I’m in Love with Judas, Baby

“Even my close friend in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has lifted his heel against me.” Psalm 41:9

Though in this Psalm’s immediate context, it is King David who is lamenting personal betrayal and subsequently pleading for God to deliver him, I believe that this Psalm is fully realized in Christ, specifically in his being betrayed by Judas Iscariot.

We know the scene.  Jesus and the Twelve are in the upper room, eating and drinking the Passover meal, which would be Jesus’ last meal until the coming of God’s kingdom in its fullness.  This Passover is different than the others, for Jesus tells them that He is initiating a new covenant, not with unleavened bread, but with His own body, and not with wine, but sealed by His own blood.

The mood becomes even darker when Jesus tells them, “One of you will betray me.”  These alarming words cause the Twelve not only to look around, but to look inward, examining themselves.  They ask Him, one after another, as if in a game of Russian roulette, “Is it I, Lord?” They had heard Jesus’ words that not everyone who professes Him or takes part in His ministry will enter His kingdom.  Jesus tells them that it is indeed one of them at dinner that evening.  Jesus laments the sad reality, and Judas answers him, “Is it I, Teacher?”  Jesus replies, “You said it.”

Note the difference in how they address Jesus.  Eleven confess Jesus as “Lord,” while Judas simply calls Him “Teacher” or “Rabbi.”  It is as if inherent in Judas words and tone of voice is his diabolical plan to destroy Jesus.  We know the rest of the story.  We know that Judas already had blood money in his pocket.  It ends tragically for Judas.  His life is a tragedy.

Lately, I have begun to realize that I have been desensitized to both the empty sadness of Judas’ destruction and the intensity of pain in Jesus’ heart upon being betrayed.  In this post, I’d like to recover both of those, at least a little bit.

First, here are two reasons why I think I am desensitized, or distanced, to these things:

• We are put in the know early on in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and fairly in John, of the demise of Judas.  In MML, the Twelve are listed with Judas Iscariot named last, followed by, “who betrayed him,” (Matt 10:4; Mark 3:19) and “who became a traitor” (Luke 6:16).  Though John waits longer to tell us, he does give us fair warning in 12:4: “He who was to betray Him.”  He also tells us of Judas’ character–that he was a thief (12:6).  Therefore, Judas’ betrayal comes as no surprise to us by the time it happens towards the end of the gospel.
• We often think of Jesus as a ghostlike character floating around with no emotion except maybe a smirking nod here and there.  He may have chuckled at a joke or two, but only if it was really clever.  This made-up Jesus never experienced pain and, since he knew everything that would happen to him, hurt less when it did.  However, the gospels teach that Jesus’ divinity did not separate him from the human experience.

As far as the first reason goes, just because we are told beforehand what was going to happen does not lessen the seriousness of the matter.  We are also told on numerous times by Jesus that He would be handed over and crucified, but that certainly does not lighten that occasion.  And for the second, this isn’t like our Jesus at all.  He was a man, and as a man, he could be betrayed, and feel the pain of betrayal.

I want to consider the following:

• Judas was numbered with the Twelve.  Even though he is distinguished early on in the gospels, he is still one of them.  In Acts 1 Peter says concerning Judas, “He was numbered among us and was allotted his share in this ministry.”  We have this idea that Judas is the weird little brother that no one likes, not even Jesus– always lurking around, staying on the outside while in his mind knowing what he was going to do.  I would like to un-demonize Judas.  Judas was one of Jesus’ closest friends.  He listened to his teaching and witnessed the miracles.  They were buddies for Jesus’ entire ministry.  They were ministry partners.  Even in John’s character-revelation of Judas in John 12, we learn that Judas was in charge of the money!  He was, as a friend put it, “the guy who organized the funds for the mission trips,” hence the Psalm, “my friend, in whom I trusted.”
• The intensity of betrayal is proportional to the intimacy of the relationship between the betrayer and the one betrayed.  Dipping food in the same dish is a sign of intimate fellowship.  It symbolizes the closeness of Judas and Jesus.  Jesus doesn’t say, “The guy that I saw two weeks ago at the market is going to betray me.”  Rather, he says, “The guy whose spit is swirling around in this sauce bowl with mine is going to stab me in the back.”
• There is a sense of mourning in Acts 1 over Judas’ suicide.  The disciples were praying together with the women concerning how to replace Judas.  Peter assures them of God’s sovereignty in the midst of tragedy.  They moved from there to seek God concerning Judas’ replacement.  It seems that Judas’ sandals were big ones to fill, because here are the criteria for his replacement:  “One of the men who have accompanied us during all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John until the day when he was taken up from us… You, Lord, who know the hearts of all, show which one of these two you have chosen to take the place in this ministry and apostleship from which Judas turned aside to go to his own place” (Acts 1:21-25).
• Judas’ fall came gradually, in slowly being taken over by the love of money (John 12).  Satan fills Judas’ heart and  God hands him over.  We see the same thing happen to Ananais and Sapphira in Acts 5, when they embezzled money from the church.  Peter asks them, “Why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit?  You have not lied to men but to God.” The same thing happens to Demas, who had been a friend and ministry partner of Paul (Col 4:14):  “For Demas, in love with this present world, has deserted me…” (2 Tim 4:14).

Listen to Jesus’ words, “Would you betray the Son of Man with a kiss?”– “Judas, would you abandon me with the most intimate sign of friendship?”  Jesus’ heart broke, not only for the pain of personal betrayal, but lamenting over Judas himself:  “Woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed!” (Luke 22:22)  He loved the things of this world more than the things of another.  He loved this life more than true life.  It is such a tragedy because in our hearts we know that what happened to Judas would happen to us if God removed His grace from us.  It is what should happen to us, if we got what we deserved.  But God has not given us what we deserved; he gave that to Christ, and Christ took it upon Himself on the Cross.  We do not have to purchase a Field of Blood (Acts 1:18) on which to die because we have the cross of blood upon which Christ died.

Christians when reading the gospels like to relate to certain characters.  For instance, “I’m like Peter because I’m always putting my foot in my mouth,” or “I’m like Thomas because I doubt”; “So-and-so is like Mary, but so-and-so is like Martha.”  However, I think in our attempts to personalize the gospels, we miss the warning laced throughout their entirety, “DO NOT BE LIKE JUDAS.”  The gospels are a call to discipleship–an invitation and exhortation to follow Jesus.  And within that discipleship, we are to “REMEMBER LOT’S WIFE,” who loved where she came from more than where she was going (Luke 17).  Do we not think that Lot wept for days when his wife turned to a pillar of salt?  And should we not weep when we consider Judas?  Should we not look into our hearts and come face to face with the fact that there is some Judas in all of us?  When Jesus says, “One of you will betray me,” do you look at him and say, “Is it I, Rabbi?”

Preaching My Grandfather’s Funeral

My grandfather, Joseph A. Keywood, died this past Thursday morning in the VA nursing home in Jackson, MS. He was 86 years old and had been struggling with Alzheimer’s for the last 10 years.  He was faithfully married to my grandmother Betty for 57 years, reared one girl and three boys, served in the local church for around 40 years, and loved to garden and sing hymns.  Here’s a link to his obituary.

I was given the honor of preaching his funeral on this morning at First Baptist Church, Hazlehurst, MS.  It was sobering, humbling, and difficult.  I tried my best to make the manuscript more readable.  You can read it below:

“For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead.” 1 Corinthians 15:21

It is often said to those mourning the loss of a loved one that “death is just a natural part of life.”  But really, normalizing a tragedy in order to desensitize us to it does not make alleviate the pain.  It serves as an anesthetic, but it doesn’t do surgery.  It doesn’t reach the heart.  Death is as much a part of life as poison is a part of a family dinner.  It is okay to be shaken and weep.  We are face-to-face with a very old, very consistent, impartial enemy, that whispers to us with every aching bone.  We’ve been reintroduced to him up close and personal this last week with the passing of my grandfather Joseph A. Keywood, and many of us, myself included, are unsettled by his presence, though we tend to hide it with smiles and politeness.

In Genesis 1-2, we are given a picture of the world that is very different from what we are seeing today.  God speaks into nothing and life appears everywhere.  He forms all that we see, touch, smell, taste, and hear.  God forms the complex makeup of man out of dirt and breathes life into him; and woman from the man’s rib and breathes life into her.  He makes them in his own image and commands them to fill the earth and create a joyful community of praise to God rather than to themselves, because God knows that it is life-giving to give glory to Him.  He creates that first couple to live in an unbroken relationship with Him.  God looks on a living world and sees it so good is because it accords with who God is.  God loves life, because in Him is life in its fullness.  All life flows from the Living God.  God speaks and flowers bloom.  He speaks, and eggs hatch.  He speaks, and babies are born.  This means that our lives only have meaning, fullness, purpose, existence, in so much as we find ourselves in Him.

A tragic turn happens when Adam and Eve doubt God’s goodness and desire to be like God by trying to run their own lives.  They disobey His word, thinking that it would bring freedom, but really this act of rebellion yanks the root out of the only soil that can nourish them.  Their relationship with God was broken.  The world buckles as they reject God.  Sin is introduced into the world, and it has not been the same since.  In perfect justice, God sentences Adam and his posterity to a very sad ending: “For you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”  Not only spiritual death, but physical death resulted.  The continuation of humanity is an unbroken string of pain and sorrow.  This curse spreads into every part of the human person, and into every part of human history.  Adam and Eve are our parents, and we agree wholeheartedly with their actions daily through the things that we should do but don’t, and the things that we shouldn’t do but do instead, so that the results of their sin, death included, is our own.  It is a great tragedy.  We fall, and death results.  Yet, God does not abandon us, but even then had already begun His work of salvation through a long history of lives ending in funerals—all significant, but one ultimately significant.

Many generations after that first sin, a man named Jesus’ body hangs lifeless as two men wrap him in cloths, preparing him for a traditional burial.  His mother looks at the ground with tears in her eyes, recalling the day when she swaddled him and placed him in a manger in Bethlehem.  She and Joseph had taught him to walk, talk, cook, greet strangers, and bathe properly.  She had seen him boldly proclaim uncanny understanding of God’s law in the temple—always challenging us to remember that our external actions mean nothing if our hearts are cold towards God.  He hungered in a desert and feasted with society’s rejects, mourned at the death of his friend Lazarus and rejoiced at the birth of his brothers James and Salome; he laughed at jokes and played with children; he probably smashed his finger with a hammer when woodworking with his dad; he faced temptation and was victorious over it every time.  Perfect in heart, word, thought, deed—a sinless man.  He lived life in its fullness.  Jesus’ close friend John recorded these things about him:

• “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God… And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.  In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.” John 1:1,4.
• “For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only Son that whoever believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16
• “[He is] the bread of life.” John 6:35
• “[He is] the resurrection and the life.”
• “[He has] the words of eternal life.” John 6:68
• “Whoever believes in [Jesus], out of his heart will flow living water.” John 7:38

The same Jesus also said on several occasions that he would be handed over to the authorities, executed, and rise three days later (Matt 16:21-23, etc.).  These promises seem like a distant daydream when you’re going to apply spices to make your deceased loved one’s body smell better, like the two women did on the third day after he was buried (Mark 16:1).  We know this story.  Was Jesus there?  He was gone.  The tomb was empty.  Jesus fulfilled His promises by breaking through the funeral veil and rolling away the stone.

God the Son stepped into this mundane cycle of birth, life, and death and experienced the full extent of it.  Jesus lived the life we should have lived and died the death that we should have died.  He bore the curse on our behalf to bring us to God, eradicating the hostility that began in Genesis.  He was killed, wrapped up, buried, and resurrected, so that by faith in who He is and what He has done, we can be joined with Him, triumphing over the grave, and brought to God.

When a person puts their trust in Jesus, they die with Jesus, go through Jesus’ funeral, and are raised from the dead with Jesus.  They die to their old sinful desires and wants, and live to what God wants.  This is why the apostle Paul says,

“I have been crucified with Christ.  It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.  And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Gal 2:20).

The same Bible that says, “Take up your cross daily and follow me,” (Matt 16:24) says this also,

“For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.  We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would not longer be enslaved to sin.  For one who has died has been set free from sin.  Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.  We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him.  For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God.  So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus”  (Rom 6:5-11).

When you die with and are raised with Christ, and live in that reality, no grave can contain you, because you are born again as a new creation.  Your sins have been paid for.  This is why we say today, “Where, O death, is your sting?  Where, O grave, is your victory?”  By trusting Jesus for your salvation, you are seated with Christ and made more than a conqueror.  Death is your servant, because Jesus made it His servant.

Indeed, we are at a funeral now, but there is coming a day when what happens spiritually will be manifest for the world to see.  At the blast of a trumpet, in the twinkling of an eye, the dead in Christ will rise, and we will be changed. Even though Joe Keywood bears Adam’s image in his casket right now, on that day, he will bear the image of the resurrected Christ.  This will be no hummed hymn from a man with Alzheimer’s, but a shout  rejoicing in God’s finished work.  This will be no slow shuffle, but a dance with perfect grace.  There will be no aspirated pneumonia, but feasting with the living Christ and all of God’s people.  And there will be no uncontrollable agitation, but unceasing joy in God.

The body of a Christian is put in the ground in dishonor but is raised in honor.  It is put in the ground in weakness but is raised in power.  Christ destroyed the enemy called Death.  We look forward in a real, solid hope grounded in the real, historic events of Jesus’ death and resurrection that one day, “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away” (Rev 21:4).  This is the only hope we have in life and in death.  You don’t have to paint on a smile—true comfort is only found in these realities.  Jesus has confronted death and rose victorious.  Do we trust ourselves to be able to do the same?  Where do we stand?  We are but a powerless vapor.  You are looking at death, but you are offered full, unfading life.  Death is more powerful than you, but it is not more powerful than Jesus.  Thanks be to God, for giving hope beyond the grave.

What I Mean and Don’t Mean by ‘We’re All Human’

We’re all human.  It’s a fairly common figure of speech, usually used in situations similar to the following made-up conversation between Tonto and Alfred:

Tonto: Hey Alfred, I’m sorry again about rutting up your yard with my truck the other day.  I was being negligent and totally forgot that the grass was wet.

Alfred: Hey it’s okay.  Don’t beat yourself up about it.  We’re all human. We all make mistakes.

Tonto: Thanks for not hating me forever.

Alfred: It’s okay. Give me a hug.

Alfred is admitting and affirming the reality of imperfection/unrighteousness for every person, regardless of who they are (similar to “nobody’s perfect”).  This includes the capability of making mistakes, wrong judgments, like the one Tonto made.  It draws a connection between the person wronged and the wrong-doer, that “to err is human.”  “I don’t judge you; you’re a human like me.”

I’ve decided that by this I can imply one of two things.  One of these I believe accords with Scripture, and one does not.

What I don’t mean

To say “we’re all human” does not imply that our imperfection is part of the essence of what makes someone a whole, complete human being.  Certain things become such a part of our lives and our experience as people that we accept them as what’s supposed to happen.  For instance, a man meets a woman, takes interest, pursues her, then marries her if she (and her father) accepts his proposal.  Anyone objecting to his actions may get the response from him, “Why are you acting like this is a big deal? People have been getting married since the beginning of…humans!”

However, imperfection is not one of the things that makes us humans.  I have three basic arguments for this:

1. God created people (Gen 1-2) as whole humans, and, before the Fall, they were without sin and in perfect relationship to God, each other, and their environment.  To say that sinning is essential to human composition is to say that Adam and Eve were not fully human until they sinned.  Humans are said to be made in the image of God before the Fall (Gen 1:26) as well as after the Fall (Gen 9:6).
2. Jesus Christ was fully human, yet without sin (2 Cor 5:21).  He was not lacking anything He needed to fully share in the human experience.  This makes Him a worthy and sufficient Mediator between us and God (Heb 7:26).
3. God guarantees the separation from sin and its consequences/effects in the new heavens and the new earth (Rom 7:24; Rev 19:8, etc.).  In the new creation, which was inaugurated at Christ’s birth and will be revealed fully at His return, a renewed, full, glorified humanity will be revealed.  Christians will receive the longing of their hearts:  To be with God and away from sin.

What it can mean

Though sin, corruption, imperfection, etc. is not part of what it means to be a human, it is everyone’s experience.  As a result of Adam’s sin, we by our nature fall far short of God’s standard.  This is such a part of our experience, it has become “normal”–we don’t know anything different.  In this way, our sin is both unnatural, in that it has distorted God’s good creation, and natural, in that we all share in it daily from birth.

Therefore, if what we mean by “we’re all human” is that we all share a nature corrupted by the Fall, then it is a worthy phrase; but if we mean “sin completes me,” then it’s not accurate at best and hopeless at the worst.  Either way, we should look beyond this mundane phrase to something more.  The good news is that Jesus took the implications of “we’re all human” upon Himself on the cross, to cleanse us from our old corruption and introduce a new creation.

Accountability and a Slight of “Talk-to-the-Hand”

So you finally let the cat out of the bag about that embarrassing no-no you’ve been hiding. Over lunch one day, you toil to lay it all out there. It’s a long story with eight different angles. On the other side of the table is me. As you talk my mind starts to wander over to Madagascar with the lemurs. By the time you finish explaining, I realize that I had heard what you were talking about with half of my brain and decided that reed lemurs are my favorite type of lemur with the other half.

I crash back down to Earth (or this side of it) and offer some advice: “That’s pretty tough. Well, you know, I struggle too; we all struggle and have our own vices. God is faithful to forgive, though. He’s sovereign too.” The confessor, somewhere between comforted and confused, says to him/herself, “I need to just get serious about it this time. Maybe this week’ll be better.” If you’re like me, you’re not always the best listener, and, if you’re like me, you’ve been in the position of the hesitant confessor.

A primary way that we often flatter ourselves concerning our sin is to assume that the issue goes no further than external actions. “I didn’t do _____ for three weeks, but then I messed up again.” We end up treating our issues like we’re learning to wheelie on a bike. “I made it all the way to the end of the driveway that time! But then I wrecked…” Or learning to hula hoop: “I hula-ed through the end of ‘I Want It That Way’, but then Suzy made a face so I lost rhythm.” Thus, we fail to recognize that our actions are actors performing the play already written by our hearts. This manifests itself in both sides of the conversation:

• The Confessor- All we see is a timid individual, but in their heart is a war. It’s a violent tug-of-war between active sin-hiding and passive survival mode-preservation on one team, and, a Christian desire to confess and deny self on the other. The battle is for a heart throne. It’s easy for sin to remain seated on the   throne as long as the confessor thinks that, say, binge-eating is simply a matter of what he/she puts or doesn’t put in his/her mouth. In light of this, of course the confession is going to come out in generalities.
• The Listener– Your friend is also in a battle.  One one side there is a concoction of fear of man, desire to avoid a messy situation, and a conscious you’re-too-close bubble.  On the other is self-denial, love and compassion, and abandonment for a brother/sister.  The battle is between the Enemy saying, “Give a generic antidote without getting to the root of the issue. We do things for no reason,” and Christ saying, “Each person is different, and each issue is more complex than what meets the eye. There is something lying underneath all these things that your friend is dealing with.  He’s not a mindless robot.  Remember how I entered into your mess? You can enter into your friend’s mess.”

Jesus never gave people a slight of “talk-to-the-hand” when they confronted Him.  He sought to expose the hearts of even those who were violently opposed to Him, and is still about this work, often through the loving, patient conversations of hesitant confessors and scatterbrained listeners like you and me.

The Sinless Emotions of Christ

In his book, The Person of Christ, Donald Macleod writes a helpful paragraph about Christ’s sinless human emotions.   How do we reconcile Jesus’ being a “man of sorrows” with his being perfectly joyful?  Macleod writes:

There can be little doubt that, apart from the brief (although indescribably intense) moment of the dereliction on Calvary, Jesus was serene, contented and happy.  He rejoiced, doubtless, in the being of his Father, meditating on him as an object of wonder and admiration; in his Father’s love, approbation and constant help and presence; in the beauties and glories of his Father’s creation; in doing his Father’s will, promoting his glory and saving his people; in the friendship, company, and conversation of those the Father had given to be with him; and in anticipating his return to the glory he had with the Father ‘before the world began’ (Jn. 17:5).  Such joy was an indispensable element in the psychology of his obedience.  He served not as a slave but as a Son.

Christ’s sinless human emotions don’t allow us to refer to him as “moody,” “capricious,” “sullen,” etc., but as a perfectly balanced, emotionally stable, joyful man of sorrows, acquainted with the greatest grief as well as the greatest joy.

William Carey’s Great Expectations

William Carey, in his Enquiry Into the Obligations of Christians, to Use Means for the Conversion of the Heathens.  In which the Religious State of the Different Nations of the World, the Success of Former Undertakings, and the Practicability of Further Undertakings, Are Considered…, writes:

It must undoubtedly strike every thinking mind that a vast proportion of the sons of Adam remain in the most deplorable state of heathen darkness, without any means of knowing the true God, except what are afforded them by the works of nature; and utterly destitute of the knowledge of the gospel of Christ, or of any means of obtaining it.

Carey continues:

Can we as men, or as Christians, hear that ignorance and barbarism envelops a great part of our fellow creatures, whose souls are as immortal as ours and who are as capable as ourselves of adorning the gospel, and contributing by their preaching, writings, or practices to the glory of our Redeemer’s name, and the good of the church?

It is inconsistent for ministers to please themselves with thoughts of a numerous congregation, cordial friends, a civilized country, legal protection, affluence, splendor, or even an income that is sufficient.  The slights and hatred of men, and even pretended friends, gloomy prisons, and tortures, the society of barbarians of uncouth speech, miserable accommodations in wretched wildernesses, hunger and thirst, nakedness, weariness, and diligence, hard work, and but little worldly encouragement, should rather be the objects of their expectation.  (emphasis mine)

Indeed, this is a core characteristic of a true follower of Christ, says Carey, for “Christians are a body whose truest interest lies in the exaltation of the Messiah’s kingdom.”

Click here to read An Enquiry in its entirety.  

Election Results In: Gratitude

True gratitude comes from realizing that all one has is given by God.  Every breath, heartbeat, morsel of food, and thread of clothing is a gift from the God who shows righteous patience despite human rebellion.  The distinction between Creator and creature demands gratitude, because without the Creator’s sustaining and providing for the creature, the creature would vanish from existence.  Therefore, “I will give thanks to the LORD with my whole heart; I will recount all of your wonderful deeds” (Ps 9:1).  Note that the Psalmist gives thanks with his heart.  True gratitude towards God is found first in the heart of the affections, which works outward into our words and deeds.  This means that someone can say and even pretend that they are grateful, but they really are not grateful if their heart is not involved.  In Romans 1, judgment is declared on unbelievers precisely for this reason:  “For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to Him”–that is, even though they know that they are little dependent creatures, they scorn the Creator who gives them life and whose power and glory they have witnessed, leaving them without excuse.  The doctrines of grace in their very essence produce gratitude in the heart of true Christians, as they ascribe unto God all the glory for granting them forgiveness even though they are unworthy sinners.  As outlined by Abraham Booth in The Reign of Grace, the doctrine of election produces holiness in the life of a Christian by cultivating gratitude:

A right understanding of this glorious truth of election also leads the believer to be filled with gratitude to God.  Gratitude is one of those lovely characteristics of the soul.  It burns in the hearts of those in glory and is the reason why the heavenly choirs sing praise to God.  Love and gratitude are the very essence of all religion, the very life and soul of Christianity.  As they are advanced, so the holiness and comfort of mankind are advanced.  A warm sense of the election of grace in the heart is a powerful incentive to overflow with thanksgiving to God.  As Paul thinks about the riches of grace in election he exclaims: ‘Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world’ (Eph. 1:3-4).  And again:  ‘But we are bound to give thanks to God always for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God from the beginning chose you for salvation’ (2 Thess. 2:13).  This is how the Apostle expresses his thanks, both for himself and other believers, to the Author of all good for his electing love.  Similar expressions of gratitude will be found in every regenerate heart where election is known and embraced.

The intense desire of believers is to honor God in everything.  They are so conscious of how much they owe to God’s grace, they devote themselves to him, longing to please him.  They pray that they may never bring God’s name into disrepute.  If they ever do, it causes them pain and distress.  They must seek the glory of the one who has chosen them to salvation.  So we see that election, when rightly understood and believed, always leads to holy living and consecration to God. (emphasis mine)

Election Results In: Love

What you believe about God’s grace affects your life as a Christian.  If you truly believe in your heart that God’s grace is wholly sovereign from start to finish, and that even your faith by/through which you are saved is a gift from Him, your relationship to God will be different than the one who believes that God does everything within His power, but a free/freed human will/volition takes the final step that causes God to be inclined to grant forgiveness to a person.  One is biblical Christianity, the other is not.  These two types of people may appear to be on the same page, and we in our fallen understanding may never be able to tell the difference between them, but God knows the difference between those who believe that they have saved themselves and those who embrace the salvation that belongs to the Lord alone.  As outlined by Abraham Booth in Reign of Grace, another way that the doctrine of election brings about holiness in a Christian is that it produces love:  

In a similar way [to humility (see previous post)], election inspires a holy love in the hearts of believers.  ‘God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him’ (1 John 4:16).  In prayer, believers praise God for his electing love and express their amazement that God should have loved them from eternity in spite of their wickedness and rebellion.  They ask God to possess their hearts and be the supreme object of their affections.  They long that all the idols in their hearts and lives might be thrown down so that the God of all grace can be loved without any rivals.  (emphasis mine)

Election Results In: Humility

Have you ever gotten into a discussion that some considered as “theological nitpicking”?  When preaching, discipleship, education, etc. wrongly place the core of Christianity in externals rather than in the affections of the heart, many begin to assume that doctrinal debates and discussions are not worth the time and effort.  For instance, “Let’s not talk about predestination–we all love God here, and we all can serve in the kingdom, so let’s just put our opinions aside.”  However, the Scriptures tell repeatedly of God’s judgment against those who claim to serve God externally, “with hearts far from [Him].”  Election is one of those doctrines that has been cast aside the most as being irrelevant to living the Christian life.  Therefore, Abraham Booth, in his work Reign of Grace, shows the importance of the doctrines of grace in true Christianity by outlining three particular areas in which the doctrine of election promotes holiness in the life of a believer. Firstly, election produces humility:

Election is designed to promote genuine humility in us.  It teaches that all mankind, in their sinful state, are equally under God’s wrath and exposed to eternal ruin, and their condition is absolutely hopeless apart from God’s grace in election.  This doctrine does not allow anybody to claim proudly that they are better than others.  When a Christian thinks of himself more highly than he should he is rebuked sharply with these words: ‘For who makes you differ from another?  And what do you have that you did not receive? Now if you did indeed receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it?’ (1 Cor. 4:7).  Those who are the objects of distinguishing love cannot but lie in humility before God because they realize that they are as sinful as those who finally perish in hell, and the only reason they are saved and others are not is because of sovereign grace.  They always acknowledge that they are the chief of sinners, regarding themselves as worthless in God’s sight.  They are inwardly humble and this is manifested outwardly in their conduct.  When true believers pray to God in the secret place the very language they use expresses the lowliness of their hearts.  In prayer they exalt God and humble themselves.  They confess their sins in all of their vileness and acknowledge that they deserve to be cast into hell because of them.  They ascribe their salvation to sovereign grace alone and wonder why God should have marked them out for mercy when millions of others are left to perish because of their sins.  They plead with God for a heart of humility  so that reigning grace might have all the glory.  (emphasis mine)

“The Flock of the Good Shepherd”

The following is a sermon I had the opportunity to preach at First Baptist Church New Castle in New Castle, Kentucky on October 31, titled “The Flock of the Good Shepherd,” on John 10.  Give it a listen if you would like:

Thanks to Pastor Daniel Lowry for the link.