Pledge of Hope

 “Now He who prepared us for this very purpose is God, who gave to us the Spirit as a pledge.” 2 Corinthians 5:5 [NASB]

As I read 2 Corinthians 5 today, God made me aware of a few things I had heard in sermons over the years but had not put together into one train of thought. In this chapter, Paul wrote about living as a Christian, a believer in Jesus Christ as the Son of God. He told the Christians in Corinth about the mental tug-of-war believers live with continually from the day Jesus cleanses them from their sins and makes them a child of God. All believers experience this tug-of-war. They live in a sinful world and long to be with Christ in heaven, long to be clothed fully with the righteousness of Christ and live in a righteous world, His kingdom. Paul stated that he and other Christians’ desires to be righteous and in God’s presence forever is so deep that it causes them to groan and feel the burden of wanting the life Jesus offers to swallow up and take over their mortal life (2 Corinthians 5:4).

Have you ever felt this desire, this burden? If you’ve ever known a senior-aged adult Christian or a Christian who had a terminal illness, you will recall their spoken desire to be in heaven with God and their loved ones and not on earth. Their desire and burden are so great that it seems they speak of this every time you visit them and even mention it several times during a visit. If you’ve not spent time with someone who had this deep desire, then consider of a time when you wanted something very much. Maybe you’ve not been able to become pregnant and have children. Possibly you’ve wanted to go to university to study for a degree, but the funds were not available. Perhaps you have a family member who has cutoff communication with you, and you have prayed for them to have a change of heart so you can talk with them. Each of these are great desires. They are mortal desires. The desire to be in God’s kingdom and in His presence is an eternal desire. It originates with the Holy Spirit living within a person’s being. The Christian recognizes this world is not his/her own and wants to go to the place of peace, joy, and rest in the presence of God.

Paul experienced this desire. He said he preferred to be away from the body (his mortal life that fights against sin and decays) and at home with the Lord (2 Corinthians 5:7-8). Yet, Paul knew only God knows the time of a person’s death. Because of his love for Jesus, he sought to please Him even while he lived in his mortal body on earth, and not just because he would stand before God’s judgment seat one day (vs 9-10). Paul said while he lived in his mortal body, he desired to please the Lord and that means loving Him. “Christ’s love compelled him and his co-laborers” to tell other people about Jesus and the salvation He gives to anyone who believes in Him (vs 11, 14-15). Because of their love for God and their desire to obey Him, they regarded other people the way Jesus does. Jesus desires each person be saved (2 Corinthians 5:15, John 3:16, 1 John 2:2, John 11:25, Romans 6:10). Prejudice should no longer have place in a believer’s heart. Instead, the love of Jesus for each person must be paramount.

Paul said each person who is a believer once regarded Jesus Christ with prejudice. We, mentally, said, “He could not be that powerful.” Or, we’ve said, “He cannot take away my sins. I am too stained and dirty from the evil I have done.” We might have said, “There is no God and so there is no Jesus. This life on earth is all I have, so why bother a God who was never there for me.” Each of these is a prejudice against Jesus and the Trinity. We judge Him as not powerful, not telling the truth, not caring and loving, not merciful and forgiving, and/or non-existent. Yet, the words in the Bible are testimonies from several millennia. The testimonies of believers, since Bible writers penned what God told them to tell people, proclaim God is real, alive, almighty, omniscient, loving, merciful, and Life-giving. Paul taught about God and the sufficient sacrifice provided for the sins of the world through the sinless life, death, and resurrection of His Son Jesus Christ. This is what Paul proclaimed. He said, “Though we once regarded Christ in this way (with prejudice), we do so no longer” (2 Cor, 5:16). Because Paul and his colleagues had no prejudice against Christ, they proclaimed Him through their lives and their testimony of what He did for them, who He is, what He called them to do, and to whom and how they were to proclaim Him. He proclaimed in verses seventeen and eighteen,

“Therefore, from now on we recognize no one according to the flesh [that is, with prejudice]; even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him in this way no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.”

Paul said in these verses, he and the other men with him had no prejudice. Why? Because when they believed in Jesus Christ as the Son of God, their Savior, He put into them His Spirit and made them a new creation. This new creation occurred at their belief in Him. When they trusted in Jesus, His Spirit came upon them and began changing them from their old, mortal, prejudiced self into His own image. Because Jesus was unprejudiced and came to earth to save each person, each believer is supposed to live a similar non-prejudicial way by the indwelling Holy Spirit. The Spirit changes a believer from the old nature (“clothing.” as Paul said) to the new nature. Christians understand and desire what Jesus desires, that each person would hear the Gospel and believe in Jesus as the Son of God for his or her salvation. Because of this, Paul said, “We are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us” (vs 20). God’s desire for all people to receive salvation becomes the believer’s desire. This desire is part of the same groanings and longings Paul expressed in verse four. This desire comes because the Spirit makes Christians more and more into the image of Christ; Christ’s desires become their desires. Jesus’ desire is not just to be with His Father in heaven, but that each person receives salvation and change into His image (nature), change from their old, mortal, sinful nature.

Christians desire and long to be clothed by Jesus’ Spirit with the new nature He gives and to be with Jesus in His kingdom. While they live on earth in their mortal bodies, the Holy Spirit lives in them and changes them continually into the image of Christ. His indwelling is the guarantee, the pledge from God, of their future eternal change into the image of Christ (2 Cor. 5:5). The Spirit of Christ in a person is like earnest money put down for a house or car. It is a guarantee of the future fulfillment of the contract or understanding. Knowing the Spirit is within the believer, that person has hope that one day, the Spirit will one day completely cloth him or her in the new nature. When difficulties in life occur–temptation, trials, and persecutions–the assurance, guidance, and protection by the Holy Spirit remind the Christian of God’s assurance, His guarantee, that he or she will be in God’s kingdom and will experience peace and joy eternally with Him.

This chapter of 2 Corinthians tells us about some purposes of the indwelling Holy Spirit of Jesus. He lives in each Christian to assure the believer of his or her salvation. The Spirit in the Christian’s life reminds him or her of God’s eternal purpose for him or her with Him in His kingdom. The Spirit is the guarantee of being totally made in Jesus’ image. He gives the believer the deep longings to be with God and the desire to be on earth. This desire to be alive on earth comes with it the desire to love Christ by being obedient to His commands to tell each person on earth about Him. The Spirit puts into each Christian’s heart the love of Christ for each person so he or she wants to tell others about Him. Christians realize they are ambassadors for Christ. The Spirit living in a believer encourages, teachers, guides, protects, and remakes each person into a closer resemblance of Jesus Christ, changing them to have His love and non-prejudicial attitude, desires, and righteousness.

Today, we should each stop and consider what keeps us from believing in Jesus. Is it because it seems God is not real or does not care since you assume He is not listening to your prayers? Next, we should examine ourselves to determine where prejudice lives in our heart and ask Jesus to forgive us and make us like Himself. Then we need to ask Him to show us where we refused for Him to continue making us into His image and confess the sins He shows to us. We should examine ourselves to determine when and why we stopped believing in God and ask Him to remind you of the guarantee by His Spirit of your eternity with Him in His kingdom. Ask for forgiveness for judging Him and His purposes and ask that He put His desires in you, the desire to love Christ and love each person you meet because He loves them. Ask God to help you keep your eyes always on Him. Pray to Him for the will to love and obey Him, even when it makes little sense. Thank God for loving you and saving you. Praise Him for who He is, the eternal, almighty, omniscient, and omnipresent God. Praise Him for what He has done in your life and throughout the expanse of time from creation. Thank God for choosing you to be in a righteous relationship with Him.

The Holy Spirit in a believer’s life now is the earnest money of God’s love and plan for you, a plan not to harm you but to give you a hope and a future (Jeremy 29:11). His living in a Christian grows the person to be loving and unprejudiced like Jesus.

The Holy Spirit living in you now on earth is a taste of what you will be fully when you live with God in His kingdom for eternity. 

Each Christian can decide to let the Spirit to change him or her. That permission changes a person from being prejudiced into becoming like Jesus.  As a result, the Spirit, God’s pledge to Christians, reminds them of their future full transformation and transition to living in God’s kingdom. God will make each believer like Jesus and He will give them their inheritance, eternal life in His kingdom.

Will you live as one who received God’s pledge, or will you stay prejudiced?

Supernatural

 

“I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.” Philippians 3:13 [NASB]

Many verses speak about the change, the re-creation, of a person who believes in Jesus Christ as the Son of God for salvation. Paul encouraged and wrote to the Philippians about putting on the mind of Christ (Philippians 2:1-5). He wrote about being made new in the attitudes of your minds and putting on the new self, created to be like God in righteousness and holiness (Ephesians 4:22-23). With Galatians 2:20, Paul stated he no longer lives, but Christ lives in him. The life he lived was by faith in the Son of God. John wrote in John 14:6 Jesus said he who believes in Him receives new life. Later, in John 14:23, Jesus said for the believer, the one who loves Him, He and the Father will love him or her and will make their home in him or her. Many other verses in the New Testament speak of the fact Jesus lives within each Christian through His Holy Spirit.

Let’s consider briefly what this means for us today. Before Jesus saved us, we realized we did not have the strength, power, or will to avoid temptation. We fell into sin by our weak old nature, our self-centered and rebellious approach to life. When we become believers in Jesus Christ as the Son of God and as our Savior, His Spirit lives in us. This indwelling by the Spirit makes available to each believer God’s power to overcome temptation and be sinless, to gain victory over temptation and sin. Let me state it another way. We can do nothing of our own will, strength, and power to ensure we will not sin. Because of our fallen nature, we are susceptible to temptation and sin. This means discipleship, true growth of our closeness to God and being made in Jesus’ image, can occur only by the grace, strength, and power of God. Oswald Chambers said this similarly. He said, “Discipleship is built entirely on the supernatural grace of God” (My Utmost for His Highest). Just as we can do nothing to earn or merit salvation and eternal life, we can do nothing in our own strength to gain power over temptation and sin. Humans are frail and weak.

Consider this. Though we are frail, weak, and rebellious, God had mercy on us. He gave us His grace, a gift we did not earn. God did not give us what we deserve. We possessed nothing within ourselves to gain a righteous relationship with Him. Paul said it this way in Ephesians 2:4-9,

“But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loves us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ, and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” [NASB]

The only way a person can have victory over temptation, sin, and death is by God’s supernatural (divine) power. Having God’s power only occurs when His Spirit lives in a believer and he or she seeks Him and His will, and lives believing and acting upon His power. Zechariah, in a time before Christ came to live on earth to die and rise again for our salvation, recorded God’s angel’s words about this. He said in Zechariah 4:6, “Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit.” Only by living as Christians with God’s might and power dwelling within us through His Spirit can we withstand temptation and not sin.

Discipleship truly is built entirely on God’s grace and power. Nothing we can do can earn us salvation, and nothing we can do will make us strong enough to withstand temptation. Only by God’s grace, power, and might can we receive salvation from sin and death. Only by God’s grace, power, and might can we live victoriously over temptation. The latter is discipleship, growing in Christlikeness, knowing God more intimately, and standing victoriously over temptation and sin.

Lord, I am weak and a sinner. You have saved me and given me Your power and strength if I will call upon You and walk in Your way. Keep me strong. Grow me to be more like Jesus. Guide me in Your paths. Draw me closer to You. You alone are to be honored, glorified, and praised for You are almighty, victorious, loving, and merciful. Amen.

Times of Our Lives

 

“Now it came about in the course of those many days…” (Exodus 2:23a [NASB])

Throughout the Bible, we read about men who encountered God, then sought for a secluded place. We read that God sent people to a place to prepare them for the next task, too. Often these times of preparation lasted forty days or forty years. The number forty denotes the separation of one epoch from another in Hebrew numerology. Sometimes the forty days/years was a time of rest and renewal and other times it was a time of testing. In each time, God intended it to be a time of growth in their faith in and relationship with Him. Let’s consider several passages that tell of God’s people and forty days/years.

Consider Moses. After he killed the Egyptian for severely beating a Hebrew (Exodus 2:11-14), he ran to Midian, helped water the sheep of the priest Reuel/Jethro (Exodus 2:15-22), and lived there for forty years before God commissioned him to lead the Hebrews out of Egypt (Exodus 3:1-9). The years he spent shepherding sheep prepared Moses for the next epoch in God’s plans, to lead His people through the wilderness to His Promised Land. God used that time to attune Moses’ spiritual awareness to Him and grew him to learn how to lead, protect, provide, and intercede to Him. This epoch of 40 years changed Moses from being an Egyptian-taught Hebrew to be a man seeking God in all things.

If we continue considering other instances of forty days or years, we remember the Israelites spent forty years wandering in the wilderness. The Israelite adults, who feared the people of Canaan when their spies returned from scouting the Promised Land, would not see the land God promised to them. The forty years of their wandering separated two periods of time-the people who trusted God enough to leave all they knew in Egypt, but then lost faith in God and the time of God leading the new adults of Israel into the land He promised. The epoch of the forty years wandering in the wilderness changed the Israelites from fear and rebelliousness to newly maturing adults of faith. God grew the faith of the adults of the post-wilderness-wandering as they saw His hand in providing for and protecting them during the wilderness years. They became the people of God again and trusted Him completely during that epoch.  

Moses spent forty days on Mt Sinai. He often ventured up the mountain to be alone with God so He could speak to him, tell him how to lead the people, instruct him in how to handle and decide issues among the people, and grow him closer to Himself. During the time in which Moses spent forty days on Mt. Sinai, he received the Ten Commandments from God for the Israelites (Exodus 20). This forty-day’s-time signaled a new epoch for the Israelites. The new epoch occurred of Moses’ time on the mountain heralded in a time in which God’s laws would govern the people. The Ten Commandments provided a way for the Israelites to follow God. This epoch signified that God chose these people as His own. Before Moses’ forty days on Mt. Sinai, God called the Hebrews His people. Moses declared it to Pharaoh when he said, “Let my people go.” After his forty days on the mountain, the Israelites understood without doubt, as they bent their knees and committed with their mouths, minds, and heart, God chose them, and they chose Him to be their God. Their commitment to the Ten Commandments avowed this. For Moses, these forty days gave time for him to recharge and renew himself with God. He listened to God and committed himself anew to be His servant and lead His people. This epoch of time for Moses was renewal, recommitment, and continued guidance on how God wanted him to lead the Israelites. For the Israelites, this time was of rebellion and a time of recommitment to the God of their fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Moses came down the mountain the first time to see them worshipping a golden calf. He returned from the mountain with a second set of tablets holding God’s Ten Commandments to find the people submitting to God.

As we continue forward in time, we recall Elijah battling for the Lord to combat the pagan priests of Jezebel. After he slew hundreds of them, Jezebel declared her wrath on him. She wanted Elijah dead. Elijah, in fear, traveled with his servant into the desert. He walked for forty days to Mt. Horeb (Mt. Sinai). While at Mt. Horeb, Elijah stayed in a cave until God told him to stand before Him on the mountain. He experienced a strong wind, an earthquake, and a fire while on the mountain. When this prophet heard a gentle voice after these three powerful acts of God, Elijah realized it was God’s voice. God knew about Elijah’s obedient deeds for Him. He told him to return to Damascus and anoint a new king and his own successor (1 Kings 19). These forty days for Elijah were an epoch of rest, reassurance, and revelation. Elijah went from a time of defeating priests of false gods and fleeing for his life to another time of God showing His love, favor, and provision with the anointing of a new king and prophet. Elijah would not walk alone. He believed God cared about him and understood his time was ending. A new prophet of God would speak to the people for Him. Elijah remembered anew God cared for him.

Before we leave the Old Testament, remember Noah and his family experienced forty days and night on the ark while it rained (Genesis 7). God took the world from one epoch to another. He cleansed it from the sinful people of the world. God used Jonah, too. He sent him to Nineveh to tell the people there that God’s judgment would fall on them in forty days. The Ninevites repented and returned to God during those forty days, and God withheld His judgment. The people confessed and repented of their sins (Jonah 3). God used that epoch of time to make them aware of their sin against Him and other people and to forgive and restore them into His good grace. The Ninevites had renewed life with God.

In the New Testament, after the dove of God descended from heaven on the day John the Baptist baptized Jesus and proclaimed God’s giving of the Messiah through Jesus (Matthew 3:13-17), Jesus walked in the wilderness for forty days (Matthew 4:1-11). During those forty days, He fasted, endured hunger, and resisted Satan’s three temptations. These forty days, this epoch in the wilderness, heralded a new time of the Messiah’s ministry on earth and His call to each person to believe He is the Son of God (John 1:29 & 36).  This instance shows the difference between the times in the Old and New Testaments. The Old Testament shows movements of time as they relate to a person’s spiritual life on physical life on earth-a growing in faith, in doing God’s purposes, or rest and renewal. The New Testament shows the transitioning between Jesus’ life before baptism and after baptism and how that relates to a person’s spiritual life and eternity. Jesus’ forty days in the wilderness was an epoch that showed He is the Son of God and stronger than Satan. It served as the door-opener to Jesus’ ministry and thus, the door-opener for people to have more than just a law in how to see, seek, see, and follow God. Jesus is the door for each person to receive cleansing from their sins and be in God’s presence for eternity. With Jesus’ forty-day epoch, people grew from knowing about God to being able to be in a righteous and eternal relationship with Him. The epoch of forty days did not change Jesus. Before the wilderness He was the Son of God who came to take away the sins of the world. After this epoch, He was the Son of God who came to take away the sins of the world. God never changes, and no one thwarts His purposes. He is always faithful.

A last instance of epochal change occurs after Jesus’ resurrection and before His ascension (Acts 1:1-26). During the forty days of that time, Jesus gave the people many proofs He is the Son of God, the Messiah, by coming back to life after being dead (Luke 24:1-9), by walking with two of the disciples to Emmaus (Luke 24:13-35), by “explaining the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures” (Luke 24:27), by breaking bread with them (Luke 24:30), by showing His nail-scarred hands and feet (Luke 24:39-41), by eating with the disciples (Luke 24:42), and by opening their minds to the Scriptures (Luke 24:45-49). He spoke about the kingdom of God. Jesus heralded His Spirit coming upon His disciples and all believers (Luke 24:49 and Acts 1:4-5). Then, while His disciples watched, He rose into heaven (Acts 1:1-11). This epoch of forty days rang in the time of salvation and victory over death for all people who believe in Him. From this point, with the power of Christ, believers could defeat temptation and were victors over death. Before this epoch-Christ’s resurrection and ascension-death had victory over people. No hope existed for resurrection from death or power to defeat Satan. With Jesus’ resurrection, believers can know Jesus will resurrect them. They can defeat Satan’s temptations with the Holy Spirit Jesus gives them. People no longer must be the lambs led to slaughter by Satan. Jesus has the victory and gives it to each person who believes in Him. Before Jesus’ death, resurrection, and ascension, people had their own limited strength to fight Satan and had no promise or hope of eternal life with God. After His ascension, with His Spirit living in each believer, they could have His power to defeat Satan and would have His hope of victor over death and eternal life with Him in His kingdom.

Notice, many of the people in these Bible passages experienced difficulties before their forty-day epoch that brought with it a newness with God. They faced hard times, then spent time alone with God. In other instances, some people went into a period of seclusion with God before a hard time. Jesus is the only one who experienced difficulties before, during, and after his forty-days’ seclusion with the Father. He is the model for how to go through difficulties and how to be with God, being nurtured and grown for His purposes.

We need to notice God had a purpose for the forty days/years each person or the group of people experienced. That purpose was to prepare them for God’s next task, to give him/her a chance to recover, and to renew and recommit themselves to God. We can recognize evidence of God’s hand in the lives of the people during the forty days/years of seclusion. God grew their faith in Him. He provided their sustenance and restored them. God taught them leadership skills. He tested each person’s resolve.  God used the forty years to discipline His people. He used the forty days to protect, provide for, and prepare His people.

Some people experienced spiritual highs during the forty days, but none of them stayed on the mountain or in the wilderness. Each of them walked from their epoch with God to His next goal, whether anointing the next leader, leading a people to God, or providing a sufficient salvation and eternal life. The epochs each person faced changed them; it improved them and their relationship with God. The epoch did not change Jesus. It told Satan he had limited time remaining to deceive and tempt people. Jesus’ epoch heralded His ministry on earth where He proclaimed Himself as the Messiah God prepared as their salvation from the beginning of time.   

What does this mean for us today? Does God still give people epochs with Him? Do we need these epochs? Without doubt, people still need epochs, times, with God. Just as the people of the Bible needed these times with God for recuperation, renewal, recommitment, and for God to grow them for His purposes, we need them. As we live in this world filled with sin, persecutions, trials, doubts, and needs, we need time with God for His infilling of us. Whether this time is a day, weekend, month, or long sabbatical, time with God is a necessity for each person. We need time to meet with and be with Him. Epochs with God are especially important for Christians.

Being a Christian, a follower of Christ, means living like Jesus lived and wants us to live. He experienced difficulties before, during, and after his forty days in the wilderness. Those time periods in Jesus’ life on earth were epochs for humanity. Christians cannot expect anything different. Jesus experienced daily, continual communion with the Father before, during, and after that epoch, too. God wants Christians to have that relationship with Him, daily and continual relationship. Whether we are doing the most menial things (like mopping, cleaning a house, or taking care of a sick person) or things that gain us attention (like leading an organization or country, teaching at a prestigious school, or finding a cure for a dreaded disease), God wants to be with us through the days. The epochs for Christians are each time we spend communing with God. He grows us through obedience to Him. Times of communion should occur day. They can be times we set aside seeking God’s will in certain situations or seeking recuperation, too. Most noted for all Christians is the day each person believes in Jesus as his or her Savior and confesses and repent of his or her sins.

Each person is on a journey in life. For Christians, the journey is to be with God and bring Him glory. In each journey, epochs of time will arise where we seek and be with God. These epochs often are at times in our lives when things are in flux or need to change. A transition is about to occur. Jesus’ life and His own epoch in the wilderness remind us we can face persecution before, during, or after our time with God. No believer is immune to those times. Yet, the epochs of time that God gives each believer rejuvenate, renew, and equip us for what we have faced and will face. Epochs can cause strain, but strain/stress can grow us to be the person we need to be for God’s purposes. These times of epochs grow us to be closer to God, be on a higher plateau in our relationship with Him. They will make us more obedient to Him, too. One thing we each must remember is what occurred after each person’s epoch. They did not stay on the mountain or in the wilderness. They each obeyed God and served Him to lead people to Him so they could come to know Him as their Savior and to help them grow in their faith with God so they could be more like Jesus. We should not seek to stay on the mountain or in the wilderness, but should always desire to do God’s will and bring Him glory.

Where are you today? Have you heard God calling you to Himself to accept His sacrifice for your sins and believe in Jesus as your Savior? Have you heard Him calling you to draw near to Him for rest, renewal, growth, and a new task? Have you responded to God’s call to meet with Him, but refuse to leave the mountain or the wilderness in which you met Him? Each of these questions brings you to a time of decision. God loves each of us. He wants us to grow to know Him better and become more like Christ. He has a purpose for each of us, a purpose about love, life, and victory. Choosing to say, “No,” to God and not believing in Jesus, not going to Him for rest, renewal, and growth, and not leaving the place He called you for an epoch is rebellion against God, others, and yourself. This rebellion is sin.

We each have a decision to make now. Will you deny yourself and submit to God’s will of blessing, purpose, forgiveness, and eternal life?

“Do not worry then, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear for clothing?’ For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But, seek first His [God’s] kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” (Matthew 6:31-33 [NASB])