Please Build This House!

One of my joys is serving as a volunteer chaplain at our local hospital. I serve about nine hours a month. Yesterday I was making visits there and met a patient and her husband. I’ll call her Marie. She was diagnosed with cancer a little more than a year ago. She had a nominal connection with a Christian denomination from her youth, but had no real relationship with the Lord. When I walked into the room she was reading her Bible, which I commented on. It turns out that about a year ago she began to read and study her Bible. She has spent a great deal of time reading it since then. Her husband commented that she is “such a student of the Bible!” The glorious thing is that I have rarely met someone with such a strong, sweet faith. She now KNOWS the lord. She has a love for our Lord Jesus that one can sense just by being in the same room. This informed faith did not come through other human agency. She came to know the Lord by reading his word! We had a great conversation.

Her coming to saving faith in Jesus Christ by reading the Bible reminded me of a verse I have been thinking about in Colossians 1. It is verse twenty-six: “the mystery hidden for ages and generations but now revealed to his saints.” God revealed his mystery (Christ in you, the hope of glory) to Marie. She is a saint of God. He chose to reveal himself to her, proving that she was a saint by God’s choice and making her a saint by God’s power. I told her that she was a saint of God because he had revealed himself to her through his word. It is pretty wonderful to be one of God’s saints! Marie is rejoicing in the Lord, despite her serious health situation.

As I was speaking with her I told her one of my favorite Psalms was number 127. Verse one applies to all our human efforts. “Unless the LORD builds the house those who build it labor in vain.” I explained to her that there is no dichotomy between medicine and faith. We believe that God must bless and use our efforts for any good to come of them. Certainly God can work without our help, but we cannot work without his help! Marie found this very reassuring as she was feeling tension between her faith in God and needing so much medical intervention. She had been wondering if it showed a lack of faith for her to follow her physician’s advice. After all, she thought, “Can’t God heal me without their help?” It was good to be able to briefly explain God’s sovereign work in and through our efforts. I also explained that God does not expect us to buy a pile of lumber and sit back to watch him build the house. We need to be laboring as we have opportunity. We need to take the steps we can.

At the end I was privileged to pray with Marie and her husband. I prayed that God would build this house: that he would work though our efforts. I did get a little choked up thinking about this dear sister and her great faith and her great need.

Two observations: 1) Jesus knows his sheep. He will reveal God the Father to them. He reveals his truth to his saints. Jesus will build the church! Pray for this in the lives of people whom you know that do not seem to know the Lord. 2) When we take time to visit with people and listen to their situation, God will guide us into what we should say to them. This too is God building the house through our humble efforts.

Useless?

Useless and Obsolete

These are two words used in Hebrews to describe the old covenant. Find them in Hebrews 7: 18 and 8:13. These are very strong words to describe part of God’s Word. Many of the people to whom he is writing are very emotionally tied to the Hebrew Bible. They might even say, “I was born a Jew, and I will die a Jew.” Why does the author risk hurting the feelings of his audience? There is much as stake!

One of the biggest threats to the good news of salvation by faith in Jesus Christ was the imposition of legalism. The earliest Christians were aggressively pursued by those who taught them to go back to keeping various aspects of the Law of Moses. Many of the epistles are written to combat this threat. What could possible be so dangerous about observing a feast or keeping a Sabbath? The false teaching is based on a basic idea that mankind is capable of working just a little harder, and in a more organized fashion, in order to please God. They indirectly teach that man still has a basically good nature, and the false teachers claim that they can train people to please God. Since we all have some level of guilt they also teach that we may need to practice some asceticism or severity to the body in order to find purity. The problem with this is that it distracts from the truth. It can very quickly divert one away from faith in Jesus Christ alone. Note the stern warning of Paul in Galatians 5: 2-4. Paul states that if they accept circumcision they are severed from Christ. Do our religious practices matter? Why not just let people enjoy their cultural heritage? Well, it is because these religious and cultural rituals can prevent an individual from saving faith. People do trust in the ritual and their own goodness, without even understanding why Christ had to die for their sins.

Some from the evangelical church are converting to high ritual churches. They act like they see no harm in the strictly formalized rituals. Sadly, true believers can understand the rituals in light of true faith, but millions of others in those religions do not know how to be saved. By testimony they trust themselves. Ask them. “Do you think you will go to heaven?” They will say something like, “I hope so, I am not sure I have done enough. “ This is not the new covenant faith.

Every time I baptize a believer I emphasize that baptism does not save them. I shudder to think of the untold millions who have been deceived by “Christian” baptism. Literally many are condemned because they have faith in a ritual, rather than Christ. God help us!

So the writer of Hebrews wants his Jewish audience to know that the old covenant, the law, was weak and useless because it made nothing perfect. Using the same word “perfect” he says that the appointed Son has been made perfect forever. (Hebrews 7:28) This perfected son has accomplished the purpose of his incarnation and is now able to “save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him…” (Hebrews 7:25) Keeping various legalistic regulations will not bring you to God because you are still sinful.

Only Jesus can save to the uttermost! Trust him and him alone! Every other religion teaches some form of legalism. Every other religion is weak and useless.

Theological Balance: Faith or Works?

God has revealed himself so that we can know the truth. There is such a great balance in God’s revelation. God is peaceful, whole, and balanced.

Comparing the main arguments of Colossians two and Hebrews six represents a prime example of this. In Colossians two Paul is arguing that we are saved from our record of moral debt only by being united with Christ in his death, burial, and resurrection. He says in verse thirteen that God made us alive together with him. There is nothing we could possibly add to this. God does not depend on us to raise ourselves from the dead! In fact Paul is building to the point that if you add anything to simple faith in the completed work of Christ you will be “disqualified.” Persuasive and deceptive people were trying to convince the new gentile believers that they needed to add to faith in Christ a list of dos and don’ts. They were telling them that faith in Christ was a good start but they needed to add certain works. They needed to keep the Sabbath, celebrate the festivals, and keep a special diet. Think of it this way. You smartly go to Starbucks early for a nice bold cup of coffee. When you take that first highly anticipated sip you are horrified. The taste is horribly wrong. You politely say to the barista, “Hey, ah, there is something seriously wrong with this coffee. “ She explains that they have decided that coffee is not enough by itself, so they have added equal parts of tea, chicory, oregano, and thyme. “Humm, I think you have destroyed the coffee!” Trust the coffee alone. If you add to it you destroy it. If you add to Christ you do not trust his sufficiency. If you add anything to faith in Christ you destroy Christ’s salvation for you, because you have a lack of faith. Who is the savior? Is it you or is it Christ? Trust God, the designer, to design a fully sufficient means of salvation, and then to communicate it perfectly.

OK, so here is the question, since this is true, “sola fide”, then why would anyone walk with God? Why would anyone obey God and live a moral self-sacrificial life? This is where the argument of Hebrews six comes in. The author is urging the troubled believers not to fall away from the faith. If they fall away it may be impossible for them to be restored to repentance. So he tells them in verse twelve that they should imitate “those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.” It is not faith without patience. True saving faith declares itself through an enduring patience. This word patience, macrothumia, is the word for long-suffering. It is a strong durable faith. It is a faith that demonstrates itself by a life of perseverance in good works. God is saying that he wants his people to be robust. He is not interested in people who have a fair-weather commitment. Also in Hebrews six verse eighteen it says that “we who have fled for refuge” need to “hold fast to the hope set before us.” What happens to the person who does not hold fast, who does not have an enduring commitment? Well, you do not want to find out. It may well be that their apostasy demonstrates that they never had true saving faith. Saving faith declares itself with a life of obedience. If there has been a birth, then there will be life.

This then is the balance. Yes, we are saved by faith alone, but it is faith that works. We should never try to convince anyone that they are at peace with God because some years ago they confessed faith and were, perhaps, baptized. As Hebrews six verse twelve says, it is those with faith and enduring commitment who inherit the promises. This faith and enduring commitment are not really two things, but it is as James says “…I will show you my faith by my works.” We should, therefore, try to convince a wanderer to return to a life of faithful obedience. If you are a sheep of Jesus you should and will follow Jesus!