Whenever I am invited somewhere to speak or to sell my books, I take with me a little 9 question trivia quiz about American history. I thought you might enjoy taking the quiz as well and perhaps sharing it with your friends. All of the questions are from my book Hidden Facts of the Founding Era, and most people only know the answers to 2 or 3 of them. Here is the list of 9 questions with the answers given at the end.
1. In what year did America become an independent nation?
a. 1775
b. 1776
c. 1777
2. Who was the head of the American government before George Washington was elected President?
a. John Adams
b. Charles Thompson
c. Thomas Jefferson
3. Which founder created his own Bible by cutting out all the portions the New Testament that he did not agree with?
a. Thomas Jefferson
b. James Madison
c. John Hancock
d. None of the above
4. What kind of religion did Benjamin Franklin believe in?
a. Deism
b. Christianity
c. Rationalism
5. Who was Thomas Paine?
a. A founding father whose writings sparked the Revolution
b. A world renowned champion of liberty
c. A rebel and an outcast who was despised by the founding fathers
6. What was John Adams’ opinion of the great Enlightenment thinkers such as Voltaire, Rousseau and Diderot?
a. That they were the source of his political philosophy
b. That they were men of noble character
c. That they were an ignorant lot of cowardly atheists
7. Where did the freedom of religion come from?
a. It was a Jesuit plot designed to subvert true Christianity
b. The founders were secularists who wanted to be free from religion
c. It was a distinctly Baptist doctrine founded on the teachings of the New Testament
8. What was George Washington’s involvement in the Masonic Lodge?
a. He left the lodge before the Revolution and referred to it as mere child’s play
b. He was Grand Master of all the lodges in America
c. He was Grand Master of the Lodge of Alexandria
9. Who wrote that “the government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion”?
a. George Washington
b. John Adams
c. The King of Algiers
Answers
1. 1775: On December 22, 1775, the British Parliament passed the American Prohibitory Act which removed all protection from the American colonies and commanded military action against them. According to British law, this act made the colonies free and independent states.
2. Charles Thompson: Mr. Thomson was the Secretary of the Continental Congress from 1774 to 1789. After retiring from Congress, he provided the world with the very first English translation of Septuagint (Greek Old Testament) which he combined with his translation of the New Testament to create the first American translation of the Bible. He also published a Harmony of the Gospels which Thomas Jefferson praised very highly.
3. None of the above: The so-called Jefferson Bible was not a Bible at all but rather an abbreviated collection of events and sayings from the life of Jesus that Jefferson thought would be useful for teaching Christian philosophy. The title Jefferson gave to this collection was “The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth.”
4. Christianity: Franklin recorded in his autobiography that he was a Deist as a teenager, but at the age of 29, he wrote: "Christ by his Death and Sufferings has purchas'd for us those easy Terms and Conditions of our Acceptance with God, propos'd in the Gospel, to wit, Faith and Repentance."
5. A rebel and an outcast: John Adams called Paine's pamphlet Common Sense "a poor, ignorant, short-sighted, crapulous mass" and claimed that Paine "understood neither government nor religion." Gouverneur Morris was content to let Paine rot in a French jail, and even Thomas Jefferson did not refrain from insulting his reasoning.
6. An ignorant lot of cowardly atheists: John Adams wrote to Thomas Jefferson the following statement about the Enlightenment thinkers: "And what was their philosophy? Atheism, -- pure, unadulterated atheism." He then proceeded to call them cowards and to condemn them as being completely destitute of common sense.
7. A distinctly Baptist doctrine: The very first English book on the freedom of religion was written in 1611 by Thomas Helwys, the founder of the first Baptist Church in England. The first colony to establish religious freedom was the Baptist colony of Rhode Island, and historian George Bancroft wrote that "Freedom of conscience, unlimited freedom of mind, was, from the first, the trophy of the Baptists."
8. He left the lodge before the Revolution: Washington told Jonathan Trumbull that Masonry was "merely child's play," and he wrote to G. W. Snyder that he did not preside over any lodge, "nor have I been in one more than once or twice within the last thirty years."
9. The King of Algiers: This phrase appeared in the Treaty of Tripoli as part of a letter written from one Arab king to another encouraging friendly relations with the Americans. It has often been attributed to the founding fathers, but it was not written by any of them nor even by an American.
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For some inspiration to start writing this post, I searched online for “quotes on leadership” and wow - there are tons! When there’s a link titled “620 Leadership Quotes That Will Make You Feel Unstoppable,” you know there’s a lot of quotable phrases out there on the topic. There are also many, many books on leadership, both from Christian and secular viewpoints, and I even took a class in seminary on Christian Leadership. But, for those of us who consider the Bible to be our primary source of authority, what does it say about leaders?
If we consider ourselves to be followers of Jesus Christ, then He is our ultimate leader. Jesus gives us the best example of servant leadership in John 13:13-17, right after He washed the disciples’ feet: “You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. Very truly I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.” A leader is one who can humble themselves to even the most menial tasks when needed.
This idea of being a humble leader is also explained by Jesus in Mark 10:42-45: “You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
In some of his letters, Paul provides us with character qualities of good leaders. Titus 1:6-9 says, “An elder must be blameless, faithful to his wife, a man whose children believe and are not open to the charge of being wild and disobedient. Since an overseer manages God’s household, he must be blameless—not overbearing, not quick-tempered, not given to drunkenness, not violent, not pursuing dishonest gain. Rather, he must be hospitable, one who loves what is good, who is self-controlled, upright, holy and disciplined. He must hold firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been taught, so that he can encourage others by sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it.” 1 Timothy 3:1-13 provides a similar description.
In Exodus 18, Moses got a lesson on leadership from his father-in-law Jethro. Moses was trying to handle every dispute that came up among the massive nation of Israel, and it was just too much for him. Jethro urged Moses to appoint additional judges: “But select capable men from all the people—men who fear God, trustworthy men who hate dishonest gain—and appoint them as officials over thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens” (verse 21). This is a great example of delegating, with those judges handling the smaller cases and only bringing the more difficult ones up to Moses. We still apply this principle in organizations and governments today.
The Bible is full of stories of leaders, some good and some bad, and there are too many to list all of the stories here. You can find many of these in the heroes of the faith series that Logan Ames wrote here.
Romans 12:9-13 is about living out our love for others, but it’s also a good description of what a leader should do: “Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves. Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Share with the Lord’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality.”
While we may be leaders among people, the most important thing to remember is that we’re all called to be followers (disciples) of Jesus Christ. Even the highest leader here on earth still has to submit to the Almighty Leader, God Himself. Where better to learn our leadership skills from than the One who is truly in charge!
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by Logan Ames
Just two months ago, the world watched, first in horror then in global jubilation, as an entire soccer team was trapped several miles inside a cave in Thailand for 18 days before a daring rescue effort worked to near-perfection and got every single one of them out safely. Sadly, a retired Thai Navy SEAL who was volunteering died several days before the escape as he passed out underwater due to lack of oxygen while he was placing extra air tanks along the route which was being organized to bring the boys out of the cave. Outside of his death, however, the plan that was put together by volunteers, divers, and military personnel from all over the world worked just about as smoothly as possible.
According to this article, a major general in the Third Army region said, “The most important piece of the rescue was good luck." He then added, “I still can’t believe it worked." Now, I’m not sure what the man believes about God, but Christians around the world who were praying for a safe rescue and who have seen the power of God at work in their own lives would say that “luck” didn’t have anything to do with it. What do we really mean when we talk about “good luck” or “bad luck”? Who decides who gets which? Is it some random force in the universe that makes this critical decision for so many? Even Christians say it sometimes. I said it myself at least three times on the golf course yesterday when I made putts I wouldn’t ordinarily make!
I think that maybe it makes us feel more independent of God to talk about some other randomness that doesn’t actually exist. If we truly praise God for the good things that happen and the work he does in our lives, that means we also have to go to him when we do NOT get the result we wanted. And that can be a heck of a lot harder to deal with, especially when the lives of our loved ones are on the line. It’s simpler to just say we had “bad luck” so we don’t have to address God regarding what went wrong. The reality is that God is always in the details and the results, whether good or bad. God is worthy to be praised for giving those teams and divers what they needed to succeed on the rescue mission and for allowing them to be successful. But God doesn’t always work mysteriously. Sometimes, it’s as simple as staying connected to your source of life.
In the case of the Thailand rescue operation, their source of life was a rope that they sometimes couldn’t even see and had to locate by feel. The rope led them through the entire winding, hilly, underwater path to freedom. As we look at our own source of life that God has given us, it all goes back to an event that happened roughly 2,000 years ago that changed the world for every single person ever. After Jesus had been tortured, crucified, CONFIRMED dead, and buried in a tomb with a large security contingent guarding it, he rose from the grave on the third day after he was killed. This wasn’t luck. As Andy Stanley told us at a conference earlier this year, “Anyone who can successfully predict their own death and resurrection and then pull it off is someone we ought to be willing to listen to." Jesus had already covered our sins by being the atoning sacrifice to God on the cross. But it did not end there and only in his victory over the grave can we truly find victory in our own lives.
Because Jesus has already demonstrated that God has the power to raise the dead, you and I can choose to tap into that “resurrection power as our lifesource." No matter what trials we’re going through, they are not more powerful than resurrection power. I remember watching a talk show one time that had Terry and Rebecca Crews on it. Terry is a well-known actor and his wife of 28 years is a successful singer. During their conversation, they revealed that Terry had a past addiction to pornography and had gone so far as to be unfaithful to his wife many times. Rebecca talked about how she was so close to leaving and the talk show host asked why she stayed. She talked about the power of God and added, “There was a death, but from death there can be a resurrection." God resurrected what was a dead marriage.
What is it for you? Do you have faith and hope in the resurrection power of God? Take a look at Hebrews 11:17-19, which references a story originally found in Genesis 22. The writer of Hebrews talks about Abraham’s faith when God tested him and had him climb a mountain to sacrifice his son, Isaac, who had been the heir of the promise of many descendants for Abraham. These verses help us see the spiritual dilemma that Abraham faced. He was about to sacrifice the ONLY son of the promise because God said so. But, wait a minute? God had ALSO said that Isaac was the one through whom the offspring would come. How can this be? Abraham had to be thinking either he or God had gotten something wrong at some point. How could he go through with destroying the only son God gave him to meet the promise? Hebrews 11:19 gives us the answer: “Abraham reasoned that God could even raise the dead, and so in a manner of speaking he did receive Isaac back from death." That is some kind of faith, hope, and reasoning! No one had ever been risen from the dead before, but Abraham reasoned that it could happen because God would not tell him to do something seemingly so against his own Word without a plan. You and I have more reason to believe in the resurrection power of God because we live on the other side of Jesus and KNOW that it happened.
Do you believe it can happen in your life? What needs resurrected? A marriage? A desire for God? A body wrecked by drugs and alcohol? If you believe in Jesus and his power, even if you’re not quite believing it for your own personal situation yet, be like the father of a demon-possessed boy in Mark 9:21-24 who cried out, “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!” You see, it’s only by faith that he could say that. It takes a little faith to realize you need a lot more of it. If you have no faith whatsoever, you don’t even realize you need more! The man was desperate for his boy to be healed and was somewhat resigned to not seeing it happen. He told Jesus to take pity on them IF he could do anything to help them. Jesus was somewhat surprised by the “if” qualifier and tells them anything is possible for those who believe. After the man admitted his unbelief and need for more faith, his boy was healed. Maybe you need to cry out to Jesus today to help your unbelief.
I’ve been saying that YOU have resurrection power if you believe in Jesus. If you’re wondering how that could be possible when you weren’t the One raised from the dead, take a look at Ephesians 1:18-20. Paul calls the power that comes to believers “incomparably great." He then specifies that it is the SAME POWER that God used when he raised Christ from the dead and took him back to heaven. How amazing is that! You can sit there right now in whatever mess you feel is happening in your life, and if you’ve trusted Jesus as your Lord and Savior, you can KNOW beyond all doubt that resurrection power is available to you. It’s not even “maybe." It’s there!
Are you ready to speak it into the dead areas of your life? Nothing in this world has power of you. Porn doesn’t. Drugs don’t. Alcohol doesn’t. Infidelity doesn’t. Your past doesn’t. Abuse doesn’t. Fear doesn’t. Your feelings don’t. Money doesn’t. Your sin doesn’t! This is the greatest thing about being a follower of Jesus. God used mighty strength to raise Christ from the dead and 2,000 years later, that power is available to you. You have resurrection power and no longer have reason to live in darkness and death. Believe it, claim it, and walk in it today!
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The year 1860 was a very interesting year for many people. Here in the United States, Abraham Lincoln was preparing to be the 16th president right before the U.S. Civil War was to begin. However, across the Atlantic Ocean in Oxford, another debate took place, one with as much if not more notoriety than the Scopes Trial of 1925: The debate between Thomas Huxley, known as “Darwin’s Bulldog,” and Samuel Wilberforce, son of the great orator and statesman, William Wilberforce. The topic: Was Darwin right about Evolution?
On the Origins of Species had been released only about seven months prior and both wrote extensive reviews about it. Huxley promoted Darwin’s idea extensively. He got the name “Darwin’s Bulldog” for a reason because he often spoke with brute force, seeking to silence the opposition by intimidation. Wilberforce was a professor of mathematics at Oxford and one of the top scholars and orators to defend Biblical truth at the time. Wilberforce wrote a detailed review pointing out many of the issues of speculation in the book with the most up-to-date scientific knowledge they had at the time. Darwin himself was impressed with the review, but obviously it did not change his mind.
Many people debate about who won the debate. Huxley considered himself the most popular man in Oxford for the next 24 hours thinking he won. Yet interestingly, it is reported that Wilberforce never again spoke on the Creation/Evolution issue after this debate. One Creationist, the late A.E. Wilder-Smith, who had 3 earned doctorates in chemistry, gave an interesting analysis on this debate. While other issues are more noted in this debate, I want to dwell on one particular point these two argued over. Wilder-Smith believed Huxley won the debate because Wilberforce could not come up with an answer to an often-used argument, still around today.
This argument is the classic “Infinite Monkey Theorem.” It goes like this: Give us six typewriters that never break, six apes that never die, infinite amounts of paper and ink, and infinite time, eventually we will find a paper that can produce the 23rd Psalm or the Complete Works of Shakespeare. Huxley then used one of the mathematical laws which Wilberforce knew quite well: The Probability Formula. It states that if time is infinite, then the probability of an event A happening is 1 (or fully certain). Therefore, chance alone is able to do what man can do if given enough time.
When Huxley told Wilberforce this ‘fact,’ according to Wilder-Smith this was the moment when Wilberforce lost the debate. Because Wilder-Smith pointed out that Wilberforce could not give a reasonable answer to this argument. Wilder-Smith then said he struggled with how to answer this argument for about 35 years. Keep in mind that he earned 3 doctorates in chemistry, with 70+ published papers. He was no spring chicken. And I’ll be honest, if I were in Wilberforce’s hot-seat at the moment, I am not sure I’d be able to come up with the answer right off unless I had prepared for the argument prior to the debate. Before any skeptic laughs at me for that, I can safely say the vast majority of said skeptics would flounder at any debate where Google is not at their fingertips (they often do WITH Google at their fingertips as is), because I’ve watched them do so.
So what is the answer? I’ll give Wilder-Smith’s answer here and over the next few weeks, I’ll look deeper into this argument. The typewriter analogy is akin to DNA and the information in the molecule for building a living creature. Wilder-Smith is an excellent resource on understanding how information and DNA works. He makes a very interesting point regarding DNA and living creatures. It requires enzymes to work ,and enzymes require the chemical reactions to be reversible. This is a critical thing missing in every Evolutionary argument for the origin of life.
Wilder-Smith likens this to solving a jigsaw puzzle where the pieces can “slot-in” and create the picture. It is possible to shake a box of puzzle pieces for a given amount of time and expect to find some pieces will end up connecting together, however there will only be a few of them, because if it gets too big, it will fall apart again. So Wilder-Smith indicates there will be some kind of equilibrium. The Miller-Urey Experiment showed some of this. They were able to generate some amino acids, however they were racemic (meaning mixed between right-hand oriented and left-hand oriented) and only a few of them amidst a bunch of sludge. Evolutionists have proclaimed this to be success about the origins of life, but is it really?
The problem with jigsaw puzzles and reversible chemical reactions is that there is just as much of a chance, if not more, of two connected pieces coming apart than there is of two pieces coming together. This brings the typewriter analogy to a catastrophic fault. The typewriter types a letter and that letter is stored on the paper. Then another letter is stored. Then another. Under such circumstances, if given enough time, there certainly can be a paper from these monkeys which reproduces the 23rd Psalm. However, if the typewriter were to accurately mimic living chemistry, it would be able to “un-type” just as well as type. That means at any point, any of those letters typed onto the paper could suddenly disappear. The jigsaw puzzle pieces would not merely fit together to some extent, they would also separate. Under that circumstance, the Probability Formula suddenly seems to be inapplicable to the situation because no matter how much time you give it, it will only produce up to an equilibrium level.
The only way the Monkey-Typewriter Theory is even possible is because the letters are permanently stored and locked into place. Yet in actual chemistry, this never happens UNLESS there is an already established, in-place mechanism to do this. We know that is the case because that is how we never get any D-(right) oriented amino acids, in which just one would be extremely detrimental, if not fatal. I have still yet to see a single argument from a single Evolutionist even attempt to address how this mechanism would be established WITHOUT a designer.
There are more issues with the Monkey-Typewriter Theory, but that will have to wait for next week.
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“My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working.” -John 5:17
Socialism kills. Socialism equals starvation. Europeans have forgotten that painful lesson which they seem destined to relearn. South America has been suffering from the socialism disease and Marxist theology for decades—it is a sickness unto death unless they wake up to Biblical theology. America has been flirting with socialism since FDR, but her immune system has been compromised by crony capitalism for so long she has almost no resistance to the socialist plague.
It seems appropriate to directly confront socialism in this introduction to the element of work in social ethics, because private property is directly essential to any theology of work. The Marxist revolution in Europe preaches that the fruit of all labor belongs to everyone (and usually superintended by the state). However, when people cannot keep the fruit of their own labor, they tend not to work as hard. Lack of productivity is a perennial pestilence. The United Soviet Socialist Republic attempted to solve this problem through forced labor. It was a disgraceful way to treat their fellow human beings.
This is not the American legacy. Socialism was first tried in America in 1607 in the Jamestown colony. The bulk of the persons who settled the area were considered indentured servants and their labors were considered public property. People seem to always want to live on the labor of other men. However, the settlers did not work very hard since they were not allowed to eat the fruit of their own labor. The colonists forgot the Biblical admonition, “Do not muzzle the ox while he treads out the grain, and the worker deserves his wages” (1 Timothy 5:18).
The result was starvation. Even though the land was incredibly fertile and fruit and game abounded, they were starving. David Boaz chronicles the “starving time” and the fact that the institution of private property changed all of that in his blog for the Cato Institute here.
The point is that the reward of labor belongs to the laborer. This countermands slavery, obviously, but it also countermands socialism. Also, if a person chooses to sell his labor for whatever price he can get, that is between himself and whomever agrees to buy the labor. If the buyer of labor (employer) profits exceedingly from the labor he purchased, that is perfectly acceptable. Perhaps the one selling his own labor will realize the true value of his labor and only agree to sell more of it at a higher price. That is also perfectly acceptable. Underneath either of these voluntary agreements is the foundational notion that I own my own labor.
The fruit of work consists in three states: past, present, and future. Past labor has achieved my current position, whether good or bad. Past laziness results in present lack; past diligence in present abundance. To swoop in and lay claim to my property (money, land, goods) is to steal my past. To enslave me and force me to work or lay claim to my current labor in any way is to steal my present, that is to steal my liberty. To steal my life is obviously to steal my future. Life, liberty, and property are inseparable. For a further development of this idea please read this.
Work and reward are inseparable. That is why I have so often said that socialism cannot be Christian, because it assumes that society has the ultimate rights of property, not the individual who actually does the work. I would hasten to add that if you sell your labor, you agree to work for a wage. If you provide labor to build, say, a dam, you don’t own the dam—you own the money that was traded for your labor. Makes sense, right?
“If you don’t work, you don’t eat” (2 Thessalonians 3:10). The results of your work or lack thereof are your own. If you fail to sow, you shall also fail to reap. The nobility of Europe developed the idea that work was an aspect of the Fall. But work was not a part of the Fall, nor was it the result of the curse. Toil was part of the curse, but not work. Adam worked before the fall (Genesis 2:15). He named all the animals if you recall (Genesis 2:19).
Work is an essential part of what it means to be fully human. God gave us the mandate to tend the earth. Profitable, rewarding work is part of our DNA as human beings. When God remakes the heavens and the earth, He will remove the toil from our work, but he will not remove work from our lives—thank goodness. Can you imagine an eternity of sitting on clouds playing a harp? I want to explore the universe and terraform planets. How about you? What will you want to do for all eternity? What will be your work?
This is a brief introduction to the category of work in a comprehensive social ethic. If you are familiar with Catholic Social Teaching, you will realize that I inverted the order of work and care for the poor because our ability to care for the poor arises out of our work ethic and we feed others from the fruit of our own labor. We don’t steal the productivity of others to give to the poor. We give to them from our own productivity as we feel led. We don’t feed the lazy—but we care for the unfortunate. Till next week—fair well. Do good work. Eat, drink, and be merry.
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Music is important in the lives of many people. I have talented musicians in my family, and while I am not one of them, I definitely enjoy good music and attending concerts, musicals, etc. Many people can make a living off their music, and for many others it’s a great hobby. Most churches use music in their worship services as another way to praise God. So, it’s no surprise that music is addressed in the Bible.
The very first musical reference in the Bible was of Jubal in Genesis 4:20-21: “Adah gave birth to Jabal; he was the father of those who live in tents and raise livestock. His brother’s name was Jubal; he was the father of all who play stringed instruments and pipes.”
The book of Psalms is full of songs, since “psalm” is another word for “song.” We no longer have the original tunes for these songs, just the lyrics, but many of today’s worship songs use lines from the psalms. The book of Psalms of the longest book in the Bible, actually making up 7% of the total Bible! King David wrote many of the psalms, and in 2 Samuel 23:1 he is called “the hero of Israel’s songs.”
The book of Song of Songs is naturally another musically-oriented book. There are also song lyrics recorded in Revelation 5:9-10, Revelation 7:9-12, and Revelation 15:1-4. Mary the mother of Jesus sang a song of praise in Luke 1:46-55 after finding out she would bear the Messiah. Moses and his sister Miriam sang a song recorded in Exodus 15 after God defeated the Egyptian army in the Red Sea. David’s victory over Goliath was celebrated with a song in 1 Samuel 18:6-7.
We see that Jesus and His disciples sang in Matthew 26:30, and Paul and Silas sang hymns in prison in Acts 16:25. Ephesians 5:18-20 encourages the church to “speak to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit.” Colossians 3:16 says, “Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts.” James 5:13 also tells us to sing songs of praise when we’re happy: “Is anyone among you in trouble? Let them pray. Is anyone happy? Let them sing songs of praise.”
There are many times that music goes along with other activities told about in the Bible. For example, music was used at the coronation of King Solomon (1 Kings 1:39-40), and musicians were in the king’s court for his pleasure (Ecclesiastes 2:8). Music was used to bring down the walls of Jericho (Joshua 6), and David played his harp to calm down King Saul (1 Samuel 16:14-23).
Music, like any form of entertainment, can be used for God’s glory or against Him. Our motivation and the choices we make regarding music are key to determining which side of this we’re on. How are you using music to glorify God in your life?
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by Logan Ames
Nelson Mandela once said, “Lead from the back and let others believe they are in front." To some degree, this describes the humility that Jesus portrayed in his life. As we saw in last week’s post, Jesus suffered under the governor Pontius Pilate, who, though others may have worshiped him and held him in high esteem, was nothing compared to the authority that Jesus had from above. But there was a purpose in all the pain that Jesus went through. Each time he endured suffering and did not give into the temptation to rid himself of it, he won a victory that makes it possible for us to win such victories when WE are suffering and tempted. That seems to be the main point of what the writer of Hebrews is saying in Hebrews 4:15-16, as we looked at last week. Jesus was tempted in every single way that we are, yet he did not sin. This means we can approach the throne of grace boldly and ask our Lord for help when we are deeply struggling. He gives us what we need to endure it and keep moving forward. Could you imagine what it would be like for us if Jesus had actually given into temptation and sin? We’d all be doomed!
God did not want to leave us in that position. You see, God is both distant AND near. He’s distant in the sense that he spoke the universe into existence and is greater than our finite minds can even comprehend. We’ll never understand or be able to contain him. But he’s near in the sense that he saw our unformed bodies and knit every single human being together in our mothers’ wombs (Psalm 139:13-16). He’s also near in the sense that he chose to come to our messed up world in the person of Jesus Christ and deal with all of the things we deal with. Could you imagine how life was for Jesus as a teenager? You can picture him being in a typical teenager argument with his parents and them saying, “Whatever, smart aleck, I guess you just think you know everything." And Jesus could’ve responded, “Um, yeah, because I DO." He knows how many hairs are on their heads, knows what’s on their minds, and even knows who actually finished all the cookies. But Jesus came to show us how to live and act as his disciples, which meant he rarely played the “I’m God” card even when he could. Luke 2:51 tells us that Jesus was even “obedient to his parents." They were sinners; he wasn’t. Yet, he showed us that the temporary suffering of having to obey them leads to a greater reward.
This is true with not only our relationships with our parents, but with God as well. Jesus tells us that being his disciples means we have to deny ourselves, take up our crosses, and follow him, because we can literally gain everything in the world and still lose our souls and have no eternal hope (Mark 8:34-35). As a man, Jesus had enough faith in his Father to trust that the temporary suffering would lead to something much better and that it was all part of the Father’s plan. He knew that even during his suffering, he and his Father remained in control, even if those around him thought he was being defeated.
In this week’s root of our faith, we look at how Jesus specifically suffered through crucifixion, death, and burial. While none of this felt like victory to anyone who loved and followed him, God was in control every step of the way. Each part of this process was a necessary VICTORY for us as believers. Jesus was CRUCIFIED because the weight of the whole world’s sin required such a great payment. There is so much theology in the Bible about it that we could write multiple posts on it, but it will suffice to just draw your attention to Romans 5:15-19, where Paul describes that the gift and sacrifice of Jesus, which brought freedom and grace to the world, was greater than the trespass of Adam, which brought sin into the world.
In reality, when Jesus went to the cross, God was just fulfilling his promise made to Abraham in Genesis 15:8-18. If you read it on your own, you’ll see how God does this bizarre ritual with Abraham where he has Abraham cut various animals into two. In that tradition, when two people walked through the halves of the animals, they were making a binding covenant with one another that stipulated that if either one breaks the covenant, they would be as dead as those animals. But what you see in verse 17 is that God appears while Abraham is in a deep sleep and passes through the pieces BY HIMSELF. On that day, the covenant that God made was that even if Abraham or his descendants break their end of the covenant, God would be “as dead as the animals." Thus, when Jesus was crucified for OUR sins, it wasn’t pretty. It was every bit as gory as that scene where the animals were cut in two.
After Jesus was crucified, he actually died. This was also a necessary victory for us because it was what WE deserved. Romans 6:23 says death is the penalty for sin, so Jesus couldn’t just suffer badly and “almost” die, only to make a full and miraculous recovery. He had to go through it all the way in order to pay for our sin. Anything less would not have saved us. Could you imagine going shopping for a new car and telling the owner you would work really hard, save the money, ALMOST buy the car, and then expect the owner to give it to you? That’s obviously ludicrous but that’s why Jesus had to die to win the victory for us. God required the full payment for sin, and in the person of Jesus, he took that debt on himself.
Even Jesus’s burial was necessary in his work of salvation and redemption for all who trust in and follow him. To completely atone for our sins, he had to separate us from them. You may have heard in a song called "Glorious Day" by Casting Crowns the lyrics "buried he carried my sins far away." You may know those lyrics and sing them, but you have to know what they mean. This goes back to the idea of the Day of Atonement from the Old Testament, the Yom Kippur. Leviticus 16 tells us all about it. It's where the priest went through this whole routine ordained by God and takes a live goat, lays both hands on it, and confesses all of the sins of all the people onto the head of the goat, and then sends it away into the remote wilderness never to come back again. The sins are transferred to the goat and the goat carries them far away. Incidentally, this is where the term "scapegoat" first originated. Psalm 103:12 tells us that God has removed our sins from us “as far as the east is from the west." That's why Jesus had to be buried. His death paid for our sins, but his burial took them so far away from us that we'll never see them again! So, what does that mean for you today? Stop living in your past sins. If you trust Jesus, they are buried and gone and they are NEVER coming back!
Have you been walking in the victory that Jesus’ crucifixion, death, and burial have provided you? Yes, we know that the ultimate victory is what we’ll deal with next week - the resurrection. But it’s important to know that choosing to endure suffering and temptation because of our trust in the Lord to bring something good out of it is what Jesus demonstrated for us each step of the way. Since we are now living on the other side of Jesus’ resurrection, we can know that his willingness to suffer brings us victory as we choose to endure and overcome it in our own lives. May God grant you the strength, mercy, and grace that you need to keep going!
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