Crisis in the Early Church, Part Three: Hebrews

This is the last of three sermons which I wanted to give concerning a key crisis in the earliest days of the Church of Jesus Christ. Let's quickly review what we examined in the first two sermons.

In Paul's epistle to the Galatians, the apostle practically begs the Galatian believers not to leave the true gospel and pure teaching about Christ which he brought them. Notice and pay strong attention, because this element of the crisis happens to come to a climax in today's sermon, to wit: "will they leave the true gospel of Christ?"

Will who leave? Well, that's what we'll see today.

But first, to review the first two sermons….

Paul wrote to the Galatians to contradict and refute a distorted gospel brought by a certain faction from Jerusalem. We called them the "Jerusalem missionaries", as you may recall. And you remember that their so-called gospel declared: "Messiah came to lead us all to perfect observance of God's holy law. He opened the door to us all to come in to the holy nation Israel. Therefore, to be saved, fully become children of Abraham through circumcision and obedience to the whole law of Moses."

You remember that I encapsulated the difference between their gospel and Paul's gospel this way: according to their gospel, at the end of the road of redemption stands the Law, as "goal". But in Paul's gospel, at the end of that road stands Jesus Christ, with open arms, to receive the children of God—whom he himself has made such. As Paul said to the Romans, the end of the law is Christ, for all who believe. And the word Paul uses there, that we translate "end", means both "end" and "goal" or "aim". For Paul, Christ himself is the Law's "ultimate destination". But for those Jerusalem missionaries it's vice versa: the goal of Christ is the Law!

There cannot be a starker contrast.

I won't repeat all of Paul's argumentation in Galatians; otherwise I'd have to repeat the whole first sermon! I want simply to emphasize this one, central, key, essential, indispensable (!) argument Paul makes to them. Basically, he says, "Dear Galatians, did God give you His Spirit or not? Did He or didn't He? If He did, then you are His children and… those people cannot add anything good to the word of life you already received by faith." That's all of Paul's argument in a nutshell, along with the logical corollary that goes, "So if you live by the life of the Spirit in you, then no law will be able either to increase your holiness before God or  judge you." Let me repeat that: if you walk in the Spirit, then there's no law that can, 1) make you "better", or, 2) prove you’re "bad".

That's an interesting thought, isn't it? What's the use, ultimately, of a law incapable of both justifying and condemning? Christ is the end of the law. For whom? For all who believe.

"Now there is no condemnation, to those who are in Christ Jesus" (Rom. 8:1)—so, the law cannot condemn.

 "Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ" (Rom. 5:11)—so, the law cannot justify.

Can't condemn, can't justify- for whom? For those who believe. For them, there's no role left for the Law, now.

Well, I'm already quoting Romans so much, I suppose we'd better review, in brief, what I said in the second sermon.

I suggested the possibility to you that the continuing crisis in the early Church prompted Paul to write also to the Romans. There is persuasive evidence in this epistle that Paul continues to challenge both the false gospel of this faction from Jerusalem and their false charges against him personally.

In Romans, Paul proves that, 1) he does not profane God's holy law, 2) he does not hate the Jewish nation, and, 3) he does not preach an immoral, unholy way of life. It's clear from his arguments what kind of rumors were circulating about him, and it's clear why: in order to discredit Paul and his gospel. It's also clear, historically, that the Jerusalem missionaries and their message couldn't, finally, prevail over the gospel of grace, faith and the Spirit. We do not see Paul, in his later and final epistles continuing to wrestle with these heretics in anything like the way he does here. History itself testifies that this movement could not finally survive within the Christian Church.

And that, it just so happens, brings us to the epistle to the Hebrews. Let's read Hebrews 1:1-2....

¹ In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, ² but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe.

First, who is the writer speaking about? About Jesus Christ—yes.

Secondly, he's writing about how God has spoken:

…in the past: "at many times and in various ways";

…"in these last days: by his Son".

Thirdly, to whom is the writer speaking? Notice: "God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets…." He is writing to the descendants of those "forefathers"; he is writing to the children of Israel. These three nuances are critical: who the writer is writing about, how God has decided to act, and to whom the writer is addressing his arguments.

So from the very beginning, three key elements of the epistle become clear: 
a) the center of attention is Jesus Christ, who he is;

b) the deciding factor  in everything is what God chooses to do;

 c) the first "audience" for this epistle is Jews, Hebrews who at some point came to faith in Jesus as the Christ.  


These three things decide the whole sense and purpose of Hebrews.

We don't know who wrote this epistle, and many commentators and scholars say it can't be Paul because the epistle itself doesn’t sound like Paul. The style, the general approach and method of argumentation don’t  sound anything like what Paul writes, for instance, to the Corinthians or Ephesians, etc.

Well, that may be. I readily admit that the epistle doesn't sound like Paul's epistles. But I have to say two things: first of all, the theological horizon, or "eschatological construct", if you will, of this writer is identical to that of the apostle Paul; secondly, if Paul chose to undertake the composition of a profoundly argued theological letter specifically and precisely to the people of his own nation, then I, for one, would expect nothing other than "The Epistle to the Hebrews" we have in our Bibles today. It's exactly the language I'd expect him to adopt and exactly the argument I'd expect him to make, and, indeed, if you read his other epistles with careful "theological" attention, you will find that he is, rather often, arguing like our "Hebrews writer"!

I am not prepared to underestimate the capacities of the apostle who said, "For the Greeks I became a Greek, for the Jews I became a Jew". The writer of this epistle has clearly "gone for broke"; he has written nothing less than what had to be written in order to speak to Hebrew Christians (on the verge of apostasy) in language they would get, at the deepest, felt levels. The writer does everything short of writing in Hebrew! (Who knows, maybe he did that, too, in a separate copy.) By the way, he writes so passionately, shows such agonized concern over the possibility that his readers will abandon Jesus, that I cannot help being reminded of Paul's words in Romans 9:1-2: ¹ I speak the truth in Christ—I am not lying, my conscience confirms it through the Holy Spirit—² I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart.

Therefore, my personal position is this: first, even if Paul wasn't the writer of Hebrews, someone closely associated with him and his way of thinking, someone who drank at the springs of Paul's teaching, was. Second, I'm convinced that, in this epistle, it just so happens we're confronting the climax of that crisis in the early church in which Paul played such a key role, the crisis Paul himself did address in Galatians and Romans. So for these two reasons, I consider Hebrews to be Paul's ultimate answer— at least the ultimate "Pauline" answer—to those Hebrew-Christians who dared attempt to obscure the Person of Christ by means of The Law.

Which brings us back to the beginning of the epistle, in which, I'm convinced, we come face to face with the very essence of what this whole crisis was all about right from the beginning. Those who placed the Law higher than Christ are the very ones who, when all was said and done, simply couldn't bring themselves to submit to the deity  of the eternal Son of God, the Lord  Jesus Christ. That's why the writer of Hebrews asserts at the very start the supremacy and transcendence of the very Person of the Son.

(Heb. 1:3-4) ³ The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven. ⁴ So he became as much superior to the angels as the name he has inherited is superior to theirs.

 If the Hebrews to whom this was written had only embraced this one single truth (as they should have) the crisis would never have happened, and there'd have been no need for this epistle. 
"...As much superior to the angels as the name he has inherited is superior to theirs." "I am the way, the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father except through me"…. This is both who Jesus is, and what God has done.

I said that, here at the beginning of the epistle, the writer specifically, intentionally, compares how God spoke to the nation in the past, i.e., through the prophets, and how He has spoken "to us" in these recent days, i.e., through His Son.  The former was God's act, and the latter was God's act. We are talking about God's choice here, the prerogative and acts of the Almighty. It's God who has spoken to us through His Son, God who has made him heir of all things, God who created all worlds and ages through Him. If God has chosen to act through His Son this way, then who among human beings, who in the whole universe, will tell Him that He can't? If this is really God's act, right here on earth among us, manifested and accomplished for the world's redemption, who has the right to opt for a different scenario? 


"No-o-o, thanks, but I like the old way better; I'd prefer to stick with the Law. Thanks, really, but how 'bout you go on believing in Jesus if you want while I just listen to Moses and the prophets, okay?"

And who, precisely, has God offered that choice to? Nobody! In Moses' time, too, there were those in the nation who said, "No, thanks, we'll stay here in Egypt. Sure, it's hard sometimes, but we're used to it." Moses had to convince them that the Lord God "I AM" wasn't offering them a range of options; He was revealing the Way. And God's Way knows only one direction: forward.

Clearly, this epistle is written to those who thought they had "options" to choose from. They had tried the "Jesus option" and been disappointed. Why? I strongly suspect that among the Hebrew-Christians addressed by this epistle, there were those had been horribly offended when their so-called gospel was overwhelmingly rejected by the churches and their missionary work came to nothing. They believed in the supremacy of the Law so much that, when it became obvious there was no place in the Congregation of Messiah Yeshua—that is, the Church of Jesus Christ—for their "gospel", they opted to reject Jesus altogether, and they pressured the other Hebrew-Christians to do the same.

I can imagine their argument…. "Well, brother, take a look around you and see what's happening. You and I are nobodies now in this little 'society'. The Gentiles don't honor us or our Law, and dare to call themselves children of Abraham! And our brothers in the flesh, the people of our nation, spurn us because we confess the name of Jesus. Where in the world have we wound up, brother? Come on, let's go back, let's go home, to the prophets, the temple, the holy city, the Law. Our people will forgive us and take us back, and we'll start serving God the way we used to again. As for this so-called gospel of Jesus, well, it obviously hasn't worked out. We were wrong."

And to precisely those who are thinking like that, this epistle is written, to those who were on the verge of the most terrible decision a human being can make.

We don't have time here today to examine the whole epistle in detail. I would suggest that, when you go home, you try and read the whole book of Hebrews in one sitting. Keep fixed in your imagination the people the letter's written to: those who considered it a simple thing  to just change their minds and go back, as if Jesus had never even appeared on the scene. And look at what the writer, this servant and evangelist of Jesus Christ, has to say to them. I think you'll see the sense and power of this epistle in a whole new light.

In a whole new way, you'll appreciate what the writer is talking about when he says (2:1-4)

¹ We must pay the most careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away. ² For since the message spoken through angels was binding, and every violation and disobedience received its just punishment, ³how shall we escape if we ignore so great a salvation? This salvation, which was first announced by the Lord, was confirmed to us by those who heard him. ⁴ God also testified to it by signs, wonders and various miracles, and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will.

God has acted. It's not up to you whether God has acted right. Your job is to submit. And speaking of submission:

(3:5-6) ⁵ “Moses was faithful as a servant in all God’s house,”bearing witness to what would be spoken by God in the future. ⁶ But Christ is faithful as the Son over God’s house. And we are his house, if indeed we hold firmly to our confidence and the hope in which we glory.

This is the "surpassingness", the transcendence, the supremacy of Christ. How can you go back to Moses, and think you're embracing Moses, when you're rejecting the Master of the house in which Moses serves? You're totally deceiving yourselves! Consider what it means to turn away from Christ….

(3:12-14) ¹² See to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. ¹³ But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called “Today,” so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness. ¹⁴ We have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original conviction firmly to the very end.

To fall away from Christ is one and the same as falling away from the living God. Think about that, and what it says about Christ.

(4:1) ¹ Therefore, since the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it.

God's way is only forward, never back. There is no going back. Entering the rest that God offers, the fulfillment of His promise, is possible only by embracing what God has done. What He has done, what He has accomplished, is communicated in its full perfection in the Person of Jesus Christ.  

And it is about precisely that "communication" that the writer says the following: 

¹² For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. (4:12)

I hope that, in light of all we've said so far, in light of the concrete, historical context, you have a better feeling for what the term "word of God"  means here. This is not simply the Bible. Rather, it's precisely what the epistle's first readers were preparing to reject. It's the "word", the "news", the "message" of what God has now done. Again, this "word" is not simply the Bible; it's the very fact itself of the historical manifestation of Jesus Christ and what God did by him. This feat, this revelation, this message, the whole redeeming power of his death and resurrection, all of this is contained in the phrase, "the word of God". This is the same thing Paul talks about in Romans 1:16-17:

¹⁶ For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile. ¹⁷ For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.”

Precisely this word, this message, this manifested salvation is now the whole criterion by which the whole world is either justified or condemned.

¹⁷ For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. ¹⁸ Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. (John 3:17-18)

¹² Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.  (Acts 4:12)

Yet the first readers of Hebrews thought they could just change their minds and forget about Jesus. That's chilling.

Nevertheless, the writer hopes for better. He tells them:

⁹ Even though we speak like this, dear friends, we are convinced of better things in your case—the things that have to do with salvation. ¹⁰ God is not unjust; he will not forget your work and the love you have shown him as you have helped his people and continue to help them. ¹¹ We want each of you to show this same diligence to the very end, so that what you hope for may be fully realized. (6:9-11).

And from the seventh to tenth chapters, the writer assiduously demonstrates how the whole sense of the Old Testament revelation is ultimately realized by Christ. Melchizedek, the king of peace, the king of righteousness, whom Abraham, and in him all Israel, worshipped—this is Christ; the High Priest, not in an earthly temple erected by man, but the eternal intercessor in the true tabernacle made by God Himself—this is Christ; the very blood that enters the heavenly Holy of Holies, once and for all, in perfect sacrifice for sins—this is Jesus Christ.

¹⁹ Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, ²⁰ by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, ²¹ and since we have a great priest over the house of God,²² let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.²³ Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. (10:19-23)

With love, but also categorically, the writer warns them:

³² Remember those earlier days after you had received the light, when you endured in a great conflict full of suffering. ³³Sometimes you were publicly exposed to insult and persecution; at other times you stood side by side with those who were so treated. ³⁴ You suffered along with those in prison and joyfully accepted the confiscation of your property, because you knew that you yourselves had better and lasting possessions. ³⁵ So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded.³⁶ You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised.  (10:32-36).

It's not too late yet, but they have to make the right, necessary choice. They have to hold on to the faith that the whole 11^th chapter talks about. And this whole chapter tells us yet again about how God's plan, always, unceasingly, unstoppably, goes forward. There simply is no way back.

¹ Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, ² fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.(12:1-2)

God will never bring us back to what has already passed, not to the temple Solomon built, not to the mountain where Moses met Him. No.

²² But you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, ²³ to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the Judge of all, to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, ²⁴ to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. ²⁵ See to it that you do not refuse him who speaks. If they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, how much less will we, if we turn away from him who warns us from heaven? (12:22-25)

And with these words of encouragement, warning, hope and deep love, the writer brings his letter to a close. Those who agonize over becoming "nobodies" in the Church, those whose "gospel of Law" has been rejected, who are offended at not predominating by right of blood and heritage, who feel like they've been cheated out of their proper due, to those the writer says:

¹¹ The high priest carries the blood of animals into the Most Holy Place as a sin offering, but the bodies are burned outside the camp. ¹² And so Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through his own blood. ¹³ Let us, then, go to him outside the camp, bearing the disgrace he bore. ¹⁴ For here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come. (13:11-14)


In the final, loving, hopeful words of the epistle, the writer again does what he did at the beginning: he exalts the Person of Christ, God's supreme authority and the consummate covenant of redemption in Jesus' death and resurrection. Which is what the whole crisis was about from the beginning. And it's what the whole crisis of man and his relationship to God is all about today: will I acknowledge who God is and what He has done for me? Who God is-- that's Christ; and what He has done for me-- that's Christ.    

²⁰ Now may the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, ²¹ equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen. (13:20-21)

Crisis in the Early Church 2: Letter to the Romans

This is the second of three sermons about a deep crisis in the very earliest Church, at the time of the apostles. This crisis prompted Paul, first of all, to write to the Galatian Christians, and we took a look at that in the first sermon. To quickly repeat: Hebrew-Christian missionaries from Jerusalem came with a different “gospel”, according to which Jesus Christ came into the world in order to convert all people to correct observation of the Mosaic Law and thus become true children of Abraham. Clearly, from the book of Acts, this was a very strong and influential faction in the Jerusalem church adhering to this so-called gospel. Paul severely, categorically condemned their “gospel” in the epistle to the Galatians, asserting that these people wanted to enslave people all over again, that the Holy Spirit, given by God to those receiving Christ by faith, constituted the proof of God’s already making us His children, and concluding his heartfelt, even passionate letter with these words (read Galatians 6:14-18).

And now, Paul sees need in writing to the Romans, and if we read between the lines it becomes clear that the crisis continues. Most likely, these false missionaries were spreading slander against Paul and his gospel, trying to convert everybody to their own “gospel”. And on the basis of what we noticed in Galatians, and what we’ll see in Romans, it’s quite simple to guess what these slanders sounded like:

Paul blasphemes against God’s holy law.
Paul hates the nation of Israel.
Paul preaches a dissolute, unlawful way of life.

In this Epistle to the Romans, we will hear Paul’s response.

To start with, why write to the Romans particularly? In chapter 15 we find out that Paul is preparing to visit the Roman church; moreover, he wants them to help him travel on to Spain, to proclaim the gospel there. Also, we find out in chapter 16 that Paul had a lot of friends—even a relative!—in the Roman church. So it’s quite understandable that Paul wants to dispel the rumors and slander, to correct false understandings, to reassure those in doubt, to comfort those close to him and to prepare the ground for a good visit and further collaboration, and overall to defend the true gospel of Jesus Christ.

This is, therefore, a critically important letter for precisely this moment both in the early life of the Church and in the apostolic work of Paul.

So what does he start the letter with?  (read 1:1-6) Just as Paul said to the Galatians, here he again asserts his direct calling from the Lord to preach the true gospel to Gentiles. Two times here he writes the word “called”: he is called by God Himself to apostleship, and “you”, the Romans, are called to belong to Jesus Christ. As for Christ Himself, the apostle here writes something that, typically, we take to be an exposition of the two natures of Christ, but I am convinced that here the apostle is emphasizing something quite different; perhaps my explanation will help you to come to grips with such strange phrases as “through the Spirit of holiness” and “by his resurrection from the dead”. After all, we know perfectly well that Jesus Christ was the Son of God before his resurrection from the dead; moreover, it’s rather difficult for us to understand the relationship between “declared by the Spirit” and his being God’s Son. So this is a quite problematic passage, in that it seems to deal with the topic of Christ’s two natures but its phraseology doesn’t at all correspond to the real biblical teaching about those two natures! But remember the  two things we noticed in the epistle to the Galatians. First, the death and resurrection of Christ changed everything; we no longer belong to the old world. Second, in the Spirit of God we experience a wholly new kind of life; we see, understand, perceive everything differently, on a new plane—indeed, before all else we perceive Christ Himself in the dimension of the Spirit, not the flesh. I’m convinced that here, too, in Romans, Paul is not so much comparing two natures of Christ as much as talking about two “worlds”, two eras, the former and the new, about that world in which Jesus of Nazareth is just, to those who discern by “the flesh”, a descendant of David, and that world in which, to those born of the Spirit, he is the risen Son of God, the Lord of life Whom we know by the Spirit. This is a crucial concept and truth in all of Paul’s teaching and preaching: are you in Christ, in His Spirit, do you belong to him? If so, then no preacher of the Gospel of Law will manage to deceive you, because you already see with new eyes. It’s in this light, and against the background of everything Paul wrote in his earlier letter already mailed off to the Galatians, that we can perhaps feel in a new way the thrust of Paul’s famous words in 1:16-17 (read).

In general, in chapters 1 and 2 Paul exposits the proper view on the matter of law—in the history of the world and particularly the history of redemption. We may sum it up this way: “We are all sinners, whether we have had God’s Law or not; in any case there is a law in our hearts and it has carried out its task by demonstrating that no one can keep it.”

(Read 2:5)

All broken law has ipso facto accomplished its assignment, and there’s nothing more it can do. Good for you, broken law! You’ve done your job! Therefore, as we read in 3:21-22a (read), there is now a “new righteousness”, something new in Christ, apart from law, since providing us this new thing, this righteousness, was never Law’s job to begin with. This is exactly what Paul was trying to drive home to the Galatians.

We might formulate it like this: Any law that would presume to stand at the end of the road of God’s plan of redemption, like a goal or final destination, is a false law. Only Christ stands there, at the end of that road, and waits for us with open arms in eternal love. Yes, there was a Law somewhere along this road—a stage in the journey—and it fulfilled its role.

In chapter 4 Paul raises the matter of Abraham. Why? It’s clear why. Because the controversy was continuing over how a person can really be justified before God. The false missionaries assumed that the best answer was their answer: to completely embrace the Law. But Paul’s answer goes (read 4:13, 16-17).

As for the 5th chapter, I’d title it “To Those Already in the New Life”, because Paul says (read 5:1), and the key word here is “therefore”, which connotes “since”, “inasmuch as”—you might even say “only if”. Only if we have been justified do we have peace with God. Only if you have received this grace and reconciliation with the Lord can you understand why no law can ever add anything to this perfection of redemption. Our real life began with God’s feat of love (read 5:8), and our future consists not in law but in His perfect will (read 5:10) and the whole sense of our present life consists in peace with Him (read 5:11). In the rest of chapter five Paul explains in detail how, when all is said and done, GRACE EXCELLED LAW PRECISELY INASMUCH AS SALVATION HAD TO EXCEL OUR FALLEN CONDITION AND HELPLESSNESS.

Let me repeat that. The sense of Paul’s teaching can be summed up this way: GRACE EXCELLED LAW PRECISELY INASMUCH AS SALVATION HAD TO EXCEL OUR FALLEN CONDITION AND HELPLESSNESS.

In other words, law required everything we could give, and when we gave everything, law wasn't satisfied. But grace required everything God could give, and He gave everything, and grace was satisfied. Grace was fulfilled, and her fulfillment is salvation to us.

In this light, can you feel how that so-called gospel of the Jerusalem missionaries was, in Paul’s eyes, such a horror? It can never possibly reach the depths of God’s love; on the contrary, it conceals them!

Paul’s answer to anybody who’d accuse him of preaching an immoral lifestyle is found in chapter six: (read 6:1, 2, 8). But even so the foundation of such a transformed life is still God’s gift, not law: (read 6:23).

To anybody who’d accuse him of blaspheming God’s law, Paul replies (7:12) and (7:14).

And then in chapter 8, when the apostle is delving even deeper into the matter of our new life, we find the most striking echo of his letter to the Galatians: (read Romans 8:15-16, then Galatians 4:6-7). It’s perfectly clear that Paul is looking, in both places, at the same deep truth, the truth of the very basis of actual life in Christ and connection with Him: we are already His children, by the fullness of His grace (read 8:17).

I think Paul suffered. I think he wrote his epistle in tears, but he also declares in utter confidence (8:18) and moreover (8:26a).

Over and over again, both in Galatians and Romans, Paul returns to this thought: You, believers, have the Holy Spirit—you already have Him. Why does he keep coming back to this thought? Because this is precisely what the false missionaries were trying to refute! This is the key issue in this historical controversy in the early Church: they assert that, unless we become Hebrews in the full sense, we’ll remain outside the blessings of God, but Paul boldly announces (8:39).

After that, three whole chapters are devoted to the matter of the Jewish nation. This is clearly a continuation of the argument with the heretics. Paul demonstrates explicitly why his rejection of the false Gospel of Law is no sort of rejection or hatred of the nation of Israel itself. He says (read 9:3). But what he goes on to say (read 9:6-7) brings back to us vividly what he said in Galatians 6:15-16 (read) which, in turn, illuminates the sense of Romans 11:26 (read)! Yes, indeed, all of genuine Israel, that is, Abraham’s children by faith, will be saved! The lesson for us is, this ancient conflict between the true gospel and the gospel of the Jerusalem missionaries, that is, between the gospel of Christ and the gospel of law, is no conflict between Jews and Christians, or between the Old and New Testaments, and by no means is it a conflict between a stage in God’s plan, which is the Law, and the perfection of that plan, which is Christ Himself. That’s impossible. Rather, that ancient conflict was between the actual Gospel of Christ and an abominable distortion of it, a “Gospel of the Law”.

For us in Christ, no kind of hatred toward a nation of people can ever be justified. All nations, all people, are equally summed up in sin and their need of salvation by God’s grace. That's Paul’s answer to this whole controversy and scandal and crisis in the early Church. And I am sure that not all were satisfied with his answer. They insisted all the same that the Law and Israelite nation occupy a prime position in the Gospel. And when they finally realized that they’d never prevail over the gospel of grace, they took a radical step, a tragic step, but we will talk about this when we look at the Epistle to the Hebrews.

In conclusion, I want to remark that the last chapters of Romans, starting with chapter 12, are very close in spirit to the 5th and 6th chapters of Galatians.  That is, in both epistles, the apostle, in these final sections, summons the believers to show, to manifest in action, the life of the Spirit, to demonstrate the power of this new world in Christ, a world that now exists in us. (read 12:1) Insofar as the Way of Christ remains on the level of theory and ideas, it remains powerless and irrelevant. So the very word “Therefore” at the start of chapter 12 is far more meaningful than simply a grammatical conjunction. It’s a deep theological conjunction, because the whole significance of this “Therefore” grows directly out of all the deep truths Paul has painstakingly unfolded in the first eleven chapters. He’s saying to us, “In light of all this divine grace and new life in the salvation of Christ, how do we live accordingly?”; therefore we must live like this: (read 12:1 again).

And if we do live like that, the way Paul sketches it out in the last chapters of Romans, then we can, humbly yet boldly, respond to our world and to any who accuse us, just as Paul responded to his accusers: (read Galatians 5:6, 22-23 and 6:15-16).

Amen.

Galatians - CRISIS in the Church's first days

Sometimes we conduct a series of sermons on some book of the Bible, like for instance a Gospel or Epistle, and we very slowly work our way through the book. If I remember correctly, we spent a whole year—or two?—studying Romans on Sunday mornings.

I have nothing against such an approach, but I'm also a proponent of variety! And this is one of the reasons why I plan to deliver three sermons on three epistles: Galatians, Romans and Hebrews. But the more substantial reason is that these three epistles, taken together, pass on the story of a certain crisis in the early Church, a crisis I suspect most of us don't know about. But it's important for us to know about it, because knowledge about this historical crisis will definitely help us, in the first place, to better read Holy Scripture with understanding and, consequently, to apply the meaning of these events in our lives.

The basic method of interpretation I apply here can be called "mirror reading". When I look into a mirror, I see what the mirror reflects. Likewise, when I read a letter, I see what situation the letter reflects. For example, if I find a letter on the ground, pick it up, and take a peek to see what it says, maybe I read:

Dear John,

No, no, a thousand times no. I love another. Forget me.

Maria

Although I don't know Maria or John, I already know a lot about them, and about the situation that this letter reflects. It tells me that, probably, John asked Maria to marry him, and not just once. It tells me he loves her. It tells me that, quite likely, she had some feelings towards him as well, or he'd probably not have been so persistent. But in the end she decided she loved another more (maybe he was rich).

Such a method of interpretation can be called "mirror reading", or simply "reading between the lines"! And this method is an important part of interpretation. In fact, it's common sense!

I have a whole course that I teach on Galatians at the seminary. But we don't have time here and now to conduct the whole course. So rejoice! There won't be any tests or papers. Today I'm going to share with you the most essential and key conclusions of my course, and I hope they will be illuminating to you. Maybe even shocking.

First, I want to tell you the generally-accepted interpretation of Galatians. It goes like this: After the apostle Paul preached the news of Jesus Christ to the Galatians and they became Christians, there came false teachers preaching Judaism, preaching the Law. They wanted the Galatians to depend on rules and laws rather than grace and faith. Therefore, Paul wrote this epistle to persuade them that grace is enough, that "by grace we are saved, not by works", and law mustn't be added to grace.

Though there are legitimate elements in this interpretation, it is all the same insufficient, and slightly distorted.

And now, on the basis of the Epistle to the Galatians, here is the story of a terrible crisis that took place in the earliest Church of Jesus Christ:

After Paul and his co-workers brought the good news of Christ to the inhabitants of Galatia and established churches there, there came other Christian missionaries from Jerusalem—Hebrew-Christians, too, like Paul—and told the Galatians that Paul had preached an illegitimate gospel to them. Moreover, they claimed that they were authorized and sent by the very Mother Church, Jerusalem. The true Gospel, according to them, went like this: "Inasmuch as Jesus perfectly fulfilled all the requirements of the holy Law, and besides that took away our judgment for our non-fulfillment of it, now the door is open for all to become the children of Abraham, true Jews, receiving the Law and becoming members of the Jewish nation." There's their "gospel".

Notice, for them it wasn't a question of adding laws and rules to grace—no, for them the question was: who is a true son and daughter of Abraham and member of the chosen people? For these Jerusalem missionaries, the Galatians believers had not yet joined the number of Abraham's children and chosen nation. To them, the objective of the Messiah's coming was that finally all the families of the earth could observe the whole Law as the Way of Life.

The generally-accepted interpretation of Galatians says that these false missionaries wanted to add law to grace, to supplement grace with law—grace wasn't "enough", but grace-plus-law would be enough.  But no, in point of fact, they were saying quite the opposite: they wanted to add Jesus Christ to the Law! To "fill out" their Judaism with "Christianity". To them, the Law had always been "enough", only inaccessible because of our human imperfection. But now, thanks to Messiah, the Law is accessible to all. You catch the difference? In their theology, the Law ends up superior to Christ.

Therefore, the epistle to the Galatians isn't an argument between law and grace; it isn't an argument between faith and works—not at all! It's an argument between two gospels, between two missions, between the mission of Paul and the mission of these preachers from Jerusalem. And the essence of the argument goes: how can we become genuine children of Abraham and heirs of God's eternal promise according to His holy covenant? Paul's answer is simple: "Dear (but foolish!) Galatians, you already have become!"; the answer of the Jerusalem preachers is: "No, not yet, not until you enter the Jewish nation."

Now, we're going to take a look at the whole epistle, to pinpoint Paul's arguments for his position, for his Gospel.

More likely than not, the Jerusalem missionaries were saying this to the Galatians: "Paul wants to say that he was the one sent by the mother church and that she authorized his gospel, but don't believe him!" But Paul stuns everybody when he responds "non-programmatically", saying (Read Gal. 1:1-2; 11-13; 15-17). Paul isn't about to play their game: "who did the Jerusalem Church give the green light to and who didn't she give the green light to…." No, he openly announces: God revealed Christ to me and authorized me to reveal Him to you. My gospel isn't from man.

More likely than not, the Jerusalem missionaries were saying this to the Galatians: "Paul came to Jerusalem and promised there that he'd preach our gospel, but he immediately broke his promise." We read about this conference in Acts 15:4-5 (read); there's the faction in the Jerusalem church; this was definitively a political crisis.

And what does the apostle Paul say about this? (Read Gal. 2:1-2). A word about the last assertion: Paul is not saying here that he met in private with the apostles in order to make sure he hadn't been preaching the gospel in vain.  Nothing of the sort. Nowhere in the entire New Testament does Paul ever suggest that he had doubts about his gospel, that he suspected his preaching might be a waste of time. And why would he suddenly do so here, in this epistle of all places? No. He means that he insisted on a private meeting with the apostles to make sure first that they were going to stand with him and his gospel in the open conference, in front of everybody. Otherwise his having come to Jerusalem at all would have been a complete waste of time (idiomatically, "running in vain"). In that case, Paul was ready to say, "So long! I'm outta here. I'm not wasting my time with this" and go back to the work God appointed him to. But Paul never even contemplated the idea of abandoning the Gospel revealed to him by God Himself.

And as we know, the apostles responded to him by… (read 2:9-10).

More likely than not, the Jerusalem missionaries were saying this to the Galatians: "Your precious Paul offended, insulted, Peter himself, and all because Peter—by the way, a Jew!—was observing the Law! How dare he!" Probably the Galatians anticipated a response from Paul like, "No! Never! I would never in my life do something so awful!" But again Paul is an unorthodox disputant. What does he write? (Read 2:11) "Yes, I opposed him—he was wrong! Until the faction from Jerusalem showed up, Peter was happily hanging out with the Gentile brothers in Christ, but as soon as they showed up, he shunned them. That was wrong, and I told brother Peter so."

What do you think? Was it painful to Paul to do that? Of course. Did his reputation among the churches suffer because of it? Of course. Did the false teachers take advantage of it to spread slander about him? Of course. This was a real crisis in the early Church; it was a theological crisis, a political crisis, a spiritual crisis, a soul-searing crisis.

In the third chapter, the apostle adduces the essence of his argument (3:2-3); in other words, "Dear Galatians! You already received the Spirit!!" This one concrete fact concludes the whole thing. God wouldn't have given His Spirit to those who weren't His children. But he did it, when all you had done was believe in Christ. End of argument. There's nothing left to figure out. Paul was within in his rights to end the letter right here—if he could be sure the Galatians would get it. But with a broken heart he says, "Oh, foolish Galatians" and teaches on. He reminds them that God's law never justified anybody, that the promise was given by God when there was no law, that the Law was given to lead us to Christ (while those other preachers were saying the opposite—listen to this, because it's a horror: Christ was given to lead us to the Law!), and Paul again reminds them in chapter four (read 4:4-7); "You already received the Spirit, the Spirit of the very Son; that means you are sons, His children." Then Paul, in heartbreaking terms begs the Galatians: (read 4:12-16).

Then Paul compares these two gospels, that is, the true Gospel of Jesus Christ and the so-called gospel of this faction. The comparison goes from 4:21 to the end of the chapter. We don't have time to examine this in detail. I just want to say that here, where Paul talks allegorically about Sarah and Hagar, about two covenants—the covenant of flesh and the covenant of promise—about two Jerusalems… he is not comparing God's Law and grace; he is not comparing the Old Covenant and New Covenant; he is not comparing Judaism and Christianity. He is comparing his mission, his calling, his gospel and its fruits, with the mission, the gospel and its fruits, of those Jerusalem missionaries. The "present Jerusalem" he talks about here isn't the Law—it is, in fact, the church in Jerusalem! At least, it's the faction from Jerusalem that wants to give birth anew to slaves. Let me say that again: the faction from Jerusalem, claiming the authority of the Jerusalem church, wants once again to give birth to slaves. But we, Paul says, thanks to Christ, belong to the heavenly Jerusalem, we inherit the heavenly promise that resounded once to our father-by-faith Abraham, and like him we have received the promise by faith, thanks to the Son who fulfilled all and unfolded the promised new creation.

That’s why, precisely in light of everything he just said, the apostle exhorts (read 5:1), and also (5:6).

More likely than not, the Jerusalem missionaries were saying this to the Galatians: "Paul summoned you just to believe! But what about how you should live? How are you supposed to know the way of righteousness?"

But Paul answers: (5:16) and again (5:19… etc.). Paul doesn't list all the possible sins here; he's giving them a 'for-instance.' And again (5:22… etc.), Paul doesn't exhaust the list here; again, it's a 'for instance'; he's saying, "All this should be obvious to you; why would you need the Law to know this?".  

You see why these words are written here, at the end of this epistle? If they were written in a different epistle, they'd still mean something, but not what they mean here. This isn't just "the practical section", like we usually say, as if Paul wrapped up the "theological part" and now he says, "Oh, by the way, here's a general list of rules for your life", or as if he totally decided to change the subject (!). Nothing of the sort. If we want to understand chapters 5 and 6 of Galatians right, we have to understand that this whole epistle is one, single theological argument, and the last two chapters are the essential part, where the apostle calls on the Galatians to finally manifest this life that will prove their election and inclusion in God's nation by grace. And that's how the Galatians will finally shut the mouths of the Jerusalem missionaries—they'll be left with absolutely nothing more to say.

By the way, the real climax of the whole epistle is 6:7-8 (read). In other words: Choose! Either the way of the Spirit, Whom you received as per my gospel, or the way of the flesh, as per their 'gospel'—because their pseudo-gospel is in point of fact the way of the flesh, not the way of God's promise, election and new creation.

This is absolutely the climax of the argument. And Paul is ready to sign his name. He seems exhausted. He says ("That's it…", read 6:17) and also (6:14), but he adds one last "punch" for his opponents (read 6:16); it's perfectly obvious in the light of the whole argument he's just made that this "Israel of God" is none other than all believers who've received the true gospel whatever their ethnic origin may be—they are all now "God's Israel". This closing "punch" indubitably drove the Jerusalem faction wild with fury. It's a total negation of their whole pseudo-gospel.

And with love the apostle concludes his epistle, (read 6:18).

Oh, if only that were the end of the crisis. But next time we will see how the continuing crisis compelled Paul to write a letter to… the Romans.

  

Communion Meditation II

EX 24:8 Moses then took the blood, sprinkled it on the people and said, "This is the blood of the covenant that the LORD has made with you in accordance with all these words."

The covenant –a covenant of blood. Blood speaks to us about life, it reminds us that we depend on God alone for our life. Blood speaks to us also about death, that death is the penalty for our sin. Blood speaks to us about sacrifice, because sacrifice is God’s means of forgiveness.

But here is a question: what possible connection could there be between the blood of animals and heaven? On the one hand we have something which is very material, very earthly, very limited: the blood of animals, which was spilled in an earthly ritual, and sprinkled on the people. On the other hand, we have a spiritual crisis of cosmic proportions: the alienation of man from God. What possible connection can there be between the two?  Before trying to answer this question, let’s read what happened next:

EX 24:9-19 Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and the seventy elders of Israel went up and saw the God of Israel. Under his feet was something like a pavement made of sapphire, clear as the sky itself.

After the covenant was announced, and the blood of the sacrifice was sprinkled on the people, God called Moses and elders up to the mountain. And there they saw God. How can this be? The Bible says no one can see God.

I believe that nobody can truly see God in all His infinity; God is beyond the comprehension of any of His created beings. There’s only one who truly knows God in all His infinity--it’s the Son who came from God. But here the Bible tells us that Moses and the elders saw the God of Israel. So, they must have seen God in some measure, as God allowed Himself to be seen. What is interesting, though, is that the Scripture here doesn’t explain what God Himself looked like; instead of that, there is an amazing description of something under the feet of God, something like a pavement of sapphire, and clear as the sky. What that was, we don’t know, but clearly it was something not of this world. I can’t interpret it for you, except to suggest that it tells us that God is not part of this world; He is the Creator, He is not part of the Creation. And again this forces me to ask: how could earthly sacrifices be  effective in closing the spiritual rift between man and such a God as this? But before we answer that, let’s read the end of this account:

11 But God did not raise his hand against these leaders of the Israelites; they saw God, and they ate and drank.

Here is the mercy of God. No man can see God and live. But these men saw God and lived. Again, as we said, no man can see God, no man can comprehend Him in all His infinite nature. But God somehow allowed these men to see Him, to see a true representation of Him, let’s say a  “side” of Him, and even to eat and drink in His presence. He did not raise His hand against them: this speaks to us of the mercy of God, it reminds us that the true desire of God is to freely fellowship with man, without any hindrance, without any alienation.

This is a  wonderful picture. But of course, Moses and the elders came down from the mountain. They lived the remainder of their lives, they died and were buried. And what then? That glorious moment on the mountaintop was only a moment. But what about eternity? There were only about 70 men up there on the mountain. For them it was wonderful. But what about all the rest of the people who ever lived in human history? What hope do they have to fellowship with God, to eat and drink in His presence? Who can truly bring heaven and earth, God and man, together?

Yes, it was a wonderful vision, but it leaves us with these questions: What possible connection can there be between earthly sacrifices and the eternal God? How can the alienation between God and man be solved once and for all?

Let’s look into the New Testament, at one place where the writer deals with this problem, the problem of the terrible distance between the earthly and the heavenly:

HEB 8:1-2 The point of what we are saying is this: We do have such a high priest, who sat down at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven, and who serves in the sanctuary, the true tabernacle set up by the Lord, not by man.

Jesus Christ is our High Priest; He is not like the other high priests – why? Because he doesn’t have to offer a new sacrifice every day for his own sins and the sins of the people. He has no sins himself, and His sacrifice is the perfect sacrifice accomplished once for all. His sacrifice is actually that one true sacrifice that all creation was waiting for. All the other sacrifices were only representations, they were like photographs which cannot be the actual thing itself. But ultimately, just as there is only one true God, there could only be one true sacrifice, there could only be one true means of reconciliation between man and God.

Jesus became that one true sacrifice, offering up His own blood in the sanctuary of the one true God. He doesn’t serve as high priest in an earthly  temple, which is only a representation; he serves in the true sanctuary of God. What is that sanctuary? Where is it? How can we possibly say? I am sure only of this: the true heavenly sanctuary is the place of closest fellowship with God. Perhaps it is God Himself.  Jesus  doesn’t bring the blood of animals to God. He offers his own blood as the price of our salvation.

And so we ask: how could an earthly sacrifice could solve an eternal, spiritual problem? How could physical blood seal the spiritual rift between man and God? In Christ the answer is miraculously revealed to us: It’s because He who died on the cross was the One from Heaven. In the cross we see heaven dying so earth might live. The blood of Christ was the blood of the incarnate God. His death was the sacrifice of God for the forgiveness of sins. In Christ, God Himself exhausted the pain of our sin, and released us from our debts. If you really stop to think about it, there was no other possible way. That was the only way God could have forgiven our sins: He suffered the consequences of our sins Himself.

This is the amazing revelation of Jesus Christ – what no one could have imagined; that in Christ, God Himself was reconciling the world to Himself. This is how an earthly sacrifice could reconcile man and God.

I think that’s what the writer of the epistle to the Hebrews is trying to tell us. He says that the earthly sanctuary is only a representation. The priests and the animal sacrifices are only a picture. But Christ is the actuality. A weak analogy would be to compare when we were little children and we played house, pretending to be the papa and mama, and real marriage. Real marriage is the thing itself; there is no more picture. You cannot even compare children playing house to real married life.

It is like this with our Lord Jesus Christ: His life is our true salvation; His death is our true forgiveness; His blood is the true price fully paid.

And the deeper we unite our hearts with this truth, the better we understand reality itself.

Jesus said, “I have come to bear witness of the truth.” Jesus knew about all reality. When he gathered his disciples for the Last Supper in the upper room, He knew perfectly what was about to happen, and why, and what it would cost Him to carry it out. 

MT 26:26-30 While they were eating, Jesus took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to his disciples,  saying, "Take and eat; this is my body."
Then he took the cup, gave thanks and offered it to them, saying, "Drink from it, all of you. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. I tell you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it anew with you in my Father's kingdom." When they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.

Remember Moses and the elders up the mountain top, sitting in the presence of God Himself, and eating and drinking. Here again, God has called his servants to sit with him, to eat and drink. And as Moses sprinkled the people, with the blood, sealing God’s holy covenant with them, in the same way, Jesus presents the blood of the covenant to his disciples.

But there are differences. Moses sprinkled the people with the blood of animals. It was external, and temporary. But  Jesus says, “Drink.” He also says, “Eat. This is my body, this is my blood.” With these few simple words,  Jesus reveals the true depth of the sacrifice He will make. He will give himself up totally for our life. He will make Himself our true spiritual food and drink forever and ever. “I am the Bread of Life”, Jesus says. But the bread must be broken before you can eat it. Jesus was ready to be broken. He longed for the fulfillment of the Father’s plan; He looked ahead to the ultimate joy of His Father’s kingdom, when people from east and west, north and south would come and sit down at His table and fellowship with Him forever-- not only 70 elders on a mountaintop or twelve disciples in an upper room.

When we look at Jesus with His disciples around the table, we see a picture of God’s kingdom, the kingdom which is coming. Jesus gave Himself up to the cross and death, so that you and I could join Him at His fellowship table forever.

In the book of Revelation, we are allowed to catch a glimpse of this unimaginable glory, in chapter four when John was taken to heaven and he saw the throne of God. Someone was sitting on the throne; the one sitting there had the appearance of jasper and carnelian; a rainbow the color of emerald encircled the throne. And around the throne were 24 other thrones, with an elder sitting on each of them, all dressed in white and wearing golden crowns. Lightning and thunder came from the throne and seven lamps burned in front of the throne, and there was something like a sea of glass in front of the throne, as clear as crystal. Again we see elders sitting in the presence of God. Do you think that when God called Moses and the elders up to the mountain, that by this God let them understand a little bit what heaven was really like? I think so. And when Jesus gathered his disciples together for the Last Supper, was that also a picture of God fellowshipping with His people? I think so.

But there was only way to realize this reality.

(Read Revelation 5:1-14)

Today we are called to the table of the Lord, to share His body and blood, to recognize the price of our salvation in the death of  Jesus Christ, and to confess Him as our true Savior and coming King. The Lord Himself is with us when we obediently observe this ordinance. God is with His people, and He is worthy of all glory, honor and praise. This table is a representation of reality, of deep spiritual reality that exceeds our comprehension, and yet God invites us to take part and understand. When we participate in this supper, we taste in a small way the future exultation when people will come from east and west, north and south to sit at the table of the Lord Jesus Christ. 

Christ's Ascension

This sermon approaches the event of Christ's ascension a bit indirectly. As I assumed the other preachers would start with Acts 1, I decided to take a different route.

It's easy to guess that, when a sermon is on the ascension of the Lord, the Bible text will be Acts 1. Therefore, I decided to take a look at other places that either indirectly or directly talk about the ascension of Jesus Christ. The first of these is Matthew 28:16-20 (read).

The ascension isn't mentioned here, but this is the last "act" of the Gospel of Matthew—the most important, significant words of Jesus Christ just before he ascends to the Father in Heaven. This is the commandment to the Church from the One who was eager to return to where he had come into the world from. Here Jesus isn't talking anymore about what villages to go to together with the disciples, he isn't teaching them in parables, he isn't healing anybody, he's not rising early in the morning to go out and pray alone, with his disciples rushing around anxiously to find out where he has disappeared to. Those days have passed! This is the risen Lord, the Conqueror of death, the Eternal Word/Logos, whose gaze is fixed on reunion with the One Whose redeeming will he has perfectly carried out. A sense of anticipation permeates everything Jesus says here. These are more than "parting words"; these are words spoken from a whole different viewpoint already. Even though Jesus is still on the earth while he speaks, the words sound just like what we could expect to hear from the ascended Christ seated at the right hand of the Father in Heaven. The Great Commission says, in brief, that the light of the risen, ascended Son of God illuminates life's whole purpose here in this world. The Great Commission is not only an assignment to us on earth; it is Christ's own "job description" in Heaven through us.

 I'd like to direct your attention to a mysterious element in this event – (read v. 17: "…but some doubted").

This perplexes us for two reasons. First, why did they doubt? Or actually, what were they doubting? And secondly, why does Matthew mention it at all? And so abruptly, just dropping it as soon as he mentions it? "Some doubted" – no elaboration. It's a bit like someone explaining principles of algebra to you and suddenly announcing, "You know, I just adore pickles", then going right on with the algebra.

It's a bit like that here. We call these final words in Matthew "The Great Commission" because Jesus, having appeared to the disciples, commands them to preach the good news everywhere in the world. And as a rule we practically never even pay attention to that odd little "glitch" in the text about how some doubted. But it must be there for a reason!

Here's a useful secret for Bible interpretation. When you bump into a phrase, or statement, or verse that doesn't seem to… "correlate", seems odd and out-of-place, sometimes the thing is that you shouldn't be trying to understand the difficult spot in the light of its context; instead, try understanding the context in light of the difficult spot! Quite possibly, as a result you'll find that the difficult spot throws the whole context into a new light and becomes clear at the same time itself, too. If we try that approach here in Matthew, what do we discover?

The eleven disciples have come to the mountain. They've seen Jesus, very likely from a distance at first. Some of them immediately start "worshipping", as the text says. What does that mean? Possibly they started shouting, "It's Jesus! It's the Lord! He is risen! Praise God!" But others doubted. What does that mean? Maybe they weren't so sure who they were seeing in the distance. I can imagine them saying, "Wait a minute. Not so fast. What are you saying? Who is that? Is that really him?"

And in response to this, what does Jesus do? Verse 18: He approached them. He came up to them. He came close to them. Did you ever wonder why it says that? Maybe it's precisely because he was far away from them at first, when some started worshipping while others... didn't. But I don't think that when Jesus did this—that is, when he walked right up to them—I don't think any of them were doubting any more. 

Jesus not only came up to them—to all of them, to the worshippers and the doubters—in order to dispel any doubt, but he also pronounced words of assurance. The "Great Commission" isn't only a "commission"; it's a word of assurance precisely to those who were doubting. Jesus assures them all: "All authority has been given to me". That is, "You don't need to doubt. It's me, who the glory and power have been given to forever. It's me, who died and destroyed the kingdom of death with my invincible life—I am alive forever. Be confident, because it's me—I will always be with you to do the Father's will through you."

When we read the Great Commission in the light of that one, odd, troubling phrase in verse 17, suddenly we sense the deep mercy of Christ, the grace of Christ, in what he tells the disciples. The doubt makes more sense of the Great Commission. Jesus doesn't condemn the disciples who, after all, came to meet him on the mountain according to his instructions! They didn't come here, after all, in order to doubt! They came to see and believe. Some didn’t want to be reckless, they were hesitant to jump to a conclusion, to believe that the person up there on the mountain was the One who died on the cross. But Jesus, the risen Lord of life, approaches them all, assures them all, promises always to be with them all, and hands them all the highest calling, to proclaim His news to the whole world. This is the calling of Heaven itself; there is no higher honor. And, yes, Jesus handed this honor even to the ones who had doubted, who maybe said, "Hold on, not so fast; let's make sure that's him." And, having given this honor to the disciples, Jesus returned to the Father.

Now let's look at another place in Scripture that doesn't pop immediately to mind in connection with the Ascension. It's Matthew 3:14-17 (read).

I preached on this passage before and suggested that in Jesus' baptism you can see the whole history of redemption. Take a look – there's Jesus, identifying with the people, taking part in the same "Baptism of Repentance" as they did, just like later he will carry their sins to the cross, and there he is going down in the water, just like later he'll be buried in the earth, and now he is rising from the water, just as later he will emerge from tomb alive. And then the heavens open, just like later they will open to receive him in the ascension and then the Holy Spirit descends upon him, just like the Spirit will descend later on the Body of Christ, His Holy Church, and then the voice of the Father in Heaven exalts Jesus, just like later God the Father will exalt the Lamb, His Only-Begotten, before all eyes in the eternal kingdom. This is a stunning enactment that prophesies everything our Creator and God intends to carry out with this very Jesus who, one fine day, quietly walked up to John to be baptized. It's no surprise, therefore, that Jesus said to John, "We have to do all this in order to fulfill all righteousness."

Every element of his baptism serves to fulfill the perfect righteousness which is God's salvation. God's salvation is God's righteousness carried out to the very end. In salvation God's righteousness itself is totally realized. We usually think that Jesus is talking about human righteousness here, when he says that "all righteousness" must be fulfilled—the perfect righteousness God demanded of Man but only Jesus could fulfill. But I think that when Jesus says, "all righteousness", he really means all righteousness; that includes the righteousness of God that was manifested to the uttermost limit in the accomplishment of redemption.

And how does this relate to the ascension? Here's how. Just like all of God's acts, the ascension of Christ also fulfills God's righteousness, just like Jesus baptism prophesied. The whole story fulfills "all righteousness." It is right and good and... needed for salvation that Jesus ascended to the Father. It was right, and good, and loving and merciful that Jesus came up to the disciples to say, "Look, it's Me. I truly have all the power and authority, I truly will be with you always." It was perfectly right, and good, and needed, and righteous, for Jesus to return to where we can't see him, at the Father's right hand, where he intercedes for us ceaselessly, and from where he mysteriously, miraculously remains with us here at the same time, together with the Father and Holy Spirit: "Whoever loves me will obey my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him." And this also was right, good, needed, and righteousness—the righteousness of God that would never have been fulfilled if Jesus had not returned to the Father.

In conclusion, let's look at one direct account of Jesus ascension, in Mark 16:19-20. (read)

In the Gospel of John, Christ told his disciples, "It's good for you that I'm going away, because if I don't go away, I cannot return to you to be with you." Here in Mark the meaning of this is clear: Jesus, now received into heaven, seated at the right hand of the Father, is working with us, confirming his work in us, establishing our work in himself, magnifying the fruit of our service for him, yes and its eternal meaning and glory in the Father's sight. By leaving to return to the Father, Christ made our life a part of heaven. The apostle Paul says, "He has blessed us in the heavenlies." And again, "He has hidden our life with himself in heaven." We are in him, and in him we have a heavenly inheritance. We have a heavenly inheritance precisely because God's Son, Christ, chose to approach us, to come close, when we were far away and doubting. He chose to walk right up and meet us in our doubts, our weaknesses and faults. He came closer. He picked up our guilt and shame and carried it in himself to the cross in sacrifice. Yes, and raised our souls in himself in resurrection. Yes, and brought us with himself right to the throne of God, and hid our life with himself there, in anticipation of the day when we shall appear with him in glory.

And that is how the only Savior fulfilled all righteousness. As for us, we mustn't doubt but trust, follow, and aim for the works that the ascended Lord will fulfill through us to his glory.

Before he ascended, he approached his disciples in love, right where they were. Who does he want us to approach in his love, that a soul might be saved?

First Sermon Back in Ukraine 2011: "Let Us Make Man in Our Image..."

This is the first sermon I preached in Ukraine after returning in January 2011 from my Aug-Dec 2010 furlough in the States. The sermon can be considered a highly condensed "take" on the series of sermons I did several years ago, "A Holy Place, A Holy Purpose", which is also posted on this blog. The advantage of this one is, of course, that it gets the gist across in one convenient bite-sized piece.
A particular stylistic touch in this sermon does not, sadly, translate from Russian to English. The very last word of the sermon in Russian is "sotvorim", which means "we will make", from John 14:23 which, in the exact Russian word order, reads like this: "Who loves me, that one will observe word My, and Father My will love him, and We will come to him and {an} abode with him… SOTVORIM." It works beautifully for "sotvorim" to be the final, dramatic conclusion in Russian, because the same word, with its implications, plays a key role almost from the sermon's beginning. Unfortunately, this element of sermonic suspense and climax is lost with the English word-order, with "we will make" rather swallowed up in the middle of the sentence. Besides which, it doesn't even echo "Let us make (man in our image)" in English the way it does in Russian, where it's one and exactly the same word in both places: SOTVORIM. So, having made this something-of-an-excuse, I hope that there is still plenty of worth in the sermon, even without the fine linguistic nuances.

(There is also a slight wordplay at the very end, in Russian, that disappears in English. When the text says, "thanks to His grace", in Russian it sounds like "blah-gah-dah-RYA  Yivo  blah-gah-DAH-tee", the word for "thanks (to)" coming from the same root as the word "grace.")

By the way, "let us make" is one word in the original Hebrew, too, if I remember correctly.


(Read John 5:39-47)


On the basis of this passage I want to take a look at the first chapters of Genesis, the narrative about the creation of the world, of man, about the Fall, and try to specify there, even if a little, the testimony about Jesus Christ, about who he is, what he's like, what the eternal mystery of God's being and love is, and about how one and the same Person radiates through both the narrative in Genesis and the words of Christ in the Gospel of John.


Before opening Genesis, highlight the following key words from John in your mind:
Scripture
Life
Testify
Glory
Love
Father
Believe

And now we open the first page of Holy Scripture, where it says, "In the beginning." And this is a testimony, testimony to the inscrutable uniqueness, the singularity of God. In the beginning of everything, when nothing else was yet, God chose to commit the act of creation. This was God's choice, God's affair, God's intention and aim. Without our advice, without our participation, commentary, observations—yes, even without our existence before the sixth day! Only God is acting here.

And yet, in this testimony about the unique, singular, sovereign deed of God, we bump into unexpected words in verse 26: "Let-us-make [sotvorim] man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground."


In this plural "Us" can be heard testimony about Jesus Christ, who said, "I have come in the name of my Father", who spoke about the glory that is exclusively God's, who once prayed, "Father, glorify me with the glory I had with you before the creation of the world."


"Scripture testifies of me", Jesus told the people, and precisely so the Scripture here, in the words "Let us make", hints at the eternal love that was in God and which God was before the creation of the world: "Let us make". You can't mention the plurality of Persons existing in the one eternal God without speaking of love, because love, which God is, consists precisely of the eternal interrelation of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.


It's a remarkable fact—and I consider it not only a fact but also an essential part of the sense and significance of this revelation—it's remarkable that the first time in Scripture where God says "Us", when Scripture first testifies of a plurality in the one God, it's right where God is pronouncing his intention to create man. Think about that. The very concept of "We" first materializes in Scripture in connection with the creation of man. Only here does God say "We"—not when He said, "Let there be light" on the first day, not on the second day, or the third or fourth day, not on any day but the sixth, when He says, "We will make…."


Why? Because only man will be made in the image of God, and the essence of that image is relationship in love. Scripture says that God said, "We will make Man", and then it tells us that He created them, man and woman, and gave Man the right to rule over creation in subjection to no one other than God alone. Being a created reflection of God's nature, Man was endowed with the capacity to choose, to be responsible, to think, to strive, to imagine the future, to develop as a person, grow in love, be in relationship with Man and God, and to peer into the mysteries of his Creator. "We will make man in our image."


Only the eternal God could pronounce the word "We, and He exclusively endowed with this capacity the Man created in His image. He endowed Man with the capacity to love.


But Jesus says with grief in his heart (John 5:42), "But I know you. You do not have the love of God in you." Imagine this. The very Person who once, in the shining glory of God, spoke the word "We", says here in the Person of the Incarnate Son of God, "There is no love in you."


No love? But then what about the image and likeness of that eternal love which God IS? What's left of that image and likeness where… there's no love?


But the eternal Son, whose whole life's meaning—the whole meaning of Life itself which subsists in him—this eternal Son lives for the Father's glory, the glory of the Father with whom he says "We." His whole life's meaning is love. Love is glory with God His Father. And this same Son says in grief, "How can you believe when you receive glory from each other, but the glory that comes from the only God—you don't seek?"


Human glory—yes, there is such a thing—human glory consists in the fact that the One God endowed Man with the image and likeness of the eternal living Creator. To seek a different glory is to strive towards death.


It's no accident, therefore, that when Man fell in sin, he did it looking for another glory. (Genesis 3:6) "And the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and was pleasing to the eyes, and desirable because it gave knowledge…"


(Genesis 3:5) "You will be like God, knowing good and evil." Man wanted that knowledge. Man, the only creature in the whole world created in God's image, wanted to become "like God", as if he wasn't already "like God"! He was! In his capacity to love, to communicate, to exert himself for the good and glorious, Man was already "like God", since God invested His image and likeness into him exactly for that. That was God's gift, to man alone.


But the devil fooled Man, deceived him into seeking a different, somehow "better" glory—the glory of the knowledge of good and evil, rather than the glory of the knowledge of God Himself.


And having known evil, Man became evil. That's what the Deceiver hid from Man when he said, "You will know good and evil." Man couldn't know evil without experiencing it in himself. Receiving the words of the Deceiver, our first parents instilled into their entire race the inclination to receive deceptive, seductive words. So Jesus says to those who were rejecting him (John 5:43), "I have come in my Father's name, and you don't receive me, but if another comes in his own name, you will receive him."


The One who eternally says "We" in love with the Father, came to us in the name of the Father, but they didn't accept him. But if a deceiver comes, they’ll accept him. Imagine what grief that is to the One Who once said, "We will make Man in our image and in our likeness."


The second time in Scripture when God speaks of Himself using "We", is after God has declared the punishments to Adam, Eve and the snake. (Genesis 3:22): "And the Lord God said, 'The man has now become like one of Us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life, and eat and live forever.'"


It's no accident that when, yet again, the eternal God speaks in the plural, about "Us", the word is pronounced in an event directly tied to the very nature of God and man's likeness to Him. There was a grain of truth in what the snake said to Eve; tasting the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil, Man really did find out what evil means, similar to how God knows. But the difference is that God, understanding what evil is, doesn't experience it but remains holy. But unholy Man, having become sinful, mustn't live forever in that kind of condition. That would be an utter distortion of the marvelous original idea of all creation. It would be not only an offense to God but grief to all humanity and creation itself.


Therefore, God—yes, the very same God who is love and who created Man in love—this same God says, once more in the plural "We", that Man mustn't live forever in such a state, in the disfigurement of sin.


By punishing and exiling Man, God saved Man from an eternity of sin, an eternity of life in sin. For when God said, "Let us make man", in His love He intended better for His children – unimaginably better. So even punishing and driving Adam and Eve from the Garden, God is being a Savior.


In the fifth chapter of John, Jesus asserts: "You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life." (vv.39-40)


Compare: in Genesis we read how God forbade Man to touch the tree of life. And that was mercy on God's part. But here in the Gospel we read how the same God, "having taken the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness, and being found in appearance as a man," doesn't forbid at all. On the contrary, He practically begs the people, with love, to come, take, receive perfect life from Him, life bought at the price of His own life in our place. But they don't want to. They don't believe.


"If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me. But since you do not believe what he wrote, how are you going to believe what I say?" (Jn. 5:46-47)


But God , who says "We" within Himself in eternal love, so loved the world that He gave His Only-Begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him might not perish but have real eternal life in freedom from sin and the joy of pure fellowship with his holy Maker. God, who once revealed His love in the creation of Man, and revealed it again by excluding Man from the tree of Life, displayed the whole essence of His saving love in the sacrifice of the Son, in the sacrifice of the One with Whom He said, "Let us make man in our image", the One who is "the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of His being", the One who thirsted for the glorifying of His Father by the sacrifice of His own life for the redemption of Man. So loved us God. So intent was the Maker to carry out everything to return us to His fellowship and knowledge, to the knowledge and fellowship of the eternal, holy God—so we would be "like God, knowing…" love and holiness.


Jesus Christ offers this new fellowship, thanks to His grace, when he tells his disciples these words (Jn. 14:23): "If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and [we will] make our abode with him." (and our abiding place with him we will make.)


(IN RUSSIAN, THE ECHOS OF BOTH THE "WE" AND "WILL MAKE" FROM GENESIS MAKE A PERFECT POETIC AND DRAMATIC ENDING TO THE SERMON, AS THEY ARE THE FINAL WORDS IN THE SENTENCE.)

Something New

The only thing I’ll say about this sermon is that I did get a few grossed-out looks from the congregation when I talked about where the water we drink has been.

Today I felt like talking about something new. So that’s the theme of today’s sermon: Something New!

So let’s start by looking at what it says in 1 John 4:15: “God is love”. Now wait: that’s nothing new. That’s an ancient, an eternal truth! Yes, I agree—this is an ancient, eternal truth, but I say nevertheless that this is something new. New, because God’s love constantly makes everything new, constantly opens up new possibilities, again and again restores and refreshes and revives and renews.

Here’s a good analogy: when somebody offers you a glass of pure cold water on a very hot day, and you drink it, you never say, “Phew, that’s old water!” Even though, in fact, it is… very old water. That water has been here on the earth from the very beginning of the world. Nowhere on earth is there any such thing as “new water”; no new water is being created. All the water located on our planet has already been drunk by countless people, animals, insects, trees, plants and has also been returned over and over again into the ecological system where it’s purified and refreshes and revives us yet again. And every time you pick up a glass of that fresh, clean, cold water, especially on a sweltering summer day, it seems to you that you are the very first living being in the whole universe to taste this particular glassful of crystal clear life-giving water, and it fills you with satisfaction and gratefulness. That “old” water is just about as “new” as anything you could ever wish for!

Of course, this is a limited, physical analogy for a spiritual truth. In fact, divine love unimaginably exceeds this analogy because, unlike water, God’s love actually does increase and grow; there is more and more of it; it unceasingly comes into new being, in God’s desire to bring about good for the objects of His love. It is always new, and… it has always been. It never grows old, and yet… there’s nothing older than it! God’s love is always able to open a new door for us in life, especially when we feel worn out, empty, useless.

In the Gospel of John 13:34, Jesus Christ speaks this command: “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.” This is a new command precisely because the life of the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ unceasingly makes us new and capable to love in a whole new way, in unity with His desire to love through us. (Verse 35) “By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

If we go back to the first epistle of John, in the fifth chapter we read the following words: (5:1) “Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well.” The whole secret of love—if it really is a secret—unfolds itself in this verse. In this one short verse is exposed the whole Gospel, the news of salvation, the meaning of life, new birth, even a glimmer of the eternal mystery of the Holy Trinity—from which proceeds all divine love. Imagine: all that in one verse! Let’s take it apart….

“Whoever believes...” Here’s faith, the key to reconciliation with God. For us it all starts with this, when by faith we receive God’s gift of eternal life.

“…that Jesus is the Christ...” Here’s the content of our faith, the central fact of history that changes our whole past, present and future.

“…is born of God.”   Here’s new birth; it’s an enlivened spirit, a new, living relationship with the living God in mutual knowledge.

“Whoever loves the father…” Here’s love for God; in the heart of the born-again person love is born for the Father who bestowed the new birth. This is love, born in the image of the eternally loving God, and the proof of that love is love towards His children, as it says, “…and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well” and we read further (v.2) “This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands.”

I hinted that a lesson about the Holy Trinity is found here, so what is it? The lesson is that our new birth arises exclusively thanks to the only-begotten Son of God. Thanks to the Only-Begotten of the Father we become “begotten” of God. Moreover, thanks to the eternal love ceaselessly communicated within the Holy Trinity, without beginning or end, the possibility is made real for us to taste and know and generate genuine love. Genuine love will always be love in the image of Him who loved and gave Himself for us, Jesus of Nazareth. Genuine love will always be a response of joy toward God the Father, with that same joy with which the eternal Son of God unendingly exults in the presence of His Father. And genuine love will always be the cause for obedience to the Father’s will, the natural consequence of a desire to bring Him pleasure. (Verses 3-4) “This is love for God: to obey his commands, and his commands are not burdensome, for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith.”

The psalmist says, “Taste and see that the Lord is good.” “Taste!” “See!” That means, “Find out for yourself! Experience it!” Taste the fresh, clean, enlivening water of God’s love; it is water for the soul. This water is always new.

In Samaria on one hot day, Jesus, tired after a long journey, asked for water from a woman whose sins and griefs were totally open to him. Encountering her suspicion and curtness, and still not having gotten even a drop of water, God’s Son Jesus in all love offered her living water (read Jn. 4:13,14). These words sounded out to this woman on that miraculous day when she found God’s love and forgiveness, sounded out from the lips of Him whose love redeemed God’s creation, of Him whose Father one day will say, “See, I am making all new” and in His incomparable love He will wipe every tear from the eyes of His children. That’s the kind of love that sounded from the lips of Jesus to that poor woman on that hot day so long ago in Samaria.

Let that love sound in our hearts every time we draw near to God and each other. Let it reveal itself through us to those around us, in forgiveness, in patience, in help, in compassion and joyful fellowship. And let God's always-new love become for many the refreshing, enlivening water of new life in the knowledge of Jesus Christ.