6. Good Witnesses

Meditations in Romans : 6 :  Good Witnesses?

Rom  1:8 First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is being reported all over the world.

In this first decade of the twenty first century there has been a full frontal attack on the Christian faith by crusading atheists.  Now the interesting thing to note is that they are woefully ignorant of the truths of the Gospel as found in the New Testament and so that is not the main object of their attack.  No, their attack has been against many forms of Christianity, or expressions of Christianity, that have been observed in the church in the past or are being seen around the world today – expressions that are far from that shown in the New Testament.  In the United Kingdom at least, whenever the media portray a representative of the church they are almost always either weak individuals or quirky-belief individuals.  Never or rarely is there a portrayal of Christians as strong, helpful members of society, people who should be given a fair hearing for the reality of their faith.  Now I know that part of the enemy’s tactics is to demean and neutralise Christians, but it does seem to me that so often we have given him plenty of ammunition to play with!

Now I am sure that the church in Rome in Paul’s day wasn’t perfect but even so, they were a church that the world knew about, and about which Paul could feel good.  This letter by Paul isn’t a corrective letter like the first one to the Corinthians.  No, it seems that this is a church with a strong faith and the news of that faith has gone round the world.  Now that is a challenge isn’t it! Yes, put aside all the negatives that come from the media, but I wonder how the world around us views our local expression of ‘church’?  Paul could talk to God in prayer about this church at Rome and speak very positively about it because of what he had heard about them.  He wasn’t embarrassed about them and he didn’t need to make excuses for them.  No, he gave thanks for what he heard about them.

So what might it be (for he doesn’t tell us) that made this church known around the world?  He says it is their ‘faith’, so what does that mean?  Well the first thing to suggest is that it doesn’t just mean their set of beliefs, because that would not get them a good reputation around the world.  No it has to mean that they are living out their lives with a faith dimension to it.  That suggests that they have been taught to live lives that distinguish them from the rest of the world.  They are people who have changed so that they are marked out so that they have been seen for what they are.  So what sort of characteristics make us people who can have a good reputation in the eyes of the rest of the world?  Let’s suggest a few things.

First, we may suggest, they are people of truth, people who are honest and trustworthy, people who are known for their integrity.  Truth is valued highly by the Lord and so this would be a mark of a good church.   Second, we may suggest, they would be people of peace and harmony, free from arguing, criticising, gossiping, judging and speaking badly of others.  In fact, to the contrary, they will be people who look for the best in one another, who speak well of one another, who encourage and build up one another. They would love and accept one another and be there for one another. They would be a caring community. They would be known for looking after the needy – the widows and orphans.  They would be law abiding, good citizens, caring for their community, both Christian and non-Christian.  They would be good workers and not lazy or careless.  They would be wise stewards of whatever wealth the Lord has allowed them to have, meeting the needs of those who did not have.

It is probable that they would be known for the supernatural dimension of their lives.  They are people who claim to hear God and live their lives in accord with what He has said to them. They see things happening as they respond to what they hear from Him.  They pray and things change. They pray for the sick and they are healed.

Now where do we get all these things from? From the New Testament of course, but as we said earlier, it is probable that they are not perfect and not all these things are patently obvious in their church life yet. Perhaps that is why Paul writes in a very practical way in the latter chapters. One of the obvious things, we have to suggest, is that these people do what they do and are known for what they do, because of God.  They are not just nice people, not just good people – they are godly people and the focus is on God.  As a result of their lives God is glorified, just as Jesus said: “let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.” (Mt 5:16)

If they are a growing church then Solomon’s words will also be true of them: “The path of the righteous is like the first gleam of dawn, shining ever brighter till the full light of day.” (Prov 4:18) – and they are seen!  Where God is Lord, then we will also see the prayer of Jesus being fulfilled: “I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.” (Jn 17:20-23).  The presence of God in these people is seen by the world and they are witnesses to the Lord.  May all these things apply to us, His church today!

5. Be Blessed!

Meditations in Romans : 5 :  Be Blessed!

Rom  1:7 To all in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints: Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.

Many Christians don’t understand the concept of ‘blessing’. It is bringing a prophetic decree from heaven that opens the way for the goodness of God to be released on earth. To understand blessings you really need to study the life of Isaac in the Old Testament as he relates in old age to his two sons, but we’ll leave you to do that on your own. We have ‘blessing’ in our lives, often without thinking about it. Someone sneezes and we say, “Bless you!” Mostly it is a habit thing with little or no meaning but it has a spiritual background. It means that where there are the signs of an illness we, the believing community, will declare, “May the Lord bless you,” or “May the Lord declare healing from heaven for you,” and we do it with the faith-knowledge that God wants to bring healing to us. When we are moving in faith we are able to say, “May the Lord bless you” meaning, “May the Lord decree goodness over your life.”  THAT is what blessing is all about, and we do it as a response to the Holy Spirit’s leading as He indicates His intention to bring that goodness. He just wants us to speak it out first!

Now why do we say all this? We say it because in this verse seven of chapter 1 of Romans, we find, as we find in so many of Paul’s letters, his blessing the recipients of his letter. He is bringing a prophetic decree that brings the goodness of God to these people. These are not mere words!

Now first of all we need to recognise to whom this blessing is brought. You can only bring a (genuine) blessing when you sense it is from the Holy Spirit and the conditions are right. The conditions are that God blesses His children – believers. He does not bless the unrighteous or the ungodly. Thus Paul gives a threefold identification of those who he blesses. First of all they are the Christians in Rome. This isn’t to say that the blessing doesn’t apply to other Christians as well, merely that it is specifically directed in this letter to those Christians who form the church in Rome.

Second, they are identified as those who are “loved by God.” But doesn’t God love everyone?  Yes, in one sense, His heart is a heart of love towards all of humanity, but He is not able to fully express that love to those who reject Him.  Suppose we have a child whom we love very much but as they grow up they come to listen to the enemy and come to despise, even hate us, for who we are and what we believe.  They cut themselves off from us. We still love them, but are unable to express that love to them for they have gone away from us without letting us know where they are.  God loves all of humanity but is unable to express that love fully until we come to Him and receive His salvation – then the door is wide open for Him to express His love.  This letter comes to Christians – those who have opened their hearts to God and have received His love.

Third, they are “called to be saints.” This doesn’t mean only a little band of very special people, but all Christians.  We are called to be children of God. We are called to be receivers of eternal life.  We are called “to be” many things. The words, ‘to be’ don’t refer to some future experience but to living out an ongoing life.  We are ‘a saint’ the moment we are born again.  The word refers to holiness, a holy one, a separated out one, one who has entered into a living relationship with God through Jesus Christ.  We are called to live out that life as an ongoing experience of Him. Rome – where these Christians lived.  Loved – why they are now Christians.  Saints – living out these new separated out lives, empowered by the Holy Spirit.  THESE people are recipients of God’s blessing, God’s decree of goodness.

So what is the blessing?  It is a twofold decree: of grace and peace. Grace is about what we have received (and continue to receive) and peace is about the nature of our ongoing experience with God. In its most simple description, ‘grace’ is simply God’s resource to enable us to live our lives as His children and to overcome the trials and tribulations that we encounter living in a Fallen World. It also enables us to serve Him and His calling on our lives. This ‘resource’ is His very own Holy Spirit. HE, Himself is the only resource we need. He provides strength; He provides wisdom; He provides guidance; He provides power. It is Him, living His life through us. It is His own Holy Spirit who made us new creatures, children of God, and it is His own Holy Spirit who energises and directs us throughout our years on earth. This is what grace actually is.

But then there is peace, the state that we have with God. Because of the work of Christ on the Cross, and because of his rule today at his Father’s right hand, and because of the expression of that through the means of his Holy Spirit that we have just been considering, we can be at complete peace. We are at peace with God because Christ has reconciled us to his Father.  We are at peace within ourselves because we no longer have to strive to try to be someone – we just are, as children of God!  We can be at peace with others because we no longer have to vie with them to get our way; we rest in the Father’s purpose for our lives and His hand on us bringing that about.

Now if these two things are ours already, why does Paul bother to speak them out? Why do they come as a blessing?  Because a blessing is simply a speaking out of the decreed will of God and it enables that will to be further administered. So as you read these notes and meditate on these things, grace and peace be to you!

4. Obedience

Meditations in Romans : 4 :  Called to Obedience

Rom  1:5,6 Through him and for his name’s sake, we received grace and apostleship to call people from among all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith. And you also are among those who are called to belong to Jesus Christ.

We live in days when ‘obedience’ is not a much used word. We like to do what we want to do, what feels right for me. Obedience for adults smacks of control and abuse, we think. When we hear of obedience being mentioned we think of ‘heavy shepherding’, of people being told what to do by authoritative leaders and stories of abuse abound, don’t they!  Well actually that was the theme of gossip in Christian circles twenty years ago, but today we just go with the ethos of the world and prefer to do our own thing. In fact in some churches I am sure that if there was directive teaching that required conformity to standards laid down by the Biblical preacher, there would be uproar – yet that is what the New Testament clearly teaches!

Paul refers to his calling and says that through Christ he has received two things: grace and apostleship. Grace is simply the God-given ability to do something, and God had given Paul the ability to do what he did, and that leading and enabling meant that he did things that were the mark of an apostle and therefore he had the ministry of apostleship. This calling, he said, had come from Christ and was ‘for his name’s sake’, i.e. it was to honour Christ’s own calling. We have already seen how Paul was Christ’s servant, but Jesus was there on earth as a servant of his Father, to fulfil the divine plan. Jesus had prayed, “Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you,” (Jn 17:21) and then gone on to ask for his church, that it would work in such a way that the world would know and honour the Father. This was the order: Paul’s ministry would honour Jesus and Jesus would honour the Father. That was what Paul’s ministry was about.

But the outworking of it was to call people from all over the world, the Gentiles, to come to Christ.  And why should they come to Christ? Because they needed to be saved, and Christ was the means of saving them. But it wasn’t just about a one-off being ‘born again’; that was just the start. From the moment of our conversion we start a long walk with Christ where he teaches us to be obedient to his word and to the leading of his Spirit so that we are changed into the likeness of Christ (2 Cor 3:18)

This brings us back to the subject of obedience again. How can we change unless he guides us and we follow? The ‘following’ is an act of obedience.  From the start, Jesus taught his disciples, “Follow me.” (e.g. Mt 4:19, 8:22, 9:9, 10:38 etc.).  Today we ‘follow’ him by responding to the prompting and leading of his Holy Spirit. Jesus came to usher in a ‘kingdom’ (Mt 3:2, 4:17,23) – the rule of God on earth through Jesus and then, subsequently, through us his followers.

Now that ‘kingdom’ or ‘rule’ is a benign rule, a rule of goodness and of love. Everything the Father does through Jesus is to bring His love into our experience so when we talk about ‘obedience’ we need to think very differently to any other use of the word. It simply refers to us bringing our thinking and our lives generally, into line with God’s desire to bless us, and the channel through which He brings that blessing is His Son, Jesus.  Jesus is the means through which we can be forgiven and Jesus is the administrator of God’s goodness which he is able to bring to us as we respond to his leading.

But, we note, it is all by faith, says Paul. We are people of faith because everything we do in response to God, we do in response to one who we cannot see with our eyes or hear with our ears. We ‘hear’ him in our spirit, and faith is responding to what we have heard at that deep inner level. We may use our minds to process what our spirit is sensing but it is then an act of will which exercises faith.  It is as we respond in faith that Jesus is able to lead us and we obey and he blesses.

But there is yet something else here for Paul speaks to those of us, God’s children, Christians, who are called to belong to Christ. Why do we ‘belong’ to him? Because he purchased us: “You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation. You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth.” (Rev5:9,10). Imagine a slave condemned to death who is then bought and set free. That is the picture language of the New Testament. Later in this same book Paul writes, “though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted. You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.” (Rom 6:17,18). The same idea comes up in a variety of forms in the New Testament: “he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves.” (Col 1:13). We belong to Christ, we live in his kingdom, the kingdom of light, a kingdom of righteousness, a kingdom where obedience to the king is the norm. All these pictures say the same thing: we are part of a kingdom, a kingdom of love and goodness, and a kingdom has a king and kings require obedience, but this obedience is about doing what is good, loving, right, to live in an environment where those characteristics are the characteristics of blessing that comes from God. Who would say that this sort of obedience is hard?

3. The Gospel

Meditations in Romans : 3 :  The Gospel of Jesus

Rom  1:1-4 Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God–the gospel he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures regarding his Son, who as to his human nature was a descendant of David, and who through the Spirit of holiness was declared with power to be the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord.

We finished in the previous meditation thinking about Paul’s awareness of being within God’s master-plan, a plan that He had hinted at through the Old Testament prophets.  Everything in those Old Testament prophecies had been looking to the future to the coming to earth of God’s anointed one.  Luke recorded of Jesus on the road to Emmaus, “beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.” (Lk 24:27).  What He had not made clear was that this coming one would actually be God’s own Son, the second expression of the one godhead in heaven, God Himself coming in human disguise if you like!

It is that humanity that Paul first refers to as he identifies the Son, the object of the Good News, when he says, “who as to his human nature was a descendant of David,” hence the family trees in Matthew and Luke.  Now of course here we struggle with a mystery, how could God be God and also man? Even more for those who know the teaching of the New Testament, how could Jesus be God AND man and not be sinless?  This is what the early church councils struggled with.

The Apostles Creed, one of the earliest creeds used by the early church, simply stated about Jesus, “his only Son, our Lord who was born of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary.”   The Nicene Creed (about AD325) only said of Jesus, “the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds.”   The Athanasian Creed, a later formulation went into great detail how Jesus was both God and man.   The Chalcedonian Creed (AD451) similarly went into more detail but more simplified.  One modern writer used the picture of the Meal Offering (Lev 2) to convey a truth: “The offering consisted of fine flour, representing the perfect humanity of our Lord—not one coarse grain—mingled with olive oil, which stands for the Holy Spirit and, hence, for deity. Each be­came inextricably blended, for ever one. The cake thus compounded was a unit—one cake, not two. It should be observed, however, that though the two natures are for ever one, they are for ever separate.”

Why was it important that Jesus was truly man?  So that he could fully enter into the human experience (without sinning) and convey the Father’s love to us through all he did, then finally to fully enter into human death by allowing his life to be offered as a sacrifice for our sins – human actually doing it and experiencing it, divine only being big enough to take the sins of every person who would come.  In time, a one-off act in history, in eternity, the Eternal One providing the foundation for justice – someone has paid the price, taken the punishment, for all wrong-doing!

Another aspect of this human element, is that he fulfilled in his human coming to earth, all the things that God had promised to Abraham, as well as David. To Abram had been the promise of the blessing of the whole earth through him (Gen 12:2,3). The promise was then revealed to be to one in the Davidic line who would bring God’s reign to the earth in a new way.  Hence Jesus, at the beginning of his ministry period, started by preaching, “The time has come, the kingdom of God is near.” (Mk 1:15)  The reign of God on earth was just coming through the Son.

But there were two sides to Jesus that Paul now declares: “and who through the Spirit of holiness was declared with power to be the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord.” The ultimate proof for us that Jesus was God’s one and only Son was the fact of the resurrection, of the Holy Spirit raising him from the dead.  The apostle Peter, on the day of Pentecost preached, “you, with the help of wicked men put him to death by nailing him to the cross. But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death.” (Acts 2:23,24).  The body that had been both human and divine had been crucified and put to death.  God raised the whole body so that the Son would be seen by his followers for who he was.

This is the ‘Good News’ that Paul had been called to convey: that God has come to the earth from heaven, in the form of His Son, and had lived on this earth for some thirty earth years, and had then started preaching and teaching about God, and justifying his teaching by power.  As Jesus replied to the disciples of John the Baptist, “Go back and report to John what you hear and see: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor.” (Mt 11:4-6) or as Peter had recorded in on the day of Pentecost, “Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know.” (Acts 2:22)  THAT was the start of the Good News, that God had been among them, but the culmination of it was that when he had been put to death, he rose from the day to vindicate his teaching, that he had come to take the punishment for the sins of the world and become our Saviour.  That was Paul’s calling, and that is ours.  Let’s ensure we fulfil it!

2. In the Plan

Meditations in Romans : 2 :  Living in the Plan

Rom  1:1,2 Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God– the gospel he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures

I sometimes wonder how many of us really have a sense of being part of God’s great master-plan.  I get the impression, as I listen to people, that few of us genuinely have a sense of being part of something bigger, of having a real sense of destiny.  Yes, we do in church services perhaps, when God is clearly speaking, but in the day to day humdrum of life, the pressures of twenty-first century living seem to squash that sense.  Maybe we need Paul to remind us about this.

Perhaps that was what marked out Paul from the rest of us, for a reading of Acts reveals a man utterly dedicated to the big plan and purpose of God. But what about here; what about in these first two verses of Romans, before we read into the depths of this book?  We pondered on him being a servant yesterday.  As we move on we see him telling us, his readers, that he has a calling.

We talk about missionaries having a calling. We sometimes talk about nurses, doctors or teachers having a ‘calling’. It’s a vocation, we say, a calling, otherwise we probably wouldn’t do it. Paul’s ‘calling’ was to be an apostle. Now depending on where we come from in the church, we may have different feelings about apostles, but for the sake of these verses we need only focus on Paul.  To the Corinthians he asked, “Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are you not the result of my work in the Lord?” (1 Cor 9:1) For him at that time, the criteria for being an apostle was that you had met or known the Lord and were able to testify to him, and that the fruit of your ministry proved what you were – there were churches in existence because of you!

When you have a calling you are set apart TO something – to be a missionary etc. – but you are also set apart FROM other things.  If you are set apart TO one thing, it means you are set apart FROM a lot of others things, the things others are called to.  It is in fact a separating off to something and a leaving other things behind.  Elisha is a good example in the Old Testament of this happening: “Elijah went from there and found Elisha …. Elijah went up to him and threw his cloak around him. Elisha then left his oxen and ran after Elijah. … He took his yoke of oxen and slaughtered them. He burned the plowing equipment to cook the meat and gave it to the people, and they ate.” (1 Kings 19:19-21).  Elijah did this as a result of an instruction from the Lord and Elisha recognised this as a calling which meant that he would leave his present occupation and go and follow Elijah to do whatever God gave them to do.

Thus we find Paul telling us that he has been “set apart for the gospel of God.” His role as a servant of Jesus was, in fact, to serve Jesus as an apostle and go and take the Good News about him, produce converts, and form them into visible expressions of the Church.  But of course this wasn’t some latter day emergency fall-back plan of the Lord’s because all else had failed with Israel. No, this was an outworking of His plan that He had spoken about, “through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures”, i.e. throughout the Old Testament.

In fact we can go further.  A number of times in the Bible we find references to God’s plan that had been brought into being even before He has created the world.  The apostle Peter, referring to Jesus wrote, “God chose him for this purpose long before the world began.” (1 Pet 1:20).  Paul himself wrote to the church at Ephesus, “Long ago, even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ.” (Eph 1:4) and to Timothy he wrote, “that was his plan long before the world began—to show his love and kindness to us through Christ Jesus.” (2 Tim. 1:9).  Thus God planned for each of us to find salvation through His Son, Jesus Christ, even before sin came into the world.

Yet, it goes even further.  Paul wrote, “we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” (Eph 2:10).  Our being ‘born again’ (Jn 3:3) is a work of God (see also Jn 1:12,13) and we have been brought into Sonship because of the work of Christ on the Cross and been empowered by God’s Spirit to be new beings who are to express the love and goodness of God through our lives.   How He does this is unique to each one of us for He has gifted us with grace uniquely (Rom 12:6). He has given us the gifts, talents and abilities that we have, and we use them as we live out these lives expressing His love and goodness.

This is the ‘calling’ that each Christian has. Some He calls to be leaders, some not. Some He calls to very clear and distinct ministries, others not,  but whoever we are, we ARE part of His master plan and He has a specific part for us to play which becomes gradually revealed to us as we let Him teach us through His word and guide and empower us by His Spirit.  With Paul, we are in God’s plan. We may not have realised it or we may have forgotten it, but we are!   Live in it and enjoy it!

1. Humble Origins

Today we start a new series that will take us through Romans 1 & 2

Meditations in Romans : 1 :  Humble Origins but Divine Origins

Rom  1:1,2 Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God– the gospel he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures

Familiarity, they say, breeds contempt. For some of us who have been Christians a long time, ‘Romans’ is a familiar book, an important book in the canon of Scripture, and we know it well. I wrote verse by verse studies in Romans over ten year ago. It is a familiar book, but to avoid taking any of it for granted, I’d like to approach it completely fresh, as if I knew nothing about it, nothing about its background, as if someone had just handed it to me with no explanation. What would I find?

I would first observe that it seems to come in the form of a letter, from a person called Paul. A little bit later I see that he writes to people in Rome but that is not immediately obvious. To start with he is more desirous of saying things about himself. He doesn’t say where he is writing from (we believe Corinth) and he doesn’t date his letter (we believe it to be somewhere about AD57). But he immediately identifies himself with another historical figure – Christ Jesus, or Messiah Jesus: “a servant of Christ Jesus.”

It’s an interesting way of describing Jesus because it’s like putting his role or title first, and we don’t usually do that with Jesus; we usually just call him Jesus Christ. It’s as if Paul wants to emphasise Jesus’ role or activity. When he came he came as the Christ (the Roman term) or Messiah (the Jewish term), the one sent by God to fulfil a task on behalf of the Godhead. It is as if Paul has Jesus’ servant role in mind when he uses this form of address about Jesus. Yes, he was God’s Son, but he came to earth to perform a task on behalf of heaven.

Now Paul puts his own role first in this letter. Paul identifies himself as one related to this historical figure, Jesus but his relationship is simply that of a servant or slave (the word used can mean either). When someone introduces themselves to us as, “I’m the PA to Sir. James….” this person is gaining their status by their role and their role is as a representative of Sir. James. But when Paul attaches himself to Jesus, it is in no grand way; he simply describes himself as Jesus’ servant: “a servant of Christ Jesus.” A servant of a servant?

The immediate sense that we have, therefore, is that Paul (whoever he is, and we’d have to look elsewhere, especially in Acts, to see who he is and what his background is) is writing because he is Jesus’ servant and that he has something from Jesus to share. That’s the only reason a servant might be writing to us, to convey something from their master, certainly if that is how he starts out his letter, drawing his role to our attention. But there’s more to this. He doesn’t come as an ambassador, which might sound somewhat high flying; he comes as a servant, a more lowly figure. Now when you think about this, this adds greater weight to the letter, because the individual is not coming with his message but that of his master.

The strength of the letter comes because of the master, the originator of it, the one who has inspired it. So, if we were able to strip away all that we’ve previously heard or read about this letter, we’d be left with an immediate impression that here we have a letter written by this lowly servant on behalf of, and perhaps at the direction of, his master, Jesus (whose title suggests another servant).

Now of course Paul himself in another letter declared that “All Scripture is God-breathed,” (2 Tim 3:16) or God-inspired, and so, looking back and realising that this letter is now acclaimed as part of the Scriptures, we may assume that it is inspired by God, that God put it on Paul’s heart to write and inspired what he wrote. The point I think I am making, is that we often forget that these writings have their origins in God and in His Son, Jesus Christ. Our belief, as Christians, is that Paul didn’t just have some bright idea and then wrote, but that as ‘a servant’ of Jesus, he knew Jesus’ heart and responded to it and thus responded at that point in time.

John the Baptist, who we read of early in the Gospels, clearly came as a messenger from God with a God-given message. Now we have Paul, who doesn’t come with such blatant and obvious origins, but nevertheless comes as a divine messenger to us. He comes as a servant of the servant Son of God. Any status that he has comes from that role, as one who works for and serves Jesus. What he brings to us surely has its origins in the heart and mind of his master.

How easy it is to pick up a Bible and let it drop open and just read the words and then put it down – unmoved! Especially this is true when we have been tainted by the unbelief of liberal unbelieving theologians who have sought to take away any of the supernatural element from the holy Scriptures. For many people, these words on the page of the book or letter called Romans, could just be words that stay on the page – until we start reading and thinking about what is infront of us.

This is a man writing who claims to be a menial servant of the Messiah, the sent One of God. He writes because he IS a servant and writes to convey something of his master’s heart and his master is THE unique Son of God, Jesus Christ, who left all the glory of heaven and came and served his Father in the environment of earth before returning to heaven.  Yes, all right, that description is staggeringly more than we would know if this was the first time we had ever picked up the Bible – but it is the truth conveyed by the New Testament and if it the truth, then we should reverently hold this letter from Paul, wondering what he might be wanting to convey from his master. This simply says, come reverently to this letter, realise afresh the wonder of what we have here and take time to read it and reflect upon it, and then marvel.

68. Final Comment

Meditations in Job : 68. A Final Comment

Job 1:1, 2:3, 42:7 In the land of Uz there lived a man whose name was Job. This man was blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil…  Then the LORD said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil. And he still maintains his integrity, though you incited me against him to ruin him without any reason.”……         the LORD .. said to Eliphaz the Temanite, “I am angry with you and your two friends, because you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has.

So, we have come to the end of what has been quite a long and difficult book. The first two chapters were all-important to our understanding; they show us the reason why Job was suffering – and it wasn’t anything to do with his sin. In the arguments that follow the three ‘friends’ declare again and again that it must all have happened because of Job’s sin.  Their arguing is like the waves on the shore, coming in one after another and trying to encroach up the beach.  But Job won’t have it.  He looks back and he is certain in his mind that he has done everything he possibly could to be righteous: “I will maintain my righteousness and never let go of it; my conscience will not reproach me as long as I live.” (Job 27:6)

In this he surely challenges those of us who are modern Christians, for rarely does one hear this being spoken about, this possibility of living a righteous life where we can be called ‘blameless and upright’. The New Testament is clear on its teaching, “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us,” (1 Jn 1:8) and that is all most of us hear! Righteousness doesn’t deny that we are sinners, but it does declare that we can be all out for God and, as much as we are that, we are living according to His will and are righteous.  Righteousness, Paul tells us, is believing God, not living according to the rules but in harmony with God: “no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law.” (Rom 3:20) and “God will credit righteousness–for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead.” (Rom 4:24). In one of the meditations in this series we concluded that ‘the righteous’ are those who walk with God and follow His ways and are morally upright. From our New Testament perspective they are those who walk with God in a clearer relationship than ever before because of the coming and the work of Jesus on the Cross on our behalf.

The battle that is seen in Job is whether he will hold on to the truth or whether he will be diverted and curse God. Twice Satan maintains he will be able to get Job to curse God and once Job’s wife exhorts him, “Curse God and die!” (2:9) but instead we read, “In all this, Job did not sin in what he said.” (2:10). The worst Job can eventually be chided for is speaking into a situation that he did not understand: “Who is this that darkens my counsel with words without knowledge?” (38:2). Neither he nor we know what is going on in the courts of heaven. Sometimes we would do well to heed Solomon’s wise counsel: “When words are many, sin is not absent, but he who holds his tongue is wise.” (Prov 10:19).  Moreover, it is probable that our words are never perfect and we come short in understanding.  The lesson is very clear: when we do not know what is going on, may we just continue to be faithful.  If we cannot see the way ahead or we do not understand what is happening around us, let us simply declare the foundational truths that we who live in New Testament times should know: God loves me, Jesus died for me, and God is working in all that happens for my good.  There may be many more things we can give thanks and praise for, but those are always foundational basics that we should be declaring.

Job did not live with the revelation that we have and so it makes it all the more wonderful that in the midst of his anguish and in the midst of fending off the guilt inducing comments of his friends he can declare some amazing truths: “Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him.” (13:15). That is a great statement of trust. But see what follows: “Even now my witness is in heaven; my advocate is on high. My intercessor is my friend as my eyes pour out tears to God; on behalf of a man he pleads with God as a man pleads for his friend.” (16:19-21). In heaven there is one who will speak up for him. How could he known about the Son of God???? But he continues: “I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; I myself will see him with my own eyes–I, and not another.” (19:25-27)   What an amazing declaration of truth of his eternal destiny was that!  These are some verses that almost defy our understanding. They appear as pure revelation. They are absolutely true but come in a time when no such knowledge was available.  As such they remind us that when we are living in relationship with the Lord, He will share things by His Spirit that can be known in no other way than directly from heaven.

If you are like me, the complexity of the words and the arguments are so great that you are left thinking, what was that passage all about, and that simply means that we will need to go back over and over this book until we are familiar with it.  I think it will be well worth the effort.  Enjoy – again and again.  For myself, I am left feeling very much aware that what I have written through this series needs rewriting again and again for there is so much more to be seen.   So, of you come back here in six months time, the words may be different, but isn’t that what learning is all about.  May Job challenge us to be learners, going to new depths of understanding. Amen.

67. The Conclusion

Meditations in Job : 67. The Conclusion

Job 40:1-6 The LORD said to Job: “Will the one who contends with the Almighty correct him? Let him who accuses God answer him!” Then Job answered the LORD: “I am unworthy–how can I reply to you? I put my hand over my mouth. I spoke once, but I have no answer– twice, but I will say no more.” Then the LORD spoke to Job out of the storm

There is a pause and the Lord looks Job in the face and challenges him to speak up and correct God – if he can! Answer up, He continues!  I can’t, Job replies, I am unworthy (or small and insignificant). I’ve spoken but I should say no more. So the Lord continues to speak and to challenge. Previously it had been on the grounds of Job’s lack of knowledge as compared with the Lord’s, but now it is on the grounds of his smallness and weakness, first as compared to God and then simply as compared to some of the creatures he sees on earth.

First, compared with the Lord: “Do you have an arm like God’s, and can your voice thunder like his? Then adorn yourself with glory and splendor, and clothe yourself in honor and majesty.” (v.9,10) i.e. does your power and splendour match that of God? “Unleash the fury of your wrath, look at every proud man and bring him low, look at every proud man and humble him, crush the wicked where they stand.” (v.11,12) i.e. can you bring down and humble the proud and the arrogant? Is this within your domain? Of course not!

Then the Lord refers to creatures on earth: “Look at the behemoth, which I made along with you and which feeds on grass like an ox.” (v.15). A note in your Bible suggests that this may refer to a hippopotamus or an elephant. The Lord describes him and ends with, “Can anyone capture him by the trunk, or trap him and pierce his nose?” (v.24) The implication is that in comparison we are puny and weak.  He moves on to the next creature in chapter 41: “Can you pull in the leviathan with a fishhook or tie down his tongue with a rope?” (Job 41:1) Again a note in your Bible suggests that this may refer to a crocodile. The Lord describes him and concludes, “No one is fierce enough to rouse him. Who then is able to stand against me? Who has a claim against me that I must pay? Everything under heaven belongs to me.” (41:10,11)  i.e. if you can’t stand against such a creature how can you dare think you can stand against God who is so all-powerful and who made all things?  Almost tediously, to make the point, the Lord continues in verses 12 to 34 to describe this creature that is beyond our handling. The point is simply made: Job you are small and insignificant even in comparison to some of the other creatures that share the earth with you. Get yourself in perspective!

In the final chapter, Job eventually answers: “I know that you can do all things; no plan of yours can be thwarted. You asked, `Who is this that obscures my counsel without knowledge?’ Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know.” (v.2,3) i.e. I know you are The Great One, and you can do anything and I acknowledge I spoke out about things I don’t know about. He concludes, “My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you. Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes.” (v.5,6) At last Job has a right perspective. Note he hasn’t all the answers and it hasn’t been explained to him what had taken place in the courts of heaven, but he is satisfied that God is so much greater – all-wise, all-knowing and all-powerful – and therefore it is foolish to argue with Him. What becomes assumed is that God is also all-good, for this is not just a mindless submission to a harsh dictator.

The Lord then turns to the three friends and chides them, “After the LORD had said these things to Job, he said to Eliphaz the Temanite, “I am angry with you and your two friends, because you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has… You have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has.” (v.7,8) He tells them to offer sacrifices for their folly and to get Job to pray for them. Perhaps more than their chastening, we should note the Lord’s affirmation of Job – Job had spoken rightly about God! Wow!

But the Lord doesn’t leave it there, “After Job had prayed for his friends, the LORD made him prosperous again and gave him twice as much as he had before. All his brothers and sisters and everyone who had known him before came and ate with him in his house. They comforted and consoled him over all the trouble the LORD had brought upon him, and each one gave him a piece of silver and a gold ring. The LORD blessed the latter part of Job’s life more than the first. He had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, a thousand yoke of oxen and a thousand donkeys. And he also had seven sons and three daughters.” (v.10-13) Yes, this is restoration. No, his previous sons and daughters cannot be brought back but he’s given a new family and immense prosperity.

The point of all that, surely, must be that any doubt over Job has been taken away. Here is a man who had been righteous and who had weathered this terrible storm and is declared still righteous by God and is rewarded accordingly.

Righteousness is possible and it is possible to maintain it in the face of immense suffering. That must be one of the obvious lessons that comes through this book. May you and I hold on to Job’s example as we live out our lives in this Fallen World where things go wrong.

66. God Speaks

Meditations in Job : 66. God Speaks from a Storm

Job 38:1-5 Then the LORD answered Job out of the storm. He said: “Who is this that darkens my counsel with words without knowledge? Brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer me. “Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation? Tell me, if you understand. Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know! Who stretched a measuring line across it?

All the talking by the humans has come to an end. Now it is the Lord’s turn. He has remained silent and let the variety of opinions be expressed. For the moment He ignores the three friends and Elihu. He simply addresses Job. Note it says “the Lord answered Job.” These words are going to be a direct answer to all that Job has said, but they will not be a point-by-point apologetic. Oh no, the Lord is going to answer by a very different means.  The Lord comes and speaks through a storm. Saying that, it isn’t that the storm brings Job a lesson, but the Lord’s voice comes from the midst of the storm. A storm, by its very nature, displays power. We are reminded of the revelation that Ezekiel received: “I looked, and I saw a windstorm coming out of the north–an immense cloud with flashing lightning and surrounded by brilliant light.” (Ezek 1:4) I think I have never seen this so well shown as in the film Independence Day when a massive alien spacecraft comes with what appears amazing clouds and a storm. It conveyed well the enormity of the power that we see in the Scriptures when God makes His presence known sometimes.

It is important to note this tangible power and might, because it is simply an expression of the Lord’s activity which He is going on to speak about to Job. He is not going to answer Job on an intellectual argument or emotional challenge level; He is simply going to state some simple facts, revealed through questions.

But first He expresses something about Job.  Now later on He will reiterate His good feelings about Job but for the moment He wants to convey to Job His dissatisfaction with what Job has been saying.  Job may have been a righteous man prior to all this happening, but he has given way to the pressures coming from the three friends and has spoken out about things of which he has no knowledge.  He did not know about the prior conversations in heaven and the causes (and objectives?) of what happened, and so all his words were baseless (literally!).  So he spoke without knowledge and so it is going to be on the basis of the absence of knowledge that the Lord is going to help Job regain his right perspective!

As we said, the Lord is not going to enter into an intellectual debate with Job; He’s simply going to help Job regain perspective and when that happens, that will be enough. He uses rhetorical question after rhetorical question. The answers are obvious. We won’t look at them all; you can read them in your Bible. He starts with three that will show the nature of His approach: “Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation? …. Who marked off its dimensions? ….  Who stretched a measuring line across it?” i.e. were you around when I created everything?  Of course not!   Immediately there is this implied acknowledgement that the Lord is the Creator of the world and that lifts Him infinitely higher than Job.

The questions roll on, one after another and the answer from Job’s perspective has to be “No, I am a mere man!”  Every now and then the Lord drops in a challenge that reminds Job of that very fact; for example, “Surely you know, for you were already born! You have lived so many years!” (38:21) and that just rubs the truth in even more.  No, I’m just a mere man and my few years count for nothing.  The questions pour on, covering nature, the constellations, even the origins of wisdom, and then on into chapter 39 about the habits of all the animals and their strangeness sometimes.  Does He know about all these details?  No, of course he doesn’t; he’s a mere man and it’s not the twenty first century where technology has begun to open up some of these secrets that show us just how wonderful Creation is.

We’ll pause it there and continue to consider the torrent of questions in the next meditation. It is a simple lesson of perspective. Sometimes we think we are so great; we have achieved so much.  Some of us have learnt so much that we fool ourselves into believing that the tiny bit of information we have absorbed makes us important.  In a foolish age when so many deny the presence of God, we take for granted the incredible wonder and power of what we can observe in Creation.  We explain it away and fail to see the enormity of the Creator that defies our imagination.  Because we are tainted by this disease called Sin, we are blinded to the truth.  We think we are great.  But then it only takes a bad cold or the flu or a strained back or severe toothache to bring us down to helplessness and we realise afresh our limitations.  We dare to argue with Almighty God?  What crass stupidity!

65. Final Words

Meditations in Job : 65. Elihu’s Final Words

Job 37:23,24 The Almighty is beyond our reach and exalted in power; in his justice and great righteousness, he does not oppress. Therefore, men revere him, for does he not have regard for all the wise in heart?

In verses 27 to 33 of chapter 36 Elihu has considered God’s greatness in the light of what He does in terms of nature, the elements. As we start chapter 37 he expresses his own heart about this: “At this my heart pounds and leaps from its place. Listen! Listen to the roar of his voice, to the rumbling that comes from his mouth.” (v.1,2)  Now much of what follows is an extension of this, as he comments on various elements of God’s activity, and as he speaks about the lighting and thunder (v.3-5), the snow, rain and ice (v.6-13).

But then, following on from this, he asks Job if he has the same knowledge that God has? “Listen to this, Job; stop and consider God’s wonders. Do you know how God controls the clouds” (v.14,15)  He expands this in verses 14 to 18 and then asks Job if, in the light of God’s greatness, any of us dare question Him: “Tell us what we should say to him; we cannot draw up our case because of our darkness. Should he be told that I want to speak? Would any man ask to be swallowed up?” (v.19,20).  Really, he is saying, when you think about God’s greatness, it is stupid to dare to challenge Him; He’s in a different league to us!

Think about it, he continues, “Now no one can look at the sun, bright as it is in the skies after the wind has swept them clean.” (v.21) i.e. can anyone look at the sun in a clear sky? Of course not! So what about the Lord? “Out of the north he comes in golden splendor; God comes in awesome majesty.” (v.22) When His glory comes we realise that likewise we cannot even look at Him (implied).

His conclusion? “The Almighty is beyond our reach and exalted in power; in his justice and great righteousness, he does not oppress.” (v.23)  i.e. God is so great that He is beyond our reach and in His unchanging righteousness, He always does good and therefore never oppresses people – that we need to trust in!  What should be our response to Him? “Therefore, men revere him, for does he not have regard for all the wise in heart?” (v.24)  We should just revere and worship Him without question for He is so much greater than us that he can disregard what we think is wisdom, what we think ins the right path, for His knowledge and wisdom is so great that He KNOWS what is the right path (implied).

Thus we come to the end of the six chapters of Elihu’s speaking.  Whether it was just one long speech or several broken speeches is not fully clear, but as he moves through from arguing against what he has heard Job say, eventually he comes to consider the Lord Himself, and in that he concludes, there’s nothing more to say.  When you think of it, the Lord is so great and we are so small, that any thought of us trying to hold God to account is really futile! When anyone reads the Bible and sees the works of God, then they will see One who is so much greater than us that He defies definition.  We can say that He is the Designer-Creator of the world and that He upholds and maintains this world, we can say that He is all-wise and all-knowing and all-powerful and all-loving, but beyond that we become unwise if we try to go much further. His goodness and salvation was revealed through His Son, Jesus Christ, and all of this shows us – if we have eyes to see – that if we want to argue with God, we are really very silly!

At the end of the book Job eventually says, “My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you. Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes.” (Job 42:5,6)  Once he encountered the Lord he knew how stupid he had been to argue.  When Isaiah had a vision of the Lord he declared, “Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty.” (Isa 6:5)  When the apostle Peter caught a glimpse of who Jesus was, he cried out: “When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus’ knees and said, “Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!” (Lk 5:8)  When Ezekiel saw something of God in a vision, we read, “This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD. When I saw it, I fell facedown.” (Ezek 1:28) When the apostle John saw the risen Jesus in a vision, he recorded, “When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead.” (Rev 1:17)

The testimony of Scripture is consistent and we would do well to heed it and ensure we are not like those foolish atheists who dare to challenge Almighty God, for again the testimony about Jesus is very clear: “God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Phil 1:9-11)  One day EVERY knee will bow. Why make it worse with foolish words now?