“For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.” (2 Timothy 1:7, NKJV)
You know that moment when you first sense fear rising in your heart? We’ve all felt it. It can happen when you look over the railing above a steep canyon wall that descends hundreds of feet below. You can feel it when you hear the sound of a woman screaming, a child shrieking, or brakes squealing. We all know that feeling when our stomach lurches and our heart sinks. I see it on my three-year-old’s face when he tells me he’s scared of the dark. The experience of fear is common to us all.
But is fear always a bad thing? If you hear an unmistakable rattle while hiking in Eastern Oregon, fear can keep you from stepping into a rattlesnake’s nest. If you are afraid of what too much alcohol might do to you, fear may keep you from driving while drunk. Fear of a loss of income may keep you from sleeping in.
So fear does serve a purpose – at times. But fear should not be our default mode of life. We shouldn’t operate hour by hour persistently dwelling on the “What ifs” of life. “What if this goes wrong?” “What if something happens to the ones I love?” “What if I fail?” In the midst of this ongoing pandemic, many Americans have become chronic worriers. Countless bad decisions are made when we are driven by fear. Growing up, I remember my mom saying to us kids, “You don’t want to be a worry wart.” That’s sound advice, Mom.
In fact, it sounds a lot like something Jesus said: “Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?” (Matthew 6:27). In that context, Jesus was talking about those who worry about not having the basic necessities of life, like food and clothing. So if we cannot lengthen our days by worrying, why do we do it? How do we break free from the shackles of fear?
It has everything to do with replacing your toxic fear of loss with a healthy fear of God. Interestingly, “fear not” (or some close variation of that) is the most common command in Scripture, and our need to “fear the Lord” is one of the most common themes. When talking to His disciples about facing persecution for their faith, Jesus put it this way: “And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear Him who can destroy both soul and body in hell” (Matthew 10:28). To fear God is to revere Him, to honor Him as holy and powerful. It’s less a cowering dread and more a humble submission to God as the Almighty Sovereign of the universe. “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge,” writes King Solomon (Proverbs 1:7). To fear God is to recognize that only His grace can save us from the worst thing imaginable – a Christless eternity in hell. In a strange paradox, when we fear God properly, we can actually grow in our love for Him. This is because He loved us first and He alone can ultimately deliver us from every conceivable danger.
The psalmist writes, “You will not fear the terror of the night, nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the pestilence that stalks in darkness, nor the destruction that wastes at noonday… Because you have made the LORD your dwelling place – the Most High, who is my refuge – no evil shall be allowed to befall you, no plague come near your tent” (Psalm 91:5-6, 9-10).
All other fears steal away our confidence, but fear of God instills us with a humble confidence. Why? Because if we know that through faith in Jesus, God rescues us from even the worst thing imaginable (an eternity apart from Him), we ultimately have nothing to fear in this life. That’s how Jesus’ logic works in the statement above. The worst possible thing to happen to you is condemnation from God, but because Jesus washed away all our guilt through the shedding of His blood, believers are set free from fear. “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1). What can anyone or anything possibly do to one who is secure in Christ’s loving arms? Nothing, ultimately.
The Apostle Paul asks a series of “who” questions to drive this point home: “If God is for us, who can be against us? … Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died … Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?” (Romans 8:31, 33-35).
Does anyone doubt that people still fear such things today? Paul’s response is emphatic: “No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us” (v. 37). Notice that Paul doesn’t say believers in Jesus are barely scraping by while cowering in fear. He says “we are more than conquerors” not because of how great we are, but because of Him who loves us. We are safe in Christ and not even death can separate us from His love. For the believer, nothing can ultimately destroy you or sever your bond with Jesus.
This doesn’t mean we now can throw caution to the wind and brazenly make reckless decisions that would likely harm ourselves or others. But it does mean that we make decisions based on love for God and others, not fear.
If you don’t yet have a relationship with Jesus Christ, I have to ask: What are you waiting for? I invite you to turn from your sin and come to Jesus by faith, trusting not in your good works but in His good work of dying on the cross for your sins and rising from the dead. When you do that, you can have the fear-crushing assurance of being forgiven and spending eternity surrounded by His love.
“For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind” (2 Timothy 1:7, NKJV). So fear not.
Feel free to comment below. I’d love to hear your thoughts!
Our hope in this article is to set the stage for how to think about racism in our nation through a biblical and gospel lens. Racism is so deeply enmeshed in our nation that we cannot afford to ignore it for the problem that it is. We also need to look for peaceful and sustainable solutions. Each of us needs to ask, “How can I do my part in seeing racial reconciliation happen?”
It’s so easy for people of different skin color to talk past one another rather than listen carefully with the goal of understanding. That’s why we made a point of writing this article as a collaborative effort between a black man (Derek) and a white man (Jason). Both of us love Jesus dearly and pray that those in the throes of racial violence may find the hope and peace that only our Lord can give. Although we want to confront some tragic realities in our world, we are also filled with hope because the gospel of God’s grace is greater than all our sin.
Only One Race
We both believe that the Bible is emphatically opposed to any and all forms of racism, bigotry, and hatred. Some have ignorantly claimed that the Bible supports racism by misreading and distorting certain passages, but the reality is that the biblical message offers the only genuine remedy to the plague of racism.
The very first chapter in Genesis, the Bible’s first book, tells us that God created the first man and woman in His image (Genesis 1:26-27). Of all the descriptions of humanity’s origin available, in both ancient and modern literature, you will not find a more magisterial description of our nature. In the Bible alone, we see the fascinating combination of humanity’s extraordinary greatness and tragic depravity. Because we bear God’s image, every person has unfathomable dignity. Because we are fallen, we are all prone to treat our fellow humans in horrendous ways.
The Bible’s teaching on the image of God condemns every form of racism. God did not create a white Adam, a black Adam, and a brown Adam, and so on, so that we might wonder if one is superior to another. Instead, the biblical argument goes like this: If we are all images of God, how can you hate another image of God (James 3:9)? How can you say you love God, whom you have never seen, but hate your brother, your neighbor, God’s image, whom you see every day (1 John 4:20-21)?
According to the Apostle Paul, we all have descended from one man (Acts 17:26). Therefore, we are all blood relatives. The black man and the white man truly are brothers by blood. This doesn’t squelch the beauty of cultural diversity; rather, it affirms the dignity of every person because of our common bond as image bearers of God – a truth that transcends every culture.
The Ultimate Source and Cure for Racism
Many have spoken about the need to end “systemic racism,” and we agree that racial injustice has infected nearly every corner of our nation. However, we also believe that every sin – including racism – begins with the human heart. Our Lord Jesus put it this way, “For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander” (Matthew 15:19). Therefore, it requires a solution that addresses the heart.
In other words, while new laws and policies certainly must be worked for, they ultimately lack the power to uproot all forms of racism. Each of us personally needs nothing less than a total renovation of the heart. That’s where the gospel of Christ comes in. In Christ, people of every ethnicity, background, and gender are united. The ground is level at the foot of the cross. Jesus died for those of every nation and skin color, and through Him, believers are all brought into the one family of the church together.
Paul writes that Christ Himself “is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility… His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility” (Ephesians 2:14-16, ESV).
We all have equal access to God through the one cross. All the racial injustice and prejudice that is all too prevalent in this world is rendered powerless by Christ’s bloody cross, where He absorbed all our sin and reconciled us to our Maker.
The Need to Listen Well
When we hear about racial injustice in the news, we’re often guilty of jumping too quickly to conclusions. I (Jason) know, as a white person, how easy it is to minimize the prevalence of racism in our nation. In many ways, I would like to think that we’ve moved past the racism that has plagued our nation’s history. But in reality the stain of racism has not gone away, and we need to do our part in confronting prejudice wherever we find it, beginning with our own hearts.
We need to listen to those of a different skin tone and background to try and understand and help contribute to the solution. The point of Derek sharing the stories below isn’t to undermine the necessary and noble service of good and faithful police officers, but to give a better understanding of the experience of countless black men and women in America.
There are so many things I (Derek) can say about the death of innocent and/or unarmed black people at the hands of white police officers. I could say that this a new phenomenon, but that would be a lie. It’s being recorded on camera more often, but this has been happening for years. There are television shows and movies that try to shine a light on “The Talk” black parents have with their children, but I don’t know if it is understood by non-blacks that these types of conversations are real.
As a teenager, I was sat down by my father who taught me how to react to police officers who pull you over or seek to question you. “Always make your hands visible, always be polite, always follow directions, and always repeat vocally the directions as you’re doing them.” But the lesson that has always stuck with me is when my father told me that the police will always see me as black first. Not as human, not as a man, not as a person, just black. What’s really sad is that I have now had to have the same conversation with my son, and he’s only 11.
The color of my skin comes with certain stereotypical misconceptions. To some I’m seen as a criminal, dirty, less than, worthless, unintelligent or uneducated, a thief, a murderer, and a gang member. This has been the plight of the black man and woman for centuries.
I will give one example of my run in with law enforcement. As an Oakland, California, native, I know most areas of the city. While in my early twenties, I was in the Rockridge area of Oakland near College Boulevard. It is a more astute area of Oakland. I was coming from a friend’s dance studio in the area one evening, just after dark. The crosswalk light was so fast you would not be able to walk across before it changed. So, as the light turned green, I ran across the street just as a police officer was coming down the street and stopping at the red light. I got into my Honda Accord and waited to see if the police officer would drive past, because in my experience he was going to follow me. He didn’t move after the light turned green. I knew if I could make it to the freeway about a mile away, I’d be fine. So, I started my car and began to drive. Of course, the police officer began to follow behind me.
As I drove towards the freeway, I was extra cautious to follow all traffic laws. The police officer followed me the entire mile. Just before I got to the freeway, he turned his lights on and pulled me over. I remember what my father taught me. Before the officer made it to my door, I already had my wallet out with my license and registration on my dash and my hands on the steering wheel, with window down and engine off. So, when the officer made it to my car’s driver’s side window, he didn’t ask the usual, “License or registration?” He stated, “This car has been reported stolen.”
Now, my little light blue Honda Accord wasn’t much to look at, but it was the first car I bought with my own money and it was in my name. So, how did my car get reported as stolen? The officer then asked for my license. As I gave him my driver’s license, an operator came over his radio stating the car belongs to Derek Jackson. The officer looked at my license, then at me, and reluctantly handed my driver’s license back to me and told me I was free to go as he walked back to his car.
It may not be a big thing to some, but the fear I had at that moment is something that I should not have had. This officer didn’t ask if my car had been stolen, he stated that it had been reported as stolen. I believe if I had not heard what the operator said, it would have been a different story. That, I believe, was God’s protection.
I have other stories, such as being cursed out by a cop for being young and black or another incident of being handcuffed and put in the back of a police car after being pulled over driving to school. I can’t even get into the times I’ve been followed by police or followed in a store. God has protected me because those situations could have ended with someone posting an RIP on their Instagram or Facebook page.
We (Derek and Jason) both thank God for those police officers of every skin color who have faithfully served and protected the citizens under their care with diligence, sacrifice, and justice. We need more like them now more than ever.
What Can We Do About It?
But what about those who have suffered death, beatings, false accusations, and harassment from the police or Caucasians who hate blacks because of their skin color? Neither of us had a say in our skin color, but we exult in the fact that we are “fearfully and wonderfully made” (Psalm 139:14). You were made the way you were on purpose, and we affirm God’s joyful creativity seen in the mosaic of all our varying skin tones. With grieved hearts, we both acknowledge the hatred and racism that can be traced through every era of our nation’s history. From the unjust killings of American Indians to the unspeakable atrocities of the enslavement of African men and women.
Together, we affirm God’s denunciation of hate and racism. He tells us to love our neighbors as ourselves (Matthew 22:39). He doesn’t say, “Love the neighbor who shares your skin color.” He just says, “Love your neighbor.” Your neighbor is anyone you come in contact with. We’re to love as God loves, and He loved us so much He sacrificed His Son on a cross to save us from our sin. The blood of Jesus can wash away the stain of hate, the stain of racism, and the stain of bigotry and discrimination.
Scripture tells us to speak up for the rights of the hurting and the oppressed (Proverbs 31:8-9). To be silent is to be complicit in the evil happening before our eyes. At the same time, we must not take personal vengeance into our own hands. Violence only begets more violence. Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “Nonviolence is a powerful and just weapon, which cuts without wounding and ennobles the man who wields it. It is a sword that heals.” We must demand justice for those who are oppressed, but we must always do so in love. “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good” (Romans 12:21, NIV). Will you join us in working for racial reconciliation today?
Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised. (Proverbs 31:30)
Last week, on April 27th, my grandmother, Bettie Bramer, went to Heaven. She will be dearly missed.
Without question, Grandma loved me, as she did all her children and grandchildren. And we loved her. She was a strong, faithful, and wise woman. She loved Jesus with all her heart, and she wanted others to know and love Him.
And she loved her husband, Grandpa Jim, so very much. I loved to watch them care for one another, share memories together, and tease each other incessantly, in the way that only a long-married couple can. My grandparents were friends in middle school, sweet hearts in high school, and later wed in 1953. They were happily married for 66 years.
Whenever I saw Grandma, she always took such an interest in me, asking me what was new in my life and how I felt about it. She had a very sharp mind, too, and a quick wit! I remember countless times that she got laughing so hard, along with the rest of us, over a remark someone made. Grandma was also very warm and welcoming from the first time she met my wife, Whitney. And I’m so thankful she got to meet all three of our boys.
And, my goodness, she was the queen of her kitchen! Her vegetable soup always hit the spot. And her rolls – oh, her soft and buttery rolls! – well, they were legendary.
My earliest memory of Grandma is actually pretty funny. My parents were out, and she and Grandpa were watching us kids. I remember her clearly telling me that I needed to lay down for a nap, but I just couldn’t handle the thought of missing out on all the family fun. Mind you, I was probably three or four. Like a prison escapee, I carefully crawled down the hallway, passing the room I thought she was in. Then, to my horror, I realized she was actually in the kitchen – and had spotted me! What was I to do? There was only one option left: I took off running. I swung open the front door and sprinted past a crowd of onlookers – consisting of my siblings and their neighborhood friends – then bolted toward the backyard, hoping beyond hope to find safe haven there. The gate is open! I could see the grass. I was nearly there. I could smell freedom!
But then it happened. I felt an arm wrap around my waist and whisk me off the front lawn. I was fast… but Grandma was faster. My master plan of skipping nap time was utterly foiled.
It’s funny how an early memory like that can shape a young child’s perspective. For a time, I thought of Grandma Bettie as strict and unyielding. But only a couple summers later, that perspective changed. She and Grandpa joined our family for a trip to Disneyland, and I saw how kind, fun, and generous Grandma really was. Over the years, I had the privilege of getting to know Grandma better and better, and I came to see that she was more than just a kind woman who gave me Christmas presents and made delicious food.
Grandma Bettie was a woman who cared deeply about her family, her church, and her community. But most of all, I could see how clearly she loved Grandpa.
One of the challenges right now for my family – and my Grandpa Jim, especially – is not being able to have a memorial service right away, due to COVID-19.
Whenever we lose someone in our lives, there’s always going to be a mix of emotions. It’s common for grieving family and friends to feel everything from sorrow to regret to guilt to peace. Psychologists even talk about the various stages of grieving. I’m convinced it’s not the same for everyone. But ultimately we all need some sense of closure or acceptance of the “new normal,” even while we never forget the incredible impact our loved ones had.
I thank God for my Grandma Bettie. While I miss her very much, I’m grateful for the incredible legacy both she and Grandpa have left for the rest of the family. And it lifts my heart to imagine how glorious life is now like in the presence of Jesus, her Savior. Though her body is lifeless, I promise you, Bettie Bramer has never been more alive.
Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?” (John 11:25-26).
It’s an intriguing question, isn’t it? Just what did the carpenter from Nazareth think of the writings that Christians today call “the Bible”?
It’s a question worth asking because today there are many self-identifying Christians who claim unswerving loyalty to the King of kings while taking a much more ambivalent approach to Scripture than Christians generally have throughout the last 2,000 years. Why is it, for instance, that there is a growing number of Christians who hesitate to even call the Bible “the Word of God”? Such progressive Christians will often express great love and admiration for the Bible, but they are less certain about its abiding authority for believers today.
Take, for example, what Rob Bell says about Scripture’s origin:
“The Bible is a library of books reflecting how human beings have understood the divine. People at that time believed the gods were with them when they went to war and killed everyone in the village. What you’re reading is someone’s perspective that reflects the time and the place they lived in. It’s not God’s perspective — it’s theirs. And when they say it’s God’s perspective, what they’re telling you is their perspective on God’s perspective. Don’t confuse the two.”[1]
The problem with this assertion is that the Bible is filled with claims that it is God’s perspective, not merely man’s perspective on God’s perspective.[2] For instance, the Apostle Paul seems to be alluding to compromises similar to Bell’s when he writes,
“And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers” (1 Thessalonians 2:13, emphasis added).
Paul is crystal clear. The words he writes are the very words of God. They ultimately originate not with Paul, but with God. They are not primarily Paul’s perspective on God’s perspective (whatever that means), but God’s perspective written through the vantage point of a human author. While human authors were the means — and certainly they expressed their personalities and styles in their writing — what they wrote ultimately has a divine Author.
What Is at Stake
Theologian James White rightly observes,
“A solid view of the Bible begins with the recognition that God is its principle author, the origin and source of its very essence. All sub-Christian systems must, by definition, attack God’s Word at this very point, for the survival of their unbiblical teachings and views of authority is dependent upon overthrowing this precise truth.” [3]
Therefore, Scripture’s divine authorship is a truth that Christians cannot neglect, and the church must persistently and unapologetically teach it with unwavering confidence.
Is it possible that many Christians in the West are being deeply influenced by secularism without even realizing it? To claim that Scripture is not truly from God is to strip it of all authority. And that, my friend, is the point. After all, if the Bible doesn’t really have a divine origin, then it doesn’t have any say over how I live my life.
Let me be candid. To claim to follow Jesus while denying the Bible’s divine authority over your life is both a grave dishonor to the Lord and a tragic rejection of a precious gift we ought to cherish. But beyond this, how can anyone deny Scripture’s authority while claiming to love the very Jesus described in those pages?
Jesus’ View of the Bible
So, what did Jesus think of the Bible? Would Jesus have considered the Bible to be the very Word of God?
In the Gospel of Matthew, we read of a time when a group of religious leaders, known as Sadducees, attempted to trip Jesus up with a somewhat ridiculous scenario of a widow who consecutively married seven brothers, all of whom died soon after saying “I do.” (As an aside, shouldn’t we begin to suspect this widow of murder?)
Now, something you should know is that the Sadducees didn’t believe in bodily resurrection. They only considered the first five books of the Bible to be Scripture, and resurrection isn’t explicitly taught until later revelation. So they ask Jesus a “gotcha” question: “So tell us, Jesus, whose wife will she be in the resurrection? For all seven were married to her” (Matthew 22:28). Their aim was to make the resurrection look nonsensical. Jesus’ response is remarkable:
“You are mistaken, not understanding the Scriptures nor the power of God. For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. But regarding the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was spoken to you by God: ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not the God of the dead but of the living” (Matthew 22:29-32 NASB, emphasis added).
Not only does Jesus demonstrate His belief in the absolute power and clarity of Scripture, but notice His question: “Have you not read what was spoken to you by God” (v. 31). According to Jesus, when we read from the pages of Scripture, the Creator God Himself is speaking to us. Consider the way Jesus frequently quotes Scripture with the preface “It is written.”[4] When settling a theological issue with the religious leaders, Jesus repeatedly asks, “Have you not read?”[5] Christ’s basic assumption is that if the so-called “experts” in the Law had only carefully read and submitted to the Law, they wouldn’t be mistaken. By appealing to Scripture in this way, Jesus was displaying His unyielding conviction that Scripture is the final word on the matter.
That’s because Jesus believed the Bible was the Word of God, and He had no problem calling it that.
For example, when the Pharisees and scribes confront Jesus and His disciples on their apparent disregard for the traditions of the elders (v. 2), Jesus turns the accusation around, calling these religious leaders to account for exalting their tradition while disregarding “the word of God.”
[Jesus] answered them, “And why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? For God commanded, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’ But you say, ‘If anyone tells his father or his mother, “What you would have gained from me is given to God,” he need not honor his father.’ So for the sake of your tradition you have made void the word of God.” (Matthew 15:3-6, emphasis added)
Notice how Jesus clearly affirms Scripture as the “commandment of God.” His point is not that human tradition is all bad. Rather, Jesus is confronting the fact that their reverence and esteem for merely human tradition has supplanted Scripture’s rightful place of authority in their lives. God had clearly taught the great importance of honoring one’s parents, but there was a tradition handed down by the ancient rabbis that essentially nullified this teaching and muted what God had clearly said on the matter. By clinging so tightly to man-made teachings they had “made void the word of God” (v. 6, cf. v.9). This is a serious charge, and it demonstrates Jesus’ view both on the origin of Scripture and its supreme authority on every area of human life.
But the Pharisees and scribes aren’t alone here. Jesus would have us recognize this tendency even in our own hearts to exalt the wisdom of mere humans and disregard the wisdom of God. It’s a symptom of the brokenness from which Jesus came to set us free.
“Your Word Is Truth”
God has been so very gracious to give us the Bible. He didn’t have to do that. How tragic it is when we sneer at it and claim it is filled with human error.
For example, the late progressive Christian Rachel Held Evans wrote,
“While Christians believe the Bible to be uniquely revelatory and authoritative to the faith, we have no reason to think its many authors were exempt from the mistakes, edits, rewrites, and dry spells of everyday creative work.”[6]
She so emphasizes the human side that she discounts the fact that “those prophets were moved by the Holy Spirit, and they spoke from God” (2 Peter 1:21, NLT).
Compare Evans’ claim that the Bible is marked by “mistakes, edits, rewrites and dry spells of everyday creative work” with Jesus’ claim that “Scripture cannot be broken” (John 10:35). Jesus told God the Father “Your word is truth” (John 17:17). When facing Satan’s temptations in the desert, Jesus counters by quoting Deuteronomy 8:3: “It is written, ‘Man should not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”[7]
Not even once does Jesus express even the slightest doubt that every word we find in Scripture is spoken by God, and, therefore, without error. Jesus would no doubt affirm Proverbs 30:5, “Every word of God proves true.” Kevin DeYoung has rightly concluded that “it is impossible to revere the Scriptures more deeply or affirm them more completely than Jesus did.”[8]
So this beckons the question: Do you share Jesus’ view of Scripture? Do you believe that what is written is “spoken by God” (Matthew 22:31)? Would you be willing to affirm that it is “the word of God” (Matthew 15:6). Do you believe those who wrote it “spoke from God” (2 Peter 1:21), and thereby gave us an unbreakable “truth” (John 17:17)? Here’s my encouragement. If you consider yourself a Christian or follower of Jesus, you should want to see the Bible the way He saw it. God’s Word can give you the confidence to face each day and the certainty of what lies in store for you beyond the grave.
[1] Rob Bell, What Is the Bible? (New York: HarperCollins, 2017), 295-296.
[2] 2 Timothy 3:16 calls all of Scripture theopneustos, meaning “God-breathed.” 2 Peter 1:20 clearly says that Scripture does not come “from someone’s own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.” Clearly, Scripture teaches that its origin, source, and wisdom begins not with humans, who are the active agents writing Scripture, but with God Himself who oversaw their environment, life, and activity, and carried them along in the writing process.
[3] James R. White, Scripture Alone (Grand Rapids, MI: Bethany House, 2004), 50.
[4] See the previous footnote. For but a small sampling see Matthew 4:4, 7, 10; 11:10; 21:13; 26:24, 31; Mark 7:6; 9:12-13; 11:17; 14:21, 27; Luke 4:4, 8, 10; 7:27; 10:26; 18:31; 19:46; 20:17; 21:22; 22:37; 24:44, 46; John 6:45; 8:17; 10:34; 15:25.
[5] cf. Matthew 12:3, 5; 19:4; 21:16, 42; 22:31; Mark 2:25; 12:10, 26; Luke 6:3; 10:26.
[6] Rachel Held Evans, Inspired (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2018), xxiii. Evans fails to recognize that when Paul uses the word “inspired” (theopneustos in the original Greek) in 2 Timothy 3:16, he is calling the Scriptures themselves “God-breathed.” She re-imagines inspiration to mean something totally foreign to the original text. She writes, “Inspiration, on both the giving and receiving end, takes practice and patience. It means showing up when you don’t feel like it, even when it seems as if no one else is there. It means waiting for wind to stir.” I don’t know of any Christian throughout church history who would have agreed with her definition.
[7] The familiar Greek phrase γέγραπται, usually translated “It is written” or “Scripture has it,” is repeated over 90 times by Jesus and the New Testament authors to connote Scripture’s authoritative declaration on a matter.
[8] Kevin DeYoung, Taking God at His Word (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2014), 109.
Then Jesus said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and look at My hands. Reach out your hand and put it into My side. Stop doubting and believe.” (John 20:27, BSB)
The apostle Paul made the startling claim that “if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins” (1 Corinthians 15:17). Such a statement is astonishing when you consider the implications. Everything in Christianity, Paul says, everything in the faith depends on the truth that Jesus bodily rose from the dead. If Christ didn’t truly rise from the dead, then He did not conquer death — death conquered Him!
The dark and terrifying shadow still hangs over all mankind (Isaiah 25:7-8), and we have no guarantee that we will ever escape the cords of death. That is, unless Jesus’ resurrection is true. Eternal life with God. Hope beyond the grave. Forgiveness of sins. The deity and identity of Christ. It’s all based on the resurrection of Jesus being true. No resurrection, no Christianity.
The good news is that God has left us compelling evidence that the Easter event is a solid fact of history. Here are five pieces of evidence I encourage you to consider before giving a verdict on the truth of Christ’s resurrection.
Evidence #1: Jesus’ death is an undeniable fact of history
Despite the fact that some may doubt Jesus’ death (such as many Muslims) and some radical scholars will doubt that He even existed (such as Richard Carrier),[1] Jesus’ life and death really are historically undeniable. Both Christian and non-Christian sources from the ancient world confirm that Jesus died as a victim of crucifixion.[2] Roman soldiers were highly trained in executing criminals, and they were motivated to not let a self-proclaimed king survive.
In his Gospel, the apostle John tells us He is an eyewitness of Jesus’ death on the cross.[3] In describing the event, John records something fascinating:
“But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water. He who saw it has borne witness—his testimony is true, and he knows that he is telling the truth—that you also may believe.” (John 19:33-35)
The fact that he reports seeing both blood and a watery fluid flowing out is powerful evidence that John really did watch Jesus die. Here’s why. Although John had no medical training to interpret what he saw, his eyewitness testimony is exactly what a medical doctor would have expected due to something called pericardial effusion, in which the membrane surrounding the heart fills with fluid as a result of heart failure.[4] John’s testimony stands as 2,000-year-old evidence that he really was an eyewitness of Christ’s death.
Even very liberal scholars, such as John Dominic Crossan, accept Jesus’ death as indisputable fact. He writes, “That [Jesus] was crucified is as sure as anything historical ever can be, since both Josephus and Tacitus … agree with the Christian accounts on at least that basic fact.”[5] Skeptical historian and biblical scholar James Tabor, who has studied the rise of early Christianity in depth, has written, “I think we need have no doubt that given Jesus’ execution by Roman crucifixion he was truly dead.”[6]
Evidence #2: On the Sunday following Jesus’ crucifixion, His tomb was empty.
All four Gospels record that Joseph of Arimathea, a secret disciple, was the one with the courage to bury Jesus. Since Joseph was a member of the Sanhedrin (Luke 23:50-51), the very council that condemned Jesus to death, it’s very unlikely that Christ’s earliest followers would make this up. We are also told that while the men were hiding from the Jewish authorities, the women followers of Jesus were the faithful ones who wanted to anoint His body in the tomb (Luke 23:55-56). Not only that, but the women are the ones who first discover the tomb is empty.
This, too, demonstrates the Gospels give an authentic record of what happened. In the first century, the testimony of women was not even admitted into court. The Jewish Talmud even says that a woman’s testimony was as valid as a criminal’s![7] To be sure, this low view of a woman’s testimony is not only politically incorrect today, it’s also not found in Scripture. Nevertheless, it was the prevailing view of the ancient world. Here’s the point: if you were making up this whole resurrection story in the first century, you wouldn’t pick women as the first eyewitnesses of the empty tomb. The apostles’ willingness to share this somewhat embarrassing fact demonstrates they were committed to faithfully sharing the truth, despite the awkward position it put them in at the time.
Additionally, history tells us that the counter claim from Christianity’s opponents was always that the disciples must have stolen the body.[8] This was an indirect admission that they knew the tomb was empty. It’s also very telling that we have no contradictory burial account whatsoever from either Christian or non-Christian sources. The fact that the tomb was well-known, as Josephs’ tomb, rules out the possibility that the women or other disciples went to the wrong tomb. If we are not told whose tomb or any details about where Jesus was buried, we might have reason to wonder if they went to the right tomb on that first Easter morning, but there are no competing accounts of another tomb being the real tomb.
Evidence #3: Jesus’ disciples believed they saw Him alive from the dead.
We have every reason to believe that the resurrection appearances that are recorded in the Gospels are based on eyewitness testimony, not legendary accretion over time. The gospel creed that Paul passes on in 1 Corinthians 15:3-7 can be dated to within a few years of the cross, which does not allow time for legendary development. From the earliest records of Christianity, we have people claiming that they truly saw the risen Jesus. The fact that Jesus is recorded as appearing to groups as large as 500 rules out the hallucination theory, because hallucinations are individual experiences that take place in the mind.
We also see the risen Jesus eating with His disciples, cooking them a meal, and telling them to touch the scars on His hands and His side to know He is real.[9] Jesus tells them, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me, and see. For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have” (Luke 24:38-39). This was an undeniably real and physical Jesus. It’s also very difficult for the historian to make sense of the conversion of Jesus’ brother James, the former skeptic (John 7:5), or Paul the one-time enemy of Christianity (Acts 26:10; 1 Corinthians 15:9). Biases are very powerful and both of them formerly thought of Jesus as a false messiah. Only an appearance of the risen Jesus could have turned their world upside down and convinced them that He really was their Lord and Messiah.
Evidence #4: The apostles were willing to suffer and die for their belief in the resurrection.
We can also safely rule out any conspiracy theory that claims the apostles stole Jesus’ body, because we have numerous historical records proving that these men were willing to suffer and die for the truth of the resurrection. While people of other faiths have been willing to die for their faith, the apostles were in the unique position of knowing for sure whether or not they’d seen the risen Jesus. As Michael Licona says, “Liars make poor martyrs.”[10] Origen (c. 185-c. 254), a church father, wrote that Jesus “so thoroughly persuaded” the apostles that He’d risen that they were willing to endure countless sufferings for His name, knowing that eternal life had been guaranteed them through Christ’s resurrection.[11]
In fact, we have numerous accounts of early Christians writing about Peter, Paul, and other apostles willingly going to their death and refusing to deny that they had seen the risen Jesus in the flesh. Under Nero’s rule, Paul was beheaded and Peter was crucified upside down – his final request was that he not be killed in the same manner as his Lord.[12]
I truly want to be sympathetic to the doubting skeptic. I acknowledge that many people feel they have good reason to doubt the resurrection accounts — at least initially. After all, haven’t we been lied to by numerous public figures? And haven’t we been trained to only accept claims that are rational and scientifically supported? Therefore, we have good reason to not blindly accept what we’re told simply because it’s been believed for a long time by many people.
At the same time, we should consider what it would mean if the disciples did lie and the resurrection was just a big hoax. Ask yourself, what would they gain from lying? People generally tell lies when it benefits them in some way. Either they get something out of it, or it makes them look better. Yet, as we’ve seen, the only things assured for the disciples were persecution and martyrdom.
The evidence is so powerful that the disciples were radically transformed by some kind of experience of seeing the risen Jesus that even agnostic historians will concede that something life-changing must have occurred. Atheist and historian Gerd Lüdemann provides this astonishing admission, “It may be taken as historically certain that Peter and the disciples had experiences after Jesus’ death in which Jesus appeared to them as the risen Christ.”[13]
Evidence #5: The resurrection led the disciples to radically alter their religion.
We need to remember that the first Christians were Jews, and as faithful Jews, they had been taught to never worship a mere man[14] as if he was the transcendent God or call anyone “Creator,” “Savior,” and “Redeemer” other than Yahweh, the one true God of Israel.[15] Thus, by worshiping Jesus as God, they were also risking eternal divine condemnation for promoting blatant idolatry — that is, if they were wrong about Jesus’ resurrection.
N. T. Wright has made the case that no faithful Jew anticipated a dying, let alone rising, Messiah. In fact, the resurrection was never viewed as something that would happen to one individual in the middle of history, but rather as something that happened to everyone at the end of history.[16] The fact that Jesus’ messianic claims got Him crucified should have been the divine signal that Jesus was certainly not the Messiah, because, according to the Jewish law, a man hanged on a tree is “cursed by God” (Deuteronomy 21:23).[17] But the interesting thing is that the disciples didn’t try to muffle this passage from their law. Instead, they shouted it from the rooftops! Peter said of Jesus, “They put him to death by hanging him on a tree” (Acts 10:39, italics added). Paul explains that after Jesus died to fulfill Jewish prophecy, “they took him down from the tree and laid him in a tomb” (Acts 13:29, italics added).
Jesus’ death, the apostles proclaimed, fulfilled God’s promise to put away man’s sin through His substitutionary death. Jesus died in our place, they explained. We must remember, however, that the disciples didn’t come to this conclusion until after they saw the resurrected Christ. In a very real sense, the resurrection gave the disciples permission to worship the man Jesus as God.
In addition to worshiping Jesus as God, the first Christians came to understand that the one true God existed as three distinct persons. They also moved their day of worship from Saturday to Sunday, the day the resurrection took place. They stopped sacrificing animals because they saw Jesus as the final and ultimate Lamb of God. In lieu of the Jewish Passover, they began observing the Lord’s Supper, which remembers not Jesus’ life but His death. For the faithful Jew to suddenly trade in all these long held and treasured religious practices in exchange for new ones has to be explained by the historian. My argument is that it can only be explained by the resurrection of Jesus.
I have been discussing the most important, unique, and defining event in all of history. In a remarkable display of grace and self-sacrifice, Jesus allowed Himself to be swallowed by death for us. But having done so, Jesus then broke the jaws of death from the inside and came forth. As a result, sin and Satan have no claim on the believer, and we no longer need to fear death. We have seen that there are indeed good reasons and evidence for taking the resurrection seriously. If true, we not only have hope for life after death, but for bodily life after death, because Jesus Himself rose bodily from the grave and promises to raise us in like manner.[18] Therefore, you can have a real and solid hope — something you can confidently stake your life on. Jesus’ tomb is empty, and He is alive! Now, what will your response be?
[1] Richard Carrier, On the Historicity of Jesus: Why We Might Have Reason for Doubt (Sheffield, UK: Sheffield Phoenix Press, 2014). Even the skeptical historian Bart Ehrman writes, “Jesus existed, and those vocal persons who deny it do so not because they have considered the evidence with the dispassionate eye of the historian, but because they have some other agenda that this denial serves.” Bart Ehrman, Did Jesus Exist?: The Historical Argument for Jesus of Nazareth (New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2012).
[2] Josephus, Antiquities 18.64. Josephus in Ten Volumes, vol. 9, Jewish Antiquities, Loeb Classical Library, Louis H. Feldman, trans. (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1981); Tacitus, Annals 15.44 (c. AD 115).
[3] John repeatedly emphasizes the importance of his personally witnessing the events of Jesus’ life in his writings: John 19:35; 20:30-31; 21:24-25; 1 John 1:1-5.
[5] John Dominic Crossan, Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography (San Francisco: HarperCollins, 1994), 163.
[6] James D. Tabor, The Jesus Dynasty: The Hidden History of Jesus, His Royal Family, and the Birth of Christianity (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2006), 230.
[7] “Any evidence which a woman [gives] is not valid (to offer), also they are not valid to offer. This is equivalent to saying that one who is Rabbinically accounted a robber is qualified to give the same evidence as a woman” (Talmud, Rosh Hashannah 1.8). The first century Jewish historian Josephus similarly writes, “But let not the testimony of women be admitted, on account of the levity and boldness of their sex, nor let servants be admitted to give testimony on account of the ignobility of their soul; since it is probable that they may not speak truth, either out of hope of gain, or fear of punishment.” (Josephus, Antiquities 4.8.15)
[8] Not only is this the story being spread by the guards and high priests according to Matthew 28:11-15, Justin Martyr writes in his Dialogue with Trypho, written in AD 150-155, that this was still the story being propagated by opponents of Christianity.
[10] Michael Licona, quoted in Lee Strobel, The Case for the Real Jesus (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2007) Location 2203 on Kindle edition.
[11] Origen, Contra Celsum, 2.56 in Roberts, Donaldson, and Coxe, eds. and trans., The Ante-Nicene Fathers.
[12] 1 Clement 5:2-7; 42:3; Polycarp, To the Philippians 9:2, Cited and translated in Gary Habermas and Michael Licona, The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus, 54. Also see Scorpiace, 15, in Roberts, Donaldson, and Coxe, eds. And trans., The Ante-Nicene Fathers.
[13] Gerd Lüdemann, What Really Happened to Jesus? Trans. John Bowden (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1995), 80.
[14] Numbers 23:19 says, “God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind.” Also see 1 Samuel 15:29; 1 Kings 8:27; Psalm 139:7; Jeremiah 23:24.
I remember like it was yesterday the drive back from the coast with two of my long-time buddies, Andy and Daniel. We were seniors in high school, and we had just completed our annual trip to Lincoln City, Oregon. As we rounded the bend of the highway, the Toyota Camry I was driving suddenly lurched and sputtered. Very quickly, I realized the gas pedal was no longer responding and we rolled to an undignified stop on the highway’s shoulder.
Gulp! I told the guys I didn’t know what went wrong, but very quickly the truth began to dawn on me. The fact is, I had been putting off an oil change for several weeks now. And, as it turns out, car engines really do need oil to run well. In fact, as any mechanic will tell you, it’s a simple matter of physics: without lubrication, the metal parts of your engine are bound to overheat. And when they overheat, they begin to warp and wear down.
Because of my automotive negligence, not only did I have a hearty portion of embarrassment to swallow, but I also needed to come up with the cash for a new car.
Simply put, some things are bound to self-destruct if you don’t operate them according to their intended use. If you doubt this, just try using your smartphone as a wheel chock. This is not just true of the physical realm but the spiritual realm, too. God designed your soul for a relationship with Him. Just as cars cannot run without gasoline, human beings are dependent on the life that comes from God.
When we try to do life apart from God, we are bound to self-destruct. And yet, according to the Bible, many people don’t live as if this were true.
In Galatians 6:7-8, the Apostle Paul warns, “Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.”
Paul says, “Don’t be fooled about this,” because, honestly, a lot of us are. In fact, on our own, we all tend to fall for this lie. What lie? That God can be mocked without repercussions. Every single one of us has, at one time or another, believed that we can actually outsmart God. Don’t believe me?
Every time we knowingly disobey God, we are essentially saying to God, “I would make a better god than you.” The essence of sin is making a bid for the throne of the universe. To disregard God’s law is to choose self-sovereignty rather than live under His perfect rule.
Here’s the problem: Going down this road of self-rule never ends well. There is an unalterable law of reality that you will reap what you sow. And God created us to live under His rule, not our own. Paul says, “Don’t be deceived about this one, guys.” You can be wrong about the weather, who will win American Idol, or most of the questions on Jeopardy! But don’t be wrong about this.
One of the most popular falsehoods of our time is this idea that I can do whatever I want without ever being held accountable for my actions. But Scripture everywhere denies this.
“God will repay each person according to what they have done. To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor, and immortality, He will give eternal life. But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger.” (Romans 2:6-8, NIV).
God is immeasurably merciful and patient, but this remains God’s universe. Not ours.
“In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now He commands all people everywhere to repent. For He has set a day when He will judge the world with justice by the man He has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising Him from the dead.” (Acts 17:30-31, NIV).
Notice: God will judge the world, but He will do so with perfect “justice.” No one will be able to say on that day, “But I didn’t know” or “This isn’t fair.” We will all know God to be the perfectly just Judge that He is.
Let this truth be emblazoned across your heart: God cannot be mocked. If you think you can fool God, you’re only fooling yourself.
The mighty Goliath tried to test this truth when he taunted the armies of the living God (1 Samuel 17). How did that work out for him? He’s forever remembered for being slain by a young shepherd boy without any real military training. Herod encouraged people to worship him as a god. How did he fare? “Immediately, because Herod did not give praise to God, an angel of the Lord struck him down, and he was eaten by worms and died” (Acts 12:23). Yikes! I don’t care who you are, that’s got to be one of the worst ways to go! Throughout Scripture, this same truth is repeated: You and I will reap what we sow.
What does it mean to “sow to please your flesh” (v. 8)?
John Stott writes: “Every time we allow our mind to harbor a grudge, nurse a grievance, entertain an impure fantasy, or wallow in self-pity, we are sowing to the flesh. Every time we linger in bad company whose insidious influence we know we cannot resist, every time we lie in bed when we ought to be up and praying, every time we read pornographic literature, every time we take a risk which strains our self-control, we are sowing, sowing, sowing to the flesh. Some Christians sow to the flesh every day and wonder why they do not reap holiness. Holiness is a harvest; whether we reap it or not depends almost entirely on what and where we sow.”[1]
We may think all our sowing to the flesh won’t have consequences. We may rationalize and downplay the seriousness of the secret sins we harbor. Eventually, however, what we have sown will come to full bloom. If you take the elephant across the old wooden footbridge too many times, eventually it will collapse.
Thankfully, the Bible doesn’t just leave us with this hard truth. If it did, karma, not the gospel, would be the final rule of the universe. We would forever see God in heaven, frowning down on us with arms crossed, saying, “Well, you had it coming.”
But the gospel of Jesus Christ points us the way to find a new life and a new beginning. We don’t need to stay locked up by the shame of our past. The point of this warning about mocking God is to lead us to the foot of the cross at Calvary, where God’s love poured out for rebels like you and me. When Christ shed His blood on the cross, He was in fact reaping what we have sown. This was only possible because of grace. He died in our place and suffered the consequences we justly deserved.
Hear this promise: “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:8). To confess means to get honest before God, humbly prepared to live in a new direction.
Because of Christ’s cross, God does not rule as some kind of karmic dictator. Instead, He reigns in grace, inviting everyone who has arrogantly tried to take His throne to kneel humbly before His throne (Hebrews 4:16).
[1] John R. W. Stott, The Message of Galatians: Only One Way, The Bible Speaks Today (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 1968), 170.
“That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh.” (Genesis 2:24)
Perhaps you’ve heard the oft-quoted line that “men are from Mars, and women are from Venus.” This statement highlights the noteworthy differences between men and women.
For many couples, these differences truly surface after the wedding bells ring. The story is told of a boy who asked his father, “Dad, what’s the difference between love and marriage?” The father replied, “Love is blind, but marriage is a real eye-opener!”
Many a young couple could relate to this sentiment. In the days anticipating their wedding, the bride and groom both imagined the blissful life they are about to begin together. Of course, no one told them that their idealistic pictures are likely very different from one another. Perhaps, no one told them how much of marriage involves sacrifice. Perhaps, no one told them how many surprises there would be.
She didn’t know how much he liked working long hours on his car. He didn’t know how much she liked discussing paint colors. One woman was overheard at a garden-club meeting saying, “I never knew what compost was until I met my husband.”
I wonder how her husband interpreted that remark.
Whitney and I are in our seventh year of marriage, and although we know each other so well, I expect we will continue learning new things about one another for the rest of our lives. I think most married couples would agree. Just when you think you’ve solved the puzzle that is your spouse, you discover there’s a lot more pieces you didn’t even know about.
And yet, despite the incredible differences between men and women, marriage really is a beautiful thing.
How do I know? Because it was God’s idea. If You’re the infinite, all-wise, sovereign Creator of the universe, one thing a puny-brained human can’t legitimately accuse You of is a bad idea. Now, one thing we could legitimately say to Him is “God, this is a mystery.” In fact, the apostle Paul used that precise word. Speaking of marriage, he said, “This mystery is profound” (Ephesians 5:32).
So, as we navigate the wonderfully mysterious world of marriage, what wisdom can we glean from Scripture? Here, it is worth looking at the very first marriage. After all, God used Adam and Eve’s nuptials as something of a blueprint for how marriage is supposed to work.
Right after creating the man out of the dust of the earth and breathing life into His nostrils, God made a vast and paradisiacal garden in which he could dwell. Then we read this:
“The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. And the Lord God commanded the man, ‘You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die’” (Genesis 2:15-17).
God tells him to take his fill of all he wants from the garden. He can sink his teeth into any of the delicious, tantalizing fruits he finds — except, of course, for that one that’ll kill him. Best to leave that one alone.
But aside from this curious prohibition, notice what the text says about man’s job. He has a calling to “work” and “take care of” the lush garden. In other words, God placed Adam there to cultivate the garden. A lot could be said about how this relates to humanity’s purpose in ruling over creation as God’s image-bearing vice-regents — spoken about in the chapter before this (see Genesis 1:26-28). But for now, it’s important to see that God planned for the man to work before sin ever entered the world.
Now, notice what God says next: “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper fit for him” (Genesis 2:18). In a perfectly good world created by a perfectly good God, this “not good” is a bit jarring. The man has God. He has all the furry animals. He has a beautiful and sumptuous garden full of delicious fruits. Nevertheless, something is “not good.” Adam is one solitary dude. He needs a companion. He needs another human with whom he can relate and do life.
So what did God do? He created woman to be “a helper fit for him.” Don’t be put off by the language of “helper.” It’s actually a term of great honor. In fact, the Bible even calls God “helper” many times (see Psalm 54:4; 118:7). The big takeaway is this: Adam needs help. He cannot do the garden work God called him to all on his own.
Far too many men today are passive about the responsibilities God has given them. They don’t see themselves as having a purpose. They just kind of drift along without any real and clear direction. That’s a tragic thing. God calls us to take initiative in working hard for the good of others. He calls us to be diligent and passionate about improving the world around us.
At the same time, God did not intend for man to go it alone. Although the concept of rugged individualism appeals to many men, it really doesn’t fit with how God wired us. Genesis 2:18 forever stands as a witness to the fact that human beings were made for relationship with one another. And chief among those human relationships is marriage. In marriage, intimacy between two souls reaches its zenith.
But note something else. God said, “I will make a helper fit for him.” That is, God fashioned the woman with the man in mind. In the words of Goldilocks, the man and woman are “just right” for each other. God specially designed the man and the woman foreach other. What makes marriage so powerful is that it taps into God’s genius for how two of his image bearers bond together for life.
In the words of Jesus, “Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate” (Matthew 19:6). To a world that has embraced no-fault divorce, the Son of God says, “Don’t try to split what God has spliced.” Marriage is not like an old watch that you can discard when it stops working for us. It is more like a precious jewel that you would never even dangle over the edge of a dock. Granted, everyone comes to this text with their unique set of challenges and circumstances. Nevertheless, it remains true that marriage is by nature a binding covenant before God. He never said marriage wouldn’t take some work. He never said it would always be a cakewalk. He did say it was designed for permanence.
Tim Keller wisely said, “Wedding vows are not a declaration of present love but a mutually binding promise of future love.”[1]
When it was clear that none of Adam’s furry friends quite fit the bill, God performed the first surgery to craft the first female.
“So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs and then closed up the place with flesh. Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.” (Genesis 2:21-22)
Why did God form the woman from one of the man’s ribs? Consider this for a moment. God could have fashioned the woman any way He saw fit. He didn’t take a portion of the man’s brain (think of the endless jokes there would have been!). He didn’t take a portion of his feet (think of the trouble this could have led to). She came from his rib — from his side. Doesn’t God’s choice to use the man’s rib indicate that the woman was intended to be neither his superior nor his inferior, but instead, his equal? Men and women are distinct, but equal in their intrinsic dignity. Both are made in the image of God (Genesis 1:27).
But they are also made of the same “stuff,” the same flesh. God took from Adam’s body so that Eve’s DNA was inevitably connected to his. They are biologically related. As it turns out, men and women are not from Mars and Venus respectively. But more than merely creating a genetic link between the two, God did it this way so that they could see from the very beginning that He created them for a one-flesh union that they alone can share.
Upon first laying eyes on the feminine beauty before him, Adam impulsively broke into song.
“This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman,’ for she was taken out of man.” (Genesis 2:23)
Okay, so maybe the lyrics aren’t your idea of romantic. Nevertheless, it set a pattern, and love songs like Pat Benatar’s “We Belong” and Bruno Mars’ “Marry You” have been a hit ever since.
Then God Himself summarizes, “Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. Adam and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame” (vv. 24-25). The “therefore” seems to be saying, “The man and woman can unite as one flesh, because woman is made from man’s flesh.” In other words, the man and woman really were made for each other. Nothing and no one should ever come between the husband and his wife, and the union they share.
This one-flesh union of marriage goes beyond sexual intimacy. It is a whole-life covenant that unites the man and woman as a permanent and unique couple who live together, eat together, sleep together, and go through all of life together. To men and women alike, marriage is a mystery. However, in Ephesians 5, Paul goes on to say it is a mystery pointing to the union of Christ and His church. If we needed one more reason to treat marriage as a weighty thing, here it is. It is a powerful, flesh-and-blood picture of the gospel. Thus, we ought to treasure marriage for the incredible gift that it is.
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.” (2 Corinthians 1:3-4)
Have you ever found yourself venting to God? I know I have. For some, it’s like a knee-jerk reaction: “Why God?” For others, it can take the form of a long, tear-filled prayer. Although I typically think of myself as a positive person, I can feel discouraged for a number of reasons. I can vent to God when those I have been praying for haven’t been healed or when something I’ve eagerly anticipated doesn’t happen as expected.
Perhaps you know that sinking feeling I’m talking about. We’ve all had those days where everything seems to go sideways. I remember one day last year where a series of unfortunate events piled up on one day. It started with me opening up an unexpected bill in the morning. On the way to work, I spilled coffee on my shirt. Later, a client got angry with me for a mistake I made. While at work, my wife Whitney called to say that our son Weston’s fever was spiking. After grabbing medicine, I had to move my car, but then discovered a parking ticket on my windshield. On top of all that, when I got home I stubbed my toe so badly it turned a nasty shade of purple. Needless to say, I earned a few gray hairs that day.
To borrow the title of a famous children’s book, it was just a “terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.” But, of course, in retrospect, it wasn’t really that terrible. I’m sure there were a lot of good things that happened to me that day, too, but I let the not-so-good things overshadow them. It’s crazy how quickly a day of sunshine can flip into a day of downpours, isn’t it?
Just flipping on the news for five minutes can dishearten us. Pointless violence, disease, and hatred run rampant across our world every day. Evil often appears to be winning the day. However … that’s not the whole story. When the tide of discouragement rolls in, what we most need is a fresh word from the “God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction” (2 Corinthians 1:3-4).
How Long, O Lord?
A man named Habakkuk knew what discouragement felt like. Habakkuk was a prophet of God roughly 2,600 years ago. He looked around at the horrendous evil and injustice in his culture with great dismay. “Why aren’t you doing anything, God?” Habakkuk wailed. “Why don’t you care about what’s happening down here?” Maybe you can relate to Habakkuk. He begins his book in the Bible by trotting out a list of complaints.
“How long, O Lord, must I call for help, but you do not listen? Or cry out to you, “Violence!” but you do not save? Why do you make me look at injustice? Why do you tolerate wrongdoing? Destruction and violence are before me; there is strife, and conflict abounds. Therefore the law is paralyzed, and justice never prevails. The wicked hem in the righteous, so that justice is perverted.” (Habakkuk 1:2-4)
The same objections ring down through the centuries to today. “How long, O Lord?” Do those words ever find a place on your lips or in your mind? For many of us, those words can surface instinctively. It can happen when your friend with cancer doesn’t heal. It can happen when you get the rejection letter. It can happen when a man you looked up to has a moral failure.
Why does God seem so absent during these dark times? Many have called this dilemma “the problem of evil” or “the problem of pain.” The more we squarely face the reality of evil, the more we need a solid hope to hang on to before the wave of despair sweeps us away.
Here’s the incredible thing: God responded to Habakkuk’s complaint with a word of hope. God didn’t chastise Habakkuk for voicing his discouragement. Instead, God agreed with Habakkuk that the injustice was intolerable. In fact, God hates injustice! Here’s how God responded:
“Look at the nations and watch — and be utterly amazed. For I am going to do something in your days that you would not believe, even if you were told” (Habakkuk 1:5). The Lord goes on to say that He is about to use the Babylonians to bring swift judgment on the treacherous people of Judah.
This is essentially the same response He gives to us today. If you are disheartened by the violence taking place in the world today — take heart! Aslan is on the move. God hasn’t abandoned us. He is still among His people. “If you passionately long to see justice restored,” God says, “know that I care about it even more.”
Interestingly, Habakkuk is still upset. After all, God plans to use an even more wicked nation — Babylon — to accomplish His good judgment of Judah. “Aren’t You the eternally holy God?” Habakkuk asks. “So how can You have anything do with wicked Babylon” (see 1:12-2:1).
Justice Will Surely Come
Remarkably, this turns out to be even more reason for Habakkuk to take heart. Why? Because God’s use of evil Babylon to accomplish His judgment demonstrates God’s sovereign power over evil. This is good news, God says, because evil is not in fact the ultimate power in the universe, even though it may seem that way at times. Babylon is like a tool in His hand. Not only that, but Babylon will have to answer for her crimes, too.
We, like Habakkuk, may feel like God is moving too slowly. But God replies, “If it seems slow, wait for it; it will surely come; it will not delay” (2:3).
Then God reminds Habakkuk of something else. He doesn’t just deal with evil by using the sledgehammer of justice. He also uses the healing balm of grace. That’s good news for us who are discouraged not only by the evil “out there” in the world, but also by the evil residing in our own hearts.
In the wise words of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, “If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?”[1]
The good news is that through the cross and resurrection of Jesus, God found a way to deal with that evil without destroying us. The judgment for our sin landed, not on us, but on our King. “He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By His wounds you have been healed” (1 Peter 2:24). Through trusting in that sacrifice, we are “healed.” Our moral crimes and misdemeanors are expunged from our record and totally removed from us. God tells Habakkuk justice is surely coming, “but the righteous shall live by his faith” (Habakkuk 2:4). Through faith in Jesus, God renders us righteous and clean — all by sheer grace.
Whether by justice or by grace, God will deal with every trace of evil that exists in the world today. Keeping this truth close to our hearts will give us hope-filled confidence to face another day.
[1] Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago (New York: Collins, 1974), 17.
“Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come from God and was going back to God, rose from supper. He laid aside His outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around His waist. Then He poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around Him.” (John 13:3-5)
Jesus said some outrageous things. Like the time He looked at His closest
friends with a piercing gaze and said, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must
deny themselves and take up their cross and follow Me. For whoever wants to
save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for Me will find it”
(Matthew 16:24-25).
Wait a minute. Deny myself? Such
an invitation sounds bizarre, not just to our twenty-first century ears, but to
first century ears, as well. We live in a culture of self-promotion. Ours is
the era of entitlement. We look into the mirror and repeat the motto that we’ve
inherited: “You deserve the best.” Advertisements urge us to have it your way and indulge thyself. Feeling thirsty? Well then, “this Bud’s for you.” Want to look young again? No
problem, this beauty product will remind you that you are a goddess. Want to do something for yourself for a change?
It’s about time. Express yourself!
“I Love Me Some Me”
Did you know that between October 2011 and November 2017, there were 259
selfie-related deaths reported? I’m not kidding. These people died while
attempting to capture an impressive or hilarious snapshot of themselves. Many
were hit by a train. Some fell off a bridge. Even more slipped off a sheer
cliff. According to the 2018 report, men outnumbered women three to one in
selfie-related deaths.[1] To
counter this growing problem, many sightseeing locations around the world have
put up signs prohibiting selfies due to the mortal danger associated with this
risky behavior. Think of it: men and women (mostly young men) are literally
risking their lives in order to capture a one-second pose so they can post it
on social media or share it with friends!
Now, obviously, there is nothing inherently wrong with taking a picture of
oneself. However, we should reflect on how often we have acted foolishly in order to be in the spotlight. We can
laugh at former wide receiver Terrell Owens’ statement, “I love me some me,”
but I say he was just being more honest than most. Although we don’t care to
admit it, we’re all prone to narcissism.
Into this self-intoxicated world, our Lord speaks, turning our entire
outlook on life upside down. “If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose
it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it” (Matthew 16:25,
NLT). To those of us who thought the movie of life is all about us, Jesus flips
the script. It’s not about self-promotion, it’s about self-denial. It’s not
about self-fulfillment, it’s about self-emptying. It’s not about making much of
yourself, it’s about giving yourself to God. That, in fact, is precisely what
Jesus did when He encoded Himself with human DNA to live, love, die, and rise
in this beautiful yet broken world. He surrendered His rights and “emptied
Himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men”
(Philippians 2:7).
What would it look like if we were to follow in the footsteps of Jesus, who
chose self-denial over self-promotion or even self-preservation?
The Apostle Paul foresaw the coming days when “people will be lovers of
self” (2 Timothy 3:2). Self-love is corrosive; it turns us in upon ourselves —
something love was never intended to do. We need to let Jesus teach us that
there is a beauty to self-denial. As we empty our hearts of self-love, we make
room for receiving God’s love and, in turn, can extend that love to others.
The Servant King
Jesus is the King, but He’s a king who humbly washes the smelly feet of His
followers (John 13:3-5).
When we humans rise to positions of power and influence, it tends to go to our heads. Satisfied with our new power status, we get a bloated sense of self-importance. Like Simba from The Lion King, we “can’t wait to be king” of our own little kingdoms so that, as the cub sings, we are “free to do it all my way.” But not Jesus. Note how counterintuitively this works out in His life. “Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come from God and was going back to God, rose from supper… laid aside His outer garments… poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet” (John 13:3-5).
Whereas we often look around for servants from our position of power, Jesus took on the role of a servant from His position of power. It’s as if the elderly John is shaking his head in amazement as he recalls what took place in that upper room so many years before. He carefully observes that Jesus did the unpopular job of scrubbing calloused and dusty feet while fully aware that He was the King of the universe — “the Father had given all things into His hands” (v. 3).
Jesus the King chose the way of the humble servant. Not only did He do this to demonstrate His immeasurable love for His followers (John 13:1), but He also did this so we would have a tangible example of what true leadership looks like. “You call Me Teacher and Lord,” He told them, “and you are right, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet” (John 13:13-14). Rather than exploiting His power to make His life more comfortable, as we are all too prone to do, Jesus used His power to serve others.
Let me guarantee something for you. You will never find a passage in the New Testament where Jesus snaps His fingers and demands that Peter bring Him the hors d’oeuvres. You will look in vain for that passage where He orders John to wash His feet or commands Andrew to pour Him a glass of the wine He’s just made. Scripture says He did not use His divine status and privileges for His own advantage. Instead, He chose the role of a servant, humbly obeying His Father “to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:8).
We need to remember there is great joy in serving others. Jesus endured the
agony of the cross “for the joy that was set before Him” (Hebrews 12:2). Moreover,
Jesus wanted His joy to be fulfilled in us (John 17:13). Despite all the
countless options available to Him, Jesus chose self-denial. We can still see
the effect of that choice in the countless hospitals, orphanages, homeless
shelters, schools, and clinics all over the world that His followers have built
in His name.
So, what about you? What are you clutching tightly to that might serve a
greater purpose if you gave it away? Who is the hurting person in your life?
What if God has blessed you so that you can put a smile on their face? Where is
a place you could go to embody the self-giving love of Jesus for others? You
know that task that nobody in the house or at work wants to do — what if you
chose to do it? Christ chose self-denial so that we could see the beauty of
true love and follow His example. What do you choose?
“Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved…” (1 Corinthians 15:1-2a, NIV)
Recently, my wife Whitney and I welcomed our son Ryan into the world. A newborn baby is truly a wonder to behold. Their soft hands are already grasping for another hand. Their mouth already seeking nourishment. Their eyes slowly opening and struggling to focus for the first time on the big bright world around them.
With Ryan’s arrival, we have noticed our older two boys (Logan and Weston) acting up a bit more than usual. I don’t think there’s any surprise here. Children often need time adjusting to the arrival of a new sibling. It’s a new era for them. The truth has gradually dawned on them, on a completely new level, that they are not in fact the center of the universe. I find myself wanting to teach them over and over, “It’s not all about you.” Many a parent can relate to this.
Parents rightly see the need to discipline and correct their misbehaving
children. But here’s the question I want us to consider: In the midst of discipline,
are we teaching our children the gospel of Jesus Christ? Is our method of
correction, discipline, and instruction working to support or deny the truth of
the gospel? Does the message we are conveying sound more like self-salvation or
divine rescue?
No one has to teach their child to be selfish. Parents know firsthand that we all come into this world with a self-centered bent. We want what we want, and we want it now. It’s a shocking truth to learn that the world and everyone we know is not in orbit around us. Even as adults, however, we tend to live as if the story of the universe is all about us. But the gospel of Jesus Christ tells us a better story. It tells us that we were made for a much higher purpose than to live for ourselves. According to Scripture, we exist for God. To worship Him, love Him, and honor Him. It is only in living according to our God-given purpose rather than our self-made plans that we find true and lasting joy. This is precisely the goal of the gospel, the Bible’s central message.
Over and over, Scripture reminds us that we are on this planet to worship and enjoy God. “So whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31, NLT). Anything less will leave us empty, beaten up, and dissatisfied. When we live for God rather than self, our actions correspond to our design.
You may remember watching the animated Disney classic Pinocchio as a child. It’s a fascinating story of a puppet that comes to life when his maker wishes upon a star that his little marionette whom he named Pinocchio might become a real boy. That night, a glowing blue fairy partially grants his wish by bringing Pinocchio to life. However, he remains a wooden puppet. Pinocchio awakes and — humorously — is shocked to be alive. The blue fairy tells Pinocchio that if he proves himself “brave, truthful, and unselfish,” Geppetto’s wish will come true. She also assigns the loyal little locust, Jiminy Cricket, to be Pinocchio’s constant companion and voice of conscience.
The tale follows Pinocchio and Jiminy on their many adventures as the puppet sets out to discover what life in the world is really like. While Pinocchio is loved by his “father,” Geppetto, he soon discovers there are many in this world who want to lead him astray. He also learns how easy it is to make wrong choices. I doubt there is another Disney movie that is so chock full of moral lessons and aphorisms, like when the blue fairy says, “You see, Pinocchio, a lie keeps growing and growing until it’s as plain as the nose on your face.”
In the film’s darkest moments, Pinocchio and a friend are lured to Pleasure Island, a place where selfish boys can live it up — smoking, drinking, gambling, and doing whatever else they want — all without the moral restraints of parental authority. Unfortunately for Pinocchio and his friend, the island is cursed so that all the naughty boys who travel there transform into donkeys and are eventually sold into slave labor. One boy-turned-donkey desperately cries out for his mother. In a menacing tone, the island’s owner says, “You boys have had your fun. Now pay for it!” Pinocchio barely escapes, but his friend does not.
In a final act of courage, Pinocchio tries to rescue Geppetto from the belly of a sperm whale that swallowed the puppet maker while he was searching for Pinocchio. While Geppetto and Jiminy Cricket survive the whole ordeal, Pinocchio is killed. At the end of the film, there is a touching moment when Geppetto weeps over his broken puppet lying on the bed. Suddenly, the fairy not only resurrects him but transforms him into a real boy. “Father, I’m a real boy!” Pinocchio shouts in amazement. Apparently, Pinocchio’s final act of bravery proved him worthy of life.
In many ways, Pinocchio is something of a parable for how the modern world understands Christianity. Many today, even in the church, see Christianity as a moral prescription for life. God’s law is a list of dos and don’ts that we are to follow. We can think that, like Pinocchio, we must prove ourselves worthy of life. This way of thinking makes sense to us, but it stems from a wrong view of God.
We can think of God as if He were like a giant fairy, watching over our
every move, evaluating our lives to see whether or not we really deserve to be
accepted as His child. If we know we’ve blown it — spending too much time at Pleasure
Island — we can hear God demanding that we pay up for all that we’ve done. Many
people today live with this view of God, persistently uncertain of whether they
have done enough or are good enough to go to heaven. Even if we see God as
kindhearted and encouraging like the fairy, urging us to listen to our
conscience, we can think it’s ultimately about us being good enough to meet God’s
expectations.
American sociologist Christian Smith called this version of Christianity “Moralistic Therapeutic Deism.”[1] It essentially boils down to this: God is there for us when we are in a bind, but generally lets us go through life relying on our conscience (rather than His Word). The main thing God cares about is that we try to live a good life and be decent individuals, because heaven is the reward for good people when they die. Makes sense, right? The only problem is that this is nothing like the Christianity of the Bible.
What’s wrong with the above description? Well, for starters, there’s no mention of how Christ fits into that version of Christianity! In Moralistic Therapeutic Deism, Jesus is merely an add-on to Christianity, rather than the hub and center around which everything turns. At best, such a view sees Jesus as a good example or a wise teacher. Certainly, He was the supreme example and wisest teacher ever to live, but to reduce Him to these descriptions is to try to have Christ without the cross. It turns a blind eye to the bleeding and dying man staked to the cross. It ignores the miraculous triumph of the empty tomb. It downplays Jesus’ own radical claims: “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6).
Here’s the challenge for Christian parents. It is far easier to skip the gospel and address the moral behavior of our children with rewards or threats. “If you obey, I’ll give you…” “You’d better not disobey me, or else…” Honestly, I catch myself relying on this tactic all the time. I’m certainly not saying that all our rules should be thrown out or that we should stop disciplining our kids. Both of these are essential and sadly not practiced by many parents today.
But when we discipline our kids, are we pointing them to the truth of the gospel? Are we merely addressing their outward behavior, or are we striving to address their heart? The heart is the epicenter for all our children’s thoughts and motives. “Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it” (Proverbs 4:23). Jesus said that all our evil thoughts and actions spring from our sin-riddled hearts (Matthew 15:19). If all we ever use is rewards or threats in our discipline, we are actually encouraging our kids to ask the self-centered question: “What’s in it for me?”
Whether we like it or not, we are teaching our kids a gospel not just with what we say but with how we act. The only question is whether the gospel we are giving is the true gospel of Jesus Christ or something else. When I discipline my son for stealing cookies or talking back to Whitney or myself (speaking hypothetically, of course), I want him to know that what he’s doing is a serious problem. And this problem has to do with the sin in his heart. He needs to know not only that his sin saddens me, but that it saddens God, too (Genesis 6:6). I also want him to understand that Jesus loved him so much that He did something about the sin in his heart. In fact, He suffered and died for it, so that God can forgive him and scrub his heart clean of all that sin (1 John 1:8-2:2). My son needs to know that no matter how good he strives to be, he can never work off his guilt. Only Jesus can do that. Beyond this, I want him to know that he’s not alone. “Daddy has sin in his heart, too, and needs Jesus just as much.”
I want my sons — even at a very young age — to recognize their great need to be reconciled to God. The Bible says, “It’s your sins that have cut you off from God” (Isaiah 59:2, NLT). “So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making His appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, ‘Come back to God!’ For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ” (2 Corinthians 5:21, NLT). We need to explain to our kids that what makes sin so serious is that we were made for a relationship with a holy God. At the same time, our kids can be confident of their standing with God through faith in Jesus (Romans 8:1; Philippians 1:6).
In every generation, there is a danger of losing or distorting the gospel. Most often this drift from the gospel is well intended. After all, it’s not wrong to want to see our kids live good and moral lives. Pinocchio is a story that resonates with some of our most basic moral intuitions. But what our kids need to see is that there is a much greater story, a powerful story ofredemption, that is taught in Scripture and centered around Jesus Christ. Teaching our kids to be good boys and girls is too small a goal. We need to teach them to be Christ-centered, Christ-exalting, and Christ-loving kids. We want their obedience to be rooted in love, not self-centeredness.
Above all else, Jesus-following parents need to embrace the truth that they are in the disciple-making business.
Photos Courtesy of Pixabayand Disney.com
[1]
Christian Smith and Melinda Lundquist Denton, Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers
(New York: Oxford University Press, 2005).
Lamp and Light 