Month: November 2018

105. Kingdom in Power

 1 Corinthians 4:20 For the kingdom of God is not in word, but in power.

 The kingdom of God is not just in words, just saying the right things, but the Kingdom of God is in power; it is real and present. The power is in the Word of God when it is believed and received by faith. When the Word is mixed with faith there is power. Something really happens: sin is forgiven; salvation is assured; eternal life is received; Christ lives in us; and much morm, it actually works. The word, however, is not our word; the kingdom of God does not come by our own words or works. A human’s own words do not make it happen; only God’ Word does.

A man cannot just say, “Lord, Lord.” But Jesus may say, “I never knew you.” Faith, engendered by the Holy Spirit through the Gospel, is required: this faith actually produces works; this faith really changes lives. This is power. The Kingdom is not some theoretical construct nor is it just an idea. It is a real thing. This is power.

The Kingdom of God is in power. The Kingdom is not a matter of outward behavior without an inward change. Rites and rituals and religious correctness will not do it. Power, spiritual power, does it. “The kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.” [Romans 14:17] The power of the Kingdom is righteousness and peace and joy. These are invisible, inward traits that visibly affect the outside world. The Kingdom within is the living and working Spirit of God that positively influences the body and the soul, which, in turn, makes a difference on the world around us.

Righteousness is declared and imputed in the spirit, who then affects the outward life to slowly conform to the inward reality. Peace is the power that guards our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus; His peace is not as the world gives, but it is genuine, deep, abiding and effective. It is the peace that passes understanding. Joy is strength; “The joy of the Lord is your strength.” [Nehemiah 8:10] When we can be joyful, and peaceful, in the midst of negative circumstances there is power. We need this promise so that faith can see the unseen power.

104. Reign as Kings

 1 Corinthians 4:8 Now ye are full, now ye are rich, ye have reigned as kings without us: and I would to God ye did reign, that we also might reign with you.

 The promise of reigning as kings is difficult to comprehend. What does it mean? God promises that we are kings and priest unto God. We can comprehend being priests, as that means we can bring people to God in our prayers and hold them before God to help them and meet their needs. We understand that we can influence the affairs of the world with our lives and our prayers. However, how do we act as reigning kings?

We do not have the authority to rule as kings over the world or over other people’s lives. That kind of ruling would have to be ruling as kings, magistrates, governors, legislators, and leaders within government. God grants legitimate ruling authority to the governing authorities in the Kingdom of the Left Hand: this is political. We also have reigning authority in certain worldly spheres, like parents in families, teachers in schools, employers in business, and various positions of authority within certain groups and organizations. Whatever authority we have in the world’s institutions should be exercised with the Wisdom and Grace of God for the good of people. In the visible world we must rule well within the bounds prescribed by God, and we should be careful not to step outside of our boundaries and usurp authority in places we do not belong.

However, in the spiritual Kingdom of the Right Hand we have reigned as kings and in that realm we should so rule. This kind of ruling involves preaching the Gospel, witnessing to Christ, doing good works, being kind to all, forgiving all who trespass upon us, loving one another, loving our enemies, and all such kinds of things that we do in our interactions with others. Serving, submitting, giving and other such humble activities don’t look kingly, but that is precisely how we rule both the self and other people. We learn to become kings over Sin, Death, the Devil, and all the spiritual forces that would rob us of life and joy. When we live in and spread the joy of the Lord and promote life and love we are reigning. We don’t see the reigning nor the results of such ruling power, For this reason we need to believe this promise that we are kings and lords, and we need to believe that reigning under the authority of love really does have a positive effect. We will see it in eternity. For the present we walk by faith; for now, we reign as kings.

103. Praise of God

 1 Corinthians 4:5 Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts and then shall every man have praise of God.

 The promise is that in the Judgment everyone will have praise of God. But those who have no faith in Christ will have nothing in them to show and so will have no praise of God. Those who live in faith in Christ will show what was in them, Christ, and their life and works will have praise of God. Enter thou into the joy of the Lord. This welcome into the kingdom is the praise of God. We look forward to the Judgment Day when we face either praise or condemnation.

On That Day the Lord will bring to light the hidden things of darkness; and He will make clear the counsels of the hearts. These hidden things and heart counsels are the motivations and inner desires that are not seen. The Judgment will expose and reveal for all to see the things we cannot presently see. It is Because we don’t see that Jesus says, “Judge not.” But God sees and He will judge. Also God sees the Christ in us who does good works and earns for us the praise of God. Therefore, being in Christ gives us confidence to stand in the judgment with anticipation and excitement. The Grace of this Promise is that we shall receive from God the praise that Jesus earned. The praise that we have is really praise for Jesus Christ. We do truly “glorify God in our body.” We don’t have to see it now (until we see it on That Day). For now we believe the promise, and that is enough.

This means for our daily lives we do not have to seek the praise of men or of the world, since we already have it coming from God. It also means we don’t need to praise our accomplishments and ourselves; we don’t need to boast of anything in us; we don’t need to call attention to ourselves. Receiving praise from God will lift our spirits more than any praise from the world. We have that as a promise.

102. All are yours

 1 Corinthians 3:22-23 Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours; And ye are Christ’s and Christ is God’s.

 Christ is everything; you are Christ’s; everything is yours. If you have Christ you have it all; you are rich and full of everything good; nothing good or needful will be lacking for you.

Paul, Apollos, Peter, or any other man of God is yours. You are not divided in your loyalty to any person or ideology since Christ is all in all. But there is more: the world, or life or death belongs to you also; even the present and the future belong to you as well. This kind of pleonasm is meant to convey in graphic terms that “all” means all. Everything is included, nothing is excepted. Of course, the “everything” does not include anything that is sinful and evil and anything that is not of God. If it comes from God it is yours, and if it comes from God it is good.

If you are in Christ you are in God. Everything that is God’s belongs to you. It is all yours. In Christ, God gave it all to you; He gave it all to you to enjoy. However, it is not yours to control. God gives it all as He pleases, and what He please is good and gracious. Philippians 4:19: “My God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.” God knows what you need and He is able to supply it. He is very rich. All of this abundance is in Christ Jesus. He earned it for you.

All things are yours. God supplies it for you when you need it. We are given this kind of promise so that we will trust God above things. We can trust God’s wealth, power and ability so we know He can do it; we can trust God’s love and mercy so we know He will do it; we can trust God’s wisdom so we know He will do the right thing. God is able; God is good; God is wise. Repentance is needed on our part in order to defeat our pride, the kind of pride that thinks we know better than God what should belong to us. Repentance is needed to overcome the pride that foolishly thinks we deserve all things from God. Repentance is needed to squelch the idea that I can do it myself and get what I need by my own efforts. God’s kindness (the Gospel) is meant to lead you to repentance. Repent and believe the Gospel, which says, “All is yours.”

101. Temple of God

 1 Corinthians 3:16-17; 6:19 Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are….Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?

 The promise that our bodies are temples of God, the Holy Spirit is really quite remarkable. A Temple is defined as the residence or presence of God on the earth. God is in heaven in the invisible realm; of that truth the Bible leaves no doubt. But God has chosen to dwell with men on the physical earth, A Temple is a place where God dwells, not in all His resplendent glory but in His Presence. We may go to find God where He tells us to go, and there we will find Him. Actually, He finds us and draws us to His Presence with cords of love.

Holy places, shrines and altars have always been recognized by human worshipers as places where one may approach God. Then God directed Moses to build a Tabernacle in which their God, the Lord, would dwell. There one may approach God with prescribed rituals and sacrifices. Everyone knew where God was.

Later, God directed Solomon to build the Temple at a designated place. The Presence of God moved from the Tabernacle to the Temple. In the center of the Temple was the Holy of Holies room housing the Ark of the Covenant, on which the Lord resided. This was truly a Holy Place.

Then the Temple of God housing the Presence of God moved onto the person of Jesus Christ. He declared His body to be the temple of God’s Presence. That body would be destroyed and then raised up again. After the resurrection He would pour out the Holy Spirit and He would send Him into the bodies of believers in Christ. Now the Presence of God on the earth in and within the Body of Christ and in the individual bodies of every believer in Christ. Now the earthly dwelling place of God is the Church, the body of Christ, made up of believers. So where does one go to connect with the one true God? He goes to a group of Christians, the Church, or at least he may go to one Christian in whom God lives.

This is awesome, and the implications of this promise are powerful. One implication this truth has for us is how we treat our bodies, how we treat fellow Christians, and how we regard the Church, the communion of saints. We also may look to God and find Him “with us” wherever we are or whatever we are doing. Where is God? Right here in my heart within my body. Enter into His presence any time.

100. Reward

1 Corinthians 3:8, 14 Every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labor,…If any man’s work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.

 God promises every man his own reward. This reward comes to each believer according to his labor; each will receive a reward if his work abides. We know that no one can be saved by works, but salvation is by faith alone, not faith plus works. But we also know that God does reward believers for the good works that are done and built on faith in Christ. A good work not done in faith is not a good work, at least it is not counted as a good work meriting salvation or forgiveness. A good work is counted as a good work if it is done in faith without the works of the law. This means that a good work that merits a reward is a work that is done after faith and in faith and it is built on faith. Anything done, no matter how good, outside of faith, before faith, or without faith is not a good work, and does not contribute a thing to salvation. Romans 14:23: “Whatever does not proceed from faith is sin.”

But the works that the Lord does in us and through us lasts into eternity and each good work, no matter how seemingly small, will have a reward. “He who gives a cup of cold water to one of these little ones will by not means lose his reward.” Luther says, “Eating breakfast is a good work when it is done in faith.” Likewise, the greatest philanthropy, if not done in faith, receives no reward. All rewards are rewards of grace; that is, Christ earned the reward for us; He gets the credit, but we get the reward. Depending on how long a life is lived in faith, one believer will surely receive thousands of rewards. Thankfully, we can’t keep track, but thankfully, God is keeping track. Our task is to abide in Christ, focus on Him, remember our Baptism, and listen to the Gospel. The fruit of good works will follow. That’s a promise.

And it is a promise that many, many unique rewards await us. And these rewards are distinctive and different from the rewards received by other believers. For just as God created each individual unique and with distinct talents, and as He saved us by grace and granted gifts differing from everyone else, so also each believer will enjoy unique and individual rewards for eternity. (And by the way, there will be no room for jealousy since we are filled with so much gratitude and joy for living in His presence and enjoying His gifts and rewards,) Each receives his own reward: we will not enjoy or even envy rewards given to others. What God does in you and builds in you is eternal, and eternal rewards are included in so great a salvation.

99. God Gives the Increase

 1 Corinthians 3:6-7 I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase. So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God giveth the increase.

Human believers in Christ, like Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists, Pastors, Teachers, and such do the planting and watering of souls at the impulse and instigation and direction of the Lord, the Holy Spirit. God uses people to witness to Jesus Christ and preach the Gospel. It is the preaching of Christ crucified that plants new seed and nourishes that seed in believing souls. Believing people are necessary in the propagation and growth of the Gospel among humanity in general and in the individuals in particular.

But human beings, myself included, have no power or effect in causing faith to spring up or to grow up. It is God alone who gives the increase, both the birth and the growth of the Christian. God uses people to preach the Gospel; the Holy Spirit uses the Gospel to birth faith and grow fruit. He promises to give the increase. That’s a good thing, because we cannot make it happen. As much as we would like to change people and even change ourselves we cannot do it. We can only preach the Gospel and witness to Christ. God does the actual work. He promises to do it and we can count on Him to do as He promises.

We are in need of increase. We need God to give the increase. Therefore we need to hear the Gospel as often as humanly possible. God has chosen to use the preached Word, the Gospel, and without the Gospel there will be no birth or growth. The best that the best churches and preachers can do without the Gospel is bear and produce empty, fake, pretend Christians, who may make an effort to look like Christians but have no faith or fruits. The Law and Morality and Religion without Christ produce pharisaic hypocrites.

Our job and our call is to plant the Gospel and water the Gospel in the lives and hearts of human persons. God’s job is to give the increase. God’s Word will not return void. Since we trust the Promise of Increase we will do everything we can to support and promote the preaching of the Gospel and the churches that do so. Only God increases, only God makes a difference; only God changes lives; only God saves souls. The planter and the waterer are nothing; but, on the other hand, God needs them and uses them, and He promises the increase.

98. The Mind of Christ

 1 Corinthians 2:16 For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.

 This is a contradictory promise: we have the mind of Christ. He had just said that no one has known the mind of the Lord. That is obvious. The Lord is the Creator; we are the creatures. God’s mind, His thoughts and His ways are so much beyond ours that God is incomprehensible to us. What is God doing? Why does He do what He does? What is Holiness? How is He Love? Where is Justice? Who? What? Where? When? How? Why? And on and on. We have many more questions than we have answers. His ways are not our ways. When faced with the deep things of God we are completely at a loss. We can’t even know God enough to ask the right questions.

We human beings cannot even know the Creation of the Universe. How could we possibly know the mind of the Lord who created it? Science knows a lot and human inquiry has answered a lot of questions. Humanity thinks we have come a long way in our understanding of the universe, but truthfully, the answers we have discovered have raised a ton of new questions. There is growth in understanding and learning, but there is so much more we don’t know. We know some things, but we can’t even answer all the questions God asked Job in Job 38-39. The only way we can respond is, like Job, cover our mouths and shut up. Job learned to quit questioning God and just repent and trust Him. Submit to the wisdom of God and believe that He is love. There is no other way: give up, and admit that we don’t know the mind of the Lord.

In the face of this, God gives us the mind of Christ. Amazing! God sent His Son. This is the way, and the only way, that the created human being can know God. He gave us a human who is also God. We can know Him, We have His mind. We can now know God intimately and personally. There is no other way to God; there is no other way to know Him. But in Christ God has creatively and effectively opened up the way in which man may and must go.

We have the mind of Christ, but we still do not know nearly everything about God. However, we do know everything we need to know. We actually know the otherwise unknowable. The most important thing we know when we know the mind of Christ is that God is Love. In Christ, we know beyond a doubt that God loves us. He gave His mind, and that mind is love. Impossibly, we can now know the love of God. And we can now know enough about all the attributes of God up to the level our finite minds can grasp. That still leaves us with much unknowing, but we know enough about the mind of God that we can trust Him for what we do not know. “Jesus loves me, this I know.” That is enough: I have the mind of Christ. I know how he feels about me and I know that everything He does is for my eternal good.

97. Things freely Given

 1 Corinthians 2:12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.

 It is promised to us that we will know the things freely given to us. Many wonderful and great things are given to all people, but not all people know what they are or where they come from. Wonderful blessings are given to believers, like Salvation and all that goes with it, but many believers don’t know all the things that are given. The promise of God is that we can know the things God gave us. The Word of God reveals these freely given things to us. The Holy Spirit reveals them to us through the Word.

We know what we are getting: we are receiving many great and precious promises from God. Some He has already granted, some He is presently granting, and others are still coming while we wait on tiptoe for the final fulfillment. We know what we are getting: the future is not uncertain, the present is not dark, and the past is cleansed and made right with God. We know what we are getting: anyone can look into the promises of God in His Word and ask the Spirit of God to reveal them to us and to grant the faith to receive them. We can live on these things freely given, and even more significantly, we can die on them. We know what we are getting: we have received the Spirit of God, and He: 1) reveals them to us, 2) grants the faith to receive them, 3) prompts us to pray for them, 4) and even intercedes for us.

How do we know? How can we be sure? We know by the Spirit who uses the Word of God to make us know and believe. We know because He convinces us that the invisible things of God are real, and we know they are even more real than then the things that the spirit of the world promises us. The spirit of the world does promise us things also, but those things are temporal, ephemeral, transient, end up as dust, are not satisfying, and will always disappoint. The world promises things we can see and all of those things have the sentence of death upon them.Worldly things all have a way of disappearing, vanishing, drying up, dying, and deteriorating. The things that are not seen are eternal for they are the things of God. By faith we look at the things that are not seen and we believe them, we receive them, we have them, and nothing can separate us from them, for the unseen things of God freely given are more real, substantial, and alive. We live by faith, not by sight. That is real.

96. Things which God Prepared

1 Corinthians 2:9, 10 But as it is written, Eye hath not seen nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.

 God promises things. These things are spiritual and eternal things. These things cannot be seen or heard nor even thought of in the human mind. These things are beyond our experience or comprehension. These things are prepared by God for each person that believes Him, so they must be marvelous beyond description. These things are the deep things of God, which must be wondrous and beautiful, but they are beyond our grasp in our present condition. When we are changed we will be able to see and comprehend the wonderful things God prepared for us.

We have some idea about the invisible and eternal thing for God has revealed them to us. We know God’s Love, but we can’t comprehend the depth. We know the Peace of God, but we also know it is deeper and stronger than we presently experience. We know the Joy of the Lord, but it does not constantly flood the soul, as we know it could, and will. We know the goodness, kindness, and gentleness of God, but we also know He is much kinder than we can believe.

We can extrapolate exponentially from the beauty of the created universe unto the much greater beauty of the new heavens and the new earth. We can envision an awesome Paradise created and recreated for us. God has revealed enough of His goodness and glory to us so we can appreciate it a little, and then to know that there is so much more to the things of God beyond our imagination. It is revealed to us that God is able to do far more abundantly than all we can ask or imagine.

God gave us the ability to dream and imagine, and then He gives us the faith to believe that all our best dreams will come true. What God hath prepared!