At every point you have proved yourselves to be innocent in this matter. So even though I wrote to you, it was neither on account of the one who did the wrong nor on account of the injured party, but rather that before God you could see for yourselves how devoted to us you are.
- 2 Corinthians 7:8-12
Previously in 2 Corinthians, Paul had talked about his “severe letter” that he wrote to them. This is not referring to 1 Corinthians but rather another letter that we no longer have. It was evidently written after 1 Corinthians and delivered to them by Titus. Paul brings up that letter again here to explain it a bit more.
In verse 8, Paul acknowledges the pain his words caused but clarifies that this pain was temporary and necessary. His initial regret reflects his pastoral heart; he does not enjoy causing pain. However, he recognizes that sometimes, correction is needed for growth. This tension between regret and recognition of the necessity of rebuke is a common experience for pastors and Christian leaders, and it should be common for all who disciple others. Paul's approach teaches us the importance of addressing issues directly, even when it may cause discomfort.
Paul expresses his joy in verse 9 – not in the sorrow itself, but in the result it produced. The Corinthians' sorrow led to repentance, which is the ultimate goal of Godly correction. This distinction between sorrow and repentance is crucial. Sorrow alone can lead to despair, but godly sorrow leads to repentance and life transformation. Paul emphasizes that this sorrow was "as God intended." This implies that their pain was part of God's redemptive plan. When we face correction or discipline, it can be comforting to remember that God uses these moments for our growth and to make us more like Him.
Paul contrasts godly sorrow with worldly sorrow in verse 10. Godly sorrow brings repentance, leading to salvation and leaving no regret. This kind of sorrow is productive and life-giving. It motivates us to change and align ourselves more closely with God's will. In contrast, worldly sorrow brings death. This type of sorrow is destructive, often characterized by regret, shame, and hopelessness. It doesn't lead to positive change but drags us deeper into despair. Understanding this distinction helps us evaluate our responses to correction and strive for a godly perspective.
In verse 11, Paul lists the positive outcomes of godly sorrow in the Corinthians. Their repentance was evident through their actions and attitudes:
- Earnestness: They were sincere and diligent in addressing their wrongs.
- Eagerness to clear themselves: They wanted to make things right and restore their integrity.
- Indignation: They felt a righteous anger toward their sin.
- Alarm: They were disturbed by their behavior and its consequences.
- Longing: They had a deep desire for reconciliation and righteousness.
- Concern: They showed genuine care for those affected by their actions.
- Readiness to see justice done: They were committed to making amends and ensuring justice.
Paul affirms that in every aspect, the Corinthians proved their repentance was genuine. This comprehensive list serves as a model for true repentance, showing that it involves both internal transformation and external actions.
In verse 12, Paul clarifies his purpose in writing the previously-mentioned severe letter. It wasn't solely about addressing the wrongdoer or comforting the injured party, though those were important. Instead, his primary goal was to reveal the Corinthians' devotion and integrity before God. This reveals a key aspect of Paul's ministry: his focus on the spiritual health and maturity of the believers. He wanted the Corinthians to see their growth and dedication to God and their leaders. By addressing the issues head-on, Paul helped the Corinthians strengthen their faith and community.
This passage helps us today live as followers of Jesus Christ. Like the Corinthians, we should be open to correction, recognizing that it is a tool for our growth and maturity. When we receive rebuke or discipline, we should seek to understand and learn from it rather than become defensive. We should pursue genuine repentance, which involves both an internal change of heart and external actions. We should strive to exhibit the qualities Paul lists—earnestness, eagerness, indignation, alarm, longing, concern, and readiness to see justice done.
We should prioritize our spiritual health and the health of our communities. Addressing issues directly and lovingly can lead to deeper relationships and stronger faith, even when it may cause short-term pain or sorrow. But then when we see transformation in ourselves or others, we should celebrate it. Paul's joy in the Corinthians' repentance reminds us to find joy in the process of growth and change.
By embracing correction, pursuing genuine repentance, focusing on spiritual health, and rejoicing in transformation, we can grow in our faith and live out the gospel more fully.
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Over the past two weeks, I wrote about distinguishing the holy from the unholy and living differently. Today, I take that main concept and give the proper reason for it: because God is the Lord. We are to avoid and shun sin because God is the Lord. We are to do good because God is the Lord. Many people may argue that this is not a good enough reason, but in truth, it is the only reason we should need. God is God. He is the Creator of this universe. He made each and every one of us. He is the potter; we are the clay. Who are we to tell God what He can or cannot do with us? God rules over all, and because He is Lord, He gets to make the calls.
I caught something when I was reading through Leviticus. Leviticus 18 is the infamous chapter about sexual immorality, but at the end of the chapter, God warns Israel that they were about to go conquer Canaan not because they were special but because the Canaanites were wicked people doing these very sins. God also warned Israel that if they did the same things, they would be spit out for the same reason. God concludes the chapter in verse 30 saying all that would happen because God is the Lord. Chapter 19 then lists several commands of what not to do and several commands of what to do. Each, if not all of them, are commanded because “I am the Lord.” That phrase “I am the Lord,” in justifying why those commands were issued, is repeated 11 times between Leviticus 18:30 and chapter 19.
We are to be obedient to the Lord because He is the Lord. We are to shun evil deeds because He is the Lord. There is no other reason that we need to be obedient to God. While every command does have a logical reason for it that we may not see until we get the fuller picture, all we need to know is to obey God because God is the Lord. He is the God over all gods. He is the Lord over all lords and the King over all kings. He spoke the entire universe into existence, and it obeys Him at His word. Man is the only creature that dares to defy God. The wind and the waves obey God. The sun, moon, and stars obey God. As R.C. Sproul once said, “There is not a single rogue atom in this universe.” Yet, there we are, mankind, who day after day defies God in our wretched sin. And then we have the gall to complain to God that His commands are unfair, unjust, and too restrictive.
The commands of God are not burdensome. They are not a heavy burden. They are life and life abundant. To the Christian, the commandments of God are supposed to be a joy. We don’t like them because we still have sin and rebellion in us. Sin defies God for no other reason than God said it. If anyone else said the same thing, it’s not a problem. Sin hates it because God said it. But to the Christian, we are commanded to be dead to sin and alive to Christ. Jesus said that to love Him is to obey His commandments, and He does not make those commands a heavy burden. Why? Because if He is living in us, He is doing the heavy lifting. The Christian life is Jesus living His life in and through us. So, we really are just going along for the ride and participating in it.
For the past 2 ½ years, my pastor has been preaching through the book of Exodus, occasionally taking time to go through other things while in the midst of it, and as of writing this article, we are in the Ten Commandments. One thing that he has pointed out that I never really saw before was that Israel was not just saved from slavery. Israel was saved so that they may serve the Lord. This is a theme throughout Exodus and their entry into the Promised Land. Israel was not delivered from slavery in Egypt to just be free people doing whatever they wanted to do. They were delivered from slavery so they would be God’s people, to be His messengers to the world, and to be the people who would reveal Him. Israel was to obey God and to worship God because He is the Lord and He is the one who delivered them from slavery. The Ten Commandments were not just meant to showcase the moral standards but to show how the Christian life is meant to be lived.
That same purpose is carried on to us. As a lamb’s blood was smeared on the doorposts to have the angel of death pass over the houses of Israel, so the Lamb of God’s blood was smeared on the cross so that God’s judgment upon sin would pass over us. As Israel was delivered by the mighty hand of God from slavery in Egypt, so we are delivered by the mighty power of the Holy Spirit from slavery to sin. And as Israel was given commands on how to live under their new master, the Lord, so we are given commands on how to live under our new master, Jesus Christ. If we proclaim Jesus to be Lord, why do we struggle with obeying Him? If Jesus is our Savior, why are we not grateful enough to Him to be obedient to Him? The answer is simple, and Israel provides the example: God needed to take Israel through the wilderness not merely to get them out of Egypt, but to get Egypt out of them. Israel still returned to the idolatrous practices they had learned while in Egypt including making that dreaded golden calf. Likewise, we still retain our sin, and it takes the wilderness of the Christian life on this earth to work that sin out of us in a process we call sanctification.
God is the Lord. He is the ruler and the king. We are to serve Him and obey Him if for no other reason that He is the Lord. Even the sinful man is to be obedient to the Lord because He is the Lord. God is God; there is no other. God is the Lord; we won’t get another one. He is not going to resign, nor will He let another steal His glory. His commands are final, and there is no appeal to change them. The only appeal we have is to plead for His mercy on His terms. He is the Lord. Everything is done His way, even if we rebel against Him. Our job is to submit to Him and to believe Him because He is the Lord. He sets the rules. He is the potter; we are the clay. Who are we to tell our Creator what to do? I praise the Lord that He chose to save me. As for me, I will serve the Lord, and it is a pleasure and a joy to obey His commands.
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After discussing last week how we are praying to “Our Father in heaven,” the next phrase we come to is “Hallowed be your name.” Let’s dig into what that phrase means.
That phrase is translated in the same way in many common English Bible versions. However, some do give a bit more explanation of the word “hallowed” in their translations. For example, the Holman Christian Standard Bible translates this phrase as “Your name be honored as holy,” and the New Living Translation renders it as “may your name be kept holy.”
So what’s the deal with that word “hallowed”? I’m guessing that you don’t often use that in your everyday conversation; I know I don’t. The Greek root word there can be translated as sanctify, set apart, make holy, or the act of regarding or honoring as holy. It’s a passive imperative verb in this usage, which means it’s a command that we should regard God’s name as holy.
But why does Jesus use “your name” here instead of actually saying God’s name? That was actually a common Jewish practice. The Jews considered the name of God to be the holiest of words, so much so that they would not actually read His name when they came across it in the Old Testament. Instead, they would say “Adonai” (meaning lord or master) or “Hashem” (which literally means ‘the name’ in Hebrew). The name of God was considered too holy to even pronounce with our sinful human lips.
So, Matthew is able to refer to God without directly mentioning His name, even though it’s clear who he’s referring to - especially by the previous phrase, “our father in heaven.” This phrasing of referring to God’s name indicates how God has revealed Himself throughout history, and how He is present with His people. A person’s name is synonymous with their reputation, so when someone honors God’s name, they are honoring God Himself.
God’s name is a reflection of who He is. God is holy, therefore His name is to be considered holy. Earlier, I shared that this verb for “hallowed” can mean to set apart. God truly fulfills that in that He is set apart from the rest of the creation; He is God over all of it.
But when we pray “hallowed be your name,” what exactly are we saying? A person praying for God’s name to be holy won’t make God any more holy than He already is; God is totally and completely holy and perfect in all that He is and in all that He does. Praying “hallowed be your name” is to pray that God may be treated as holy. See the difference there?
God was, is, and will always be holy no matter what we do as His creation. But we often fail at treating God as holy. Recently, my fellow writer Charlie Wolcott has been writing on idolatry and how it relates to each of the Ten Commandments (here). Any form of idolatry is putting something else as more important, or more holy and revered, than God in your life. Anytime we commit idolatry, it’s because we are not treating God as the truly holy God that He is.
Notice the importance of God’s holy name in Ezekiel 36:22-23: “Therefore say to the Israelites, ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: It is not for your sake, people of Israel, that I am going to do these things, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations where you have gone. I will show the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, the name you have profaned among them. Then the nations will know that I am the LORD, declares the Sovereign LORD, when I am proved holy through you before their eyes.” God is going to save Israel simply for the sake of His holy name, and it is because of God’s name that He will be proven to be holy before all of the nations. This is why we are commanded to honor God’s name as holy!
A person’s name is connected to their reputation. We say that we can “give someone a bad name” when we spread negative information about them. A person is known by their name, and that name is connected to their reputation. Many children are named after family members or famous people who have good reputations, but no one names their child after Adolf Hitler. A theme from the movie Office Space comes to mind with this idea (video clip; note there’s some inappropriate language). One of the main characters is named Michael Bolton, and during the movie, he’s mostly annoyed by having the same name as a singer who was popular in the 1980s. On one occasion he uses that to his advantage when he’s interacting with two men who will decide whether he keeps his job or not, and they happen to really like the singer Michael Bolton’s music.
Another aspect of keeping God’s name holy is that we do not misuse His name. That is one of the Ten Commandments, given in Exodus 20:7. For more on that, check out this blog post.
Whether you like your name or not, it is tied to your reputation. The same is true with God’s name. God is holy, and His name should also be honored as holy in all circumstances and all situations. We pray “hallowed be your name” not because there’s a chance God’s name could no longer be holy but so that we are encouraged to honor it as such in all our lives.
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Holiness and purity go hand in hand. To be holy means to be unique, separated, to stand out. If you are to be holy, you cannot be like everyone else. Plain and simple. The Christian life calls for separation. This is a central theme throughout the entire Bible: “Do not be like them.” When I call for a higher standard, I often get a response of “Who are you to be ‘holier than thou’?” Frankly, we SHOULD be “holier than the thous” out there. I’m not saying we should boast our chests out as we do so (though that’s easy to do), but that we should live a life that is unique, that stands out, and that models what Christ expects out of His Bride.
One of the ways we can do that is by living a pure life. Purity is something often related to sexual morality. If you are living sexually pure, that means the only person you will have sexual relations with is your spouse. Yet purity goes so much deeper than that. When many think of “living separate,” they think that you need to be isolated and kept innocent of the things of this world. That’s “living under the rock” mentality and sadly many people have this mindset. Stay away from the world, lest the world corrupt you. But that’s not Biblical either. Why? Because it shows how little faith you have in the God who saved you.
The other side of the pendulum of error is indulging in the world so you know what the world is like, so you know how to keep away from it. Some versions describe if you can control the worldly ideals, they are fine. If you can understand how that is supposed to work, please comment.
Purity is not innocence. Innocence comes with a connotation of ignorance - not being aware of what is out there and thus not being influenced. Innocence is a state of being. Purity, on the other hand, is a choice. Purity is the ability to see and recognize darkness or even to be in and among darkness and not partake in it. Innocence is: “I have no knowledge of that evil.” Purity is: “I will not touch that evil.” There is a difference. As we go out into this world, we can be among the heathen who smoke, drink, cuss, and engage in all sorts of vanity, but we are not to touch the profane thing ourselves.
So how can we live holy and pure lives? First, we should ask God, because we can’t do it ourselves. That’s what David did in his famous psalm of brokenness and repentance. He begged God to give him a clean and pure heart, because he knew how his sin was a violation of God’s heart and character. We too have to recognize our sin and our sinful nature. And I’m not talking about the “I’m sorry, please let me off the hook” recognition. I’m talking about the, “This was evil, and I deserve death for it, but I will follow you even if I go to Hell in the end” recognition. Start with that, then we can move on to the cleansing process. You can’t and won’t clean anything until you acknowledge it is dirty.
One thing God asks for is purity of mind. That means our minds are to be wholly submitted and devoted to thinking God’s thoughts. Many of our minds are NOT pure. Some of you may be thinking: “What bad things do you think about?” That’s none of your business. But I can safely say that very few of us regularly practice Philippians 4:8 which tells us what to think about and what not to. This deserves a whole series, but I don’t have time or space for that now.
We need to be pure of heart. It cannot be divided with multiple masters. Jesus said we can’t serve two masters, because we are going to serve one or the other. David was known as a man after God’s own heart. David went after God’s heart with everything he knew and had. He had a pure heart, even though he was anything but perfect.
We need to be pure of lifestyle. We all have those buddies that after work want to go to the bar and party. We have those co-workers and classmates who tell the dirty jokes, insult the boss/teacher, and cheat the system. Do we join in with them? Laugh at the jokes, tell them something you know the boss/teacher did wrong, turn a blind eye to playing the system? Or are we going to be separate, living a life of integrity, even at the cost of the approval of those who really don’t care about you anyway?
What about your job or college choice? Why are you going to school where you are at? Why are you doing the job you are at? Is it because of the prestige and honor, or it is because it is where God has placed you? What are you doing with it? My parents stand out to me because they are constantly thinking about how their lives and their property can be used in ministry. We designed our lot so we can service the bus for the school my church helps to run. Who thinks that way? Not many. I am a teacher, but I’m not merely thinking about teaching physics. I’m thinking of how I can use my skill sets and my knowledge to further God’s Kingdom. I don’t have the opportunities I really want to have yet, but I am part of Fellowship of Christian Athletes and I’m preparing to lay down foundations for starting a fencing program. I want my thinking at my job to be Godly and to use what God has equipped me with.
Living holy and pure lives is perhaps the most difficult thing to do because it requires surrender of self. It means to do the hard thing. It means to go where others won’t go. It means being unpopular and it often comes with suffering. But it never comes without reward. Let us live holy lives. God is holy, let us be holy as well.
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Last week, I wrote about how if we are to live this Christian life, we must be outsiders, separate, ‘other-than’ this world. While we are in the world, but we not to be of it. Paul tells us not to conform to the pattern of this world. If we are to live holy lives, we can’t be attached to the world’s mode of operation. Jesus warned His people to come out from Babylon lest we partake in its judgment. For many of us who live in the United States, this is a very hard message to receive, because we are so entrapped into “The Matrix” that we’d almost rather have taken the Blue Pill over the Red Pill.
Jesus warned of a great “falling away,” and I can’t help but wonder if we are in such a time. Gone are the days of “social Christianity” where it was just the thing you did and society essentially frowned upon you if you were not “of the faith.” Today, there are two responses to any claim to be a Christian: either disgust due to the excessive fakes out there, or wrath due to “you are one of those fundamentalists.”
The world doesn’t like me. I’ve had people ask me if I knew what the secular scientific community thought of me as a Bible-believing Christian who believes the Bible’s account of Creation over the secular ideas of Deep Time. My response was, “Yes, I know what they think. I don’t care either.” I don’t get my value from what this world says or thinks. They don’t care for me now and they won’t care for me later. Why should I seek the approval of those who only see me for what I could give them anyway?
Yet many people, wearing the label of Christianity, have bought into the idea that if we accept what the world says about origins, they will be more likely to listen to us. Who ever thought that would be a good idea, besides Satan the deceiver? If they don’t like the Bible’s ideas about Creation, what makes you think they are going to like to what Christianity actually is and calls for? There is a reason why the gate is narrow, and the way is narrow. As one wise commentator said, the reason the way is narrow and the path to destruction is wide is due to the expected traffic on it.
We must live holy lives, which means living on the narrow path. It is not an easy path to walk. It will often be lonely. There will not be great crowds to go along with. In fact, there will be countless calls to come off the high path and join the rest. And they’ll offer cookies too. But why settle for cookies and chew toys when you can get real food of the most delectable kinds? God offers the real stuff, and the day is coming that we will get to enjoy it. Yet to get it, we must walk the narrow road, and the narrow road will make us stand out and put a target on our backs and our fronts.
Young Earth Creation is most certainly a stand-out position to take. If you hold to this model, you know what I am talking about. You suddenly become “one of them.” You suddenly lose respect among the academic circles. You suddenly find people trolling your social media accounts, searching for any possible mistake you can make. I’m not playing a “victim card” here. I’m just stating the facts of what comes with the territory. This alone is a primary reason why so many people refuse to step this way. It is why many pastors refuse to address origins and refuse to host Creationist speakers, even if they sympathize with the position. If you believe in a young earth, you are “holy.” You are separate. Unique. You stand out. That alone does not make YEC correct, but it does separate it from every other origins model, thus it is a candidate for being the only correct origins model. Since God is holy, unique, and separate, He will not do anything in mundane ways that “scientists” could figure out. So any model in which their primary mode of operation is “natural methodology” can easily be ruled out. All old earth models are of this world. They are not “holy” and thus are not of God.
But many churches operate in worldly ways too. They run like a business, where the bottom line is the number of people in pews and dollar amount of offerings. There are many churches which were founded based on polls of what people wanted. From the music to the type of sermon to the message length, to the coffee bar, and to the color of carpet, it all was determined by popularity polls. To find Christ and the message He gave is more difficult than the clichéd needle in the haystack. This is another angle of the “church-growth-movement”: appeal to the world to attract the world, then preach the Gospel. The problem is when you use carnal means to attract carnal people, you will never preach the Gospel because the moment you tell them their carnality is sin and they must repent, your church will be empty. Why not just start with the Gospel and let God built His Church His way?
Now, we are in this world. I am not saying we must abandon our homes, our cell phones, our cars, our refrigerators, etc. However, as the fear of outbreak is going on, we are starting to see who is in this world and who isn’t from another angle. I’ve seen a lot of Christians panic over this thing and I’m thinking, “My chances of dying from a crazy driver here in town is greater than the corona virus. If I am to fear death, I’d worry about that first.” But I don’t think like most do (and I mean that in more ways than one). My faith is in Christ, not the government, nor the media to tell me what is happening. Because of this, because I know that my God is sovereign over EVERYTHING, I will respond in light of that knowledge. Those in the world will operate out of fear and the unknown.
Let us live Holy lives. Lives not driven by fear nor popular opinion, nor by the ‘wise of this world.’ Let us live lives driven by the fear of God, the knowledge and love of Him, and in the pursuit of Christ. You will stand out. You will feel alone. You will be mocked and hated. But you will also be rewarded for believing God in a world that does not. And if you are faithful, you will hear the only complement worth hearing: “Well done, good and faithful servant.” How can we live holy lives? Next week, I’ll wrap up my series on holiness and get down to very practical things.
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What is the requirement to get into heaven? There’s really just one: be holy and perfect as God is holy and perfect. That’s it. No special arrangements, no impossible journey to complete, no special blood line, no special ability, nothing. Just be holy as God is holy and you are in. However, there is something in the fine print that everyone knows: no one except God can do that.
One of the accusations I have seen skeptics make against Christianity is that the standard for “getting in” is too high that no one can make it, and therefore God is setting us up for failure. So instead, they complain about the standards, not willing to address the fact that they don’t cut it. In baseball, every pitcher is judged on his ability to get a ball over a 19 square inch target, and whoever cannot hit that target isn’t qualified to be a pitcher. The rules don’t change because a bunch of people who want to play ball cannot hit that target. The same concept is true with Christianity. Just because no one can hit the target of perfection and holiness, that doesn’t mean the standards are unfair or unjust. God makes the rules. He is the Creator. If we took the time to study how holy God is and what our sin truly is, we’d understand why God must set the bar so high.
Yet, God commands us to be holy as He is holy. How can He do that, knowing we are still in bodies corrupted by sin? The answer is simple: we aren’t meant to even try. This is one of the greatest things about the Gospel, and yet one of the most difficult things for any of us to put into practice. We don’t cut it, nor were we ever meant to try. What makes the Gospel work is not man reaching a standard to get to God. Even if anyone could do it, he’d be so proud of his accomplishment that it would wipe out all of it in his pride. What makes the Gospel work is Jesus Christ living out His life in and through us.
Yet while God gets all the credit for getting the work done, there are still commands we must follow that enable God to do His work. Something completely missing from most churches today is a doctrine of separation. I cannot spell this any simpler than this: We cannot claim to be a Christian and look like the world, talk like the world, live like the world, and think like the world. There MUST be separation. Most people don’t like this idea. Why? Because the more you show yourself to be “other than” in this world, suddenly you become a target. Peer-pressure doesn’t go away after you graduate from the school yard playground; it only gets worse, and God calls every Christian to stand out like a sore thumb. In fact, the church is meant to be the conscience of the society, which means we are to be a nuisance to this world. Now, don’t hear what I am not saying. I am not saying we are to be annoying. But we are also not to capitulate to the world’s thinking and world’s progression away from God. We are to be a light in the darkness, but when people prefer the light to be off because of their evil deeds, they will do everything they can to shut the light off. We are to light the world and save souls, and we cannot save souls if we are too much like the world.
I write fiction as well as blog posts. In my time around writing circles, one of the great myths of storytelling is the “monomyth” made famous by Joseph Campbell and his study The Hero with a Thousand Faces. In this study, Campbell examined all the great stories that withstood the test of time and found many commonalities. One of the is the nature of the hero. The great hero of each story is an outsider. He doesn’t fit nor belong. Think of Luke Skywalker in Star Wars or Neo in The Matrix. While in the world, they definitely were not of it. They stood out.
Another character in these stories is the anima, often known as the “Damsel in Distress.” This is the Hero’s equal but opposite gender. Think of Princess Leia or Trinity. The anima has a problem: she is the best of the best the world that needs to be rescued has to offer and she can’t do it. She can’t make it, nor can she rescue her people. She is too associated to the system that needs to be rescued. She needs the hero, who is outside the system, to do it for her.
All of man’s religions is little different the anima of a story trying to save their own from within their own system. It does not and cannot work. It takes someone outside the system, who is Jesus Christ, to save us. Then when He does save us, He sends us back into the world to fill the role of the hero and save people. Now we aren’t the HERO, but in each of our own lives, we are the hero (small letters on purpose), the protagonist. If we are to complete the “Hero’s Journey,” we must be outsiders, holy, separate from this world.
How do we do this? Here are some Scriptures to get started:
Proverbs 3:5: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.” [emphasis mine].
Romans 12:2: “Do not conform to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind…”
We cannot think, act, or operate as the world does. Next week, I’ll dig deeper into this with some practical solutions and warnings on what not to do.
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Whenever the term “holy judgment” comes to mind, I actually often think of a powerful magic attack in a video game using a “holy element.” When video games are not the context, very often it is the wrath of God coming down to wipe out anything and everything it its path. However, this is only a partial image. The real reason so many people dread Judgment Day is because we are all sinners facing a perfect standard and every one of us will be found guilty before it. Yet, Judgment Day is the most blessed day for the righteous.
One of the things that always baffles skeptics is how God deals with man. God is not like any of us. His ways are not our ways. His thoughts are higher than our thoughts. He is altogether “other-than” anything we can imagine. And He always seems to throw us for a loop. When we think judgment is due, He gives mercy. When we expect mercy, He executes judgment. Other times, He gives exactly what we ask for. And sometimes it is good; sometimes it is not.
God sent Jonah to preach to Nineveh and to warn them they had 40 days to live until judgment. Jonah ran away. Why? Because he knew God was a God of mercy and might spare Nineveh had they listened. God chose to spare them because even without the offer for repentance, they did anyway. He nearly spared Sodom and Gomorrah due to the pleading of Abraham, if only He found some righteous people.
God is extremely patient with people. It’s amazing how long He will let sin “slide” for a season. The primary reason why is found in 2 Peter 3:9. God longs that people repent rather than perish. Jesus said He came to save people, not to destroy them. He gave the people of Noah’s day 120 years’ notice before bringing on the Flood. No one except eight people listened until the day of. He gave Amalak 500 years to repent of waylaying Israel in the wilderness before sending Saul to finish them off.
But in other cases, God brought down judgment immediately. He immediately struck down Nadab and Abihu, the two oldest sons of Aaron, for burning profane fire. He squashed the rebellion started by Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. He had Achan executed and killed Uzzah on the spot for touching the Ark of the Covenant. Why? I believe one reason was because God was establishing His law and order and if He let those slide, it would have had devastating results. Sometimes God spares the many because of the one. Other times, God has to think of the many and deal with the one.
Sometimes, God deals with people in terms of generations rather than individuals. Solomon, Ahab, and Hezekiah were all kings whom God had to discipline (among others). Yet each had their judgment extended beyond their lifetime to be experienced by their children. Solomon turned to idolatry yet due to His covenant with David, the splitting of the kingdom would take place with his son, Rehoboam. Ahab was given numerous chances to repent, yet after murdering Naboth and stealing his garden, Ahab actually wept authentically over his sin, and God sent Elijah to tell him that his doom would not come in his lifetime. Hezekiah committed the sin of boasting by showing off his wealth to Babylon. Every last penny he had was shown, so God said that Babylon would get it all, but not in his lifetime, due to his faithfulness overall.
But God doesn’t just dole out punishments; He rewards the faithful. God’s holy judgment is holy. Judgment is not just to penalize the wicked; it is also to reward the righteous. When I referee at fencing tournaments, I have three primary duties: control the bout (including fencers and spectators), enforce the rules, and award points (determine if a fencer’s actions earned them the point for scoring). If I show mercy to one fencer by not penalizing him, am I being just for the other fencer? At the same time, if one fencer keeps doing the same thing over and over again, scoring each time, and the other fencer keep getting hit, I have to be a just referee and award that good fencer for each point he is scoring.
Albeit nowhere near a perfect analogy, God is the same way. When we are obedient, He will give us justice too. When someone wrongs us, God will vindicate us. We don’t need revenge. God will take care of it. When we do right, God sees it. He especially takes notice of doing the right things when no one else is watching. When a politician goes to serve a Thanksgiving meal, comes in with all his cameras, serves one meal, then leaves, and the media says he served for Thanksgiving, that is all the reward he will get (yes, that has happened). But what you do in secret, God will reward. We don’t know what that reward will be. For some it will be in this life but in the next life. If you get your reward here and now, it will not be for your pleasure and enjoyment, but for you to share with the rest of the body of Christ.
God’s judgment is holy. It is unique and “other-than” anything we can imagine. It is perfect and accomplishes precisely what God needs done. When a punishment’s lesson is learned, the punishment ends. When a righteous deed is done, a prize awaits. And in all cases, God gets the glory.
Next week, I’ll look into how we are to be holy as God is holy.
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One of the major problems in American Christianity today is an over superfluous and rather flippant view of God. Because as Christians we are under grace instead of the law, many have completely misconstrued this teaching into a form of antinomian thinking (that is, we are ultimately free to do whatever we want in some anarchy fashion and God will forgive us anyway). And it is not just in moral issues that we as a collective have done, but in the things of God. This is a lesson I’m only starting to realize how guilty I am, so please keep in mind I am keeping a finger pointed at myself in this post.
One of the repeated themes throughout the Old Testament is to not touch the sacred thing. There are certain places and certain objects that God calls “holy,” separated out for Him and His purposes. Whenever anyone did touch that which God said not to touch, bad things happened. When people listened to this, it was always with great reverence. American Christianity as a whole has lost any real reverence for God, though there are a few voices out there who still have it.
Moses was in the desert and saw a bush burning without being consumed. When he came to check it out, God showed up and told him to remove his sandals because it was holy ground. This spot was special and unique. It was the first time in 400 years that God has spoken to anyone in or from Israel who had been held as slaves in Egypt. There was nothing special about the ground itself except the fact that God was present. When Joshua faced Jericho, he met the Angel of the Lord and he too had to take off his sandals because he was on holy ground. Why? Because God was there. In both cases, both men bowed in awe, reverence, and worship, knowing they deserved death just by being in the presence of God.
But there are two men who heard the commands of not touching the sacred things and did not listen, and it cost them their lives. The first is Achan. God told Israel to sack Jericho but to not touch any of the spoils, because they belonged to God. Achan saw some silver, some gold, and a garment, and he took them, hiding them in his tent. That decision cost Israel its next battle at Ai and 36 men. God brought the problem to Joshua’s attention and exposed Achan. Achan and his family were executed.
The other was a man called Uzzah. David was so excited about finally bringing the Ark of the Covenant to his new capital city of Jerusalem that he built a new cart for it, instead of following the commands that it was to be carried on the shoulders of Levites. On its way, the oxen pulling the cart stumbled and the cart with the Ark on it began to tip over. Uzzah, in his zeal to protect the Ark from falling, reached out and touched the Ark with his hands. God killed him on the spot. Why? Because having the Ark tainted with earth was one thing; touching the Holy thing of God with sin-tainted hands is something entirely different.
You cannot treat the sacred things of God lightly. He means business and we need to as well. There is a reason God required Israel to worship ONLY at the Tabernacle/Temple but not at any of the high places: because He is holy, unique, separated. Israel often worshiped God at the same high places as they worshiped the other idols. God was not going to share His glory with a fake replacement. Yet, this notion of being able to worship God in whatever manner you want is rampant today, and it’s directly contradictory to what Scripture teaches. I have another set of posts I am “cooking” about these high places that I will get to later on.
As I have read biographies and listened to sound sermons about prayer, one thing I have picked up was that the secret closet of prayer is sacred ground. Paul Washer brought to my attention that of all the things the disciples asked Jesus how to do, it was to pray. It wasn’t on how to do a miracle or preach or even how to love others, but how to pray. And often, they waited until He was done praying to find out what was going on. What does that mean? It means when they listened to and watched Jesus pray, it was a sacred thing that you didn’t dare touch. When a person is truly in that state of prayer, when they are in that deep communion with God, there is an air about them that you simply will not dare disturb. I’ve only had glimpses of this. I’ve been in prayer meetings that are really just fluffy spiritual sounding chitter-chatter. Much of my own prayers have been little else than that. But on occasion, I’ve had glimpses and snapshots of the real thing and it’s something that when you are in it, you don’t want it to stop. And if you are on the outside of it, you leave it alone. You watch in awe or you leave it be, but you don’t mess around with it. Prayer is a sacred thing, a holy thing, and it is not something to take flippantly. We are not to touch it. We cannot violate that sacred thing with sin-tainted hands and expect to get God’s blessings.
That which God has called holy and sacred is not to be touched by that which has sin. If we are to approach God, we must be holy as God is holy. That is why we MUST appropriate the cross. Only by the blood of Jesus can we be washed clean and can touch the sacred things. Only by the blood of Jesus can we approach the throne of God and receive His grace. This is no excuse to let us sin at will because God will cover it. Instead of thinking as Achan or Uzzah who thought they could touch the sacred thing and being given mercy in the end, let us think as Moses and Joshua who treaded the sacred ground with reverence and awe and worship, knowing that at any moment, God could kill them and would be right in doing so. God is holy, and that which He sanctified is holy. Do not take it lightly.
Next week, I’ll examine how God’s dealings with man are holy.
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God is holy. This is a statement we love to say and sing about, but it is something we often don’t truly grasp. “Holy” means to be separated, to be unique, set apart. God is holy, and not just holy; he is holy, holy, holy. God is not like us. He is unique. He does not think like us, act like us, nor do things the way we think they ought to be done. What does it mean for God to be holy? What does it mean for man to be holy? I’m going to explore these questions and issues over the next few weeks.
Balaam was a Gentile prophet who knew the true God and was hired by Balak to curse Israel. While he refused to do it, he eventually caved and told Balak how to get Israel to curse itself with sexual immorality. But one thing Balaam revealed was how unique God is. God is not a man that He should lie. He does not say one thing and then go back on His word. If He says it, He will do it. He does not and cannot lie. Man is not like that; no one has to train a child to lie. He must be trained to tell the truth. God is not like us.
God is not like any other god man has contrived. A few years ago, I wrote a post called “The Gods of the Ancient Near East.” It was a study of 1 Kings 20 in which God told the wicked King Ahab that he would defeat the Syrian army not once but twice, simply because the Syrians thought the first victory was because Israel had the gods of the hills and not the valleys. This idea was a strange notion to the ancient near eastern cultures: a God that surpassed region, territory, boundary, physical effect, etc. God went out to prove himself not just to Ahab, but to the Syrians that He was not like the other gods.
God is not material nor part of the physical universe. He is transcendent to it all. Paul made an issue of this when he confronted the intellectuals of Athens at Mars Hill. God is not to be served by human hands as though He has human needs. He has no need for anything man has to offer. Anything man has is a gift from God, including every breath, every morsel of food, every drop of water, and everything man uses. As the joke goes, when scientists sought to reject God and said they could make life on their own without Him, God stopped them as they bent down to scoop up some dirt and said, “No, go get your own dirt.” God is holy. He is unique and separate from His creation.
But God’s holiness goes to something much greater than just being unique. God’s holiness is often linked to His righteousness and justice and why He is intolerant of sin. We often tend to describe sin as a violation of God’s moral laws. And while that is true, the Bible gives a much deeper picture of what sin really is. Sin is anything that is contradictory to whom God is or what He is like. The law was meant to give us something concrete to grasp so we would know that we simply don’t cut it.
The only way for man to be able to make it to eternity with God is to be perfect as He is perfect. We are to be holy as God is holy. We all know that we are not like that. In every religion, man has to do something to earn his way to “get in.” Why do they do that? Why is there a drive, an urge, to do things correctly and to fix what is broken? Every religion is never able to give a concrete statement of what the standard is or whether the standard is met or not, except one: Christianity. God is unique in that He made his standards clear, defined, and unquestionable. He is holy and we don’t cut it.
The plan of salvation is holy. Every religion has man trying to figure out some way to get to God. Christianity has God coming to man. Every other religion depends upon the merits of man. Only Christianity teaches that it is by grace through faith. It is unique, separated, and other-than from everything else. The Gospel is also known as the Scandal of Grace. There is a reason why the Jews stumbled over the cross and the Greeks called it foolishness, yet to the believer it is the power of God unto salvation. The idea of a crucified Savior, the hero who was executed as a criminal yet innocent, to justify wicked men is so foreign to man’s thinking it does not and will not register without divine revelation.
This is just an introduction. Over the next few weeks, I’ll look at other details about the holiness of God. How God deals with man is holy, and it is strange to how we think. There is a reason Isaiah said that God’s ways are not our ways, His plans not our plans. I’ll look at how what God identifies as holy is to be marked as holy, how we should live holy lives, and the idea of purity. The next few weeks should be fun and hopefully it will change your view of who God truly is.
This forum is meant to foster discussion and allow for differing viewpoints to be explored with equal and respectful consideration. All comments are moderated and any foul language or threatening/abusive comments will not be approved. Users who engage in threatening or abusive comments which are physically harmful in nature will be reported to the authorities.
